With a killer soundtrack and some of the best level design in platforming in the last 15-years, Rayman Origins is an essential experience. Sure, the story is a bit thin, with a somewhat standard tale of saving the world, but the action and character design are a cut above around. Everything from the levels to the individual character personalities adds to this completely unique and extremely memorable experience.

Braid is the award-winning platformer from Johnathan Blow that uses time manipulation as its main game mechanic. Instead of just relying on platforming ability, you’ll also be rewinding time to fix your mistakes or make jumps through tricky sections that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to land on. It’s a hell of a challenging experience but once you learn how the game world works things open up in such an organic way that it’s hard to put the game down.

Spelunky 2 takes what the original Spelunky did and innovates on it by adding more elements of emergent gameplay that allow gamers to create their own experiences. This kind of gameplay gives you a feeling of exploration and discovery that most games don’t create for their players, and rewards you for playing by making your time investment feel worth it.

Platformers aren’t typically known for being punishing, not anymore at least, back in the Castlevania and Metroid days, difficulty was common. Today’s platformers take a more relaxed approach to things, but Super Meat Boy is a callback to the classic era of platformers. Instead of falling down and being able to hop right back up again, Super Meat Boy will literally murder you with its myriad of death traps.

Sony’s flagship platformer franchise is back with a vengeance. Crash Bandicoot 4 has taken everything that made the original trilogy great and reinvented it. The new additions to Crash 4 make us feel right at home, in a franchise we've loved for so long. The new additions are things like the mask system that gives you power over gravity and time.

Limbo is one of the most unique platformers ever released because it tells a story and draws you into its world without ever saying a word. Instead of overt dialogue and exposition that tell you exactly who and what you are, what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, Limbo is a black and white noir themed puzzle platformer that makes you trek across a gothic horror themed world where every creature you meet is out to kill you.

Spyro Reignited is a platformer’s dream. The Spyro games have been locked behind the PS1 and its discs for years, unplayable unless you had aging hardware. And now that they’ve been remastered everyone can experience them on PS4 and see exactly why so many people fell in love with Spyro. The games don’t just focus on platforming but also exploration so they can give you a feeling of elation that comes from rewarding your efforts with new items and power-ups.

Ori And The Willow of The Wisps is one of those games that you just can’t put down once you’ve picked it up. Games like Trine have tried to take puzzle platforming to a new level but Will of The Wisps takes the genre and turns it up to 11. The game is set in an absolutely stunning, but, horrifically tragic fantasy world that’s begging to be explored. It’s one of the rare sequels that not only builds on the original game but surpasses it in every measurable way.

Hollow Knight is often called the Dark Souls of platformers and while that comparison is overused, it’s pretty accurate here. Combat is fast-paced and difficult, but rewarding. Exploration is always rewarded with new items, new power-ups, and more story details that make you constantly want to search off the beaten path. Also, death is punished by loss of progress but every death is a rewarding learning experience instead of a horrible punishment. Hollow Knight is a hell of an experience, you’ll just have to work to get the full picture.

Little Nightmares is a horror fan’s dream come true. As you’re platforming through a monster-infested cruise ship known as the Maw, you’re ducking and diving while creepy crawlies hide behind every corner. It’s actually a terrifying experience at times because you’re not just platforming like you would in most other games, you're fighting to stay alive.

Little Big Planet 3 is basically a platformer mixed with Halo’s Forge and it’s an amazing experience because of it. Tight controls, amazing level design and great platforming sections make the game a blast to play, but the ability to create and share your own levels while also experiencing other people’s creativity makes LBP3 a game with almost infinite replayability.

This PlayStation exclusive, Astro Bot, is a unique experience because it’s a VR title but it uses VR in new and inventive ways. Astro Bot offers extremely tight and rewarding platforming action that makes you feel like you’re actually the one jumping and flipping around instead of just watching it happen.

Ratchet and Clank might look like a Disney movie, but if you think it's just for kids, you couldn't be more wrong! Ratchet and Clank has some amazingly complicated platforming sections. And some fantastic environments when mixed with a wonderfully told story, offer a great experience.

Mario has dominated platforming for almost 35 years now. And he still does, no question about that, but the Rayman franchise has been a quiet competitor for years. Rayman Legends is one of the best of all time. Amazing controls that allow you to do whatever you want in-game whenever you want, mixed with fantastic level design and gorgeous art, Rayman Legends is a platformer that shouldn’t be missed!

Indie games have been dominating the platforming scene lately and Shovel Knight is one of the best. It’s a 2D side-scrolling platformer like Metroidvania of old, and it that actually has some bite to it. Some of the most challenging combat to come out of a platformer since Classic Mega Man and Castlevania titles are in Shovel Knight. It’s a challenging experience, but if you can handle it, it’s well worth the effort.