A subtype of the Action-Adventure genre, usually with platformer elements, Metroidvania refers to any game containing the major gameplay concepts shared by the Metroid series and later Castlevania games.
Your typical Metroidvania game is portrayed as a single large area or a set of large areas, broken up into many different rooms, corridors, and open spaces with Respawning Enemies in most areasnote . Progress in the game is driven by the discovery of Video Game Tools (items with some sort of functionality) that allow the player to navigate obstacles and "unlock" new areas, while also serving as more than just a "key"; for example, a weapon powerful enough to destroy certain walls will often deal more damage to enemies, and the ability to climb walls could be used to avoid enemies as well as reach high places.
The player will often pass many insurmountable obstacles as they explore the game, which they must backtrack to after finding the appropriate item/ability, often made easier by opening Doors To Before. There are usually many secrets hidden around the game, some far more difficult to obtain than any item required to proceed.
It often contains mild RPG Elements as well, like stat-boosting equipment or a level system; some of these games will have multiple playable characters with different abilities and require the player to switch between them. But if not, expect to find hidden Heart Containers in every nook and cranny.
Despite the openness of the game, progression is usually linear, with the more difficult areas separated by natural barriers such as high shelves, sealed or locked doors, or other obstacles that can only be bypassed by finding specific items or weapons. Among gamers, Sequence Breaking is a common stunt used to access these areas before the player is "supposed" to.
The definition of this Sub-Genre varies somewhat depending on whom you ask. People seem to variably demand some or all of the following traits:
- Exploring nonlinear interconnected areas, often resulting in backtracking, especially for new players. note
- Critical progress is driven by items, tools, weapons, or powerups used to get around obstacles and become more powerful in at least some capacity (at least for a blind playthrough). Single use keys may or may not be present, but are not included in "utility based progress".
- Platforming elements are almost always present as mobility is an important part of the sense of player growth and world recontextualization.
- Sequence Breaking capabilities, even if not official are always welcome as they encourage making the most of the gameplay sandbox.
It's worth noting that not all Metroidvanias have all of these elements and not all games with some of these elements are Metroidvanias. Unsure examples can be placed in the Adjacent/Pseudo category beneath the main list.
This sub-genre gets its name from the Metroid and Castlevania series. The Trope Maker was Metroid, published in 1986, and subsequent Metroid games have consistently used it in all of its installments (except Prime Pinball of course), with Super Metroid being one of the Trope Codifiers. Castlevania first used the style in 1987's Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (building on the less-linear nature of 1986's Vampire Killer compared to the first NES game), before abandoning it and then returning to it after the success of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the Co-Codifier.
The term itself was originally used for the Castlevania games of the same style as Symphony of the Night, but Jeremy Parish of Retronauts,
expanded the definition so that it referred to an entire genre; his use of the term popularized it, and along with it his definition. Ironically, the designer of Symphony of the Night actually modeled that game on the The Legend of Zelda series, which also shares a number of traits with this genre though is often overlooked in discussions due to not being 2D side-scrolling. (The other branch of the Castlevania series (level by level straight platforming action) is sometimes called the "Classicvania" style, for reference.)
While Metroid and Castlevania were the Trope Maker and Trope Codifier, respectively, Ur-Examples were Brain Breaker (1984/1985) and Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu (1985). Several early Metroidvania titles were inspired by these titles, particularly Xanadu. Metroidvania elements could be traced further back to non-platformer games Tutankham (1982) and The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983). Modern reviewers also noticed System Shock (1994)— released a few months before Super Metroid — also shares a lot with the genre, albeit in First Person, and would generate its own sub-genre of Immersive Sim, which would include a lot of elements from Metroidvanias.
A somewhat lesser version of this was fairly popular towards the end of the Nintendo Entertainment System's life cycle. The game would be separated into stages, but each stage was a wide-open, explorable area instead of a linear progression. Many of these games allowed you to revisit a stage after you already beat it.
Games in this genre tend to be a four (or three) on the Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness. Finally, it should also be noted that "Metroidvania" is the term used in English-speaking markets; in Japanese markets, the genre is known as "exploration action"note or "search action" for brevity (though this is as a catch-all for adventure platformers, even ones that don't qualify as "Metroidvanias"). Other terms that have seen common use to describe such games include, "IGAvania", named after Koji Igarashi, a lead producer for the Castlevania series whose games used this style; "Metroid-Like" for entries that lack the RPG elements of the former (or at least lack notable Castlevania inspiration), and "Soulsvania" for Souls-like RPG inspired entries (its worth noting that not all Soulslikes 2D or otherwise are Metroidvanias and such entries are addressed plainly as "Soulslikes"). More niche but relatively frequent terms are "Crest-Likes" for examples with separated stages as opposed to a fully interconnected world (named after Demon's Crest which defined that design approach), "Puzzlevania" for games that significantly downplay action and other mechanics for puzzles while still adhering to all core genre tenants (I.E. Animal Well, Knytt Underground, and La-Mulana if you want both puzzles and action):. Not to be confused with "Metroidbrainias" which are largely not considered MVs at all, but rather puzzle adventures where the players' expanding knowledge of what they can already do (of course being driven by exploration, experimentation, and backtracking) takes precedent over actual abilities gained (I.E. Trope Maker The Witness, Toki Tori 2, Rain World, and Outer Wilds); leading to a similar but ultimately different progress loop. Though the former can borrow features from the latter.
If you're interested in making your own, check out our how-to Make a Metroidvania.
Examples:
- Most of the Metroid games of course, with the mainline 2D/2½D games being undisputed examples of this genre, which Nintendo themselves refers to as "exploration action." Super Metroid solidified its place as trope co-codifier not only thanks to the exploration and progression angle, but also for providing plenty of opportunities for sequence breaking, some intentional (Wall Jumping, Shinespark, infinite bomb jumping) and some not (like the "mockball" glitch, which would go on to be an Ascended Glitch in later entries). The line is blurred with the 3D games (the Metroid Prime Trilogy sub-series and Metroid: Other M), though these games still otherwise follow the same template, albeit in three dimensions rather than two. The clear exceptions are the handful of Spin-Off games: Metroid Prime: Hunters (more of a first-person shooter with a few exploration elements), Metroid Prime Pinball (a pinball game), and Metroid Prime: Federation Force (a co-op FPS).
- For a period before and during Koji Igarashi's tenure as lead producer, almost all of the 2D Castlevania games fit this build. From 1997's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1) up until 2008 Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) the series was a Trope Codifier. Symphony of the Night isn't the first time that the Castlevania series experimented with the genre, either; Vampire Killer and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest shared many of the same gameplay elements, though the latter didn't have the closed complex setting typical of the genre, and the former had no RPG Elements nor permanent upgradesnote . The series has since seemingly moved away from the 2D Metroidvania style for 3D Action-Adventure Hack and Slash format. An interesting note is that, since Metroidvania is Western terminology for the genre, Igarashi had actually never heard of the term until around 2012 (though he quite liked it). He said his inspiration in creating Symphony of the Night actually came from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (which in turn borrowed elements from Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu and the original Metroid).
- 8 Doors : Arum's Afterlife Adventure: Visit the 8 Doors of Purgatory, in any order you want, to find your father's missing soul.
- 9 Years of Shadows, a retraux whose graphics resembles old-school Castlevania, with a linear level structure akin to Metroid 2 with micro-backtracking within biomes but none mandatory between them.
- 3000th Duel
- Abyss X Zero A 3D Creator-Driven Successor to Unsighted
- Action Man: Search for Base X on Game Boy Color is something of a cross between this and a Mega Man clone, with individual stages that have more than one way to get through depending what outfit and equipment you bring in.
- The SNES game of The Addams Family is this, as well as having a quasi-Hub Level in the form of the entrance hall.
- Adventure Of Samsara is a metroidvania reimagining of the classic Atari game Adventure (1979)
- AEROMACHINA is a low-poly 3D example with influence from the Hack and Slash genre.
- Aestik
- Aeterna Noctis has a focus on intense Nintendo hard platforming; leading to some dubbing it a "Celeste-Vania".
- AeternoBlade
- After Death combines Classic-Vania gameplay and aesthetics with Metroid level design.
- Afterimage combines classic Igavania and Soulslike in a single package.
- Ainevoltas 1 and 2, freeware games. Ainevoltas 2 is the remake of the first one.
- Albero And The Great Blue Emblem
- Aliens: Infestation: Quite fitting, considering the influence Alien had on the original Metroid.
- Aggelos, a modern take inspired by non-linear Japanese retro adventures like Wonder Boy In Monster World
- Alwa's Awakening is a Metroidvania in the classic Flip-Screen Scrolling style.
- Alwas Legacy, sequel to the above.
- Amazing Princess Sarah
- Amea is an online Metroidvania by Godlimations.
- Angels Gear: A retraux from the creator of Vomitoreum with survival-horror elements such as strict ammo management and cumbersome movement on top of its Giger-esque + Diesel Punk theme.
- Anima Flux
- Animal Well Is a combat-free and puzzle-heavy fusion of Rain World and Environmental Station Alpha
- Antichamber is non-linear, allows sequence breaking, features interconnected areas, requires upgrades to advance, and focuses on exploration.
- Anubis and the Buried Bone currently has just 1 big giant map with no clear objective on what to do.
- The indie game Aquaria embraces this trope fully, although there is much less of a platform element since it takes place almost entirely underwater.
- Aquaria
- Arzea
- Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is a homage to the CD-I Zelda games.
- The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human
- ASCIIvania—as the title suggests, it's a Metroidvania-style game with ASCII graphics. The Ability Required to Proceed element is mainly provided by finding different letters, which you use to complete words that are blocking your way; among more traditional upgrades.
- Astalon: Tears of the Earth an MSX-inspired one with character-switching and a rogue-ish character growth system.
- Astronite gives the genre a game with a three-color art style.
- Ato is a 2D Metroidvania set in a version of Feudal Japan populated by animal people.
- Awaken Astral Blade
- Axiom Verge is a love letter to the genre, Metroid 1 and other classics of the 8-bit era, allowing players to utilize and create glitches to access new areas, bypass obstacles and change enemy behavior.
- Axiom Verge 2 is the non-linear sequel to Axiom Verge with a more open-world Zelda inspired structure.
- Banjo-Tooie adds more interconnectivity between areas and even ability gating. Though the later part of the game opts more for plot coupon gating, this encourages visiting older levels with said new abilities to find them.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum: Not a pure example, sort of fitting somewhere between Metroid and Zelda; as the wings of the asylum seldom connect to eachother, rather all connecting to the central courtyard. However there is plenty of reason to go back and forth between them unlike Zelda dungeons. The sequels would deviate even further from the traditional MV style; with Arkham City leaning even more into the Zelda formula; with an open city with isolated dungeon areas; and having an even more linear main quest, but still rewarding ability backtracking. Prequel Arkham Origins and finale Arkham Knight would abandon all of this with a full-on Wide-Open Sandbox. The handheld spin-off of the former however: Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a conventional example.
- Battle Kid combines this with a less unfair version of I Wanna Be the Guy.
- Battle Princess Madelyn
- The Battle of Olympus
- Beacon of Hope stars a lamp but otherwise is a normal Metroidvania, though as it's only in development we don't know what abilities Beacon will unlock.
- Beholgar: a retraux barbarian fantasy
- Beyond The Ice Palace II The sequel to the obscure linear platformer for the Commodore 64 37 years prior
- Bio Gun has you play as a medicine and explore a dog's internal anatomy and eliminate ailments.
- Biomorph mixes Hollow Knight and Kirby in a cyberpunk setting
- Bionic Commando (1988) and its Rearmed remake are level-based ones where progression is made by visiting areas in a non-linear fashion and gathering equipment from later areas to clear earlier ones.
- Blade Chimera translates the "IGAvania" style to a Cyberpunk setting. Also unique in that all traversal abilities are unlocked via a skill tree rather than exploration, leading exploration to be almost purely player-guided.
- Blasphemous II unlike its precursor has conventional ability gating with a unique RPG spin with having you choose a starting weapon with a unique traversal perk that will greatly change how the first half of your playthrough goes.
- Blast Brigade
- Blaster Master: An early example that took a Zelda inspired structure and fused it with side-scrolling shooter gameplay.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a Kickstarter Creator-Driven Successor of the Castlevania series led by Koji Igarashi, producer of many of the trope-naming Castlevania games. He coined the term "IGAvania" to refer to games in his gothic style.
- Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement, the prequel to Ritual of the Night.
- Bloody Hell A free top-down Bullet Hell example made by college students.
- Blue Fire: A 3-D platformer with an equal mix of ability gates, Zelda style keys and plot coupons, and Souls style doors that are locked from one side; all in an interconnected world.
- Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus
- Brain Breaker, developed in 1984 and released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1985, is one of the first true Metroidvania-style games, along with Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, released the same year.
- The Breach
- Bunny Must Die
- Callys Caves series
- Captain Comic and its sequel
- Carpathian Night, an indie effort inspired by old-school gothic-style games.
- Carrion, a reverse-horror where the player is an Eldritch Abomination.
- Castle in the Darkness
- Cathedral, a Retraux like side-scrolling Zelda mixed with Ghosts 'N' Goblins and other inspirations.
- Catmaze, a retraux inspired by the Zelda games and Slavic folklore.
- Cave Story is clearly influenced by both Castlevania and Metroid. There are various items and abilities needed to proceed through the game, and backtracking yields many hidden areas and items that were completely unobtainable when first encountered, though it's notably a much more linear game than the typical fare.
- Chasm is a Metroidvania game with procedurally generated levels.
- Citadale - The Legends Trilogy, a trilogy of mediocre, low-budget Symphony of the Night knockoffs. Consisting of Gate of Souls, Curse of Darkness and Legacy of Fate
- Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus, a complete Genre Shift from the original Finding Teddy, which was an Adventure Game.
- Chronicles of the Wolf - a 2025 game by PQube and Migami Games; the player controls Mateo Lombardo, a Religious Bruiser in 18th century France on a quest to slay the Beast of Gevaudan.
- Clarence's Big Chance: Sort of. Though the game itself is very linear, each level is very open and full of secrets.
- Clash at Demonhead was widely considered an early example of the genre.
- Clunky Hero
- Codename Droid, a BBC Micro game, is another early example.
- Control (2019) is a Third-Person Shooter that follows this format. There is a linear story to be followed in uncovering the mysteries of The Oldest House, but the ever-increasing upgrades and Psychic Powers encourages exploring every weird and transcendental corner of the place for sidequests and extra goodies.
- Cookie Cutter is essentially cyberpunk Guacamelee! with an edgy attitude akin to Tank Girl.
- Curse Of The Sea Rats a Rattroidvania where every character is a rodent.
- Craz'd!
- Crimson Glaive Sigma is a platformer that takes place on a large Space Station where more areas become available as you find upgrades and weapons, though after a certain point the focus shifts from finding upgrades to finding and defeating bosses. The game also has influences from the Bullet Hell genre as bosses and even many enemies will attack you with countless projectiles fired in elaborate patterns.
- Crowsworn a homage to Hollow Knight but Darker and Edgier and with More Dakka; from the dev of Unworthy.
- Crypt Custodian Another entry by Sheepo and Islets dev Kyle Thompson, this time with a top-down perspective.
- Dandara: One where you cannot run or jump, and instead zip from one flat surface to another. The original game plays similarly to Zelda; with the forest overworld leading to isolated dungeon-like areas that can be completed on a first visit. However the "Trials Of Fear" update/expansion adds a dark world that adds far more interconnectivity between areas and requires more clever use of old and new abilities to get around in a non linear fashion.
- Daniel X: The Ultimate Power (DS)
- Darksiders
- Darksiders is a 3D, third-person game with the Metroidvania elements of using new equipment/abilities to unlock different areas, and freely backtracking to previous areas to collect previously unreachable items or treasure.
- Darksiders II is much the same with the addition of more RPG Elements via a variety of weapons and armor with various stats and a skill progression tree. Both games also takes inspiration from The Legend of Zelda with distinct dungeons that have puzzles to be solved and doors to be unlocked using the items and keys found inside.
- Darksiders III is by far the most direct example with its much more constricting world design that stresses ability gating more than any other title in the series.
- The Dark Dwellers
- Death's Door: A top-down Zelda-like but with consistent ability gating and multiple reasons to backtrack to completed dungeons and some soulsy elements as well.
- Deaths Gambit: Afterlife, an "expansion" that is really full remake of the original game that fundamentally changes the structure, flow, and mechanics of the game; including actual consistent ability gating and more than doubling its original size. The vanilla release was a much more linear Souls-like RPG with minimal ability gating.
- Demons Of Asteborg, a new original title for the SEGA MegaDrive / Genesis with a Gothic setting similar to the old Castlevania games.
- Demon Hunter: The Return of the Wings, a 2D side-view RPG with unlockable areas and abiltiies.
- Demoniaca: Everlasting Night combines Castlevania with fighting game style combat
- Depths Of Sanity A submarine-centric underwater example with Lovecraftian elements.
- Deviator
- The Devil Within Satgat
- Dex: A cyberpunk RPG inspired by a similarly titled game primarily set in an interconnected City that opens up the more you upgrade your character's mobility, endurance (immunity to toxic gas, electricity, etc), and other skills like lockpicking; some by exploration, others by leveling up. There are a few non-backtrackable levels towards the final act though.
- Disney Illusion Island is a rare combat-free example, but still takes place in one giant 2D map filled with platforming.
- The Divide: Enemies Within for the PSX and PC is a rather excellent 3-D example of this.
- DNA is a short example of the genre made in 48 hours for a game making competition with the theme of evolution.
- Doom Blade A PC exclusive with mouse-centric hack-and-slash combat.
- Dragon Loop is an adorable time-loop adventure in Chinese mythology.
- Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, released in 1985, was the Ur-Example of Metroidvania gameplay, along with Brain Breaker. The later Dragon Slayer games Faxanadu, Legacy of the Wizard and Sorcerian continued the Metroidvania format established by Xanadu.
- Dreaming Sarah and its sequel Awakening Sarah imagine an MV take on Yume Nikki.
- Dust: An Elysian Tail is a furry Stylish Action take
- Ebenezer and the Invisible World: A sequel to the Charles Dickens classic where the titular character recruits ghosts to fight a cruel industrialist.
- Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising: An oppressively linear take on the genre, but still ticks just enough boxes.
- Elderand: A lovecraftian barbarian fantasy.
- Elypse
- Elephant Quest is a free flash game in which a cute elephant sets out on a quest to reclaim his hat made in this format. With lasers.
- The final levels of the two main games in the Emogame series (especially the second one) play out like this. The third would've been entirely like this had it been finished.
- Endeavor requires players to find different items/collect special upgrading fruit to be able to reach new areas.
- ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights, which also ticks most of the boxes of a Souls-like RPG.
- ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist
- Environmental Station Alpha, which heavily borrows from Metroid 1 aesthetically and Super Metroid gameplay wise.
- The Empire Strikes Back could be seen as a proto example, with platforming, non-linear exploration and a sort of leveling. What keeps it from being a true Metroidvania is the fact that it’s separated by levels.
- Escape from Puppy Death Factory is a browser "metroidbrainia" published by Adult Swim Games.
- Eternal Darkness is somewhat unique in that you never actually leave the hub world; the plot involves main character Alex reading the histories of previous owners of the game's Tome of Eldritch Lore, and by experiencing their stories, she is given access to the magick spells that they learned in their time, going on to cast the spell herself and uncover a new means of going deeper into the mansion to find more pages of the Tome.
- Eternal Daughter starts with the protagonist able to do the typical platforming routine, but certain areas in each level can only be reached once she gets the ability to jump higher, slide off walls, etc.
- The console version of Exhumed/ Power Slave is possibly one of the earliest examples of a Metroidvania FPS, predating Metroid Prime by almost a decade.
- Evil Genome, a post-apocalyptic Hack and Slash/shooter hybrid. Kind of like a non-anime companion to Dead Or School.
- Exophobia: A retraux boomer-shooter example.
- Exorcist Fairy, a Hollow Knight homage from China where you're an adorable hulijing exploring six different and interconnected worlds of the supernatural.
- The ROM hack Extra Mario Bros is a Metroidvania game built on Super Mario Bros., and is probably the only example of the genre with one-way scrolling.
- Fantastic Dizzy
- Fearmonium, a horror-themed modern take.
- Ferazel's Wand for Mac OS.
- Fe
- Fez: While additional powers are gained, the real key to progress is figuring out how to read the clues in the game in order to solve the puzzles and gain trinkets, which are used to unlock various doors.
- Fire In The Beastlands is a very obscure pre-historic Soulsvania.
- F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch: A Diesel Punk, Stylish-Action fusion with furries (or "Furtizens" if you will).
- Flip Witch Forbidden Sex Hex a surprisingly great H-Game example inspired by Momodora and WayForward games.
- Flashback 2, a Metroidvania-themed prequel to the 1990s Platformer Flashback: The Quest For Identity released over two decades after
- Flynn: Son of Crimson has the title character collecting spirits for his companion Dex that allows him the use of new abilities to expand the ability to explore the world.
- Fountains
- Frogmonster An FPS example inspired by Metroid Prime and Hollow Knight with an art style combining Nintendo 64 and Minecraft graphics
- Frontier Hunter Erzas Wheel Of Fortune is like Bloodstained with an ecchi and sci-fi tinge
- Full Quiet
- The Gargoyle's Quest trilogy.
- Gato Roboto, a monochrome Retraux outing with a cat protagonist.
- Gesalt Steam And Cinder
- Ghost 1.0 is a 2-D platformer with nonlinear exploration. The player collects new abilities and upgrades (some permanent, some temporary) as they explore, and must gather key card fragments in order to progress to new areas.
- Ghostly Matter: a Metroidvania that is Retraux not only in its graphics and soundtrack, but also gameplay and difficulty. Prepare to whip out pen and paper to take notes on where to go and where to use/take the various items. Also contains elements of graphic adventure, with multiple documents to read and examine, especially in the beginning.
- Ghost Song, another game from Kickstarter, is probably the most Metroid-ish take on the Soulslike genre.
- Ghoul School
- GigaSword
- The Goonies II
- Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters (DS/3DS/Wii)
- Graven A Hexen homage but in an interconnected world with ability gates.
- Greak Memories Of Azur: A character-switching puzzle platform adventure with light soulsy elements.
- GRIME a brutal Stone-Punk Soulslike with body horror abound even without flesh.
- Grizzland An Atari 2600 inspired example.
- Grokion (iOS)
- Guacamelee!: A Metroidvania where wrestling moves double as traversal tools.
- Guacamelee! 2 is the follow-up to the original, expanding on the first game's mechanics and adding new powers centered around the chicken form.
- The Guise
- GunGirl 2 has a linear main plot but a Metroidvania-type world with plenty of hidden upgrades.
- Guns of Fury is a metroidvania take on Metal Slug.
- HAAK
- Haiku, the Robot
- Hands of Necromancy I and II are Hexen-inspired boomer-shooter examples made in the GZ Doom engine.
- Hasslevania: The Quest For Shuteye, a parody of the Castlevania series.
- Haydee: A moddable 3D Metroidvania with third-person shooter and platforming elements, staring a scantily-clad and buxom cyborg lady.
- Headlander: Made by Double Fine, a rather unique take on the genre as progress isn't as much locked behind skills or abilities that you unlock, but rather the robot bodies you take control of, with higher level robots giving you access to more areas.
- Heart Forth, Alicia
- Hebereke for the Famicom (and the Euro Release Ufouria). Something about a drunk duck (hebereke translates into stumbling drunk) falling into an alternate dimension with his animal-ish friends who have to find a way back home (or so it appears). Plays like Metroid meets Mario. All the sequels on the SNES completely abandoned this genre and are party games; until Ufouria 2 released in 2024
- Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit with heavy WarioWare/Wario Land inspiration.
- Hero Core, by the creator of Iji, is a Shoot 'em Up with non-linear exploration.
- Heroine Anthem Zero, a side-scrolling JRPG-style take on the genre.
- The Adventure Time video game Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! has elements of this. Finn and Jake run around the Land of Ooo, fighting monsters and learning new powers in order to progress at certain points.
- High on Life: Yet another 3-D First-Person Shooter example.
- Hob is a Zelda-clone where you explore an open world that literally reveals itself piece-by-piece when you activate machinery. It's also a top down view, but world exploration is very ability-gated and interconnected throughout, even with underground dungeons seemlessly woven in and out the world.
- The free and moderately NSFW Holdover
- Hollow Knight is another "love letter" to the genre, with a very Metroid feel and a plethora of Shout Outs. Also a trope codifier for the "Soulsvania" niche despite being much more a "Bloodtroid" or "Metroidborne".
- Hollow Knight: Silksong: Sequel starring The Rival from the first game, Hornet, with even more shout outs to the Metroid and Castlevania series.
- Horace is this from Chapter 3 onward, as the levels are mostly connected, with a few exceptions such as the prison levels. The Estate, the mainland, and the cities are connected and can be visited as they are unlocked. The Estate in particular is the level most resembling a Metroidvania, as unlike all other levels, it has a map, contains several bosses spread out throughout the map, and gives abilities for beating each boss that are needed to access deeper areas of the Estate (as well as secret areas outside it).
- House Of Decay
- Houchou Shoujo Gensoukyoku is Yume Nikki reimagined as an action metroidvania.
- Hunter X An animesque reskin of 3000th Duels mechanics with more polish and streamlining.
- Iconoclasts by Joachim "konjak" Sandberg, albeit one that is a bit more linear than usual.
- Imp of the Sun is an open world Metroidvania-style 2D action-platformer where you play as the titular Imp who must save the Sun from those who stole power from it.
- In 60 Seconds is a freeware "micro-vania". As the title suggests, you get just one minute to gather all the abilities required to reach the boss and defeat it.
- INAYAH Life After Gods - hand-drawn retraux example with a post-apocalypse setting
- Indivisible, a game by Lab Zero that mixes the genre with a combat system inspired by Valkyrie Profile.
- Inexistence Rebirth
- Infernax is a Retraux game in a similar vein to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, but filled with loads of 8-bit blood and gore.
- Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, albeit lacking the platformer elements typical for the genre due to playing in a spacecraft the whole game, but you will still enhance it's flight capabilities.
- Islets from the devs of Sheepo, with separate levels that eventually are connected to each other as the player progresses with Cute 'em Up segments in between major areas.
- Itorah
- Jables's Adventure
- Jewel Master
- Jiggly Zone
- Joshua's Legs stars a two legged "spider" thing in a dark and creepy environment with QWOP inspired controls.
- Journey to the Savage Planet is a Sci-Fi First-Person example with a comedic tone.
- Revenge of the Savage Planet Now in Third-Person
- Katanaut
- Kingdom Shell
- Kirby & The Amazing Mirror is unique in that unlike other Metroidvanias, instead of finding abilities to progress to other abilities, you have to eat enemies for their abilities which are near the parts you have to use those abilities in, and you can discard the abilities soon after. You can also get help from the 3 other Kirbies, and do things in any order, even reverse. The Great Cave Offensive in Kirby Super Star had similar gameplay, but was more linear. (Note that other games in the series, including the other components of Super Star, are Platform Games.)
- Knightmare II: The Maze of Galious is a very early example where where most upgrades are completely optional and passive, however there are certain characters can only pass certain obstacles. The Famicom port/remake is far more archetypical with its ability gating. Also inspired an indie successor in La-Mulana.
- The Knight Witch, a fantasy with flight-based shoot-em-up elements. It's worth noting that the backgrounds are hand-drawn.
- The free flash game K.O.L.M. from Armor Games, in which the main character is a robot that needs to rebuild itself (thereby gaining the required powerups). If you collect all the letter panels, the final scene reveals that the acronym stands for Kind Of Like Metroid.
- Kong: Survivor Instinct, a game taking place in the MonsterVerse and as an Interquel between Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
- KUNAI
- Laika: Aged Through Blood is a two-dimensional "Motorvania" in which all exploration and combat is done upon a motorcycle that can block and parry bullets.
- La-Mulana: Notorious for their incredibly obtuse puzzles inspired by Knightmare II; alongside traditional gameplay difficulty.
- The first game, in two levels of quality, MSX original and SNES remake. The game follows Lemeza, a Japanese-American Adventure Archaeologist who explores an ancient, trap filled ruin.
- La-Mulana 2, a kickstarted sequel to the first game, starring Lemeza's daughter Lumisa. Known for being more forgiving and accessible than the original but that's not saying much.
- The Last Case Of Benedict Fox: A comic-horror themed take with Adventure Game style puzzles.
- The Last Faith, described by reviews as Souls-like RPG-meets-Castlevania in the visual-style and ultra-violent presentation of Blasphemous
- The Last Vanguard offers a fantastical Diesel Punk shooter with a rubber-hose inspired art-style.
- Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, although its sequels were much more linear in nature.
- Legend of Kalevala is an online Flash Metroidvania by Dit Dah Games.
- The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (GBA)
- The Legend of Tian-ding, a Taiwanese entry where you're a Just Like Robin Hood master thief opposing the Japanese in the early 20th Century
- The Legend of Zelda series can be considered a cousin or even mother genre considering where both trope namers got their inspiration from; as the games also focus on collecting Video Game Tools to bypass obstacles in the wide-open Overworld (sometimes allowing sequence breaking). While most games lack proper platforming, some break that rule. However, one major difference persists: the dungeons are fully self-contained areas separate from the Overworld that require only a single trip to complete. Zelda dungeons mainly require completing puzzles/tasks and collecting keys to progress, with the exception of one important item to be found and utilized to reach (or even to fight) the dungeon boss. After completing the dungeon, the item discovered there can be used in the Overworld to progress toward the next dungeon. Entries that fill the genre criteria the most include:
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has all the action take place in 2D side-scrolling sections, including towns and dungeons, although these are all still contained within a top-down overworld.
- Some of the handheld titles in the series, starting with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, also have a small amount of 2D side-scrolling sections, and even add a jump button to the top-down controls, making the entire game a platformer. The overworld itself also tends to be gated in a way closer to this genre than other entries.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has probably the most significant backtracking and platforming in the 3-D series.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword narrows the gap between Zelda and most Metroidvanias by adding hallmarks of the latter that had been largely absent in the former, with some of the main additions being less distinction between the overworld and dungeons as well as being required to backtrack to all of them at some point, as well as more platforming elements and Save Points.
- Lemegeton is a cross between this and Boss Game, as you are challenged to defeat the 72 demons of the Ars Goetia, and they typically show up every three-or-four rooms.
- Level Up! (2009)
- Lila's Sky Ark
- Lone Fungus is a love letter to Hollow Knight where you play as a cute li'l mushroom.
- Lone Fungus: Melody Of Spores is a prequel to the above.
- Loopmancer, though the levels plays out like a Beat 'em Up
- Lord Of The Sword for the Sega Master System.
- Lost Epic A Vanillaware inspired entry with spectacle fighter and Soulslike elements.
- Lunacid: Another Immersive Sim example with many unlockable abilities that change how you traverse and interact with the interconnected world.
- Lyle in Cube Sector combines this with the gameplay of Super Mario Bros. 2 and a fair bit of surrealism.
- Mandragora Whispers Of The Witch Tree
- Maptroid is an Affectionate Parody. You collect items which make you backtrack to reach new areas on the alien planet, but there's no combat or platforming, because you're travelling a map tile by tile.
- Marrow combines this with survival horror aspects (oppressive environment, difficult and unforgiving gameplay, lack of map and other comforting features etc.).
- Mega Man:
- The first Mega Man Zero game.
- The first Mega Man ZX
- Mega Man ZX Advent is a step back from ZX; with many missions taking place in self-contained areas. It wins back points by being more reliant on Ability Required to Proceed than its predecessors (and offering shapes to morph into with overlapping functions, thus offering multiple solutions to certain mazes and traps), introducing a Metroid-inspired minimap and encouraging re-exploration of completed areas to apply your new abilities to find hidden stuff just as much as ZX did before it.
- Mega Man Network Transmission is a Gaiden Game in the Mega Man Battle Network series (largely an homage to the classic verse, with platforming gameplay in classic 'verse level designs), whose main internet area qualifies for this. The main Internet alone branches to Lan's, Mayl's, and Dex's homepage, an outpost of Higsby's chip shop, the Zero Area and its guardian areas, the legendary WWW area, and the Undernet. There are alternate, disconnected areas, but most of the game occurs in the main Internet.
- The ROM Hack Rockman 4 Minus ∞ uses this for Wily Stage 3. The previous stage's boss, Snatchman, is an Evil Knockoff of Mega Man that steals the first four weapons he uses. In Wily Stage 3, you must defeat the eight robot masters again, but for half of them you get their weapon back, and the other half doesn't give you anything. The maze-like structure of the level, which uses the tiles and enemies of every previous stage, also fits this trope well.
- The first Mega Man Legends is a partial case; while the game progresses in a linear fashion overall and you visit distinct areas of the underground ruins in separate parts of the game, the ruins themselves are all interconnected and, once you have the right weapons and equipment, can be navigated as one big system to reach hidden areas and get across the island more quickly. The sequel averts this, with each ruin being its own distinct dungeon separate from the others.
- Meikyuujou Hydra is a more beginner-friendly Maze of Galious-like
- Mendacium looks like Hollow Knight with a reptilian theme and prehistoric setting.
- The Messenger (2018) starts as a linear Platform Game before switching to a MV in the latter half.
- The earlier Metal Gear games have this format due to having a pretty loose plot structure.
- Metal Walker, while an Action RPG, has elements of this. Returning to previous areas with more Core Units can get you items, gold, and in some cases, new Recipes and special Cores.
- Metro Gravity aims to combine the expressive platforming of Pseudoregalia with high-flying/gravity-defying hijinx of Gravity Rush with just as much cake.
- Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City
- Mind Seize sports Mega Man Zero style gameplay with a Metroid Prime 3: Corruption style planet-hopping structure.
- Minishoot' Adventures combines Shoot 'em Up gameplay with Zelda-like exploration.
- Minoria, from the creators of Momodora.
- Mio Memories In Orbit - play as a robot named MIO in a sprawling Space Base with lots of areas to explore
- Miracle Mia
- The Mobius Machine
- Momodora 4 and 5
- Moonlight Pulse from the creator of Vision Soft Reset.
- Moon Samurai
- Moonscars, one with a very deep, dark gothic atmosphere
- Morkull Ragasts Rage
- Monster Sanctuary is notable in that it combines the genre with mon RPG-style battling and collection.
- Monster Tale is this, with a side order of RPG elements. Your main character gains new powers in Metroidvania fashion, by finding them. Your sidekick gains new powers from EXP and leveling up.
- Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
- The Mummy Demastered is a Licensed Game much better received than the film it was promoting; and plays like Contra with Igavania level design, Metroid's character progression, with a tiny dash of Souls-like RPG.
- Mystik Belle, with traits of a Point-And-Click Adventure Game.
- Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren's games Within a Deep Forest, Knytt, Knytt Stories and Knytt Underground. His games are unique in that they have minimal power-ups and focus on exploration.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King for Game Boy Advance was a transparent wholesale ripoff of the GBA Castlevania games. It was considerably better than Samurai Jack: The Amulet of Time.
- Nocturnal sees you exploring an abandoned island.
- Nine Sols: Hollow Knight meets Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in a "Tao-Punk" (Cyberpunk meets ancient Chinese mythology) setting.
- Nitrojet is a pixel-art example that sports fully destructible terrain and ultra-vertical jetpack centric design.
- Odallus: The Dark Call has stages with multiple paths that lead into further areas or dead ends with boss fights. Any discovered stages can be accessed from the World Map.
- Oh So Hero (NSFW; the creators themselves even coined this game as a Sextroidvania to help drive home what type of game this is supposed to be.)
- Ōkami, being strongly inspired by Zelda per Word of God, mostly fits this genre with an long, intense and elaborate plot, power-ups and Plot Coupons that allow you to unlock the (very) wide map, a barely restricted freedom of exploration and a huge number of sidequests, optional power-ups and Heart Containers. There are a few areas where you cannot return afterwards but these only contain items necessary to the plot or Shop Fodder.
- One Dog Story is about an anthropomorhic dog exploring an Elaborate Underground Base to regain his lost memories.
- Operation Smash: A heavily Super Metroid–inspired indie game involving time travel and hammers. Currently available from Desura, and also up for voting on Steam Greenlight.
- Ori and the Blind Forest, focusing much more on platforming and exploration rather than combat.
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps
- Orphan (2018) is what Limbo would look like if it's plot was about an Alien Invasion.
- Outbuddies is a very faithful, very Retraux recreation of Metroid's mechanics and aesthetics, although it has an underwater rather than deep space setting, and has a few other differences.
- Outland is one that takes inspiration from Ikaruga and has a similar color-switching mechanic.
- Pampas And Selene The Maze Of Demons is a Spiritual Successor of Knightmare II: The Maze of Galious made by Franfistro, the creator of Ghost 1.0 and Un Epic, already heavily inspired by Konami's seminal title. It was made for MSX2, cartridge and all, and later converted for Steam. "Pampas & Selene" stars the eponymous offspring of Popolon and Aphrodite, who play mostly like their parents, traveling into a huge monster-infested castle housing 10 smaller dungeons each with a demon at the end.
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star has heavy elements of this, but with Adventure Game puzzles and RPG battles littering the levels.
- Paradox Soul has elements of it.
- Patch Quest is a Mon hybrid of a Roguelike and Metroidvania where you're exploring a disserted island, capturing and riding monsters.
- The Phantom 2040 videogame for the SNES and Genesis. (Different areas are connected through a world map rather than being continuous, but it's still a good, classic example of this genre.)
- Pharaoh Rebirth (the sequel of the freeware title Return of Egypt) is another example of game with self-contained stages, but otherwise fits the definition.
- PhoenixSpirit (iOS)
- Phoenotopia: Awakening A colorful Zelda II homage
- The Plumber Thing is an experimental Body Horror themed entry from Hempuli, (the creator of Environmental Station Alpha and Baba Is You) where you play as a shapeshifting Mario-shaped blob that warps their body to surpass obstacles unlocking new appendages that expand your body warping capabilities.
- Poacher, a freeware release made in Game Maker by Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame. A bit unusual in that most of the overworld opens up after a certain point early in the story and you're free to tackle the different areas in any order. Each major area uses the basic jump-and-shoot controls for a different gimmick, such as a sneaking around a dark tomb or vertical platforming up through gigantic trees. The big upgrade in each area is also only required to clear that particular area and generally just makes things easier or allows you to access secrets in the others. The progression gets more linear again after clearing all the areas and making it to the last act of the story.
- There are many areas in the Pokémon series that are not inaccesible because of Broken Bridges, but because you need the right HMs, usually Cut, Strength or Rock Smash. An important HM is Surf, which allows you to travel to islands, where some gyms and Legendaries are. Where does the ability to use HMs outside of battle come from? Badges from Gyms.
- Possessors
- Prey (2017), another rare 3D example much like it's spiritual predecessor System Shock. With areas, paths, and secrets becoming accessible with new powers and tools. Being an Immersive Sim, the player has greater choice in what they unlock next and how they pass obstacles. Though resources for leveling still need exploration to find.
- Primal Planet, set in prehistoric times where you explore an endless land of dinosaurs.
- Prince of Persia:
- Prince of Persia: Warrior Within The rest of the "Sands Of Time" trilogy are not though.
- Prince of Persia (2008) is an interesting example of the 3D kind. While the abilities the Prince and Elika gain help them explore new areas, they don't find the abilities, they buy them... but they use light seeds to buy the abilities, and the only way to find enough light seeds to buy a new power is to use your latest power to explore a new area.
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown A 2.5D return to sidescrolling that brings MV design to the mix.
- Project Black Sun, an extremely difficult one where you must escape a mine with aggressive wildlife.
- Pronty, one set entirely underwater where players are the eponymous fish-boy
- Pseudoregalia is a 3-D example that takes the expressive movement of N64-era collectathons and puts it in a fully interconnected world ripe for sequence breaking and has you play as a voluptuous cat/rabbit/goat-thing.
- Rabi-Ribi combines its Metroidvania gameplay with brutal Bullet Hell bosses wrapped in a Cute 'em Up package. Notably, it encourages non-linearity to a point where Sequence Breaking is outright facilitated.
- TEVI is a Spiritual Successor of Rabi-Ribi by the same developers, with a (slightly) Darker and Edgier atmosphere and more emphasis on Stylish Action.
- Surprisingly, the NES videogame of Rambo, which featured one of the most confusing, maze-like game worlds ever.
- The older Ratchet & Clank games (The first 3 at least) are more linear than most examples; with a planet hopping level structure; but you will consistently unlock new weapon and movement upgrades that allow you to access new paths across the planets and are frequently required to backtrack for mainline progress. There are one off set pieces like Dogfights, Arena Battles, and Kaiju fights seperate from the main world but you can almost always return and replay these at any time.
- Rebel Transmute
- Recompile: 3D example where you play as an antivirus inside an infected CPU.
- Record of Lodoss War -Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-, based on Ryo Mizuno's D&D-based novel and anime series, and created with the same engine used for Pharaoh Rebirth.
- REDO!
- Repugnant Bounty A retraux Metroid II homage but with exploration more in line with Super Metroid
- Resetna
- Rex Rocket is inspired by classics like Metroid, and is set on a Blob Monster and rogue robot-infested spaceship.
- A Robot Named Fight! A full on roguelike with a distinct Super Metroid flavor, with near identical controls and fully structured ability-gated worlds.
- The Robot Wants series. All the games take place in a single level that is split into parts and has many bosses in each. The IOS game also has several more levels, while the It All compliation adds "easy" and "remixed" alternate maps for each game.
- Rogue Legacy 2 - adds full ability gating into the mix.
- Romancelvania is a gothic horror dating simulator hybrid.
- Rune Fencer Illyia
- Rush'n Attack: Ex-Patriot. Yes, Konami simultaneously revived one of their mustiest IPs and shamelessly ripped off Shadow Complex all in one.
- Rusted Moss notable for its physics based and Nintendo Hard grapple-hook centric platforming.
- Rygar (NES version) has a whole series of items to collect in order to improve your climbing skills more and more, and then makes you try to remember which previous stage had that unreachable ledge. Rygar further stands out by being released a month before Metroid, making it an Ur-Example.
- Saga of Sins, a game with graphics resembling stained church-glass set in a sprawling medieval world with up to 31 side-quests.
- Salt and Sanctuary: Essentially the product of Dark Souls' aesthetic (with the art style of The Dishwasher) , combat, and RPG elements; and Metroid's ability based exploration, platforming and general feedback loop.
- Salt and Sacrifice builds on the mechanics of Salt and Sanctuary, while adding Monster Hunter boss fights in the form of "mage hunts".
- The Sacred Armour of Antiriad is retroactively considered one of these. As a fun fact, it was released in the same year as Metroid, only a few months apart, and the games have by pure coincidence thematic overlap.
- Samurai Jack: The Amulet of Time for Game Boy Advance is a transparent wholesale ripoff of both the GBA Castlevania and Metroid games.
- Scurge: Hive is an early isometric perspective example.
- Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise is a not-too-good one of these by Color Dreams..
- Shadow Complex on Xbox Live Arcade is one of the earliest indie examples to go mainstream, leading it to be described by pretty much every single reviewer as an (awesome) callback to Metroid and Castlevania. For instance, he debut article about the game in Play Magazine mentions Super Metroid 17 times... On the first page. Also heavily influenced by military-shooter culture of the time. Received a remaster in 2018 and is currently abandonware.
- Shadow Labyrinth A Darker and Edgier reinterpretation of Pac-Man based on the segment from Secret Level.
- Shaman King: Master of Spirits 1 and 2 on the Game Boy Advance.
- Shantae: All games save for the fourth game (which is a completely linear stage based platformer) are examples with a distinct Wonder Boy flavor. The first game has a Simon's Quest inspired Day/Night cycle. The third game has a streamlined stage-based structure but still follows genre progression to a tee.
- Shapik: The Moon Quest: A boy and his robot exploring an underground world After the End.
- Sheepo: A combat-free example unique for gaining the ability to shapeshift into different critters that populate the world in certain areas.
- Shinsekai: Into the Depths is a game set entirely underwater with the added task of keeping track of oxygen and pressure levels.
- Singular Stone is a Vocaloid fan-game that let you play as 6 characters to prevent an ecological disaster on a planet.
- Skelethrone Chronicles Of Ericona
- Slavania Aptly based around Slavic folklore and art. May also qualify as "Euro-jank".
- Smelter, combined with Tower Defense and town builder elements.
- Snailiad is a heavily Metroid-styled game with a protagonist who crawls on walls and ceilings.
- Somber Echoes Inspired by Dead Space and Greek Mythology
- SongBird Symphony: a self described "Musical Metroidvania", has to unlock new music notes that allow the player to play melodies that allow progress through an interconnected world.
- Song of the Deep is another underwater example as the main character starts off in a mini-submarine that grows in power as she obtains weapons and movement upgrades.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- The Game Gear spin-off Tails Adventure is divided into levels for cartridge space's sake. But everything else plays out like a Metroidvania, and you can revisit levels to look for new stuff.
- Sonic Adventure has shades of this (all the levels are connected through a hubworld, you can backtrack and gain various items). Sonic Adventure 2 drops most of this.
- Sonic Advance 3 seemed to be another stab at this: All worlds are connected through a hub, and different character combinations beyond the initial Tails and Sonic are needed to explore the levels fully and achieve 100% Completion.
- The fan-made Sonic Chrono Adventure has two ring-shaped maps to be explored and abilities that transform Sonic. The developer used the term "Metronic" when talking about it, not feeling it had much influence from Castlevania.
- Souldiers A 16-Bit Retraux entry with absurdly lengthy and elaborate dungeons, 3 radically different player classes, and unforgiving difficulty with some Souls-like inspirations contrasted by a very cutesy art style.
- Spellcaster
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (DS)
- Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (DS)
- Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs is isometric but contains all of the other traits.
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a rare 3D example, with plenty of backtracking, secret areas, and shortcuts that gradually open up the game's areas as the protagonist and his droid companion unlock new powers.
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
- SteamWorld Dig: As you proceed deeper into the mines, obstacles appear that require a specific upgrade to pass. The first game has a single linear downward mineshaft with dungeons every so often. SteamWorld Dig 2 has much wider scope, with a greatly expanded surface world that leads to more mines which themselves are far more elaborate.
- Strider
- The NES Game often requires returning to levels several times after obtaining keys or ability upgrades.
- The 2014 reboot was developed as a much faster-pased style of game than the common Metroidvania, and the staff didn't adhere to its formula strictly, wanting to strike a balance between the exploration and the series' fast-paced action and combat.
- Subbania, a Metroidvania where you pilot a submarine through underwater caves, collect upgrades to explore new areas, and survive against the creatures within. Everything figuratively and literally goes to hell as you go deeper.
- Subnautica, although billed as a survival game, heavily follows the classic Metroidvania cycle of exploration and upgrades, especially if you turn off the survival elements. The twist is that it's set (mostly) underwater, so you have full 3-D movement rather than platforming, and the obstacles are primarily your oxygen capacity and crush depth. Complete with Doors to Before once you power up the warp gates, most of which connect to a hub area in the final alien facility.
- The Sun at Night
- Sundered note
- SuperEpic: The Entertainment War is a Metroidvania with Beat em up elements, and is a satire on monitaztions on video games, involving a raccoon and his llama steed to combat even evil corporation.
- Super Gear Quest note
- Super Panda Adventures: A Metroidvania about a Badass Adorable panda who needs to save his world, and the princess, from invading alien robots.
- Super Skelemania
- Super Smash Bros. Brawlnote
- Supraland, containing elements lifted from Legend of Zelda, Portal and Metroid.
- Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan is laid out like this, likely as part of it being a tribute to Montezuma's Revenge.
- System Shock note
- Tails Adventure has some shades of this. Though the game is level-based, there are branching paths in several levels and backtracking is allowed, and Tails can carry up to four items into a level, some of which are useful for uncovering other items.
- Tales of Kenzera: Zau features a Shaman who expands his platforming capabilities by acquiring the tools and abilities of predecessor Shamans.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue for the Game Boy. You start off as Michaelangelo and must rescue the rest of the gang, whose abilities open new areas to explore. Members of this game's development team went on to work on Symphony of the Night.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Danger Of The Ooze is another Metroidvania-style game. Based on the third cartoon and released for the 3DS, PS3, and Xbox 360, this one sees all four turtles playable from the start and lets them upgrade their abilities as the game goes on.
- Terraria is somewhat of an example, since although the game is based around freely building and mining in a randomly generated map, certain areas are very difficult before finding or crafting the right tools or equipment.
- The Story of Red Cloud, a Dark Souls–based mod of Terraria, includes a massive pre-built map with strategically placed items and removes the player's ability to freely build or destroy, turning the game into a full-fledged Metroidvania.
- Teslagrad starts as a mostly linear Puzzle-Platformer that has you return to a central shaft. Yet after you reach the top and fight a boss you eventually find yourself back at the bottom assigned to backtrack to find macguffins that let you activate a portal to the final area.
- Teslagrad 2 is more of a Metroidvania from the beginning.
- Thread takes place in a mysterious world of puppets with a focus on platforming and ''Souls'' inspired theming while being a casual experience with no boss battles.
- Timespinner is inspired by the likes of the Nintendo DS era of Castlevania titles, particularly drawing inspiration from Order of Ecclesia, as well as Harmony of Dissonance with an emphasis of using time travel to travel between the past, present, and future in the kingdom of Lachiem. Also features plentiful LGBTQ+ representation.
- Tiny Dangerous Dungeons is a Game Boy throwback with a Game Boy Advance style remake.
- Tomba! and its sequel are all about this. There's all sorts of weapons, clothing, and other items that can be used to find and complete the 100+ quests scattered around the game world.
- Tomb Raider (2013) as well as it's sequel Rise. Have connected and revistitable levels as well as several hub sections with secrets and areas that can only be obtained after certain gear is acquired/crafted/upgraded during the storyline.
- Tomomi is a brief and blitzy action romp where you play as an flamingly lesbian ninja-girl in a cyberpunk setting.
- Toshi Tenso Keikaku Eternal City from 1991 for the PC-Engine.
- Touhou Luna Nights, inspired by the series of doujin scrolling shooter games, and created with the same engine used for Pharaoh Rebirth.
- Toziuha Night: Order of the Alchemists, a sequels to Toziuha Night: Dracula's Revenge (which is itself a linear Castlevania homage).
- Transiruby, an 8-bit modern metroidvania where you're a Robot Girl exploring a sci-fi world, with collect-a-thon and Cute 'em Up elements.
- Trash Quest: A compact game about a raccoon aboard a space station.
- Treasure Adventure Game, a freeware pirate-themed game based around collecting treasures.
- Tres-Bashers is set in a haunted school and immediate surroundings where the protagonist has to save his friend who has been kidnapped by Sasquatch. Movement abilities (wall climb, double jump, backflips) are needed to explore the world, and there are gates that can be surpassed by bashing (hence the title) the correct number of cryptids and monsters, but these can still be bypassed since the world is very open and highly inter-connected.
- Tribal Hunter, An Early Access game based around eating foes and growing bigger. A low key inflation/vore fetish game whist not being overtly NSFW.
- Tunic is an illusive action-oriented "Metroidbrainia" with active and sometimes hard ability gates. Some are found, but others are innate with you not knowing how to use them before you find the in-game manual pages that teach you how. Theres also consistant necessary backtracking through it's Zelda-esque world.
- Turbo Kid A sequel to the 2015 film of the same name.
- Twilight Monk, a hand-drawn metroidvania with a top-down overworld and side-scrolling dungeons ala Zelda II and based on a childrens book series.
- UFO 50: Several games have item-based progression with strong metroidvania elements. These include Barbuta, Golfaria, Porgy, Vainger and Mini & Max.
- Ultros An psychidelic timeloop with farming elements
- Umbral Cloud, a freeware game made using the Zelda Classic engine.
- Unbound Worlds Apart is mostly a puzzle platformer, but also have Metroidvania elements where you get to repeatedly backtrack and revisit areas.
- Undivine plays like an 8-bit Soulslike and is heavy on mysterious puzzles.
- Unsighted: One from a top-down perspective. What prevents it from being a Zelda clone is the level of interconnectivity dungeons have with the rest of the world often having mutiple entrances and exits and being very sequence breakable; in no small part due to the flexible platforming and crafting system that allows you to get abilities early if you know how to make them.
- An Untitled Story by Maddy Thorson is a platform game focusing on nonlinear exploration explicitly inspired by Super Metroid, featuring tricky platforming segments similar to Maddy's previously-made Jumper series and an art-style and fantasy setting inspired by Seiklus.
- Unworthy an odd example with no jumping, but several weapons enhance your traversal abilites such as teleport arrows.
- Usurper
- Uurnog and its Uurnlimited Updated Re-release are a version that emphasizes learning how the game's animals interact and using them to solve puzzles to unlock more of the world.
- Vagante
- Valdis Story: Abyssal City is an indie title for PC focusing on melee combat and magic spells, with a fairly robust skill tree that allows the player to create a good number of fairly varied playstyles; and a deep combat system with freeform melee chain combos, a skill cancel ability that doubles as a dodge, and a pretty high skill ceiling. There are also 4 characters, two of whom are unlocked for a second playthrough.
- A Valley Without Wind has large elements of this, with the added bonus of being procedurally-generated at random.
- Venture to the Vile
- Vernal Edge combines Wind Waker style island hopping with combat inspired by Devil May Cry plus a few "soulsy" touches.
- The fourth part of the mod Vigilant consists in one made with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim engine. In terms of game design and visual inspiration, it's mostly based on Dark Souls I.
- Vigil: The Longest Night, a gornfest entry set in medieval times. Was temporarily delisted from all marketplaces due to interference from the CCP over references to Taiwanese mythology. After moving publishers it was reinstated; but only to PC.
- Vision Soft Reset is a Metroidvania where you can time-travel, allowing you to take powerups found in later areas back to the beginning of the game.
- Voidwrought is a Hollow Knight-like with a Middle-Eastern inspired take on Cosmic Horror.
- Vomitoreum is a First-Person Shooter Metroidvania with a H. R. Giger inspired art style. The game is a heavily modified total conversion of Doom running on the GZDoom engine.
- Wario Land 3 is separated by levels rather than being interconnected, but meets all other criteria, as one unlocks new abilities in a non-linear order and frequently has to backtrack. Uniquely among Metroidvanias, it's impossible to actually die with the exception of the final boss.
- Weebish Mines, a retraux from 2014 with pixellated graphics. A family of four tries finding their missing pet in an underground maze.
- The Weird Dream has you traverse trippy levels as a Bunny-girl wielding a chainsaw-guitar.
- Well Dweller is the 4th game by Kyle Thompson (Islets, Crypt Custodian) that carries his wholesome lo-fi style to a much spookier tone and art design.
- Wilt Last Blossom is a post-apocalyptic entry.
- Windmills sports methodical parry-centric combat with an ever changing story from an unreliable narrator.
- Wizards & Warriors III. Not so much the first two.
- Wonder Boy The series is known for combining platform games with RPG elements, and some entries have MV style worlds and gating.
- Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap One of the earliest true examples with all core tenants intact before even Castlevania went all the way.
- Wonder Boy in Monster World
- Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
- Wolfhound is inspired by the original MSX Computer Metal Gear titles but side-scrolling and with a Cosmic Horror twist.
- Worldless A visually abstract example with a battle system that feels like Valkyrie Profile meets a Soulslike.
- Xanthiom Zero is a very Metroid-influenced exploration game with a customizable main weapon. A sequel, Xanthiom 2, is in development.
- Xeodrifter is a retro-style Metroidvania that clearly draws its thematic inspiration from Metroid also.
- Yars Rising is a Metroidvania reimagining of the Yars' Revenge series, starring a young woman who is genetically linked to the titular alien race.
- Yohane the Parhelion -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE- is a roguevania based on Yohane the Parhelion -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-.
- Yoku's Island Express is a pinball Metroidvania where there is no Pinball Scoring or lives, and it is impossible to receive a Game Over of any kind.
- You Are Peter Shorts has you play as a funny little guy who just wants to grill befores he is abducted by a shady government agency and placed in a facility with other "Peters" who escape and work together to bust out. Also has a wide suite of multiplayer party-game modes.
- You Have to Win the Game has this with four abilities to aid your exploration. Its successor, Super Win the Game, expands on the exploration aspects while also adding a Zelda II-esque world map.
- Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (not so much in the remake, which was an overhead Action RPG)
- Zeliard, published in 1987.
- Zexion, in addition to the general tropes of the genre, takes a lot of inspiration from Metroid and Super Metroid in aesthetics.
- Zillion for Sega Master System — based on Red Photon Zillion — in addition to similarities with Elevator Action and Impossible Mission
- Apotheon a mostly open-world side-scrolling action-rpg in the style of Greek pottery art with minimal backtracking and only key and plot gating.
- "Boomer Shooters" often have levels with mazelike design akin to Zelda dungeons. However some go the extra mile for more interconnectivity.
- Hedon has absolutely massive interconnected levels with some ability gating and surprising amount of puzzles. Though once completed you're pretty much locked out of them upon completion.
- Heretic and Hexen being the primary inspiration for the above, have very similar design. Appropriate with themselves being inspired by MSX-era proto-metroidvanias like Knightmare II: The Maze of Galious.
- Individual units (levels) of Quake II consist of a group of revisitable interconnected areas. Though there isn't a fully interconnected world, nor ability gating.
- Strife One of the first of these types of games to have hub based levels, permanent upgrade pickups, and minor RPG elements in an interconnected world. Some stages even change upon revisiting after certain story events.
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has shades of this in its overworld with Esquie gaining several new abilities to access new areas, but its not part of the proper core gameplay.
- Dead or School A stage-based but explorative side-scrolling action-RPG with no ability gating, but survivors act as keys and stat boosts.
- The first and third Devil May Cry games create the illusion of this despite the linear story-based progression and level-based structure. With the majority of the games taking place in one sprawling location that towards the end becomes almost completely explorable. Even before that you are often allowed some extent of backtracking with many secret rewards. Some of which can be loosely described as ability gates such as using Devil Trigger's Air Raid in the former or the Trickster style in the latter to overcome obstacles.
- The Dishwasher games whilst ultimately linear action games have some lite MV DNA in their level design. You also unlock abilities that open paths in a linear fashion. You can also revisit levels and pick up any upgrades you may have missed. It wouldn't be until later when Ska Studios would truly tackle the genre.
- The Floor is Jelly note
- The Forgotten City A Timeloop "Metroidbrainia" based on a Skyrim mod.
- God of War (2018) is set in an interconnected hub-and-spoke world with many combat ability gated secrets. Though there are no mobility upgrades, nor platforming, and mainline progress is made through linear story beats.
- God of War Ragnarök is initially even more linear and has hubs closer to an actual open world, but still heavily rewards backtracking with new abilities. However later on it leans closer to this with less hand holding and more active traversal use of such gates (particularly with the spear) to find your own path forward.
- Gunbrella A largely linear game with no ability gates but rewards for backtracking after certain events and plenty of secrets that reward exploration in a world connected by a hub town.
- Hyper Light Drifter Only a few optional ability gates for non-essential secrets.
- Iji has levels traversed sequentially with no revisiting prior levels, but the levels themselves feature lots of hidden secrets that can only be discovered through the usage of certain weapons and backtracking is sometimes required to reach the level's exit.
- Immersive Sims have character growth sometimes compared to the genre, and some even feature worlds that incrementally reveal themselves depending on what abilities your character gains. note
- Babbdi is a surreal and experimental Platform Game with no combat or player progression where your only objective is to find a train ticket to escape a brutalist dystopia with no guidance. You will find numerous tools along the way which help you explore different parts of the interconnected complex with your rewards being quirky interactions, lore, or other sights.
- BioShock Has a mostly linear, level based structure. But via the Bathosphere you can backtrack to previous levels with new plasmids to find extra upgrades.
- Cruelty Squad lets you revisit any previous levels with lots of significant, game-shaking secrets to find when you have the right augmentations. Many of which are found through exploration.
- Deathloop has an interconnected world that is mostly open from the start; but several critical areas are gated off by certain powers which unlike most Imm-Sims are found and upgraded mostly through exploration. However most gates are built around the time of day or other keys.
- The Deus Ex games have levels and hub-areas with many paths and secrets that can be found incrementally depending on which augments and abilities you decide to build onto your character. Several of these can both be found/upgraded through exploration but also through experience points gained by playing naturally. The biggest kicker however is that there are many one-off levels that can never be revisited.
- Inmost note
- Leap Year is a Metroidbrainia platformer where your abilities are discovered through various leaps of faith.
- LEGO Adaptation Games are generally wholly linear level-to-level affairs but have tons of side-content in "free-play" with areas only accessible by abilities held by characters not unlocked until later.
- Little Kitty, Big City is a Semi-Open World collectathon that sort of feels like this. Though instead of gaining new abilities you upgrade a single one (climbing) by collecting fish, allowing greater exploration potential.
- Lost Ruins has linear area progression, but explorative level design with no ability gating and standard keys and locks.
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: While the overworld follows typical JRPG level design, the sections inside of Bowser follow Metroidvania design philosophies, having sprawling, intricate map designs and containing multiple unreachable paths that require backtracking after gaining a new Bros. Move.
- Montezuma's Revenge is a precursor where the game world is a bit small, but with familiar gameplay elements
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade Interconnected world with no real ability gating; as in in new weapons unlock doors; but arbitrarily, and not with using them proper.
- Outer Wilds Timeloop Metroidbrainia in space with an open galaxy.
- Out There Somewhere is a Cave Story inspired Puzzle-Platformer that is mostly linear but has some peculiar collectables placement that trick you into thinking there will be conventional MV progression and backtracking only to have various points of no return. Once you discover that skipping save points will allow you to go back upon death; as it has no loss penalties, its allows you to get them using tricks taught after said points of no return (and a new-fangled gun). Revealing itself as something of a Metroidbrainia.
- Pitfall! II: Lost Caverns and Super Pitfall were precursors to the genre.
- The Portopia Serial Murder Case, released in 1983, could be considered an early appearance of Metroidvania elements, such as an open world with interconnecting areas, backtracking to previous locations, and finding new items to unlock previous areas. Though it isnt an action game or platformer but rather Adventure Game. However use of items is fairly flexible ala a proto-Immersive Sim defying the single use nature of tools in most adventure games.
- The first Red Faction allows, and sometimes requires you to backtrack to previous levels; but that's about it.
- Many River City Ransom games have level design like this but often lack ability gating.
- Roguelikes and -"Lites" sometimes give new traversal abilities that change up your path run to run; yet are often excluded due to ever-changing worlds and lack of conventional backtracking due to often super linear level structure.
- Dead Cells has some ability gating, though very sparse throughout the massive runtime. However there is never any backtracking to previous zones outside of dying and restarting a run.
- In Hades the world largely stays the same run-to-run with randomized combat encounters; allowing the player to explore different paths for greater rewards, making the exploration feel closer to this genre than most. Quests also encourage heavy backtracking, and the story hinges on returning to and interacting with hub and it's denizens with new finds. Though the exploration isn't driven by upgrades.
- Returnal has ability gating but linear progression. On new runs you can unlock new paths to progress the story. It's worth noting the rooms all stay the same, the order is just switched.
- Rogue Legacy has explorative level structure similar to this but has no ability gating.
- Trinity Fusion Like Dead Cells but with a more Metroid/Cyberpunk flavor.
- Seiklus note
- Shantae: Half-Genie Hero abandons the interconnected world of the rest of the series for completely linear stages; but you can return to past stages with new abilities to find bonuses, though these are never needed for progress.
- Soulslike games often have semi-open interconnected worlds but often dont have ability gating or platforming.
- Blasphemous 1 has passive relics that alter the world itself but serve no purpose other than to cross gaps, forgoing the gameplay recontextualization of traditional Metroidvanias.
- Bloodborne Interconnected world with no ability gating.
- Dark Souls I Ditto above. The sequels however opted for an almost completely linear structure; although you technically can still backtrack.
- Foregone note
- King's Field Could be considered a quasi-predecessor to both the Soulslike genre and first person MVs. It was also released the same year as System Shock and Super Metroid.
- The Spirit Of The Samurai - a 2D Soulsike set in Medieval Japan, about a Samurai exploring a Yokai-infested land
- Steel Rising has ability gates throughout, but is completely linear and backtracking isn't necessary.
- Stellar Blade has some traversal uprgrades that aid exploration in its open world.
- Stray Blade attempts this but "abilities" are glorified keys that fail at any other utility.
- The Surge 2 unlike it's predecessor has an interconected hub-and-spoke world with some ability gating that allows secret finding and backtracking; though skillgating is still the primary form of progress.
- Tails of Iron
- The Tarnishing Of Juxtia
- Void Memory
- Spiritfarer is primarily a management game, but it does employs light Metroidvania elements during it's island exploration sections. Even if abilities are bought rather than found
- JBA HQ in Splinter Cell: Double Agent is an interesting example. Routinely returning to it with new gadgets that help you access new areas in order to accomplish objectives
- Survival Horror games often have maze-like locations that require certain items to make progress, often involving backtracking and exploration.
- Alien: Isolation has an interconnected space station with numerous tools that open different doors, though these are just simply keys.
- Amnesia: The Bunker has you explore the titular area in non-linear fashion finding different tools that aid both in navigation and survival such as flammables, explosives, or other ordinance. Also part Immersive Sim as no gate has a single key. Theres no emphasis on traversal though.
- Dead Rising is set in an open world with certain areas locked off unless you have a certain survivor with appropriate skills to pass. Some survivors also require finding certain items before they can join you.
- Dead Space (Remake) note
- Rain World note
- A good majority of entries in the Resident Evil franchise qualify, though unlike most examples, these games instead opt for a more traditional lock-and-key/plot-coupon system regarding critical progress. Upgrading is purely for survivability. Exploration and backtracking are still prevalent. Some later installments, such as both Resident Evil 4 games, downplay this in favor of more linear gameplay, however.
- ZombiU
- Super Daryl Deluxe is just a straightforward interconnected side-scrolling RPG/Brawler but some quest items are in chests that arbitrarily require use of certain combat moves to open. There isnt any utility driven recontextualisation of the world.
- The Swapper has a protagonist, setting, and map layout very similar to Metroid, only that it's a puzzle platformer instead of an action adventure and lacks new abilities after the intro.
- The Turrican series, particularly in its earlier incarnations, have non-linear level design that rewards exploration with powerups, special ability ammo, and extra lives. The lead programmer for the series noted that Metroid was a major inspiration for the series.
- Tutankham, released in 1982, could be considered a proto-Metroidvania, as it had some Metroidvania elements.
- The Vagrant note
- Void Stranger presents as a wholly linear level-to-level Sokaban puzzle game. But taking this path leads to a fake ending. By solving a coy puzzle early on its revealed there is a whole set of hidden abilities and other features that crack the game wide open, turning it into a full-fledged Metroidbrainia.
- VVVVVV A nonlinear world with no upgrades. Akin to proto-metroidvanias like Pitfall II.
- The Witness note
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus lets you go back to previous levels after aquiring mechanised augments following BJ's failed execution to collect resources, enigma codes, and collectables.
- Wolfenstein: Youngblood is set in an open-ended city that further expands the more you upgrade the protagonists' combat suits, among other gates.
- Wuppo is a satirical interconnected adventure where every gate has a unique and quirky solution akin to a tradition Adventure Game but with platformer gameplay. Sometimes this involves special tools but it doesn't have the consistent uses of a normal MV.
- Zombotron, a series that started off as Adobe Flash games on Miniclip.com before it's re-released on Steam.
