Best Platformer Games Like Super Mario World

The best platformer games like Super Mario World are Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Bros Wonder and Donkey Kong Country 2. Below are 9, each with the reason it is here — and, at the end, what filtering to platformer costs you.

Why Platformer Is a Good Answer for Super Mario World

Filtering to platformer means you want the movement itself to be the pleasure. It is the right filter when the thing you liked was getting from one place to another.

What you get: A game you can judge in ten seconds. Platformers live or die on the jump, and a good one feels right before anything else happens.

What made Super Mario World worth playing in the first place is covered on the full list. This page is the platformer part of that answer, and only the platformer part.

9 Platformer Games Like Super Mario World

  1. 1. Yoshi's Island

    The direct follow-up, and the most inventive platformer on the SNES.

  2. 2. Super Mario Bros Wonder

    The modern 2D Mario, and the closest in spirit to World's playfulness.

  3. 3. Donkey Kong Country 2

    The other SNES platformer with hidden exits and a secret world.

  4. 4. Super Mario Maker 2

    If the level design was the appeal, this is infinite.

  5. 5. Rayman Legends

    The most polished 2D platformer since.

  6. 6. Celeste

    The best-feeling modern platformer, with a hidden B-side for every level.

  7. 7. Super Mario Bros 3

    The NES peak, and much of World grew out of it.

  8. 8. Shovel Knight

    Deliberately retro, but with a modern sense of fairness.

  9. 9. Donkey Kong Country

    The other pillar of SNES platforming.

What This Filter Leaves Out

Weight. Platformers rarely carry a story you will think about afterwards, and the collectible-led ones can become checklists if you let them.

The full list is on games like Super Mario World — 9 picks, no genre filter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best platformer game like Super Mario World?

Yoshi's Island. The direct follow-up, and the most inventive platformer on the SNES.

Are all of these on the Super Nintendo?

No. Super Mario World released on the Super Nintendo, but a recommendation is only useful if you can play it, so the picks above span platforms and eras. What they share is the genre and the reason.

What separates a good platformer from a bad one?

Whether the move set is complete early. The great ones give you everything in the first level and spend the rest asking better questions of it; the weak ones drip-feed abilities to disguise thin level design.

2D or 3D?

Different games. 2D platformers are about precision on a single screen; 3D ones are about reading space and camera. Each pick below says which it is.

How are these chosen?

By hand. Each pick was written for the full Super Mario World list first, on what the game actually does, and this page is the part of that list that is platformer — never a genre tag lookup, which is how "best racing games like Super Mario 64" used to be a page on this site.

Other Angles on Super Mario World

More Platformer Games Recommendations

Or read the platformer guide for where to start in the genre generally.