Best Platformer Games Like Yoshi's Island

The best platformer games like Yoshi's Island are Yoshi's Woolly World, Super Mario World and Kirby's Adventure. 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 Yoshi's Island

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 Yoshi's Island 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 Yoshi's Island

  1. 1. Yoshi's Woolly World

    The best of the modern entries, and the craft look is gorgeous.

  2. 2. Super Mario World

    The game it is a sequel to, and the best-designed 2D Mario.

  3. 3. Kirby's Adventure

    The other Nintendo platformer built to be kind.

  4. 4. Wario Land 4

    The other one that rewrites the genre's rules entirely.

  5. 5. Rayman Legends

    The most polished 2D platformer since.

  6. 6. Donkey Kong Country 2

    The SNES platformer with the best secret design.

  7. 7. Super Mario Bros Wonder

    The modern 2D Mario, and the closest in playfulness.

  8. 8. Tearaway

    If the handmade art style was the reason.

  9. 9. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

    3D platforming built to be generous and full of small inventions.

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 Yoshi's Island — 9 picks, no genre filter.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best platformer game like Yoshi's Island?

Yoshi's Woolly World. The best of the modern entries, and the craft look is gorgeous.

Are all of these on the Super Nintendo?

No. Yoshi's Island 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 Yoshi's Island 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 Yoshi's Island

More Platformer Games Recommendations

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