Look, I’m pumped for Metroid Dread. In my excitement, I’ve been playing a lot of Metroidvanias. So many, in fact, that I decided to celebrate the release of the game by releasing a list of what I think are the 15 best metroidvanias ever made.
To keep it simple, I’m limiting this to 2D Metroidvanias. Metroid Prime is pretty clearly a Metroidvania, but if I include that, I’m absolutely including Dark Souls as well. And you know what: Batman: Arkham Asylum? ALSO a 3D Metroidvania. The list gets more complex, the entries more debatable.
Finally: I’m only including a single entry from any given franchise. Koji Igarashi made a lot of fantastic Castlevania games, but only one of them makes the list. Sorry Order of Ecclesia. I love you, but you’re not making the cut.
First: What is a metroidvania?
A metroidvania is a subgenre of the action-adventure game. Named after two games — Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — the title referred to a specific type of game made in the mold of Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a pair of 2D side-scrolling platformers in which the player was tasked with exploring a complex environment.
That exploration is the ‘hook’ of most metroidvanias. To that end, the games often feature a lot of secrets off the beaten path, rewarding players who investigate thoroughly. RPG elements are common, so folks can often build their characters or at least get stronger the more they look around. The games also rarely give you strict quest markers, instead asking players to remember: Oh, wait, now that I can double jump, can I reach that ledge I saw earlier? To mitigate the frustration of backtracking, it’s common for these games to feature interlocking maps full of shortcuts and surprises that make navigating them quicker the more you learn.
#15: The Messenger (2018)
The Messenger doesn’t appear to fit with the other metroidvanias on this list at first glance. Initially, the game seems like an update to Ninja Gaiden, a knowing riff on the kind of intense action platformer that captures the feel of those games without mimicking them exactly. And then you reach what you likely think will be the end of the game and, well… it turns out you were actually playing something very different than you initially thought.
What makes The Messenger work — and earns it a spot on this list — is that the game feels phenomenal to play throughout. I don’t have a lot of fondness for the classic Ninja Gaiden series, but the combat and movement abilities felt so good it didn’t matter. But once the game opened up into its weirder and more ambitious back half, I was delighted. I’m genuinely sad that I have to ruin that surprise by putting it on this list.
#14: Vigil: The Longest Night (2020)
Vigil: The Longest Night is a fantastic game undermined by two things. The first is a series of sizable bugs that render some quests, including pretty key one, undoable. The second is an early game boss, which, once defeated, locks you out of the entire opening section of the game, seemingly permanently. This some side quests uncompleteable — including one necessary to getting the game’s best ending.
Despite those issues, though, Vigil was a delight. The game has an excellent sense of style, riffing on a Victorian fantasy world not dissimilar from that of Bloodborne. The story is compelling, combining a cosmic horror and plague in shockingly compelling plot threads. And the game has a robust character-building mechanic that leads to radically different styles of play.
Vigil is flawed, but its surprising depth makes it worth checking out.
#13: Dead Cells (2017)
I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the ‘roguevania’, the subgenre that combines roguelikes and metroidvanias. Part of the delight of the metroidvania is the environment, the way it these complex environments combine in unexpected and enjoyable ways. A roguelike, with its procedurally-generated levels, necessarily can’t do that as well.
But if Dead Cells falters a little in the exploration, the game’s movement and combat — smooth as a hot knife cutting through butter — is unimpeachable. Dead Cells is low on this list because it doesn’t scratch the essential exploration itch of the metroidvania for me, but make no mistake, few games do what Dead Cells does better.
#12: Steamworld Dig 2 (2017)
Steamworld Dig 2 is another… less traditional metroidvania. Is it a platformer? Yeah, it is. Does it involve exploring a large, complex structure? You bet. Does it have RPG elements? Yup.
So what, you might ask, is so nontraditional about Steamworld Dig 2?
For much of the game’s exploration, you dig out the platforms, creating the path you want to take through the world. There are secrets and sub-areas galore, but a massive chunk of the game’s sizable map is basically one massive pit you have to navigate one swing of your trusty shovel at a time. But there’s so much to find as you dig deep, and the game’s upgrade system gives you a lot of unique options to unearth those treasures. Plus, the platforming is unexpectedly deep, giving you some excellent advanced challenges for the player looking to push themselves.
#11: Axiom Verge (2015)
Metroidvanias are becoming more and more common; metroidlikes are still pretty rare. Axiom Verge is a metroidlike, from its sci-fi horror influenced setting to the extremely pared-down RPG elements. But Axiom Verge nails everything fans of the Metroid games love about the series without tipping over into homage. This is recognizably a descendant of Metroid; it is also very much its own beast.
Still, if the RPG elements mostly get in your way and you’re just looking for a challenging, engaging action-adventure game in an impeccably designed world, look no further.
#10: Super Metroid (1994)
I’m reluctant to call Super Metroid a metroidvania. It lacks a lot of the RPG aspects that define the genre to me, and it didn’t even serve as a particular influence on the genre’s other namesake, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game looks like a lot of metroidvanias, which copied its automap function and other elements, but it does feel different.
But it also feels great. Super Metroid remains a surprisingly delightful game to this day, one no Metroid game has matched. From the evocative sci-fi horror environments to the crisp movement and combat, Super Metroid is just too damn good to leave off the list. I wish I could make room for other great games. But the truth is, Super Metroid earned its place on here, edge case and all.
#9: Yoku’s Island Express (2018)
Damn near every game on this list is a platformer with combat elements. Yoku’s Island Express is neither. Created by Villa Gorilla, Yoku’s Island Express is a pinball metroidvania. The games puzzles, movement abilities, and combat are largely all built around pinball mechanics. And you know what? It works beautifully.
In Yoku’s Island Express, you are a mail-delivering bug on a tropical island. Unfortunately, the island’s god has been marked for death by a malevolent force hiding deep within the island. So Yoku travels across the island, delivering the mail of bringing together the local elders who might be able to find a way to save the island’s god. The cute anthropomorphic art style and the sunny island layout look fantastic, and do a great job at getting you into one of the most relaxing metroidvanias out there.
#8: Guacamelee 2 (2018)
Guacamelee 2 is part metroidvania, part beat ’em up. The combo works better than you think. You play Juan, a luchador tasked with saving the ‘Mexiverse’, a multiverse of Mexican-themed settings, from destruction. To that end, you must explore hidden temples in the Darkest Timeline — and rough up any skeletons and monsters that stand in your way.
Guacamelee 2 doesn’t have the best exploration, but the level design is excellent and the platforming is solid. Where this game shines, though, is in the beat ’em up brawls. Juan has an unlockable list of wrestling abilities the player can learn and combine with a small but versatile combo system for fights that just feel phenomenal. Rather than respawning enemies every time you leave a room, the game features specific combat challenges. This lets the designers craft challenging, interesting fights that play with the mechanics of the area and newly found exploration abilities. Thanks to the variety and creativity of these battles, I never got tired of them.
#7: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2018)
Koji Igarashi invented the metroidvania. Not the term metroidvania; that was apparently created by a guy named Rich Hutnik on a Usenet post in 2001. But Igarashi invented the genre itself at Konami in 1997, with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. From there, Igarashi worked on five more games that would go on to form the core texts of the genre. He also, unfortunately, worked on a lot of other Castlevania games as Konami wanted to push hard for 3D, AAA gaming prestige. Igarashi loved creating his 2D puzzle-box adventure games, but the company he worked for simply… didn’t want to make or market those.
So Igarashi left. In 2015, Igarashi launched a Kickstarter for a new, 2d metroidvania style game, the kind he wasn’t allowed to make at Konami anymore. It was a huge success. It took nearly four years for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to come out, and those were four rocky years. The game was criticized for some graphical issues, and its console release — particularly on the Switch — came with plenty of bugs. But despite all that, Bloodstained showed that Igarashi still understands the genre better than damn near anyone else.
#6: Shantae and the Seven Sirens (2019)
Regular readers of ScreenRex will know that I recently played through every Shantae game. Seven Sirens was the best of the bunch, in my opinion. Shantae games have a tendency to retreat into ‘good girl’ art and mild titillation, and Seven Sirens is no stranger to that. But the casual, beach-vacation vibes of the early game help it feel a little less leering (note: it is no less leering), and the design of the island and the dungeon that lay beneath it is really fantastic. Add in plenty of charming NPCs, both new and returning, and you got yourself a stew.
The biggest issue with Seven Sirens is that it’s really easy. Even inexperienced players will likely find enough resources to fully upgrade your powers pretty early on, making the early game bosses a bit of a snooze. But the game’s crisp movement and knowing charm help it breeze by.
#5: Ender Lilies: Quietus of Knight (2021)
The awkwardly-named Ender Lilies: Quietus of Knight may not roll off the tongue, but it will feel great in your hands. In the game, you play a priestess awoken in a corrupted world. You have the ability to cleanse corrupted spirits, recruiting them to your cause as you seek to learn what happened to the other priestesses — and how the world got to be so bad.
The game has a haunting aesthetic. We’ve seen variations on this sort of blighted fantasy world a million times by now, but the design here is still rock solid. More importantly, the waifish priestess shining bright through each area foregrounds the destruction in an interesting way. Intriguingly, the game positions you as a child — your dodge is clumsy at first, your jumping and climbing slow and weak — which really increases the sense of progression as you unlock new abilities. In many of these games, you are a heroic figure at the start; in Ender Lilies, you really feel like an overwhelmed kid in a broken world.
#4: Hollow Knight (2017)
Hollow Knight was a huge, unexpected hit. It’s easy to see why. The art style of the Knight exploring the decrepit insect kingdom is so immediately evocative. We’ve seen so many ruined, gothic kingdoms in the genre — hell, on this list — but Hollow Knight‘s Hallownest still stands out. The immaculate use of lighting and color, the unique creature designs, and the clean, simple design of the Knight all combine to craft a game that looks and feels like nothing else on the list. Hollow Knight is challenging, but I was rarely frustrated, as the game offers plenty of tools to help build the Knight’s playstyle to my preferences.
Here’s hoping the sequel, the imminent Hollow Knight: Silksong, recaptures the magic.
#3: Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps has all the strengths of the first game in the series, Ori and the Blind Forest. It is gorgeously animated, with lovingly-crafted naturalistic environments that you explore in great detail. The platforming is impeccable, offering players a challenging and inventive test of the game’s smooth, robust movement mechanics. And the story is emotional, dipping into tragedy and melancholy with a shockingly deft hand.
But Will of the Wisps improves on Blind Forest in every imaginable way. Gone is the lackluster lightbulb combat of the first game, replaced with a more active system. This means that the constantly-respawning enemies go from frustrating to fun. Gone, too, is the previous game’s frankly awful save system, replaced with a more modern, less obtrusive autosave. And everything else is purely additive. The new quest system gives you more to do with NPCs, of which there are more than a few. The new NPCs let you play around with a base-building mechanic that gives the game a warmth and sense of community that was charming and unexpected.
Ori and the Blind Forest is a good game. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a great one.
#2: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night started the genre. Fifteen years on, it has only rarely been topped. Hollow Knight has better combat. Ori has better platforming. Bloodstained has more interesting movement abilities. And yet, the game they’re all measured against is Symphony of the Night — and Symphony holds up beautifully. The mid-game twist, which allows you to ‘beat the game’ at around the halfway point for a worse ending, or explore deeper to really learn what has been going on, may now be somewhat standard in the genre, but it has never been more beautifully executed than it was here.
I had never played Symphony of the Night before this year, and I was anticipating a game that I would respect more than I would love it. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. The game plays beautifully, the elegance of Alucard’s movement fitting in perfectly with the gothic horror-influenced castle design.
#1: Blasphemous (2019)
Blasphemous is a masterpiece. It is one of the most evocative games I’ve ever played, with a haunting art style reminiscent of classical Spanish art and crisp, smooth combat and platforming. There are images from this game that I still think about regularly, from enemies to some of the most disturbing NPCs I’ve ever seen.
To me, what makes a metroidvania great is the dedication to environmental storytelling. They are typically light on dialogue and heavy on exploration. They tell stories based on worlds, let you fill in the gaps. Blasphemous excels at this, with haunting environments and unique monster design. The game pulls from a long line of Catholic art and mythology to build a world that feels both lived-in and unique in a way that’s exceedingly rare.