The 10 Greatest Platformer Video Games That Aren't Mario
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When it comes to video games, the Mario franchise is the undisputed king of... well, pretty much everything. It wouldn't be wrong to say that Mario himself is the most recognizable video game character of all time, becoming a familiar face the moment Nintendo first introduced him in the 1980s. Since then, he has appeared in hundreds of mainline games and spin-offs.
At heart, the Mario franchise is a platformer, meaning it's primarily about jumping between different points and traversing obstacles rather than fighting. It's a great franchise to be sure, but there are many other platformers that have come out over the years that have done just as good a job. These are the best platformer games that aren't part of the Mario universe or its associated franchises. Some are sci-fi, others are adventure, and all of them are endless fun.
10 'Mega Man Legacy Collection' (2015)
The origins of Mega Man can be traced all the way back to 1987, when the original 8-bit platformer came out. Since then, the game has seen numerous sequels, though many of them weren't really all that different from each other. The Mega Man Legacy Collection, released in 2015, is a compilation of the first six games in the franchise, released between 1987 and 1993.
These games are notoriously difficult. Every time you run out of lives, you'll have to start the entire game all over again. Not the level—the entire game. Back to square one. The sci-fi action hero that is Mega Man might be an iconic character, but boy, is this game a pain in the neck sometimes. The game excels in its boss fights, many of them centred on a particular theme like fire, ice, lightning, etc. While only the most patient gamers should try this one out due to its difficulty, it's still a pretty fun time.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn't be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you'd sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You're facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you're the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they'd pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you're in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What's yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
- You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
- You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn't ask for but can't escape.
- Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
- That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won't, is exactly you.
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you've always believed there's a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
- You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
- Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you've earned it.
- Kirk's genius isn't tactical — it's human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
- That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you're fearless, but because giving up simply isn't something you're capable of.
- You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
- You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you've never looked back.
- Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
- That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
- You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
- Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
- You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn't there.
- When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
- You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
- Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it's earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
- Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
- That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
9 'A Hat in Time' (2017)
Taking a look at A Hat in Time, you'd probably think it came out decades ago, but in fact, it's barely ten years old. This game was created as a retrospective bit of nostalgia, reflecting the trends of the late '90s and early 2000s. This means it's a 3D collection platformer with a modern twist, which is why the game found so much success with adult audiences: it represented a piece of their childhood that had been sorely missed.
You play as the Hat Kid, whose spaceship is on its way back to her home world. As she passes over a planet, the mafia approaches and demands she pay a toll just for passing by. When she refuses, the mafia removes the power source from her ship and scatters it all over the galaxy, prompting a massive search. You travel across several themed levels, collecting hourglasses and making friends, all while the nostalgia mounts. This game is a superb modern effort at recreating a bygone era, and an underrated masterpiece that needs more attention.
8 'Mirror's Edge' (2008)
Unlike most of the other entries on this list, Mirror's Edge is grounded in real-life physics. The story is set in a fictional, unnamed metropolis which, to be frank, is a dystopian nightmare. It is a police state with a heavy amount of surveillance, both physical and digital, spawning underground resistance movements. However, they cannot communicate via the internet or phone due to the mass surveillance, so they employ a network of athletic messengers known as "Runners."
You play as Faith, a Runner who becomes wrapped up in a conspiracy involving her sister, who is a police officer. In this first-person 3D platformer, you must climb, jump, shimmy, and sprint your way across the rooftops while avoiding the heavy police presence. It's all based on realistic parkour, only you're being shot at half the time. Combat does exist, but it isn't practical, and it's entirely optional; speed and agility are the name of the game. This game isn't commonly thought of as a platformer, but it certainly fits the bill, and it's absolutely awesome.
7 'LittleBigPlanet' (2008)
LittleBigPlanet is a PlayStation-exclusive puzzle-platformer that's all about creation. Each level on its own is a work of art, with environments constructed out of what appears to be cardboard, stickers, paper, and small models. The game allows players to collect stickers to use at their leisure, and even to create their own levels, which can then be uploaded for other players to try. Granted, this feature is kind of obsolete due to the servers being down, but the level creator still exists for players to use on their own.
You can create a custom character using unlockable costume pieces across a variety of beautiful, quirky, and thoughtfully constructed levels. Moreover, the game encourages you to play with friends, with some optional puzzles that are only available to two or more players. LittleBigPlanet is a happy game that will lower the heart rate and boost your spirits, and it's a phenomenally creative platformer to boot.
6 'Kirby Super Star' (1996)
The Kirby franchise is a classic Nintendo series about a pink puffball with the power to absorb his enemies. Specifically, Kirby can inhale the various enemies in the levels and swallow them to gain their abilities. Sometimes, this allows him to shoot lasers, wield weapons, or produce magical effects. On top of that, Kirby can fill himself with air and fly like a balloon across the levels, though this is no protection from flying enemies or enemies with ranged attacks.
While there are a lot of games in this series, Kirby Super Star is widely considered by long-time fans to be the absolute best 2D entry in the series. Originally released for the SNES before being remade for the DS, Kirby Super Star is a legendary and family-friendly game. Despite being a 2D platformer at its base level, it feels truly singular compared to any others. Even 30 years later, this game continues to impress.
5 'Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy' (2017)
The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a remake of the first three games in the series, which came out in the late 1990s. The game stars a bandicoot (a species of Australian marsupial) named Crash, who travels across various levels accompanied by his spiritual companion, Aku-Aku. Collecting Wumpa Fruit along the way, Crash must put a stop to the nefarious doctor Neo Cortex and his grand plans for world domination.
Remastered with improved graphics and additional challenges, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was exactly what Crash fans had been hoping for. It brought the franchise into a new era and introduced a proper and desperately needed sequel. While these games are notorious for being ridiculously hard at times, especially when it comes to pursuing optional challenges or 100% completion, that doesn't change the fact that it's still a timeless classic.
4 'Spyro Reignited Trilogy' (2018)
The Spyro franchise began as a PlayStation exclusive, but it gradually spread to other consoles as well. In 2018, the Spyro Reignited Collection was released, which consisted of the original three games, completely remade from the ground up. The levels and everything are still the same, but the graphics are much better, and there are a few added features in the form of challenges and a concept art gallery.
In each game, you play as Spyro the purple dragon, who must travel to various worlds and save them from the monsters plaguing them. Contained within are several minigames like ice hockey, skateboarding, whack-a-mole, and more. It's another 3D collection platformer, but it's one that does it so well. It's genuinely so much fun playing this game to 100% completion (and beyond), with cleverly done levels, gorgeous visuals, and plenty of secrets to uncover.
3 'Conker's Bad Fur Day' (2001)
Conker's Bad Fur Day is a game that looks like it's all sunshine and rainbows, but it's actually extremely mature. It's definitely not a game for kids, especially with its gruesome violence, foul language, sexual innuendos, and crude humor. That said, it still became a classic in the gaming world, earning its place as a standout entry on the Nintendo 64—and that's really saying something.
You play as Conker, a foul-mouthed squirrel who gets drafted for a war, only to get blackout drunk, waking up in a strange and mysterious land. Now, he must fight his way through many hideous and vile creatures in order to find his way home. Many of these villains are iconic—who could forget the first time they faced off against the Great Mighty Poo, a literal mound of doo-doo? It's a hilarious and raunchy game that is a testament to the trends of the era, which is why it's considered one of the finest platformers ever made.
2 'Sonic the Hedgehog' (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog was sort of Sega's response to the success of Mario. Instead of an Italian plumber, the game, as many know, is about a blue hedgehog named Sonic, who is incredibly speedy. Unlike in most platformers, where everything moves at pretty much the same pace, Sonic is all about momentum. You must use speed to your advantage, blazing through the levels whilst avoiding traps, collecting rings, and dodging enemies.
While the overall franchise has been a bit turbulent, famously producing some pretty terrible entries, the original game stands as a staple of the 1990s and the birth of one of the longest-running video game franchises. It even spawned several movie adaptations, which fans actually loved. Sega really struck gold when they released the first Sonic game, to the point where the blue hedgehog is easily their most iconic mascot.
1 'Banjo-Kazooie' (1998)
Banjo-Kazooie is a game by Rare, the same developers behind Conker's Bad Fur Day. Don't worry, though, because this game is most certainly for kids, but adults still enjoy it. In this 3D collection platformer, you play as Banjo, a bear whose sister is kidnapped by the evil witch Gruntilda. To save her, Banjo must team up with Kazooie, a fiery orange bird, travelling across the levels to collect puzzle pieces.
This franchise had a pretty depressing downfall when Microsoft bought it out, releasing a disastrous third game before never touching the IP again. However, the original game remains a timeless classic that's accessible and highly addicting for all ages. It's full of quirky humour, incredible level design, and hours of endless fun that no platforming fan should miss. It's easily the best platformer ever made aside from the Mario franchise.
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