Best Platformer?

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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Okay, so, if anyone didn't know...I'm not crazy about platformers. (I'm very, very bad at them...and they aren't usually very story or character driven, at least not as I see it, so I get bored.) But I'd kind of like to have one of each type of game on my Switch, even genres I'm not into. Well, at least one of each of the major genres, not so much every single sub or combination genre. But I have little idea what I should go for in a platformer, or a dungeon crawler. And I'd only get a first person shooter if the shooting was done with jello or something, cuz...well, just cuz. I'm currently leaning toward going for something purely cute in the genres I'm not personally into, since that's all I can form an opinion on...something like Yoshi or Kirby...but are they ideal representatives of the genre? Or are they just hard to resist because they're adorable?

I just want to have a well-stocked Switch that has at least one game that would satisfy almost any game-lover who stopped by...kind of like I like to keep at least a few black teas in the tea cupboard even though I hate them, because I know there'll be people stopping by who prefer it. Make even a little bit of sense?

Does anyone have recommendations for what they consider to be the best game to represent a genre? Any genre recommendations are welcome, but I'll be particularly interested in hearing about genres I have little experience with (which means anything other than sims, a subset of visual novels, and long, story-heavy RPGs, pretty much). I'm kind of looking for games that represent their genre well, and yet could perhaps be said to transcend genre. Like..."X game is so good, even those who aren't fans of the genre will love it!" If those exist. Anyone know of any?

If you have no recommendations for Switch games but still want to participate in this topic, then go ahead and list your top genre recommendation for other systems. :) (Thanks to anyone who participates!)

PS: These games don't actually have to be your favourites, though I assume most people will go with theirs :) But if you know of a game that really stands out as great in its genre even if it's not your favourite, that's cool, too.
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Bluie
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This isn't so much my bias, but a lot of people consider Hollow Knight one of the best if not the best Metroidvania.

I don't even like the genre (and I generally hate platformers in general - not my cup of tea), but it really is one of the finest crafted games i've played. I got into it because I wanted to see what the fuss was about, I stayed because it was something I genuinely grew to enjoy.

I suppose the problem now is that nothing will probably ever top it for me. I've tried to get into other games of the genre, and nothing compares to the magic that Hollow Knight's world was, drawing me in so deeply, I just had to keep playing despite my frustrations. Everything else is just so 'eh' in comparison.
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Mikodesu
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Mario Odyssey might be a nice middle ground, I think. It's not my favorite platformer (even on Switch) but it's very good. The main campaign isn't too difficult but there's a LOT of area to explore, lots of goodies to collect, very good to pick up and play. Plus it's Mario, most people love Mario.

The upcoming Yoshi game (Yoshi's Crafted World, I think) might also be nice. I think it might be full price though =/ which is probably the only thing that sours it for me. Yoshi games are always really cute and fun and the recent titles are good for co-op.

Imo the best platformer on Switch is still Celeste. I'm not sure that's a good fit though. Even with Assist Mode (ironically named after Mario Odyssey's Assist Mode - fun fact of the day :lol:) it's a precision platformer so challenge is the name of the game. And for your time spent exploring what do you unlock? More challenges! For good or bad.
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Oh boy, I hope I can post multiple times here!! Do I have a list for you!!!

Platformers:

Mario (On Switch, there is currently Super Mario Odyssey and New Super Mario Bros. U Dexluxe)
Kirby (On Switch, there is currently Kirby Star Allies which currently has all game updates that were released for it)
Yoshi (The upcoming Yoshi's Crafted World on the Switch is released March 29, 2019.)
Donkey Kong (On Switch there's Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze)

I'm not that good at many platformers either.

Farming:

Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (Bokujou Monogatari) (There's supposed to be a Story of Seasons game in development for the Switch.)
Stardew Valley (PC/Switch)
(I haven't played it yet, but I'm interested in the Switch release of My Time at Portia.)
Edit: Forgot to mention I enjoyed Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles (Switch/PC) (has very little farming, mostly an open-world exploration game with quests)

Puzzle games:

The Magical Drop series (Switch/PC)
The Piczle Lines series (phone/Switch) (includes Piczle Lines DX, Piczle Lines 500 more Puzzles, and Piczle Colors all on Switch) (Piczle Colors is like Picross.)

Survival horror:

The Coma Recut (Switch/PC) (Korean Survival horror game)
Fatal Frame (Zero) series (Currently only released games for the PS2/original XBox, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Wii U) (essentially a 'shooter' genre where your weapon is your camera.)
Clock Tower series (another old series, no current-gen games)
White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (Korean Survival Horror) (PC)

Education:

Hiragana Pixel Party (PC/Switch) (Japanese)
The Learn Japanese to Survive series (Also mainly a JRPG) (covers hiragana, katakana, and kanji) (PC)
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~ (PC) (text-based, like a visual novel) (Japan/Japanese)

Visual novels:

((Warning: Avoid many visual novels on the Switch/Steam that are done by Dogenzaka Labs/D3 Publisher as the Switch ports are ported directly from PC and are poorly translated. Very poorly.))

Nekopara Volume 1 (Switch/PC) (NekoPara Volume 2 releases February 14, 2019 on Switch.)
WILL: A Wonderful World (Switch/PC)
Death Mark (Switch/PS4/PSVita) (also doubles as horror/visual novel)
Planetarian (HD remake on Switch; English support on Switch only) (The original game, Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet, is also on PC/Steam.) ((Key is a great visual novel company.))
Clannad (PC in English) (It's coming to the Switch in Japan as well.) (also by Key, and extremely long)
Higurashi When They Cry Hou (Chapter 1-6 currently available on PC/Steam, with at least 2 more main arcs coming.) (Out on Switch in Japan.) (07th Expansion is another great company.)
Umineko When They Cry Question and Answer Arcs (entire game, as 'question arcs' and 'answer arcs' available on PC/Steam)
Chaos;Child (PC/Steam) (part of SciAdv series of Visual novels)
Steins;Gate (PC/Steam) (SciAdv series)
Steins;Gate 0 (PC/Steam) (SciAdv series)
Steins;Gate Elite (PC/Steam and Switch/PS4) (releases February 19, 2019) (SciAdv series)
The Zero Escape series (DS, 3DS/PSVita, and PC/Steam) (Visual novel with many puzzles)

Point-and-Click:

Death Mark (Switch/PS4/PSVita) (also doubles as horror/visual novel)

Fighting:

Pokken Tournament DX (Switch) (Pokemon)

Dungeon Crawler:

Pokemon Quest (Switch)
The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series

Court-room based:

The Ace Attorney series (visual novel) (GBA in Japan, DS, 3DS, and Switch)

Simulation:

The Animal Crossing Series (Switch version releasing this year) (life simulation)

Pokemon/monster catching or collecting:

Pokemon series (Switch) (Let's Go Pikachu/Eeevee plus the Generation 8 title(s) releasing this year)
The Digimon series (Switch) (Digimon Survive is releasing this year.) (Note, Digimon Survive seems to be a turn-based strategy game based on pre-release videos, screenshots, and information)

Edit: I also like the Katamari Damacy and Pikmin Series.
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Post  Posted:

Harvest Moon kawaii wrote: Clock Tower series (another old series, no current-gen games)
False its called NightCry and its awful lol

Speaking of knights and platforming? Shovel Knight! You would love it Kikki! :heart:
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Sir Stardust
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Anonymous Fish wrote:
Harvest Moon kawaii wrote: Clock Tower series (another old series, no current-gen games)
False its called NightCry and its awful lol

Speaking of knights and platforming? Shovel Knight! You would love it Kikki! :heart:
Seconding shovel knight, I’m awful at platformers and even I was able to get through a lot of it before I had to stop for school. I liked what I saw of the story/characters and that it would give me a relatively safe space to experiment with/practice/figure out whatever kind of skill I’d need to use in the upcoming level. Also, the TROUPPLE KING
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Kikki
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Wow, Harvest Moon kawaii, that must have taken you forever :) Nice of you to go to the bother to list so many; thanks.

Thanks everybody; I'll look into these. I am definitely going to get at least one cute and fun platformer, maybe two or three if they're not expensive and are notably different, just to have the genre represented on my Switch (my 13-year-old cousin, who has no gaming systems of her own atm, often comes over to play with my Switch). I've heard lots of praise all over the internet for Hollow Knight, Celeste and Shovel Knight. And any Nintendo platformer is always going to be horribly cute, lol, so Yoshi, Kirby, and even Mario are all contenders (even though Mario himself is nowhere near as cute as Kirby or even Yoshi. Odyssey looked pretty spiffy in all the screenshots I've seen.) I'm looking at Tori Toki 2 as well because so cute, and relatively inexpensive. Though most games that aren't first-party are pretty affordable.

The Troupple King was adorable, Sir Stardust...I got quite a smile out of him this morning. Thanks for that :)
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ryume
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Everyone else had great suggestions, but I'm going to give a plug for Rayman Legends Definitive Edition as well. Excellent mechanics and sharp, colorful graphics. Sadly not cute like Kirby or Yoshi, but some dang fine platforming and quirky character designs to be had. Many reviews say it's not truly "definitive" for some small reason or another, but it's still a fantastic game, and since you're looking for Switch-specific, I would definitely recommend adding it to the collection of platform greats on your system.
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Kikki
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Right now, the one and ONLY platform game on my Switch is the demo I just DLed of Kirby this morning, lol. I got through it fine, but I can tell it's only because the level was suuuuper easy.

Rayman Legends may not be overly cute, but the graphics are quite decent and the colours are nice. :) Thanks. Out of additional curiosity...do any of these games mentioned have a story? I mean, something a little deeper than just 'hurry through the levels to save the princess'. That, to me, is just a bare framework, not a story. Dust: An Elysian Tail had an actual story, for example. (That would be the only platformer I've played in the last ten years. The fighting mechanics were so neat...you were a whirlwind of flipping, flying death...I liked being able to throw tornadoes around.) I assume most platform games don't have much more than a framework.
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ryume
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Hollow Knight does, but the gameplay CAN be quite challenging.

Shovel Knight absolutely does have a meatier story (I own Dust, but haven't played it yet after 5 years of owning it, so I can't compare lol), and you even get to visit towns, interact with NPC's and purchase upgrades for weapons/armor/etc to boot. At it's core it's still a platformer/Metroidvania where you work your way through 8 worlds with the ultimate goal of beating the Enchantress, but it's an EXCELLENT game. Having interacted with you for a while now however, I am fairly certain you won't love the pixel art/old school graphics style

Mario/Kirby/Yoshi very typical barebones overarching beat the boss story with not much development beyond that big concept. Rayman is the same way, but honestly the design of each level is so colorful and fun, you may still enjoy playing for the sheer wonder of taking in the visuals and unique designs. Plus Rayman can be played cooperatively.
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Yeah, I appreciate all the recommendations and have been looking at them, and the game is to keep a well-stocked Switch more than it is for ME to play, but it's true that I don't like the graphic style of Shovel Knight. (Though the Troupple really was adorable.)

Hollow Knight is really pretty. Not as cute as Kirby or Yoshi, but prettier. Celeste is also not my style but I do like the colours. But again, what I really want is whichever game the most people said 'wow, this is fun...this is the best platform game I've ever played!' for, since I'm not buying it for the purpose of playing it myself. (I may try whatever I buy...I'm sure I would at least do that...but I doubt I could struggle all the way through any platformer that didn't at least have an interesting story or graphics so cute that you don't even care what you're playing, lol.)

Mario + Rabbids is not actually a platformer, is it? It's a strategy adventure or something like that?
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Mario + Rabbids is not actually a platformer, is it? It's a strategy adventure or something like that?
It’s hard to explain but it’s a little of both? I just got the game myself so I can’t speak too much about it but it gives you a basic story line. Then it lets you explore a tiny bit and then it teaches you how to ‘fight’ <-I use that term loosely for this game.

It’s closer to strategy adventure with hints of platforming. If that makes sense.
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I would NOT recommend Death Mark, Higurashi, Umineko, or Zero Escape series IF you do *not* like horror, violence, gore, or general dark stories. Good games and visual novels, but not for the faint of heart.

Visual novels in particular can be incredibly unsettling and go into vivid details that some may just not be up for.
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Kikki
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Thanks Kross...I wasn't sure, but I didn't see any actual platforming in what I've seen of M + R so I figured it probably wasn't really a platformer :)

Yeah, thanks, Blue Rose; those are definitely ones I've avoided. Well, Death Mark and Zero Escape, anyway, as they looked like goods stories and so caught my attention, but they also sounded too grim for me. I also think I probably wouldn't take WILL: A Wonderful World very well, either, going by the content mentioned by Steam. I'm not familiar with the other two you mentioned but if you say they're not for the easily disturbed, then I believe you.
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ryume
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I mean, if you're just looking to have a solid library for guests on your Switch or just to have as a collection not necessarily for sharing (and maybe you would like to play them too), you really can't go wrong with classic Nintendo franchises that have already been listed here (I'm referring only to Mario Odyssey for a platformer out of the many Mario-containing games). Naturally Kirby and Yoshi will be some of the cutest options.

Some of the games that have already been referred to are really friggin hard though (I'm looking at you, Celeste, and Hollow Knight to a somewhat lesser degree), like rip your hair out throw the Switch against the wall hard, so I don't know if you necessarily want to stock that level of hardcore challenge in spite of their excellent reviews :lol:

If you don't mind watching video reviews, Easy Allies generally does a great job at giving an overview of mechanics and story elements, and many of the titles listed in this thread have been reviewed by them. It really gives a good idea of what to expect in terms of gameplay, etc, at least for me. HERE is their Mario + Rabbids review.
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