I can’t be the only one who loves playing for high scores. It may seem like a throwback to the past when you were fighting to get on the Raiden II leaderboard at the arcade, but there are plenty of modern titles that keep the tradition alive.
10 Celeste
Celeste is a much-celebrated platformer that’s available on almost anything. As with most platformers, “100 percenting” the game can be time-consuming, but there’s a good reason to do so. The True Achievements Celeste leaderboard lists players on Xbox who have completed the game with a max score, but that’s not the competitive part.
There are also rankings for Crystal Hearts and Strawberries that you can try to beat if you’re superb at the game. If you’re on PC or PS4, don’t fret. You can still fight the speedrun Celeste board for the fastest game time, although the competition there is very stiff. This challenge isn’t for the faint of heart, and your jumps should be on point if you intend to compete with the fastest times.
9 Super Meat Boy Forever
If there were a leaderboard for the amount of time spent in a game, I’d probably be ranking on Super Meat Boy, but since there isn’t. All I can hope for is placing on The Daily Grind Mode. In this mode, players get a randomly generated level that they have to run, but it’s not all about speedrunning. It pits your time against the average time and factors in pacifiers and rank bonuses to give you a final score and a position on the leaderboard.
It might be one of the most frustrating games you can play if you’re new to it, but once you settle into the groove, your precision platforming could pay off with your name in lights.
8 Trackmania Nations Remake
Trackmania has always been one of the best titles out there for high-score hunting, and while the number of people still playing Nations after its remake has died down somewhat, it’s not completely dead. Moreover, with Trackmania Exchange supporting the title, it might be time to jump back into the games and see if you can best what’s out there. There are still seasonal leaderboard updates and resets, so jumping into the latest season won’t leave you too far behind the competition.
7 Slay the Spire
Roguelikes present a challenge for ranking players because of how random a single run can be. Slay the Spire somewhat “fixes” the randomness through its daily challenge system. Each day, the game offers players a unique challenge in the Daily Climb game mode. On completion, players are given the My Lucky Day achievement, and their score is sent to the in-game leaderboard.
You can browse the top scores and attempt more than one run, although your new score only gets submitted if it’s better than the best one you previously submitted. for a game with so much playability, Daily Climb keeps me playing far longer than I should.
6 Super Mario Maker 2
Some people like running games, and some like making them. Super Mario Maker 2 is built for those who like both. The game offers Course World as a spot where players can compete for high scores on a series of player-created maps. Players get a few tabs that they can explore, including Endless Challenges of all difficulties, number of clears and first-clears, and world record holders, among other things.
You could make a level so frustrating that no one can clear it, but you’ll have to clear it yourself before you submit it, keeping it somewhat fair. If you’re a fan of old-school platformers or can just instinctively read Super Mario levels like a pro, you might be able to land on some of these leaderboards.
5 Rocket League
If you like RC cars and soccer, you should already be playing Rocket League. The game has cross-platform play, but there are a few sites that can track your career and season achievements. The Rocket League Tracker Network allows login from any of the platforms you play on to keep track of your in-game achievements. It even comes with an in-game app with an overlay you can access while playing.
Rocket League Stats is more simplified, but you can also look up your current stats or track them via its overlay app. Since the stats themselves are publicly sourced information, the only difference is the flavor of tracker you choose to use.
4 Binding of Issac: Rebirth
Another roguelike sensation that’s incredibly hard to put down is Binding of Issac: Rebirth, especially the Daily Challenge mode. In the daily challenge, players start with a random seed that the whole run is based around. Your starting items, character, stage, difficulty, and ending level are all determined based on the random seed.
Once you complete your run, your score is submitted to the leaderboard. However, you can’t have any mods active in-game, or your score won’t count. Achievements are also disabled for challenge runs, but you can practice the run after your submission.
3 Crypt of the Necrodancer
There are a lot of roguelikes that do the daily challenge thing, and Crypt of the Necrodancer is another cracker. If you’re unfamiliar, this is a rhythm-based dungeon crawler where you need to stick to the beat while keeping track of enemy movements to rack up the best score.
The challenge is an All Zones run using Cadence, which resets daily at midnight (UTC +0). There are a few nuances compared to a standard All Zones run, but for the most part, it’s an equal footing for all players trying it. Once you complete it, your score goes to the global leaderboard for the day. Since the board is also reset daily, you can keep trying for high scores and improve the game through each run.
2 Neon White
If you want a leaderboard chase, first-person card-based speedrunning simulator Neon White’s got you covered. The game offers a global leaderboard and a local one shared among your friends. Since it’s been released on different platforms, each has its own leaderboard for obvious reasons: can you imagine trying to compete with a mouse-and-keyboard player while playing on a Nintendo Switch?
What makes this game unique is that the leaderboard and time attack are an intrinsic part of the gameplay. It’s not uncommon to finish a run and then reload the level because you want to shave a couple of milliseconds off your best time.
1 Balatro
If you want ridiculous scores, deck-building poke-inspired roguelike Balatro is what you want to play. The Speedrun board for Balatro currently records the best times for completing the game, with some runs coming down as little as 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Arguably, beating the game fast isn’t as fun as trying to rack up the highest score, but for now a Daily Challenge mode is missing from this title. Still, it’s one of the best games you can gift, so if you’re stuck on last-minute gift ideas, this might just be a great fit.
If you miss the days of chasing high scores or just want to throw yourself into a challenge that evolves, any of these games can be your jam. As with everything, practice makes perfect. Even if you’re not ready to tackle leaderboards yet, the more you play, the better you’ll get!