Best Platforming Games of 2020

It’s officially the most magical time of the year, Twinfinite award season. Throughout the beginning of the year, we will be sharing our favorite games of 2020 with you. This time around we’re going to be taking a look at the best platforming games of 2020.

These games were a jump ahead of all other platforming games that released last year. All 2D and 3D platformers from 2020 were considered for the award, but only a select few made the cut.

The Best Platforming Games of 2020

Honorable Mention: Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Guides Editor Chris Jecks: Ori and the Will of the Wisps is not just one of the best platforming games of 2020, it’s one of the best games of the year hands down.

The game sees the adorable hero Ori embark on a quest through the forest, sprawling caves, vast deserts, and many more beautiful environments with their beloved owl buddy, Ku. 

With a beautiful hand-painted art style, the world comes to life in this fairytale story. But looks can be deceiving, and Ori’s wistful 2D visuals are just the delicious eye candy to this fiendishly challenging platformer. 

Doing away with the awkward save point system of its predecessor, Will of the Wisps instead focuses on pure platforming challenges. You’ll be bouncing off walls with pinpoint precision to avoid prickly obstacles on either side of a tiny safe haven of an uncovered wall.

Will of the Wisps also bucks the sequential upgrade system of the original title. You’ll instead unlock Shards as you progress, grinding buffs such as being able to stick to walls, or even ratcheting the difficulty up even further.

But it’s the combination of fantastic level design and precise controls that make Ori such a delight to play. Even if you do die over and over.

A particular high point that floods back to mind is when Ori is tasked with getting water flowing from a broken water mill. With each chunk of goo that Ori removes, the cogs of the mill begin to churn. The innards of the water mill become this ever-rotating puzzle that adds to its complexity, and the whole thing culminates in a race against the surging torrent of water Ori’s success.

I could go on for hours about Will of the Wisps’ fantastic boss battles, the intense platforming sequences towards the end of the game, the buttery smooth 120 FPS on Xbox Series X, the colorful cast of creatures, or the enormous map teeming with things to see and do. But you would be better off just downloading and experiencing it for yourself. You will not regret it.

The Best Platforming Games of 2020

Honorable Mention: Spelunky 2

Staff Writer Omar Banat: Most 2D platformers focus on running and jumping over obstacles horizontally to get from point A to point B. But the way that Spelunky 2 changes up this formula makes it one of the best platforming games of 2020.

If you’re an experienced 2D platformer player, then the verticality of the levels in Spelunky 2 is likely the first thing you’ll notice. Each stage starts out at the top of a cave and ends through a door at the bottom. It’s a simple concept that makes you completely rethink your approach to platforming.

Despite the verticality of Spelunky 2, any platformer player should still feel right at home as soon as they pick up the game thanks to the fantastically responsive and intuitive controls. There’s even a turkey that controls similarly Expresso in Donkey Kong Country.

On top of that, there are numerous tools and mechanics that help you overcome the more vertically-based challenges. Ropes and ledge grabbing can be used to ascend or safely descend without taking fall damage. Jetpacks and Teleporters are ridiculously powerful but are balanced by requiring a massive amount of money to purchase them.

Of course, you could always just steal them and risk getting killed by the shop keeper. But if you get good enough at it, then you might as well just take whatever you want.

If you’re having a hard time platforming, then offensive items are incredibly helpful in Spelunky 2 as well. Instead of the typical power-ups found in many platformers, this game features a handful of projectile and physical weapons that make it easier to take on the enemies you’ll encounter throughout your cave diving adventures.

And you’re going to need those items because Spelunky 2 is tough. This platformer/roguelike hybrid quickly teaches you that death will be a regular occurrence. The unforgiving obstacles push your platforming skills to their limits by forcing you to use everything at your disposal to safely navigate these caves.

What’s even more difficult is the fact that the levels in this game are randomly generated. The constant shifting of items, enemies, traps, and obstacles keeps players from coasting through levels which leads to a more enjoyable experience overall.

Spelunky 2 is an unapologetically difficult and extremely fun platformer that is absolutely worth checking out. This was undoubtedly one of the best platforming games of 2020 and its eventual release on Switch this year should only help it reach even greater heights in 2021.

The Best Platforming Games of 2020

Second Runner-Up: Sackboy: A Big Adventure

Staff Writer Omar Banat: After years of toiling away in two dimensions, everyone’s favorite plushie hero, Sackboy, finally made the jump into the third dimension last year. After the disappointment that was Little Big Planet 3, Sackboy: A Big Adventure was the spinoff that this franchise needed.

Even though Sackboy is a 3D platformer, the aesthetic, physics, and gameplay will still feel extremely familiar to fans of Little Big Planet. You can still use R2 to grab surfaces and as always, there are plenty of checkpoints throughout each level.

But the strangest thing is the fact that the physics now feels much better than it ever did in Little Big Planet. The floaty jumps that were a major negative in the original games feel so smooth and natural in Sackboy. Since precision 3D platforming is more complex than 2D, jumping around as the lightweight main character does not feel out of place.

And that is about where the similarities end.

Since Sackboy is now roaming around 3D levels, he picked up a few new moves as well. This precious plushie can now slap, jump on, or nose dive into enemies to defeat them and earn score bubbles and collectabells. But that’s pretty basic platforming fare.

The new power-ups are what make Sackboy one of the best platforming games of 2020. The Plasma Pumps essentially power up your regular attack set while adding a plasma projectile to your arsenal. Even better than that is the Whirl Tool. This boomerang-like projectile lets you hit targets in precarious locations that are impossible to reach by running and jumping.

All of that is great, but the most fun Power Up of all is the Snow Ball. Although your time with it is fleeting, this mix between a snow globe and a hamster ball is wildly fun to control. You can bowl right into enemies and roll right over obstacles that would normally knock you back to the previous checkpoint.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a fantastic and fun introduction to 3D platformers that long-time fans of the genre and franchise will enjoy. Sumo Digital’s gamble to focus on platforming instead of the creation that was so prevalent in Little Big Planet paid off massively.

The Best Platforming Games of 2020

Runner-Up: Astro’s Playroom

Deputy Guides Editor Tom Hopkins: 2018’s Astrobot Rescue Mission is arguably the best game on PSVR, but it’s also a fantastic platformer in its own right. Therefore, it made perfect sense that the loveable robot’s adventures would continue sooner rather than later and open up the series to a larger potential audience. 

Launching Astro’s Playroom as a pack-in with every PS5 was a great idea. Although it’s a tech demo wrapped up into a celebration of PlayStation’s history, this title is also a great game in its own right.

The levels are all meticulously well designed, Astro himself feels great to control, and the gameplay variety shows off exactly what your new DualSense controller is capable of.

Beyond all that though, it’s a loving ode to the brand’s 25-year-long history. There are easter eggs for PlayStation’s best and most loved series (and some obscure ones) around every corner and there are artifacts to find that remind us of all the wacky and inventive hardware Sony has released over the years.

Add in the incredibly catchy music, the GPU track being the best of the bunch, addictive time trials to complete once main levels are done, and a platinum trophy to chase, and it’s a more-than-complete package.

Astro’s Playroom is much more than a discardable free game. It’s a phenomenal platformer and one of the best platforming games of 2020.

The Best Platforming Game of 2020

Winner: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Editor in Chief Ed McGlone: Nobody could blame you for skeptical about Crash Bandicoot 4. Even after the phenomenal remasters of the original trilogy and Crash Team Racing (CTR), lots of old-school fans like myself needed to see a successful modern Crash Bandicoot game before we would believe it was real.

Ever since Naughty Dog moved on from the Crash games after releasing the original CTR, the series has not been the same. Other developers have not been able to recapture the feel of the original game. The tweaks and experiments to gameplay and level design just never panned out.

Crash Bandicoot 4, though, is a proper return to form for the beloved PS1 character. True to its name, it plays like the first real proper sequel to the original trilogy of platformers.

The gameplay feels almost identical to the original games. The physics, the design of the levels, and its difficulty all feel just right.

That is of course not enough for a proper sequel though, and Crash Bandicoot adds lots of new features. Powerful Quantum Masks allow Crash and Coco to use time-bending powers such as phasing items in and out of existence and slowing down time. Every time a new Quantum Mask power unlocks, it adds yet another layer to the title’s platforming gameplay.

Also, Crash Bandicoot 4 adds new playable characters: Tawna, Dingodile and Doctor Neo Cortex. Each character has their own distinct playstyle and of course, also offers up their own unique brand of platforming. For example, Tawna sports a grappling hook while Cortex can create platforms for him to use to get across gaps.

Crash Bandicoot 4 is just a tight platforming experience with a ton of content to chew through. Add that on top of being one of the most anticipated platformers in recent memory and actually meeting the expectations of many gamers and critics, Crash Bandicoot 4 is more than worthy of being named our best platforming game of 2020.

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