Greatest Platformers of All Time
a Yourlist ranking · the crowd decides the order
From 8-bit Mushroom Kingdoms to hand-drawn Celeste mountains, which platformer actually deserves the crown? Cast your vote and rearrange the ranks.
What counts: Ranked by lasting influence on the genre, critical acclaim, and how well the core jumping/movement mechanics hold up today; Metacritic-style scores are approximate since several titles predate aggregation sites or were rescored on rereleases.
Super Mario Bros. 3
The game that turned a plumber into the platonic ideal of platforming, introducing the map-based world select, raccoon-tail flight, and a toolbox of power-ups that still feels generous today. Miyamoto himself has called it his most complete Mario design, and its DNA runs through
Release Year: 1988Critic Score: 9.6/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 90 ptsOriginal Platform: NES
added by IJRin 6 rankings
0Not a jump-and-run in the traditional sense, but its morph-ball rolls, wall jumps, and atmospheric exploration redefined what platforming could mean when fused with dread and isolation. The Zebes climax, where you race lava while Samus's music swells, is still cited as a mastercl
Release Year: 1994Critic Score: 9.5/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 95 ptsOriginal Platform: SNES
added by IJRin 7 rankingsSuper Metroid
0Super Mario World
Yoshi's debut alone would make this legendary, but the game also perfected momentum-based running and secret-exit design, hiding entire alternate paths behind cape spins and hidden blocks. It remains the blueprint for 'more you look, more you find' level design.
Release Year: 1990Critic Score: 9.4/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 93 ptsOriginal Platform: SNES
added by IJRin 8 rankings
0Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
Rare's pre-rendered sprite work made this look like nothing else on the SNES, but it's the ruthless, expertly-paced level design—swinging on Kroc-infested ropes, riding mine carts through collapsing tunnels—that earns it a permanent spot on best-of lists. Many still call it the b
Release Year: 1995Critic Score: 9.3/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 90 ptsOriginal Platform: SNES
added by IJRin 3 rankingsDonkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
0Celeste
A tiny indie about climbing a mountain became the modern gold standard for tight, punishing, pixel-perfect platforming married to a genuinely moving story about mental health. Its dash mechanic is so precisely tuned that speedrunners and total newcomers can both find a version of
Release Year: 2018Critic Score: 9.3/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 92 ptsOriginal Platform: PC/Switch
added by IJRin 10 rankings
0Team Cherry's solo-dev labor of love expanded the Metroidvania template with a bottomless, hand-drawn world and combat-platforming that rewards patience over button-mashing. The Path of Pain and Absolute Radiance fights are now genre-defining tests of skill.
Release Year: 2017Critic Score: 9.1/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 90 ptsOriginal Platform: PC
added by IJRin 10 rankingsHollow Knight
0Cappy's capture mechanic turned every enemy and object into a potential platforming tool, and the sandbox-y Kingdoms packed with hundreds of Moons proved 3D Mario still had new tricks after two decades. The moon-count design philosophy influenced a wave of open-ended 3D platforme
Release Year: 2017Critic Score: 9.5/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 97 ptsOriginal Platform: Switch
added by IJRin 8 rankingsSuper Mario Odyssey
0
The game that invented the analog-stick 3D platformer from scratch, with Peach's Castle serving as the template every 3D collectathon since has copied in some form. Long-jumping off the castle steps for the first time in 1996 is a formative gaming memory for an entire generation.
Release Year: 1996Critic Score: 9.3/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 94 ptsOriginal Platform: Nintendo 64
added by IJRin 10 rankingsSuper Mario 64
0Capcom's sequel fixed the original's brutal difficulty spikes while keeping the boss-weakness chain puzzle that defines the series, and Dr. Wily's fortress stages are still taught as examples of escalating challenge design. Its soundtrack is arguably the most-covered chiptune sco
Release Year: 1988Critic Score: 9/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 88 ptsOriginal Platform: NES
added by IJRin 2 rankingsMega Man 2
0Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Speed as a platforming verb—Sonic 2 turned momentum, loops, and spin-dashes into a genre unto itself, with the Chemical Plant Zone theme and Tails co-op cementing it as a Genesis-defining classic. It proved platformers didn't need to be careful and slow to be great.
Release Year: 1992Critic Score: 8.9/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 87 ptsOriginal Platform: Sega Genesis
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Ubisoft's art team built some of the most gorgeous 2D environments ever rendered, then set them to music-synced levels like 'Castle Rock' that turned platforming into rhythm gameplay. It's routinely cited as the peak of the 2D character-action platformer in the HD era.
Release Year: 2013Critic Score: 9/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 90 ptsOriginal Platform: PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U
added by IJRRayman Legends
0Cuphead
Studio MDHR's hand-inked, 1930s-cartoon aesthetic hid one of the most bruisingly difficult boss-rush platformers ever made, forcing players to master parries and precise jumps against ink-well nightmares. It proved a tiny studio could out-craft AAA with pure visual ambition.
Release Year: 2017Critic Score: 8.6/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 86 ptsOriginal Platform: Xbox One/PC
added by IJRin 8 rankings
0Moon Studios fused Metroidvania exploration with Ori's Bash and double-jump abilities to create some of the most fluid traversal puzzles in the genre, capped by the harrowing Ginso Tree water-escape sequence. Its emotional prologue is still held up as one of gaming's best wordles
Release Year: 2015Critic Score: 8.8/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 88 ptsOriginal Platform: Xbox One/PC
added by IJROri and the Blind Forest
0Braid
Jonathan Blow's time-rewinding platformer arrived at the dawn of the indie boom and proved puzzle-platformers could carry genuine narrative weight, culminating in a twist ending still debated today. It's frequently credited with legitimizing indie games as an art form to mainstre
Release Year: 2008Critic Score: 8.9/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 90 ptsOriginal Platform: Xbox 360
added by IJRin 3 rankings
0Yacht Club Games distilled every great NES platformer—Mega Man, DuckTales, Zelda II—into one tight, shovel-pogoing package that felt both nostalgic and fresh. Its runaway Kickstarter success helped kick off the retro-platformer revival that's still going strong.
Release Year: 2014Critic Score: 9/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 91 ptsOriginal Platform: PC/3DS/Wii U
added by IJRin 3 rankingsShovel Knight
0Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Naughty Dog's sequel smoothed out the original's punishing corridors while keeping the spin-attack and crate-smashing loop that made Crash a PlayStation mascot. The jet-ski bonus stages and Cortex boss fight remain fan-favorite highlights of the PS1 era.
Release Year: 1997Critic Score: 8.7/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 85 ptsOriginal Platform: PlayStation
added by IJRCrash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
0Derek Yu's procedurally generated cave-diving roguelike-platformer made permadeath and randomized levels a genre staple, where every whip crack, rope, and bomb placement matters because there's no reloading a save. Its Olmec-crushing finale is one of the most satisfying 'earned'
Release Year: 2008Critic Score: 8.5/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 85 ptsOriginal Platform: PC/Xbox 360
added by IJRin 2 rankingsSpelunky
0Mega Man X
Capcom's SNES reboot added the wall-jump and dash to the Blue Bomber formula, and X's opening highway stage—complete with Vile's Ride Armor confrontation—is still considered one of gaming's greatest first levels. It set the template for the entire X sub-series that followed.
Release Year: 1993Critic Score: 8.7/10Approx. Aggregate Score: 85 ptsOriginal Platform: SNES
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