These are the games that understand the real thrill of the genre: not just fighting bosses or grabbing upgrades, but that little pull to keep going because the next room might change the whole map.
Metroidvanias are easy to flatten into a checklist. Give a game a double jump, a handful of locked doors, and one bit of backtracking and suddenly it gets thrown into the pile. The good ones are more particular than that. They make movement feel better the longer you play. They make the world feel like something you slowly learn to read. Most importantly, they make getting lost feel productive instead of annoying. Across the bigger genre roundups, the overlap is pretty clear: a small group of games keep turning up because they do the basics better than everyone else, while a few newer entries have earned their way into that company by simply playing brilliantly.
This list runs from excellent to untouchable. I have leaned toward games that still feel great in the hands now, not just titles that deserve respect because they were there first. That means some classics stay high because they are still superb, and some newer games make the cut because they sharpened the genre instead of just copying its shape. Either way, every pick here earns its place through movement, exploration, combat, and the simple question that matters most in a Metroidvania: do you still want to check one more path before bed?
8. Blasphemous 2
This is the harsh one. The world is grotesque, the bosses look like religious nightmares dragged out into daylight, and the whole game has a weight to it that makes every chapel, tower, and ruined corridor feel diseased in the right way. What lifts it above a lot of grim imitators is that the sequel moves much better than the first game. The Penitent One is quicker, the platforming is cleaner, and the three-weapon setup gives combat real shape instead of turning everything into the same heavy swing over and over.
7. Metroid Dread
Samus has rarely felt this sharp in 2D. Sliding, countering, wall-jumping, and burning through Planet ZDR gives the whole game a hard, polished rhythm that very few entries in the genre can match. The E.M.M.I. robots help too. They turn sections of the map into controlled panic, which gives the game a pressure most Metroidvanias never even try for. It sits here because it is more directed than the games above it, but if pure control feel is the main thing you care about, this is one of the cleanest games on the list.
6. Animal Well
A lot of Metroidvanias want to make you feel stronger. Animal Well would rather make you feel curious. It is a strange, quiet little labyrinth full of items that do more than they first appear to, creatures you never fully trust, and secrets that seem to open into other secrets. That makes it less straightforward than the action-heavy games above it, but also much more memorable. It is the kind of game that gets deeper the more closely you look at it, which is why so many people finished it and then immediately started thinking about everything they missed.
5. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
This is the slickest game here in a very modern way. Sargon is quick, precise, and fun to control before the best traversal tools even arrive, and once the time powers start opening up the map the whole thing turns into a beautifully tuned platforming machine.
The combat helps push it higher than a lot of recent genre entries too. It is not just serviceable. It has snap, with enough aggression and movement baked into it that fights feel like part of the exploration rather than a pause between puzzles. It misses the top four because it does not have quite the same mystique as the all-timers, but it earns its spot the hard way: by being outrageously playable.
4. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Some older games stay on lists like this because people feel obliged to keep bowing to them. This one stays because it is still excellent. Alucard’s run through Dracula’s castle has style the genre never really got over. The castle itself is memorable, the music is still fantastic, and the light RPG layer gives the whole thing a lovely sense of growth without smothering it in menus.
It lands at four because later games have tightened movement and pushed combat further, but the confidence of it still carries. It is glamorous, strange, and full of the kind of secrets that make a map feel bigger than it really is.
3. Ori and the Will of the Wisps
This is the most graceful game on the list. Everything about Ori’s movement feels tuned to be just a little more elegant than you expect. Jumping, dashing, grappling, and flying through the world has that rare quality where traversal itself becomes the reward. It also helps that the game looks ridiculous in motion. The backgrounds, lighting, and animation give it a warmth and richness that almost nobody else in the genre can match.
It ranks third because the top two changed the shape of the genre more decisively, but on pure feel, Will of the Wisps is close to unbeatable.
2. Super Metroid
The genre still lives in this game’s shadow for a reason. Planet Zebes remains a masterclass in how to make a world feel dangerous, lonely, and full of possibilities without overexplaining itself. New abilities like the Grapple Beam and X-Ray Scope do not just unlock doors. They change how you think about the map. That is the real trick.
The game teaches you to re-read space, and once it has done that, you start seeing half the genre through its eyes. It is number two because time has moved on in a few small ways, but the atmosphere, map design, and sense of discovery are still almost impossible to argue with.
1. Hollow Knight
This is still the one. Hallownest feels huge without ever becoming shapeless, and every part of the game seems to understand exactly how much pressure to apply. The combat is simple enough to read quickly but deep enough to matter, the charm system gives your build real personality, and the boss lineup is full of fights that feel demanding without turning cheap.
More than that, the whole world has mood. It is sad, beautiful, ruined, and strangely inviting, which is not an easy combination to pull off. Plenty of games on this list do one thing brilliantly. Hollow Knight is number one because it does almost everything brilliantly at the same time, and it still makes the genre feel larger just by existing.
Discussion
0
We want to hear from you. Share your perspective in the comments below, and please keep the conversation respectful.
Log in to join the discussion - vote, reply, and share your take.
