Best 2D Platformers On PlayStation 5

Summary

• Super Meat Boy offers addictive, tough-as-nails 2D platforming with precision challenges.
• No Time To Explain offers a unique experience with lasers and a mental challenge.
• Little Nightmares combines survival horror with stealthy platforming in an atmospheric world.

2D platforming isn’t as popular as it once was at the advent of home console gaming when it was a common blueprint for game design. Today, the genre is more commonly associated with Nintendo and its family-friendly mascots, but many great platforming titles still find a home with PlayStation.

While the PS5 is best known for its many stellar AAA titles that focus more on graphics and story, it still has an impressive collection of classic platformers, inspired by those days of yore that offer a wide variety of challenges and immersive atmospheres. For platforming fans without a Nintendo Switch in their life, consider these the best 2D platformers on the PS5.

10 Super Meat Boy

Tough As Nails Indie Darling

Super Meat Boy is starting to show its age a bit, but the indie darling remains as addictive and satisfying as ever. The tough-as-nails approach to platforming sees players narrowly avoiding projectiles, lava, and saw blades (so, so many saw blades).

It features a super streamlined control scheme of two buttons — run and jump — with Meat Boy able to cling to walls for a short time to offer some respite and allow for vertical platforming. Players will need pixel-perfect precision to get to the end and rescue their beloved.

9 No Time To Explain

Intense Time Traveling Chaos

• Platforms: PC, Xbox One, PS4
• Developer: tinyBuild
• Released: August 15, 2011

This one’s a little closer to the heart than critically acclaimed, but for a truly unique and hilarious 2D platforming experience, No Time To Explain is well worth its brief runtime. The protagonist is armed with a trusty laser cannon used for both combat and traversal.

Firing into the ground propels the player into the air and is required to overcome most obstacles. Later in the game, players will unlock shotguns and grappling beams as the challenge becomes more precise and deadly. It’s another very hard game, but it is merciful with checkpointing.

8 Little Nightmares

Unsettling Horror Puzzle Platformer

Little Nightmares is more about the atmosphere than the platforming challenge, and it does an impressive job of bringing the survival horror genre to a 2D space. The horrors that inhabit the world of Little Nightmares are the central focal point of the level.

Their contorted frames are clearly visible as a colossal foreboding threat over most levels. The player is tasked with getting from point A to point B while avoiding their gaze through stealth platforming and the occasional panic-inducing sprint.

7 Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

Frenetic High Octane Metroidvania

Inspired by Mexican folklore, Guacamelee follows Juan, a humble farmer granted incredible Luchador powers by a fabled mask. The combat is based around this persona, with an array of punches, kicks, and grapples that can be strung together in interesting combos as the player levels up.

As a Metroidvania, some of the new skills learned will also come in handy for unlocking new areas. Narratively, Juan exists in both the land of the living and the dead, and players will shift between the two environments frequently for puzzle-solving and exploration, adding intriguing depth to the engaging platforming mechanics.

6 Sonic Mania

Old School Fun

After so many swings and misses from Sega to properly adapt Sonic the Hedgehog to the modern era, some dedicated fans took the task on themselves in the modding community. The fan-made games proved so robust in quality that Sega hired their creators to develop Sonic Mania, a fully licensed release.

Paying strong homage to the classic days of Sonic but revamped with the benefit of modern game design, Sonic Mania is the complete package for Sonic fans and a worthy platformer for those who are eager for a little less precision and a lot more speed.

5 Animal Well

A Mystery Wrapped In An Enigma

Animal Well really has to be experienced to be understood. The enigmatic Metroidvania proved a huge hit — despite involving no challenging combat or reflex testing platforming sections.

Instead, the challenge is a mental one as Animal Well‘s world unfurls into one giant puzzle of exploration, discovery, and trial and error. It’s a striking premise that’s not for everyone, but it is an experience still well worth trying for fans of 2D platforming.

4 Ori And The Blind Forest

Animated World

The first thing fans notice when booting up Ori and The Blind Forest is just how stunning it is visually. The game perfectly captures the emotional resonance of any popular animated movie, which really brings its colorful world to life.

Once invested, the game also proves mechanically robust, another Metroidvania design with some excellently choreographed intense platforming sections and some spectacular boss fights. Its sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, is just as engaging and heartfelt.

3 Limbo

Hauntingly Beautiful

Like Animal Well and Little Nightmares, Limbo is a game that excels in its immersive atmosphere. Doing a lot with a very minimalist art style, the game manages to be chilling and intriguing, explaining its narrative through deadly puzzle platforming and its haunting environments.

The mechanics are rather basic compared to some other high points in the genre, but Limbo is more about the experience, and it’s one that is sure to stay with the player when the credits roll.

2 Braid

Mario’s Time Machine

Braid is another game that wears its influences on its sleeve with enemy design reminiscent of Super Mario. The platforming physics are rather basic, with protagonist Tim only having a moderate jump at his disposal.

Where the game finds nuance in its challenge is through the time manipulation mechanics, with many elements and enemies on screen being fully rewindable. Braid puts the emphasis on puzzle platforming, with players required to manipulate the level to progress. Many of the latter challenges require split-second timing, making it a strange balance of a relaxing pace and precision platforming.

1 Celeste

Climb The Mountain

Celeste was acclaimed for its apt depiction of mental health struggles, with the protagonist Madeline struggling with her emotional mountain of anxiety represented by the physical mountain players are scaling in the game. It’s well worth experiencing the moving narrative, but Celeste also makes for an excellent and intensely difficult platforming challenge.

Madeline is equipped with a jump, dash, and the ability to cling to surfaces for a short amount of time. Obstacles come at the player fast with no room for error. To reach the end, players need perfect precision, but merciful and frequent checkpointing keeps the game from ever getting too frustrating. Once the main story is complete, players can unlock a series of increasingly difficult levels for the true sadists out there looking to take on the C sides.