I’m really in the mood for a game like Shovel Knight after listening to some chiptune tracks the other day. Something fair, but challenging would be ideal. Must have a good soundtrack!
Along these lines I’ve already played:
- Shovel Knight
- Celeste
- The Messenger
- Hollow Knight (well, in terms of the difficulty not the music)
Does anyone know of any I’ve missed? They don’t necessarily have to be modern indie games - old NES/SNES games for example. SMB3 and SMW are classics.
VVVVVV is pretty great.
“Banging Chiptune soundtrack” instantly made me think of VVVVVV
You just can’t beat “Pushing Onwards”
that one vertical up/down fall -flashbacks still haunt me.
Super Meat Boy?
Oh damn I actually played this on X360! It was excellent. I’m tempted to get it again on Steam now that you mention it.
It goes on sale fairly often or is part of bundles a lot.
I think it was Cave Story that prompted the modern indie revival of this genre
Oh man, cave story is awesome. Especially that special secret ending that expands on the background of it all a lot.
Went in here scrolling to see if Cave Story was mentioned, Loved the game OP should try it
Ohh yes I do have this on Steam! I think I played a few hours, can’t remember if I ever finished it. Either way I should totally go back and play it.
Ninja Gaiden.
Broforce is not that hard, but it’s so fun that it might be worth a play.
Plok for SNES
10/10 soundtrack on this quirky platformer
If you like the soundtrack for The Messenger, check out these “24 bit” remixes where they combine the 8 bit and 16 bit songs
If you allow technical nonplatformers in there (Hollow Knight? If you are into Metroidvanias, play Super Metroid, it has great music. Also, Axiom Verge.) I could go up and down my various game collections for a while.
But in spirit of the actual question, here’s one that I don’t think anyone else here will recommend: LOVE. Simple, short, lots of room for mastery. And I like the music.
If you are a fan of the classics, the SMW modding community is huge. We have a wide variety of difficulties, and most modern hacks have all custom music- in engine, playable on console, ofc, so it’s all 16-bit.
LOVE seems nice! Very low fi soundtrack.
I hadn’t considered SMW mods - thanks, I’ll look into that
It’s been a while since I played it, but I think They Bleed Pixels might fit the bill on both counts.
Also I recently started The End is Nigh which is another Edmund McMillen game very similar to Super Meatboy. Seems good so far.
I think you need to play Pizza Tower
I haven’t seen this mentioned yet, so I’ll say it: The End is Nigh. Shit’s hard as balls but very fair and rewarding to play, only go for it if you’re a real glutton for punishment.
How does it compare to super meat boy?
Made by the same guy, actually. I would say it’s similar to Meat Boy in difficulty if you just play the main game, but there are rabbitholes to go down that get much, much harder if you’re a completionist.
Have you played La-Mulana or the sequel?
It’s full of insane puzzles and traps, but it’s a great metroidvania with some great music. It’s one of my all time favorites.
I’ve heard of that series but never tried it. Actually the trailer reminded me a bit of Castlevania SOTN - which is another one I really should play!
If you haven’t played SOTN, I highly recommend you take a pitstop from platformers and try it now. I just played and beat it for the first time last week and it’s great.
Reasons for my suggestion:
- It’s spooky season and the SotN theme fits well.
- The game is beatable in one day.
- The music is fantastic.
Hah, all excellent points. I think I may need to play SOTN and the original Resident Evil this month for the spookiness.
The game is beatable in one day.
And if you never played it, boy, you’re in for a real treat. There’s so, so, SO MUCH to explore in there! Also, getting something akin to a 100% will definitely take longer if you don’t look into guides.
I’m a big fan of those games, and I really enjoyed HUNTDOWN. It’s a shooting platformer, more Contra than anything on your list, but is good times and has top choons to listen to while you’re playing.
super meat boy
