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Top 5 platformers for Xperia Play

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Top 5 platformers for Xperia Play
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We love dropping these top five lists on you. Why shouldn’t we? Every genre has its heroes, and as we’ve already seen, the Xperia Play has plenty of headline acts in the retro and racing fields.

Arguably, though, no gaming genre benefits more from the tactile controls of the Sony Ericsson handset than the good old-fashioned platformer. Precision and timing are the keys to victory in this category. After all, one misstep and it’s a tumble into oblivion. And nobody likes oblivion - it’s an awful place. With that in mind, here are the best platformers the PlayStation-certified Xperia Play has to offer.

Cordy - Review - Buy

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Cordy puts players in control of a cutesy robot with a television for a face and a mains plug for a tail. His world has run short of electricity, and he’s out to fix things by zipping around restoring power. SilverTree Media took a gamble by making this a platformer without enemies or fatal pitfalls. The risk pays off, since the focus switches to beating your previous time or collecting all the cogs in satisfying fashion.

Despite Cordy being a little on the short side, all of the bouncing around through colourful landscapes, solving puzzles, and executing perfect jumps is enjoyable while it lasts.

Muffin Knight - Review - Buy

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The first thing you should know about Muffin Knight is that it owes its entire design to Super Crate Box, the indie arcade platformer originally released for the PC and coming soon to iPad and iPhone. The second thing you should know about Muffin Knight is that its lead is a young lad who has to fend off a never-ending stream of animals within a confined space. All the while, you pick up muffins which magically transform you into another creature and force you to use a different weapon. It also features a levelling-up system, making each character - from angry bear to mine-pooping unicorn - that little bit more powerful after every session.

Roboto - Review - Buy

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The second robot protagonist of the day emerges in the form of Roboto, a perky android out to save his mechanical missus. Hey, it’s a platforming game: it’s not meant to be Shakespeare.

Roboto was already a decent run (well, hoverboard), jump, and shoot adventure on regular touchscreen handsets, so when it was optimised for the Xperia Play's controls, we couldn't help but break out a smile. You can hover from place to place or whoosh up walls while taking out the baddies and occasionally stumbling upon a boss battle.

Stardash - Review - Buy

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What list of platformers would be complete without an ultra-difficult old skool title? The complete antithesis of new-age accessible games like Cordy, Stardash makes absolutely no apologies for testing your extreme platforming chops. One touch of an enemy and you’ve had it. Die, and you go back to the start of the level. OrangePixel's 40 unforgiving levels of coin-collecting, piston-dodging lunacy are presented in a monochrome Game Boy-style and accompanied by the most authentic '90s chiptune heard in any game on the Android Market. If you’re after something with a little more bite to it, or if you simply want to put yourself through a gauntlet, Stardash is for you.

They Need To Be Fed - Buy

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Stylish and wacky, They Need To Be Fed almost doesn’t count as a platformer. It’s not recognisably jumpy in the same way as any of the others, but what it lacks in convention, it compensates for with quirkiness. The goal is simple - you have to navigate a series of small ‘planets’ and blocks, each with its own gravity, in an effort to get yourself eaten by a hungry creature at the end.

There’s plenty to obstruct you, including spikes, turning blocks, cannons, exploding platforms, lasers, and more. Meanwhile, there are over 80 levels to conquer, making it a much bigger game than its trendy appearance might otherwise suggest.

Brendan Caldwell
Brendan Caldwell
Brendan is a boy. Specifically, a boy who plays games. More specifically, a nice boy who plays many games. He often feels he should be doing something else. That's when the siren call of an indie gem haunts him. Who shall win this battle of wills? Answer: not Brendan.