Jumping Games
One verb, two hundred and fifty-four games. Jumping is the only thing a character can do that is worth a genre of its own.
48 games · hand-picked, then filled from the catalogue
There is a whole genre here built on one key.
How this list is put together
Jumping is the only verb in games that earned a shelf of its own. Nobody makes running games or turning games, but two hundred and fifty-four games in this catalogue are filed under jumping, and they are not a subset of platformers — they are what is left when you remove everything else from a platformer and keep the moment of commitment.
That moment is the entire product. A gap arrives, you press once, and you were either right or you were not. There is no route to plan, no inventory, no build, no second chance and no excuse. The failure is visibly yours and the restart is under a second away, which is exactly the loop that makes people say one more go for forty minutes.
The four shapes it takes
Ascents. The screen scrolls up and you climb by landing on things. If you miss, you fall past everything you already climbed, which is a punishment with no equivalent in any other genre.
Gap crossing. Flat ground, holes in it, and a jump with a fixed arc. The purest form, and the oldest.
Bouncing physics, where you do not fully control the jump and the game is about reading a bounce before it happens. These are the ones that are funny.
Rhythm jumping, where obstacles arrive on a beat and the game stops being about reflexes and becomes about music. They are also the hardest things on this page by a distance.
Small, because one verb needs almost nothing
Median download here: 6.2 MB, against 7.8 MB for the catalogue, measured by opening each game in a real browser and counting what arrives.
A jumping game needs one character, one platform and one background, and it reuses all three until you stop playing. There is no second level to draw because the level is generated, no second enemy because the gap is the enemy, and no cutscene because there is no story. It is the most efficient thing in this catalogue in terms of minutes played per megabyte downloaded.
Forty-four are marked for touch. If you are on a phone, start there — a game whose only input is tap is the one genre a touchscreen does better than a keyboard.
For the version with levels and a map to read, go to platform games; for the version where you never stop moving, parkour games.
Win the cup on your own tableToy players, real tournaments. No download.Play free ›Our gameQuestions people ask
What makes a jumping game different from a platform game?
A platform game gives you a level to read and a route to choose. A jumping game takes the route away and leaves you the one decision: now, or not yet. Everything is timing. You can lose in under a second and start again in under a second, which is the whole design.
Are they easier than other games?
Easier to understand, harder to stop playing. One button means there is nothing to learn and nothing to blame — every failure is visibly yours, and the restart is instant. That combination is the most addictive shape in the medium and it is why these games are short.
How big are they?
A median of 6.2 MB, against 7.8 MB for the catalogue. One verb needs very little art: a character, a platform, a background, and the same three drawings for the rest of your life.
Do they work on a phone?
Forty-four of the two hundred and fifty-four are marked for touch, and they are the ones that suit a phone best — a game whose entire input is «tap» was practically designed for a thumb.
Do I need to download anything?
No. They open in the browser tab you already have, with no account and no install.