The 25 best platform games of all time

Before Astro Bot, Crash Bandicoot was the face of PlayStation, with those who remember the console wars genuinely arguing that the mad marsupial was better than Mario. Spoiler alert: as good as Crash Bandicoot 3 is, there’s no way it’s better than Mario 64.

But 30 years on from the release of Crash Bandicoot on PlayStation, no one can deny that Naughty Dog’s former mascot deserves his place in the pantheon of platforming greats. Even if his creators ditched him for Indiana Jones-style action heroes and a zombie apocalypse.

Crash is joined in our list of the best platform games of all time by Sonic, Rayman, Donkey Kong and plenty more of gaming’s greatest jumpers.

25. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Ubisoft

• Release date: November 2003
• Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
• Platforms: PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC

What is it: Prince of Persia made the leap from 2D to 3D with The Sands of Time, transforming the series into an acrobatic adventure built around running across walls, swinging from poles, vaulting over obstacles and avoiding elaborate death traps. The Prince’s biggest trick is the Dagger of Time, which lets you rewind your mistakes when an ambitious leap ends with a long fall and an undignified death.

Why we like it: Prince of Persia was fashionably late to the 3D platforming party. Mario, Sonic and Rayman had already made the leap, but The Sands of Time still managed to feel ahead of its time. Its palaces are enormous obstacle courses, with routes that initially seem impossible until you spot the sequence of ledges, poles and walls that’ll get you across.

The ability to rewind time was the masterstroke, encouraging you to take risks without making every mistimed jump a reason to throw the controller. More than 20 years later, its fluid parkour remains enormously influential – you can draw a pretty straight line from the Prince’s wall-running antics to Assassin’s Creed and countless other modern action games.

24. Cuphead

Studio MDHR

• Release date: September 2017
• Developer: Studio MDHR
• Platforms: Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4

What is it: Cuphead looks like a cartoon straight out of the 1930s, complete with hand-drawn animation, watercolor backgrounds and a swinging jazz soundtrack. After Cuphead and Mugman lose a bet with the Devil, they have to collect the souls of his other debtors, which mostly involves running, jumping and shooting their way through a succession of increasingly ridiculous boss battles.

Why we like it: Cuphead’s bosses are the real stars. From boxing frogs and dancing mermaids to a cigar-smoking mobster, every battle is packed with ideas, with bosses transforming, changing their attacks and finding increasingly imaginative ways to kill you. Shooting, jumping, dashing and parrying all have to become second nature just to keep up with everything happening on screen.

It’s brutally difficult and can feel outrageously unfair when you’ve died with the finish line in sight yet again. But every attempt teaches you a little more about what’s coming, and eventually a battle that once seemed impossible becomes one you can almost perform from memory. Seeing that KNOCKOUT! after a dozen failed attempts is a tremendous feeling – and then Cuphead sends you off to do it all over again.

23. Inside

Playdead

• Release date: June 2016
• Developer: Playdead
• Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS

What is it: Think platformer and you probably picture a grinning animal – or plumber – bounding around colorful worlds collecting shiny things. Inside couldn’t be more different. This puzzle-platformer puts you in control of a nameless boy making his way through a bleak, almost colorless world populated by masked guards, attack dogs and zombie-like humans who appear to have lost control of their own bodies. There’s no dialogue and barely any explanation. All you know is that something deeply unpleasant is happening and you need to keep moving.

Why we like it: Inside is deeply weird, and only gets stranger the further you go. What begins with a boy creeping through a forest gradually leads underground, underwater and into a nightmarish facility filled with experiments that are best discovered without knowing they’re coming.

The puzzles, platforming and occasional frantic escape all push you further into the mystery, while the game finds increasingly unsettling ways to make you run, hide and occasionally die horribly. Inside is creepy without relying on conventional horror and tells you almost nothing about what any of it means. By the time its astonishing final act arrives, you’ll have considerably more questions than when you started.

22. Psychonauts

• Release date: April 2005
• Developer: Double Fine Productions
• Platforms: PS2, Xbox, PC

What is it: Razputin Aquato runs away from the circus to attend a summer camp for children with psychic abilities, only to discover a sinister plot involving kidnapped campers and stolen brains. It’s a 3D platformer with a brilliant twist: Raz can enter other people’s minds, turning their memories, fears, and neuroses into bizarre worlds to jump, swing, and levitate his way through.

Why we like it: Psychonauts has the freedom to make every level completely different because they’re literally all in someone’s head. A paranoid milkman imagines a suburban neighborhood crawling with secret agents, while a former asylum inmate’s obsession with Napoleon becomes a miniature war played out across a giant board game.

The clever part is that these aren’t just wacky backdrops. Each world tells you something about the person who created it, with their personality and problems shaping everything from the scenery to the obstacles Raz encounters. Throw in psychic abilities that let you bounce around on a levitation ball, set enemies on fire, and fling objects with your mind, and it’s easy to see why Psychonauts became a cult classic.

21. Super Meat Boy

Team Meat

• Release date: October 2010
• Developer: Team Meat
• Platforms: Xbox 360, PC, PS4, PS Vita, Wii U, Nintendo Switch

What is it: Meat Boy is a small red cube of exposed flesh trying to rescue his girlfriend Bandage Girl from the evil Dr. Fetus. Getting to her means sprinting, wall-jumping, and hurling yourself through hundreds of tiny levels filled with saw blades, spikes, and other machinery specifically designed to turn you into mince.

Why we like it: Super Meat Boy takes great pleasure in killing you. Saw blades line the walls, missiles chase you across the screen, and seemingly straightforward jumps have a nasty habit of depositing Meat Boy directly onto something sharp. Fortunately, dying only takes a second, and getting another go takes even less.

That’s important because some levels require dozens of attempts. You gradually work out how long to hold a jump, when to launch yourself from a wall, and where you can afford to slow down, until a level that initially seemed impossible becomes a frantic few seconds of perfectly timed movement.

Super Meat Boy was hugely influential, proving that brutally difficult 2D platformers still had an audience and inspiring a generation of indie games that followed. You can see plenty of its DNA in Celeste further up this list.

20. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Insomniac

• Release date: November 2004
• Developer: Insomniac Games
• Platforms: PS2

What is it: Ratchet and his robot sidekick Clank return to save the galaxy from Dr. Nefarious, a supervillain determined to wipe out all organic life. It’s part 3D platformer, part third-person shooter, sending the pair bouncing between planets, grinding along rails and blasting armies of robots with an increasingly ridiculous arsenal of weapons.

Why we like it: Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon were two of PlayStation’s biggest platform heroes, created by Naughty Dog and Insomniac respectively. However, because they were owned by Universal, both developers had to leave their cute creations behind when they moved on to the next generation.

Insomniac went in a completely different direction with Ratchet & Clank, arming its new cat-like alien hero with a huge arsenal of weapons. By the third game, it had pretty much perfected the formula, and half the fun is discovering what each one does. You can open miniature black holes, send electricity arcing through groups of enemies, or turn them into explosive ducks, while weapons become more powerful the more you use them.

Underneath all that firepower is still a great 3D platformer, full of alien planets to explore, rails to grind and gadgets that open previously unreachable areas. Insomniac followed Ratchet & Clank with the Resistance shooters and eventually Marvel’s Spider-Man, but Up Your Arsenal captures a fascinating point in its history: when it was still making colorful platformers, but had already discovered how much fun it was to give its heroes enormous guns.

19. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

Sony

• Release date: December 2001
• Developer: Naughty Dog
• Platforms: PS2

What is it: Insomniac wasn’t the only PlayStation developer forced to leave its platforming hero behind. Naughty Dog had created Crash Bandicoot but didn’t own the character either, so for PS2 it came up with Jak and his wisecracking sidekick Daxter. After Daxter is transformed into a furry orange creature called an ottsel, he needs his considerably less hairy friend to find a way to change him back.

Why we like it: Jak and Daxter can feel like the forgotten middle child of Naughty Dog’s history, sandwiched between Crash Bandicoot and the blockbuster Uncharted and The Last of Us games that followed. But The Precursor Legacy also shows the studio beginning to bridge the gap between them.

Crash had been built around relatively linear levels, while Jak and Daxter links villages, beaches, jungles and ancient ruins together into one world you can travel around without staring at a loading screen – hugely impressive in 2001. There’s much more freedom too, with Power Cells hidden around the world rather than waiting at the end of a set route.

It’s still unmistakably a platformer, but you can already see Naughty Dog thinking bigger: more exploration, a seamless world and a greater emphasis on characters and story. Jak and Daxter deserves to be remembered as more than the series Naughty Dog made between Crash and Nathan Drake.

18. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Moon Studios

• Release date: March 2020
• Developer: Moon Studios
• Platforms: Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S

What is it: Ori and the Will of the Wisps sends its glowing little guardian spirit beyond the forest of Nibel after a storm separates Ori from their owl friend Ku. It’s a Metroidvania, but one where mastering movement is every bit as important as exploring its interconnected world. Ori leaps up walls, dashes through the air, grapples from hooks, and even uses enemies and projectiles to propel themselves across enormous gaps.

Why we like it: There’s a reason Ori makes this list when Metroid, Castlevania, and plenty of other Metroidvanias don’t. Platforming isn’t simply how you get from one fight or discovery to another; it’s one of the game’s main challenges. Ori and the Blind Forest was already a terrific platformer, but Will of the Wisps gave its nimble hero even more ways to fly around the world. 

Ori starts out nimble enough, but each new ability adds another move to your repertoire until you’re barely touching the ground at all. Jumps become dashes, dashes become grapples, and the brilliant Bash ability lets you fire Ori off enemies and projectiles like a glowing pinball. Entire sections are built around chaining those moves together, while spectacular escape sequences turn them into frantic obstacle courses as the world collapses around you.

It looks gorgeous while you’re doing it too. Its forests, caves, and windswept deserts feel more like animated paintings than traditional platforming levels, while Gareth Coker’s orchestral score makes those escapes feel appropriately epic. Will of the Wisps might belong to the genre Metroid and Castlevania created, but movement is what makes Ori special.

17. Shovel Knight

Yacht Club Games

• Release date: June 2014
• Developer: Yacht Club Games
• Platforms: PC, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PS3, PS4, PS Vita, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

What is it: He’s a knight. He’s armed with a shovel. Meet Shovel Knight. That’s pretty much all you need to know apart from the fact that he can use his weapon to whack enemies, dig up treasure, and bounce off enemies’ heads as he sets out to rescue his lost partner, Shield Knight. He’s also a knight. He’s armed with… oh, you get the picture.

Why we like it: Shovel Knight looks so convincingly like an NES game that you’d be forgiven for thinking someone found an unreleased cartridge from 1989. Its chunky sprites, limited color palette, and chiptune soundtrack deliberately evoke games like Mega Man and DuckTales, with the latter providing the inspiration for Shovel Knight’s ability to bounce around on his weapon.

But Shovel Knight isn’t simply pretending to be an old NES game. It’s not irritatingly tricky enough for that. There are checkpoints throughout each stage, so one mistimed jump doesn’t mean doing the whole thing again, although you can smash them for extra treasure if you fancy making life considerably harder for yourself. Die, and you’ll also drop some of your treasure, tempting you back towards whatever killed you in the first place.

Shovel Knight understands what was brilliant about 8-bit platformers without treating every limitation of the era as something worth preserving. It looks like an NES game, sounds like an NES game, and frequently challenges you like one – it’s just considerably less likely to make you throw your controller at the wall.

16. LittleBigPlanet 2

Media Molecule

• Release date: January 2011
• Developer: Media Molecule
• Platforms: PS3

What is it: LittleBigPlanet 2 looks like someone built an entire platform game by hand. Its worlds are constructed from cardboard, fabric, wood, string, sponge and stickers, while its hero Sackboy looks like he’s been stitched together from whatever was left over. You guide him through this homemade universe by running, jumping, swinging and grabbing onto anything within reach.

Why we like it: The original LittleBigPlanet had already introduced Sackboy, its wonderfully homemade world and the ability to create and share levels of your own. The sequel was bigger and more ambitious in almost every way.

LittleBigPlanet 2 was already a wonderfully inventive platformer before you touched its creation tools. Media Molecule’s story mode sends Sackboy through factories, laboratories and even the inside of a giant spaceship, introducing new gadgets and ideas along the way. But the levels Media Molecule made were only the beginning.

Players created millions more, with LittleBigPlanet 2’s expanded creation tools being used to make platformers, shooters, racing games, RPGs and puzzles, as well as recreations of everything from Super Mario Bros. to Street Fighter.

Even if you never created anything yourself, there was seemingly always something new to play. LittleBigPlanet 2 took everything that made the original special and turned it into something much bigger: a platformer that could become almost any game its players could imagine.

15. Mega Man X

Capcom

• Release date: December 1993
• Developer: Capcom
• Platforms: SNES

What is it: Mega Man had already spent six games running, jumping and blasting robots on the NES before the series was reinvented for the SNES. Set around a century later, the original Mega Man has presumably earned his retirement, with a new blue hero called X taking his place. His job is to defeat eight rogue robots known as Mavericks, steal their abilities, and eventually take on their leader, Sigma.

Why we like it: After the original Mega Man games, X immediately feels faster and more athletic. He can cling to and scramble up walls, while an early upgrade gives him the ability to Dash across the ground. Put the two together and stages can be built around movement that simply wasn’t possible before, with X bouncing between walls, launching himself across huge gaps and using his extra speed to race through hazards.

There are clever ideas beyond the new moves too. Defeating one Maverick can actually change another’s level: beat Chill Penguin and Flame Mammoth’s blazing factory freezes over, for example. You can tackle the bosses in different orders, hunt down hidden upgrades and collect new weapons from every Maverick you defeat, giving you plenty of reasons to experiment with a different route next time.

Mega Man X didn’t throw away what had made the NES games great. It kept the platforming, memorable bosses, and brilliant weapon-stealing idea, then gave its new hero a completely different freedom of movement. X might look a lot like the Mega Man he’d replaced, but controlling him was another matter entirely.

14. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

Oddworld Inhabitants

• Release date: September 1997
• Developer: Oddworld Inhabitants
• Platforms: PlayStation, PC

What is it: Abe is a lowly factory worker at RuptureFarms who accidentally discovers that his employers have come up with a horrifying solution to falling profits: turn Abe and his fellow Mudokons into their latest meat product. Understandably keen not to end up in a packet, Abe escapes and sets out to rescue the 99 workers he’s left behind.

Why we like it: Abe is one of gaming’s great unlikely heroes. He can’t bounce on enemies or pull out an enormous gun when trouble arrives. Most things in Oddworld can kill him very quickly, so getting through RuptureFarms means sneaking past guards, possessing enemies and working out how to get Abe and his fellow Mudokons through increasingly elaborate traps alive.

And those Mudokons aren’t clever enough to rescue themselves. GameSpeak lets Abe communicate with them using simple commands, calling them over, telling them to wait, or getting their attention with a cheerful “Hello”. Guiding a group towards a portal without accidentally leading them into a meat grinder is considerably harder than it sounds.

Abe’s Oddysee is funny, bleak and grotesque, but it also tackles themes of slavery, exploitation and industrial greed without losing its sense of humor. The game makes its point pretty loudly while also making fart jokes.

13. Yoshi’s Island

Nintendo

• Release date: August 1995
• Developer: Nintendo
• Platforms: SNES

What is it: Baby Mario has been separated from Baby Luigi by the Magikoopa Kamek, leaving a group of Yoshis to reunite the brothers and deliver them to their parents. Yoshi can swallow enemies, turn them into eggs and fire them around levels, while Mario spends most of the adventure riding safely on his back. Get hit, though, and Baby Mario floats away in a bubble and starts crying until you rescue him.

Why we like it: How do you follow the best-selling game on the SNES? Nintendo’s answer was to give Mario a nappy, stick him on the back of a green dinosaur and have him scream his head off whenever anything goes wrong.

It was quite a departure from Super Mario World. Yoshi’s Island looks like a children’s coloring book brought to life, with scribbled backgrounds, crayon-like scenery and enemies that squash, stretch and wobble around the screen. Yoshi handles completely differently from Mario, too – his flutter jump lets you hang in the air for an extra second, and enemies can be swallowed, turned into eggs and fired at others, collect items and hit switches, adding a little puzzle-solving to the usual running and jumping.

And then there’s Baby Mario. His piercing cry when Yoshi gets hit has annoyed generations of players, but that’s precisely why it works. Losing him instantly turns whatever you were doing into a panicked scramble to get him back before the timer reaches zero.

Yoshi’s Island could easily have been Super Mario World with a new set of levels. Instead, Nintendo gave Mario a supporting role and created a platformer with an identity entirely of its own.

12. Celeste

Maddy Makes Games

• Release date: January 2018
• Developer: Maddy Makes Games
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

What is it: Madeline has decided to climb Celeste Mountain despite having little mountaineering experience and a considerable amount of emotional baggage. Reaching the summit means navigating hundreds of increasingly fiendish platforming challenges with a wonderfully simple set of moves: jump, climb and dash through the air.

Why we like it: You will die a lot in Celeste. Hundreds of times, probably thousands if you go looking for its hardest challenges. But remarkably, it rarely feels like the game is wasting your time. Rooms are short, restarts are almost instantaneous and every death puts you straight back in front of the obstacle that just killed you.

That makes it dangerously easy to fall into the “one more go” trap. A room that initially looks impossible gradually becomes manageable as you work out where to jump, when to dash and which wall you need to cling to, until eventually you fly through something that had been killing you repeatedly five minutes earlier.

There’s more going on than simply getting to the top, too. Madeline’s struggle with anxiety and depression follows her up the mountain, eventually taking physical form as another version of herself. Celeste never lets that story overwhelm the platforming, but it gives all that falling down and trying again a purpose beyond reaching the next screen.

Celeste is tough, but for a game about persistence, it’s fitting that however much you feel like you’re being punished, you always want to get back up and try again.

11. Banjo-Kazooie

Rare

• Release date: June 1998
• Developer: Rare
• Platforms: Nintendo 64

What is it: A bear called Banjo and a bird called Kazooie set off to rescue Banjo’s sister Tooty after she’s kidnapped by the witch Gruntilda, who plans to steal her beauty. Banjo does most of the running around, while Kazooie spends much of the adventure living in his backpack, occasionally popping out to peck enemies, fire eggs, or carry the pair around on her spindly legs.

Why we like it: Rare was on fire during the N64 era. Fresh from the incredible FPS action of GoldenEye, the British developer gave us another platforming classic to play after Super Mario 64 with Banjo-Kazooie.

Its world is so packed with things to do, it makes you forget your initial travel plans. You might head across Treasure Trove Cove towards a Jiggy, only to spot a stranded Jinjo, discover a flight pad or wonder why there’s an enormous sandcastle sitting in the middle of the level. Ten minutes later, you’re somewhere completely different and the Jiggy you originally went looking for remains untouched.

Clanker’s Cavern revolves around an enormous mechanical shark chained beneath Gruntilda’s lair, Freezeezy Peak has you clambering over a giant snowman, while Click Clock Wood lets you revisit the same enormous tree through four different seasons, opening new routes and changing what you’ll find there.

Banjo and Kazooie themselves make exploring even more fun. Banjo is the affable hero while Kazooie is the sarcastic bird living in his backpack, insulting characters and providing many of your best moves. She lets you scramble up steep slopes, fly across levels and fire eggs from both ends, while Mumbo Jumbo can transform the pair into everything from a termite to a pumpkin to reach places they couldn’t before.

10. Donkey Kong Bananza

• Release date: July 2025
• Developer: Nintendo EPD
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2

What is it: Donkey Kong goes underground in search of the planet’s core alongside a young Pauline, smashing his way through enormous subterranean worlds filled with enemies, secrets and a frankly irresponsible amount of destructible scenery. DK can punch through walls, rip chunks out of the ground and surf around on slabs of rock, while collecting Banandium Gems unlocks new skills and makes him even more destructive.

Why we like it: Donkey Kong has been smashing barrels since 1981, but Bananza finally lets him smash pretty much everything else too. See something interesting on the other side of a wall? Punch through it. Need to get underground? Start digging. Want to climb a cliff? You can tear chunks out of the rock to create your own route up.

That freedom completely changes how you explore. Rather than always looking around for the route Nintendo intended you to take, you can frequently make one yourself. And because Bananza hides fossils, Banandium Gems and other secrets inside, underneath and behind its scenery, smashing the place to pieces rarely feels like pointless vandalism.

Then there are DK’s Bananza transformations, which let him turn into a super-strong Kong, speedy zebra and flying ostrich, opening up completely different ways to tear through each environment.

Bananza is a joyous platformer and a spectacular return to 3D for Donkey Kong. More than 40 years after his debut, the big ape is still capable of delivering something completely new.

9. Crash Bandicoot: Warped

Naughty Dog

• Release date: October 1998
• Developer: Naughty Dog
• Platforms: PlayStation

What is it: Crash and his considerably smarter sister Coco travel through time to stop Doctor Neo Cortex and Uka Uka from taking over the world. Most levels send you along narrow 3D routes, running into the screen, towards the camera or occasionally from side to side as you jump over pits, spin enemies and smash crates. Running towards the camera is particularly frantic, as obstacles and holes appear with barely any warning, forcing you to react to whatever suddenly arrives at the bottom of the screen.

Why we like it: 30 years on from Crash Bandicoot’s debut, the orange, grinning marsupial is still thought of fondly. While the original wasn’t the best, it established the formula that was built upon with the superior sequel Cortex Strikes Back, which added new moves, more open levels and the ability to tackle stages in a less rigid order. Warped wisely kept those improvements, but went completely overboard with new ideas.

It throws almost everything it can think of at Crash and Coco. You’ll ride a tiger along the Great Wall of China, race a motorbike against hot rods, fly a biplane and even chase pirates on a jet ski. Not every diversion is as good as the platforming, but they give Warped the feeling of a huge cartoon adventure rather than simply another collection of Crash levels.

Completing stages also unlocks abilities including a double jump, longer spin and a bazooka that lets you fire Wumpa Fruit at enemies and crates, giving you new reasons to return to earlier levels in search of gems and relics.

Naughty Dog released three Crash games in three years, and each one improved on the last. Warped is where everything came together: the best movement, the most variety and the most confident version of the platformer that made Crash one of PlayStation’s biggest stars.

8. Rayman Origins

Ubisoft

• Release date: November 2011
• Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
• Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS

Release date: November 2011
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS Vita, Nintendo 3DS

What is it: Rayman and his best mate Globox set off across the Glade of Dreams after their snoring annoys the undead inhabitants of the Land of the Livid Dead. What follows is a beautifully animated 2D platformer where you run, jump, punch, swim and eventually glide through increasingly elaborate levels while rescuing Electoons and collecting Lums.

Why we like it: By 2011, Rayman had been upstaged by the Rabbids, who debuted in Rayman Raving Rabbids before becoming stars in their own right. Origins finally put Rayman back at center stage, returning him to the colorful 2D platforming of his debut but making it faster, smoother and considerably more fun.

It starts relatively gently, but gradually adds new abilities and then expects you to use them at speed. By the later stages, you’re bouncing between walls, gliding over hazards and sprinting through levels that collapse behind you, with jumps flowing into one another so smoothly that stopping almost feels like you’ve done something wrong.

And it looks phenomenal. Its hand-drawn worlds are bursting with color, from enormous jungles and underwater ruins to levels made from cocktails, fruit and kitchen utensils. Characters squash, stretch and bounce around with wonderfully exaggerated animation.

Rayman Legends would build on many of these ideas with even more elaborate stages and its brilliant musical levels, but we still prefer the slightly stranger, more anarchic Origins. It brought Rayman back to 2D and gave him the best platformer of his career.

7. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

SEGA

• Release date: November 1992
• Developer: Sega Technical Institute
• Platforms: Sega Genesis

What is it: Sonic returns to stop Dr. Robotnik from powering his enormous Death Egg space station. It’s a 2D platformer played at tremendous speed, with Sonic racing through loops, flying off ramps, bouncing from springs and collecting rings that keep him alive when he inevitably runs headfirst into something he didn’t see coming.

Why we like it: The original Sonic the Hedgehog gave Sega the mascot it needed to take on Mario, but its sequel is where Sonic really hit his stride. The new Spin Dash lets you blast away from a standing start, levels are bigger and faster, and Tails makes his first appearance as Sonic’s sidekick.

Sonic 2 isn’t simply about holding right and running as fast as possible. Its best levels have multiple routes running above and below one another, rewarding you for maintaining momentum but giving you somewhere else to go when you mistime a jump. Chemical Plant sends you hurtling through pipes, Casino Night turns Sonic into a pinball and Hill Top has you outrunning rivers of lava.

Sonic 2 built a better game around Sonic’s greatest asset: speed. More than 30 years later, it’s still the best the blue blur has ever been.

6. Super Mario Odyssey

Nintendo

• Release date: October 2017
• Developer: Nintendo EPD
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch

What is it: Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach again, but this time he’s planning a wedding. Mario gives chase across the world aboard an airship called the Odyssey, accompanied by Cappy, a magical hat that lets him capture enemies and other creatures. Throw him at the right target and Mario can become everything from a Goomba and Bullet Bill to a tank, dinosaur or enormous lump of meat.

Why we like it: Ah, Mario, we’ve been expecting you. Nintendo’s mascot has starred in so many brilliant platformers that we could comfortably fill half this list with them, so perhaps the biggest surprise is that we’ve made it all the way to number six before he properly shows up. Stop yer crying, Baby Mario…

Odyssey returned to the exploration and freedom of Mario 64 and Sunshine, but added Cappy, a magical hat that lets Mario capture enemies and completely changes how you move around its worlds. A Bullet Bill can fly across enormous gaps, a Pokio can fling itself up walls and a stack of Goombas can reach places Mario can’t alone.

Odyssey is Mario at his most playful, giving you a huge collection of worlds, abilities and ideas and then letting you loose to see what you can do with them.

5. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest

• Release date: November 1995
• Developer: Rare
• Platforms: SNES

What is it: Donkey Kong has been kidnapped by Kaptain K. Rool, leaving Diddy Kong and newcomer Dixie to rescue him from Crocodile Isle. The pair run, jump, climb and barrel-blast through pirate ships, swamps, volcanoes, haunted woods and amusement parks, with Diddy’s speed complemented by Dixie’s ability to use her ponytail to glide through the air.

Why we like it: When Diddy’s Kong Quest arrived in late 1995, the Nintendo 64 was only months away and 3D gaming was about to change platformers forever. Rare didn’t need an extra dimension to make one of the best games of the generation.

The original Donkey Kong Country had been a technical marvel, with pre-rendered graphics that looked unlike almost anything else on SNES. But its sequel was a better platformer. Its levels are more imaginative and constantly find new ways to challenge you. One has you climbing through a bramble maze almost entirely by firing yourself between barrels, another makes you race up a rising pool of toxic liquid, while the terrifying rollercoaster stages send you rattling along broken tracks and desperately jumping between carts.

Dixie is a brilliant addition too. Her ponytail lets you hover across gaps and correct jumps that Diddy would simply plummet through, giving the two Kongs genuinely different strengths rather than making her a cosmetic alternative.

5. Astro Bot

Team Asobi

• Release date: September 2024
• Developer: Team Asobi
• Platforms: PS5

What is it: Astro’s PS5-shaped spaceship has been destroyed, scattering his robot crew across dozens of planets. Getting them back means jumping, punching and hovering through wonderfully inventive 3D levels, with new abilities regularly changing what Astro can do.

Why we like it: Astro’s Playroom came free with every PS5 and was supposed to show off what the new console and its DualSense controller could do. Instead, its adorable little robot became a star in his own right. Astro Bot took that brilliant four-hour introduction and turned it into one of PlayStation’s best games.

There’s barely a level without some new toy or idea. Astro can inflate himself like a balloon, slow down time, suck up water until he’s enormous or use a bulldog-shaped jetpack to smash through walls. Some ideas disappear almost as quickly as they’re introduced, leaving you wondering what Team Asobi could come up with next.

Then there are the rescued bots dressed as PlayStation characters, turning the whole adventure into a celebration of the console’s history. But Astro Bot doesn’t need Kratos, Nathan Drake or any of its other famous guests to make it special. By the end, Astro has earned his place alongside them.

3. Super Mario 64

Nintendo

• Release date: June 1996
• Developer: Nintendo EAD
• Platforms: Nintendo 64

What is it: Princess Peach invites Mario to her castle for cake, only for him to discover that Bowser has kidnapped her and trapped the castle’s Power Stars inside paintings. Jumping into them transports Mario to 3D worlds where he has to climb mountains, race penguins, explore a sunken ship and, occasionally, throw an enormous turtle around by his tail.

Why we like it: It’s difficult to overstate how extraordinary Super Mario 64 felt in 1996. Mario had spent more than a decade running from left to right, and suddenly you could send him wherever you wanted. He could run, crawl, swim, climb, triple-jump, long-jump, backflip and even leap between walls, with the Nintendo 64’s new analog stick giving you precise control over his movement.

And Nintendo gave you plenty of reasons to experiment with it. Bob-omb Battlefield lets you ignore the obvious path and start climbing its mountain however you fancy, Cool, Cool Mountain sends you sliding down an enormous icy chute, while Tiny-Huge Island lets you explore the same world at two completely different scales.

Not everything has aged gracefully – the camera remains capable of becoming your greatest enemy – but the important stuff has. Running and jumping around in Mario 64 is still fun, and it is the 3D platformer that influenced everything that followed. It took over a decade for Nintendo to beat it.

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2

Nintendo

• Release date: May 2010
• Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo
• Platforms: Wii

What is it: Guess what? Bowser has kidnapped Peach. If this is sounding a bit repetitive now, at least the setting is different in the Galaxy games, where Mario heads into space, with levels spread across tiny planets with their own gravity, letting him run upside down, leap between worlds and fire himself across space from Launch Stars. Yoshi joins him for the sequel to the brilliant Wii original, swallowing enemies and using different fruits to gain new abilities.

Why we like it: Super Mario Galaxy was magical. Running all the way around a tiny planet and watching Mario’s gravity shift beneath his feet was unlike anything we’d played before, while the Observatory and Rosalina’s story gave the adventure a sense of wonder that its sequel could never hope to match.

But Galaxy 2 is the better platformer. Nintendo had already established how its miniature planets and gravity worked, leaving the sequel free to push those ideas much further. Levels twist gravity in different directions, have Mario drilling straight through planets and introduce platforms that appear and disappear in time with the music.

Yoshi adds another layer. His tongue can grab enemies and swing from flowers, while different fruits let him sprint up walls, float through the air or illuminate otherwise invisible platforms. Galaxy 2 keeps finding new ways to use Mario’s surroundings, abilities and gravity to test you, often building an entire level around an idea before moving on to something completely different.

1. Super Mario World

Nintendo

• Release date: November 1990
• Developer: Nintendo EAD
• Platforms: SNES

What is it: Bowser has kidnapped Peach. Again. At this point, we’re beginning to question the Mushroom Kingdom’s security arrangements. This time Mario and Luigi head to Dinosaur Land, where they meet Yoshi and travel across an enormous interconnected map on their way to Bowser’s castle. It’s classic 2D Mario – running, jumping, squashing enemies and grabbing power-ups – but with more freedom to explore than any of his previous adventures.

Why we like it: Super Mario World is an absolute joy from the moment you arrive on Yoshi’s Island. Mario runs and jumps with incredible precision, while the Cape Feather gives you the freedom to take to the skies and Yoshi can gobble up enemies, spit out shells, and reach places Mario can’t alone.

Then you start discovering just how much Nintendo has hidden away. Some levels have secret exits that open completely different routes across Dinosaur Land, Ghost Houses conceal alternative paths, and finding Star Road can let you skip huge sections of the game. Discover enough secrets, and you can even transform parts of the world itself.

There’s always something tempting you away from the obvious route. A suspicious keyhole might lead to a new path across the map, a pipe can take you somewhere completely unexpected, and entire stages are hidden from players who simply follow the road to Bowser’s castle.

Mario introduced us to the brilliance of 3D gaming in Super Mario 64 and took us into space with the Galaxy games, but nothing can match the pure brilliance of Super Mario World. It is the perfect platformer.