Summary
SNESplatformer games are known for their diverse, creative, and visually impressive designs, thanks to the console’s powerful graphics, rich color palette, and special effects like Mode 7. Classics like Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country defined the genre’s peak. These games feature precise controls, memorable music, detailed level designs, and challenging but fair gameplay. The library includes both classic jump-and-run platformers and hybrids blending RPG, adventure, or action elements.
The SNES era was highly competitive, with many high-quality platformers released simultaneously. Smaller or new IPs often struggled to gain attention overshadowed by big-name franchises. Limited marketing, niche themes, and high difficulty also limited some games’ popularity, turning them into hidden gems. This list highlights some of those underrated SNES platformers.
10Jelly Boy
The Bouncy Platformer You Missed.
In Jelly Boy, you control a stretchy, gel-like character named Jelly Boy. The game features colorful and creative level designs focused on platforming, avoiding enemies, and solving puzzles. The main goal is to find Jelly Boy’s lost toys. Visually,it has a bright, cartoonish stylethat adds a cheerful vibe.
Jelly Boy’s standout ability is his elasticity—he can roll like a ball, flatten to fit through narrow gaps, or stretch his arms and legs to hit enemies. This mechanic adds a fresh dimension to platforming and encourages creative puzzle-solving. Released late in the SNES era, Jelly Boy didn’t get much attention due to poor marketing and limited distribution, overshadowed by bigger platformers of its time.
9Super Adventure Island 2
An Epic Island Adventure With RPG Twists.
Super Adventure Island 2 stands out as an action-RPG hybrid, unlike its traditional platformer predecessors. Players control Master Higgins, who sets out to rescue his wife,transformed into a mermaid, by exploring dungeons and regions spread across a vast archipelago. The game focuses on finding hidden items and weapons, battling bosses, and gaining new abilities.
Its biggest difference is moving away from the usual linear platform style to embrace open-world exploration and RPG elements. Previous titles were mostly time-limited, progressive platformers, but this game offers a free-roaming island map. Limited marketing and its niche appeal, along with some fans’ discomfort with the RPG style, kept it from gaining wider recognition.
8Run Saber
Fight The Alien Threat With Style And Speed.
In Run Saber,set in a cyberpunk future, you control Saber, a hero fighting to stop an alien invasion threatening the planet. This side-scrolling run-and-gun game features sword attacks, jumping, and special abilities to defeat enemies and powerful bosses. Its impressive visuals and smooth animations stand out. The game is heavily inspired by Capcom’s Strider series, offering fast-paced action, acrobatic moves, and sword-focused combat.
However, Run Saber distinguishes itself with unique character designs, diverse level layouts, and the choice between two heroes—a male and a female—each with their own skills, adding replay value. Despite its quality, it remained underrated due to limited marketing and being overshadowed by more popular titles during SNES’s competitive era.
Nosferatu is a dark and atmospheric action-platformer developed for the SNES. Players control the hero Kyle as he battles through Dracula’s castle to rescue his kidnapped love, Erin. Set in a creepy gothic environment, the game requires fighting enemies using punches, kicks, and magical attacks while progressing through rooms. A limited time and health system add tension and challenge.
Compared to other platformers of its era, Nosferatu features a more serious tone and effectively incorporates horror elements. Character animations, especially enemy attacks and damage effects on Kyle, are detailed. Unlike typical platformers, its combat focuses on hand-to-hand fighting, giving it a unique feel. Released late in the SNES lifecycle, its horror theme limited its audience, leaving it underrated.
Skyblazer follows the journey of a young hero named Sky, who blends martial arts and magic in a fantasy-filled quest. Players battle enemies, overcome obstacles, and explore diverse realms through platforming stages that include intense combat and boss fights. The game stands out for its impressive graphics and atmospheric soundtrack.
What sets Skyblazer apart is its fusion of melee combat and elemental magic—players can unleash fire, ice, and lightning spells, adding strategic depth. Unlike most linear platformers, the game features a semi-open structure with branching paths on a world map. Despite its quality and innovation, Skyblazer lacked strong marketing, causing it to be overlooked and ultimately become a forgotten hidden gem.
In E.V.O.: Search for Eden, you begin as one of Earth’s earliest life forms and evolve through various geological eras to survive. The game revolves around earning evolution points by defeating enemies or consuming specific creatures. These points let you enhance your size, strength, jaws, limbs, or other body parts, allowing adaptation to tougher environments and foes. Its standout feature is the dynamic evolution system—few games offer such creative freedom to build a unique creature.
This mechanic adds deep strategy and replayability while encouraging exploration of biological diversity. The story also touches on philosophical themes about life and Earth’s history. Despite its originality, E.V.O. remained underrated due to limited marketing and lack of brand recognition compared to Enix’s major RPG titles.
Plok! is a fast-paced, colorful platformer where players control a quirky creature who can throw his limbs to attack enemies. His goal is to reclaim his island from the invading Bobbins and rescue his family. The game features dynamic levels with varied themes and uniquely designed enemies. Plok gains new abilities by retrieving his limbs or unlocking hidden power-ups.
With tight jumps and quick reflexes required, the gameplay is challenging yet rewarding. The game’s humor, distinct art style, and catchy, upbeat soundtrack set it apart from other platformers. Released during an era dominated by giants like Mario and Donkey Kong Country, Plok! lacked marketing and was easily overlooked, remaining a hidden gem many players never discovered.
Blackthorne, developed by Blizzard Entertainment for the SNES, is a cinematic action-platformer where players control Kyle Blackthorne, a lone warrior fighting to save his people on an alien world. Set in a dark, gothic environment, the game features shotgun combat, dynamite use, puzzle-solving, and platforming challenges. Its gameplay is reminiscent of Prince of Persia and Flashback, with a slower, more strategic pace that emphasizes timing, cover, and observation over reflexes.
Fluid rotoscope-style animations and richly detailed backgrounds create a unique atmosphere. Tactics like ambushing enemies from behind or luring them into traps add depth. Despite its quality, Blackthorne remained underrated due to limited marketing, its slower pace, and being overshadowed by Blizzard’s more famous franchises like Warcraft and StarCraft.
Hagane: The Final Conflict is a fast-paced ninja action-platformer set in a world blending cyberpunk and feudal Japan aesthetics. Players control Hagane, a cyborg ninja seeking revenge, as they fight waves of enemies and overcome challenging platform obstacles. Hagane wields various weapons like swords, chains, and shurikens, and has acrobatic abilities such as wall climbing, double jumping, and spinning attacks.
The game is known for its high difficulty and exceptionally smooth, detailed animations. It combines the challenge of Ninja Gaiden with the gothic atmosphere of Castlevania. Hagane remained underrated due to its rarity, limited marketing, and release late in the SNES era, overshadowed by bigger titles of its time.
Demon’s Crest is a dark, gothic action-platformer and a spin-off of the Ghosts ’n Goblins series. Players control Firebrand, a demonic character seeking to collect seven magical crests to increase his power and dominate the demon realm. The game combines challenging combat, platforming, and exploration with Metroidvania-style elements. Firebrand can transform into different forms—like a flying gargoyle, a powerful giygas, or a breathing merman—unlocking new areas and deepening map exploration.
With high-quality graphics, atmospheric music, and a mature, gothic aesthetic reminiscent of Castlevania, Demon’s Crest offers a unique experience. Released late in the SNES era and overshadowed by Capcom’s bigger titles, it remained underrated but grew into a cult classic and hidden gem.
