What do you like about them? What platform(s) did you play them on?
A lot of good recommendations in here, some I’ve played, some I’m adding to my list!
I’ll share one that I haven’t seen in the thread yet: Crypt Custodian. You play as a ghost cat sentenced to clean garbage in the afterlife. Good mix of exploration and combat. I personally hate when combat keeps me from progressing in a story, so I like that they have Easy/Normal/Hard modes but that you can also further customize assists, like adding up to 3 extra hit points. You can also buy a market to show you the next place to go when you’re feeling stuck. Very good cozy-gamer territory.
The story wasn’t overly complex, but very sweet–the ending made me cry. I loved elements of the story like one of the bosses being the personification of grief.
I played it on XBox Game Pass, but it was worth paying for.
Animal Well.
No combat, big emphasis on (hard) puzzles and exploration. Great atmosphere. Played it on my Steam Deck.
A lot of recs for this one, it might have to be my next!
I’ll throw in a few that I enjoyed (all pc with a controller):
Hollow knight (probably the common favorite). Fun gameplay, interesting story, felt like a great entry into the genre as someone who didn’t like them previously.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Really interesting farming mechanics to unlock new skills and fun combat. I think I liked this one mostly for the gameplay and don’t remember the story much.
Grime. This one felt really, really clunky at first. However, like most games in the genre, it really picked up at one point and I enjoyed the whole experience. I think there were some sections that really dragged on but overall a fun game with interesting movement, mechanics, and enemies.
I like Gato Roboto and Cave Story
hollow knight silksong- Hollow Knight
- Islets
- Ender lilies
- Ori and the will of the wisps (don’t love blind forest personally)
- Blasphemous 1 and 2
- Pretty much all the 2d metroids, especially Dread
- Guacamelee 1 and 2
- The messenger kinda
- Steamworld dig 2
- Animal Well
I have to recommend Ascent DX - it is free, quite short, but it condenses everything I enjoy about the metroidvania genre I to a bite sized play session.
Tunic is one of the best games ever made, nevermind just in the metroidvania genre. It is good for reasons I can’t tell you without spoiling some of the magic. Trust me!
Phoenotopia Awakening was stupendous fun and way bigger than I thought it would be. Strongly recommended. Typical side scrolling platforming gameplay, with emphasis on exploration and puzzles as well as the combat and platforming.
Death’s Door was so damn fun, and it felt quite fresh in a way I can’t describe. Its an isometric hack n slash game with some puzzle elements. Tells a cool story, and is a sequel/successor to Titan Souls, from the same devs.
AAAAXY was a lot of fun, and free and open source. Sort of like antichamber meets metroidvania. Short and sweet but also challenging!
Otherwise, as others mentioned, I can’t recommend these enough!:
Hollow Knight
Ori And The Blind Forest/Will Of The Wisps
I see most of my faves have already been covered by others, so I’m going to add the Metroid Prime games. Unlike the mainline Metroid games, which are awesome in their own right, the Metroid Prime games are played from a first person perspective.
You still get to explore, you still get power-ups, but because you can scan almost anything with Samus’ visor, there’s some actual worldbuilding, which the mainline Metroid games didn’t really start doing until Metroid Fusion (which was alright, but Metroid Dread did a better job at worldbuilding, I feel). As for the platform, I played the GameCube versions on the Wii.
God I can’t wait for Prime 4
Hollow Knight is fkn good.
Metroid - Zero Mission, Super Metroid, Fusion, Dread
Dead Cells - Metroidvania/Roguelike
Ori series.
Nine Sols.
I find that the lack of ”coyote time” in Hollow Knight makes it completely unplayable for me. Shame since the controls otherwise feel snappy.
Dead Cells
Never really agreed with the Metroidvania label, same with Skul: The Hero Slayer. You unlock different biomes (and side rooms), but the items to do so are more like keys. Just my thoughts on that.
Unconventional choice, as it is 3D, but Supraland. Fantastic world to explore, so satisfying getting new powers and reaching areas.
Absolute favorite is probably either Bloodstained or Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. Every Metroid and Castlevania is good though. Ender Lilies, Shantae, Momodora and Alwa are some other ones I’ve really liked off the top of my head.
Not Hollow Knight, which thinks it’s clever to not fill out the map as you go unless you happen to pick the path the map dude is on. Makes me feel like my time isn’t respected which is a pet peeve of mine. Also other than bosses the combat is boring and repetitive and you don’t get stronger fast enough for revisiting areas to not be a slog.
I mostly play on PC these days but historically it was Nintendo consoles. I like exploring maps.
I’m going to throw a shout out to Environmental Station Alpha because I think it’s an excellent game that flew under the radar of a lot of people when it launched. It makes some bold decisions with the story that some people might not enjoy but the gameplay is solid and the backtracking problem (which most metroidvanias have) is solved by having the level get harder as you progress.
It’s cheap, it’s not at all hardware demanding and it’s very heavily inspired by Metroid. If you enjoy metroidvanias and you haven’t played Environmental Station Alpha you definitely should.
And a secret shoutout to Noita. The dev of Environmental Station Alpha worked on Noita. It’s been pushed into the roguelite category but I would argue it’s the worlds first open world(s) roguelite metroidvania. If that sounds stupid but interesting, prepare to suffer because Noita is not at all easy and that’s deliberate because the central theme of Noita is the pursuit of knowledge (the more you know about Noita the easier it gets).
Another vote for Hollow Knight.
Also Super Metroid, Castlevania SOTN and Aria of Sorrow, Dark Souls, and La Mulana 1 & 2
Good picks, but I don’t think Dark Souls qualifies as a metroidvania. Metroidvanias gate off parts of the map based on what abilities the player has/doesn’t have, whereas Dark Souls blocks off parts of the map simply because you’re missing a key. Also, Dark Souls doesn’t really have ability power-ups with the exception of acquiring the Lordvessel.
Do soulslikes count? They’re basically the same, except you don’t unlock new paths by gaining new abilities. You just beat up optional bosses and, maybe, need to find keys.
Does Rainworld count?
Rainworld is its own genre
I don’t know, tell us about it. What’s it like and why do you like it?
I didn’t finish it, but where I got to there were no real power ups you needed to progress the game, more find ways to sneak around the map.
It’s a beautiful game indeed and definitely touches the genre at least.
It it is sidescroller metroidovania with a beautiful nuanced artificial intelligence, creatures hunt, patrol and remember the player.
Another vote for Hollow Knight. Amazing game.
It’s a beautiful game, but I really, really hate how you have to backtrack and kill your ghost after every death.
