While Nintendo dominates the genre, the range of excellent platform games that don't star Mario is impressive.
Nintendo fans have plenty of options when it comes to platformers. On the Switch alone, there are more than a dozen games in the Super Mario series from across console generations that prove why Nintendo developers are the masters of the platform genre – and that's not even including games starring Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Nintendo's lesser stars like BoxBoy.
See also: Nightingale: A Victorian Survival Game – Available From February 20th
However, there are plenty of great platform games, across a wide range of systems, that don't star Mario, his friends, and his rivals. Here are some of the best 2D and 3D platform games you can enjoy on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch – games that are more "pure" platformers, as opposed to the combat-focused, exploration-style Metroidvania games.
PIZZA TOWER
Many platform games try to be Mario. Pizza Tower tries to be his chaotic inverse, Wario, and this fast-paced 2D platformer from indie developer Tour De Pizza is a nod to Nintendo's Wario Land games. As hero and restaurateur Peppino Spaghetti, you explore and destroy the titular pizza tower by running, jumping, and smashing your way through a stack of levels.
There's an incredible amount of variety to these levels. Many come with their own gameplay quirks that you have to master, under a certain amount of platforming pressure, to progress and escape. Combined with a soundtrack full of addictive songs and a '90s Nicktoons aesthetic, Pizza Tower is one of the most inventive and well-designed platform games of recent years. Not bad for a homage.
SHOVEL KNIGHT: TREASURE TROEVE
Shovel Knight is the most authentic retro game ever made, tapping into 8- and 16-bit nostalgia for classic platforming games – most notably, the beloved 1989 NES game Ducktales – and incorporating that monumental mineral into a sharp, slick adventure. Shovel Knight uses its title’s tool to great effect, allowing the player to flip enemies, knock over treasures, and bounce over obstacles, enemies, and deep pits.
See also: Nintendo: Shares drop after announcement of postponement of new Switch release
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove is actually a collection and represents one of the best deals in gaming. Alongside the original Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope, Treasure Trove also includes the spinoffs Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment and Shovel Knight: King of Cards, as well as the multiplayer platformer Shovel Knight Showdown.
PENNY'S BIG BREAKAWAY
Created by the creators of Sonic Mania, Penny's Big Breakaway builds the mechanics of a 3D platform game around a tool: a yo-yo. Penny's yo-yo (named Yo-Yo) accidentally becomes sentient and extremely hungry for snacks. The Yo-Yo offers Penny a variety of methods of passage, acting as a kind of fishing hook, a high-speed Segway, and a helicopter to help her navigate a series of colorful worlds and avoid an army of vengeful penguins.
See also: 1 in 5 gamers identify as LGBTQ, but the community is underrepresented in video games
Penny's Big Breakaway has a retro aesthetic that doesn't feel dated – its visual style harks back to the covers of 16- and 32-bit platform games, helping developer Evening Star's 3D adventure stand out from the hand-drawn and pixelated styles of other platformers.
CELESTE
Celeste is a 2D platformer that strips the genre down to its essence. It features chunky, pixelated graphics and characters, and a simple set of moves. As Madeline, you can run, jump, wall climb, and aerial dash. There are no power-ups or unlockable skills. However, as you climb Celeste's mountain, the game presents you with increasingly difficult challenges to test your ability to run, jump, wall climb, and aerial dash.
Read also: Hasbro Announces $90 Million in Profits from Baldur's Gate 3
In a way, Celeste is a throwback. It’s intensely difficult in the vein of “masocore” games like Super Meat Boy. Progressing through a level, let alone a single screen, requires both quick reflexes and staying calm under pressure. Yet Celeste is also thoroughly modern. It tells a compelling, personal story and includes a variety of accessibility and difficulty features that can take Celeste from impossibly difficult to moderately challenging. It’s flexible, so if you make a mistake, it doesn’t drag you back to the beginning of a level. It gives you the chance to try, try, and try again.
SNAKE PASS
Sumo Digital's 2017 game, Snake Pass, differs from every other game on this list in that it's a platform game without a jump button. As Noodle the snake, instead of leaping, players are able to slither, grow, and climb through the world of Haven Tor. Along with his animal friend, Doodle the Hummingbird, Noodle is tasked with collecting a series of keystones by solving physics-based puzzles.
Snake Pass' controls can take a little getting used to. You're playing with the movement of a snake, not a bipedal mascot. However, Snake Pass is such an inventive and beautiful platformer that it's worth trying until you get the hang of it.
RAYMAN LEGENDS
Rayman Legends impresses with its variety, masterful level design, and gorgeous art, making it a confident, simple platformer. It's mechanically simple. As Rayman or one of his heroes, you run, jump, and smash things. But it's also a precise platformer with a wide variety of levels and hidden secrets that beg players to explore.
Read also: Nintendo Switch 2: Compatibility and Improved Games
Legends is sweet and charming. It may look and sound like a living cartoon world, but it's clearly aimed at experienced players of the genre. Players who are up for the challenge will find a variety of different worlds with an equally diverse set of activities: swimming, flying, sneaking, fighting, racing, and even rhythm games.
SONIC MANIA
To create one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog games to come out in the last decade, Sega turned to some of its biggest fans. Sonic Mania is dedicated to the old-school branch of Sonic gameplay and design. It takes the series' Genesis-era ideas to logical extremes, while staying true to the old Sonic the Hedgehog design rules. If you have a love for Sonic (and his friends), especially in the 16-bit flavor, then Sonic Mania is for you. This is a game that loves Sonic the Hedgehog, too.
PSYCHONAUT 2
We ranked Psychonauts 2 as “one of the most fantastic platform games out there, with an absolute keyboard of ideas and imagery” in our review of Double Fine’s 2021 adventure game. It also has one of the most compelling and inventive stories of any game on this list.
Read more: Splatoon 3 Fresh Season 2024: Brings new weapons and equipment
As Psychonaut Raz, you'll delve into people's minds, which manifest as strange, creative worlds, to help them battle their inner demons, unlock hidden memories, and resolve their emotional baggage using a range of psychic powers. Psychonauts 2 tackles serious subjects and complex psychological themes with warmth, compassion, and humor - while still being a capable, consistently enjoyable platformer.
KLONOA FANTASY REVERIE SERIES
This collection brings the original PlayStation game Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and its PlayStation 2 sequel Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil into the modern era, with updated graphics and a few quality-of-life features. These underrated platformers hover somewhere between 2D and 3D, allowing players to explore a sweet and colorful world as Klonoa, who can use his wind ring to grab and throw enemies. The Klonoa games aren't particularly complex, but they do require some thought about the geography of the levels and careful use of your jumping abilities to conquer each world.
ASTRO'S PLAYROOM
Ostensibly a technical demo for the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, Astro's Playroom is a brilliant 3D platformer that also doubles as a nostalgic tour of PlayStation history. And to be perfectly honest, Astro's Playroom has no business being as good as it is; it's free, after all, and included with the PlayStation 5. But it's a brilliant platformer that features tight controls, enjoyable movement mechanics, and thoughtful design touches. Playing it, you might wonder why Sony doesn't make more of these games on a regular basis (and charge for them).
Information source: polygon.com
