Best Platformers from Every Era, NES to Astro Bot

Platformers are the genre where you feel a game's controls most directly: how high a jump goes, how much you can steer it in the air, how fast you stop. This guide goes era by era and picks the games that still play best today, not just the ones that mattered at the time. Each entry says what it changed, where you can play it now and who it suits.

A game is here if its controls and level design still hold up, and if it either set a pattern later games followed or did something no one else has. Where an old game is hard to buy, the entry names the easiest legal way to play it. Platforms and subscriptions change, so check before you buy.

Its first screen teaches you the game without a word: a Goomba walks toward you, and the only sensible answer is to jump. Running builds momentum, and holding the button longer gives a higher jump, which became the template for the genre.

• Where to play it now: the NES library in Nintendo Switch Online.
• Who it suits: everyone; a full run takes under an hour once you know it.

It added a world map, the Tanooki suit's flight and a huge range of level ideas in a short space. For many players it is still the best 2D Mario.

• Where to play it now: Nintendo Switch Online.

Yoshi, the cape and above all its secret exits: 96 goals hidden across a single connected map, many of them behind keys and keyholes. It is the most replayable classic Mario.

• Where to play it now: the SNES library in Nintendo Switch Online.

Faster than the first game, with the spin dash, Tails as a second player and zones like Chemical Plant that reward learning the routes. The speed works because the level design keeps giving you higher and lower paths.

• Where to play it now: Sonic Origins (2022) on PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch and PC.

Rare's pirate-themed sequel is harder and more varied than the first game, with David Wise's soundtrack still quoted by fans.

• Where to play it now: Nintendo Switch Online.

It showed how to move in 3D: analogue control, a camera you could steer, and open levels with several stars each instead of a straight path. Bob-omb Battlefield is still a perfect first level.

• Where to play it now: Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

Rare took Mario 64's idea and filled it with collectables, jokes and a bear-and-bird pair who learn new moves as you go. It is the template for the "collectathon". More in our games like Banjo-Kazooie list.

• Where to play it now: Rare Replay on Xbox, and Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

Sony's mascots took the idea in their own directions: Ape Escape (1999) was built for the DualShock's two sticks, Jak and Daxter (2001) loaded a seamless world with no loading screens between areas, and Sly Cooper (2002) turned platforming into heists. See the games like Ape Escape, games like Jak and Daxter and games like Sly Cooper lists.

A precision platformer about climbing a mountain, and about anxiety. Each screen is a short challenge with an instant restart, and Assist Mode lets you slow the game down or skip sections without judgement, so anyone can reach the end. The free Farewell chapter (2019) is for players who want the hardest content.

• Where to play it now: PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.
• Who it suits: anyone who enjoys mastering something hard in small steps.

Team Cherry's hand-drawn Metroidvania has a huge, interconnected underground kingdom, tough bosses and a map you have to buy before you can see where you are. Its sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, came out in 2025.

• Where to play it now: PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One.
• Who it suits: players who like exploration and difficult combat. Our games like Hollow Knight post covers what to play next.

Every level hides a Wonder Flower that changes the stage itself: pipes start to crawl, the camera tilts, or Mario turns into an elephant. Badges let you change your moves, and the online mode shows other players running the same level as ghosts.

• Where to play it now: Switch and Switch 2.
• Who it suits: families and anyone who wants surprises every few minutes.

Team Asobi's game is a tour of PlayStation history, with each world full of ideas that use the DualSense controller's rumble and triggers. It won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024. More in our games like Astro Bot list.

• Where to play it now: PS5 only.
• Who it suits: anyone with a PS5. It is easy to finish and hard to fully complete.

• Rayman Legends (2013) - co-op for up to four and musical levels timed to the soundtrack.
• Shovel Knight (2014) - an NES-style adventure with a pogo-sword jump and several extra campaigns.
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020) - a beautiful Metroidvania with very fluid movement.
• Cuphead (2017) - a run-and-gun boss rush drawn like 1930s cartoons.
• Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64, 2001) - Rare's crude, adult-only parody of its own collectathons. See games like Conker's Bad Fur Day.

• For a child or a new player: Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
• Want to master something hard: Celeste.
• Miss the PS2 era: the games like LittleBigPlanet and games like Jak and Daxter lists.

For a head-to-head between two modern platformers, see Ori and the Will of the Wisps vs the Blind Forest. For 3D platformers, see games like Super Mario 64 and games like Banjo-Kazooie.