Somersault past robots, search furniture, "another visitor; stay a while, stay forever".
A run-and-gun of enormous levels and Chris Huelsbeck music; the C64 showing off.
Thirteen layers of parallax scrolling and a David Whittaker soundtrack; the Amiga demo everyone bought.
A boy in a football helmet with a pogo stick; the smooth scrolling that started id.
Two dragons trap monsters in bubbles across a hundred screens; the co-op that needs a second player for the real ending.
A skateboarding platformer in a pastel land; Roll7.
Four archers, one arrow each; the best local multiplayer game of its decade.
Ferry the dead to the afterlife, hug them and cook for them; the cosiest game about death.
Wario Land at 200 miles an hour, drawn like a 1990s cartoon; the 2023 indie.
Hand-drawn 2D platforming with four players; Ubisoft's art team let loose.
The Genesis Sonic made by fans, officially; the best Sonic since 1994.
A bard who sings instead of fights, saving the world with a colour wheel.
Yoshi carries baby Mario through a crayon world; the SNES platformer at its most inventive.
Toys for Bob's sequel with masks that flip gravity; harder than the originals.
One-hit kills, slow motion and a samurai on drugs; Askiisoft's neon.
A bird climbs a mountain to get phone signal; ninety minutes of kindness.
Retro Studios' hardest and best banana platformer.
Raz inside more heads; Double Fine's sequel sixteen years later, and better.
Kirby swallows a car in a post-apocalyptic mall; the 3D Kirby.
Run-and-gun bosses drawn like 1930s cartoons; hard and gorgeous.
Two writers trapped in each other's stories, co-op only; Hazelight's 2025 hit.
Madeline climbs a mountain and her anxiety; the platformer with an assist mode and a message.
Talking flowers and Wonder effects that turn levels inside out; the 2D Mario reinvented.
Dimension hopping with no loading; Insomniac shows off the PS5.
Mae drops out of college and comes home to a dying town of animals; a game about being 20.
A platformer of PlayStation history and the DualSense; the 2024 Game of the Year.
A divorcing couple shrunk into dolls, co-op only; Hazelight's 2021 Game of the Year.
Kirby made of wool in a world of felt; the softest platformer.
Randomly generated caves where everything kills you and it is always your fault; the roguelike platformer.
Three hundred levels of instant death and instant restart; the hard platformer.
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