Commander Cool 2, A Tribute To Old 2D Arcade Platformers

"We have a massive amount of platformers now," -> "We have a massive amount of shitty platformers now,"
ftfy

unfortunately this one doesn't look too good either.

There are many good platformers for Linux on Steam. Even ignoring great platformers that are mostly focused on puzzles, like Monochroma, Thomas Was Alone (not advertised, but available), LIMBO, Escape Goat 1 & 2 (they have some insane precision platforming challenges though), Nihilumbra, Rochard and Blocks That Matter and excellent looking platformers that I have little personal familiarity with like Bleed, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Apotheon, Aaru's Awakening, OlliOlli, Electronic Super Joy, Völgarr the Viking, Terrian Saga: KR-17 and Glare, I can still make a pretty lengthy list of good platformers for Linux on Steam:

- Super Meat Boy
- eversion
- Cave Story+
- Knytt Underground
- You Have to Win the Game
- Super Win the Game
- Teslagrad
- SteamWorld Dig
- 140
- Gunslugs 2
- 6180 the Moon
- Runner2
- FEZ
- Mark of the Ninja
- Dustforce DX
- VVVVVV
- Psychonauts
- Trine 1 & 2

I took your list and shortened it to show which ones I consider good:
- Super Meat Boy
- Eversion
- Cave Story+
- VVVVVV

The ones I played but didn't enjoy (some were enjoyable for half an hour, some were boring right from the start and some had crappy controls that discouraged me from even trying):
- Knytt Underground
- You Have to Win the Game
- Teslagrad
- SteamWorld Dig
- 140
- 6180 the Moon
- Runner2
- FEZ
- Dustforce DX
- Psychonauts

The ones I have yet to play (or not)
- Super Win the Game
- Gunslugs 2
- Mark of the Ninja
- Trine 1 & 2

I *believe* Trine 1&2 and Mark of the Ninja are good, I just didn't get around to trying them yet. The other two don't look very promising.

@pb I have finished Trine 2 (I have started from 2, because 1 was not realeased on the linux at that time) and Mark of the Ninja and I can ensure You that both of them are very good. In fact if they aren't good then I don't know how other platformers can be good.

@pb: you seem to have a somewhat special taste if only those 4 are acceptable. So I'd rate your problem of missing platformers non-typical. Doesn't help you, but other (many?) platformer-lovers find more than enough.
Yes, Trine and Mark of the Ninja are really great games (which still doesn't mean you'll like them).

One of my favourites also hasn't been mentioned so far: The Swapper
Glare might also be worth a look.

Quoting: Pit@pb: you seem to have a somewhat special taste if only those 4 are acceptable. So I'd rate your problem of missing platformers non-typical. Doesn't help you, but other (many?) platformer-lovers find more than enough.
Yes, Trine and Mark of the Ninja are really great games (which still doesn't mean you'll like them).

There are more good platformers that flesk didn't list. What about Limbo and Braid? They are both very good. UnEpic is a great rpg platformer. Gateways is a very enjoyable "2d portal" game. Other mildly enjoyable games include Beatbuddy, Life of Pixel, Electronic Super Joy, Escape Goat, Rogue Legacy.

But what I was really referring to is the overflow of really bad games, like 8-bit Commando, Ascendant (crappy controls), Beat Blasters III, Closure, Deadly 30 (ok, not really a platformer), DIVO, Thomas Was Alone (boring), Full Bore (fully boring), Grimind, Imagine Me (wtf?), Inescapable, Poof (very bad port),

There are also several games that I left out because they fall into the 'not bad, but not too good either' category, or I didn't play them long enough to rate honestly. But I think you get the picture. I am not saying there are no good platformers on Linux, I just argue that "We have a massive amount of platformers now" is not precise enough.

Quoting: pbThere are more good platformers that flesk didn't list. What about Limbo and Braid? They are both very good. UnEpic is a great rpg platformer. Gateways is a very enjoyable "2d portal" game. Other mildly enjoyable games include Beatbuddy, Life of Pixel, Electronic Super Joy, Escape Goat, Rogue Legacy.

I did mention LIMBO, Escape Goat and Electronic Super Joy. The latter as an example of a game generally regarded as good that I haven't played and the two others as games primarily focused on puzzles. Gateways is great too. I've also played Life of Pixel and I enjoyed most of it, but it got extremely tedious for me once I got to the Apple II era.

Quoting: pbBut what I was really referring to is the overflow of really bad games, like 8-bit Commando, Ascendant (crappy controls), Beat Blasters III, Closure, Deadly 30 (ok, not really a platformer), DIVO, Thomas Was Alone (boring), Full Bore (fully boring), Grimind, Imagine Me (wtf?), Inescapable, Poof (very bad port),

I'm not denying that there are bad games on Steam. That's not a problem isolated to the various platformer genres though, and it's definitely not a problem specific to Steam on Linux.

I find it odd that you like Braid but don't like Closure, as they're pretty similar, though the first is more focused on story and the latter has harder puzzles. I think both games are good, and though I recognize Braid's position as a reference game in the puzzle platformer genre, I don't think it's as good as it's hyped up to be. The Bridge is also similar to the two and is also a good game.

I have a hard time seeing how you can find Thomas Was Alone boring. Sure, it's pretty short and the puzzles aren't the hardest out there, but the story is so full of charm that I find it odd that someone wouldn't be captivated by it alone. Matter of taste I guess.

Full Bore is a great and very unique game (seriously, the only thing remotely close is Toki Tori 2+), but it's not a platformer, so if you expect platforming I can see that you might be disappointed in it. It is instead a puzzle game with a big emphasis on exploration, secrets and a deep lore. It's not for nothing that it's sometimes referred to as a metroidvania-esque puzzler.

I agree that Imagine Me might be "objectively" classified as bad though, and though I haven't played DIVO myself, it certainly looks bad too. I didn't hate Inescapable as much as most, but I recognize its flaws, and I feel like it would have benefited a lot from an in-game map. Most of the games you use to prove that we have "a massive amount of shitty platformers" seem to be games you personally don't enjoy for one reason or another though. And by using highly regarded games as Knytt Underground, Teslagrad, 140 and FEZ as examples of bad games, you don't really build a strong case for yourself.

@flesk, sorry, I did read your full post first, but then I only focused on the enumerated games. Anyhow, now I can see that I slightly overreacted, but I sustain my point that "having a massive amount of platformers" does not necessarily mean we have a lot of good ones.

Ok, I think we can agree about that at least. :) And there are several upcoming platformers that I think should appeal to most people, like New 'n' Tasty (release today), Giana Sisters, Red Goddess, Chasm, Frogatto & Friends and Heart Forth, Alicia.

Quoting: pbBut what I was really referring to is the overflow of really bad games, like 8-bit Commando, Ascendant (crappy controls), Beat Blasters III, Closure, Deadly 30 (ok, not really a platformer), DIVO, Thomas Was Alone (boring), Full Bore (fully boring), Grimind, Imagine Me (wtf?), Inescapable, Poof (very bad port),

There are also several games that I left out because they fall into the 'not bad, but not too good either' category, or I didn't play them long enough to rate honestly. But I think you get the picture. I am not saying there are no good platformers on Linux, I just argue that "We have a massive amount of platformers now" is not precise enough.

Ah, that's a different read! But honestly - I think this is the price you have to pay for the Steam rush. Many more games means also many more bad games, and I expect the share of bad games to rise faster: So far we had mostly ports of already successful games - the bad ones were not ported. The easier it is to write/publish a game also for Linux, and the more games come with 0-day Linux support, the higher is the number of games that will fail to attract players....

A plethora of games to choose from also has the drawback that you have to make a choice....