Platformer

Ori and the Blind Forest is one of the best games I have ever played...ever. Not only is the audio and visuals outstanding, but the story off the top is really gripping, making you want to play through the whole thing to see what happens to the beautiful forest that once existed.

If you’ve never played a Kirby game then you are missing out. Whether they’ve been the best of the franchise, or in certain situations the worst, Kirby games always pack a powerful punch of cuteness and innovation. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is no different, and is a must buy for any Kirby fan.

“This is not a fairy tale. There’s nothing fair about it”. When the protagonist of Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries introduces us to her world, this is the key statement she makes. A warning and an explanation: she is telling the player that this is no ordinary happy-ending bedtime story. In early-access on Steam, Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries tells the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood with a dark and gritty twist that takes the old story to a whole new level.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker finally gives Toad his own Mario Kingdom platform to garner a larger fan base for himself; he does almost everything right in his first, Toad-centric adventure. While Captain Toad doesn't carry the hefty price tag of some of Nintendo's other franchises, there is plenty of content here to justify a 39.99 USD price tag. If you are looking for something other than Smash Bros to play this holiday season, you may want to grab a copy of Captain Toad and kick back on the couch for this 10-12 hour adventure.

There was a time when platformers were about the only type of game hitting the market. Spyro and Crash seemed to be the most talked about characters, and Mario 64 was a contender for the greatest game ever made. The genre peaked and, mixed with the dropping quality of long-time franchises, disappeared to almost nothing. The Last Tinker seems to try to recapture those glory days, but misses exactly what made the greats so noteworthy in the first place.

If you want to be a huge hit in the indie world, your best bet is to move to Sweden. At least it feels like that is where all the good games are coming from right now. This week will be no different, as SteamWorld Dig, already available on multiple platforms including the 3DS, will receive an additional release on Nintendo's Wii U console.All I need to tell you is that it is worth it.

At its heart, Shovel Knight is a platformer that echoes the NES classics of Mega Man, Duck Tales, Zelda 2, and Super Mario Bros. 3, then takes everything that works well within those games and throws away the tedium that can become infuriating.

It feels so long ago that I went out and purchased a banana yellow Gameboy Pocket and copies of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country 2. As a kid, I always had to pay for my own games as my parents refused to purchase games for birthdays or Christmas. For that reason, these two games were played a lot. Many years later, Nintendo is still releasing titles in the Donkey Kong Country franchise; how thankful long-time fans must be, because Nintendo continues to release high quality, top tier games.

To say that Nintendo has released more of something is nothing new. More Mario Kart, more Yoshi's Island, and now more Kirby. I use these three specific examples for a reason. More Mario Kart has always been a good thing, while more Yoshi's Island wasn't. Another game in the Kirby franchise is not like another Mario Kart game, but is leaps and bounds ahead of Yoshi's Island.

Yoshi has appeared sporadically throughout the Mario universe, playing major roles in numerous games, and providing cameos in others. In 1995, Yoshi was deemed important enough to be given his own game, and little has changed in the spin-offs and sequels since. Yoshi's New Island, available now for the 3DS, is a familiar platform adventure on a new handheld. Although the core of the game is the same, a few new implementations are less than spectacular, making Yoshi's latest adventure feel like a broken version of the older titles.