Best Modern Platform Games That Use PS1 Graphics

Key Takeaways

• Super Kiwi 64 offers a simple yet fun platforming experience with Energy Cell collecting.
• Toree 3D is a colorful platformer with a plot revolving around retrieving Toree’s stolen ice cream.
• Pumpkin Jack delivers a Halloween-esque platforming adventure reminiscent of Tim Burton films.

Platforming games have been around almost as long as gaming, showing just how popular the genre is among veteran and younger players worldwide. Some developers prefer to focus their titles entirely on traversing from point A to point B while dodging obstacles, whereas others also combine platforming with combat.

This genre can be very versatile, as there are isometric platformers, side-scrollers, and many more options for developers to use and players to enjoy. While a lot of developers use modern hardware to give their games outstanding graphics, others prefer to appeal to the feeling of nostalgia of most players and use vintage designs. Here are some of the best modern platform games that use PS1 graphics.

7 Super Kiwi 64

A Fun Title That Looks Like Banjo-Kazooie

• Simple, yet fun premise
• Players must collect Energy Cells to get their plane back into flying shape

Super Kiwi 64 follows the story of a small brown Kiwi who sets out on an adventure. When its airplane crash-lands on a mysterious island, it realizes that it must collect Energy Cells to repair its plane and leave the island. While this title’s premise isn’t complicated by any means, it presents players with a very fun platforming experience that will have them collecting various items as they explore the island.

Despite being released in 2022, Super Kiwi 64 looks like something straight out of the PS1 or the Nintendo 64 era.

6 Toree 3D

Beautiful Color Palette That’s A Treat To The Eyes

• Toree’s ice cream is stolen by Glitchy
• A fun platforming experience

One of the greatest things about platformers that take inspiration from the PS1’s vintage games is that they often don’t take themselves or their plots too seriously—and that’s a good thing. The plot of Toree 3D revolves around Toree’s ice cream being stolen by the mischievous Glitchy, which prompts the former to traverse through various obstacles to recover it.

With a beautiful color palette and a few challenges for players to overcome, this title is very fun to play and is reminiscent of some of the best 3D games from the PS1 era.

5 Pumpkin Jack

A Fun Halloween-esque Adventure

• A Halloween-esque color palette combining tones of orange, green, and purple
• Noticeably inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Medievil franchise

Players who love Halloween-themed platformers will immediately be captivated by Pumpkin Jack. Not only is this title very fun to play, but it also looks like something straight out of a Tim Burton movie. With some noticeable inspiration taken from The Nightmare Before Christmas and the Medievil franchise, Pumpkin Jack delivers an outstanding platforming experience.

Granted, the graphics of this title do not really look like they came from the PS1 era, but they also don’t have that modern look that many current games feature, leaving it somewhere between vintage and contemporary.

4 Frogun

A Fun, Colorful Platformer With Beautiful Settings

• Renata explores the world with her best friend, a frog-shaped grappling hook
• The game features elements that could classify it as both a PS1 and a PS2 game

Like other titles on this list, Frogun doesn’t have a very complex plot, yet it manages to deliver an outstanding platforming experience to players. The game focuses on Renata, a little girl who travels through a mystical world with the help of her best friend, a frog-shaped grappling hook.

Although it could be argued that Frogun features the freedom and visual stylistic choices that could put it in the same category as 3D platformers from the PS2, it does retain other elements that make it fit this list and would have made it a great PS1 title as well.

3 Kaze and the Wild Masks

A Side-scroller With Much To Offer

• Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Windows, Linux, Google Stadia, macOS
• Released: March 26, 2021
• Developer(s): PixelHive
• Genre(s): Platform Game, Adventure Game
• Kaze accidentally unleashes a calamity upon her homeland
• The game starts off easy, but quickly raises the difficulty level

While the PS1 already featured some 3D platformers that allowed for many different choices in terms of where to move and how to explore the world, side-scrollers were also still very popular at the time. Kaze and the Wild Masks relies heavily on this and presents players with a fun side-scroller adventure full of different enemies, colorful areas, and interesting combat mechanics.

Although not the hardest platformer out there, this title is known for seeming simple at first and shifting into fifth gear within the first few hours, presenting players with considerable challenges early on.

2 Macbat 64

A Game That Aims To Combine All The Beloved Elements From Games Of A Golden Era

• Music, gameplay and bonus levels that are reminiscent of the Nintendo 64 and the PS1 era
• The game appeals greatly to the nostalgia of veteran players from the ’90s

While other games on this list seem to simply be inspired by PS1 graphics, Macbat 64 takes this to an entirely different level. This title not only has the classic look of games from the PS1 and the Nintendo 64 era, but also offers players gameplay, music and even bonus levels that feel true to the consoles.

Players who miss that nostalgic feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning and firing up their favorite PS1 game will love playing Macbat 64 and the various fun things it has to offer.

1 Lunistice

A Fun Adventure Through A Mind’s Interesting Dreams

• Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Windows
• Released: September 2, 2022
• Developer(s): A Grumpy Fox
• Genre(s): Platform Game, Adventure Game
• Vibrant color palette
• The various settings in Hana’s dreams feel unique and complete

Lunistice is a vibrant and lively platformer that focuses on Hana the Tanuki on an adventure through her dreams. Like other platformers, this title is fairly linear, but that does not mean that it’s not fun or that it lacks elements to make it interesting.

Although it’s evident that the game was designed to look like a vintage title rather than actually feeling like one, it’s still a blast to explore Hana’s dreams and face the various challenges players will encounter along the way. Moreover, the color palette is gorgeous and works very well with the overall concept.