Hello, I am playing Treasure Adventure (again, but last time i didn't finish though I was close..... *cough* no indecent references here). I absolutely adore this game, it mixes great narrative, style, and platforming action with a small bit of rpg-ish character progression. I love that the pixelated 2d view isn't just a means of representation (and poke at nostalgia) but has it's own place in the game's lore! I would like to hear your recommendation for a similar thing, can be indie, doesn't have to be. I'd love if it was something with low system requirements as I have a bad PC atm, maybe something from 1995-2005 era, but any recommendation is appreciated. Can be 2d or 3d. I just yesterday bought Abbe's Oddysey and Psychonauts with the gog gem sale going on, though I'm facing some tech issues with stuttering sound. It seems that Psychonauts is gonna be great for what I'm looking for, when I fix it. Yet to play Abbe, but I was told it's great by friends, plus I remember I liked the demo back in the day.

I never played much platformers (except a lot of Jazz Jackrabit) but seems I missed out. Especially since I like cartoonish things (surreal and wacky the most). Most important for me is for the game to have unique graphical style and some interesting narrative that is not strictly aimed for kids.

Oh btw, I remember a certain game from ages past: "Dreams to Reality", any thoughts on that? Heart of Darkness also comes to mind. Hmm... I'll put or vote those games on the community request board.

And yeah, "Super Meat Boy" is on my wishlist.

On a sidenote: I seem to like platformers for one peculiar reason: because the game is about any movement it seems to find a way to reduce the overblown violence of majority of other titles while still being full of action (as opposed to adventure games, which I also like, but sometimes I want more action!). Ok, there's lots of violence in many titles, but just relatively speaking - there's something more to it than violence. Especially after all the rpgs I played that are: hear NPC telling you who to kill, buy weapon to kill, train skill to kill, go kill 100 people, repeat (the part I like in rpgs the most is exploration: the non-violent part). Not even mentioning shooters.

Non-combat is gaming.
Even in tabletop RPGs.

Watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJVGtKPjNc

You have played Braid, right?

I think "La-Mulana" should qualify for a "Platformer with a soul". The narrative is a bit hard to get into because the world is huge, it has an immensely rich history, and clues about that history are scattered throughout the vast playing area. The translation from Japanese to English also didn't exactly help to clarify things. However, if you do take the time to piece the entire story together, then La-Mulana can be one of the most immersive platformers you have played. It's certainly one of the most varied, perhaps the biggest Metroidvania in existence.

Treasure adventure is really great indeed, it was a real pleasure for me to discover that game.

Modern platformers I really like/recommend are Guacamelee and Un-epic, for the mechanics and the aesthetic more than the story. Shuggy is really nice too but is very very light on the 'intrigue'.

If you like TAG, I would assume you'd like La Mulana.

There's VVVVVV and Spelunky.

A good chunk of Sega's platformers are available on PC, and I suppose you could look into Wayforward's work since some of thier games are pretty well received.

[url=http://www.desura.com/games/thomas-was-alone]Desura
Thomas Was Alone

It's minimalistic with a great narrative.

I'm evidently in the minority here because yes it's short and yes it can be a little boring but as someone who grew up while these games came about and then developed I have to throw out Evoland. The biggest slam against it would probably be that the designers focused too much on making a tribute to the evolution of console gaming and not enough time making an actual game, but in this case I'm cool with that.

Edit: of course I just realized it's going for 9.99 which is a tad steep for a tribute. I'm pretty sure I picked it up on sale and if it gets discounted again I highly recommend looking at it.

The Rockman/Megaman games are wonderful. I can never get enough of them. If NES games are too old for you then try out the Megaman X and Megaman Zero series.

I don't know if it counts as a platformer, since it's mostly underwater, but Aquaria (made by the same guy who did Spelunky) has more soul than any other game I can think of at the moment.

Unless a ninja strikes, it seems that Cave Story hasn't been mentioned yet.

Of the ones available on GOG, I would highly recommend:

- Teslagrad;
- pid;
- Capsized;
- VVVVVV;
- Spelunky;
- Steamworld Dig;
- and [url=http://www.gog.com/game/trine_2_complete_story]Trine 2: Complete Story;
- Stick It to The Man!;
- Valdis Story: Abyssal City;
- Guacamelee!;
- The Swapper;
- Dustforce;
- Volgarr The Viking;
- Rogue Legacy;


Some of them may have more focus on action than what you asked for in the OP, but I can assure you every single one of these platformers I suggested have soul. Lots and lots of it.

And it goes to show that while the market may be "saturated with indie platformers", but there still are loads of them being made that are worth our time, if we are platformer fans. I left a lot of them out of my list, trust me, GOG has an amazing selection of great platformers, both indie/modern and classic/old, but my list is extensive enough as it is.

Trine 1&2(the first being what got me on a platforming binge lately), Steamworld Dig and Rayman Origins are a good shot .

Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV are really the only pure platformers I have enjoyed from the recent indie explosion.

As for Metroidvania's, only one that jumps out to me is Dust. It's okay. Not a lot of quality games in that genre honestly, use an emulator to replay Symphony of the Night ;)

I was pleasantly surprised with <span class="bold">Super Panda Adventures</span>. If I had an extra copy, I'd shoot it your way so you could see for yourself! Maybe someone still has it available in the Classifieds thread... :p

Oh, and the Trine games are simply gorgeous!

Big thumbs up for Abe's Oddysee. All of those games were good. Definitely worth a go, you won't regret the purchase.

You might want to try Limbo.

I have a soft spot for SuperFrog (the original one you can get on GOG - Steam remake is just meh).
Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 are pretty good wacky platformers if you don't mind some childish jokes.