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Best of 2010 (Top 5):
Fault Line is a clever puzzle platformer that will have you creasing the fabric of the universe with every move. Each level brings a different challenge to the table, requiring you to push your mental folds in a new way. And if you find yourself stuck on a level, simply grab the nearest sheet of paper and experiment. (Just don't try to detach your arms.)
Do you have enough achievements? TRICK QUESTION! As we all know, there is no such though as "enough" achievements! So strap on your pachyderm pants one more time in this follow up to 2008's hit platform/puzzle/whatisthisIdon'teven achievement-fest from John Cooney. And then when you're done, try it with friends in the co-op mode.
Today we launched a new banner game for the site, created by Mike Hommel of Hamumu Software. Mike is the author of the entire Robot Wants series of games, and this game plays very similarly to those. The objective is to light all the letters of the Casual Gameplay logo, as well as find all the JIGman bits scattered around the game. Sign in with a Casual Gameplay account and collect all the letters and JIGman bits to get your name added to the Hall of Fame!
Help a little robot get his life together in this melancholic Metroidvania platformer from Tony (Antony Lavelle) of Armor Games. Explore an ominous facility under the purview of your disappointed computer mother, gathering upgrades and fighting fellow robots. Worth the initial weirdness for a quiet gem of an experience with a surprising amount of depth in its simple design.
Ever wanted to play Super Mario Bros. with different characters? Super Mario Bros. Crossover is just that! The original NES game is here with a handful of playable NES characters. Charge through stages with Mega Man, play as Samus from Metroid, Simon from Castlevania, or even Link from the original Legend of Zelda game. It's a simple idea that's remarkably well-executed and worth playing for the nostalgia alone!
Game of the week
Oh yeah! Fault Line won! I thought it might not even make the top 3... congrats to Nitrome on an awesomely innovative game. Champagne all round!
I loved Achievement Unlocked 2 AND K.O.L.M., glad to see both made it to the top 5!
There is no way everyone is going to be satisfied by this ranking but that was expected really. This was just a fantastic fantastic year for platform games. I would have personally liked to have had enough plumbers on here but i liked all of these games almost as much as I liked that one.
Also, kudos to nirome for fault line. They found a balance of fun and difficulty in that one.
YEAH NITROME!!!
Wow, I completely disagree with what was chosen in here. Pretty absurd "Give up, Robot 2" and "Enough Plumbers" aren't even in the top 5, while games which offer no challenge at all are all featured in here. Games like "Vertigo: Gravity Llama", "Sarah's run", "Towards the light" and "As I Lay Dying!" weren't even nominated.
"Fault Line" is an interesting idea definitely, but lacks some polishness: it's possible to get stuck in some levels, it's annoying to get some links connected (when you are testing out; the ones you need in the standard path are easily reachable) and also the scoring is pretty unpratical since if I just want to switch off my pc I should start from the very start again to get a decent highscore. "KOLM" is really cute looking but adds really nothing to the genre, "Super Mario Crossover" is too slow for today's standards and it's too much of a ripoff to not be noticeable. "Robot wants JIG" offers some really cute twist, but it's debatable if it's the best of the series (it had to compete with 4 more this year). "Achievements Unlocked 2" is more of a parody and the controls aren't so responsive (which is since the target was more puzzle than platform inclined).
At least it really shows this wonderful category has some awesome competition.
@Danaroth: The nominations only included games that were reviewed in 2010. Sarah's Run wasn't reviewed until 2011, so it'll probably be on the next one. And has JIG even reviewed Vertigo: Gravity Llama?
I agree about the Robot Wants choice though. The banner game was great fun and is one of my favorites, but I hesitate to call it the best of the series. Why were only the most recent two nominated anyway? All of them were from 2010.
Thanks for the clarification Isi; a suggestion for next year could be to separate puzzle platformers and pure platformers (based on more fine jumping and/or exploration), even if I can understand some games could fit in both quite well.
I saw that the puzzle category has already been separated in many subgenres, which makes the JIG audience have many more suggested games. Something similar for the platform genre which has many hidden gems would be a good addition.
Woah. The banner Robot Wants game was the #3 best browser platformer this year?
Bluh? What?
I mean, Robot Wants Banner was entertaining, and polished, no denying. But to look at all of the amazing flash platformers we had last year, and claim that it was one of the [i]three best[/i]? In [i]2010[/i]?
No major complaints elsewhere.
I wouldn't give Fault Line #1 personally, but it's undeniably earned a place in the top list, so it's all good. I always saw Achievement Unlocked and its sequel as falling in a different category than Platformer, but that's all semantics and it was certainly a great whatever-it-was.
Happy to see SMBC and KOLM in here, definitely! They're #5 and #6 in my personal top-10 list for 2010.
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