Best Platformer of 2024 - Article

by Craig S , posted on 05 January 2025 / 2,082 Views

Welcome to VGChartz’s 18th annual Game of the Year Awards! Throughout the month we'll be celebrating the best games of 2024 across various genres and other special categories, before finally revealing the site's Overall Game of the Year. Here we kick things off with the Best Platformer of 2024 - enjoy!

What can one say when there's a clear favourite in a category? Well, firstly, when it comes to Best Platformer never under-estimate this community's enthusiasm for Sonic games when it comes to end-of-year voting, especially when it's one that was well-received by fans. The dark horse of our shortlisted titles has to be Neva, a visually and emotionally stunning indie darling from the studio behind Gris. Next up we have the studio most well-known for the Yakuza series incongruously trying its hand at a brand new entry in the Super Monkey Ball series, fresh off the heels of its successful remake entry. Last, but certainly not least, is the aforementioned favourite: Astro Bot and its ode to PlayStation.

The Shortlist:

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Astro Bot

Neva

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

The Runner-Up:

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Another year, another runner-up medal for the Sonic series in the Best Platformer category; last year it was awarded to the reliable 2D entry Sonic Superstars, the year before that it was the ambitious and - for Sonic - experimental Sonic Frontiers. This year we go full circle, granting runner-up to Sonic X Shadow Generations, which is a fitting mix of both old and new: old in the form of a Sonic Generations remaster, new in the form of Shadow's first lead outing since the highly polarising Shadow the Hedgehog, it combines both classic 2D & modern 3D stages to create one of the most acclaimed entries in decades.

The Winner:

Astro Bot

In a year without a mainline Mario platformer entry, Sonic may well have come out on top, but it wasn't to be. The endearing Astro and his eclectic trip through the PlayStation universe has been a cult hit in every experimental release he's been featured in to-date, from his humble origins as a PlayStation Camera & PlayStation VR tech demonstration for the PS4 in the first two Playrooms, to a beefier VR showcase in Rescue Mission, and then yet another Playroom tech demo for the PS5; Astro's started to become part of the launch furniture for new PlayStation tech. These releases were all a bit tertiary though, and it was about time Astro got chance to shine as a mainline release without being hamstrung by tech gimmicks.

Enter Astro Bot, a fully-fledged title that expands on many of the ideas explored in those early vertical slices and goes in wonderful new directions at the same time. And what it hit it's been, garnering huge amounts of praise from fans and critics alike for its rollercoaster-like celebration of all things PlayStation, underpinned by equally varied gameplay. Astro Bot is our pick for Best Platformer of 2024 - and it wasn't even close.