What elevates games in this genre is the heart that the developer and composer pours into their artform. The premise of the platformer is generally uncomplicated: hop, dash, sometimes fight. I see the cover art, and suddenly my imagination fashions a gripping narrative and visceral universe intertwined within the music. This is the magnetic power of a truly great video game soundtrack. However, after submerging myself in the sounds of the platformers below, there are now nine games on this list that I am passionately driven to delve into. In fact, there is only one game on this entire list that I’ve actually played. Some will sneer and controller/keyboard fling at such an assertion, but in all transparency, I am wildly unacquainted.

I didn’t initially think there were enough games in the genre to do a “Best Original Soundtracks” for platforming-type games.