Recommend a Platformer for my wife? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

My wife, it turns out, enjoys platform games; side-scrolling, run-n-jump games, flip switches to solve puzzles. We bought Cloning Clyde from Xbox Live Arcade and she played it through. It had a good personality and was easy enough for her to finish. (And we play the Lego games together.)

Can you recommend other Platform games for the Xbox 360 for her? Cloning Clyde and the Lego games are the right difficulty. Braid is too hard / complex. And Lego Batman doesn't count because we'll buy that to play together soon

Thanks!

 

[hodedofome]

I've heard Bioshock is a good game for women

 

[Morgan Jolley]

If your wife wants a platformer, then the 360 is probably not the best place to look. I have heard raves about Braid, but I'm not sure how platformery it is.

 

[DaveF]

Braid is pretty neat, but we've looked into it and it's quite complex and requires some precise controls.

There may not be anymore platformers that she would really enjoy. And even if we a Wii, I'm not sure she'd enjoy the older Mario games.

Right now, she's enjoying the demo for Feeding Frenzy, a simple little fish action game

Maybe we'll get that.

 

[Edwin-S]

Too bad you don't have a PS3. If you had a PS3 I would have recommended "Ratchet and Clank:Future Tools of Destruction" and the downloadable "Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty" minigame. Both of those were decent platform style games. Another one that looks promising is the upcoming "Little Big Planet". Unfortunately, it is PS3 only as well.

I haven't really seen a lot of platformers for the XBOX360 that catch the eye. The XBOX360 seems to focus on sports games and First Person Shooters. I'm thinking the Wii might be a better bet for platformers than either the PS3 or XBOX 360.

Have you tried XBOX Live Arcade? There seems to be a lot of older platform games such as Frogger, Sonic, etc., available on the service. Quite a few still get high ratings from users. RATATOUILLE may be one to check out; although, I'm not sure it is a platform game since I haven't tried it. I'm more of a mayhem and explosions guy.

Does she like "The Sims" style games? If she does then "Viva Pinata" may be one to rent and try out. It seems to get pretty good reviews from users.

Edit: I noticed that you do have XBOX Live. She may like the older SONIC THE HEDGEHOG game that is available on the service.
Changed the first line since it looked like a criticism of your choice of a 360. It wasn't. I own a 360 as well. Added a comment about the Wii.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Heck, you want platformers, just buy a PS2. There are about 1000 of 'em worth playing and they're probably all under $10 by now.

 

[DaveF]

We'll check out some of the classics. A friend has Viva Pinata, so I'll borrow that

 

[Jari K]

I guess Wii would be a pretty good choice for platformers, since it also plays the old GameCube-titles. I just got e.g. "Wario Land: The Shake Dimension" for Wii (which is great, old-school 2D platformer), and "Super Mario Galaxy" (3D) and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (includes also pretty good side-scrolling "adventure mode") are also highly recommended. Their "virtual console" have also several older ones (some reaaaal old, retro stuff).

PS3 has also some good ones (HUGE "LittleBigPlanet" coming very soon), but I guess Xbox 360 is taking the "third place" when it comes to platformers ("Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" is coming soon, though. It looks great and it´s "Xbox 360 exclusive"). Both PS3 and Xbox 360 has "Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)" and the upcoming "Sonic Unleashed".

Is "Kameo: Elements of Power" (Xbox 360) also a platformer? Not sure...

 

[Jari K]

I probably would recommend the recent "sequel" - "Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise". It´s basically the same (well, very very similar) game as the original, but has some improved tweaks/additions. Pretty good game, but obviously it will take some time to learn the ropes. It´s really not the game for the people looking for quick "smash-shoot-jump"-type of action.

 

[DaveF]

Wii & PS3 games aren't options, since I only have the 360

I'm borrowing Kameo; probably not my wife's cup of tea as it has too many button combos. Something simpler is required.

I'm not sure which Viva game my friend has.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Banjo-Kazooie (the N64 one) is going to be on XBLA just before the release of the new BK: Nuts and Bolts. I think Banjo-Tooie is going to be on XBLA some time soon after that.

 

[DaveF]

I'll keep on eye out for it. I never played it on the N64.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I heard that 2006 Sonic game was pretty awful. Haven't tried it myself, though.

 

[DaveF]

How's Katamari Damacy? Is it fun for the casual gamer? Or does it require high-finesse controlling and lots of practice?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

No, Katamari is pretty easy. But be careful -- the opening animation is mesmerizing and will warp your brain before you realize what's happening!

I can't even describe it. But it's probably on YouTube somewhere.

EDIT: Yup. Don't say I didn't warn you!!!

 

[DaveF]

Nice! Beautiful Katamari is the one on the 360, I think. I'll make a note for the holidays

 

[JoeyR]

Hey Dave how bout worms? Also Monopoly comes out next week and Scene It 2 the week after(I know these are not really platformers)

but these are
Castle Crashers
1942:Joint Strike
Castlevania
Contra
Double Dragon

check the list out here

Xbox.com | Xbox LIVE Arcade - Xbox LIVE Arcade on Xbox 360

 

[Morgan Jolley]

While that is a good list of games, I'm not sure that's what a wife would be looking for. I mean, those are mostly old-school shooters more than platformers, with the exception of Castlevania. Besides, you don't spend $300 on a videogame console to download remakes of 20 year old games.

 

[DaveF]

Worms could be fun for us. I hate Monopoly so I don't want to suggest that

Alas, the old skool platformers are not her speed.

And I echo Morgan's sentiments: I've found that my childhood favorites are best left to fond memories. Even more recent games from the N64 generally feel too dated compared to the current games. (Even the tour de force Jet Force Gemini is hard to get into after playing HL2 and Bioshock.)