These 3D platformers are some of the best you can play

For every era and generation of gaming that has come and gone, platformers have always been there at the forefront — shaping childhoods, genres, and entire consoles. 2D platformers offered tight controls and pixel-perfect fun that felt natural, but as we entered the era of polygons, not every platformer took the transition well. 3D platformers, for all their ambition, were rarely as precise or expansive as 2D platformers and Metroidvanias.

Some either aged terribly, or were just fundamentally awkward from day one and rarely carried over the mechanical precision of their 2D counterparts. Take Enter the Dragonfly, or even the Ratatouille game, if you will. Finding a 3D platformer that nails the mechanics, the camera, and the movement, is like catching lightning in a bottle. And the ones that do it right? They deserve a permanent spot in the hall of fame.

5

It Takes Two is co-op platforming at its finest

One of the greatest modern co-op games made

I waited years to play It Takes Two. Not because I couldn’t, but because I wouldn’t. At least not until I could play it with my partner after introducing her to gaming. When that time finally came, this was the very first game I bought. And I don’t say this lightly — not only is It Takes Two one of the greatest co-op games of all time, but it’s also one of the best modern platformers you can treat yourself to.

But beyond the emotion, the game itself is a masterclass in 3D platforming. It constantly reinvents itself, throwing new mechanics, environments, and themes at you. It’s as if the game is trying to outdo itself with every level, and it works beautifully. There’s never a dull moment, and never a mechanic that overstays its welcome. It’s tight, fluid, absurdly creative, and effortlessly heartfelt — making it not just a great 3D platformer, but a celebration of gaming’s ability to connect.

It Takes Two

Released

March 26, 2021

ESRB

T for Teen: Animated Blood, Comic Mischief, Fantasy Violence, Language

Developer(s)

Hazelight Studios

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Engine

Unreal Engine 4

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Local Multiplayer

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4

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is a PS5 flex

A fantastic modern platformer that taps into the PS5’s power

Ratchet & Clank has always been about high-octane chaos, and Rift Apart was a special breed of 3D platformers. It was the first game in the franchise to come out for the PS5, and every step it took was its best foot forward. The game turns the dial to 11 while still making sure you never lose track of what you’re doing. It’s the kind of game that feels tailor-made to show off your hardware — and yet, underneath all the flashy dimensional rifts, SSD wizardry, and ray-traced bolts, it’s still just a rock-solid 3D platformer that knows exactly how to pace itself.

I played Rift Apart for a little over 4 hours — the exact time it took for my PS5 to download The Last of Us Part II Remastered, but boy was I blown away. The combat is crunchy, the movement is buttery smooth, and the platforming? It’s clean, generous, and smartly designed. You never feel like you’re wrestling the camera or second-guessing your jumps. Rift Apart feels like what the genre always wanted to be — huge, cinematic, full of toys, but built on a foundation of refined platforming mechanics. It’s comfort food with cutting-edge sauce.

Publisher

Sony (Video Game Company)

Genre

Platformer (Genre)

Platform

PC, Playstation 5

Released

June 11, 2021

Rating

E10+

The latest game in one of PlayStation’s longest-running, kid-friendly series, Rift Apart sees Ratchet and Clank hopping across dimensions.

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3

Mirror’s Edge broke the mold but remained underrated

An exploration of how far a 3D platformer could go

Alright, sure — Mirror’s Edge isn’t a ‘traditional’ platformer. It’s a first-person parkour game with action elements peppered in. But play it for more than five minutes, and you’ll feel just how important platforming is to the soul of this game. It’s everywhere — in the momentum, in the physics, and especially in the jumps you barely stick the landing on.

Thanks to its wonderful art style and slick gameplay, Mirror’s Edge is one of the few games that have aged remarkably well, even seventeen years after release. What really sold me, though, was the aesthetic. The minimalism. The way the world looked fast and clean, like a dream about speed. And while the combat might’ve been a bit clunky, everything else — from vaults to wall-runs — just clicked. It inspired a whole wave of games after it, including one of my all-time favorites, Dying Light. And for good reason — because Mirror’s Edge made movement the main mechanic, and in doing so, showed us just how thrilling that could be in 3D.

Mirror’s Edge

Released

November 11, 2008

ESRB

T For Teen due to Blood, Language, Violence

Developer(s)

DICE

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

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2

Astro Bot became a surprising smash hit last year

From a hardware demo to a full-fledged Game of the Year

This little guy — Astro Bot didn’t just come out of nowhere — it came from inside a tech demo. And yet here we are, in a time when Astro’s Playroom went from being a hardware tutorial to becoming Astro Bot — the 2024 Game of the Year. That’s the glow-up of the decade, if nothing else. Astro Bot gives players a plethora of brilliantly-designed levels to explore at their pace, rife with tight platforming and forgiving sequences.

What makes Astro Bot such a masterpiece is that it never forgets to be fun. It’s not just a brilliant platformer — it’s a joyous celebration of everything we love about games. It uses the PS5’s features in clever, meaningful ways, but never lets gimmicks overshadow gameplay. It’s tight, colorful, inventive, and full of heart. Every jump, every punch, every collectible — it’s designed to delight. This is what happens when developers remember that fun isn’t a dirty word — it’s the point.

Astro Bot

Systems

Released

September 6, 2024

ESRB

E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence

Developer(s)

Team Asobi

Publisher(s)

Sony Interactive Entertainment

Engine

Proprietary Engine

Franchise

Astro Bot

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1

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Kickstarted one of the greatest modern gaming trilogies ever

I’ll never forget the first time I tried to run Sands of Time on my PC and failed miserably. Meanwhile, the sequel, Warrior Within ran fine, and that too, without a GPU. That confusion led to days of pleading and eventually getting my first discrete GPU — the glorious ATI Radeon HD 5670. The game? It finally ran, and took me into a world of starry skies, sand monsters, beautiful platforming and wall-running… so much wall-running.

Sands of Time wasn’t just a game — it was the standard for cinematic 3D action platformers in 2004. The fluid wall-running, the time-rewinding, the climbing puzzles — it all felt like magic. Platforming in this game wasn’t just about movement, it was about momentum, rhythm, and grace. It made you feel like a master acrobat even when you were just barely scraping by. To this day, it remains one of the most elegantly designed 3D platformers ever made. Plus, it laid the foundation for the entire Prince of Persia trilogy, which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest modern gaming trilogies, having eventually birthed the Assassin’s Creed franchise as we know it, too. Wherefore art thou, old Ubisoft, and where is the remake?

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Other great 3D platformers laid the foundation for these games

There are plenty of other 3D platformers that deserve love. Super Mario Galaxy, Psychonauts, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, and Banjo-Kazooie — the early 2000s were stacked with games that defined and refined what 3D platforming could be. This list? It’s not a definitive ranking. It’s a celebration of a genre that has evolved, twisted, and branched out into unexpected territory, all while surviving the awkward camera angles and janky controls of its early days.

These games show that when the stars align — tight movement, good design, and some creative spark — 3D platformers can be just as precise, emotional, and unforgettable as anything else in gaming.