29 Best Side Scrolling Games on PC

A flower the size of a house can be a bigger problem than a room full of soldiers. Cuphead builds most of its action around bosses that change shape and attack patterns as the fight goes on. You'll be reading the next windup while jumping over whatever the last one sent your way.

Pink projectiles have a purpose of their own. Time a parry and you can bounce right off one, with the jazz band still going full tilt.

Madeline can climb a wall, but only for so long. Celeste makes that limit and a midair dash the basis of rooms you can read in seconds and spend a dozen attempts getting right. Restarts are quick, and Assist Mode can take some pressure off if you want it.

The climb keeps finding new uses for the same moves. A green crystal in midair can refill your dash just in time to send you through the next gap.

Good positioning matters as much as a good combo in Streets of Rage 4. You can slam the person in front of you into somebody behind them, then turn to deal with the crowd closing in from the other side. It looks like a street fight and plays like a lesson in keeping your space.

Special moves can cost some health that you can earn back by landing more hits. A risky attack feels even better when you follow it up and watch that life return.

Peppino has a lot more to do than get from one side of a level to the other. Pizza Tower puts secrets and odd little rooms along routes you can sprint through, climb around or revisit for a better score. The trick is learning where to let him run and when to brake.

Then you hit Pillar John and hear the alarm. The way out becomes a mad dash back through the ground you just covered, suddenly seen from the opposite direction.

Hornet moves like she's already looking for her next opening. In Hollow Knight: Silksong, you cross Pharloom with a needle, silk and tools that change how you handle the climb and its fights. A room can be a route to a new town or a reason to turn back until you've found a better way through.

Boss fights make that speed count. Catch an opening and Hornet can slip back out of reach, or use the silk she's earned from landing hits to heal before the next attack.

Lana and Mui get through Planet of Lana by paying attention to each other and the world around them. You can ask the little creature to help from a different spot while Lana works her way past a gap or a machine. The puzzles leave plenty of room to take in the scenery between them.

That partnership matters when a machine is close. You can send Mui ahead to draw attention and watch for the moment Lana can slip across.

A room in Katana Zero might have one guard with a gun and another on the far side of a door. With one hit enough to end an attempt, you're planning around both as you dash in, swing and send bullets back with your sword. A messy first try can turn into a very quick second one.

Clear the room and the game shows a replay at full speed. The moves you worked out one at a time suddenly look like one continuous fight.

A good run through Sonic Mania is as much about finding the right path as holding down a direction. Keeping your momentum can carry you onto higher routes, while a missed jump often leaves another way through farther down. Returning to a stage is a chance to see the parts you ran past.

Studiopolis Zone makes the speed especially easy to feel. Neon signs and studio equipment flash by as Sonic takes a route through what looks like a giant TV set.

Foot Soldiers keep pouring onto the screen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, and picking a favorite fighter changes how you clear them out. Donatello's reach can help you control the crowd, while a faster character can get in and out before the next hit. The action has room for six players in co-op.

The background is worth watching, too. A fight through the Channel 6 studios carries the Turtles past TV sets and equipment while the usual order of a broadcast falls apart.

Each Robot Master's stage in Mega Man 11 has a hazard that changes how you approach the jumps. Block Man's area has huge shapes dropping around you, while other stages put their own spin on timing. The Double Gear system gives you a way to slow things down or put extra power behind your attacks.

Speed Gear is especially handy when everything starts moving at once. Kick it on and the gap between falling blocks can stay open just long enough to slide through.

A boy running through the woods is all Inside needs to get started. You hide, move objects and watch for chances to cross spaces patrolled by people who clearly don't want you there. The side-on view gives you time to see trouble coming and very little room to get around it.

One of its strangest puzzles has you move other bodies in sync. When everybody falls into the same rhythm, the simple act of walking starts to feel like part of the horror.

There's almost no gap between hitting a saw and trying the jump again in Super Meat Boy. That's what makes its short levels work. You can test a lower leap, take a different angle off a wall or find a faster way across the same stretch without much time spent waiting around.

Beat the level and the replay runs your attempts at once. A crowd of Meat Boys piles into the traps while the one successful run keeps going all the way to the end.

Mount Qaf asks you to think about where you'll land as much as which enemy you'll hit. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Sargon can string attacks and jumps together or mark a spot with a shadow he can return to. The same trick is handy in a fight and on a route full of traps.

There's also a small tool for the map that makes a big difference. Take a screenshot of a blocked passage and pin the picture where you found it.

The knights in Castle Crashers can cut through a crowd with swords, magic and whatever better weapon they've found along the way. With up to four players, there are plenty of chances to rescue a teammate or catch somebody else's enemy on the way down from a hit.

Even the ride between places can end in a boss fight. A trip down the river puts you on floating debris while a giant catfish tears through the water toward you.

The grappling arm in Sanabi sets the speed of nearly every room. You can zip to walls and ceilings, then use that movement to cross a trap or close the gap on an enemy. The city is full of places where staying in the air feels safer than stopping to see what comes next.

A stretch between buildings can feel like a single long swing when you find a good line. The skyline keeps slipping away beneath you with every new grab.

Toronto in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game - Complete Edition is a place to fight your way through clubs and streets, then duck into a shop to spend your winnings. Leveling up adds new moves, so a fighter who starts with a simple string of punches gets more ways to handle the people crowding the screen.

The soundtrack sounds like it belongs in an arcade that's just a little too loud. Anamanaguchi's chiptunes keep playing as enemies burst into coins around your feet.

Six is small enough to get under furniture that her pursuers have to go around. Little Nightmares uses that difference in scale to make the Maw feel hard to cross. Climb a shelf, squeeze past a grate and keep an eye on the other side of the room before you step out.

The kitchen is particularly tense. A gap beneath a counter can hide you from a cook whose footsteps sound far too close for comfort.

Pick a gun and keep moving. Blazing Chrome pulls from old arcade run-and-gun games with quick waves of enemies, boss fights and stages that make you pay attention to both ends of the screen. You can tackle the machine army alone or play with a friend in local co-op.

The shooting gets a change of pace when you climb into a mech. For a moment, the metal hulk crossing the screen is on your side.

The levels in Kaze and the Wild Masks reward a good jump and an eye for things just outside the main route. The animal masks mix up the controls without asking you to relearn the whole game. One stretch calls for quick leaps over angry vegetables, while another gives you wings or lets you climb.

The tiger mask makes walls part of the route. Claw your way upward and a surface you'd normally jump away from becomes your best way through.

Joe Musashi has more ways to get through a group of enemies than a single sword combo. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance asks you to move around crowds, mix attacks and make space to use ninja magic. The stages also give you new movement tools to reach places you couldn't get to on your first visit.

The hand-drawn style really shows in the finishers. Land one on a weakened enemy and you get a brief flash of exactly how much force Joe put behind the strike.

A gap in Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince could be a job for a rope, a conjured box or both. You switch among a thief, a wizard and a knight, and their tools give the same obstacle several possible answers. That works especially well when another player is already halfway through building a solution of their own.

The wizard's boxes can hold down switches, but they're just as useful above the ground. Stack them in the right spot and suddenly the scenery doubles as a staircase.

Kyoko and Misako have a whole town to fight their way through in River City Girls. Shops and familiar faces give the trip a little more room than a straight run through arcade stages. You pick up new moves as you go, so getting surrounded in a later fight feels different from your first scrap.

Some beaten opponents can join you as backup. Recruit one and a person you just knocked down can rush into a later fight on your side.

The jungle in Contra: Operation Galuga doesn't give you much time to get comfortable with a gun before the next enemy shows up. Picking up weapons changes the angles you can cover, and hopping out of danger matters even when you have a lot of firepower. Arcade Mode supports up to four players.

Overload gives those pickups another use. You can spend a weapon for a burst of power and send an attack across the screen just when a crowd gets too close.

Pablo's hook is the best reason to try Grapple Dog. Grab a swing point and you can use the arc to fly past an obstacle or reach a ledge you wouldn't have the height for on foot. The colorful levels give you room to practice before asking you to use that speed in tighter spaces.

The gems are a good excuse to try a bigger swing. Catch the right point and you can scoop up a row of them in one long arc.

A dark corner can be more useful than a sword in Mark of the Ninja: Remastered. The side-on view lets you see guards on different floors and look for a route around them. Sound has a visible range, so you can work out whether a landing or a thrown distraction will draw the attention you want.

Watch a guard's flashlight move across a corridor. The moment it sweeps past your hiding spot, a space that looked impossible to cross opens up for a few seconds.

The factory in Splasher looks a lot easier to cross once you've sprayed paint on it. Different colors change what surfaces do, so you can turn a wall into a place to stick or a patch of floor into something to bounce off. Getting the colors right can matter as much as timing a jump.

The best stretches make those ideas click together. Land on a spot you painted a second ago and the bounce can carry you over the factory machinery before you have to stop.

There's no guarantee the floor will still be there after a fight in Broforce. Its short stages put you in charge of action movie parodies who can shoot or explode their way through a surprising amount of scenery. With friends, the plan can change as soon as someone fires their first shot.

That destruction works both ways. A firefight can open a tunnel you can crawl through or drop the whole platform your teammate was standing on.

Color slowly comes back to the world of GRIS. The route is built around gentle puzzles, jumps and new uses for Gris's dress, with room to stop and look at how the scenery changes. It's a good choice when you want to move through a place and see what's around the corner.

One ability gives the dress the weight of a heavy block. A gust that would have pushed Gris back can wash over her while she stays planted in the middle of the storm.

The forest in Ori and the Will of the Wisps has some lovely places to slow down, but the movement is what makes them worth getting to. Ori can climb, dash and chain abilities together to reach routes you may have passed earlier. The more of those moves you learn, the more freely you can cross a tricky room.

Bash is the one that changes how you look at danger. An incoming projectile can launch Ori across a gap while the shot flies off in the opposite direction.