23 Best Nintendo 3DS Platformers

Mighty Gunvolt Burst is the sequel to Inti Creates' tiny retro spin-off, and it reached the 3DS on June 28, 2017, a couple of weeks after the Switch got it. Gunvolt and Beck from Mighty No. 9 return as playable characters, and the pixel art was redrawn to blur the line between 8-bit and 16-bit. Beck arguably got a better game here than in his own.

The real hook is the customization. You mix upgrades found in the levels into up to 24 weapons on one save slot, and a points limit called CP stops you from stacking everything onto one gun. The burst system pays you extra for killing enemies up close instead of from a distance, which turns every stage into a dare. Players keep putting it on their lists of eShop games worth grabbing, often right next to the main Gunvolt games.

Mighty Gunvolt started life as a bonus. It came out on the eShop alongside Azure Striker Gunvolt as a free download for people who bought the bigger game, and only later went on sale by itself. It is an 8-bit style platformer in the style of Mega Man, with five main stages that each end in a boss fight.

Each hero plays differently. Gunvolt gets a double jump and a charged lightning attack, Beck from Mighty No. 9 slides and tackles through enemies, and Ekoro, an angel from Gal*Gun, can float and convert certain enemies to her side. An update in November 2014 added four more levels as downloadable content. It is a snack rather than a meal, and players still slip it into their 3DS platformer picks as a cheap good time.

Blaster Master Zero is Inti Creates' loose reboot of Sunsoft's Blaster Master for the NES, and it came out worldwide in March 2017. It borrows from the original game, the Worlds of Power novelization and the Japanese version. As in the NES original, Jason Frudnick goes underground to rescue a frog creature named Fred, and finds a lot more than a frog down there.

You drive a tank called SOPHIA through the side-scrolling levels, and Jason can hop out and squeeze through doors where the view switches to overhead. Upgrades to the tank open up areas you could not reach before, so it plays like a small Metroid with a vehicle. Two months after release, a patch added a harder Destroyer Mode for people who had already finished it. Players back it as a fun pick for anyone who likes platformers, and two sequels followed.

Mighty Switch Force! 2 arrived on the North American eShop on June 13, 2013, and WayForward swapped law enforcement for fire-fighting. Patricia Wagon is now a firefighter, rescuing the same Hooligan Sisters she was chasing in the first game from blazing fires. Her blaster is gone, replaced by a dousing apparatus that sprays water.

The water brings new blocks with it: mud blocks you dissolve, and pipe blocks that bend the spray around corners. Every level has a par time to beat and a hidden baby to find, and the babies get to safety when Patty kicks them off the screen. It is a rescue, technically. Critics gave it average scores and wished it were longer, but players call it a fun puzzle platformer and come back for the clear times.

Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion came out on November 18, 2012, alongside Epic Mickey 2, and it doubles as a tribute to Sega's Illusion games, especially Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse. Mickey infiltrates the Castle of Illusion to stop the witch Mizrabel, who is draining the paint out of famous Disney characters to escape the Wasteland. DreamRift made it for the 3DS.

It mixes old side-scrolling with the paint and thinner tricks from Epic Mickey: you use the touch screen to bring objects in each stage into existence. Every character you rescue adds Heart Power, and enough of it breaks the witch's illusions and opens new parts of the castle. GameSpot called it "Mickey's best adventure in years". Players who picked it up liked it more than they expected from a licensed Mickey game.

Cave Story 3D came out on November 8, 2011, a remake of the indie game Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya made on his own. It was rebuilt with 2.5D graphics, with an option to switch between 2D and 3D characters and enemies, and Danny Baranowsky remixed the soundtrack. Nippon Ichi published it, so the best ending gets you a Prinny Cap.

Critics still loved the design, but they disliked how close it stayed to the original and missed Curly Brace and the Boss Rush mode. It also never got a digital release, although one was promised for late 2014, so a cartridge is the only way to play it. Plenty of players find the 3D version a step down from the 2D original. Others still name it among their favourites.

Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 came out in Japan on August 25, 2016 and worldwide on September 29, 2016. Gunvolt's rival Copen from the first game returns as a playable character this time. The bosses are the Seven, one of whom, Ghauri, is a street dancer and slam poet who makes crystal weapons, because why not.

A retail pack with both games, Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack, came out in Japan and North America, and later reached the Switch on August 31, 2017. Players nearly always recommend this one as a pair with the first game, calling both of them really fun platformers. A third game finally arrived in 2022, though not on the 3DS.

Sonic Generations was made to celebrate 20 years of Sonic, and the 3DS version is its own game. Sega thought about porting the console version, then chose to build it from scratch with Dimps, the studio behind the handheld Sonic games. Instead of Game Gear stages, the team picked levels from the Game Boy Advance and DS games.

You switch between Classic Sonic in side-scrolling stages and Modern Sonic in 3D ones. Reviews were mixed, and IGN's verdict was that "for the first time in a decade, the handheld Sonic is not the best". Reviewers mostly complained about its short length. Players liked it a lot more than the critics did, and it is still a good pick-up-and-play Sonic for an afternoon.

Gunman Clive 2 was made and published by Hörberg Productions, the studio of Bertil Hörberg, and it reached the 3DS on 29 January 2015. It is the sequel to 2012's Gunman Clive, and this time Clive has to save the world from the bandits of the first game. It has 25 stages and runs on the same engine, but the colours are turned right up.

The formula is the same, with bigger bosses and plenty of new enemies. Hörberg later said the sales were "a bit disappointing" next to the first game, which is a shame, because players call the pair a steal for the price. Both games were later bundled as the Gunman Clive HD Collection, and that collection reached the Switch on January 17, 2019.

Yoshi's New Island is the third game in the Yoshi's Island series, and Nintendo handed it to Arzest, where some of the staff had worked on the original Yoshi's Island. Yoshi and Baby Mario are back with the Flutter Jump and the old egg throw. The new trick is the Mega Eggdozer, a giant egg that smashes pipes and walls. Some levels turn Yoshi into a jackhammer or a submarine you steer by tilting the 3DS.

Critics were mixed. They liked the charm and nostalgia but called the soundtrack repetitive, and they were divided on the art. It still sold more than two million copies by 2020. Players who want a single Yoshi game mostly point to Woolly World instead, which was made at the same time by Good-Feel. New Island is better than its reputation, just gentle.

Shinobi came out worldwide in November 2011, after Sega pushed it back from September because 3DS hardware was selling slowly. The story starts in 1256, with Jiro Musashi, the father of Joe Musashi from the arcade and Genesis games, defending his village from the Zeed. It plays in 2D side-scrolling fashion with 3D graphics.

It is hard. Critics split on that: GameSpot praised how it balances difficulty with accessibility, while GamesTM called the "unsympathetic difficulty" cheap and archaic. Players love it for exactly that challenge, along with its tight controls and satisfying bosses. The secret mission ends with Jiro in space, fighting an alien, then falling back through the atmosphere. That is quite a commute from a village in the Kamakura era.

Mutant Mudds calls itself a "12-bit" action platformer, and it comes from Renegade Kid, best known for Moon and the Dementium games on the DS. It was an eShop exclusive at first, in 2012. Max fights off an invasion with only a water gun and a jetpack that lets him hover for a few seconds. Its inspirations include Gargoyle's Quest and Virtual Boy Wario Land.

Orange launch pads throw Max into the background or foreground, and on the 3DS every level also has a four-minute time limit. Twenty bonus levels starring Max's grandmother, Granny, came later as free downloadable content. Critics praised the challenge and the level design. Players who try it tend to love it, and they keep naming it next to Mighty Switch Force as an eShop game that deserved more attention.

Mighty Switch Force! is a puzzle platformer from WayForward, the third game in the studio's Mighty series after Mighty Flip Champs! and Mighty Milky Way. It came out on the Nintendo eShop on December 22, 2011. You play Patricia "Patty" Wagon, a cybernetic police officer chasing down the escaped Hooligan Sisters.

Her Siren Helmet pushes blocks in and out of the background, so a wall becomes a platform with one button, and the trick is doing it at the right moment. Each level has a par time for people who want to speedrun it. A free update in May 2012 added five new levels, better 3D effects and a way to restart a level. Players back both games in the series as a pair, a bit puzzly but very good.

Metroid: Samus Returns is a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, made by the Spanish studio MercurySteam with Nintendo. MercurySteam first pitched a remake of Metroid Fusion, and producer Yoshio Sakamoto suggested Metroid II instead. Samus can now aim freely in any direction and has a melee counter, and the new Aeion abilities include a Scan Pulse that reveals hidden paths.

Some people disliked the controls and the counter, but it won Best Handheld Game at The Game Awards 2017, and plenty of critics called it a return to form. Kenji Yamamoto, who co-composed the music for Super Metroid, directed the score. It went so well that MercurySteam went on to make Metroid Dread. Players call it a fantastic remake of Metroid 2.

BoxBoy! is a puzzle platformer from HAL Laboratory, published by Nintendo, and it came out in Japan on January 14, 2015 and worldwide that April. Director Yasuhiro Mukae came up with it in 2011, wanting a simple, compact game in the style of the NES and Game Boy. Qbby is a box-shaped hero who spawns boxes out of his own body, and how many he can make changes from level to level.

You use the boxes as bridges, stairs and shields against lasers. Each stage hides crowns, but they vanish if you use too many boxes, which is where the real puzzle starts. Reviewers praised the creative puzzles, though the black and white look divided them. Players call it a great little puzzle platformer, and it did well enough for two more on the 3DS.

SteamWorld Dig came to the 3DS eShop in August 2013, first in Europe and Australia on 7 August and in North America a day later. You play Rusty, a robot miner investigating the mines under the old Western town of Tumbleton. You dig down, carry what you find back up to the surface for cash, and spend it on better tools.

The mines are randomized on every playthrough, and besides health you have to watch your coal for light and your water for special abilities. Dying costs a repair fee, because even a robot has to pay the mechanic, but you can go back for your loot. Players rate both Dig games very highly. A sequel starring Dorothy, one of Tumbleton's residents, followed in 2017.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 is a side-scrolling 2.5D platformer and a direct sequel to the DS original. The whole game is about money: the main goal is collecting one million coins, and the Gold Flower turns Mario into Gold Mario. It was also the first Nintendo-published game released as a download and in shops on the same day.

The main game has 81 levels, and the Coin Rush mode gives you one life and a short timer to grab as much as you can. Players had passed 300 billion coins between them by late 2012, and Nintendo celebrated with a free Gold Classics Pack. Critics liked the level design but found it easy and too familiar. It sold 13.41 million copies anyway, and players still count it as a must-have.

Azure Striker Gunvolt is a 2D action game about a young man with the power of lightning, fighting a massive organization. It came out on the 3DS eShop in August 2014, made by Inti Creates, the studio behind Mega Man Zero, Mega Man ZX and both Mega Man 9 and 10. Buyers got Mighty Gunvolt free on the same day.

You shoot to tag enemies, then your electric field homes in on everything you tagged, and more tags on one enemy means more damage. Use the field too much and Gunvolt overheats, unable to defend himself until it refills. Players keep calling it the closest thing to Mega Man Zero gameplay. It has since been ported everywhere, all the way to the Switch 2 in 2026.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe came out in Japan on January 11, 2014 and everywhere else in May. It uses the 3DS screen properly: Kirby moves left to right and also between the foreground and the background. A rainbow Miracle Fruit turns him into Hypernova Kirby, who can inhale extremely large objects. It is the kind of power-up only Kirby could get away with.

You can also collect keychains of characters from older Kirby games, and finishing the story unlocks Dededetour!, a mode starring King Dedede. Critics praised the level design, the Hypernova ability and the use of 3D, and complained only that it was easy. Players say you cannot go wrong with it, and they often mention the post-game modes as a reason to keep going.

Kirby: Planet Robobot came out in Japan in April 2016 and worldwide in June 2016. It started out as more of a direct follow-up to Triple Deluxe. This time an alien corporation, the Haltmann Works Company, wants to mechanize Planet Popstar and plunder its resources. Kirby fights back in a mech: his Robobot Armor scans enemies to copy their moves and shift into new modes, like Jet Mode.

He can still copy abilities the old-fashioned way, by inhaling. Clearing the story unlocks Meta Knightmare Returns, a harder run through the game as Meta Knight. Critics loved the soundtrack and the armour, and again found it too easy. Players back it as one of the best platformers on the system. If you only play one 3DS Kirby, make it this one.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the third Shantae game, after Shantae: Risky's Revenge (2010), and it came out on the 3DS eShop in North America on October 23, 2014. Shantae has lost her genie magic, so she teams up with her nemesis, the pirate Risky Boots, to stop the Pirate Master. Jake Kaufman wrote a new soundtrack for it.

Instead of one connected world, the game spreads across islands you sail between on Risky's ship, each with a Den of Evil that hides a piece of pirate gear. The pistol and the scimitar change how you get around, a little like Metroid. Critics praised the level design, the art and the writing. Players call it an absolute must-have on the 3DS, and it has since come out on just about every other console too.

Super Mario 3D Land came out in November 2011 as the first Mario game for the system. Shigeru Miyamoto described it as a "3D Mario that plays as a 2D Mario game": you run through short levels to grab the Goal Pole before time runs out, but you move in three dimensions. The Super Leaf and its Tanooki suit are back.

If you keep dying, the game quietly helps. An Invincibility Leaf appears after five deaths in a level, and a P-Wing after ten skips you to the end. It sold 12.88 million copies and was the first 3DS game to sell over five million. Players warn that it is on the easy side, but they also say it is the best showcase for the 3D screen.

Shovel Knight comes from Yacht Club Games, a studio founded by former WayForward staff, and it was funded on Kickstarter with a minimum goal of US$75,000. It came out on the 3DS, Wii U and Windows in June 2014. You play a small knight with a shovel blade, out to defeat the Enchantress and find his lost beloved. The developers took the checkpoint design from Dark Souls, of all places, and smaller ideas from DuckTales and Super Mario Bros. 3.

Jake Kaufman wrote the chiptune music, with two tracks by Mega Man composer Manami Matsumae. The 3DS version adds a StreetPass arena mode, and the free campaigns that came later were collected as Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove in December 2019. Critics count it among the greatest games ever made. One player put it bluntly: "The correct answer is Shovel Knight. If you don't have Shovel Knight as your answer, you are wrong."