You might associate the platformer with console gaming as Nintendo claims many of the biggest ones and they’re usually best played with—gasp—a controller, but don't count the PC gamers out. The scene would be unrecognizable without all the indie hits that first found a home on Steam, and early attempts to mimic that plumber in the red hat led to the tech that gave us Doom.
So dust off that gamepad and embrace the inherent fun of jumping over stuff with me. It's a genre largely unbeleaguered by big-budget bloat, intent on retaining the purity of old-school action at its best. Platformers remain fascinated with the ability of the videogame to sate a primordial human urge: to run, be free, and soar weightlessly over certain doom. From cerebral puzzle platformers, to parkour simulations, to cotton candy collectathons, the genre is as diverse and worth celebrating as it’s ever been.
