This thread reminds me that Revenge of Shinobi is methodical as heck. You’re a big sprite whose movement speed can only be described as a saunter. You have a limited amount of kunai you can throw so each attack counts. It even has the type of double jump that requires you to hit jump at the peak of your arc. Once you get into it, it feels like each button press matters. It’s so cool.
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Hook (SNES) - Ukiyotei, 1992
mmm, truly mild 
Sorry but this thread wasn’t s l o w enough for me
Also expect nothing less from the makers of punky skunk
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I’m not sure why but I feel like say, Psycho Dream doesn’t fit.
On paper it’s a non-manic side-scrolling action game, but it feels more like a Run 'N Gun with melee. Likewise stuff more obviously projectile-based like Rolling Thunder, the Shinobi arcade games (Run 'N Guns with Fatal Fury planeswitching), Robocop. Demon’s Crest is, again, on paper, essentially slow goth Megaman (and what is G’n’G if not a Run 'N Gun); but it is maybe the purest example in my head even though I have bored and quit every playthrough.
I think the very similar Valis games fit by all counts, prob. But I don’t really care about them perhaps there is a reason
I think the heart of whatever these types of games I think about the most lies somewhere in the miasma between Makaimura, CV RoB/X68k, Genesis Shinobi 1/3. I almost called this thread “Serious Platformers” and would have included more manic stuff like Hagane, Run Saber, Osman, Madstalker, but I think there’s a value is remembering or discovering the mild stuff. But even then Madstalker is really just a single-plane Beat 'Em Up / Kung-Fu-alike like SNES Ninja Warriors etc.
Majuu Ou seems like the perfect weirdo very good but not quite right edge case.
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Kishin Dōji ZENKI: Battle Raiden (SNES) - CA Production, 1995
I haven’t played this one yet so not sure how I feel about it but it’s been on my list.
I almost posted this exact game but instead chose to post Hook, goes to show you how much I understand this thread
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Hook is a good example I think.
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Does Lost Vikings fit? (And American 2d platformers in general, like Duke Nukem I, Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle?)
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Another one from our friends at ukiyotei. Starts off looking like a beat-em-up but the rest is stages with lots of spaced out platforms, verticality, wall jumps & slides, spike pits…again the key factor is the slowness.
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I never really got into it due to being impatient, is Slain! much cop? Edit: I’m not sure why I called it ‘Slain!’ but it’s sticking.
Man this really was the Default for licensed property titles huh
Interesting. I’ve never played past the first stage of this game, will need to give a shot.
I didn’t realize these are the guys who did Skyblazer, hmm. And a number of the dudes went on to do the NGPC Metal Slug games.
I think there’s probably all kinds of western platformish earlier PC stuff that one could accurately describe as slow or plodding or methodical but I think a lot of it has to be due to technical limitations rather than design decisions and intent this+that yadda yadda but you know what I mean?
Like a whole gigantic swarm of edutainment stuff and math platformers Gizmos & Gadgets and Treasure Mountains and things.
Lost Vikings is an interesting example. There’s probably a number of slowish puzzle platformers, but in general a different thing I think.
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I was excited for Slain as a game in this vein. I have read mostly negative stuff about it though.
We’re probably in the middle of a high-tide for these things, with the Souls + vania DNA strains so thick in the air. Salt & Sanctuary, regrettably-hyperviolent upcoming Blasphemous, etc.
There’s probably some good moments to be had in abandoned Castlevania fan games. And then there’s the whole romhack scene. The guy who did the Lecarde Chronicles 2 has some other back catalog stuff. There’s other peoples’ stuff like Serio’s Castlevania fighter, Chronicles Dracula’s Curse, CV: Bloodletting - don’t know how obtainable/playable they are currently.
Rise, warrior! If I ever do a speedrun of anything it’s going to be Völgarr The Viking. That game is just so sick
Rusty (PC-98) - C-lab., 1993
Totsugeki! Mix (PC-98) - C-lab, 1994
home computer jank + mid 90s japan refinement
Master of Darkness (Master System) - SIMS, 1992
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Something about having to stop in your tracks and wait for auto-aim (or in taromaru, move around a little reticule) makes these extra slow and methodical.
Alisia Dragoon (MD) - Game Arts, 1992
Silhouette Mirage (SS) - Treasure, 1997
Shinrei Jusatsushi Taromaru (SS) - Time Warner Interactive, 1997
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Number of these dudes also apparently worked on Chippoke Ralph no Daibōken
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