And just to keep it interesting, you cannot select more than one game from a single franchise. (But if you want to include more than one entry, combine them into one.) E.g.,

[BAD] Mario Bros World // Mario Bros Wonder // DKCReturns

[GOOD] Mario Bros World & Wonder // DKCReturns // Celeste

Good: DK Tropical Freeze / Rayman Legends / Mario Wonder

Me personally? I’d say…

[1.] Super Mario Bros Wonder >> Super Mario World 2 >> Super Mario World,

[2.] Celeste,

[3.] DKCReturns = DKC:Tropical Freeze.

Honorable Mention: Sonic Mania or any of the OG Sonic quad-ilogy.

1) ori blind forest

2) mario world

3) DKC 2

Not sure if Ori is 2D platforming or metroid like. Kind of both. But simply a game of perfection either way.

Rayman Legends, Super Mario World, LBP2

1) Super Mario World
2)Cuphead
3)Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Super Mario Bros 3
Donkey Kong Country trilogy
Sonic the Hedgehog 2

I’ll also note that at the times of their debuts, they were the biggest console games in the world.

In no particular order:

Super Mario World 1 + 2
Donkey Kong Country trilogy
Rayman Legends

Honorary mentions: Sonic Adventure, Astrobot and Shovel Knight

Not incluiding Metroidvanias here

 Astrobot is 3d but whatevs

One for each franchise, cool.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Wario Land 4
Rayman Legends

Just so they are not missing, going to complete a top 56

Donkey Kong Country 2

+ Shovel Knight (from the edit lol)

Super Mario World

Also shoutout to Mega Man 8, people seem to really hate it, but I love it.

Edit: dammit, completely forgot about Shovel Knight, so I'm making it a top 6 to now lol

1. Mega Man 2
2. Super Mario Bros 3
3. Kirby Superstar Ultra