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.
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Can I half-cheat and say Control?
Ori. Both of them.
They are works of high art.
Supraland
I wanted to enjoy this game, but it gave me hardcore motion sickness after about 10 minutes. I haven’t had that happen in very many games, so it was notable in this one.
It’s a little old and more Metroid- than -vania: A Robot Named Fight
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| love super metroid even if the control scheme is dated
Axiom Verge. I don’t know how they managed to improve on the feeling of Super Metroid, but they did it.
If you havent played the sequel I would recommend it. It definitely is not the same as the original but is still really solid and hopefully there will be further games
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.
I really like Rabi-ribi
Sundered: eldritch edition
Super Metroid Animal well Castlevania: SOTN
Ori series, specifically Ori and the Will of the Wisps. It’s my absolute favorite game of all time. It’s got the amazing visuals and insanely good OST, crisp and satisfying platforming and combat, engaging and unique bossfights, incredibly gripping story, good difficulty settings and going for 100% is rewarding and not nearly as annoying as in many other games. While it may stray a tiny bit from the classic Metroidvania formula I think it still does it incredibly well.
Supraland
Castlevanias: Aria of Sorrow, Order of Eclessia, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin (no, no Symphony on my top-top list, it’s awesome, but not that awesome);
Ori and the Blind Forest mentioned already;
Axiom Verge 1 and 2;
Some call it heresy, but… Dark Souls! bit harder, bit turn-based (combat, aye, heresy x2, but stamina system makes it turn based for me, thats wild)… but running all around, having maze with many options, each boss unlocks new paths and parts of map… 200% metroidvania to me.
+1 for the Castlevania Aria/Dawn of Sorrow games. The Soma Cruz games were where the series truly hit its peak.
Portrait of Ruin was alright. I enjoyed that they found a way to incorporate more varied environments into the series.
Order of Ecclesia took me a while to start enjoying. The weird hybrid 3D graphics threw me off at first. Once I got past that, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
