Platformers come in various shapes and sizes, but one franchise pioneered the genre and produced most of its best games: Super Mario. The Nintendo mascot brought jumping and falling into living rooms worldwide in the 1980s, rendered into 3D easily, and revolutionized open-world platforming on the Switch with Super Mario Odyssey. Leave some success for the rest of ‘em, Mario!
Believe it or not, there are other incredible platformers outside the Mushroom Kingdom’s joyful confines. Time to count down the best non-Mario platformers of all time!
1. Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Kazooie’s magic can’t be replicated. The Rare game, with an abundance of charm, goofy visuals, whimsical music, and fantastical world-building, serves as a conduit to an alternate universe. If one were to explain to an alien race why video games allow humanity to be caught up in an immersive fairy tale, one look at Banjo-Kazooie would do all the talking.
2. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze combines the best elements of every Donkey Kong predecessor, eliminates the flaws or rare mishaps from the previous games, and turns into a perfect gem of a platformer. The mechanics allow the gamer to feel the jungle’s heft and tangibility, but the wide variety of atmospheric levels separate the title from others.
3. Rayman Legends
Rayman Legends modernized 2D platforming. Every movement of the controller stick handles like silk, every touch of a button responding in unison with the player’s finger. Never before or since has a platform game admitted even the most novice players into a complex and rewarding stanza of levels flowing at an ethereal plane of existence.
4. Kirby’s Epic Yarn
Perhaps the game with the lightest level of platforming on the list, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, decides to go the scenic route. The simplicity of the mechanics allows for some of the most experimental graphics and world-building in a 2D platformer. Kirby’s powers transition into transformations in this title rather than traditional weapons. The game’s creativity and imagination separate it from the Wii’s catalog of classics.
5. Celeste
Celeste provides a powerful story of overcoming gender dysphoria and transphobia through the girl the player controls. Celeste Mountain serves as a symbol of overcoming adversity, but it also allows gamers to revel in the most hectic yet fluid platforming of the 2010s. Speed-run specialists love this game to pieces.
6. Braid
While fans still wait on the remake of Jonathan Blow’s classic indie platformer, the original satisfies just the same. Using some of the tropes from Mario’s bag of tricks, like rescuing a princess and traversing a fantastical setting, Braid infuses the genre with puzzle-solving and inverted storytelling that never gets old.
7. Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy’s reputation never gets in the way of its reality. The evidence stands tall: the platformer that moves in 20-second intervals with quick-reflex levels and thousands of deaths per playthrough changed the trajectory of platforming games for over a decade after its release. The game’s system’s brilliance ensures players never get too frustrated to try again.
8. Psychonauts 2
Psychonauts 2 improved upon everything the first game presented, including more creative environments to explore and gorgeous graphics. The game harkens back to classic 3D platformers of the 1990s while instilling a sense of modernity by exploring different characters’ minds and psychologies.
9. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
What’s better than one Crash Bandicoot game? Three Crash Bandicoot games! The N. Sane Trilogy remasters the first three Naughty Dog platforming classics for a new audience. Crash started as Sony’s response to Mario but evolved into something wholly unique, and this compilation gives all kinds of gamers a chance to see Crash from his inception.
10. Donkey Kong 64
Some may call it tinged with nostalgia, but Donkey Kong 64 holds up as a time capsule and a modern platforming experience. Seeing all of Donkey Kong’s friends, items, worlds, and idiosyncrasies put into a 3D world feels special, and nobody understood the simian character better than Rare.
11. Wario Land: Shake It!
Not many games utilize the main character’s charm with ingenious environmental platforming puzzles like Wario Land: Shake It! Every game in this series excels in a zany, whacky, and creative manner, but the Wii installment possesses fun motion controls and a great set of villains to stand as the best in the franchise!
12. Gaucamelee!
Gaucamelee! resembles Metroid more than Mario, but what’s wrong with that? The indie staple charmed audiences in 2013, followed by a sequel and DLC. With plenty of Mexican homages that allow the game a setting that’s not replicable, Gaucamelee! also flows smoothly like butter with seamless controls and abilities for playable characters.
13. Spyro Reunited Trilogy
Spyro is a less intense platforming experience for PlayStation fans than Crash Bandicoot, something that Nintendo fans may love if they cheat on their favorite console developer. The friendly purple dragon explores the mystical worlds created by Insomniac Games in the way of a Rare title like Banjo-Kazooie. The Spyro Reunited Trilogy remakes the first three games for the 2010s.
14. Sonic Generations
Sonic the Hedgehog rivaled Mario in sales and swag in the 1990s but lost his way in the 2000s and beyond. Sonic Generations helps to bring back some of the magic with a clever bi-dimensional aspect that allows gamers to play levels in the style of a 2D or 3D platformer. Sharp graphics compliment the solid platforming here.
15. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger shouldn’t be viewed as a knockoff of Crash Bandicoot. The Australian-set adventure slams audiences with some of the best characters, voice work, and settings in gaming. Krome Studios’ attention to detail will never go unnoticed by longtime fans of this small gem. What’s your favorite ‘rang?
16. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Much like Rayman Legends, the Ori series manifests a novel sensation of intuition and connectivity between the player and the virtual environment. The second game, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, heightens everything from Ori and the Blind Forest. This game is the epitome of unconstrained platforming.
17. Cave Story
Studio Pixel’s legendary little platforming game paved the way for so many indie titles in the genre in the last 15 years. Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, and Shovel Knight would not exist without Cave Story. The game aged very well, with so many simple exploration and jumping mechanics still intact and entertaining gamers in 2023.
18. A Hat in Time
3D platforming as a genre struggles when taking out Mario from the equation. A Hat in Time pays homage to the category by combining all of its best qualities and forcing gamers to remember the things they loved about 1990s PlayStation and Nintendo 64 games.
19. Astro’s Playroom
A game initially launched to demonstrate the power and controls of the PlayStation 5, Astro’s Playroom became one of the best platformers of all time. Much like Wii Sports did on the Wii, Astro’s Playroom got down all of the best parts of its genre and, therefore became something greater than the developer imagined originally.
20. Little Big Planet
Little Big Planet represents Sony at its most innocent. Dropping the violence and gore typically associated with major titles on the PlayStation, Little Big Planet utilizes many of the tools Nintendo uses in their platformers. Cheerful environments and solid puzzle platforming are a winning combo.
21. Shovel Knight
Shovel Knight not only takes elements from the NES platformers of the 1980s, but many fans wouldn’t know the difference between the retro games and the Shovel Knight series at first glance. The aesthetic and gameplay perfectly replicate the originals of the day, such as Castlevania.
22. Splasher
Splasher lives in the vein of Rayman Legends due to its fast and responsive platforming. Very difficult and with vibrant colors, the title doesn’t ask anything of its players without teaching them through gameplay first.
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