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.
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
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Hollow knight and silksong are both the best to ever do it IMO
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.
Metroid dread
I would like it so much more if it didn't have that dumb parry mechanic.
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
Symphony of the night is incredible. A bit dated now, but it truly established genre staples.
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.
Currently playing Animal Well, and it is excellent so far!
I want to like it so much, but I enjoy combat in my metroidvanias.
Aquaria. Very retro indie game from 2007. Underwater theme.
I don't care much for metroidvanias but Dust: An Elysian Tail was fun for a playthrough or two.
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.
Some of my faves that aren't Hollow Knight:
- Axiom Verge
- Astalon: Tears of the Earth
- Ender Lilies
- Blasphemous
Hollow Knight. It's the only one I actually played to the end.
La-Mulana was great. Maybe not for everyone. It's loaded with puzzles.
That’s a gentle way to put it 😆. But I agree it’s so great. Need to get back into it at some point.
Yeah... It's pretty brutal. I needed to consult a walkthrough even for subsequent playthroughs.
Can I half-cheat and say Control?
Is it a metroidvania?
It is... kind of. Hence the half-cheat. First off it's 3D, but the game is completely centered around the Oldest House, which is the headquarters of the fictional FBC. Like a Metroidvania you explore and backtrack back and forth through it and unlock new areas opening up from previous places. There is also one (although only one) proper ability gate that lets you explore previously unreachable parts of earlier areas once unlocked.
Even if you don't classify it as a true Metroidvania it's definitely Metroidvania-inspired.
I would absolutely categorize Control as a metroidvania game. It has all the characteristics of one. I know some debate it because it's so combat focused but aside from that it checks all the Metroidvania boxes.
| love super metroid even if the control scheme is dated
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
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.
Sorry to hear that. In my opinion it's a ~~great~~ fantastic metroidvania and puzzle game. It reminds me of Zelda and Portal too. Isn't there a way to disable head bobbing in the settings or some other option to reduce the motion sickness? Have you tried reducing mouse speed? If noting helps then you could try contacting the developer about it. Maybe they can fix it.
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
Agreed both are really good games. One of the few games I've 100%
Super Metroid Animal well Castlevania: SOTN
It's a little old and more Metroid- than -vania: A Robot Named Fight
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.
Guacomelee should get more love, it's a really stylish game and there is even coop if you want to play together with someone.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game so good it created the term “Metroidvania” even though the formula was basically “Metroid”.
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i can tell you the one that surprised me the most: Yoku's Island Express! utterly adorable pinball metroidvania. you're a little dung beetle pushing a big ball around to deliver mail.
i find that there is so much focus on dark and dreary in the metroidvania genre, which makes sense considering the roots of the genre. me, i get enough of that in my daily life. i want colorful and full of curiosity. the ori games are good for that too, as is supraland, but i don't know of many more.
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