Momodora is fun and the bosses are so pretty
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That feels like a hard question to answer that would just sort of end in an arguments. Metroidvania is a pretty nebulous genre tag and there’s so many games that you can sort of jam into the genre.
Or maybe that’s just me and I don’t really get what the genre is
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You could argue that Pitfall (and especially Pitfall 2) is a metroidvania.
Putting those two aside, since you’ve surely heard of them, there’s not actually that much before Metroid and Vampire Killer. At least as far as I know. There’s Montezuma’s Revenge. Layla is metroidvania-ish from what I remember. There’s also another game I have in mind that is not Layla but is similar to Layla.
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For the interest of discussion I encourage my fellow scholars to follow the spirit of the question and not the letter
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maybe MoH should try to unlock the “treat people with respect” ability in this metroidvania we call Life
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But if I could only go back after unlocking that ability….
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Shadow Complex immediately comes to mind.
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I really love Nine Sols, but I don’t think it ticks all the Metroidvania boxes for me. I love it for the action combat and the soundtrack, and the bosses especially, and the story and philosophy and characters and shockingly well-placed moments of gore. The exploration was maybe its wealest part. I dunno. There’s a weird part of my brain that can say it’s my fave among all these games (points to all the Metroidvanias I’ve played) but when you ask me what my fave Metroidvania is, I feel like it’s not as good at being a Metroidvania as some others. Maybe I misunderstood the question. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dread is fantastic. It would probably be my favorite Metroidvania if the music was better.
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Not pre-boom, but Prince of Persia The Lost Crown is not Indie by any measure, but is a great Metroidvania.
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ufouria’s a good nes metroidvania
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Oh, that reminds me. Legacy of the Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family) is another NES 'vania, but I owned it as a kid and don’t love it.
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@moderators can we split the metroidvania posts into a separate thread when you have the time?
Or not. Kinda felt the shame of hubris as soon as I made this request.
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I like Castlevania
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I played some game called Cyber Shadow on a whim a couple years back on Game pass and ended up beating it in two sittings. Was a fun, Ninja-Gaiden-as-heck Metroidvania that I just want to mention because I’ve never heard a word about the game on the internet before or after.
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I think I’ve played every 2D Igavania besides Order of Ecclesia and I like them all but none are as good as Super Metroid. They’re all 8/10 games with immaculate vibes and usually pretty pointless RPG mechanics
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I figured you knew already ;)
Comment I composed and forgot to post:
“Metroidvania” suggests a 2D game in the template of Super Metroid, whereas a search action game is more loosely defined.
For me the first one is Order of Ecclesia and the second one is probably still that, but maybe Metroid Prime 2.
@connrrr’s got me covered on the other one
I realize you’re asking this in 2025 and not 2021 but this reminds me I’ve just cleaned up the old Metroid Ðread. Here are my thoughts from when I played it, and I mostly stand by them. I say in the post I will someday replay the game, but I have not once thought of doing that in the time since. I also think the music is worse than I gave it credit for. You should post your opinions too (if you’ve got some to share)
esteemed Garrett executable, you are one of today’s lucky 10,000
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If these games count I need to think a lot harder about my answer lol. Vastly prefer games like Zelda II and Cave Story and Mega Man Legends to later, more codified metroidvanias. Whatever you call those (platform-adventure games?), that might be my favorite genre.
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search action…
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I think the other game I was thinking of was Space Hunter.
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