Together Retro: Licensed to Thrill (Licensed 2D Platformers)

[Exhuminator]

I thought Quackshot was on the NES too though. Am I mixing it up with something else?

There is a Donald Duck game on NES, or rather Famicom:

However when this game came to the USA, it became something else entirely.
More info: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Donald_Duck_(Famicom_game)

[pierrot]

I thought Quackshot was on the NES too though. Am I mixing it up with something else?

There is a Donald Duck game on NES, or rather Famicom:

However when this game came to the USA, it became something else entirely.
More info: http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Donald_Duck_(Famicom_game)

Beat me to it.

It was released on the NES as a Snoopy game:

I'm looking forward to hearing fresh takes on Quackshot. It's been on my shopping list, but need more feedback

I played Quackshot a couple years ago, and thought it was pretty good. It has some adventure game qualities to it in hunting for items at certain locations, and going back to levels to open up further areas. The inside of the pyramid, and the last level (which is completely bonkers) are two major sticking points in terms of difficulty, though. I thought it was a pretty fun game, overall.

Little Nemo: The Dream Master... "Collecting" stuff in giant ass levels. No.

Aw, man. That's one of the best games on the NES, though--.

Breezed through DuckTales and enjoyed it quite a bit. Had to get back into the groove with the controls since you needed to be precise in places, but once I did that it was fairly easy (like I remembered). I wonder if it'd be as easy if I were a complete newcomer...

Definitely not. I played DuckTales for the first time about a year and a half ago, and it was definitely one of the more finicky Capcom platform games I've ever played, in terms of controls. I struggled with the Amazon stage for an extremely frustrating amount of time at first. After coming to grips with its idiosyncrasies, it was manageable, but I think the reason it's remembered as an easy game is because of the relatively few stages, and people playing it when they were young, and more patient with investing time into a game with only five stages.

--

I went through the games I have to look for ones that would fit the criteria.

I've beaten these:

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (NES)
Ducktales (NES)
Hi no Tori: Hoou Hen (NES)
Little Nemo: The Dream Master (NES)
Aladdin (GEN)
The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey & Minnie (GEN)
Magical Taruru~to Kun (GEN)
McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (GEN)
Mickey Mania (GEN + Sega CD)
Mickey's Ultimate Challenge (GEN) -- Just say "no," kids.
Quackshot (GEN)
World of Illusion (GEN)
Cyborg 009 (Sega CD)
Hamelin no Violin-hiki (SNES)
Kishin Douji Zenki: Battle Raiden (SNES)
Mickey no Magical Adventure (SNES)
Mickey to Donald - Magical Adventure 3 (SNES)
Shonen Ashibe: Goma-chan no Yuuenchi Daibouken (SNES)


I haven't beaten any of these:

Batman (NES)
Tetsuwan Atom (NES)
Tiny Toon Adventures (NES)
AAAHH!!! Real Monsters (GEN)
The Adventures of Batman & Robin (GEN) -- Not sure this would really count.
Garfield: Caught in the Act (GEN)
Ghostbusters (GEN)
The Jungle Book (GEN)
Jurassic Park (GEN)
Robocop Versus the Terminator (GEN) -- Too much action?
Spider-Man / X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (GEN) -- Ditto?
Taz in Escape From Mars (GEN)
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure (GEN)
Toy Story (GEN)
The Amazing Spider-Man vs The Kingpin (Sega CD)
Go! Go! Ackman (SNES)
Tiny Toon Adventures (SNES)


I think I'll probably try to beat Buster Busts Loose, and Buster's Hidden Treasure, since those are games that I have some history with: A kid who lived in my apartment complex had Buster Busts Loose, and I thought it was really fun. So I asked for Buster's Hidden Treasure, and while I liked it, I don't think I ever got past the third or forth boss. It's been a long time since I last played it. I just remember the bosses being a real pain.

I've also spent a fair amount of time with Tetsuwan Atom, Batman & Robin, Garfield, Robocop, Amazing Spider-Man, and Go! Go! Ackman in the past. So maybe I'll look to those, as well--except Atom, and Robocob, because those two games are made of insanity.

[CFFJR]

As much as I love Adventures of Batman and Robin, it's really more of a run and gun than a platformer.

Buster's Hidden Treasure is a good choice. Always liked that one. Dealing with Elmyra can potentially be a showstopper though, even if you breeze through the rest of the game.

Unless that's just my own trauma coloring my perception.

[Sarge]

Yeah, Magical Quest really opens up when you get access to the cooler powers. I thought it led with its weakest content, honestly.

So I just finished off The Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES (which is very different from the Genesis game!). I've always loved the feel of the combat in that opening area, and the platforming/ledge-grabbing mechanics and such. Strangely, I think I want to like it more than I do, though. My memories are always of that strong opening, but there's a ton of trial-and-error gameplay. The Joker fight right off the bat pretty much sucks, since that roller coaster bit is pretty tricky with some insta-kill sections, and life is usually at a premium. The Ivy fight doesn't end up being too bad, nor does stuff like Penguin or Catwoman. There's some earlier stuff that's annoying with that, though, like the plunge down the buildings while fighting her and having to grapple to a flagpole to keep from dying. Same with the bit on Scarecrow's blimp, flipping underneath can be pretty tricky. The Riddler's maze is pretty fun, but the Riddler fight is less so; the chess pieces are easy until you take one out, then he starts knocking floor pieces out while the piece tries to push you down it, and Batman's jump doesn't give you a lot of wiggle room. Actually, I'd probably have been better off wall-jumping off the chess piece...

Several bosses at the end are pretty easy to find a pattern and cheese them. Clayface is trivial when you manipulate him properly. Man-Bat is a bit tougher. And Joker? Once you know what he does, you can lock him into a pattern where you jump kick him, start moving to the other side while he jumps over there, and jump kick him again. Repeat ad nauseum.

Being a later SNES title, the game looks fantastic. Great animation, cool use of transparencies and color, and a very good approximation overall of the show. In fact, I'm pretty sure a lot of the episodes are taken straight from the cartoon. I really need to go back and watch those again.

Really, my biggest complaint is that once again, Konami pulls a jerk move and locks the "best" ending behind the hardest difficulty. That one forces you to finish with three lives, three credits, and no passwords. Bleah. Still, knowing what I do now, it's doable, but I don't think after watching the extra bits on YouTube that it's worth my time to power through it. Moving on!

[ESauced]

Yeah I also think adventures of Batman and Robin on Genesis would fall into run and gun. I love that game though and msn is it tough. The one on SNES is more of a platformer (and as I post this I see Sarge played that one already).

I think the Jurassic Park games on Genesis could probably qualify or at least half qualify. There’s a lot of action as Grant but if you pick the raptor you’re mostly jumping on everything.

Everyone seems to be playing the SNES Tiny Toons and saying it’s pretty easy. I do not remember it being easy. I seem to recall a train level that I died on every time. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

[Exhuminator]

I spent some time with these tonight...

Dirty Harry (NES) = Oh my god is this "game" TERRIBLE. I bet this sold negative copies. The only positive thing I have to say, is at the title screen the famous line "Go ahead punk, make my day" plays as a digital sample. Said audio sample itself was impressive in its clarity given the platform. Everything after that was awful. Nope, moved on.

Robocop (NES) = Well, better than Dirty Harry, but only just barely... still bad. Janky mechanics, boring level design, mobbing fodder enemies, ugh. What a waste of great source material. Moved on.

Stargate (SNES) = Seemed to have potential, impressive platforming mechanics, nice weapon systems, and great sprite animation. However, once I realized the gameplay was really about finding X amount of hidden X in levels, nah. I'm just not into Easter egg hunting game design. Never have been, never will be. And... I've never seen the film, so a lot of the atmosphere was lost on me. Moved on.

Aladdin (SNES) = I owned the Genesis version as a kid, and I loved it. Never played the SNES version. If you didn't know, the SNES version is completely different than the Genesis version, different developers and everything. Capcom made this one. And you know what? It's pretty damn good! (Except for the magic carpet ride escape the lava part.) I got all the way to the point of finishing stage 4, then wrote down my password and called it a night.

[samsonlonghair]

Toy Story for Sega Genesis

Toy Story was developed by Traveler's Tales. This was a late release for the Genesis in November 1995 (after the Saturn had already hit the market). I had a Genesis for a number of years at that point, and an upgrade to Saturn was not in the cards. I received Toy Story and Gargoyles for Christmas that year. Toy Story is a tough game; It actually took me a couple of years to beat Toy Story. I recently re-played this fantastic game for Together Retro.

Toy Story is a Single Player game. The player assumes the role of Woody who can use his pull-string as an attack or to swing from hooks to extend his jumps. The Bionic-Commando-inspired grappling maneuver takes some practice to execute, but you can get through the first half of the game without specifically needing to use the pull-string grappling hook. You can get most of the way through the first half of the game with the regular jump aided by bouncing upon rubber balls or tennis balls. The player needs to have mastered the grappling hook to survive the latter half of the game or to achieve a high score in the earlier stages.

Speaking of Bionic Commando, Toy Story takes influence from a number of great games. The Sprites are pre-rendered 3D in the style of Donkey Kong country. Woody Rides Rex in a continuously-scrolling level inspired by Super Mario World. The level design "Inside the Claw Machine" is inspired by Metropolis Zone in Sonic 3 and Flying Battery Zone in S&K. Some of the games that influence Toy Story aren't even platformers.

Toy Story exhibits amazing variety in gameplay. While the platforming sections make up the "meat and potatoes" of the game, there are also sections of Toy Story where the player takes a break from platforming. Woody controls Arcee in overhead driving sections inspired by R.C. Pro-am. Woody and Buzz hide in cardboard containers in stealth levels inspired by Metal Gear. Most impressive of all is the pseudo~3D level inspired by Doom and Wolfenstein.

Toy Story is an absolutely flipping phenomenal game! I am happy to recommend Toy Story to the forum. Kudos to Traveler's tales for making a licensed game that is both an enjoyable game and a technical marvel!

[Sarge]

I loved the Robocop arcade game, and I also have memories of playing the NES version as a kid several times. It's not great, but it's not bad once you figure out how everything works. Unfortunately, a lot of NES games were like that. Poor design and unclear objectives ruined many a game.

Stargate was pretty decent when I blasted through it. Not great, but a lot better than I was expecting. We needed more SG-1 stuff, though!

Aladdin is one of my favorites. Fantastic game. I like it better than the Genesis version, honestly. Arcade-y Prince of Persia? Yep, I'll take that.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Yeah I'm just gonna replay Aladdin. It's great. I've owned it since around launch time and seem to hit it up every three years or so.

Also considering the Rambo NES game. Not a platformer in the traditional sense but it is, uh, interesting.

[Sarge]

Oh, it's still got platforming, though. It counts. It's also very, very strange. Better than its reputation, though.