10 Best Platformers on Nintendo Switch (June 2026)

Even when you’re constantly pushing through tough mobs and evading obstacles that demand tight precision, you enjoy smooth and responsive controls that make the best platformers on Nintendo Switch, like Super Mario Bros. Wonder, The Plucky Squire, and Inside, unforgettable joy rides. 

It’s been incredible to see how much the platforming genre has evolved, with complex level designs that interconnect and constantly surprise you with varied enemies, puzzles, and tucked-away rewards. 

As much as these games will test your patience and occasionally bring you so close to rage-quitting, the brilliant level design and rewarding playthrough of the best platformers on Nintendo Switch make it all worth it.

What is a Platformer Game?

A platformer game is built on the foundation of the main character moving from point A to point B. You often need to pay attention to incoming obstacles and enemies to evade or strike them on time. If you can beat the stages, the best platformer games offer to increase the movement speed for more challenge.

Best Platformers on Nintendo Switch

Some genres, like platformers, are perfectly built for handheld gaming devices, with the best platformers on Nintendo Switch as follows.

10. Kaze and the Wild Masks

Drawing inspiration from ‘90s platformers, Kaze and the Wild Masks takes you on an epic adventure across Crystal Islands, where you control Kaze, trying to save his friend Hugo from a curse that is spreading on the island.

While you’re taken on a time capsule to classic platforming, the graphics and controls benefit from the modern upscale in performance, portraying clean and sharp pixel art environments that shine bright in seasonal color and constant surprises.

9. Cuphead

Alternatively, you could dial it further back to the 1930s. This time, Cuphead retains the cartoon style of that era, incorporating hand-drawn cel animation, watercolor backdrops, and jazzy music into your playthrough.

You control Cuphead or Mugman, depending on whether you decide to play solo or with a friend, and travel through strange worlds, picking up new weapons and mastering new super moves. All in a bid to pay your debt to the devil in full.

8. Mega Man 11

Although Mega Man 11 has its charm from the ‘90s, you can tell it’s a modern platformer on Nintendo Switch based purely on its gorgeous art style. The iconic series now has a fresh look and design that retains the 2D platforming that makes the series special, alongside 3D character modeling in vibrant hand-drawn environments. 

The Blue Bomber is back, having learned a few moves he can’t wait to show you, as are the Robot Masters he fights to take their weapons. With every weapon, your look changes, and you grow more powerful, moving through platforms faster and with more power than ever before.

7. Celeste

Meanwhile, Celeste reads a storybook. It follows a young woman struggling with anxiety and depression, hardly easy mental health issues to be dealing with, portrayed through the challenges she faces climbing to the top of Celeste Mountain. 

The level of precision in this game is so tight and accurate that you’ll die lots of times. But you find yourself still pressing on, uncovering devious secrets, and facing your fears alongside the main character to become the bravest mountaineer.

6. Ori and the Will of the Wisps

For the best platformers on Nintendo Switch with a distinct look, try Ori and the Will of the Wisps. It’s one of the most beautiful platformers to play through, with an exotic blend of bright pink, purple, and green hues. 

This is a spirit world with spirit powers that you master along Ori’s journey to discovering his purpose. You solve challenging puzzles and fight towering enemies, with the help of a diverse cast of eccentric beings.

5. Degrees of Separation

Some of the best platformers on Nintendo Switch stand out right from the premise, like Degrees of Separation, which challenges you to survive the harshest of winter and the heat of the summer, simultaneously. 

You’ll explore both seasons at their worst through a split-screen, which allows for co-op play, but with the mandatory leaning on each other and coordination of your moves to succeed.

4. A Hat In Time

As adorable as A Hat in Time is, it takes you to unexpected places across time and space. And all because of the special power of making hats that can travel through time. Every new world you discover is different and brings with it new enemies to deal with. The most unexpected enemies, mind you, from goofy birds to spooky shadows and everything in between.

3. Inside

Inside is also pretty unique in its dark color palette that matches the lurking danger of this world. By winning so many awards in the game design, artistic, and more categories, you know you’re in for a treat. But not just visually, the unsettling atmosphere, intense action, and puzzles make for a nightmarish experience you’ll desperately want to escape.

2. The Plucky Squire

How about playing through a literal storybook in The Plucky Squire? But with a twist, where the characters escape the storybook and become living beings in the real world. Without the hero to bring the happy ending in the book, your work is cut out for you to navigate them safely through obstacles and puzzles. 

And even when they make it safely back to the book, you still have the villain Humgrump’s dark forces to contend with.

1. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Out of all the fantastic Super Mario platformer games on Nintendo Switch, I recommend Super Mario Bros. Wonder. This way, you enjoy an epic adventure, along with the classic Mario platforming and gameplay. 

Like the name, you’ll discover so many wondrous places in the Flower Kingdom. But even the mechanics themselves throw the rulebook away, with weird events like pipes coming alive and Mario turning into a giant Spike-Balls. Bowser himself has turned into a flying castle, and it’s all just a messy but beautiful and memorable adventure.