In case you’re the form of gamer who loves saying “They don’t make them like they used to,” 2025 has been your 12 months. In between fashionable behemoths like Loss of life Stranding 2: On the Seaside and Monster Hunter Wilds, we’ve gotten a gradual drip of retro-inspired video games that decision again to the nice previous days of 2D platformers. The floodgates have burst in the previous few weeks particularly although, as three high-profile video games have stolen the thunder of a lot larger releases. Even with just a few months nonetheless to go in 2025, I’m assured in saying that we’re at the moment residing by one of the best years for 2D platformers for the reason that Tremendous NES period gave strategy to the 3D age.
That argument begins with a trifecta of video games that every one dropped one after one other. First there was Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a trustworthy pixel-art throwback that impressed critics again in late July. Only one month later, it obtained one-upped by Shinobi: Artwork of Vengeance. The superb motion sport revives a traditional collection with illustrative artwork, extremely fast fight, and a deconstructed Metroidvania format that fuses retro and fashionable into one thing distinctive.
That trilogy has now come to an in depth with Hole Knight: Silksong. Staff Cherry’s new Metroidvania is already producing breathless reward from critics and gamers alike, positioning it as a possible prompt traditional. It’s the one sport launched this 12 months that poses an actual risk to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Recreation of the 12 months odds. If it pulls that feat off at The Recreation Awards in December, it might be the primary 2D sport to win prime honors on the present.
These three video games alone would make a robust case for 2025 because the 12 months of the 2D platformer, however these are removed from the one hits. Nestled amid that run of video games, you had the superb Öoo. The compact platformer a couple of bomb-dropping caterpillar is a exceptional sport that exams the boundaries of how only one instrument could be pulled aside to create deceptively advanced puzzles. (There’s an excellent purpose we just lately argued that it deserves to be a Recreation of the 12 months darkish horse.)
Even earlier than the summer time, we’ve had a bounty of 2D video games to dig into. The Metroidvania scene was cooking lengthy earlier than Silksong, due to Blade Chimera and Ender Magnolia: Bloom within the Mist. The previous is a improbable motion sport by Staff Ladybug and WSS Playground that beat each Ninja Gaiden and Shinobi to the “cool retro ninja sport” punch in January. Ender Magnolia, then again, follows in Hole Knight’s footsteps to create an atmospheric Metroidvania full of placing artwork and difficult bosses. Don’t sleep on Shadow Labyrinth both. Bandai Namco’s oddball Pac-Man sport has its flaws, however it makes fascinating use of the yellow puck to create some really gonzo gaming fever desires.
For the roguelike crowd, The Rogue Prince of Persia riffs on a traditional collection to gasoline a Lifeless Cells-like motion sport with a better emphasis on fluid mobility. And in the event you’re in search of a real sleeper hit, Bionic Bay would possibly simply be 2025’s final hidden gem. The Limbo-inspired platformer is filled with ingenious physics puzzles minimize from the identical fabric as Portal. From altering gravity’s path to swapping with objects, it delivers brain-bender after brain-bender in a number of the 12 months’s most placing 2D areas.
Picture: Kepler Interactive
These are only a few of the highlights, however they’re sufficient to go away me questioning in regards to the final time we’ve had such a bounty of nice 2D platformers. We get loads of good ones yearly – who can overlook Tremendous Mario Bros. Surprise or Animal Nicely? – however the bar has been raised in current months. I’m personally glad it’s taking place, as a result of all of those video games train us that 2D video games can nonetheless be as recent or progressive as 3D ones.
Contemplating how a lot Silksong is at the moment dominating Steam charts, I get the sensation that the most important studios on the market could clever as much as that reality quickly too. Don’t be shocked in the event you see this development flip right into a full-blown renaissance very quickly.
