A platformer stands or falls on the jump. Everything else — collectibles, worlds, story — is decoration on top of whether moving your character feels good in the first ten seconds. This is the one genre where you can judge a game almost immediately.
What makes a good one
Whether the move set is complete early. The great platformers give you everything in the first level and spend the rest of the game asking better questions of it. The weak ones drip-feed abilities to disguise thin level design.
3D collectathons
A hub, worlds you re-enter, and things to find in all of them. The genre Mario 64 invented and Banjo perfected.
- Super Mario 64 — The moveset is still the deepest thing about it.
- Banjo-Kazooie — Denser with things to find than anything since.
- Spyro the Dragon — The gentle one — no difficulty, just a level to sweep clean.
Modern 3D platformers
Tighter controls, better cameras, and levels built around one idea each.
- Super Mario Odyssey — Capture gives you a new set of verbs every few minutes.
- Astro Bot — The best-feeling platformer of the last decade, and short by design.
- Psychonauts — Every level is somebody's mind, so no two play alike.
2D, where precision is the point
Single screens, instant restarts, and a movement system to master rather than a world to explore.
- Super Mario World — Secret exits turn the map itself into the puzzle.
- Wario Land 4 — You cannot die; the timed escape run is the pressure.
- Donkey Kong Country — Precision platforming with a secret in nearly every level.
Common mistakes
- Judging a collectathon by its collectible count. Banjo-Tooie has more than Banjo-Kazooie and is the more tiring game.
- Playing a 3D platformer from before analogue cameras settled without adjusting expectations. The camera is usually the only thing that has aged.
- Skipping the optional levels in a precision platformer. That is where the actual design lives.
Questions
What is a collectathon?
A 3D platformer where the levels are full of things to find and finding them is the progression — Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, Yooka-Laylee. Super Mario Odyssey is the modern version, made far more generous.
Which platformer has the best controls?
Celeste in two dimensions and Astro Bot in three are the usual answers, and both are unusually kind about difficulty.
Are platformers good for kids?
Most of them, yes — and the ones with assist modes, like Celeste and Super Mario Bros Wonder, let a child and an adult play the same game at different difficulties.
