Summary
There was once a time when the platforming genre dominated the home console market.Mascot characterslike Mario, Sonic, and Donkey Kong were driving forces behind not just the sales of their own games but the sales of their consoles. The genre continued to succeed when gaming made the switch from 2D to 3D in the late 90s;SonicandDonkey Kongstruggled to adjust in the long term, butMariocontinued to thrive, and new characters likeCrash BandicootandSpyrobegan to emerge.
Despite the eighth generation of consoles offering developers the opportunity to make games at an even larger scale than ever before, thePlayStation 4saw platformers, in particular side-scrolling platformers, make a return. The genre seems to have found its place in modern gaming by reducing its price to compensate for the lack of content in comparison to open-world adventures.
Updated on June 27, 2025, by Mehrdad Khayyat:Platformer is probably one of the most economical genres in gaming when it comes to hardware capabilities, but it also delivers a quite satisfying experience with endless innovations in gameplay.
It doesn’t matter how advanced the console hardware becomes in the future, the platformer games will continue to exist, and they will also make use of the new tech to make dreams come true. Things that have not been possible with the older tech.
20Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty!
Solve Puzzles And Survive The Evil Factory
Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty!is a remake of the original entry in the series,Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee,which was first released in 1997. The game comes with a 3D environment while keeping its core gameplay mechanics intact.
Like the original,New ‘n’ Tastyis a side-scrolling, cinematic platformer filled withtricky puzzles to solveand an excellent dark, atmospheric art design. A sequel was released in April 2021 titledOddworld: Soulstorm, though the game failed to impress fans and critics, it was still fun enough to be worth buying for anOddworldfan.
2016’sRatchet & Clankserved as a reboot of theRatchet & Clankseries, which began on the PlayStation 2 back in November 2002. As mentioned before, the PlayStation 2 era of gaming was a difficult time for platform games, as the industry was shifting more towardsaction-heavy titles. Insomniac Games found a great balance between action and platforming withRatchet & Clank, a winning formula that has served them well for nearly two decades now.
Ratchet & Clank(2016) was particularly praised by critics for its stunning visuals and art direction that made the game’s levels a joy to traverse. This version also set the foundation for future entries in a reinvented world. The gameplay mechanics were modernized in the reboot, and the storytelling was significantly improved.
TheCrash Bandicootseries' last few years have been a delight for fans of the franchise, with remakes for the beloved PlayStation 1 racing and platforming games being followed by a direct sequel to 1998’sCrash Bandicoot: Warped.The resurgence has given hope to those wanting to see their favorite childhood games getting a modern sequel and has been a prime example of how great remakes can be for an IP.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Timesees the series return to its corridor platforming roots, with a few moments of adult humor andbrutal difficulty levelthat shows the developers hadCrash’s older audience in mind when making the game.It’s About Timedelivers a nostalgic experience for the old-school fans ofCrash, especially when it used to be developed by Naughty Dog.
From one tricky platformer to another,Super Meat Boywas first released on Xbox 360 back in 2010 and was a pioneer of the indie platforming genre, which is thriving today. The game took platforming back to its roots with a side-scrolling perspective and small, contained levels while also implementing new ideas such as instant resets and the absence of lives which has become the norm in platforming today.
Super Meat Boyfinally received a sequel over ten years after its initial release, titledSuper Meat Boy Forever. However, that game struggled to impress with many people being put off by its auto-runner movement. Super Meat Boy is widely known as the Dark Souls of side-scrollers, and it really needs deep focus and dedication to complete the game without getting mad!
Originally released on Xbox One and PC in 2017,Cupheadfinally made its way to Sony’s console in 2017.Cupheadwas developed and published by Studio MDHR, who took inspiration from 30s cartoons for the game’s art style, whichwon Best Art Direction at The Game Awards 2017.
Except for a few run and gun levels scattered through the game’s overworld,Cupheadis essentially a boss rush. This doesn’t mean that the game is too simplistic or will be over quickly, though, asCuphead’s bosses provide some of the toughest challenges from the PS4’s lifecycle.
Released 12 years after the originalSpelunky,Mossmouth brought its 2D side-scrolling IP back to critical acclaim. The game puts the player in the shoes of Ana, the daughter of the first game’s protagonist.
Mossmouth kept the core gameplay ofSpelunky 2similar to the game’s predecessor but found ways of improving the pre-existing mechanics while also throwing in a few new ones. One new mechanic came in the form of ridable mounts, taking players back tothe nostalgic days of Mario and Yoshi. The core gameplay is aboutdigging through the terrainand completing objectives without dying to traps or hostile creatures.
Psychonauts 2is a rare case of a game published by Xbox Game Studios being available on the blue brand of console. PlayStation’s platforming fans were certainly thankful for this, asPsychonauts 2was not only one of the best platformers of 2021 but one of the best games of that year, period.
Like its predecessor,Psychonauts 2stands out with itscreative level designsand variety of psychic powers at the player’s disposal that lead to some ingeniously imaginative platforming sequences. The game also delivers a light-hearted but engaging story, something that Double Fine excels at.
Sonic Mania was originally released back in 2017 with the promise of returning to the roots by revisiting some of the older worlds and missions in the franchise. While the game was a fun experience, it didn’t manage to bring the old-school experience
Thankfully, SEGA didn’t leave the game and released an expanded version in 2018 named Sonic Mania Plus. This version added some new playable characters as well as a few new modes and some gameplay refinements.
Little Nightmares is one of the few games that managed to deliver a horrific adventure in the framework of a side-scroller platformer. The game follows a little child who wakes up in a doomed home and soon finds out they are surrounded by cannibals.
All three iterations of Little Nightmares manage to maintain a good balance between platforming puzzles and mysterious environment design, accompanied by some well-thought incidents to pump adrenaline into players.
The Metroidvania genre had a surprising but welcome resurgence during the eighth generation of console, as titles likeOri and the Will of the WispsandHollow Knightproved that the classic style of play had a place in modern gaming.
Dead Cellsis an extremely ambitious game that tried to combine a range of genres, including platforming, action, roguelike, and Metroidvania. The game was highly praised for how well it blended the many genres and for the design of its procedurally generated levels.
It’s a brutal roguelike that requires both fast reactions and good combat skills. However, the game is also quite punishing, as a single death will send the player back to square one!
