Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Well, there's the old thread about other good puzzle games...I figured I'd start one on action/platform games. I'm only going to start out with a few:

The first one is called N (there's a link there to click, I know it's hard to see), and it's awesome. I discovered it while DROD.net was down, and I am still trying to beat it. The graphics are very simplistic, but the ragdoll physics of the main character are really well done. You're kind of this ninja-type dude, and you simply have to reach the exit in each level. You only have 90 seconds, but every box of gold you pick up extends the time by 2 seconds. So, it's kind of a souped up Lode Runner. You can jump really far, you can jump up walls, and slide down them, and avoid missiles and machine guns and mines...it's just great fun! Highly recommended, and totally free!

Ricochet is one of the best "Arkanoid"-style games I've ever played. I bought the original Ricochet, and I just discovered that they released a sequel, Ricochet: Lost Worlds, which allows people to add their own levels! I'll probably be shilling out the money for this one pretty soon...again!

My final game is a Game Boy Advance game that just came out called Mario vs. Donkey Kong. If you ever played Donkey Kong Jr., the game starts out vaguely reminiscent of that, but gets much much more involved very quickly. It also kind of reminds me of The Lost Vikings or Humans or other action/puzzle games. Lots of platform gaming goodness interspersed with devilish puzzles, made it very intriguing to me initially, and it also has great replay value: 48 initial levels (two parts to each one), which once you beat them give way to 42 more levels (only one part for these, but lots harder). And then there are 12 secret expert levels that are only unlocked when you beat the original 90 levels over a certain high score. As a portable game, it's great, since it's split up into such bite-size portions. Very, very well done, really reminds me of some of the great games of my youth.

Game on,

[Edited by Oneiromancer on 06-03-2004 at 09:07 PM GMT]

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Stuwy
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 212
Registered: 04-10-2003
IP: Logged

My favorite platformer/action game is called Abuse. Face it, you're running around blowing the crap out of aliens with different types weapons. Great game, Highy recommend this to others.

Drizzo
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 179
Registered: 03-03-2004
IP: Logged

Icy Tower

The Quintessential Platformer.
'nuff said.

____________________________
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." - Tom Robbins

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

I remember buying Abuse way back when...and I loved it too, beat it and everything. I know they released it for free recently, and I tried to run it, but it just wasn't quite the same...it's one of those games that just looks outdated now. Some games are great to play and the graphics don't matter much...others the graphics are important, and you just get used to the prettier stuff nowadays.

Icy Tower rocks, I agree. One of those "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master" games. Simple yet elegant, and kind of addicting too. There's something about games that only require 3 keys...Left, Right, and Jump...that's fun. Just like N!

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Some free shoot-em-ups:

rRootage and Noiz2sa are two abstract shooters by some Japanese guy. I like rRootage much more...it has about 40 levels, each level takes time and skill to beat (although they get really hard pretty quick) AND there are 4 modes to play in, so it's really about 160 levels. Noiz2sa I haven't played in a long time, but it was fun but with a different objective. Basically, both games are all about firing at some abstract boss spaceship while dodging the huge number of bullets it shoots out. The bullet patterns are quite neat and can also be pretty tough to avoid. I get some slowdown on my computer when there's lots of bullets on the screen, but since this helps me survive I don't complain too much, hehe.

As in most free Japanese PC games, the Z and X keys are used. Arrow keys are movement, Z fires or selects the level, and X is for the special attack. In rRootage, this special attack is what makes the modes different from each other. In the Normal mode, the special attack is bomb which destroys bullets around you for a short time. In one of the other modes, it's like Ikaruga: you don't take damage from the bullets which are the same color as you, and the X button changes your color.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

N is really great - very difficult, but very cool (I'm in episode 03 now - the chasm level in episode 2 is my favourite so far, for sheer coolness factor).

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Don't forget you can start in episodes 10 and 20 also, if you're having too much trouble with some of the first set. (I believe that the first set is the original release, the second two sets are extras.) I think I got to episode 4 before I got frustrated and started in on 10 and 20. Currently I'm on episodes 7, 15, and 23.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Scott
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 578
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

I've only managed to finish episodes 0 and 10. This game is seriously cool but hard. I haven't learnt the bouncing off walls bit when going up I always fall. Guess its just a matter of practice.

The game kills my pc though when its running. If I want to do anything else its slowed to a crawl.

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Basically, if you press the arrow key into a wall you are more likely to grab onto it and slide down, and so when you jump it won't be as strongly as if you didn't grab onto it. Did you check the tutuorial out? It's pretty well done, they cover all the aspects of the game. The easiest way to see how to jump up walls would be on episode 2, there are some "chimneys" there where you can climb all the way to the top just by pressing jump and never touching the arrow keys.

As for the speed of the game...yeah, it makes everything else run more slowly. I find that to even respond to an IM I have to minimize N, which does help a bit. It must be a result of the Flash technology, or whatever it is they used.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5383
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Yeah, N is really cool. I've finished all the levels, but I had a head start on most of you, since Neil told me about it while DROD.net was down.

There are also user-created levels you can download at their forum, which I can't seem to connect to right now. The interface for playing user levels is less than friendly.

____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

Schik wrote:
Yeah, N is really cool. I've finished all the levels, but I had a head start on most of you, since Neil told me about it while DROD.net was down.

Yeah, I mentioned that...and per usual, my attention wandered off to other things, which is why Schik beat it and I'm still working my way through. At least it can be minimized for when someone walks in while I'm playing, although it's a bad thing for me to play at work since I tend to be vocal when I die in an action game.

I forgot about the user-made levels, hehe. And they're supposed to be releasing some more "official" levels at some point too.

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

Drizzo
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 179
Registered: 03-03-2004
IP: Logged

Oneiromancer wrote:
Some free shoot-em-ups:

rRootage and Noiz2sa are two abstract shooters by some Japanese guy.

Warning Forever is another game by the same guy, and is infinitely superior in graphics and gameplay to both. Similar concept though, but a lot faster paced. Currently my favorite shoot 'em up.

The best game I've played in the past... oh 6 hours or so, has got to be Seiklus Not quite fast paced action, more of an adventure exploration game. Shortish but absolutely magnificent, and heartwarming to boot, despite the lack of dialogue. I highly recommend you give both these games a try, I think warning forever is under 1mb, and Seiklus is 2.5mb, but both look and play like they're much larger.


____________________________
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." - Tom Robbins

Zmann
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 241
Registered: 04-21-2003
IP: Logged

I live for freeware games. And other stuff too... but mostly freeware games. Time for an UBER-POST!!

Action games:

Cube - An open source first-person shooter. Has network play and a built in realtime level editor.

Down - Great little game. The object is to go um... down. There are 3 different powerups. The parchute makes you go slower, the water bottle makes you fall faster, and the star makes you invisible. If you get the water bottle AND the star, you crash through platforms like mad.

Every Extend - Another strange Japanese game. In this game you have to start chain reactions to get the highscore. The levels are short and kind of simple, but to get the highscore you really have to get good.

Freedroid - Fun open source game where you are a robot and you must destroy the other robots. You can either shoot them, or take their power. Quite fun.

Frontline - Japanese again. (What'd you expect?) Your a soldier with an aresenal of 4 guns, and some grenades. The object is to get as far as you can. Watch out for helecopters.

Generally - Racing to the maX0rs. Fun little top down racing game, similar to the old arcade overhead racers. Fun fun fun.

Green Snake - Like snake, but has auto-turning, and you're stuck in a maze. More strategy, but there's a little action.

Kirubiru - Fun little game where you are a guy with a sword... who slashes buildings. Up jumps, left and right move left and right, down blocks, z slashes, and x uses special(after orange bar is full). The game is a little hard to pick up, but once you understand it, it's really fun. Keep your combo by not hitting or blocking when on the ground.

The Line Continues - Fun little action game where the whole game world takes place on a line. Has a prequel.

Little Fighter 2 - Fun fighting game. Great with multiple people playing.

Madness Interactive - A sidescrolling fighting/shooting game made in flash. Great fun. Really hard.

Mario XP - Mario game made by Japanese people. Doesn't have the greatest Mario physics, but for some reason, this game is really fun.

Neverball - Open source Monkey ball clone. Fun but challenging.

Orbital Sniper - Snipe people from orbit. Save the VIP's! Great game for a quick action fix.

Perfect Cherry Blossom - Strange Japanese game. Your a girl on a broom and have to dodge the many projectiles on the screen. Much like rRootage. The prequal is also on the site.

Pixelships - Fun little action game. Space ship side scroller with a twist. There are 160 different ships you can catch and be! Gotta catch 'em all!

Recreational Warfare (RecWar) - Fun little overhead tank deathmatch game. Fun when you have friends over, or for a warmup at LAN parties.

Sumo - An old DOS game, but still loads of fun. You get a button to control 3 leg lengths, and 5 leg angles. Fun hotseat gameplay!

UFO - Japanese game where you control a UFO and fight other UFO's. Has time trial mode too. Great fun with 2 people.

Virtual In - Japanese minature robot fighting game. Fun with 2 people.

Zone Runner 1 & 2 - Hard platform game. Levels are deviously designed and tough. Rewarding to beat though.

That's about it for now.

About N - Had this game for a long while now. Really fun. Beat the game already, and I can't wait for the online highscore tables.

krammer
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 904
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

Action games aren't generally what I go for, but I have to agree on the Icy Tower recommendation. I would love to have a Beethro character but my graphics skills aren't up to the job... hint hint...

And I suspect a lot of people here will have it, but One Must Fall 2097 is one of the best freeware fighting games there is. So great I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. Downside is that XP doesn't seem to like it much, although it should be possible with a little tinkering.

____________________________
+++ Divide by Cucumber Error +++ Please Reinstall Universe and Reboot +++

"Oook!"

masonjason
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 349
Registered: 12-29-2003
IP: Logged

I thought Neverball was a cool idea, then I played it.
NO! ARGH! THE CAMERA HATES ME!

____________________________
Eighty people came to the bazaar.

Zmann
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 241
Registered: 04-21-2003
IP: Logged

Since my previous post was quite large, you might not want to look through it all. Here are the games that have to do with highscores:

Highscore Games (ex. Icy Tower)
Down, Every Extend, Frontline, Kirubiru, The Line Continues, Orbital Sniper.

-Zmann

Zmann
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 241
Registered: 04-21-2003
IP: Logged

You can make the camera stationary in Neverball. Just press F3 for stationary cam, F2 for lagged following cam, and press F1 for regular cam. In the stationary cam, right click to rotate the camera right, and left click to move the camera left.

Hope this helps .

masonjason
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 349
Registered: 12-29-2003
IP: Logged

Yes, it does. Thanks. It seems to be more difficult with a touchpad rather than a mouse, as well.

____________________________
Eighty people came to the bazaar.

Stuwy
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 212
Registered: 04-10-2003
IP: Logged

Another good game that's worth a try is called Rollin', It's sort of like a monkeyball clone but theres alot of twists. The game used to be shareware but now it's freeware. It's located at the-underdogs.org. Sorry I can't set up a direct link to it since I'm in a hurry.

Drizzo
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 179
Registered: 03-03-2004
IP: Logged

%$@*&% the Underdogs, today...
they banned me because of some bizarre error... I have to wait 3 hours up to a week to get back my access... I'm so sad... maybe I'll just play DROD and KoL more again.

____________________________
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." - Tom Robbins

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5383
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

FYI, the N 1.3 beta is out. To get it, you have to register at their forum, after which a new board will appear with directions on how to log in to get the file.

The High Score board is pretty cool.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

So, what's new? Anything significant?

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5383
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

The big thing is that it keeps online high scores. You register in-game by choosing a username and password, then as you play it uploads your times. Other than that, there are 10 new episodes (20 more once it gets out of beta). I believe I read something about them changing the format of the levels so that they can contain arbitrary polygons.

And that's all I know.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Ravon
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 220
Registered: 02-19-2004
IP: Logged

I finally downloaded N (ive been watching this thread for a while but i was on vacation and my uncle didn't want anything downloaded) It is a GREAT game. I got version 1.3 without registering on the forums but i don't know...

Oneiromancer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2936
Registered: 03-29-2003
IP: Logged

1.3 was released Monday/late Sunday night. Unfortunately, it has some annoying bugs in it...1.3b was released today, hopefully they fixed everything. They didn't learn the lesson that changes you make in beta-testing might need further testing...

Game on,

____________________________
"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

gamer_extreme_101
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1939
Registered: 03-07-2004
IP: Logged

A topic on action games and no one has mentioned Half-Life? I play Half Life every day for many reasons : Almost unlimited amount of mods(They Hunger & TFC 1.5 rule!!), awesome graphics for the day, and that any machine can run it.

Enough of that, though. Another favourite of mine is Blade Runner. If anyone's seen the movie, I here it's based on it. Synopsis: You are a futuristic cop in the Rep Detect. Your mission is to uncover replicants, which are robots that look like humans. Awesome game !

____________________________
--That guy with a million different aliases since he doesn't like this name anymore.

Drizzo
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 179
Registered: 03-03-2004
IP: Logged

gamer_extreme_101 wrote:
A topic on action games and no one has mentioned Half-Life? I play Half Life every day for many reasons : Almost unlimited amount of mods(They Hunger & TFC 1.5 rule!!), awesome graphics for the day, and that any machine can run it.

Enough of that, though. Another favourite of mine is Blade Runner. If anyone's seen the movie, I here it's based on it. Synopsis: You are a futuristic cop in the Rep Detect. Your mission is to uncover replicants, which are robots that look like humans. Awesome game !

I think the reason for that is kinda the same reason a household hints thread doesn't have stuff like "Use a broom" or "Pick up"... Half-life has so firmly entrenched itself into the realm of FPS... That being said, half-life does rule, I am a serious DoD addict myself, finding the more realistic/team-based play more entertaining than the nonstop deathmatch.

____________________________
"Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government
and business." - Tom Robbins

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

How about Lbreakout2, the best arkanoid clone ever ? Editor included, plus you can download many additional level sets. There are BeOS, Linux and Mac versions, too !

And don't forget that many powerup ideas, and several backgrounds come from mysterious, magnificient and modest B0rsuk !

http://lgames.sourceforge.net/index.php?project=LBreakout2

[Edited by b0rsuk on 07-06-2004 at 11:50 AM GMT]

____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

b0rsuk wrote:
And don't forget that many powerup ideas, and several backgrounds come from mysterious, magnificient and modest B0rsuk !

Hee hee!

That has to be one of the most self-contradicting posts that I have seen in a long while.



____________________________
Resident Medic/Mycologist

Scott
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 578
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

I had a look at soldat some time ago didn't impress me got wiped pretty fast.