Cinematic Platformers

[thetwaz]

What cinenatic platformers do you like? I think the main ones i have played are Flashback (Genesis, though I think it was on pretty much anything), Prince of Persia (again, on a lot of systems, I think I played this on Dos), Oddworld:Abe's Oddessey (PSX) and recently Blackthorne (emulated on Sega 32x). Wondered if you had come across any other good examples of the genre?

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

Blackthorne is the first Cinematic Platformer I’ve ever played.

 

[Deleted member 660650]

If Blackthorne is a "cinematic platformer" Demolition Man on Sega Genesis is a great example then.

If you know Flashback you would know Another World (developed by same guy and was way more popular) and Heart of Darkness (again same guy's game but less popular than Flashback).

In modern industry this genre turned into weird empty horror themed games like Limbo and Little Nightmares. Among them I only liked Little Nightmares 2 and its lack of coop play when the theme called for it is a stupid lack of vision moment. Naturally now there are tons Limbo clones and whatnot now.

Oh yeah there is also Deadlight but since I don't give a fuck about zombie games I know its existence but I ignored it. At least there are okay representations of this genre like The Eternal Castle that doesn't try to be a direct clone of other examples in the genre, but the BS is developers lied it is a remaster of an old game that doesn't even exist to advertize and make people wanna look for the original. What a dick move lol.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

I think the first one I ever tried was the original Prince of Persia on DOS.

The first one I played enough to actually enjoy was probably Abe's Oddysee. Awesome game and still a lot of fun to this day, though they did far too good a job of hiding some of those Mudokens.

 

[Soupmancer]

Heart of Darkness (USA) PSX ISO – CDRomance

Heart of Darkness (USA) PSX ISO Game ID: SLUS-00696, SLUS-00741. Languages: English. For Sony PlayStation.

retrogametalk.com

This one has so many cool animations

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

Heart of Darkness (USA) PSX ISO – CDRomance

Heart of Darkness (USA) PSX ISO Game ID: SLUS-00696, SLUS-00741. Languages: English. For Sony PlayStation.

retrogametalk.com

This one has so many cool animations

I remember picking this up from a game store for cheap when I was young.

It was awesome, but so insanely difficult that it took me ages to get past the first area. I still remember being incredbly proud of myself for reaching Disc 2, though I doubt that I actually finished it.

Might be worth revisting at some point.

 

[secreto7]

I played and finished Blackthorne and Another World on Kega Fusion, and Heart of Darkness the PC version.
I only played a demo of Abe's Oddysee and only tried a bit of Prince of Persia.

What is exactly a "Cinematic Platformer"?
What can qualify?

Are Tomba or Mirror's Edge on this category?

 

[Tonberry]

I remember really liking the SNES version of Prince of Persia. Got pretty addicted to attempting to speedrun the early parts of it, but I don't think I actually ever beat the game.

Blackthorne was cool too, if only to see the seeds of a lot of Blizzard staples.

 

[thetwaz]

I played and finished Blackthorne and Another World on Kega Fusion, and Heart of Darkness the PC version.
I only played a demo of Abe's Oddysee and only tried a bit of Prince of Persia.

What is exactly a "Cinematic Platformer"?
What can qualify?

Are Tomba or Mirror's Edge on this category?

I'm sure other definitions exist, but I would say there are a few features:
- generally slower paced gameplay than an average platformer
- high quality animations
- an overarching story which is revealed as the game progresses
- sometimes elements of adventure games in puzzles
- combat which has more realistic aspects than the average platformer (i.e. no turtie stomping)

 

[secreto7]

I'm sure other definitions exist, but I would say there are a few features:
- generally slower paced gameplay than an average platformer
- high quality animations
- an overarching story which is revealed as the game progresses
- sometimes elements of adventure games in puzzles
- combat which has more realistic aspects than the average platformer (i.e. no turtie stomping)

I found these descriptions too:

https://www.mobygames.com/group/9899/genre-cinematic-platformer/

Cinematic Platform Game - TV Tropes

A subgenre of platform games. One main way in which cinematic platformers are distinguished from other platform games is that their game mechanics and visual style have a greater degree of realism, closer to that of Beat 'em Up games than other …

tvtropes.org

 

[Anoobis]

Oddworld. Definitely my favorite entries in the genre.

 

[Blue Buddha]

Prince of Persia (SNES remake)
Prince of Persia II
Abe's Oddyssee
Abe's Exoddus
Lester the Unlikely
I've been meaning to try out Flashback and Heart of Darkness as well.

As an aside, 'Cinematic Platformer' is such a weird term for this particular type of game if you're already familiar with the modern use of the phrase 'cinematic' as pertains to videogame discussion, to the extent where I think it might even obscure the actual mode of the games being referred to among younger players.

I'm sure other definitions exist, but I would say there are a few features:
- generally slower paced gameplay than an average platformer
- high quality animations
- an overarching story which is revealed as the game progresses
- sometimes elements of adventure games in puzzles
- combat which has more realistic aspects than the average platformer (i.e. no turtie stomping)

Personally I tend to think fall damage, smaller jump arcs and having to manually climb up/down ledges = cinematic platformer, but that's just me. I guess broadly speaking you might say any game that resembles the original Prince of Persia would be a cinematic platformer.