The Tom's Hardware Steam Giveaway for 'Owlboy'

[Jsimenhoff]

General Info on How To Enter

Spoiler

• 
  ■ These giveaways now span 2 full weeks instead of 1. This means there's more time for you to enter!
  ■ There are now two ways to enter to win! Each person can only win once.
  • 
    1. Enter the raffle via the gleam widget. All we ask for there is a name and a contact email. There will only ever be 1 copy of the game up for grabs with this method.
    
    2. Take part in the discussion in this thread! A discussion prompt will be provided each time. Just answer the prompt to be eligible to win! Eligible participants will be randomly selected to receive a copy of the game.

[widget="https://gleam.io/RtdIV/toms-hardware-steam-giveaway-owlboy", 600][/widget]

Welcome to another exciting Tom's Hardware Steam giveaway! We have three copies of Owlboy up for grabs this time. Owlboy is the critically acclaimed platformer from upstart indie developer D-Pad Studio. After a long 9 years of development the game is finally out in the wild. If you're a fan of classic SNES and Sega Genesis Metroidvania style games, you'll be sure to love this gem.

And now, for the discussion prompt:

What is your favorite classic platformer from the 16-bit and 8-bit eras? What makes this platformer so special to you? Was it the art? The story? The characters? The world?

The Steam Giveaway will run until 12 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 7th. The game will be awarded to the winners as a Steam gift. A Steam account is required to receive the prize and play the game.

 

[bobmanuk]

the best classic platformer was always sonic 1 or 2 on the sega mega drive.

It wasnt my first console every but it was the one that got me into gaming, the music was brilliant, the levels were challenging enough for an 6-7 year old but not too difficult, except the last one... I still cannot finish either game)

 

[aquielisunari]

E.T. was the first game that I beat. I can still remember the music and some of the game. And the ship at the end, now that I think aboot it. I remember playing Pong with a circular controller. I could play Centipede and Space Invaders, with the classic 1 red button joystick for hours on end. Soon It was the start of a life long addiction to gaming. A few years after E.T. bombed horribly Tetris was released. That game was a true addiction. I couldn't get enough.

I eventually fell in love with FF7(32 bit), Cloud and Aerith. I got to know the whole gang. Began to empathize with them. I was emotionally invested. I have since moved on from platform gaming. Unfortunately M$ still has yet to figure out how to properly build an OS and keep it running smooth (KB4015438?). That however isn't going to push me back to a platform.

 

[Crag_Hack]

Legend of Zelda! 8 or 16 bit right?

 

[Shinji10TH]

Super Metroid of course.

 

[jakjawagon]

Super Mario World. Nintendo at their best. There were some very well hidden secrets in that game.

 

[Pyrrhula]

Castlevania, who can say no to playing as a vampire hunter with a whip? Gameplay-wise the character moves slowly and cannot change direction in mid-air making for a tight and challenging platformer experience. Add to this a epic sountrack and you got an instant classic. This game alongside Metroid perfected the genre hence "Metroidvania".

 

[aquielisunari]

Castlevania, who can say no to playing as a vampire hunter with a whip? Gameplay-wise the character moves slowly and cannot change direction in mid-air making for a tight and challenging platformer experience. Add to this a epic sountrack and you got an instant classic. This game alongside Metroid perfected the genre hence "Metroidvania".

I loved that game as well. I spent $.99 on a phone call when I got stuck. These days we can head on over to Youtube or one of thousands of other sites when we get stuck in a game. Back in the day we didn't have all that.

 

[sku]

It will be Super Mario. Everything made it special.

 

[SinxarKnights]

What is your favorite classic platformer from the 16-bit and 8-bit eras? What makes this platformer so special to you? Was it the art? The story? The characters? The world?.

Ghost 'n' Goblins for the NES.

Took a while to find this, couldn't remember the name. When you get hit it knocks your armor off.

What made it so special to me? Art? Nope. Story? Nope. Characters? Nope. The world? Nope.

It was the first game I was able to speedrun. It is a long story but basically my dad was a total asshole. I had an hour to play this game before he got home, beat it in 45 minutes or so. It was a fairly easy game as I was about 10 at the time. The only other old game I recall speed running was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was so good at that game. Only takes an hour to beat if you do everything. Now that I am older and understand what min/max'ing a game is, I bet I could beat Zelda in like 30 - 40 mins.

 

[Craig234]

My clear favorite was "The Lost Vikings".

It had a lot of good qualities - the three character different skill design, the music, some humor - but the best thing about it was the best platformer gameplay I've seen.

Again and again they got it 'just right' on leves, between the puzzles and the playing need being satisfying but not too much.

I'm not that into platformers generally - I hate 'exact clicking needed' type games. And that one was great. The level design I'd give an award.

 

[Questcraft]

I spent so much time playing the Legend of Zelda, that it definitely is my favourite platformer of that era.

 

[Jeff Kaos]

Mine would probably be the "Super Star Wars" games on the Super NES. Mainly because there weren't any decent Star Wars games on the home consoles before those games came out. When I was in college those were the 3 games that made me hesitant to get rid of my 16 bit systems so I could upgrade to the Playstation.

 

[Aeacus]

My favorite platformer on NES and SNES is the Mega Man series. When to be exact then Mega Man 1 - 7 and Mega Man X1, X2 and X3.
The most i liked about it was the ability to select a level to do. If i got stuck, i could left it for time being and do another level to gain different ability. After new ability, i could go back to the level that i wasn't able to complete and complete it with the new ability.

If the PC also counts then Commander Keen series is my all time favorite platformer.
I really loved playing Commander Keen when i was a kid. It has great gameplay, cool enemies (that you can stun) and also nice story to follow.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

do Mario Bros & Zelda games actually count as platformers? i guess Adventures of Link & the early Mario games shared some of the platformer design but i never thought of them as Castelvania/Metroid genre games.

my favorite would have to be either Strider or Wizards & Warriors.
everything about them made them special at the time. Strider reminded of the Bladerunner-esque future soldier with a bleak future for humanity with some cool pixel-effects and music. Wizards & Warriors gave me another chance to be a fantastical warrior fighting off fantastical monsters but with some types of enemies and circumstances i wasn't used to in the gaming worlds at the time.

 

[fkafg22]

Castlevania

 

[matthew_nicho2]

For me it has to be Kid Chameleon. I could easily say Super Mario World is the best, as many are likely to do, but as a genesis kid Kid Chameleon is fantastic

I loved the power up system where you picked up different helmets that each gave you a different look, skill and stats. Some let you climb up things, throw axes, wield a samurai sword, hover, fly, ram enemies and blocks or just become a tank... that fires skulls! It was just cool.

Also the fact that there are multiple exits in most of the levels that either helped or hindered by sending you to bonus areas, skipping levels or send you back a few levels. One that got me ALOT sent me waaaaaay back when near the end; so annoying. But I always went back for more.

Great game!

 

[ultraglorious]

Another World. I really liked the world of the game, I particularly liked how mysterious it seemed.

 

[xonic]

What is your favorite classic platformer from the 16-bit and 8-bit eras?

Sounds like ancient technology... j/k I didn't play much console games in those eras. Was a pure PC gamer until PS3 era

 

[Maarsch]

Commander Keen

I'd love to say castlevania, but the port I had to PC didn't work properly. That looked good though.

 

[Valantar]

I didn't have many game consoles or games back in the day, but platformers were pretty much all I played. Little Samson on NES was my favourite by far, even though I could never come close to finishing it. Brutally difficult at times, yet accessible enough to keep me coming back for more. Oh, and gorgeous audiovisual design.

 

[brandonclone1]

This game has been on my Steam wishlist for a while, the last sale they had was from $25 to $22.49 haha I'll be patient

 

[artk2219]

the best classic platformer was always sonic 1 or 2 on the sega mega drive.

It wasnt my first console every but it was the one that got me into gaming, the music was brilliant, the levels were challenging enough for an 6-7 year old but not too difficult, except the last one... I still cannot finish either game)

Sonic 1 wasnt that hard to beat, but the death egg in Sonic 2. F*** that thing. When i was 10 i went into it with 26 lives and 6 continues. I lost. Every. Single. Time. I finally did beat it in college though, with the help of an emulator and save states .

 

[feelinfroggy777]

I was a big Mario fan, I loved Mario 3. I loved all of the secrets hidden in the game. If Adam and Eve were video game characters, they would have been Mario and Luigi.

 

[Hellfire13]

Mario and Bomberman, not sure if they count though. I had tons of fun as a kid playing for hours trying to beat the levels.