Good, easy, free PC platformers?

[SamIAm]

Hi everyone. I've recently introduced one of my friends to video games via Knytt Stories. She had never played a proper game before, but she loved the Knytt series so much that she played every main game in it and found all the secrets within a 2 weeks. She asked me for another recommendation, but she doesn't have any hardware other than a vanilla PC laptop. I don't know what the CPU is, but I'm guessing it's around 1.5 GHz.

Simple and charming is what I'm looking for, and primarily platformers. I'm thinking that the first Sonic the Hedgehog game via emulation would be nice. I'm really unaware of what else is available on PC, though. Does anyone know of any good-quality beginner-friendly freeware games? In the end, I suppose any genre is OK. Thanks!

PS: No lolis

[linko9]

Not "beginner friendly," I suppose, but definitely check out the jumper games and Flail, or for something easier, An Untitled Story (a metroid-esque platformer), all by the same guy.

http://mattmakesgames.com/games.php

[Obiwanshinobi]

http://www.eurogamer.net/forum_thread_p ... _id=120380

I say Cave Story first and foremost.
As for the emulation: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PSX), Rocket Knight Adventures (MD/Genesis), Monster World IV (Japanese MD only, but there is a translation patch)... Especially Klonoa should be easy to get into.

[szycag]

Spelunky is tough but still addictive if you try to see how far you can get.

[Drum]

I couldn't recommend Spelunky to a new player - in addition to being tough and unforgiving, it has pretty complex controls. Amazing game though.

In terms of indie freeware platformers, give Seiklus a try http://www.autofish.net/clysm/art/video_games/seiklus/ . It was the partial inspiration for Knytt. Also consider: A Game With a Kitty http://www.origamihero.com/games.php , Lyle's Adventures in Cube Sector http://www.sitesled.com/members/bogo/lyle.html .
Not exactly cute but I really like it: http://db.tigsource.com/games/bloody-zombies
Dino Run is rad: http://www.pixeljam.com/dinorun/
Going into other genres, Samorost and Samorost 2/Machinarium http://www.amanita-design.net/samorost-1/ are cool point-and-click puzzlers. Machinarium and Samorost 2 aren't freeware though. She might also like Windowsill from Vectorpark, which is also payware but cheap and like Samorost 2 has a generous free demo http://windosill.com/ .
Also definitely try Gesundheit http://www.matthammill.com/index.php/category/games/ . Only a demo as it's still in development, but it is cute, funny and simple with great graphics and music.

As for Emulation, try Kirby's Dreamland 3 for SNES. Awesome, fairly simple game with beautiful graphics/music and squeeeeee coming out its pores. As you say, the Sonics are a good bet.

[BryanM]

Super Mario World is trivially easy.

But not so easy my niece could not beat one level of it when she was six. Have any of you played that thing in two player, where you beat every single level including all the bonus exits, all by yourself, in one sitting? And then the kid STILL wants to keep playing?!

[Ed Oscuro]

I couldn't recommend Spelunky to a new player - in addition to being tough and unforgiving, it has pretty complex controls.

Spelunky has fairly easy controls, and playing it will help anybody step up their game a bit. The main thing is that a lot of the deaths are seemingly random, as there are places where you need to be really well-versed in the traps and signs of trickery before going around (a good example is any dark stage).

The controls - well, there are a few buttons and combinations, but it wasn't really more complicated than many other platformers. More complicated than a Castlevania or Klonoa, sure; that doesn't take much!

[Square King]

Keeping on the Nifflas tip -- Within a Deep Forest if she hasn't played it already. Simple and charming, but a bit more action-oriented than Knytt Stories. Leveling/upgrading is super fun and, of course, the music is sublime.

There's also the original Knytt (again, if she hasn't played it yet), which is a good bit bigger than Stories.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Theres that freeware sonic fangame thats many ppl prefer to the real sonic 4, it isnt finished yet but theres 1 or 2 worlds thats fully playable. EDIT (dunno if her pc is powerfull to run it though)

Konjak is one of my favorite platformer devs all of his games are great even noitu love 2 that is played with the keyboard and mouse is really fun to play and this is coming from someone who usually hates mouse controlled action games, I think it's getting a wii port. He might be a treasure fan as he sure likes his boss fights. Noutu love 1 uses the keyboard so he'll have to use xpadder to use a pad but many freeware games are like this. Its a good place to start with his games, lots of fun, its easy-medium if you know how to kill the bosses (theres LP vids out there if he gets stuck). http://www.konjak.org/

Im playing the freeware gun girl 2 atm, Im really having alot of fun blasting zombies and while its not total noob friendly It isnt too bad if you keep your gun powered up (its uses the same system as cave story,) use youre shield, and dont hang around the zombie spawning areas. The dev is posting a UT developer commetry vid series atm which will show her how to play the game properlly It might help your friend skill up if she totally sucks. EDIT She could even put loads of exp points into shield regen and auto shield (i dont know if you can max it out at 100% though)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlWv5y2_1aA

Mighty Jill Off is quite easy, Give up robot 1 is easy right up to the last level lv50, Star Guard is a great run and gunner (easy-medium).

Imo flash games (like Dont Look Back) tend to be the best place to look for piss easy platformers

EDIT If she likes sonic she should love runman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOBFv0doiFw I havnt played it yet but it looks easy enough

[JGcontraman]

I recommend Genesis or NES platformers. They may not be easy but you'll work your way around the difficulty. Also they are classic. Theres some SNES ones too but the selection isn't as broad as the Genesis or the NES.

[SamIAm]

Many thanks to all for the replies. By all means, keep them coming.

My favorite so far is Runman. Coming off of Knytt, I think it will be an excellent choice to get her into some heavier, time-sensitive action gaming. Plus, she's half-Japanese half-American, and as her (American-born) English teacher as well as friend, I am delighted by the idea of having her play this game to its authentic bluegrass/blues/jazz/folk soundtrack. I just hope her computer runs it OK; my 1.8GHz machine gets weird input lag and chugs sometimes.

Maybe after this, I'll suggest cave story. Monster World IV looks really good, too.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Monsterworld IV thats the one with the girl right? I havnt played it yet, one of my favorite games is Wonder Boy in Monster World aka MW 5 on the megadrive. Dragons Trap for master system and TG16 / PCE is a corker aswell. Does anyone now of any newer clones that are great to play?

EDIT Whilst i still recommend noitu love you might wanna put her onto this website http://www.idealsoftblog.it/ this is his YT page http://www.youtube.com/user/idealsoft2008 He tends to like games that are a bit on the easy / casual side which she might prefer. I like to check his site out now and again as he plays alot of varied games and can put me onto something really intresting like the Beats of Rage / OpenBOR (mugen of beat em ups).

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm, nobody mentioned Captain Comic yet?

Alright, so it's not the easiest game to get into...but it's definitely a "classic" in early PC platformers. One of the first actually.

On that note, some of Apogee's back catalog might be worth looking at: Halloween Harry, Monster Bash, Bio Menace, to mention some of the less obvious ones. There's also the Nukem games and Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement...not to be confused with Core (Tomb Raider) Design's Rick Dangerous, itself not to be confused with an old Spectrum game called Dynamite Dan...

Years ago I somewhat enjoyed the shareware episode of Xargon (from Epic Games) some years back...surprise, haven't played Jill of the Jungle yet. I hunted down the third episode of Xargon a year or two ago and played it; it was disappointing.

It's a good thing that PC design ideas have continued to move on - a lot of these old games suffer from being too bare-bones and basically are the 2D equivalents of a modern stripped-down western action game, i.e. it tells a story and then you're done. Highscores aren't much incentive to replay many of these.

[Square King]

On the recently tipped Flash tip: Endeavor. A little Knytty, a little Metroidy.

http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2010/12/ ... r_zil.html

[Ruldra]

Have you tried the Karoshi series? They're platformers with puzzle elements. The goal is to kill yourself (not as easy as you'd think). Karoshi 2.0 is the best one of the series, you should play that first.

Also, Portal: The Flash Version. Almost as good as the original.

Also, Mirror's Edge 2D.

[null1024]

Sonic CD is a lot easier than Sonic 1 [if you're not going for the good ending], so you might want to give that a shot [at least IMHO, although that's only because I haven't ever beaten Labyrinth Zone's boss [I keep drowning ;_;]].

Also, every Mario game that isn't Lost Levels.

[Ebbo]

Enough Plumbers

A really good puzzle-platformer where you've to create clones of your character in order to clear the levels. Great music and level design, and the voice acting always brings the most stupid grin on my face.

[Ruldra]

Ebbo reminded me of Chronotron, a very interesting puzzle-platformer flash game. You go back in time and use your past self to solve puzzles.