10) Aero the Acro-bat - SNES/Genesis
Released in 1993, Aero the Acro-bat was one of the many anthropomorphic mascots that followed the wake of Sonic's success. Despite what you may think, Aero was actually pretty cool! No really! He's a bat, that works as an acrobat! How is that not awesome!?
It helped the the plot was simple (save the circus), the levels were absolutely massive and well-designed, taking full advantage of tight platforming controls. Aero has some success with a sequel and a spin-off (Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel). These days, Aero is available on the Virtual Console but is otherwise forgotten in the dustbin of 90's platformers.
9) Pandemonium - Playstation 1
Pandemonium was a cool platformer with a strange, Medieval dream-world type of aesthetic to it that also gained good marks from critics of the time for the top-notch character design of the two leads. In fact, the game was a bit of a hit and warranted a sequel that resulted in....
.....a 90's makeover!
The whole sequel suffered from a horrible case of "Trying-to-hard-itis". Which is a shame, as the first game is really good and worth your time to hunt down for a snapshot of platforming at the dawn of the CD era.
8) Chuck Rock - Genesis
EXTREEEEME CAAAAVVVEEEEMANNNN!!!!!
If you remembered Chuck Rock, and the sequel, Chuck Rock 2: Son of Chuck before reading this, then congratulations, you've made the same sort of poor life choices as I have. Chuck Rock is a perfectly competent platformer that features dinosaurs offering their assistance to Chuck as he rescues his girl from evil caveman Gary Gritter. While you can't tell from this cover art, Chuck Rock was a rock'n'roll caveman with ATTITUDE. So much attitude, that he actually became a company mascot!
What company? Well maybe you've heard of Core Design. No? Well then I'm sure you heard of the mascot that replaced Chuck, a British character by the name of Lara Croft.
7) Radical Rex - SNES
What better way to follow up a caveman with attitude, then with a DINOSAUR THAT LOVES TO SHRED!? Can you feel the focus group testing that resulted in Radical Rex? Are you snickering a little that this was published by Activision? Yeah, they made some poor choices in life before Call of Duty helped make them a very, very rich company.
As with most video game dinosaurs, Rex can not only shred but he also breathes fire. I'm okay with a skateboarding, radical T-Rex but breathing fire? That is just too far. I question the level of research that went into designing this game.
As always, for the rest of the list, hit the jump and make sure to bust out a 720 while you do it!
