Best Metroidvanias of all time

Super Metroid▲ Rising

The genre's Rosetta Stone: Zebes taught a generation that a map could be a puzzle box and silence could be atmosphere, from the Wrecked Ship's flickering dread to the gut-punch of the Baby Metroid's sacrifice. Every sequence break and speedrun trick discovered since 1994 is still evidence of how tightly Nintendo built this world. It's the template everyone else is still riffing on, which is exactly why it sits at or near the top of every serious list.

Year: 1994Critic score: 9.6/10

added by IJRin 7 rankings

Hollow Knight▲ Rising

Team Cherry took the Metroidvania formula and drowned it in gorgeous, melancholic scale — Hallownest feels like an actual dead civilization you're excavating, not a level designed for you. The Mantis Lords fight and the gut-wrenching Hollow Knight reveal turned a modest indie project into the genre's new gold standard for atmosphere and difficulty. It single-handedly proved indie devs could out-Metroidvania the genre's own namesakes, and its shadow (and sequel hype) still looms over everything released since.

Year: 2017Critic score: 9.4/10

added by IJRin 10 rankings

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night▲ Rising

Alucard stepping into Dracula's inverted castle is the moment 'Metroidvania' stopped being just about Samus and became its own genre with two namesakes. SotN's RPG stats, absurd item hoarding, and that legendary 200.6% completion secret rewired what exploration games could reward. Without this game there's no argument for hybridizing action-platforming with loot and leveling — it's the other half of the genre's DNA.

Year: 1997Critic score: 9.3/10

added by IJRin 3 rankings

Metroid Dread▲ Rising

After a 19-year wait, Samus finally got a game that treated the E.M.M.I. sections like Alien: Isolation grafted onto peak Metroid movement, turning stealth-panic into a genre-defining hook. The parry-counter combat and slide-melee tech gave 2D Metroid a modern action pulse it hadn't had since the SNES, and ZDR's mystery justified the decades-long gap. It's proof the originators could still out-innovate their own disciples when they finally showed back up.

Year: 2021Critic score: 8.8/10

added by IJR

Ori and the Will of the Wisps▼ Falling

Moon Studios doubled down on the original's beauty and nearly broke the traversal ceiling with combat and movement that finally matched the platforming mastery of Ori's escape sequences. The Kwaon Shrine and the Shriek boss fight are white-knuckle setpieces disguised as art, proving a Metroidvania could be a tearjerker and an adrenaline rush in the same breath. It's the aesthetic maximalist's pick — the argument that this genre can be as emotionally overwhelming as it is mechanically satisfying.

Year: 2020Critic score: 9/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings

Dead Cells▼ Falling

Motion Twin fused roguelike permadeath with Metroidvania structure and somehow made getting sent back to the start feel like progress instead of punishment, thanks to permanent unlocks and combat so fluid it plays like a character action game. The Giant boss fight and the ever-shifting castle layout made every run feel newly dangerous even after hundreds of hours. It's the genre's great experimentalist entry — the argument that Metroidvania rules can bend around roguelite chaos and still produce something this replayable.

Year: 2018Critic score: 8.6/10

added by IJRin 4 rankings