Platformer Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPad App: Paper Monsters

by Mike Schramm (Jan 31st, 2012)

I've found that iOS isn't the best platform (so to speak) for platformers. I love games like Mario and Sonic, where you drive a little character around, jumping between platforms and collecting goodies. The lack of physical buttons on Apple's touch screens (and let's face it: cheaper production ...

Daily iPad App: Run Roo Run HD

by Mike Schramm (Jan 17th, 2012)

5th Cell is the developer behind the very popular Scribblenauts (which was released on iOS to great acclaim last year, and just had a new level pack update), and it recently brought a new title to the App Store called Run Roo Run. 2D platforming is a genre that's almost as old as videogames ...

Daily iPad App: Super Crate Box

by Mike Schramm (Jan 6th, 2012)

Super Crate Box appeared on iOS today (even though it's already packed with players), and I'm willing to say that it's the first great game of 2012. Especially on the iPad, where the virtual controls are a little bigger and the graphics are a little easier to see, this is a really slick and ...

Daily iPhone App: Inertia: Escape Velocity HD

by Mike Schramm (Dec 13th, 2011)

Inertia is a really amazing platformer for the iPhone that uses a mechanic I haven't seen in any game in recent memory. It's a platformer, so you control a little spaceman that can walk left and right and jump from platform to platform. But Intertia adds another button that essentially will ...

Trine 2 will be available for Mac on Dec. 7

by Mike Schramm (Dec 6th, 2011)

Puzzle-based action/platformer Trine 2 is coming out this week, and developer Frozenbyte has announced that the Mac version will drop alongside the Windows version on Steam. If you want to get a copy outside of the Steam system, you'll have to wait until sometime next year, but even with the ...

Daily iPhone App: GoatUp

by Mike Schramm (Sep 22nd, 2011)

GoatUp is a surreal game made by Jeff Minter, the game developer behind Xbox Live's Space Giraffe and a number of other colorful (and often abstract) retro games over the years. GoatUp has you, as a goat, jumping up a series of platforms while eating grass and collecting various items. The ...

Daily iPhone App: Roboto

by Mike Schramm (Aug 19th, 2011)

Roboto is a solid platformer for iOS that features you controlling a little robot around a series of levels, 30 in all. Gameplay is pretty strictly action/exploration based, very much in the vein of Super Mario Bros., though the robot has a few extra movies that Mario didn't have. Specifically, ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Continuity 2

by Mike Schramm (Aug 2nd, 2011)

Continuity 2 is another fun puzzle/platformer that the iPhone has inherited from Flash -- the original title also had you sliding various parts of puzzles around in order to get a little stick figure from one side of the level to the other. But Continuity 2 ups the ante, introducing new ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Blobster

by Mike Schramm (Jul 22nd, 2011)

I got to see Blobster in action earlier this year at both GDC and E3, and both times it impressed me with its wacky premise and followthrough. It's a platformer, but unlike any you've ever played before. Instead of jumping around, you're instead flinging a little blob of goo around, pushing him ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: To-Fu: The Trials of Chi

by Mike Schramm (Jul 19th, 2011)

This is a good one. To-Fu: The Trials of Chi is what's probably best described as a physics platformer, where you play, yes, a little piece of tofu. This To-Fu is much spicier than the actual thing, however -- you tap and drag on him to jump around a series of levels, and his jumps always go ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty

by Mike Schramm (Jul 15th, 2011)

The new Captain America movie is scheduled to hit theaters next week and in advance of the film, Disney and Marvel have released a brand new game based on the superhero himself. And the good news is, it's not bad. Movie tie-ins have a history of mediocrity, but Captain America actually tries ...

TUAW's Daily iOS App: Piclings

by Mike Schramm (May 16th, 2011)

Piclings is an interesting one. It's a platformer, which means you guide a little character named Picazzo around a series of levels, picking up various coins and power-ups. It's cute enough, but the real draw is that Piclings lets you create your own levels by taking a picture with your ...

TUAW's Daily App: Land-a Panda

by Mike Schramm (Mar 21st, 2011)

Land-a Panda has been tearing up the App Store charts lately, and for good reason. It's a fun mix of platformer and physics puzzler that has you catapulting a panda through a series of levels in order to try and get him to his beloved mate. There's even a little Cut the Rope influence here. ...

Lemmings-like Spirits for iPad out now

by Mike Schramm (Nov 13th, 2010)

Spirits for iPad, which I saw and played back at Indiecade this year, is out now on the App Store. The game is US$4.99, but as a premium iPad experience, it's worth it. The whole thing is extremely relaxing, and the art style is quite well done. If you enjoy Lemmings-style puzzle gameplay where ...

GDC Online 2010: Moon'd hands-on

by Mike Schramm (Oct 10th, 2010)

On the last day of GDC this week, I heard from developer Anthony LaMantia, who had a new game named Moon'd that he wanted to show me. We met up in the lobby of the Austin Convention Center, and I got to play around for a bit with his game, a platformer with a strange twist. Instead of playing as a ...