Ladders. These tools are so ubiquitous in videogame platformers that players climb up and down them without a second thought. But what if you made ladders your central game mechanic? Developer BUCK Games has decided to do just that with its colorful and energetic Ladder Lad. Dom Ashtear and I got to talk with the devs behind this title and play a short but sweet demo at PAX West 2026.
No Jump Button? No Problem!
Ladder Lad bills itself as “a 2D platformer where the solution to every problem is your ladder.” And in a game without a jump button, this mantra is very important to remember. Once you wrap your head around this philosophy, though, Ladder Lad just clicks. The ladder is an extension of yourself, so you have to be mindful to rotate it when walking through narrow passageways. You can climb the ladder at any angle and launch yourself off of it to dismount. Remember to take it with you, since you’ll always need it.
If you think rotating, climbing, and dismounting is all there is to Ladder Lad, you’re gravely mistaken. Levels get progressively more difficult. My demo was a remix of the first few stages, so I got a taste of what to expect. I had to use the ladder as a pathway across dangerous purple goop. I had to time my climb and lean the ladder to avoid purple goop fireballs of doom. Plus, I even had to drop my ladder into a wood chipper, which reminded me of the traumatizing time when I incinerated the Companion Cube in Portal (luckily, I was gifted a longer ladder right after).
More than A Plain Old Ladder
As gamers progress through Ladder Lad, which takes roughly 8-15 hours, they’ll learn how versatile ladders can be. They can be used as a bridge, weapon, vaulting pole, pendulum, pogo stick, raft, sled, and rocket, just to name a few. If you use your ladder to explore, you’ll end up finding scarabs that you can take to various frog statues to be eaten. Doing this unlocks challenges, and you can keep track of everything you have collected in the basement of the game world. The full map is a ladder-shaped tower, and the goal is to reach the very top.
I came away from my time with Ladder Lad quite impressed. The title was made in Unity, but it required a lot of custom coding for the various gameplay mechanics. Accessibility is very important for the devs, which is why the game includes a toggle for screen flashing/shaking, difficulty options, game speed, and checkpoints. The controls feel smooth, the humor is wonderful, and the animation is top-notch. It’s easy to see why, since BUCK Games did the intro for Spider-Verse and other big-name projects. If you are a fan of tough but fair platformers like Celeste, a clear inspiration for this adventure, then you should check out Ladder Lad when it launches next year on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
