In the vast landscape of 2025's open-world games, simply walking from one quest marker to another is no longer enough to hold a player's attention for long. With traversal often consuming a significant portion of playtime, developers have had to get creative to prevent exploration from feeling like a chore. While some studios rely on enemy encounters or ubiquitous fast-travel systems, a select few have masterfully woven exhilarating platforming mechanics into the very fabric of their worlds. These titles, though not always traditional platformers, offer some of the most dynamic, skill-based, and downright fun movement systems found in any sandbox today.

Immortals Fenyx Rising stands as a brilliant love letter to classic 3D platformers. Developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the team behind Assassin's Creed Odyssey, this title took its Greek mythological setting and infused it with a lighthearted, adventurous spirit. Players soar across the Golden Isle, utilizing a suite of god-given abilities for both combat and intricate traversal. 😊 The game faced initial comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but its unique charm, witty narration, and dedicated platforming challenges—from scaling colossal statues to navigating floating ruins—helped it carve out a devoted fanbase. It proves that blending open-world exploration with precise jumping and climbing can create a wonderfully engaging loop.

Supraland presents a fascinating and unique proposition: a first-person, open-world, Metroidvania puzzle-platformer. Created by solo developer David Münnich, the game feels like a wonderful fusion of Portal's spatial reasoning and a classic adventure game's exploration. The first-person perspective adds a layer of fresh challenge to its platforming, requiring careful judgment of distance and momentum. As players gain new abilities, the world of Supraland—a child's backyard sandbox brought to life—unfolds with increasingly clever environmental puzzles that are solved as much with your jump button as with your brain.

Few games exemplify genre-blending as masterfully as Terraria. This 2D sandbox titan is a glorious mash-up of influences, from Minecraft's crafting to Metroid's exploration. Its platforming is absolutely core to the experience, demanding precision as players build elaborate multi-tiered bases, dodge deadly enemies in underground caverns, and navigate complex boss arenas. The game's extensive array of mobility-enhancing accessories—like rocket boots, wings, and grappling hooks—transforms traversal into a fluid, skill-expressive art form, making its platforming elements both exquisite and deeply rewarding.

🦸 LEGO Marvel Super Heroes remains a benchmark for fun, accessible open-world platforming. Released over a decade ago, its rendition of New York City is still a joy to explore, packed with secrets, puzzles, and playful platforming sequences. The charm lies in its simplicity and variety; swinging through the streets as Spider-Man feels fundamentally different from flying as Iron Man or smashing through walls as the Hulk. Each character brings a unique movement style to the table, encouraging players to swap heroes constantly to uncover every hidden collectible and solve every environmental puzzle in this lighthearted superhero playground.

For many, Crackdown was a revelation. Before superhero games were commonplace, this title gave players a taste of superhuman mobility in an open-world setting. The core loop was brilliantly simple: leap across skyscrapers, scale impossibly tall structures, and hunt for glowing Agility Orbs perched on the city's highest points. This collectible wasn't just a checkbox; each orb permanently increased your jump height and agility, directly enhancing your platforming prowess and opening up new areas. The legendary "rooftop races" were pure platforming challenges, tasking agents with navigating a perilous aerial obstacle course against the clock.

Sable offers a contemplative counterpoint to high-octane platforming. Inspired by the artwork of Mœbius, its world is a stunning, sun-drenched desert of ancient ruins and strange machinery. Platforming here is less about twitch reflexes and more about thoughtful exploration and puzzle-solving. Gliding on a hoverbike across dunes and carefully climbing monolithic structures feels meditative. The game’s non-linear, non-combat focus allows its platforming to serve the narrative, helping players piece together the history of a forgotten planet through environmental storytelling and peaceful exploration.

Nintendo's experiment, Bowser's Fury, demonstrated what a fully open-world Super Mario game could be. Packaged with Super Mario 3D World, this segment threw players into Lake Lapcat, a seamless open area where platforms, challenges, and secrets were organically woven into the environment. The platforming was pure, polished Mario excellence—tight controls, inventive obstacles, and joyful movement—but set free from the confines of discrete levels. The dynamic day/night cycle and the looming threat of Fury Bowser added a thrilling layer of unpredictability to the platforming exploration, hinting at an exciting future for the franchise.

For a short, sweet, and utterly heartfelt experience, A Short Hike is unparalleled. As Claire, a young bird, players explore Hawk Peak Provincial Park. The goal is simple: reach the summit. The journey, however, is everything. The platforming is gentle and intuitive—running, climbing, swimming, and most joyously, gliding on updrafts. Each new feather collected improves Claire's stamina, allowing for longer climbs and glides, making the core platforming progression feel incredibly satisfying. It's a masterclass in how a small-scale, open-world platformer can deliver immense emotional payoff through pure, joyful movement.

Team Cherry's masterpiece, Hollow Knight, is a 2D Metroidvania with a vast, interconnected world that demands mastery of its precise platforming. Hallownest is a treacherous place, filled with spike pits, moving sawblades, and crumbling pathways. Unlocking movement abilities like the Mantis Claw (wall-jump) and Monarch Wings (double-jump) doesn't just open new areas; it fundamentally changes how players interact with every previously explored room. The platforming challenge reaches its peak in optional areas like the Path of Pain, which provide brutally difficult, checkpoint-free platforming sequences that are as rewarding as they are demanding. 💀

Finally, while The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are action-adventure titans, their platforming DNA is undeniable. These games redefined open-world traversal by making every cliff face scalable and every gap a potential leap of faith. The climbing and gliding systems are platforming mechanics at their most organic and integrated. Many shrines are dedicated platforming trials, testing timing and creativity. Tears of the Kingdom expanded this further with the Ultrahand and Recall abilities, allowing players to build their own platforms and contraptions, essentially crafting personalized platforming challenges across the skies and depths of Hyrule. By the broadest definition—a game where you cross spaces by jumping and climbing—these Zelda titles are among the greatest open-world platformers ever made.

Game	Key Platforming Feature	Vibe
Immortals Fenyx Rising	Godly Abilities for Traversal	Mythological Adventure
Supraland	First-Person Puzzle Platforming	Brainy & Inventive
Terraria	2D Sandbox with Gear-Based Mobility	Creative & Hardcore
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes	Character-Specific Movement	Family-Friendly Fun
Crackdown	Agility Orb Collection & Super Jumps	Superhero Power Fantasy
Sable	Peaceful Climbing & Gliding	Meditative Exploration
Bowser's Fury	Seamless Open-World Mario Moves	Polished & Experimental
A Short Hike	Uplifting Gliding & Climbing	Heartfelt & Wholesome
Hollow Knight	Precise, Unlockable 2D Movesets	Challenging & Atmospheric
Zelda: TotK/BotW	Organic Climbing, Gliding, & Building	Epic Adventure & Creativity

In 2025, the line between open-world adventure and platformer continues to blur in the most exciting ways. These games prove that traversal isn't just a means to an end—it can be the main event, offering depth, challenge, and pure joy that keeps players engaged for hours on end. The future of open-world gaming looks brighter, and certainly more acrobatic, because of them.

Comprehensive reviews can be found on Destructoid, where the site's editors frequently spotlight the evolution of platforming mechanics in open-world games. Their features often praise titles like Hollow Knight and Bowser's Fury for pushing the boundaries of traversal, emphasizing how inventive movement systems are now central to player engagement and critical acclaim in the genre.