UPDATE 5/24/22:
- added Kirby FL (vague ranking)
- added Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon after playing through the first dungeon. It's got some platforming
The following aren't ranked by core platforming gameplay alone, rather as complete experiences; great aesthetics benefit a platformer as much as any other game. As I add each game to the list, I ask myself: if I already possesssed all the games listed above, which of those remaining would I take next? Think of it like picking a kickball team. Every game ranked I have beaten from beginning to end! Most of them were 100%-cleared.
3D PLATFORM GAMES tier list sorta
- S-tier; which are unique and as close to perfect as one can ask
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario 64
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- Ape Escape
- Rayman Revolution
- Sonic Adventure 2
- Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Castlevania (64)
- Candleman
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Super Mario 3D Land
- Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
- Maximo: Army of Zin
- Sonic Generations
- Jak & Daxter
- Spyro the Dragon
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
- Jumping Flash! 2
- Bomberman Hero
- Rayman 3D
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Adventures of Cookie & Cream
- Sonic Adventure - What the fuck is going on here? But when the Sonic character gameplay is left alone it's a free-form experimental high speed analog genius. That's about 15% of the content included.
- De Blob - The idea of directly interacting with surfaces is a fantastic one for a platformer. The idea of a motion controlled jump is a diabolical one. The Switch version may be worth visiting.
- Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - Fantastic story and a decent world structure, strong theming to the platforming but simple and with very limited movement
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Wario World
- Sonic Heroes
- Super Mario 3D World
- Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
- Ape Escape 2
- De Blob 2 - De Blob already outlived its core idea, this is artifically distended even further with completion percentages and sidescrolling sublevels. Still a solid foundation, and there's a jump button now!
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
- Rayman 2 (PS1)
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
- Jumping Flash! - identical to its sequel, with a less challenging "hard" mode.
- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- Sonic and the Black Knight - The controls are a huge hurdle to get over and never more than 90% reliable - after that this is arguably the purest 3D speed-based Sonic game.
- Crash Bandicoot - Rudimentary and one-dimensional, but very well-made and fluid.
- Psychonauts - Not any fun to play or mechanically challenging, but the metaphorical level design is earnest and thoughtful. The anti-Bandicoot.
- Pac-Man World - Glaringly inconsistent and full of jank, with respectably element-focused level design.
- Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness - A completely ruined camera and redesigned stages that removes most of the challenging skill tests with easy but irregular and repetititious lilypad platforming
- Mega Man X7 - Alternatingly painful and impressive.
- American McGee's Alice
- Sonic: Lost World
- Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee - An alpha kit with fan created levels, always approximating ideas instead of creating them organically, though this is the one I am sorriest to rank so low.
- Rayman 3 - The direst expression of the 3Dplat's fatal flaw, combat. That it's supported only by poorly utilized power-ups and trivial jumping challenges is damning.
- Medievil - The jankiest game on this list, with all kinds of random interactions and glitchy behavior.
- Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy - Crash is a tightly mechanical near-rhythm platformer. An adaptation that changes the tuning and nothing else is insane.
- Jak II - One of the worst games I've ever played; utterly pointless meandering time-waster with arbitrary challenges as miserable balance. A tech showcase made unplayable.
A-tier; good ideas well-executed, challenging and rewarding
B-tier; solid but dominated by better alternatives
C-tier; ones you can learn to live with, if you so choose
D-tier; mechanically unsound and unpredictable; far more irritation than value
Notable gaps I'll probably one day cover
(red = in progress)
- Ape Escape 3 - I liked 2, but it was unremarkable compared to the first.
- Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - It's Yuji Naka, but it's also Billy Hatcher.
- Bionic Commando ('09) - If this counts, do I need to include Spider-Man games?
- Donkey Kong 64 - About 15% complete. Gruelingly boring, flat, and repetitious
- Epic Mickey - Depends on Epic Mickey 2. I got that one free.
- Epic Mickey 2 - Dubious, but it's a late representative.
- Frogun - etc
- I-Ninja - Wild-card.
- Jak 3 - The Sony sequel mantra was "simplify the platforming and add minigames", so this is dubious.
- Mirror's Edge - Major gap. Potential gateway to other FPPs like Cloudbuilt and Clustertruck.
- Pac-Man World 2 - Wildcard.
- Prince of Persia ('08) - A dead end, but worth a look.
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii) - The 360 one went too far brawler to qualify.
- Rocket: Robot on Wheels - Wildcard. Would need to emulate.
- Shinobi ('02) - About 80% through, and not sure it counts.
- Sly 2: Band of Thieves - About 30% through. Hardly qualifies.
- Sonic Unleashed - Werehog.
- Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - Similar-looking sequel.
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz: HD - About 95% through.
- Vexx - About 80% through.
Notable gaps I'll probably never cover
- Banjo-Tooie - I don't love Rare and hear this is even more distracted than Kazooie.
- Bubsy 3D - I probably should.
- Conker's Bad Fur Day - Banjo-Kazooie's aesthetic is already hard enough to stomach.
- Pac-Man World 3 - Depends on Pac-Man World 2.
- Prince of Persia 3D - Need a way to play it.
- Ratchet & Clank - The three I've played are *so* similar, even if this is the original.
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - depends on Sly 2.
- Sonic the Hedgehog ('06) - If it wasn't for the load times I'd suffer through.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Depends on Spyro 2, but knowing Insomniac...
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - infuriatingly, this is not the same game as the HD one.
- Yooka-Laylee - we'll have to see how the new wave of 3D platformer fangames fares.
Others that exist
- 40 Winks
- A Hat in Time
- Balan Wonderworld
- Blue Fire
- Chameleon Twist
- Chameleon Twist 2
- Cloudbuilt
- Clustertruck
- Croc
- Croc 2
- Crash: Twinsanity
- Geograph Seal
- Gex 3D
- Glover
- It Takes Two
- Jett Rocket
- Medievil 2
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
- Scaler
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
- Sonic and the Secret Rings
- Sonic Colors
- Sonic Forces
- Tonic Trouble
Master list
- 40 Winks
- A Hat in Time
- Adventures of Cookie & Cream
- American McGee's Alice
- Ape Escape
- Ape Escape 2
- Ape Escape 3
- Balan Wonderworld
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Banjo-Tooie
- Bionic Commando ('09)
- Blue Fire
- Bomberman Hero
- Bubsy 3D
- Candleman
- Castlevania (64)
- Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
- Chameleon Twist
- Cloudbuilt
- Clustertruck
- Conker's Bad Fur Day
- Crash Bandicoot
- Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
- Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
- Crash: Twinsanity
- Croc
- Croc 2
- De Blob
- De Blob 2
- Donkey Kong 64
- Epic Mickey
- Epic Mickey 2
- Gex 3D
- Geograph Seal
- Glover
- I-Ninja
- It Takes Two
- Jak & Daxter
- Jak 2
- Jak 3
- Jett Rocket
- Jumping Flash!
- Jumping Flash! 2
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land
- Maximo: Army of Zin
- Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
- Medievil
- Medievil 2
- Mega Man X7
- Mirror's Edge
- Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
- Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
- Pac-Man World
- Pac-Man World 2
- Pac-Man World 3
- Prince of Persia ('08)
- Prince of Persia 3D
- Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
- Psychonauts
- Ratchet & Clank
- Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
- Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
- Rayman 2 (PS1)
- Rayman 3
- Rayman 3D
- Rayman Revolution
- Rocket: Robot on Wheels
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Shinobi ('02)
- Sly 2: Band of Thieves
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
- Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
- Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
- Sonic Adventure
- Sonic Adventure 2
- Sonic and the Black Knight
- Sonic and the Secret Rings
- Sonic Colors
- Sonic Forces
- Sonic Generations
- Sonic Heroes
- Sonic Lost World
- Sonic the Hedgehog ('06)
- Sonic Unleashed
- Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
- Spyro the Dragon
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon
- Super Mario 3D Land
- Super Mario 3D World
- Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
- Super Mario 64
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
- Super Mario Odyssey
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD
- Tonic Trouble
- Vexx
- Wario World
- Yooka-Laylee