{"id":135500,"date":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-187708"},"modified":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T11:00:00","slug":"feature-jump-man-a-celebration-of-the-greatest-jumps-in-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2026\/01\/01\/feature-jump-man-a-celebration-of-the-greatest-jumps-in-gaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Jump, Man – A Celebration Of The Greatest Jumps In Gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Over the holiday season, we’re republishing some of the best articles from Nintendo Life writers and contributors from<\/em> 2025<\/a><\/em>. This article was originally published in September. Enjoy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Super Mario Bros.<\/a> is now 40 years old. To celebrate this big anniversary, Omar looks back over four decades of gaming’s greatest verb and\/or noun…<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe when hopping from a kerb over an autumn puddle. Maybe bouncing up and down to House of Pain<\/a> or that Blackpink song<\/a>. Maybe you literally ‘jump into bed’ and enjoy the squeak of the mattress landing. All of this is commendable.<\/p>\n

But in games jumps are a magic trick, alive<\/em> with aftertouch even once airborne. Each one seems to thicken space with mid-jump control and momentum management – a micro flight, temporarily free. Rocketing up, space-jump high, but then that grounding downtug. And that\u2019s just Mario 1-1.<\/p>\n

Of course, jumping in games isn’t always<\/em> that, or only that. Jumping is one of the best things to do in a game, but in so many different ways. Here are some of my favourites and the games they come from, most of which you can play on Switch\u2026<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Mario<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mario is Jumpman, and the reason why in so many games we jump, man. His is the classic, perfectly-weighted, satisfyingly precise standard against which others are compared, on which most others are based<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Of all his brilliant variations, everyone will have their preference, but Super Mario 64<\/a> is still my favourite, with its weighty momentum that makes even simple movements on a flat feel fantastic. The jewel in the crown is the never-bettered triple jump that rises so high the camera has to crane to keep up. And that almost unparsable acrobatic smoothness of the unfurl. Wa-ha!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Rayman<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Ubisoft<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wall jumps are so fun I’m convinced there’s something evolutionary enjoyable about sudden pivots in direction. Something that tickles my symmetry synapses with that zigzag counterflow. Especially when you have to hold into<\/em> the wall as you press jump like you\u2019re willing the wall to become floor.<\/p>\n

Rayman Legends is brilliant because if given a lip at the base of a wall, you run up it like it\u2019s floor and keep running as the wall curves to become ceiling<\/em>, then jump to flip down before gravity catches on.<\/p>\n

The level Up, Up and Escape<\/a> is just brilliant, an almost-smartphone narrow upward level of growing vines and breakable walls that is pure movement, with a clear through-line drawn in bright lums and enough give in the controls to feel like an expressive pleasure just to participate in this upside-downside-leftside-rightside dance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"DK<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Nintendo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In real life, jumping on people is not a good way to attack. It’d be quite hard to cause serious damage (though I’m sure there are some statistics about how many people do per year.)<\/p>\n

In games, though, jumping on enemies is just the best, especially when you can hold jump to bounce higher, like putting a stress<\/em> on the bounce.<\/p>\n

It took me a while to warm up to Tropical Freeze<\/a>. But one level can make you fall in love and for me it was Bopopolis. A level that asks ‘What If The Whole Level Is Enemies?’ and then scores it to DK Island Swing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The floor isn’t lava, it’s owls and walruses and penguins, and each one is a spring and a choice between stressed<\/em> or normal jumps and combinations that feel like movement music. This is pure bouncing, exacting, platforming euphoria. I’d pay full price for this level alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Celeste<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Maddy Makes Games<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Disclaimer: this list is not definitive and is<\/strong> subjective, and please don’t get angry at me.<\/em><\/p>\n

I know double-jumps are a beloved thing in games. I can confirm that they are, indeed, awesome. Maybe you count flutter jumps as double jumps and so love Yoshi’s Story<\/a> because of how good the giant sneakers look as you do them (I would agree with this). Maybe you like the satisfying one-up one-down harmony of Klonoa<\/a>‘s ball-slam or Bananza<\/a> DK’s rocky slam dunk.<\/p>\n

All of these are valid. But the best is Celeste<\/a>. Does her dash even count? It does now!<\/p>\n

Not only is it gloriously versatile and the core ‘ollie’ around which the game is built, it also comes out so fast and with such whoosh<\/em> that the revert to normal slowness afterwards gives it that glorious sense of temporary suspension, a caught-at-the-apex pause between realities.<\/p>\n

This is the sliver of grace in the game\u2019s inhale-exhale flow, and I’ve just realised it\u2019s probably also the way her lilting hair changes direction that makes it feel so good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"VVVVVV<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Terry Cavanagh<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

VVVVVV<\/a> is built around a not-jump, where you can flip gravity on a whim and suddenly you’re upside down and the ceiling is the floor. But it also has great moments of suspended freefall, and if finessing mid-air control is the point of video game jumps, then the Vedi Vidi Vici room<\/a> might be the ultimate version.<\/p>\n

You not-jump from the floor and then are whizzing upwards into a jagged tunnel lined with spikes, having to do that glorious left-right steer-oversteer in a prolonged bending path, dying so many times and repeating so often you are less learning a sequence than tracing out a tensile line that starts to feel as real and taught as a string on a guitar.<\/p>\n

Then you get to the top and the platform crumbles, and you realise you have to do it again, backwards. This is fun.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Penny's<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Omar Hafeez-Bore \/ Private Division<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Does a swing count as a jump? Yes, I just checked (with myself).<\/p>\n

But which is best? Bionic Commando<\/a>? Spider-Man 2<\/a> on GameCube? Samus\u2019 sometimes surprisingly loop-de-loopy one?<\/p>\n

All of these are excellent but wrong choices – the best is Penny’s Big Breakaway<\/a>, which is a game I disliked intensely until I started to play it for combos. This forces you to engage with its yo-yo delights, which means plummeting falls, at the bottom of which you unleash your yo-yo, fix a pivot point mid-air out of pure video game logic, and hold the swing the right amount of milliseconds just-so<\/em> to turn all that fall suddenly into so much fling and soar. And just as suddenly, the game is gorgeous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Lara<\/a>
<\/span> Image: Aspyr<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s tempting to put only the most empowering, nimble jumps in this list, but of course a jump exists in relation to the environment around it – that\u2019s where the drama is, what defines a level’s spacing, heights, and tempo of movement.<\/p>\n

In the Core Design Tomb Raider<\/a> games, Lara’s jump is<\/em> architecture. Each one is considered, angular, grid-based, with that leap back, line-up, and long press before the edge. It changes your dynamic with the world and emphasises the ruins of Peru or St Francis\u2019 Folly as ancient places themselves, solid, heavy, imposing.<\/p>\n

Also, she has that cool swan dive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jumping In Character<\/h2>\n