Please Post Your Preferred Platformers

[Hawki]

Well, I've done it. Similar to FPS, action, and RPG, I've dredged through a list of every platformer I can recall playing and ended up with a top ten list.

I will say that a lot of this is based on memory rather than recent experience. I grew up with platformers, from Sonic, to Mario, to Crash, but grew out of them as I entered my teenage years. Not that I mean to say "grew out of" in a derogatory sense (i.e. I'm not going to bash any adult who plays a platformer), but from storyline to aesthetics, a lot of platformers were undoubtedly meant for children. It might be because I drifted away from the genre, until recently, platformers seem to have been a bit fallow. I mean, Mario's still around, Skylanders became a thing, Sonic's shambling on, but...that's about it. I have noticed in recent times that platformers seem to have had a bit of a revival though, both 2D (Shovel Knight, Freedom Planet, etc.) to 3D (e.g. Yooka-Laylee), and even Crash is being remastered. And while I was never that much of a fan, Mario's still going strong, so there is that.

Anyway, top ten list time:

10) Crash Bandicoot
9) Crash Bandicoot 2
8) Spyro the Dragon
7) Sonic the Hedgehog (16 bit)
6) Sonic Adventure
5) Rayman 2: The Great Escape
4) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16 bit)
3) Super Mario 64
2) Banjo-Kazooie
1) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Discuss, post, discard. Or something else.

 

[Saelune]

10. Psychonaughts
9. Rogue Legacy
8. Assassin's Creed II
7. Sonic Adventure 2
6. Super Mario Bros
5. Super Mario Land 2
4. Banjo Kazooie
3. Sonic 2
2. Kirby's Dreamland 2
1. Mystical Ninja starring Goemon

The list is ordered on a mix of how much I like the game, and platformeryness. So some games are listed higher than games I enjoy more because I feel they arent as fun "platformers".

 

[Zhukov]

I don't play enough of them to have a list.

However, the new Rayman games are a generally jolly good time. Although anyone remotely into platformers likely already knows that.

There's also a little-known indie game out there called They Bleed Pixels which I really enjoyed. It's kinda like Super Meat Boy but it has fun combat too. Although I always found myself wanting more combat and a bit less platforming.

 

[FalloutJack]

I can't really think of all the platformers I ever played that I liked without spending hours thinking about it. I've been around since Atari. It's alot of ground to cover.

I WILL say that I just finished The Last Guardian, and that is definitely some kind of platforming game, though it's alot of things.

 

[stroopwafel]

Played a ton of platformers during the 8- 16-bit era so that's where most of my favorites are.

1) Super Mario World (still the best platformer ever made in my opinion)
2) Super Metroid
3) Super Castlevania
4) Demon's Crest
5) Contra 3
6) Castle of Illusion
7) Mario 64
8) Sparkster (genesis/megadrive version)
9) Super Mario All Stars
10) Earthworm Jim
11) Sonic 2
12) Super Ghouls n Ghosts
13) Donkey Kong Country

My younger self devoured these games. I guess technically some of those titles are considered 'side-scrollers' but that is like arguing whether Fallout 4 is technically an rpg instead of an fps. My interest in the genre kinda waned(primarily b/c of change in tastes and lack of quality titles) but superb recent titles like Salt & Sanctuary definitely rekindled my interest a bit.

Also I still need to play Yoshi's Island. I'm like 22 years late.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The new Rayman games were pretty great, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was a blast too.

But I'm more of a cinematic platformer kinda guy. Games like Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Heart of Darkness and the recent Inside are the kind of platformers that actually stick with me once I turn off the console.

 

[Hawki]

Kinda surprised at no nods for Puppeteer or Trine yet. I mean, they're not typical platformers like Mario or Sonic, but they are great games in their own right that bring new ideas to the table.

If I had to make a list from memory of fun had from both 2D and 3D eras, it'd probably go something like:

DKC2
SMW
SM64
Castlevania (Super, 3, SotN mostly)
Trine
Conquer's BFD
Puppeteer
Banjo & Kazooie
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Sonic

 

[Poetic Nova]

Honestly, those I like can be summed up on a single hand.

Donkey Kong Land, Donkey Kong (the remake for the Gameboy) and They Bleed Pixels.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I fell out of love with the genre but loved em for a long time. Crash and Jack&Daxter ftw. I tried to enjoy mario galaxy but I was absolutely bored out of my mind with it and it was being praised like the second coming of Jesus so I just figured out the genre wasn't my cup of tea any more lol.

 

[Worgen]

1. Rayman Origins
2. super mario world
3. Freedom Planet
4. Shovel Knight
5. Super Meat Boy
6. Wings of Vi
7. Super Mario 3
8. Battle Block Theater
9. Bro Force
10. Trine

 

[busterkeatonrules]

01: Super Mario World
The last side-scrolling platformer of the main series, this game represents Nintendo at their very peak - and remains to this day the gold standard of the genre.

02: Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
The original DKC was a masterpiece in its own right, but it was this game that really cemented Rare's reputation - by proving that they could capture lightning in a bottle. Twice.

03: Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves
The cartoony stealth formula from the first game gets polished to even further perfection - in all the right places!

04: Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer
My top platformer of the PS1 era. Hands down. Excellent gameplay, beautiful environments and a subtle, ambient soundtrack which makes everything feel alive. Dialogue between characters is usually hilarious, too!

05: Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy
Back in the early PS2 days, this game was utterly mindblowing. I still find it impressive that the entire game world was constructed as one single piece - completely eliminating loading screens!

06: Okami
Seriously, it's Okami. Come on. What else do I need to say?

07: Psychonauts
A colorful and hilarious showcasing of Tim Schafer's genius. Like most of Tim's games, if you consider yourself a gamer, you owe it to yourself to try this one at least once.

08: Mini Ninjas
Light-hearted time killer - or hardcore collect-a-thon, depending on how much of a completionist you are. Regardless, stunning environments and fun gameplay throughout!

09: Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Another case of a brilliant base formula being polished to perfection over multiple iterations, Crash 3 dazzles the player with an amazing diversity of levels.

10: Ape Escape 3
The third helping of familiar primate-chasing action gets spiced up with two playable characters and a slew of costumes to collect - each with a gameplay-changing powerup.

 

[Pyrian]

Mark of the Ninja. That's a platformer, right? Or does the fact that you can just casually climb most walls rule it out? Absolutely superb game, anyway.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

06: Okami
Seriously, it's Okami. Come on. What else do I need to say?

I don't think Okami is anything like a platformer. It's an action adventure game, kinda like Zelda but good. It's definitely an amazing game though, I like it way more than any platformer that comes to mind.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

06: Okami
Seriously, it's Okami. Come on. What else do I need to say?

I don't think Okami is anything like a platformer. It's an action adventure game, kinda like Zelda but good. It's definitely an amazing game though, I like it way more than any platformer that comes to mind.

Okami's uniqueness does make it a bit tough to categorize, but there are clear platforming elements throughout.

A lot of the time, you have to create your own lily pads to cross large bodies of water, and I remember an especially inspired type of puzzle where you had to summon a strong wind and then jump across a row of huge, flapping banners. Sure it has touches of Zelda as well, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt - it is easily one of the most criminally underrated games of the PS2 era, and deserves all the attention it can get.

And it does involve a lot of jumping!

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

06: Okami
Seriously, it's Okami. Come on. What else do I need to say?

I don't think Okami is anything like a platformer. It's an action adventure game, kinda like Zelda but good. It's definitely an amazing game though, I like it way more than any platformer that comes to mind.

Okami's uniqueness does make it a bit tough to categorize, but there are clear platforming elements throughout.

A lot of the time, you have to create your own lily pads to cross large bodies of water, and I remember an especially inspired type of puzzle where you had to summon a strong wind and then jump across a row of huge, flapping banners. Sure it has touches of Zelda as well, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt - it is easily one of the most criminally underrated games of the PS2 era, and deserves all the attention it can get.

And it does involve a lot of jumping!

The main reason I wouldn't call it a platformer is that while it does have lots of jumping, it's more of a puzzle where you use the right power and then it's pretty easy to traverse so unlike in platformers where you really have to get your timing down, it's more about figuring out how to do it. Like, the lilipads on the water you could just stand on and then use the wind power to blow them along with you instead of forming multiple ones and jumping from one to the other which you need to do only very early on, as for the banners, you would need to try quite hard to miss those jumps and even then you wouldn't just fall and die, you'd just get sent to a prior room. Zelda has those too with the grappling hooks and whatnot.


Also, there's a larger emphasis on the story and boss fights and all that. Honestly, I'd have an easier time with someone calling it an action rpg than a platformer, though I generally would just call it an action adventure game overall.

Patron God sim would be my second best subtitle.

 

[Guffe]

I won't make an actual best of list but I'll give you my favorites.
DK Tropical Freeze was nice
New Rayman games (Legends / Origins)
Trine (all 3 of them were fun, and have co-op!!!)
MarioMaker is really fun
I'm sure there are others....

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I don't think I have a nice round 10 platformers to list. I have a few mentions that I feel people have "missed".

-Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Still a great overall game; great game design and great story. I think the combat dragged a bit but that's really it. The sequel Warrior Within had the best gameplay of the series, the level design was even better and combat was improved as well. However, the change in tone and story was way way off base.

-Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus
The 1st game of the series was easily the best of the original 3 at least (I haven't played the 4th one). The game uses classic platformer mechanics like 1 hit kills you and there's a lives system even, but it somehow works still. There's even some clever stealth mechanics like you can speed up the guards' patrols so you don't have to wait for a guard to come all the back around. Every level is unique and extremely varied while being a joy to play. The sequels went all open world and lost a lot of the charm and originality of the first game.

-Shadow of the Colossus
Obviously not a typical platformer but jumping around giant colossi definitely fits with platforming. You gotta give up to the game for having a true physics based platforming system in play. A game nowadays with giant scalable bosses are more like quick-time events than anything like how Castlevania: Lords of Shadows did its big bosses.

-Mirror's Edge
There's something so visceral about the platforming in this game that it provides an experience unlike no other (except the sequel prequel). The level design is also exquisite, just open enough to allow for player creativity but not too open to really get lost (like the prequel). The prequel (Catalyst) is still a good game if you just do the story missions as the open world aspects do not fit with the core gameplay like having you STOP to pull 100s of computer chips.

-LittleBigPlanet
I just adored the 1st game; I played some of the 2nd game and kinda got bored and never played the 3rd one. And somehow this game was responsible for probably the most fun local co-op I ever had in one night with friends. There's a level where you have to rob a bank with some very "touchy" explosives and the hilarity that ensued was incredible.

-Super Mario Bros. 3
-Donkey Kong Country
These are the 2 games that I recall playing so often as a kid. I may have even logged more time on SNES with SMB3 (via Super Mario All-Stars) than any actual SNES game. There's plenty of great 2D platformers from that era but those were the my favorites of the games I had access to (what my parents bought me).

-

And a couple honorable mentions after going through my PlayStation trophy list...

-Outland
A cool platformer with bullet hell.

-PixelJunk Eden
A pretty unique game and I don't think I was ever able to beat it, those later levels are pretty tough.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I automatically default to 2D SNES platformers like Super Mario World, Kirby Super Star and the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, as well as 3D PS platformers like Spyro and Crash... after that it's kinda hard to tell if a game is a "platformer" or not. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, sure. I guess ICO is a platformer... is Shadow of the Colossus a platformer?

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Most of my platformers I played in 16-bit era, and not even on SNES. So the Mario's are missing from my list, unless including Gameboy Mario land.

Megadrive/Genesis
-Gunstar Heroes
-Sonic 1 and 2
-Rocket Knight Adventures
-Shinobi III
-Sunset Riders

PC
-Commander Keen
-Strider

Android/Other
-Sword of Xolan Special mention here. Played it most recently, on Android. Found this amazingly fun to play, and controlled even better and tighter than Rogue Legacy, on a damn touch screen no less. With boss battles, no need for any extra fees or ridiculous grinding, and even time challenges, had a lot more replayability and enjoyment than most Android games. Highly recommend.
-Metroid II: Return of Samus (Gameboy)

I've yet to try Limbo and Inside, will get to them soon. I'm not really a platform gamer, so my list is pretty short and all over the place.