Ever since A Boy and His Blob was released for Wii, I've had my eye on Wayforward's games. I love their art direction and talent for classic platforming formulas. In my mind, they can do no wrong. I just wondered if I'm exaggerating by dubbing Wayforward, "The King of Platformers..." What do you think? Is there another developer (besides Nintendo) that rivals Wayforward in delivering that good, solid platforming experience?

Yes you are probably exaggerating. Between Nintendo's 1st party offerings and countless indie devs, they have tough competition to say the very least.

What competition? I need names, sir.

Ubisoft with Rayman is a hard act to beat imo.

I agree. Origins was spectacular, and if the Legends demo is anything to go by, it will be a masterpiece.

Yes, yes... I agree. The handheld version of Origins was sorta weak though, IMO.

@NImH - I played the Wii version of Origins. I did try the 3DS demo, and I liked the Wii version better.

I actually liked namco's klonoa on wii better than nintendo's own platform games.

I liked it too... a couple months back, Morgan reviewed an old GBA Klonoa game and gave it a 9! Who are the dev team behind that? Is it just Namco's in-house team?

All I know is its from Namco not sure of the specific team that works on them, the GBA games where great games too very puzzle heavy and pretty challenging from what I remember, apparently they where going to bring Klonoa 2 to wii as well if the first sold well enough, as it never made it to wii I guess the first didn't sell too well sadly.

While I don't think they can be called the King of Platformers, mostly because of stiff competition like Nintendo, Ubisoft, and also arguably Sega with the recent Sonic games, I will say that each of their games does have a fair amount of quality to them. So while they might not be the undisputed champs of platformers, they're at least a damned fine developer that makes some pretty special games.

No way. Please expand your horizons beyond Nintendo.

Again, I require more information than "flat opinion + do this." What games am (obviously) I missing out on?

I find myself gravitating to just about anything Wayforward releases. They obviously did a good job with Blob, but lost in a year of Batman Arkham Asylum was Brave and the Bold. I thought this was a fine platformer especially when you considered it was a licensed game. It reminded me a lot of what Capcom used to do with their licensed games (Ducktales). Wayforward puts out good quality titles. In fact the first game I plan to download on eShop for the Wii U is Mighty Switchforce HD.

I don't know if they're currently the best out there (covering games from all platforms), but when it comes to Nintendo's download services, they're certainly in the running for top spot (their only real competitor in the eShop space is all the great indie games Nicalis keeps publishing, like VVVVVV, Cave Story, & NightSky).

I'd personally put Nicalis ahead currently (as they've been releasing great eShop games at a quicker pace), but MSF! is still a fine game nonetheless, & I can't wait to see what kind of fight Shantae: Pirate's Curse & Shantae (VC) bring to the table.

Wayforward is good, but they are definitely not the king of platforming.

Cave Story is definitely in my Desert Island 5! Nicalis is a publisher though, right? They aren't actually developing all the games. Nightsky is developed by another company. Nicalis was supposed to put out La Mulana, but failed, and it was put out by EnjoyUp.
But yeah, Nicalis (or rather Pixel) is a bonafide Artist.

The best 2D platformer I've played in recent years would definitely have to be Donkey Kong Country Returns, but besides from that I'd have to say Mighty Switch Force! is close to my favourite that I've played in quite a while.
Certainly better than the New Super Mario Bros. games and the fairly average Rayman Origins.

I wouldn't call them the "King of Platformers' but They're awesome good in my book.

On the 3DS eShop, yes (no, Nicalis doesn't count. The only thing they do is port, port, port). Maybe even the 3DS.

But yeah, outside of that, expand your horizon.