Current Events > Let's talk about and recommend "metroidvania" games.

(+) Yeah! (+)

By and far my favorite genre of gaming. Bonus points if it has a slick stylistic art design. There's just something really gratifying about 2D action combat, it's usually fast paced but without having to babysit a camera. Then there's the perfect blend of fighting, platforming, puzzles, secrets, and mega boss battles. Story can be really great too.

Anyway I recently tried Momodora: RUtM

http://store.steampowered.com/app/428550/Momodora_Reverie_Under_the_Moonlight/

Really fun and a treat to play. Perfectly captures why I love these games. Im very partial to the smoothly animated pixel sprite approach.

Also enjoying Salt & Sanctuary

http://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/283640/

Takes the genre to more of a Souls direction. Definitely a plus in my book.
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@The_Admiral
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Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is great.

Guacamelee is pretty good.
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While not a true metroidvania, Rogue Legacy has a similar style, and I love it. One of the best indie games I've ever played, tbh.
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CapnMuffin posted...

Anyway I recently tried Momodora: RUtM

This game is so so so good
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Rogue Legacy, kind of.

Feels like one, but deaths reset the castle layout. You keep your upgrades and choose a new descendant, some of which have disabilities, like ADHD (move faster), color blindness, and dementia (see enemies and hear noises that aren't there).

Hollow Knight is the best Metroidvania made in fucking years. It's no shit a fucking masterpiece.

I also loved Salt and Sanctuary and Momodora, also Axiom Verge has been good, if more derivative than the rest.

Also recently picked up Dead Cells, which is a blast.
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Cave Story's always great.
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Would Owlboy count? Beautiful game with a good story/characters and fun world to explore.
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It's hard to reccomend Metroidvania games because I find a lot of them to be really bland and bad. I find platformers a lot more entertaining when they have, well.. Challenging platforming instead of loads of flat hallways filled with enemies or smashing together a bunch of genres. Sometimes they can still be good; Hollow Knight is a great recent example of someone who gets the genre making something. The post-GBC Shantae games are similarly very very great. And classics like Super Metroid and SOTN (even though SOTN has a lot of the aformentioned issues) are quite good

A lot of metroidvanias I would absolutely steer clear of, though. Most of the mobile Castlevanias are absolutely forgettable. Metroid hasn't had an actual game in the genre it created in a long time. The most recent Strider game as well as Salt and Sanctuary are two of the worst games I've played in years.
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Here's a good list of the best ones:

Shantae series (Pirate's Curse and Risky's Revenge in particular)
Castlevania series (Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia in particular)
Metroid series (any of the 2D games, but would recommend Zero Mission and AMR 2 over the original versions of 1/2)
Guacamelee
Severed
Outland
Shadow Complex
Ori and the Blind Forest
Dust: An Elysian Tail
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I'm kicking myself for not grabbing Axiom Verge when it was on sale. Lots of praise for Hollow Knight. Was on the fence about it.

I have Dust: AET on Xbox and it's so glitchy. My whole file got really corrupted. So much that I have to start over. Otherwise a really great game with surprisingly good writing.
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Not mentioned yet:

Wonderboy 3 Remake
Ninja Smasher
Unepic
Aeternoblade, when it's on sale.

Aquaria.

Literally IGF grand prize winner. Play it now.
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Uh

@Gaming_Mastery
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An Untitled Story
Distorted Travesty 3

An Untitled Story is mostly platforming + exploration focused. You get the ability to shoot fireballs later but outside of boss fights there's never really a ton of combat. Most items and secrets (there are a ton of secrets) are either health upgrades or movement upgrades

DT3 is a bit more combat/platforming focused and less non-linarity focused than most metroidvanias (tbh it's not a metroidvania at all really but it fits all those things you listed liking in the first post) so I dunno if you really want to count it but it is quite literally one of the best games I have ever played of any genre/budget level and it's completely free so... why not?
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daily post that Hollow Knight is goty and probably top 10 ever as well
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kirbymuncher posted...

An Untitled Story is mostly platforming + exploration focused. You get the ability to shoot fireballs later but outside of boss fights there's never really a ton of combat. Most items and secrets (there are a ton of secrets) are either health upgrades or movement upgrades

man it's nice to see someone recommend this, I love that game

I suggest people to try Knytt Stories and Knytt Underground
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Tag
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Metroid Prime still the best.
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Any Shantae game
Hollow Knight
Dead Cells
Rogue Legacy
Giga Wreckers

Those are my recs
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Bloodstained is going to be awesome from what I've seen. Probably another year to wait on that though.

Ori and the blind forest is great, but i find the combat sorely lacking. It is a great platformer puzzler metroidvania stuff, but teh combat is boring
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drunkmuggle posted...

Knytt Underground

also one of the best games ever
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ChromaticAngel posted...

Aquaria

Came in to post this, underrated as fuck.

Ori is my favorite one made since SotN and imo belongs on the same platform as SM and SotN, it's simply a masterpiece.

Guacamelee is great until the combat turns super tedious with colors and combos, I didn't even finish because of that shit.

I still need to try Hollow Knight but hear nothing but great things.
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Oh I forgot Iji. Particularly fun because of the various ways you can play it. How you build your character or approach the game affects the paths you take.
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Tag
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voldothegr8 posted...

Came in to post this, underrated as fuck.

Because, it's on a platform heavily dogpiled with MMOs and graphically intensive online shooters, then ported to platforms that are dogpiled with freemium scams.

Port it to Switch, and it'll suddenly be declared the greatest thing ever.

Axiom Verge
Shadow Complex Remastered
Cave Story+
Hollow Knight
Guacamelee
Aquaria

Heard good things about Dust: An Elysian Tail, but I haven't played it.
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La-mulana
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The Admiral posted...

Axiom Verge
Shadow Complex Remastered
Cave Story+
Hollow Knight
Guacamelee
Aquaria

Heard good things about Dust: An Elysian Tail, but I haven't played it.

Ah shit how could i forget about Axiom Verge and Cave Story on my list, brb seppuku
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btw i found this cool looking game on steam greenlight:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=914989247
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DiesMortis posted...

Hollow Knight is the best Metroidvania made in fucking years. It's no shit a fucking masterpiece.

This. Hollow Knight is in a tier of its own.
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I really want to try Hollow Knight, but no Xbox release.
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

*Castleroids

no
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aquaria is a MUST
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ultimate reaver posted...

It's hard to reccomend Metroidvania games because I find a lot of them to be really bland and bad. I find platformers a lot more entertaining when they have, well.. Challenging platforming instead of loads of flat hallways filled with enemies or smashing together a bunch of genres. Sometimes they can still be good; Hollow Knight is a great recent example of someone who gets the genre making something. The post-GBC Shantae games are similarly very very great. And classics like Super Metroid and SOTN (even though SOTN has a lot of the aformentioned issues) are quite good

A lot of metroidvanias I would absolutely steer clear of, though. Most of the mobile Castlevanias are absolutely forgettable. Metroid hasn't had an actual game in the genre it created in a long time. The most recent Strider game as well as Salt and Sanctuary are two of the worst games I've played in years.

I agree. Platformers do take more precision than most metrovanias.

But, we have to take boss fights into account. which outside of your typical MegaMan and Kirby games, metrovania style wins.

Metrovania also gets higher props for being a hybrid genre most cases. Lots have RPG and even fighting game mechanics.

Salt and Sanctuary is not bad, troll less. It has less restrictive combat and builds than SoTN.
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

*Castleroids

This sounds wrong on so many levels lmao
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Rex Rocket is pretty good, if you are in for a bit of a challenge, and don't mind a bruised thumb (hovering requires a lot of rapid pressing)
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teepan95 posted...

Tag

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Thanks for mentioning me @P4wn4g3

Well let's just mention any of the Metroid and Castlevania games right

Let's also mention Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent

Kirby And The Amazing Mirror is a very interesting one. It's a Metroidvania through and through, but as a Kirby game the abilities required to progress must be acquired by enemies. It's well done.

Monster Tale is a nice one on DS. It's by the people that made Henry Hatsworth. It combines metroidvania with a monster raising sim/RPG.

Outland is a good one. It combines Metroidvania with Ikaruga

Tomba! 1 and 2 are criminally overlooked on the PS1, being a good example of 2.5D gameplay, and very interesting combat. While the gameplay is 2D, the map itself is 3D, which provides a fresh twist to the Metroidvania format.
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Also, worth mentioning Environmental Station Alpha. The graphics are fairly rudimentary in this game, but it's an amazingly fun Metroid clone.
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Xeodrifter for a quick & dirty Metroidvania. I'd get it on sale because it really is short.

Also, not sure if it counts, but Rochard is kind of a Metroidvania and it's great
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sauceje posted...

Xeodrifter for a quick & dirty Metroidvania. I'd get it on sale because it really is short.

Also, not sure if it counts, but Rochard is kind of a Metroidvania and it's great

Yeah Xeodrifter was pretty good. It's short and sweet. The bosses are repetitive but the gun mechanic is really cool. Reminds me of Megaman Legends.
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