Platformer News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Publisher Limited Run Games and developer Christophe Galati will release side-scrolling platfomer Save me Mr Tako: Definitive Edition for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on May 3. Wishlisting is available now via PlayStation Store.

SEGA has released a new trailer, information, and screenshots for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble introducing the game’s new multiplayer battle modes, through which players can race and roll with two players locally or up to 16 players online.

Choice Provisions will release BIT.TRIP RERUNNER for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, the developer confirmed to Gematsu. A release date was not announced. Wishlisting is available now via PlayStation Store.

Sony has confirmed LittleBigPlanet 3's servers will remain «offline indefinitely».

Sonic x Shadow Generations has been rated in South Korea.

As the calendar continues its ceaseless onward march, Epic has announced its next batch of weekly Epic Games Store freebies, which this time look very much like Cold War shooter Industria and post-apocalyptic RPG bundle Lisa: Definitive Edition.

The Anniversary Edition of Braid was originally announced almost four years ago, and originally meant to be out sometime in 2021. As such, the latest delay to Jonathan Blow’s time-rewinding puzzle-platformer - which sees its date pushed back two weeks into the middle of next month - feels like a relative drop in the hourglass.

If you'll be hiding from the sweltering sun in July (I say, daring the fates to try to spite me by delivering a cracking summer), good news: you won't be the only shadow-dweller. The fascinating Schim finally has a release date, July 18th. It stars a little shadowy soul trying to reconnect with its human by hopping from shadow to shadow through city streets, farms, factories, and parks bustling with life and moving parts. See how it works in the new trailer below!

Braid: Anniversary Edition (or Braid, Anniversary Edition as it's officially styled) has been delayed by two weeks. The remake is now set to launch for PlayStation, Switch, and PC on 15th May, with Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One versions arriving a day later, on 16th May.

Today's Nintendo Indie World Showcase event has now wrapped up, after bringing us more than 20 minutes of intriguing Nintendo Switch games from independently-minded studios.

Publisher CINEMAX GAMES and developer KO.DLL will release fast-paced side-scrolling platformer BZZZT for Switch this summer, the companies announced.

ANTONBLAST will launch for Switch and PC via Steam on November 12, developer Summitsphere announced. The Switch version is a timed console exclusive. A Switch demo and updated PC demo are available now.

Nintendo's next Indie World Showcase — the cooler, more rebellious sibling to the average Nintendo Direct — will air today, Wednesday 17th April, at 3pm UK time.

Nintendo has announced that the next Indie World Showcase will take place tomorrow.

I've been watching this year's ostensible "major" news developments - the launch of a Fallout TV show, the impending release of Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree, to pick a couple - with a sense of zealous disapproval and weary resignation as to the hubris of human beings. Do these brazen publishers and developers not know that this, the year 2024, is the Year of Shadow the Hedgehog?

Last night it was revealed that Keanu Reeves will be the voice of Shadow in the forthcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film.

Mountain climbing adventure game Surmount will launch now for Switch and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on May 2, one week ahead of its previously announced May 9 release date, developers Indiana-Jonas and Jasper Oprel announced.

Ratchet and Clank has received a new update, eight years after its debut in 2016 on PS4.

Among the onslaught of game trailers at the terribly named Triple-I Initiative was a release date for Gestalt: Steam & Cinder. It's a 2D platformer with a heavy dose of combat and a big upgrade tree, and there's a demo available now.

Full Void developer OutOfTheBit has announced pixel art side-scrolling puzzle platformer Nanuka: Secret of the Shattering Moon. It will launch for PC via Steam in April 2025, followed shortly after by “all major consoles.”

Never Alone, a quiet, snowy adventure set in the Alaskan arctic wilderness, won a Bafta in 2014, and at the Triple-I Initiative stream last night we got a glimpse of the upcoming sequel, Never Alone 2. It's still the tale of Nuna and Fox journeying through aforementioned cold tundra, and like the first game is inspired by Indigenous Iñupiaq storytelling traditions, but this time the story unfolds in co-op. No release date, but we have a teaser trailer for your viewing pleasure.

Side-scrolling action RPG Gestalt: Steam & Cinder will launch for PC via Steam on May 21, publisher Fireshine Games and developer Metamorphosis Games announced. A release date for the console versions was not announced.

Publisher and developer E-Line Media, and developer Upper One Games have announced Never Alone 2 for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced.

Revealed at the Triple-I Initiative just now, Vampire Survivors is getting another cool DLC, this one a crossover with classic Konami run 'n' gun Contra. It's called Operation Guns. Get on board. Trailed with, as is now traditional, a cool animated trailer that suggests the game is a Saturday morning cartoon and not a top down pixelated nightmare that will flush out any latent photosensitivity lurking in your skull (complimentary), Operation Guns is arriving on May 9th, so about a month away.

SEGA has released a new trailer for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble dubbed the “Adventure” trailer, as well as new information and screenshots on the game’s assist features and worlds.

Sony has announced the game catalogue additions for PlayStation Plus this April for Extra and Premium subscribers.

Wii U fans have brought the console's online multiplayer functionality back online, after Nintendo officially ended its own server support.

Ori developer Moon Studios has offered a small slice of news on a potential third entry in the series.

With the Epic Games Store's latest weekly freebie offers now live, Epic has turned its gaze to the far-flung future of seven days time, confirming acclaimed cyberpunk action-parkour adventure Ghostrunner will be its next free title from Thursday, 11th April.

Gameloft has announced Divine Rush, a 16-player “platformer royale.” A pre-alpha test is available from today through April 8 for PC via Epic Games Store.

A person suspected of sending death threats to Nintendo has reportedly been arrested by Japanese police.

Kibou Entertainment will release action platformer Timothy and the Tower of Mu for Switch, the developer announced. A release date was not announced.

"It almost feels like proof-of-concept for a first-person Prince of Persia game, with an ever-so-gentle dusting of Portal," our Edwin said after playing free first-person platformer Grimhook when it launched in December. It's a cracking little game, parkouring about with the help of supernatural powers and a grappling hook, but ends right as it feels like it's getting started. I'd certainly be up for three hours of this, so how splendid to hear that the developers are planning to make a "complete" and fancier experience.

Microsoft have announced April's new arrivals for the Game Pass subscription service, and it includes a cute game about being an alligator, a cute game about gardening, a cute game about fleeing a doomed planet in search of a new home among the stars, and also EA Sports PGA Tour, I guess.

Side-scrolling platformer Tales of Kenzera: ZAU will be available as part of the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog on day one when it launches on April 23, publisher Electronic Arts and developer Surgent Studios announced.

Loud disapproval for Sonic's original film design has prompted far greater scrutiny within Hollywood for getting video game adaptations right.

Hollow Knight Silksong launched an Xbox Store page on the worst day possible.

I still think of Rain World as the beautiful, brutally hard game about accidentally going down tunnels butt-first and being crushed to death by weather, but it's grown and expanded a lot since its release almost seven years ago. It's about to grow again with a new DLC: The Watcher.

It’s been close to three years since Celeste and TowerFall developers Extremely OK Games revealed their next project, the similarly gorgeous-looking and sumptuous-sounding 2D exploration platformer Earthblade. While the studio didn’t give any indication of a release date at the time, we now know not to expect Earthblade until 2025 at the earliest.

Earthblade, the next project from Celeste developer Extremely OK Games, won't be out in 2024, but progress is being made.

Side-scrolling action platformer Nine Sols will launch for PC via Steam on May 29, developer Red Candle Games announced.

Another entry in the Spyro series is reportedly in development with Toys for Bob.

It's not often we get to hear a senior developer of a Super Mario Bros. game philosophise about game design. At gamescom last year, Takashi Tezuka, executive officer at Nintendo and producer on Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Shiro Mouri, the game's director, gave us a glimpse, as they spoke with Eurogamer about their intentions for Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Europa, the absolutely lovely looking Ghibli-inspired exploration adventure from developer Helder Pinto, has been delayed — and will now likely launch for PC this «summer».

It Takes Two — the co-op platformer from Hazelight and Josef Fares (yes, of that Oscars rant) — celebrated its third anniversary earlier this week.

It is understood the «majority» of Xbox games will eventually be coming to PlayStation.

There’s a teaser image on the wall. We stare at it and we think that’s the whole multiplayer shooter set in the Control franchise. Then, Remedy sneak a second teaser image alongside some tantalising lore snippets into their latest investor report (Thanks, resetera!) Also there’s an air fryer that turns nuggets into miniature black holes, or something. I’m not sure because, honestly, I never learned to appreciate Control’s wonderful architecture and lore because the combat made me want to gnaw my fingers off. Good news, then, for everyone except me specifically. We’ve got a few more scraps of info about its (presumably) almost entirely combat focused spin-off title, currently known as ‘Condor’.

Spyro studio Toys for Bob has reportedly reached an agreement with Microsoft for its first independent game.

Publisher Kwalee and developer Powersnake have announced Metroidvania game / side-scrolling action platformer Voidwrought for Switch and PC (Steam). It will launch in 2024.

Planet of Lana will be arriving on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles next month.

Animal Well — the 2D pixel art adventure from developer Billy Basso — will launch this May.

Solo developer Billy Basso's enigmatic Metroidvania Animal Well has been dated for May 9th, publishers Bigmode announced yesterday. In it, you'll explore a vast labyrinth of tunnels, solve puzzles and escape its many mammalian-based horrors, all of whom are out to gobble you up in one fell swoop - though as a strange, tiny little blob creature the size of a chicken nugget, it's unclear both what you are, and why exactly you're so appetising to them. Well, it probably has something to do with looking like a sentient chicken nugget, I suppose. Come and watch the release date trailer below.

Side-scrolling puzzle platformer / Metroidvania game Animal Well will launch for PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC via Steam on May 9 for $24.99 / £20.99 / €24.50, publisher BIGMODE and developer Shared Memory announced.

Mountain climbing adventure game Surmount will launch for Switch and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on May 9, developers Indiana-Jonas and Jasper Oprel announced. A demo is available now for PC via Steam.

2.5D action adventure platformer The Devil Within: Satgat will launch in Early Access for PC via Steam on April 9, developer Newcore Games announced.

Dark fantasy action platformer Saviorless will launch for PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on April 2, publisher Dear Villagers and developer Empty Head Games announced.

Ubisoft has shared a post-launch roadmap for its acclaimed series revival Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, which promises to introduce the likes of a permadeath mode, boss rush mode, and story DLC across four updates starting next Wednesday 20th March.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron HD Remaster is coming to Nintendo Switch next month.

Sonzai Games has announced rolling physics-based platformer sequel Super Sami Roll 2 for PC (Steam). A release date was not announced. A Kickstarter campaign is also planned.

As the Mario Day celebrations continue, Nintendo has teased that new Lego Super Mario Kart sets will drop in 2025.

Nintendo and Illumination have confirmed a new Super Mario Bros. film will be released in 2026.

The two-person studio behind 2021's tip-top top-down action-RPG Unsighted yesterday announced their next game, a 3D metroidvania named Abyss X Zero. It's not out for a while yet but its look already reminds me of two things: the pleasingly clean art style of Mega Man Legends and the edgy anime schoolgirl styles of Kill La Kill. See for yourself in the announcement trailer below.

Chivalry 2's latest update is called "Duel of the Fêtes", which makes me wish I could drop the chef's kiss emoji into RPS posts. It gets even better, though. Aside from adding new maps, "skill based team balancing", and quality-of-life improvements, the update also adds unofficial server support, for players who want to tweak game rules and party like it's 1999.

Publisher PM Studios and Blade Assault developer Team Suneat have announced side-scrolling roguelite action platformer Dragon is Dead for PC (Steam). It will launch first in Early Access, where it will remain over the course of a year. A release date was not announced.

Behold the ultimate form of the Xbox Series X; Microsoft has unveiled an official SpongeBob SquarePants special editon of the console that makes the best, most glorious use of its oblong shape yet. Unfortunately, it's US-only at present, so boo.

Nintendo 64 era-style collectathon platformer Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom will launch for PC via Steam in April, publisher Those Awesome Guys and developer Panik Arcade announced.

Another Thursday, another Epic Games Store freebie to add to your ever-growing backlog, this time in the form of stylish 3D side-scroller Never Yield.

Publisher Headup Games and developers Aerial_Knight and BetaJester have announced Aerial_Knight’s We Never Yield, a follow-up to side-scrolling platformer Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield. It will launch for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store this summer.

It's been a long old wait for UFO 50 — the 50-strong anthology of 8-bit-inspired games from Spelunky creator Derek Yu's Mossmouth studio — but as the seventh anniversary of its announcement approaches this August, Yu has revealed the promising project is currently on track to release in the second half of this year.

We're now 20 years on from the release of The Simpsons: Hit & Run and we're still without a sequel. That said, we now have a nightmarish glimpse into what could have been, perhaps, with a Mario Kart parody sequence in the latest episode of the animated series.

It's been a hot minute since we last wrote about UFO 50, the 50-games-in-1 8-bit retro collection from the makers of Spelunky, Downwell and friends. It's been MIA for several years now (and no wonder, given these are 50 full-sized games being made by several different, and likely very busy, developers), but at long last, Spelunky creator Derek Yu has posted an update on Steam saying the project is finally nearing completion. "We should have a complete game in a few months but are planning for a release in the second half of the year to give us time to do more testing and then marketing," he said.

I've done some elementary study of the planet Jupiter for various creative research projects/dead-ends. It's probably a symptom of my failings as an astronomer, but I have to say that at no point have I noticed any gigantic, depressed clowns. In new platformer Clown Meat, one such gigantic, depressed clown has swum through Jupiter's atmosphere, drifted to Earth and kicked off some kind of meatpunk apocalypse, saturating the surrounding countryside with circus-themed abominations.

Out of all the Nintendo Direct announcements last week, the one I was most sad to see not get a PC release date was the sequel to the much beloved Metroidvania Ender Lilies. The announcement came as a bit of a surprise, all told, and I was worried I'd have to consign it to what I've now dubbed my Unicorn Overlord pile of games that are never coming to PC. Happily, publishers Binary Haze Interactive have now confirmed that Ender Magnolia: Bloom In The Mist is, in fact, coming to PC (and other consoles) after all, and that it's coming real soon, as its PC early access release has been set for just weeks away on March 25th. Result.

Bō: Path of The Teal Lotus, the upcoming Metroidvania inspired by Japanese folklore, now has a release date.

Footage of what's claimed to be an «internal demo» of LittleBigPlanet Hub – the free-to-play PS3 exclusive announced initially, and expected to be released, in 2013 – has popped up online.

Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ubisoft's highly polished prototypical Metroidvania, was released last month and instantly earned its place on our list of the best of the genre. Now Ubisoft Montpellier say they're planning free updates to add extra content and modes, with the first to arrive soon.

Ubisoft has teased its future plans for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, saying the acclaimed Metroidvania will be getting new content and modes in free updates starting «soon».

Epic Mickey, Warren Spector's action-platforming love letter to early period Disney, is heading to PC more than a decade after its original Wii exclusive release. It'll arrive as Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, a "remake" with modern graphics and controls.

To borrow from Game of Thrones, Minter is coming (please read that in Ned Stark's voice). Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story — an interactive documentary experience for PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch — will release next month, on 13th March.

Hi-Fi Rush will skip the current Nintendo Switch and instead arrive on the console's currently-unannounced successor. That's according to a report from Insider Gaming, which states that the absence of a Switch version of the game in yesterday's Xbox multi-platform announcement was due to it launching on Nintendo Switch 2 instead.