Metroidvanias

The first one didn't grab me, but I hear that they've really refined the details I didn't like. I'll have to give it another go. January is shaping into a good month for metroidvanias!

Decades after the events of ENDER LILIES, Homunculi — sorrowful, artificial life forms — roam the land. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania, face formidable enemies and explore a bewitching post-apocalyptic world. Humans and Homunculi — what awaits at the end of the quest for their salvation?

🎮

• Steam
• Switch
• Playstation
• Xbox

✅

• God is a Geek
• RPG Site
• Gaming Bolt
• Try Hard
• XboxEra
• Games Machine
• Checkpoint Gaming

I've seen multiple reviews that say it's good, but not great. Solid game if you like the genre.

Hunt the monsters and solve the mysteries of the abandoned mothership floating in vast space to confront your twin sister and prevent her from unleashing a cosmic catastrophe. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania you must explore and find your way through the horrors and kill everything in your way.

🎮 Steam

✅

• DhaNi Infinity
• Game Reviews 2025

Capture monsters to use them against the scientists who created you. Sail the open ocean in a stolen boat belonging to your captors, and destroy their failed experimental creatures to put an end to the creation of the Synth Beasts.

🌐 Steam

Delve into the world of Super Roboy, a hand-drawn Metroidvania in a post-apocalyptic setting! Learn enemy skills, explore an interconnected world, battle mutants and robots, and uncover the emotional story of a young robot searching for his father.

🎮 Steam

✅

• Xcepxional Indie Games
• Demajen
• Soulsborne Seeker

A decent amount of 9/10s and and good handful of 7.5/10s. The worst people say is that it plays it safe.

Explore a dark and sinister Osaka as the Demon Hunter Shin. Battle demons, regain lost skills, and uncover the truth of your forgotten past in this exciting occult-inspired cyberpunk metroidvania.

🎮

• Steam
• Switch

✅

• Shack News
• Nintendo Life
• Hobbyconsolas
• The Games Machine
• COGconnected
• Maltidos Nerds
• God is a Geek
• Gamescout

ReSetna is an action-adventure with fast-paced combat and intense battles set in a fractured, post-apocalyptic world. Fight through hordes of corrupted machines, upgrade your abilities, traverse treacherous environments and explore to uncover the truth of what happened.

🌐 Steam

Mark of the Deep is an epic pirate-themed adventure with a strong narrative and a thrilling mix of Metroidvania and Souls-Like elements. Embark on this journey, explore the mysteries of a cursed island and find your missing pirate crew!

🌐 Steam

As Oirbo you will explore a labyrinthian spacecraft and discover its mysteries and purpose. Navigate a huge Metroidvania-inspired, hand-drawn, 2D action platformer full of secrets to uncover, areas to explore, and enemies to dismantle.

🌐 Steam

Hunt the monsters and solve the mysteries of the abandoned mothership floating in vast space to confront your twin sister and prevent her from unleashing a cosmic catastrophe. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania you must explore and find your way through the horrors and kill everything in your way.

🌐 Steam

Every review I found raves about this game…

Master high-skilled combat to uncover the secrets of an ancient, interconnected world.

🎮 Steam

✅

• Gertlush Gaming
• Minus Inferno
• DhaNi Infinity
• Game Gush Gamer

Embark on a mission to save the world from the god of chaos in this charming exploration platformer! Explore a world full of lost secrets, make new friends, and use strange creatures to your advantage to reach new heights!

🌐 Steam

Stranded in the year 10,000, Kent—an average Joe turned clone—must survive, explore, and rebuild civilization with the help of a snarky AI. Craft, farm, and automate in this 2D craftervania adventure as you uncover Earth’s secrets and kickstart humanity, one machine at a time.

🌐 Steam

Little Nemo and the Nightmare Fiends

Little Nemo and his friends return for a hand-animated metroidvania adventure! Explore magical dream worlds with Nemo, the Princess of Slumberland, the mischievious Flip, and royal guard Peony as they try to stop the Nightmare Fiends from ruling over dreams forever.

🌐 Steam

Little Nemo and the Guardians of Slumberland

Explore a dream world as the iconic Little Nemo, armed with toys, candy, and stuffed animals in this cute & colorful Metroidvania adventure. Experience NES-era platformer gameplay in a vast, non-linear world that has been hand-animated frame-by-frame, as you unlock new abilities to progress.

🌐 Steam

I watched the Secret Level episode of Pac-Man the day before and thought, "what an interesting take…". Wild that they're actually turning it into a game.

Shadow Labyrinth is a 2D action platformer and a genre-twisting alternate take on the iconic PAC-MAN. As The Swordsman, you wake on a mysterious planet amidst relics of wars past. To survive you will discover secrets, consume your enemies, and grow from prey to apex predator.

🌐 Steam

Memory’s Reach is a first person puzzle-adventure metroidvania. Explore labyrinthian megastructures, solve mind-bending puzzles, and wield fantastic alien technology in a quest to reveal the legacy of a doomed civilization.

🌐 Steam

Explore a dark and sinister Osaka as the Demon Hunter Shin. Battle demons, regain lost skills, and uncover the truth of your forgotten past in this exciting occult-inspired cyberpunk metroidvania.

🌐

• Website
• Steam
• Switch

A 2D video game that combines platforming and action with a touch of exploration in which we control Morkull, God of death and darkness and lord of the Ragast, whose main mechanics lies in the breaking of the fourth wall, which will allow Morkull to communicate with the player in various ways.

🌐 Steam

Hey all! The board that's pinned to the top of this community was created to track anticipated metroidvanias, but it's now almost out of date and I want to see what games are on your radar and should be included.

What upcoming metroidvanias are you looking forward to?

Here's some that I'm thinking about:

• Possessor(s)
• MIO: Memories in Orbit
• Exil
• Mandragora
• LUCID
• Altered Alma
• Iron Corbo: Kung Fu Janitor
• Crowsworn
• Mariachi Legends
• Akatori
• Constance
• Blade Chimera
• Primal Planet
• Inayah: Life After Gods
• Fallen Tear: The Ascension
• Comix Zero
• Ties: Soul Link
• The Red Selene
• Soul Blade

…and yes, I absolutely have Silksong on my radar, but I'm over paying attention to it until it comes out.

Now that 2024 is coming to an end, I'd love to do a community post and hear about what people enjoyed. It was a banner year for the genre.

What metroidvanias from 2024 stood out to you?

Here's what I played this year

1. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown — Didn't expect it to be this good. Even the DLC is worth it. I'd put it behind Hollow Knight and the Ori games as an all-timer
2. Nine Sols — While the bosses were tougher than I'm comfortable with, this game was a huge surprise for me. Really polished. Luckily, there's a difficulty slider.
3. Animal Well — I'm a sucker for knowledge-gated games, and this brought back memories of Fez and Tunic.
4. BioGun — Super polished game that hits on all the notes that make me love this genre. I wish it was more performant on Steam Deck, but I was able to overlook that.
5. Voidwrought — People complained about the movement, but that didn't phase me. There were some minor endgame bugs that didn't allow me to 100% it, but I loved it enough that I wanted to.
6. Minishoot Adventures — I wasn't thinking I'd play this one, as I'm not much of a bullet hell guy, but it was a ton of fun.
7. Crypt Custodian — I love all of Kyle's games, and he keeps getting better. 100%-ed this one.
8. Ultros — Outside of Animal Well, this might be the most original out of the bunch. It was a crazy experience that was different than usual.
9. Biomorph — Fun, but I felt that I just wanted to beat it to get it over with by the end.
10. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU — I thought it was a great story and pretty polished, but it gets knocked because of how linear it is. There is zero backtracking. Barely fair to call it a metroidvania.
11. Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus* — I almost completed this, but the platforming at the end got very intense.
12. The Mobius Machine — This one felt like a slog to complete. It needed more variation.
13. Turbo Kid*
14. Noreya: The Gold Project*
15. Venture to the Vile*

*Didn't finish

The mystical Egyptian underworld beckons you in Duat: Shadows of Light & Dark! Foil the plans of Set and Apep using your powers of light. Explore the varied environments of the underworld and battle your way through in this epic pixel art style platformer.

🌐 Steam

Slash, burn, and rage your way through Mandragora, a 2.5D side-scroller action-RPG with deep Metroidvania and Soulslike elements. Light your Witch Lantern, enter the dark realm of Entropy, and tear reality asunder.

🌐

• Steam
• Website

While really difficult (I had to tone down the difficulty), this was an S-tier metroidvania for me. I'd put it in my top 5

Nine Sols is a lore rich, hand-drawn 2D action-platformer featuring Sekiro-inspired deflection focused combat. Embark on a journey of eastern fantasy, explore the land once home to an ancient alien race, and follow a vengeful hero’s quest to slay the 9 Sols, formidable rulers of this forsaken realm.

🎮

• Steam
• Switch
• Playstation
• Xbox

Forgotlings is a breathtaking cinematic action-adventure set in a magical land of sentient forgotten objects. Journey to distant corners of our collective memories and unite warring tribes against a mysterious looming threat to their existence.

🌐

• Steam
• Website

Not seeing any current reviews, but the game has been in Early Access on Steam since April and is listed as "Very Positive"

Join Kim Rip, a Royal Guard whose humanity is gradually slipping away, on a thrilling 2.5D action-adventure platforming journey in 'The Devil Within: Satgat'. Uncover the mysteries of a desolate realm as you engage in stylish battles against formidable foes.

🎮

• Steam
• Playstation

Game of the Year, with metroidvanias in bold:

• 1000xRESIST, sunset visitor 斜陽過客
• Animal Well, Billy Basso
• ARCO, Arco Team
• Balatro, LocalThunk
• Crypt Custodian, Kyle Thompson
• Lorlei and the Laser Eyes, Simogo
• Mouthwashing, Wrong Organ
• Neva, Nomada Studio
• Nine Sols, RedCandleGames
• UFO 50, Mossmouth

Additionally, "Animal Well" picked up a nom for Solo Development, "Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus" and "Ultros" got noms for Visual Design, and "Minishoot Adventures" and "Nine Sols" got noms for Gameplay Design"

Not a bad year!