GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.
The best metroidvanias are games that provide massive maps to explore, obstacles to conquer, and progression systems with constant “eureka” moments during your journey. Metroidvanias are one of the more popular genres out there, and with the gap between new Castlevania or Metroid games usually being lengthy, seeing the best elements of those franchises combined into games that find fascinating new ways to put a unique spin on the formula makes for some great entertainment.
Which metroidvania is best for you, though? We’ve gone through a castle library of games in the genre, and found tons of examples that we’ve listed in alphabetical order below to help you get started on a 2D dive into this stylish field of games. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list of the best of all time, but rather a sampling of great games that are widely available to play right now.
Fanatical and GameSpot are both owned by Fandom.