What were the first platformers to make good use of the Amiga?

[Pyromania]

Originally Posted by chip

Amiga platformers rulez !

[AestheticDebris]

Originally Posted by DisasterIncarna

what kind of platformer do you think qualifies in this case? stuff like rodland or just anything that kinda forces you to jump around on different levels/platforms rather than be more "on the rails" platforming while scrolling.

It's a tough one, I don't think I'd reatly consider Rodland to be a platformer, per se. I'd say there needs to be some element of challenge in negotiating the platforms for it to really count, but like I say these things aren't clear cut.

But if you consider Shadow of the Beast to be a platformer, then you have to start calling thing like Double Dragon a platformer for the same reason and that's basically ludicrous.

[dreadnought]

Agreed it can be a rabbit hole, similar to "but is it a RPG". Personally I just apply the platformer moniker to games where platform navigation and precision jumping is the main gameplay focus. The other games get "with platforming elements" treatment.

So Superfrog and James Pond are platformers, but SotB, Wolfchild, Turrican, Rodland count either as action-adventures, shooters, or puzzlers (bubblebobblers, ok) with platforming elements.

[Megalomaniac]

Defining genres can be tough, think about music, where R'n'B completely changed meaning, Old Town Road got onto the Country charts initially, AC/DC were described as heavy metal in their heyday but nobody sees them as such now, and nowadays you can add a rap to almost anything and not consider it a rap song.

As for games, ladders were a key element of platformers in their early days, so Rod-Land probably does count (though does the fact that it's you who's making some of the ladders disqualify it?). Amiga Action defined Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder as Arcade Adventure, whereas nobody would question whether they're RPGs today.

Games which combine genre elements can be tough to define too - some bits of Turrican are very platformy, others aren't, same goes for Wolfchild. In SOTB I'm struggling to think of any really platformy bits, its the least 'platform' of the games dreadnaught mentions IMHO.

[gimbal]

It's not tough if you don't purposely make it difficult with all kinds of arbitrary rules

[trixster]

How about Toki?

[TCD]

Originally Posted by gimbal

It's not tough if you don't purposely make it difficult with all kinds of arbitrary rules

The best way to 'define' a game is to list the elements that it contains. But even then people would argue in which order

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by gimbal

It's not tough if you don't purposely make it difficult with all kinds of arbitrary rules

Totally agree. I also think SotB is misunderstood, since it's simply a beat'em up.

[rothers]

Perhaps it should be the first GOOD platformer to use the Amiga hardware properly.

[Megalomaniac]

If Turrican doesn't count as a platformer, then Shadow of the Beast certainly can't. To me Chuck Rock just looks a bit too ST, and Toki's relatively small play area takes it out of the elite, so I'd say either Switchblade II or Robocod - perhaps the latter because its so consoley and cartoony, the kind of game that gives you a big . Put it this way, I'd certainly rather have Amiga Robocod and ST Switchblade II than vice versa. Weirdly, Enchanted Land is a dark horse if you can tolerate push-scrolling, despite originating on the ST its technical elements are easily Amiga-standard. Thalion were amazing ST coders.

Why do people think it took relatively long for the Amiga to get truly showcasing platfomers? The ST is a factor of course, but as mentioned we had great Amiga-dedicated shooters long before platformers. Have I overlooked any great early (or even 1990ish, which is still before my 16-bit time) Amiga platformers which aren't consolesque but still technically go beyond what the ST and 8-bits can do easily?