Summary
- Shovel Knight blends classic 8-bit style with modern gameplay systems, creating a retro-style throwback with ample bonus content.
- Rayman Legends offers multiplayer excitement with cute 'Lums', unlockable skins, bonus levels, and rhythm-based challenges.
- Ultimate Chicken Horse is a unique multiplayer platforming game where players create and complete challenging stages for points.
Since the inception of gaming, 2D platforming adventures have been a staple of the medium's landscape. Some of the most innovative and recognizable video games of all time, from the original Super Mario Bros. To Sonic the Hedgehog, fit into this category.
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Traversing dangerous terrain and completing tricky levels with movement and jumping makes for simple but exciting gameplay and, to this day, 2D platformers are released that capture the hearts of fans and become newfound classics in the genre. Here are some of the best 2D platforming games of all time.
11 Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
Retro-Style Throwback With Masses Of Bonus Content
Shovel Knight
- Released
- June 26, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Yacht Club Games
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
Shovel Knight is a love letter to older 8-bit platformers that carries over lots of newer gameplay systems to create a perfect blend of classic style with modern sensibilities. Players wield the titular shovel to go on an adventure to save Shovel Knight's old adventuring partner, Shield Knight. Along the way, players will be met with tricky bosses, precise platforming, and story beats that will require them to get to grips with the super-tight controls quickly.
The game received glowing praise and was followed up by story packs that reinvented whole elements of the gameplay, unleashing players on the same levels as bosses and side characters from the original story. Treasure Trove rolls every one of these bonus stories, and an extra four-player fighting title, into one huge bundle.
10 Rayman Legends
Collecting Lums Amid Magic And Music
Rayman Legends
- Released
- August 30, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Montpellier
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii U, PC, PS Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Stadia
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
2D platformers are often a canvas for developers to let players have their own fun in tricky situations. Making platformers multiplayer goes a long way towards having players share the excitement of the stages and allowing friends to sabotage each other. Rayman Legends has players saving cute little 'Lums' - light bugs that have been captured by enemies.
Plenty of unlockable skins and bonus levels add extra layers of challenge, and time trials and rhythm-based sections that require players to platform to the beat prove that the developers have a mastery of platforming games that is hard to match. The added multiplayer lets players punch and squabble to add extra silliness to the cartoony charm.
9 Ultimate Chicken Horse
Platforming Party Game
Ultimate Chicken Horse
- Released
- March 4, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
Another great multiplayer game that platforming fans have loved since its release, Ultimate Chicken Horse sees players getting points if they are the only player to make it to the end of a stage. Players take turns to add elements to the stage to make it harder, which means they have a hand in producing the platforming challenge itself.
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Players should try to make the stage hard enough that their opponents cannot complete it while ensuring it is still within their own ability. With plenty of unlocks, a solid online side to the multiplayer and plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, Ultimate Chicken Horse is a fresh take on competitive platforming.
8 Ori and the Blind Forest
Mystical Metroidvania
Ori and The Blind Forest
- Released
- March 11, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
Ori and the Blind Forest is an atmospheric adventure game where players explore a beautiful forest as a little spirit who has to platform through the decaying wood. With the standard Metroidvania focus on exploration and unlocking new abilities by discovering new areas, Ori uses plenty of movement abilities like jumping, climbing and gliding to traverse the map.
Players can upgrade Ori's abilities on their quest to save their home. Perfectly blending action and platforming, along with the ability to spend resources to place their own checkpoints, Ori is a perfect platformer for fans of immersive storytelling and platforming alike.
7 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Carefully Collecting With Baby Mario
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- Released
- October 4, 1995
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo EAD
- Platform(s)
- SNES, Nintendo Game Boy Advance
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
Yoshi's Island is a classic Super Nintendo game that was a strange sequel to Super Mario World. Instead of a focus on Mario himself, players were given control of Yoshi, who embarks on an adventure to save a baby Luigi while protecting baby Mario. When Yoshi is hit by enemies, players themselves suffer no damage. Instead, Mario is thrown from Yoshi's back, and players have a limited time to scoop him up again before Koopas steal the baby away.
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With a focus on finding hidden flowers and red coins across the stages, fans of the Mario series were able to use Yoshi's abilities for the first time. The game established Yoshi's signature floaty jump and egg-throwing abilities and, while tricky, is still recognized as one of the greatest games of all time.
6 Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Brilliant Platforming With The Blue Blur
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Released
- November 21, 1992
WHERE TO PLAY
After the massive success of Nintendo's biggest competitor, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released to widespread hype. Players could reach faster speeds, face off against bigger and badder bosses and even team up with a friend to tackle the stages as a pair. The second player controls Tails as the pair of heroes stop Doctor Robotnik from completing his 'Death Egg'.
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Keeping Sonic the Hedgehog's interesting health mechanic, where any number of rings will save Sonic from death when hitting obstacles, this sequel also introduces the ability to claim the Chaos Emeralds and turn into Super Sonic - running faster, becoming invulnerable and dashing through enemies while burning through rings. Before even considering the competitive multiplayer race mode, Sonic 2 deserves to be regarded as a highlight of platforming history.
5 Celeste
Madeline's Mental Health Mountain Retreat
Celeste
- Released
- January 25, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Extremely OK Games
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
Celeste has been rightly regarded as a masterpiece, and despite now being over five years old, the game still holds up as an incredibly modern-feeling platformer. Players must conquer 'Celeste', a huge mountain, using their platforming skills. While the game starts as a calm traversal of some puzzling platforming sections, it quickly spirals into a narrative about overcoming self-doubt and anxiety.
The protagonist, Madeline, faces off against the worst parts of herself that want her to give up and stop her adventure, but players fight on against genuinely difficult levels to help Madeline complete her little pilgrimage to prove to herself that she can. The tight controls and hypnotic difficulty only serve to hammer home the strong story and empower the heart-warming ending.
4 Sonic Mania
The Height Of Sonic Side-Scrolling
Sonic Mania
- Released
- August 15, 2017
WHERE TO PLAY
Headed up by developers who cut their teeth making Sonic fan-games and ROMs, Sonic Mania lets players take on new designs of classic levels and fresh reinventions of the Sonic formula side by side. Selecting between Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, players will rush through vibrant Zones with exciting and strange bosses waiting at the end of each Act.
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Races, like those in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, also feature as a multiplayer option. The simple story, music and level design led to this game being viewed as a return to form for Sonic fans and one of the best games in the whole of the series. Super Sonic and transformations for each of the other characters also feature to show off the cool factor of the Blue Blur and his friends.
3 Super Mario Bros. 3
New Power-Ups Saving Princess Toadstool
Super Mario Bros. 3
- Released
- October 23, 1988
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo R&D4
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Game Boy Advance
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
The third best-selling Nintendo Entertainment System game of all time, Super Mario Bros. 3 lets players choose to play as either Mario or Luigi in a quest to save the Princess from Bowser. This is all very standard for Mario fans. However, the third instalment stands apart for its precise platforming that controls incredibly well while providing a good challenge for experienced players. New power-ups let players take advantage of the verticality afforded by 2D platformers, with the Tanooki Suit allowing Mario to float over parts of the stage.
Introducing the Koopalings as bosses to defeat at the end of each World and plenty of powers that are now staples in the series, Super Mario Bros. 3 presents itself as a simple play with curtains opening on the game and bolted together sets. The whole package makes the game stand alone as the best title in its series.
2 Kirby Super Star
Variety Pack Of Fluffy Platformers
Kirby Super Star
- Released
- September 20, 1996
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- HAL Laboratory
- Platform(s)
- SNES
- Genre(s)
- Platformer
A single title that is made up of seven small games and some mini-games for good measure, Kirby Super Star lets players explore a simplified remake of the original title as well as new stories, a race mode, a grand-scale treasure hunting adventure and even a boss rush mode.
Kirby's classic copy abilities, his floaty jump and his ability to spawn a helper are all here, but in addition, Kirby can allow another player to control the helper, making a two-player platforming extravaganza for fans of the cutesy aesthetic. With a difficult-to-find re-release on the DS, Kirby Super Star is an impressive relic that few games today can compete with.