Go Penguin WIP platformer for MSX 1

Its not about making the controls like games we always like to talk about. Its about making the controls in a way that it feels great. If controls feel stiff the game feels stiff. Falling with 16 px per second directly after stepping of a platform feels nowhere like fun. It should feel natural and controllable. Good player physics are a horror to code and usually avoided. However very good player physics make the game feel great. But most important is that the player physics match the game. Do not copy them from another game otherwise you end up with a clone of that game. Just add the things you like and code the rules along the way. Eventually it will feel smooth.

Also keep in mind that complex physics take cpu cycles. Sometime many of them so its always a compromise.

yeah you mean the slipery sliding when landing? Yes I hate that too. A very veeery subtle slide is ok but making the character feel like its on ice is annoying.

I have serious problems with spinning characters. I like responsiveness myself. Never liked the ice-stage in wonderboy, where this (naturally) is pretty extreme https://youtu.be/amRwK_KGj8c?t=1464

For a lot of platformers, stuff like Spelunker, Montezuma's Revenge, even La-Mulana, precision controls without the player being a physics object is great, but moving a big Mario around the screen so carefully and taking into account his intertia to do so is just a great feeling as well, but typically the level design is a bit simpler to accommodate this, unless you're playing Mario Maker levels, in which case, all the rules get thrown out

I think for platformers it is probably 50/50 (the games using complex vs simple physics).
It is definitely a matter of taste which you prefer, and I agree gameplay is quite different.
I grew up playing Wonderboy so it feels better when movement has inertia, but note that you can also move mid-air which is not real but gives you more control e.g. when you didn't measure your jump quite right, allowing you to survive if you react quickly.

For shoot'em ups, OTOH, it is probably 1/99, or even less. Actually, the only shmup that comes to mind right now with complex physics is Exerion, and it doesn't play wrong at all if you ask me. I think because you can move the ship in any direction (as opposed to platformers which are mostly 2d and movement is only left-right) it is that the difference in gameplay becomes more evident. So for shmups I think I prefer simple movement.