Summary
There’s something timeless about awell-crafted 3D platformer. It’s the thrill of nailing a perfect jump across a bottomless pit, the joy of uncovering a hidden collectible tucked behind a suspiciously placed bush, or the satisfaction of mastering movement mechanics that initially felt like trying to ice skate uphill. While the genre had its golden age in the late ’90s and early 2000s, its spirit is alive and well on Steam.
From gravity-defying brain worlds to high-speed hedgehog stunts, these are the best 3D platformers available on Steam right now. They’re the kind that stick with players long after the credits roll, making them worth a look.
Sonic Frontiersis one of those games that had no right to work — but it somehow does. On paper, the idea of dropping Sonic intoan open worldwhere he’s free to sprint across vast fields, scale giant towers, and unlock bite-sized platforming challenges sounds like fan fiction. But Sega leaned into it, and what came out was one of the most interesting takes on 3D platforming the series has ever seen.
The Starfall Islands are a strange mix of serenity and chaos. One moment, Sonic’s collecting memory tokens for a lost friend under a softly raining sky. The next, he’s hurtling through a floating obstacle course suspended above the sea. These Cyber Space levels feel like traditional Sonic stages ripped fromGenerationsorUnleashed, builtfor speedrunnersand high-score chasers alike.
Platforming isn’t just about reaching a goalpost — it’s integrated into exploration. Climbing a ruined structure might involve wall-running, spring jumps, homing attacks, and even midair boosts. It’s a fusion of movement styles that only Sonic could pull off, even if sometimes the camera has other ideas.
WhenSackboy: A Big Adventurelaunched on PC, it brought a level of polish that’s hard to ignore. This isn’t just a spinoff fromLittleBigPlanet— it’s a tightly tuned 3D platformer that can stand next to the greats without leaning on nostalgia. Every level is built with a sense of rhythm, sometimes literally. Music-themed stages sync up jumps and hazards to songs like “Let’s Dance” or “Uptown Funk” in ways that turn the platforming into a choreographed performance.
There’s a tactile charm to Sackboy’s movement. He’s deliberately slower than most platforming protagonists, but that’s part of the appeal. The controls emphasize timing and precision rather than twitchy reflexes. When things do get chaotic, like in theco-op chaos of multiplayer, it never feels unfair. While it lacks the level creation tools that defined the franchise,A Big Adventuremakes up for it with creativity in its own right. The handcrafted aesthetic affects gameplay, with spongey platforms, zipper bridges, and yarn-ball obstacles creating texture in more ways than one.
IfAlice: Madness Returnshad released in the golden era of platformers, it would have broken brains. It’s a game where platforming sequences are as twisted as the world they’re set in. Floating teapots, disintegrating dice bridges, and invisible platforms triggered by peppering a floating snout — nothing in Alice’s Wonderland plays by the rules, which makes the platforming feel genuinely unpredictable.
Combat fills in the gaps, with a clever mix of melee and ranged weapons like the Vorpal Blade and Tea Cannon. But what really holds this cracked teacup of a game together is the platforming design. Multi-tiered levels hide secrets in vertical mazes, and each new environment shifts tone. One moment it’s a candy-colored Japanese scroll painting, and the next it’s a grim industrial orphanage. And it’s all underscored by one of the most underrated soundtracks in gaming.
Precision inMirror’s Edgedoesn’t come from rigid control; it comes from flow. There’s a rhythm to Faith’s movement that, once locked into, feels more like dancing through a city than platforming across it. The rooftops of this sterile dystopia become a playground of pipes, ledges, and glass panels. And there’s almost always more than one route. Skilled players learn to read the environment like a language, spotting momentum-friendly lines that others might overlook.
Combat, which many brushed off as clunky, was never the point. Speed is. Faith moves faster without a weapon. Players aren’t meant to fight the system, but outrun it. When timed perfectly, vaulting over fences, wall-running around corners, and tucking into a roll after a big drop becomes almost meditative. Even now, years after release,Mirror’s Edgeremains one of the mostunique entries in the platforming genre. It’s not about whimsical mascots or floating platforms — it’s about reclaiming freedom, one rooftop at a time.
The originalSpyrogames were easy to love, but in the late 2010s, they were showing their age.Spyro Reignited Trilogydidn’t just clean things up. It rebuilt them with new animations, re-recorded lines (even Tom Kenny came back to voice the little dragon), and lighting effects that somehow made gems even more satisfying to collect.
Platforming inSpyrohas always been a bit different. There’s no wall-jumping or backflipping acrobatics. Instead, it’s all about mastering momentum. Charging into enemies, timing jumps over lava pits, and using glides to stretch across massive gaps gives it a unique pace. Each game in the trilogy offers subtle tweaks to the formula.Ripto’s Rageintroduces more hub-based exploration, whileYear of the Dragonadds new playable characters. But all three stick the landing on what makes a good 3D platformer: tight level design, snappy controls, and secrets that reward players who aren’t afraid to butt their horns against every suspicious-looking wall.
There’s a reasonA Hat In Timegets talked about like a lost relic fromthe GameCube era. It feels like something Nintendo might have made if they were feeling especially chaotic. The movement is tight and expressive, with jumps that snap to surfaces just right and a dive move that opens up loads of midair possibilities. Hat Kid isn’t just responsive — she’s athletic in a way that makes parkour across airships and haunted forests feel like second nature.
But what really makesA Hat In Timespecial is its structure. Each level, or “chapter,” plays like its own genre experiment. Mafia Town is classic collectathon territory, full of goofy enemies and open-ended exploration. Subcon Forest, on the other hand, drops players into a dark, contract-based sequence of spooky missions that feel more like a psychological platformer than a Saturday morning cartoon.
There’s an attention to detail here that’s easy to miss. Hat Kid’s different hats grant abilities like time-slowing or explosive brewing, which add layers of interaction to each environment. And the mod support on Steam? That’s a whole other rabbit hole, with fan-made levels that rival the base game’s creativity.
There are platformers that challenge players’ reflexes, and then there’sPsychonauts, which challenges their imagination. Everything about Raz’s adventure through the minds of twisted, traumatized, and often hilarious characters is built around thematic platforming. Levels aren’t just levels — they’re mental states, given physical form. One mind might be a conspiracy-laden neighborhood of G-Men spouting nonsense, where players have to sneak around as if the world itself is watching. Another is a theater, split between different stage plays, each with its own set of hazards and emotional baggage. The platforming shifts with the tone, from tight precision to surreal dream logic.
What’s even more impressive is how fluid the abilities are. Levitation turns into an impromptu bounce pad. Telekinesis can move platforms. Pyrokinesis…well, sometimes it just starts fires. And all of this blends into a game where no two minds feel the same, yet every one of them is unmistakably part of the same broken, brilliant world. Even now, long afterPsychonautsbecamea cult classic, few games have managed to marry level design with narrative this effectively, except probablyPsychonauts 2. It’s platforming as character development, and that’s something not even the most acrobatic plumber can claim.
