20 Best PS2 Platformers

Rayman 3 sends Rayman after an evil Black Lum named André, who wants to take over the world with an army of hoodlum soldiers. The trouble starts when Globox accidentally swallows André, so half the adventure is also a hunt for a cure. That cure takes three doctors, who try using parts of Globox's body as musical instruments before they finally get rid of him. It came out on the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, and the Game Boy Advance got its own 2D version.

It is a louder, sillier game than Rayman 2, and it knows it. The jokes are broad and the levels move fast. On a list full of serious sequels, a hero who has to cure his friend's indigestion is a welcome change of pace.

Krome Studios started work on Ty the Tasmanian Tiger in 2000 with five developers, and the team later grew to 45 people. Ty has to free his family from the Dreaming and stop Boss Cass, an evil genius who wants to knock mammals off the top of the food chain. He fights with boomerangs and his own sharp teeth, and the whole game is as Australian as it sounds.

Ty was the platformer for people who had finished Spyro and wanted that feeling again on a new console. It also refused to stay gone. An HD remaster reached Steam in 2016, and a remastered version later came to the Switch, PS4 and Xbox. The PS4 version arrived on 25 July 2020.

I-Ninja is an original hero from Argonaut Software, a British developer. He wears a blue suit and a matching hooded mask, so only his eyes and his very expressive brow show, and he jumps from platform to platform with a katana in each hand. The cel-shaded graphics give it its own look. He can also grind on rails and hover across big gaps with a "sword copter". Versions for GameCube, Xbox and PC came later.

GameSpot's Ryan Davis wrote that it "may appear to be a simple action game designed for kids, but in reality, it is anything but." Players who played it remember a fun little platformer with plenty of variety. It looks like a kids' game and plays like something with real teeth.

Going Commando came out roughly a year after the first game, and this time the trouble involves a company called MegaCorp. The trail leads to MegaCorp's headquarters on planet Yeedil, where "Fizzwidget" turns out to be the disgraced hero Captain Qwark in disguise. One review put it this way: "It looked at every detail of the first game and from the ground up improved everything wholesale."

Most critics felt it was better than the first game, though some criticized its unforgiving difficulty and minigames. It has frequently been listed as one of the best PlayStation 2 games, so seeing it this far down may sting a little. Blame its own family. Two other Ratchet games sit higher on this list, and players who love the series often split their picks between all three.

Pac-Man World 2 is a 3D platformer in which you guide Pac-Man to the end of each level. The ancient ghost Spooky is terrorizing Pac-Land, and Pac-Man has to get back the stolen Golden Fruit. It is a sequel to Pac-Man World from 1999, and Pac-Man World 3 followed in 2005.

Critics praised its level design and soundtrack but criticized its camera. That is a fair summary. A maze game hero in a jumping game sounds like a cash-in, and it plays much better than it has any right to. It also lasted. A version for Windows came out in 2004, the Game Boy Advance got a shorter version in 2005, and a remake, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac, was released in September 2025.

Sonic Team began working on Sonic Heroes after Sonic Adventure 2, with Takashi Iizuka directing and Yuji Naka producing. It was the first multi-platform Sonic game, made after Sega stopped making the Dreamcast. Iizuka wanted a standalone game rather than a sequel to Adventure 2, to reach a broader audience. You take control of one of four teams, each with three characters who have their own abilities.

Critics praised the fast gameplay and the similarities to the Genesis games, but they were divided over the team idea and criticized the camera and voice acting. Players bought it anyway. Heroes sold 3.41 million copies worldwide, and it was the bestselling 3D Sonic game until Sonic Frontiers in 2022.

Sly 3 is the third game in the Sly Cooper series and the last one Sucker Punch made before Sanzaru Games took over. Sly and his crew recruit new allies to help them open the Cooper Vault, and they have to get past Dr. M to do it. Inspector Carmelita Fox is playable in some of the mini-games and a few times in the main game. There is even a 3D mode with optional glasses.

It received generally positive reviews from critics and is considered to be one of the best PlayStation 2 games. Sly 2 beat it on this list, but not by a mile, and most people who start one play both. It was digitally re-released for PS4 and PS5 on December 11, 2024.

Crash Twinsanity began life as Crash Bandicoot Evolution, and it was meant to have a more serious tone than the earlier games. That did not last. It marks the debut of Lex Lang as the voice of Doctor Neo Cortex, replacing Clancy Brown, and his performance was widely acclaimed by critics.

Reviews were mixed. Critics praised the variety and the humour but criticized the camera and even the platforming sections, which is a rough note for a platformer. Here is the funny part: the jokes are what people remember. Twinsanity is a messy game with a great cast, and it sits ahead of a few cleaner games here because it is the one players still bring up when they talk about later Crash.

Ape Escape 2 was released in Japan in July 2002, Europe in March 2003 and North America in July 2003, published by Ubi Soft. Your goal is to catch the apes running and flying around each level, and the catching net is the most important gadget you have. Each monkey has its own name and its own habits. Some just sit there, while others throw things at you or run off fast.

Finish the game and you unlock three new minigames, including a rhythm game called Dance Monkey Dance, plus a New Game+ where you play as Spike from the first game. Players who love the series tend to name Ape Escape 2 and 3 together, and it is hard to pick between them. The monkey names alone are worth the trip.

Naughty Dog released Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy on December 4, 2001. Jak sets out to help his friend Daxter after Daxter is turned into an "ottsel", a mix of an otter and a weasel. The team built a new engine on GOAL, a custom language that let them change code in real time, and it recruited animators from Disney and Nickelodeon.

Reviewers said its open seamless world devoid of load times set a new standard for platformers. They also pointed to the lack of bosses and the short length. It is the lightest game in the series, with none of the guns or the gloom that came next. That makes it the best Jak to play if you just want to jump around and collect things.

Psychonauts follows Raz, a young psychic who runs away from the circus to a summer camp for psychonauts. The levels take place inside the minds of the people he meets, and each one is built around how that person thinks. Tim Schafer first had the idea while making Full Throttle and came back to it at Double Fine.

Getting it out was a mess. Microsoft dropped the publishing rights in 2004, and Majesco picked it up a few months later, after four and a half years of development. The game was well received, but Majesco took a severe financial loss and left the video game market. Psychonauts earned a number of industry awards and a cult following, and players name it next to the PS2's biggest platformers.

Up Your Arsenal brings in Dr. Nefarious, a robot who intends to destroy all organic life. To stop him, the President sends Ratchet and Clank to find the only man who has ever beaten him: Captain Qwark. Nefarious even builds an evil double of Clank, called Klunk, and swaps him in. It was the first game in the series with online multiplayer as well as single-player.

It has a new control system, and the upgrade system has more levels for each weapon. Ratchet is voiced by James Arnold Taylor, and Qwark by Jim Ward. If you only remember one villain from the PS2 Ratchet games, it is almost certainly Nefarious, and that alone earns it a place in the top ten.

Klonoa 2 is the third Klonoa game and a sequel to Klonoa: Moonlight Museum. It plays as a 2D side-scroller in a 3D-rendered world, so the levels look 3D while you mostly move left and right. Klonoa fights with a crystal ring that holds the life of his friend Lolo. There are 24 stages, with hover-board rides and waterfalls to drop off.

It underperformed commercially but received widespread critical acclaim, and critics called it one of the best platformers of 2001. Players who love 2D platformers point to it first on the PS2. You can play it today without the original disc: an HD remaster came out in the Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series in 2022.

Ape Escape 3 hands the net to two new heroes, Kei and Yumi, who have to capture all 400 monkeys. The big addition is morphing: eight forms in all, from a knight with a strong attack to a ninja who can run along walls. Specter's plan this time is to use a space station to cut the Earth in half and keep one half for the monkeys.

Critics were split, with three Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewers giving it 8, 5 and 5.5 out of 10. Players liked it more than that, and it ranks above Ape Escape 2 here. It also hides an unlockable spoof of Metal Gear Solid called Mesal Gear Solid. That might be the best monkey joke on the console, and the competition is fierce.

Maximo is set in the Ghosts 'n Goblins universe, with character designs by Japanese manga artist Susumu Matsushita. You fight with a sword and shield, and every hit costs you a piece of armor. Take enough hits and Maximo is down to his boxer shorts, and one more ends the life. Run out of lives and you can pay Death Coins to the Grim Reaper to continue, but the price goes up each time.

The worlds are tied together by portal stages where you save and buy health. It is hard in the old Ghosts 'n Goblins way, and that scared plenty of people off. As one fan put it, "Everybody sleeps on Maximo." But the players who did stay with it still rave about it. A sequel followed.

Jak 3 is the sequel to Jak II and the end of the trilogy. A year after Jak II, Haven City is caught in a new war with the surviving Metal Heads and a faction of combat robots called Deathbots. Jak II gave you four types of guns, and Jak 3 adds two modifications to each one, for twelve weapons in all.

With three times the guns, it is a busier game than Jak II, and the shooting takes up more of it. Jak 3 has its own fans who pick it over the rest of the series. A spin-off, Jak X: Combat Racing, followed in 2005. The game was remastered in the Jak and Daxter Collection in 2012.

Sly 2 takes place two years after Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. Sly and his gang go after the Klaww Gang, who have the scattered parts of Clockwerk. Each heist has steps, and you play them as Sly, then Bentley, then Murray. In the first game one hit or one guard spotting you cost a life. Here everyone gets a health bar, and there is a hub world to roam between missions.

Critics praised its cel shaded art style and called it a big improvement over the first game. Players agree. Plenty of fans call it one of their favorite games of all time, and it ranks above both other Sly games here. The Sly Collection brought it to the PS3 in 2010.

The Wrath of Cortex was the first Crash game on the PS2, out in late 2001, and the first in the series not made only for a PlayStation. Crash and his younger sister Coco have to gather 25 crystals and beat Doctor Neo Cortex and his new super weapon, Crunch Bandicoot. Most of the game takes place in a virtual reality hub system built by Coco.

Critics said it recycled too much from the PS1 games. Players did not care. The PS2 edition sold 1.56 million copies in North America and made the Platinum range. A lot of people just wanted more Crash, and it ranks above both Sly games here.

Jak II moves the series to Haven City, a dystopia where Jak wants revenge on Baron Praxis after two years of torturous experiments. Naughty Dog made it darker on purpose, because it saw players wanting the bigger stories and open worlds of games like Grand Theft Auto III. The city is huge and full of people, and it runs at a high frame rate.

Critics praised the mix of genres and the story but criticized the city navigation and the difficulty. It is hard. Asked to pick one PS2 platformer, plenty of players say Jak II, and it is the game that took the series far away from its Crash roots. It was also nominated for multiple awards and remastered in the Jak and Daxter Collection in 2012.

Ratchet & Clank is a 3D platform adventure about Ratchet, a furry alien, and Clank, a small robot, who travel across the galaxy in search of Captain Qwark. It is the first game in the series. There are more than twenty levels, each set on a different planet, and you buy weapons and gadgets as you go. Some of them are for fighting and some are for getting around, and finding a new one is half the fun.

Critics praised its comedy and soundtrack, but some disliked the camera and Ratchet's personality. Players have not let it go. It has more than four times the backing of the next game on this list, and for a lot of people it is the PS2 platformer they pick first. A PS3 remaster came in 2012, and a Vita port followed in 2014.