3D platformers index and rough ranking

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


1. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Super Mario 64
3. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
4. Ape Escape
5. Rayman Revolution
6. Sonic Adventure 2
7. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
8. Super Mario Odyssey

A-tier; good ideas well-executed, challenging and rewarding


9. Castlevania (64)
10. Candleman
11. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
12. Super Mario 3D Land
13. Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
14. Maximo: Army of Zin
15. Sonic Generations
16. Jak & Daxter
17. Spyro the Dragon
18. Super Mario Galaxy 2
19. Jumping Flash! 2
20. Bomberman Hero
21. Rayman 3D
22. Banjo-Kazooie
23. Adventures of Cookie & Cream


? tier; both great and terrible


24. 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.
25. 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.

B-tier; solid but dominated by better alternatives


26. Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
27. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
28. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
29. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon - Fantastic story and a decent world structure, strong theming to the platforming but simple and with very limited movement
30. Super Mario Sunshine
31. Wario World
32. Sonic Heroes
33. Super Mario 3D World
34. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
35. Ape Escape 2
36. 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!
37. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
38. Rayman 2 (PS1)
39. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
40. Jumping Flash! - identical to its sequel, with a less challenging "hard" mode.
41. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
42. Kirby and the Forgotten Land

C-tier; ones you can learn to live with, if you so choose


43. 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.
44. Crash Bandicoot - Rudimentary and one-dimensional, but very well-made and fluid.
45. Psychonauts - Not any fun to play or mechanically challenging, but the metaphorical level design is earnest and thoughtful. The anti-Bandicoot.
46. Pac-Man World - Glaringly inconsistent and full of jank, with respectably element-focused level design.
47. 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
48. Mega Man X7 - Alternatingly painful and impressive.
49. American McGee's Alice
50. Sonic: Lost World

D-tier; mechanically unsound and unpredictable; far more irritation than value


51. 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.
52. 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.
53. Medievil - The jankiest game on this list, with all kinds of random interactions and glitchy behavior. 
54. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy - Crash is a tightly mechanical near-rhythm platformer. An adaptation that changes the tuning and nothing else is insane.
55. 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.

Notable gaps I'll probably one day cover 

(red = in progress)

1. Ape Escape 3 - I liked 2, but it was unremarkable compared to the first.
2. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg - It's Yuji Naka, but it's also Billy Hatcher.
3. Bionic Commando ('09) - If this counts, do I need to include Spider-Man games?
4. Donkey Kong 64 - About 15% complete. Gruelingly boring, flat, and repetitious
5. Epic Mickey - Depends on Epic Mickey 2. I got that one free.
6. Epic Mickey 2 - Dubious, but it's a late representative.
7. Frogun - etc
8. I-Ninja - Wild-card.
9. Jak 3 - The Sony sequel mantra was "simplify the platforming and add minigames", so this is dubious.
10. Mirror's Edge - Major gap. Potential gateway to other FPPs like Cloudbuilt and Clustertruck.
11. Pac-Man World 2 - Wildcard.
12. Prince of Persia ('08) - A dead end, but worth a look.
13. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii) - The 360 one went too far brawler to qualify.
14. Rocket: Robot on Wheels - Wildcard. Would need to emulate.
15. Shinobi ('02) - About 80% through, and not sure it counts.
16. Sly 2: Band of Thieves - About 30% through. Hardly qualifies.
17. Sonic Unleashed - Werehog.
18. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - Similar-looking sequel.
19. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz: HD - About 95% through.
20. Vexx - About 80% through.

Notable gaps I'll probably never cover

1. Banjo-Tooie - I don't love Rare and hear this is even more distracted than Kazooie.
2. Bubsy 3D - I probably should.
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Banjo-Kazooie's aesthetic is already hard enough to stomach.
4. Pac-Man World 3 - Depends on Pac-Man World 2.
5. Prince of Persia 3D - Need a way to play it.
6. Ratchet & Clank - The three I've played are *so* similar, even if this is the original.
7. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves - depends on Sly 2.
8. Sonic the Hedgehog ('06) - If it wasn't for the load times I'd suffer through.
9. Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Depends on Spyro 2, but knowing Insomniac...
10. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - infuriatingly, this is not the same game as the HD one.
11. Yooka-Laylee - we'll have to see how the new wave of 3D platformer fangames fares.

Others that exist

1. 40 Winks
2. A Hat in Time
3. Balan Wonderworld
4. Blue Fire
5. Chameleon Twist
6. Chameleon Twist 2
7. Cloudbuilt
8. Clustertruck
9. Croc
10. Croc 2
11. Crash: Twinsanity
12. Geograph Seal
13. Gex 3D
14. Glover
15. It Takes Two
16. Jett Rocket
17. Medievil 2
18. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
19. Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
20. Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
21. Scaler
22. Shadow the Hedgehog
23. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
24. Sonic and the Secret Rings
25. Sonic Colors
26. Sonic Forces
27. Tonic Trouble

Master list

1. 40 Winks
2. A Hat in Time
3. Adventures of Cookie & Cream
4. American McGee's Alice
5. Ape Escape
6. Ape Escape 2
7. Ape Escape 3
8. Balan Wonderworld
9. Banjo-Kazooie
10. Banjo-Tooie
11. Bionic Commando ('09)
12. Blue Fire
13. Bomberman Hero
14. Bubsy 3D
15. Candleman
16. Castlevania (64)
17. Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
18. Chameleon Twist
19. Cloudbuilt
20. Clustertruck
21. Conker's Bad Fur Day
22. Crash Bandicoot
23. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
24. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
25. Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
26. Crash: Twinsanity
27. Croc
28. Croc 2
29. De Blob
30. De Blob 2
31. Donkey Kong 64
32. Epic Mickey
33. Epic Mickey 2
34. Gex 3D
35. Geograph Seal
36. Glover
37. I-Ninja
38. It Takes Two
39. Jak & Daxter
40. Jak 2
41. Jak 3
42. Jett Rocket
43. Jumping Flash!
44. Jumping Flash! 2
45. Kirby and the Forgotten Land
46. Maximo: Army of Zin
47. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
48. Medievil
49. Medievil 2
50. Mega Man X7
51. Mirror's Edge
52. Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
53. Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
54. Pac-Man World
55. Pac-Man World 2
56. Pac-Man World 3
57. Prince of Persia ('08)
58. Prince of Persia 3D
59. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
60. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
61. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
62. Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
63. Psychonauts
64. Ratchet & Clank
65. Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
66. Ratchet & Clank Future: Into the Nexus
67. Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
68. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
69. Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando
70. Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
71. Rayman 2 (PS1)
72. Rayman 3
73. Rayman 3D
74. Rayman Revolution
75. Rocket: Robot on Wheels
76. Shadow the Hedgehog
77. Shinobi ('02)
78. Sly 2: Band of Thieves
79. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
80. Sly Cooper & the Thievious Raccoonus
81. Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
82. Sonic Adventure
83. Sonic Adventure 2
84. Sonic and the Black Knight
85. Sonic and the Secret Rings
86. Sonic Colors
87. Sonic Forces
88. Sonic Generations
89. Sonic Heroes
90. Sonic Lost World
91. Sonic the Hedgehog ('06)
92. Sonic Unleashed
93. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage
94. Spyro the Dragon
95. Spyro: Year of the Dragon
96. Super Mario 3D Land
97. Super Mario 3D World
98. Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury
99. Super Mario 64
100. Super Mario Galaxy
101. Super Mario Galaxy 2
102. Super Mario Odyssey
103. Super Mario Sunshine
104. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
105. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD
106. Tonic Trouble
107. Vexx
108. Wario World
109. Yooka-Laylee