What can be said about many great games is that they know their roots. Of course, we all love classics, but creating games inspired by those classics is more than just copying and pasting.
It has the ultimate goal of knowing what worked, what was not, and adopting modern standards of quality of life, all associative yet distinctive.
New platformers, especially in both 2D and 3D, naturally draw a lot from their roots. After all, platformers are one of the game’s oldest and most well-known genres, with fans in almost every Echelon in the industry. Whenever I see a new platformer that has a torch very clearly for one of my old favorite games, it’s a great way to get my attention.
But what draws attention is those that take them in new and interesting directions, with original stories, novel gameplay mechanics, and generally broad scopes.
9
Bloody: The Curse of the Moon
Vampire Killer’s Blood
Castlevania is most known these days as half of the Metroidvania equation, but it is easy to forget that it hasn’t always been that way. The original Castlevania game was an easier linear platformer.
While he worked on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Iga decided to release the gamecast with classic images, and fans: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.
At first glance, you can see the obvious impact, from the original NES Castlevania game to the solid colours of the player character’s sprites and the quick-wapping mechanics in Castlevania 3.
Thankfully, the game isn’t as brutal as inspiration in the difficulty department, but you need to have some skill to keep jumps and attacks from flying into the pits.
What I find particularly pretty about the Moon Curse is that, despite being an ostensibly linear game, it has a small story path that relies on how you react to potential new party members. It’s clearly not the same as the perfect Metroidvania, but you see the shades in it, so it became a fun teaser for the evening ritual.
8
Time hat
Like Mario Sunshine, but cute
Games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine are platformers for 3D Collect-a-Thon, but are slightly different veins from those like Banjo-Kazooie. Already, not all the big worlds, they used instance versions of their own worlds, each tied to a single purpose.
This is a specific framework that hats use in time for their level design, along with some other Cribbed notes.
I think Time Hats are the most insightful of Super Mario Sunshine, not only focusing on movement-friendly abilities like scooters and grappling hooks, but also on the platform challenge levels you encounter for specific purposes.
But the good thing about hats compared to sunlight is that rather than stripping them off you and forcing them to resort to jumps, the challenges of those platforms are built around the abilities you have.
They also generally enjoy a wide range of goals and activities within hats. Don’t get me wrong, Sunshine is classic, but the Time Hat is great at diversifying its gimmicks and mechanics, especially at the level of detectives and dance parties, to create new things.
7
Shovel Night
Scrooge-like pogo
Classic games can come from any kind of unexpected source. For example, while licensed games are hardly good, it is widely agreed that Ducktales on NES is one of the best Disney games ever made.
I certainly love it. That’s part of the reason I was so excited about Shovel Night.
Shovel Knight takes inspiration from several different classic platformers. Among them, the main ones are ducks and megaman. There are a wide range of stages and bosses to overcome, and you will gain new abilities as you go, but there is also a powerful starter kit of skills, including that incredible Pogo Bounce.
It’s a platformer’s oddly underutilized tactic, and that might be the way Shovel Knight set it apart. Of course, on top of that, it is a perfect marriage of modern and retro design sensibilities.
Yes, there are plenty of death spikes and pits right away, but there is no life system so you can continue to try again as much as you need. Not having to worry about that is a huge weight from my already seasoned nerves.
6
Free planet
Lilac was once a hedgehog
Now, be honest with yourself: you’ve created at least one original Sonic the Hedgehog character in your life, right? It’s okay, it’s not shameful, we all did it. But everyone is making Sonic OCs, but not everyone is actually doing anything with them.
For a small number of enterprising people, such as creators of Freedom Planet, OC can pave the way for something truly original. Freedom Planet is heavily inspired by the classic Sonic The Hedgehog game, both in style and gameplay.
The main character, Sash Lilac, was originally a hedgehog OC, which was to be used by Sonic Fungham, but when the planet of freedom became its own, the developer had to turn her into a dragon. Likewise, I actually love the Draconic design and capabilities of Lilac.
I remember the first time I played Freedom Planet. I remember thinking, “I haven’t played this kind of steady speed in years.” Freedom Planet considers classic Sonic fun to be a fast, high-flying escape. So both its platform and combat are built with speed in mind. It’s a game that knows how to keep it going and does it brilliantly.
5
Pizza Tower
There are few treasures and a lot of pepperoni
There are many games that have been inspired by Super Mario Bros over the years, but the Wario Land series has gained significantly less love.
In particular, Wario Land 4 still has a favorite place in my mind, due to the puzzle platform and the blend of desperate lace. It’s precisely because of that love that I was intrigued by the first announcement of Pizza Tower.
Compared to Wario Land 4, Pizza Tower focuses more on speed and mobility than puzzles, but occasionally woven into the terrain with the environment snuff. But it’s still a game with a big emphasis on exploration. Because many of the movement abilities of Peppinos can be impressive if you know where and how to use them.
Most importantly, every level has an escape segment and runs through the level you just completed to reach the first line before time runs out. Seeing Peppino running at desperate Mach speed, the same vibe as Wario wandering around the wall stretched his shoulders.
4
Messenger
Little gaiden, little vania
Despite having a reputation as a classic, I feel like the original ninja Gaiden doesn’t get much love for its mechanism. To be fair, the game has a very ridiculous level of difficulty and has earned some valid grates, but if the game isn’t clear enough to guarantee them then there are no grates for them.
That’s why I like messengers. Take what works from those old mechanics and rework them into slightly different packaging.
The Messenger is still technically the same linear action platform as the Ninja Gaiden, at least for the first stretch. From running on the wall to grappling hooks, you get many of the same abilities, but it has a gentle curve of difficulty thanks to the lack of a life system.
However, after that first stretch, the game pulls away the mask and reveals its status as a pseudo-Metroidvania.
It’s a bit difficult to put into words the exact vibe of the messenger, but it’s like the Metroidvania pie with an action platformer center. You are still navigating the same linear levels you already were, but the difference is that you can go back to the way you just came and explore more.
3
Gravity circuit
Includes instant day spikes
There were plenty of jumps in the original Mega Man game, but SNES’s transition to Mega Man X actually strengthened things thanks to the addition of mechanics such as wall jumps.
There are plenty of run and gun platformers that will bring down the first part of the equation, but only a handful of games such as Gravity Circuit evoked the same emotions as Mega Man X’s first playthrough.
The game focuses more on short-range melee combat than the X’s long-range buster gun, but the gravity circuit still achieves similar combat flow states thanks to its multiple athletic capabilities.
In addition to wall jumps, you can also grab a shelf or fire a grappling hook into the ceiling to sway or hang it to rock and hang. Of course, the level difficulty is increasing proportionally to accommodate everything. There are still many dead spikes around.
Gravity circuits also make up for one of the distinctive elements of the Megaman franchise and get new weapons from defeated bosses. It’s not so obvious that the robot masters are weak to each other’s weapons, but the order in which they perform the stages can affect your progress easily.
2
Corn Kids 64
Like a concur with no drinking problems
In addition to famous things like Super Mario 64, the Nintendo 64 was home to some really weird, yet still entertaining platformers, such as Cameleon Twist and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
Oddly, they still hold a special place in many hearts. So there’s a small niche of indie 3D platformers trying to emulate a particular blend that’s odd and functional.
One of the most popular attempts in this is the Corn Kids 64, a game that wears the N64 era. It’s jagged and angular and covered with a permanent CRT filter just to sell the illusion that you’re actually playing it on old-fashioned hardware.
Platforms and exploration are very similar to games like Conker, with a major emphasis on climbing the sides of walls and sometimes firing long distances.
I think that most games like Conker are the obvious off-kilter tones of Corn Kidz that are particularly reminiscent of. If there was an Invader Zim N64 game, it’s like there was a completely loose and uncomfortable NPC conversation. In a good way, I mean.
1
Anton Blast
The other one looks like Wario
Pizza Tower is not the only child on the block carrying the Wario Land 4 torch. In fact, Pizza Tower and Anton Blast were announced relatively close to each other, and during their development, pseudo-rivals between the game’s fanbase were caught up in a bit.
Personally, I think that’s ridiculous. Because you say you can’t get enough platformers inspired by enough Wario lands.
As you would expect from games that have been influenced by Pizza Tower, AntonBlast shares some of its comprehensive design philosophy.
You can see that AntonBlast itself distinguishes itself from the layout of the level and the mechanism. The level of Anton Blast is a little more intentionally labyrinth, promoting greater exploration in addition to normal speed and verticality. It also goes a little more into unique level gimmicks, such as the entire open level that you need to beat with the timer.
The boss battles in Anton Blast are also a little more involved than their contemporaries, employing larger monsters that require a little extra originality to find weaknesses. Don’t start a fight with the opera guy.
