With so many excellent platformers available on Switch, picking something out from the overwhelming selection can be hard. The platforming genre has a very strong pedigree on Nintendo systems going all the way back to the original Super Mario Bros. on NES. Over the years that followed other developers mastered the grammar laid down in that game and the genre ballooned, spawning countless side-scrolling jumpers and a tangled web of sub-genres. There are flavours to suit every conceivable 2D platforming taste and plenty of room for debate about how they should be categorised.
Earthblade is a 2D fantasy platformer in a seamless pixel art world and is the next release from the Celeste team, well it’s still is but likely will not be released in 2024 as Extremely OK Games’ head Maddy Thorson explains in an official blog post. Earthblade was first announced in April 2021 and then had its first trailer at The Game Awards in 2022. You are Névoa, an enigmatic child of Fate returning at long last to Earth, in this fantasy platformer. Earthblade’s lush pixel art world offers seamless exploration, challenging combat, and countless mysteries to pick apart. Celeste was an amazing game, so we know this will be too, we just will need to wait at least another year.
This is Indie Game Culture’s List of 10 Indie Games That Are a Nightmare to 100%.
Clare from GL writes: No game is perfect, no developer is perfect, and not every studio or every game is going to get the combination just right. But we can look to the likes of studios like Naughty Dog which have created groundbreaking accessibility options that allow even blind players to enjoy their game
If only Nintendo made more non-Mario 3D platformers as well