I haven’t played a Metroidvania in a while and I’m looking for suggestions of some good ones to try. Some I would recommend:
Ender’s: Lilies (Magnolias is good too, but play Lilies first. The setting and theme hits better.)
Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps (Will of the Wisps did bring a tear to my eye)
Monster Sanctuary (a creature capture metroidvania)
Any system is good, interested to hear of other good ones that are out there.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night.
It’s only $3 on play store and iPhone store. The phone version has the advantage that you only have to cast/input each spell once, and then you have a button to press.
Hollow knight and silksong are both the best to ever do it IMO
Metroid dread
I would like it so much more if it didn’t have that dumb parry mechanic.
La-Mulana 1 and 2. They have excellent music, and more importantly, the exploration is a lot more interesting than most metroidvania games. This is because these games are all about puzzles, which come in the form of riddles, lateral thinking, and so forth. You don’t complete any area in one go - rather, each place you can go has information about the other zones, so you criss-cross and cross-reference, completing them piecemeal. Plus, there is a great deal of cultural architecture for each area, making them very distinct. If you want an lengthy and difficult metroidvania that is all about the details, this fits the bill.
The original freeware version of La-Mulana is also worth playing, due to the audio and graphics resembling what could be on the MSX computer.
Symphony of the night is incredible. A bit dated now, but it truly established genre staples.
Besides all the already mentionend games: Shadow Complex (2009) was a good game back then. Nothing special without any real story. But it was fun to play
Currently playing Animal Well, and it is excellent so far!
I want to like it so much, but I enjoy combat in my metroidvanias.
Seeing as I am old. Super Metroid and Castlevania II: Simom’s Quest. I can… and have played them dozens of times through at this point.
Darksiders is very good
You know at first I didn’t really think it would be considered one, but looking back you’re absolutely right. I really need to replay those games.
Some of my faves that aren’t Hollow Knight:
- Axiom Verge
- Astalon: Tears of the Earth
- Ender Lilies
- Blasphemous
I don’t care much for metroidvanias but Dust: An Elysian Tail was fun for a playthrough or two.
Aquaria. Very retro indie game from 2007. Underwater theme.
If you like 8-bit gaming, I recommend getting the free BBC micro emulator BeebEm
Then get the ROM Citadel
It’s a Metroidvania from before either Metroid or Castlevania. It still plays well, it’s still difficult, the puzzles are logical but require thought, and it’s several hours of gameplay to complete.
Its my no.1 genre… i have played A LOT of them. People have already hit on the “big three” - hollow knight, super metroid and castlevania SOTN… heres lesser mentioned gems… sure, they’re not as incredible as those 3 genre topping master pieces, but theyre super super good and worth a play.
- alwas awakening
- tunic*
- hyper light drifter*
- hob*
- Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R)
- Metroid Dread
- castlevania dawn of sorrows/aria of sorrow
- axiom verge
- metroid prime
- castlevania 3
- metroid zero mission
- SM: ancient chozo**
- SM: Ascent**
- 9 Sols
*yes, there could be called “zelda-likes” instead of metroid vanias, but i always felt those two game designs were kissing cousins… if you like one you might like the other.
** these are romhacks…,very very good ones. You need a rom of super metroid and emulator to play em.
Solid list!
but i always felt those two game designs were kissing cousin
I see them as the same genre. You have this “pushing the map’s frontier” mechanic, along with some power or item progression to enable that. The rest is find-and-seek to connect all those dots. IMO, the only major difference is a side vs top-down perspective.
Its true… i think the fundamental formula is that it makes you an explorer first- turns you loose with a very vague objective and lets you discover… map, traversal, sequence skips, w/e and gives you “clues” while letting you feel empowered to do things in your own order/way/time… thus making you feel clever.
Zeldas, you could say, are more linear, more “adventure” in progression than exploration… but its not black n white and each title has varying degrees of freedom
Hollow Knight. It’s the only one I actually played to the end.
