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emselves across enormous gaps article continues after ad why we like it there s a reason ori makes this list when metroid castlevania and plenty of other metroidvanias don t platforming isn t simply how you get from one fight or discovery to another it s one of the game s main challenges ori and the blind forest was already a terrific platformer but will of the wisps gave its nimble hero even more ways to fly around the world article continues after ad ori starts out nimble enough but each new ability adds another move to your repertoire until you re barely touching the ground at all jumps become dashes dashes become grapples and the brilliant bash ability lets you fire ori off enemies and projectiles like a glowing pinball entire sections are built around chaining those moves together while spectacular escape sequences turn them into frantic obstacle courses as the world collapses around you article continues after ad it looks gorgeous while you re doing it too its forests caves and windswept deserts feel more like animated paintings than traditional platforming levels while gareth coker s orchestral score makes those escapes feel appropriately epic will of the wisps might belong to the genre metroid and castlevania created but movement is what makes ori special 17 shovel knight yacht club games release date june 2014 developer yacht club games platforms pc nintendo 3ds wii u ps3 ps4 ps vita xbox one nintendo switch what is it he s a knight he s armed with a shovel meet shovel knight that s pretty much all you need to know apart from the fact that he can use his weapon to whack enemies dig up treasure and bounce off enemies heads as he sets out to rescue his lost partner shield knight he s also a knight he s armed with oh you get the picture article continues after ad article continues after ad why we like it shovel knight looks so convincingly like an nes game that you d be forgiven for thinking someone found an unreleased cartridge from 1989 its chunky sprites limited color palette and chiptune soundtrack deliberately evoke games like mega man and ducktales with the latter providing the inspiration for shovel knight s ability to bounce around on his weapon but shovel knight isn t simply pretending to be an old nes game it s not irritatingly tricky enough for that there are checkpoints throughout each stage so one mistimed jump doesn t mean doing the whole thing again although you can smash them for extra treasure if you fancy making life considerably harder for yourself die and you ll also drop some of your treasure tempting you back towards whatever killed you in the first place article continues after ad shovel knight understands what was brilliant about 8 bit platformers without treating every limitation of the era as something worth preserving it looks like an nes game sounds like an nes game and frequently challenges you like one it s just considerably less likely to make you throw your controller at the wall 16 littlebigplanet 2 media molecule release date january 2011 developer media molecule platforms ps3 what is it littlebigplanet 2 looks like someone built an entire platform game by hand its worlds are constructed from cardboard fabric wood string sponge and stickers while its hero sackboy looks like he s been stitched together from whatever was left over you guide him through this homemade universe by running jumping swinging and grabbing onto anything within reach article continues after ad why we like it the original littlebigplanet had already introduced sackboy its wonderfully homemade world and the ability to create and share levels of your own the sequel was bigger and more ambitious in almost every way littlebigplanet 2 was already a wonderfully inventive platformer before you touched its creation tools media molecule s story mode sends sackboy through factories laboratories and even the inside of a giant spaceship introducing new gadgets and ideas along the way but the levels media molecule made were only the beginning article continues after ad players created millions more with littlebigplanet 2 s expanded creation tools being used to make platformers shooters racing games rpgs and puzzles as well as recreations of everything from super mario bros to street fighter even if you never created anything yourself there was seemingly always something new to play littlebigplanet 2 took everything that made the original special and turned it into something much bigger a platformer that could become almost any game its players could imagine article continues after ad 15 mega man x capcom release date december 1993 developer capcom platforms snes what is it mega man had already spent six games running jumping and blasting robots on the nes before the series was reinvented for the snes set around a century later the original mega man has presumably earned his retirement with a new blue hero called x taking his place his job is to defeat eight rogue robots known as mavericks steal their abilities and eventually take on their leader sigma why we like it after the original mega man games x immediately feels faster and more athletic he can cling to and scramble up walls while an early upgrade gives him the ability to dash across the ground put the two together and stages can be built around movement that simply wasn t possible before with x bouncing between walls launching himself across huge gaps and using his extra speed to race through hazards there are clever ideas beyond the new moves too defeating one maverick can actually change another s level beat chill penguin and flame mammoth s blazing factory freezes over for example you can tackle the bosses in different orders hunt down hidden upgrades and collect new weapons from every maverick you defeat giving you plenty of reasons to experiment with a different route next time mega man x didn t throw away what had made the nes games great it kept the platforming memorable bosses and brilliant weapon stealing idea then gave its new hero a completely different freedom of movement x might look a lot like the mega man he d replaced but controlling him was another matter entirely 14 oddworld abe s oddysee oddworld inhabitants release date september 1997 developer oddworld inhabitants platforms playstation pc what is it abe is a lowly factory worker at rupturefarms who accidentally discovers that his employers have come up with a horrifying solution to falling profits turn abe and his fellow mudokons into their latest meat product understandably keen not to end up in a packet abe escapes and sets out to rescue the 99 workers he s left behind why we like it abe is one of gaming s great unlikely heroes he can t bounce on enemies or pull out an enormous gun when trouble arrives most things in oddworld can kill him very quickly so getting through rupturefarms means sneaking past guards possessing enemies and working out how to get abe and his fellow mudokons through increasingly elaborate traps alive and those mudokons aren t clever enough to rescue themselves gamespeak lets abe communicate with them using simple commands calling them over telling them to wait or getting their attention with a cheerful hello guiding a group towards a portal without accidentally leading them into a meat grinder is considerably harder than it sounds abe s oddysee is funny bleak and grotesque but it also tackles themes of slavery exploitation and industrial greed without losing its sense of humor the game makes its point pretty loudly while also making fart jokes 13 yoshi s island nintendo release date august 1995 developer nintendo platforms snes what is it baby mario has been separated from baby luigi by the magikoopa kamek leaving a group of yoshis to reunite the brothers and deliver them to their parents yoshi can swallow enemies turn them into eggs and fire them around levels while mario spends most of the adventure riding safely on his back get hit though and baby mario floats away in a bubble and starts crying until you rescue him why we like it how do you follow the best selling game on the snes nintendo s answer was to give mario a nappy stick him on the back of a green dinosaur and have him scream his head off whenever anything goes wrong it was quite a departure from super mario world yoshi s island looks like a children s coloring book brought to life with scribbled backgrounds crayon like scenery and enemies that squash stretch and wobble around the screen yoshi handles completely differently from mario too his flutter jump lets you hang in the air for an extra second and enemies can be swallowed turned into eggs and fired at others collect items and hit switches adding a little puzzle solving to the usual running and jumping and then there s baby mario his piercing cry when yoshi gets hit has annoyed generations of players but that s precisely why it works losing him instantly turns whatever you were doing into a panicked scramble to get him back before the timer reaches zero yoshi s island could easily have been super mario world with a new set of levels instead nintendo gave mario a supporting role and created a platformer with an identity entirely of its own 12 celeste maddy makes games release date january 2018 developer maddy makes games platforms pc ps4 xbox one nintendo switch what is it madeline has decided to climb celeste mountain despite having little mountaineering experience and a considerable amount of emotional baggage reaching the summit means navigating hundreds of increasingly fiendish platforming challenges with a wonderfully simple set of moves jump climb and dash through the air why we like it you will die a lot in celeste hundreds of times probably thousands if you go looking for its hardest challenges but remarkably it rarely feels like the game is wasting your time rooms are short restarts are almost instantaneous and every death puts you straight back in front of the obstacle that just killed you that makes it dangerously easy to fall into the one more go trap a room that initially looks impossible gradually becomes manageable as you work out where to jump when to dash and which wall you need to cling to until eventually you fly through something that had been killing you repeatedly five minutes earlier there s more going on than simply getting to the top too madeline s struggle with anxiety and depression follows her up the mountain eventually taking physical form as another version of herself celeste never lets that story overwhelm the platforming but it gives all that falling down and trying again a purpose beyond reaching the next screen celeste is tough but for a game about persistence it s fitting that however much you feel like you re being punished you always want to get back up and try again 11 banjo kazooie rare release date june 1998 developer rare platforms nintendo 64 what is it a bear called banjo and a bird called kazooie set off to rescue banjo s sister tooty after she s kidnapped by the witch gruntilda who plans to steal her beauty banjo does most of the running around while kazooie spends much of the adventure living in his backpack occasionally popping out to peck enemies fire eggs or carry the pair around on her spindly legs why we like it rare was on fire during the n64 era fresh from the incredible fps action of goldeneye the british developer gave us another platforming classic to play after super mario 64 with banjo kazooie its world is so packed with things to do it makes you forget your initial travel plans you might head across treasure trove cove towards a jiggy only to spot a stranded jinjo discover a flight pad or wonder why there s an enormous sandcastle sitting in the middle of the level ten minutes later you re somewhere completely different and the jiggy you originally went looking for remains untouched clanker s cavern revolves around an enormous mechanical shark chained beneath gruntilda s lair freezeezy peak has you clambering over a giant snowman while click clock wood lets you revisit the same enormous tree through four different seasons opening new routes and changing what you ll find there banjo and kazooie themselves make exploring even more fun banjo is the affable hero while kazooie is the sarcastic bird living in his backpack insulting characters and providing many of your best moves she lets you scramble up steep slopes fly across levels and fire eggs from both ends while mumbo jumbo can transform the pair into everything from a termite to a pumpkin to reach places they couldn t before 10 donkey kong bananza release date july 2025 developer nintendo epd platforms nintendo switch 2 what is it donkey kong goes underground in search of the planet s core alongside a young pauline smashing his way through enormous subterranean worlds filled with enemies secrets and a frankly irresponsible amount of destructible scenery dk can punch through walls rip chunks out of the ground and surf around on slabs of rock while collecting banandium gems unlocks new skills and makes him even more destructive why we like it donkey kong has been smashing barrels since 1981 but bananza finally lets him smash pretty much everything else too see something interesting on the other side of a wall punch through it need to get underground start digging want to climb a cliff you can tear chunks out of the rock to create your own route up that freedom completely changes how you explore rather than always looking around for the route nintendo intended you to take you can frequently make one yourself and because bananza hides fossils banandium gems and other secrets inside underneath and behind its scenery smashing the place to pieces rarely feels like pointless vandalism then there are dk s bananza transformations which let him turn into a super strong kong speedy zebra and flying ostrich opening up completely different ways to tear through each environment bananza is a joyous platformer and a spectacular return to 3d for donkey kong more than 40 years after his debut the big ape is still capable of delivering something completely new 9 crash bandicoot warped naughty dog release date october 1998 developer naughty dog platforms playstation what is it crash and his considerably smarter sister coco travel through time to stop doctor neo cortex and uka uka from taking over the world most levels send you along narrow 3d routes running into the screen towards the camera or occasionally from side to side as you jump over pits spin enemies and smash crates running towards the camera is particularly frantic as obstacles and holes appear with barely any warning forcing you to react to whatever suddenly arrives at the bottom of the screen why we like it 30 years on from crash bandicoot s debut the orange grinning marsupial is still thought of fondly while the original wasn t the best it established the formula that was built upon with the superior sequel cortex strikes back which added new moves more open levels and the ability to tackle s...