Astro Bot took top honors at the 2024 Game Awards, and we couldn’t be prouder of the little guy and his many friends. But Astro Bot doesn’t exist in a vacuum – Team Asobi’s award-winning hero comes from an illustrious legacy of PlayStation platformers spanning way back to the original PlayStation, from first-party studios and third-party developers and publishers alike.
If you’re looking to dig into the legacy of PlayStation platformers from the beginning to the current day, there’s no better way to do it than with the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog. Here’s a sampling of some noteworthy platformers you can play now.*
The “collectathon” subgenre of 3D platformer, emphasizing the hunt for hundreds of assorted doodads in sprawling levels, was quite popular around the turn of the millennium. A Hat in Time is a loving callback to those days spent scouring every nook and cranny, as players control Hat Kid in her quest to retrieve Time Pieces in a large and exceptionally silly cartoon world. Find Yarn Balls to make new hats and earn new powers, battle foes to gather Pons for upgrades, search for hidden Relics and Rift Tokens, and figure out what Mustache Girl’s whole deal is.
Publisher: Humble Games | Developer: Gears for Breakfast
Ready for some monkey business? Science gone wrong has created a gang of hyper-intelligent monkeys causing chaos through time, and it’s your job to bring these too-smart simians back home. As one of the first game series to use the DualShock controller’s dual-analog sticks to their full potential, Ape Escape lets you use careful movement and funky gadgets to sneak up on and nab these naughty simians. Be careful–you’ll want to pay close attention to the apes’ helmets to gauge their mood before you approach.
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment | Developer: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Ah, the humble dash: a truly beloved platformer maneuver. Indie-game pixel masterpiece Celeste elevates the act of using the simple dash
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