The question “Which is the best Metroidvania game?” isn’t anything new. Fans, YouTubers, and gamers fight on the web and social media, trying to decide which is the best game in the Metroidvania genre, and the answer is not so clear. 

Many of these games, especially Japanese games, are the favorites of our team, and this is a reason good enough to enter into the discussion. We have given ourselves the task of creating a list of the Best Metroidvania Games of all time. So, prepare your popcorn, relax, and let’s get straight into the list.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

We must begin with one of the titles that give the name to this genre: Castlevania games. In fact, the genre was named explicitly after this game and can be credited with most mechanics that are now considered staples for the genre as a whole.

In general, any Castlevania game has given this genre a unique perspective on the problem of exploration and interconnected sections on a map. Besides, Castlevania added the RPG characteristics of this genre, where you must talk with NPCs and get clues that conduct you to new areas and secrets. 

Some of the most impressive Castlevania games are Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. But, if we have to choose one of them, we pick the latter.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night revolutionized the genre and games in general. Thanks to its excellent pixel graphics, a good leveling system, a great story, and the wonder labyrinth where you must find treasures, this game will be forever in the pantheon of games. 

With the Belmont Clan gone, you take the role of Alucard. Here you’ll explore a gothic castle (just like in most games of the franchise), which is overflowing with secrets, supernatural foes, and powerful enemies. 

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bloodstained is considered the spiritual successor of the Castlevania series. Its similarities with the classic franchise come, in large part, from the fact that the development was conducted by the former producer of the Castlevania series, Koji Igarashi. 

In Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Steam CD Key, you take the role of Miriam, a Shardbinders, a human with grafted demonically-charged crystals who lived in 18th century England during the Industrial Revolution. You must explore a labyrinthine series of rooms presented in the form of a platform game. 

The gameplay is very simple. You’ll fight a wide range of powerful monsters to get keys to open up new parts of the map and unlock certain rooms. Also, you can use different kinds of weapons to perform melee or ranged attacks to defeat enemies. Besides, you’ll learn special abilities granted by the shards you get from monsters. 

You’ll gain armor and accessories while progressing the game by looting chests and defeating monsters. This equipment will provide you with offensive and defensive bonuses.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the night is an interesting proposal with classic mechanics we’ve seen before in the best Metroidvanias of the past years. Metroidvania fans will love this game! 

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is unanimously one of the best indie games of recent times and very likely one of the best games of the Metroidvania genre. It’s our favorite on this list, because even though it brings a lot of fun, it’s a very tough one. 

Hollow Knight Steam CD Key has a surprisingly mature story (yeah, we know, it’s about bugs, but still). The lore is about a warrior, the nameless knight, who must explore the ruins of Hollownest – an ancient kingdom that now is abandoned and collapsed. In this context, you’ll discover the secret of the Hollow Knight. 

Hollow Knight has very interesting mechanics, a high-speed style of battle, and many skills you must learn and develop over the exploration. You can collect charms, which are special types of items that provide you with special abilities and bonuses. You can also gather Mark Shards to complete Ancient Mask and increase your health. If this is going to be your first time playing Hollow Knight, we are sure you’ll enjoy it!

Axiom Verge

Axiom Verge is a Metroidvania with side-scroller action-adventure features. You control Trace, a scientist transported to an alien planet, an ancient and high-tech world. Your mission is to survive in this alien world by collecting a staggering arsenal of guns to blast bizarre enemies.

Like every good Metroidvania, Axiom Verge Steam CD Key is a game based on exploration, where you find different abilities gaining access to new zones, highlighting brutal combat, action, and platform features. 

Axiom Verge features pixel-art graphics, which currently seems to be one of the most recognizable elements on every Metroidvania. From a certain point of view, we can say that Axiom Verge is one of these action-adventure games with Metroidvania elements. 

Ori & The Blind Forest

Ori & The Blind Forest was the first game of Moon Studios, an indie developer based in Vienna. This game was so well received that it reached one million sales in its first week of release. What's more, the studio was awarded the Best Debut Award in the Game Developers Choice Awards of 2016.

Ori and The Blind Forest has some strong platform mechanics, i.e. jumping, avoiding and defeating enemies depending of your current abilities, etc., but its exploration sense throughout the entire forest turns it into a good Metroidvania. 

You control Ori, a small white guardian spirit who can jump, climb, and do many power-ups. There’s also Sein, the light and the eyes of the Spirit Tree, who will be very useful at some point of the adventure. Sein can shoot spirit flames to damage enemies. 

Ori and The Blind Forest Definitive Edition Steam CD Key is a great game you must play if you love the true Metroidvania genre and indie games. What’s more, Ori games are among the best indie games of recent times!

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap 

This is a remake of the classic Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap released in 1989. Although this game is considered a platform action-adventure game, it has many Metroidvania elements, such as solving puzzles and classic exploration. 

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap Steam CD Key features new hand-drawn graphics and musical arrangements, setting the game in a more refreshing environment. 

You control a young boy warrior who became a Lizard-Man who must start with his journey across the world and defeat all dragons you find to return to their human form.

The game keeps the mechanics and design of the original game, but the need to get charm stones to buy new weapons and equipment and some enhancements have been included. In summary, it’s a good action platformer Metroidvania with nice gameplay. 

Salt and Sanctuary

Salt and Sanctuary shares many features with games such as Dark Souls as well as the Castlevania series. The FromSoftware’s game inspires the difficulty, progression, class-building, and checkpointing of Salt and Sanctuary. In addition, these features are blended wonderfully with the labyrinthine, ability-gated level design.

The difference between this game and the aforementioned is that Salt and Sanctuary Steam CD Key is a 2D Metroidvania with strong castlevania elements plus RPG features. You’ll have to talk and interact with several NPCs and get information about routes, boots, and secrets. 

This game was completely hand-drawed, for which its artistic style is very particular. Besides, Salt and Sanctuary has a wide range of weapons. Each weapon has unique movesets, such as stabs or airstrikes. You must find your journey throughout an island, discover what is happening with people and defeat The Nameless God. 

Dead Cells

Dead Cells is a strange game, described by the developers as a “Roguevania.” But what does it mean? We assume that is a combination between Metroidvania structure, replayability and randomness of the roguelike genre. 

We can say that Dead Cell Steam CD Key is the first game of this new genre and a really good one that’s totally worth playing. As a rogue-lite, this game takes the creation of worlds and dungeons of the genre mentioned above, mixing it with some mechanics and visual style of Metroidvania. 

As you progress through the map, you’ll defeat all kinds of enemies, which will give you cells. You can use these cells at the end of the level to improve your equipment permanently. 

The plot is very simple. You control “The Prisoner” who is condemned to revive eternally. You must escape from the island to be free from this fate. 

Iconoclasts 

Iconoclasts is a platform with certain features of Metroidvania game designed by the Swedish developer Joakim Sandberg. In Iconoclasts, you take the role of Robin, a simple mechanic defending her and her friends' free will against the theocratic rule of an oppressive regime.

Like most Metroidvanias, the gameplay in Iconoclasts focuses on exploration, solving environmental puzzles, and fighting enemies with several weapons that bring new abilities and new powers to the protagonist. The game allows you to use a wrench as a melee weapon, a stun gun to fire single shots, a roller bomb to fire projectiles, and the usurper to fire piercing beams. 

Iconoclasts Steam CD Key puts special attention on boss battles. Bosses have several movements and patterns which you should memorize while fighting to have a chance against them. They are the culmination of any map and you have to defeat them to access more areas. 

Yoku’s Island Express

Yoku’s Island Express is an open world/Metroidvania-style pinball adventure developed by the Swedish studio Villa Gorilla, seamlessly blending platform navigation with pinball mechanics across a large open world.

The gameplay in Yoku’s Island Express Steam CD Key is mainly focused on side-scrolling platforming, while you can move right or left but not jump. This differentiates it from other classic platformers. 

Instead, you control pinball paddles to push a ball attached to the character. This way, you can reach upper zones on the map, discover secrets paths, and progress in the adventure. This mechanics is maintained throughout the game, but new challenges and difficult levels are introduced. 

One of the most significant aspects of the game is its interconnected map which can be quite a bit extensive but contains several environments and zones. Try it, you’ll notice that is pretty satisfying.

Super Metroid Series

Most gamers, or Nintendo fans, agree that Super Metroid is one of the best games of all times, and probably one of the best Metroid games ever (the struggle with Matroid Dread is alive!).

At some point, Super Metroid built the foundation for future Metroidvania regarding exploration on an interconnected map. But it also contributed to the platform game genre and general 2D game boss fights. Super Metroid is considered the first search-action game of history.

In this third chapter of the famous franchise, you control Samus Aran, who must stop space pirates from getting the greatest threat in the universe: the Metroids. Being honest, this is the regular plot of all games of the franchise, but in Super Metroid we see this lore for first time and shines with its own colors. 

Other great installments of the saga are Metroid Fusion and the latest chapter of the series, Metroid Dread. If you want to try a new challenge and expand your ideas about this game, don't feel daunted to jump into one of the newer titles - Metroid Dread.

Shantae Games

Shantae games are a bit of a platformer where you control Shantae, a half-genie character who has vowed to protect the land from any terrible threats that may come up from the horizon.

Both of the best games of the franchise, Shantae: Half Genie Hero and Shantae & the Pirate’s Curse, are video games worth playing, even though they have more platforms elements than Metroidvania. In the second one, particularly, you must follow a pirates curse and save Sequin Land from the Pirate Master and her nemesis, Risky Boots. A funny game with nice graphics which encourage you to complete the main quest.  

Timespinner

Timespinner is an action-platformer with certain Metroidvania features whose mechanics were inspired by the Konami classic, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. You control Lunais, a time messenger, who must explore a vast castle and the surroundings to upgrade her abilities and equipment. Instead, you can get a double jump to reach zones you couldn’t access before. Timespinner was considered one of the ten best indie games you could play in 2018.  

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom

Though most players rate Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom as a platform game, it has some features that differentiate it from other platforms. For example, you need to solve puzzles and battle powerful enemies to advance on the map. You control Jin, a boy who can turn into five different animals to achieve his goals. These include a pig, a snake, a frog, a lion, and a dragon. 

Cave Story

Cave Story is a platform-adventure Metroidvania with plenty of reminiscents of games such as Castlevania. Despite Cave Story being self-published, it gained a lot of popularity shortly after its launch thanks to its story, compelling characters, setting, and gameplay.

It revolves around Quote, a robot who must explore cavernous areas to find out what is happening to him and escape from the cave. A game with an impressively large map and jumping mechanics which every gaming fan must play.

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is an action role-playing game that focuses on exploration and searching for power-ups and items. It also features rock hard combat against bosses and minibosses. This game continues the vein of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Touhou Luna Nights. 

As the High Elf Deelit, you’ll find your path through a strange labyrinth full of foes and former companions. You must uncover more parts of the castle as you progress. This way, the map is updated. You can also solve puzzles and collect several weapons to vary your attacks.   

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Ender Lilies is a platform-adventure video game whose story follows Lily, a surviving priestess in a land devastated by an endless rain that turns any live form into undead and demented things. Ender Lilies features a dark phantasy Metroidvania fairy tale, so you’ll have to explore beyond the safety of the sanctuary to find out what is the source of the rain. As a white priestess, you have the ability to cleanse spirits of corruption. 

Gato Roboto

Gato Roboto is a 2D Metroidvania where you control a small cat called KiKi who wants to save her owner upon crashing on an alien planet. Kiki is forced to do a mech suit to survive in this harsh environment and explore the depth of the planet. As Kiki, you can jump, climb, and swim as well as fit through small gaps. Over progressing, you get several abilities, such as a double jump and a dash skill.  

The Mummy Demastered

The last title on this list is a not-so-well game, but a really good one. The Mummy Demastered is a Metroidvania released in October 2017 based on the 2017 film The Mummy. In The Mummy Demastered, you must traverse a large map that open ups as you progress through the game. If you die, you’ll revive as a new character. You must retrieve your items from a zombified version of yourself.  

Steamworld Dig 2

Steamworld Dig 2 is a 2D action-adventure platform game with Metroidvania elements and the fourth installment of the Steamworld series. In this game, you control Dorothy, a little steam-driven robot looking for Rusty, the missing protagonist of the first game of the franchise. Like Dorothy, you must explore a vast mine while finding several resources and fighting against enemy creatures. An interesting sequel you must play, even if you didn’t play the predecessor.