Best Platformer Games on Steam

A great platformer lives or dies on how it feels to move. The games here are the ones where the jump, the dash and the recovery are tuned so precisely that failure feels like your fault and every retry is instant — whether that means a mountain of one-screen challenges, a hand-animated run-and-gun, or a chaotic 2D playground built for speed. Most of them are linear rather than sprawling, so they are approachable completions, but the final achievements tend to be genuine skill tests: no-death runs, hidden collectibles and brutal optional levels. These are the platformers on Steam we think are most worth the blisters.

1

Celeste

The best-feeling 2D movement of the last decade, wrapped around a story about climbing a mountain and your own anxiety. Its assist mode makes it welcoming, and the B-sides and golden strawberries make the 32-achievement list a real climb.

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2

Cuphead

A run-and-gun boss rush drawn like a 1930s cartoon, where nearly every level is a multi-phase fight with hand-inked animation. Beautiful and unforgiving in equal measure, and the expert-difficulty achievements are among the toughest on this list.

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3

Pizza Tower

A momentum-obsessed platformer where the goal is to build speed, wreck everything and outrun your own escape timer. Its 74 achievements push you into P-ranks and secret rooms rather than just finishing levels.

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4

Psychonauts 2

The rare 3D platformer that is genuinely funny and genuinely thoughtful, with each level built around the inside of someone's mind. Collect-a-thon structure, but the level design ideas rarely repeat themselves.

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5

A Hat in Time

A warm, chaotic love letter to the Nintendo 64 era of 3D platformers, with a superb hat-based moveset and levels that constantly change genre. Easily the most charming game here.

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6

Rayman Legends

Ubisoft's 2D platforming high point: gorgeous hand-painted worlds, tight controls and music levels that turn a stage into a rhythm run. The Invasion time trials are where the achievement difficulty hides.

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7

Super Meat Boy

The game that defined the modern precision platformer, built entirely on instant respawns and hundreds of bite-sized death traps. Short levels, enormous difficulty curve, and a 48-achievement list that expects mastery.

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8

Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove

Four full campaigns in one package, each reworking the same 8-bit toolkit around a different character and moveset. With 138 achievements it is the biggest completion on this list by a distance.

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9

Neon White

A first-person speedrunning platformer where your weapons double as movement abilities, so every level is a puzzle about which cards to discard. Built for repetition — you will replay the same 40 seconds happily.

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10

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Three remade PlayStation-era platformers with modern visuals and their original stiff, demanding jump physics intact. Nostalgic, and much harder than most people remember.

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Updated 2026-08-26. Every game links to its full SteamVault page with achievement stats, rarity and community completion times.