10 Best Metroidvania Games on iOS & Android (September 2026)

Looking for the best Metroidvania mobile games in 2026? Mobile gaming keeps getting better, and Metroidvania games are a big part of that. These games are all about exploring big maps, unlocking new paths, and finding cool upgrades that help you reach hidden areas. With awesome action, smart level design, and exciting progression, they offer some of the most rewarding experiences you can get on a phone. To help you find the most fun Metroidvania titles out there, we’ve put together a list of the best ones you can play on iPhone and Android right now.

What Defines the Best Metroidvania Mobile Games?

On mobile, the best Metroidvania games are the ones that mix smooth controls, smart level design, and a real sense of discovery. Exploration feels rewarding when every new ability unlocks fresh paths and secret areas. Combat matters too! It should be responsive and feel great with touch controls. Good visuals and sound help a lot, but it’s the gameplay loop that keeps things exciting. A strong map layout, upgrades that actually change how you play, and enemies that get more interesting as you go — all these things make a big difference.

List of 10 Best Metroidvania Games on iOS & Android

Here are the most exciting, well-made, and enjoyable Metroidvania games you can play on your phone.

10. Teslagrad

Solve electromagnetic puzzles across a massive abandoned tower

Teslagrad takes place inside this giant tower where everything works on magnetism. Red and blue magnetic fields push or pull depending on whether they match, and that one idea powers the entire game. Early rooms have you flipping the charge on metal blocks to ride them up or shove them out of the way. However, the further you climb through the tower, those same rules start stacking on top of each other, and suddenly you’re launching yourself across gaps by repelling off charged walls, dashing through magnetized grates mid-air, and squeezing through narrow spaces where the fields are fighting against you.

Plus, the bosses work on the same magnetic logic, so you can’t just rush through them swinging. The very first boss, for example, is a giant furnace-shaped creature on a conveyor belt, and you have to charge metal boxes with the right polarity so it swallows them. And there’s absolutely no dialogue in the entire thing. No voiceover, no text, no cutscenes with words. Everything is told through puppet-show theaters scattered across rooms and environmental clues in the background. In that sense, the game pushes you to actually look at what’s around you rather than skip through dialogue boxes. The tower itself has over a hundred connected rooms to explore, so there’s plenty to dig into.

9. HAAK

Swing through a wasteland with an electric hookshot and a sword

HAAK is centered on a hookshot, and everything in this game is built on that one tool. You latch onto a surface, swing across, chain a dash mid-air, and cut through enemies before your feet even touch the ground. So half the time, moving through rooms and fighting are the same action. And the map is packed with fake walls and hidden floors that are easy to blow past if you’re rushing. Side quests branch off from the main path here and there, and the choices made during those actually shape how the ending goes. Multiple endings exist depending on the route you took.

Haak himself is searching for his missing brother, and that search drags him deeper into a wrecked world full of mutants and underground factions. Boss fights demand more than just mashing attacks and dodging. You have to read patterns and figure out when to reposition with the hookshot versus when to commit to a charged slash. Also, this game has an in-built rating character who evaluates your performance at the end across different categories, so there’s always a reason to go back and do more.

8. Swordigo

The go-to beginner-friendly Metroidvania on mobile

Swordigo is free. And it has zero aggressive monetization. So right away, the barrier to entry is basically nothing. The game itself is a side-scrolling adventure through dungeons, caves, forests, and towns, where you’re slashing through monsters, picking up better gear, and learning new spells along the way. It’s incredibly welcoming, especially for someone who hasn’t touched the genre before. Still, there’s more going on beneath the surface than the simple presentation lets on. You’ve got four magic spells that double as environmental tools, like bolts that trigger switches and bombs that blow open hidden walls.

And each time you gain a new spell, older areas suddenly open up with paths and treasure chests that weren’t accessible before. Leveling up after each fight lets you invest in health, attack, or magic, and how you spread those points across your character changes the way encounters play out. Worth noting, the gear variety is limited, with just a handful of armor types and trinkets available in total. Yet, the cycle of discovering a secret room, grabbing a new weapon, and immediately feeling the damage bump is ridiculously addictive. It’s minimal, no question about it. And that simplicity is also why it plays so smoothly on a phone.

7. Elderand

Dark fantasy combat with heavy weapons and grotesque creatures

Elderand is Lovecraftian horror mixed with a side-scrolling action RPG, and the combat is vicious. Every enemy hits hard. Bosses have multiple phases. Should you get sloppy with your timing, you’ll be dead before you can react. However, the weapon variety saves it from being a typical hack-and-slash grind. Swords, daggers, whips, axes, bows, staves – they all change how fights play out in a significant way. So a dagger build has you swinging fast at close range, while a staff build lets you fire from a distance. Plus, you can equip two loadouts at the same time and swap between them mid-fight.

Also, arrows are limited, so going full ranged is harder than it sounds. And the loot from defeated enemies goes straight into weapon upgrading at the blacksmith, which makes every encounter worth the effort. In this world, you can wander, pick fights, grab scattered letters from dead travelers that flesh out the world’s dark history, and stumble into boss rooms when you least expect it. On mobile, touch input can feel a bit clunky during faster encounters, so I’d recommend connecting a Bluetooth controller for the tougher sections.

6. Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition

Leap between walls, floors, and ceilings in a gravity-free world

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition removes walking entirely. Completely. There’s no left-right movement, no running, no traditional jump arc. The character clings to a surface, you aim in a direction, and she launches herself to the next wall or ceiling. Each room turns into a spatial puzzle where you’re bouncing between surfaces, dodging projectiles mid-leap, and rethinking how movement even works in a side-scroller. It’s wild, because the developers originally had walking in their prototype, and they removed it after realizing the leaping alone was faster and more fluid. Plus, the character is inspired by a real 17th-century Brazilian warrior who fought against slavery.

Combat works the same way, so you’re attacking while clinging to a ceiling with enemies firing from the floor below. It demands spatial awareness in all directions at once. Dying sends you back to the last camp, and your dropped salt can be recovered if you reach the spot where you fell. The movement mechanic was originally designed with touchscreens in mind, and it shows. It’s one of the rare cases among the best Metroidvania games on iOS and Android where the phone version is arguably the ideal experience.

5. Carrion

A reverse horror where the monster is your character

Most side-scrollers have you fighting some terrifying creature. Carrion does the opposite. The creature is who you’re playing as, a writhing mass of tentacles and teeth trapped inside an underground facility. Your objective is simple: get out. So you slither through vents, crash through doors, and consume every scientist or soldier who stands between you and freedom. As the creature eats more, it grows larger and gains access to different abilities. However, when it gets too big to squeeze through a narrow passage, there are specific pools scattered around the map where it can shed mass to shrink down again.

So the creature’s size is something you’re constantly managing, because different abilities are tied to different forms. In fact, some of the trickier sections require switching between sizes multiple times in the same area. The creature can also go invisible in its smaller form, which helps slip past detection grids. Plus, there’s no map. Zero navigation help at all. So the facility layout has to be memorized as the creature moves through corridors, vents, and underwater passages that all loop into each other.

4. Super Mombo Quest

Bounce on enemies, chain combos, and clear rooms at full speed

Super Mombo Quest is deceptively addictive. The map is broken into hundreds of small rooms, and in each room, the goal is simple: bounce on every enemy’s head before a combo timer hits zero. You land on one enemy, the timer kicks in, and then it’s a race to chain the next hit before it expires. And collecting gems along the way adds a tiny bit of extra time to that timer. Because of this, there’s a constant push to move faster, land smarter, and wipe the room clean in one long streak. When that “Mombo Combo” text flashes across the screen after clearing a full room, it’s wildly addictive.

Plus, those combo clears are tied to golden coins that gate off sections of the map, giving you a solid reason to chase perfection in each room. Well, there are no weapons here. The entire combat revolves around jumping on enemies, wall-sliding between platforms, and dashing mid-air. It’s all momentum-based, and when the rhythm clicks, every room becomes a playground. Lastly, the game is free-to-play, and considering how much there is to do here, that’s a massive win.

3. Blasphemous

One of the most difficult Metroidvania games on Android and iOS

In Blasphemous, you carry a single sword for the entire journey, and everything revolves around how well you wield it. So combat here is slow, deliberate, and very punishing. You can dodge, parry, and counter, and each enemy type has its own attack rhythm that you’ll need to study before engaging. Landing melee hits builds up a resource that lets you cast magical abilities, so there’s a natural push toward aggressive play even when the enemies are terrifying. And the executions you trigger on weakened enemies are brutal, hand-animated sequences that I genuinely look forward to every time.

The sword itself can be upgraded at specific shrines scattered across the map, which opens up new combat possibilities as you go deeper. On top of the sword, there are equippable items like beads and relics that tweak your character’s capabilities in subtle ways. Worth noting, this is also an interconnected world with branching paths, hidden rooms, and boss encounters that require you to learn every attack pattern and react in a fraction of a second. Blasphemous on mobile, with all the DLC included from the start, is easily one of the heaviest and most gripping Metroidvanias you can play on your phone.

2. Dead Cells

Roguelike combat mixed with Metroidvania exploration on a cursed island

Dead Cells combines two genres that seem like they’d conflict with each other. Roguelikes are all about randomized attempts and permadeath, while Metroidvanias rely on carefully designed, interconnected maps. Dead Cells somehow makes both work together. Your character wakes up at the start of each attempt on a plague-ridden island, grabs whatever weapons and abilities are available, and fights through procedurally generated areas filled with enemies, traps, and branching exits. When you die, the attempt ends, and you’re back to the beginning.

However, certain currencies collected during each attempt carry over between deaths, and those can be spent on permanent upgrades like new weapon blueprints, health flask improvements, and stat boosts. So even a failed attempt contributes to future ones in a way that feels worthwhile. The combat is fast and responsive. On mobile, the port offers two control schemes: a traditional virtual button layout and an auto-hit mode that handles attacks automatically while you focus on movement. Both work well, and the customization options for button placement are extensive. Dead Cells is also available through Netflix Games on iOS, so subscribers can access it at no additional cost.

1. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

The most polished Metroidvania to ever hit a touchscreen

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown solved something that has annoyed Metroidvania players for years. So in most games like this, you stumble across a blocked path, and you mentally go “okay, I’ll come back here later when I have the right ability.” And then you forget. Every single time. Lost Crown has this feature where you can snap a screenshot of any spot and pin it directly to your map. So when you finally unlock an air dash or a teleport, you open the map, see the actual image of where you were stuck, and head right back. It’s such a straightforward idea, yet I can’t believe it took this long for a game to do it properly.

And the combat here rivals the exploration in quality. Sargon fights with sword combos that chain into aerial juggles, parries, and dodge cancels, all of it flowing together in rapid sequences. Then, there are abilities tied to time manipulation, like placing a marker on the ground, moving ahead, and then warping back to that exact marker mid-fight. Or dashing through enemies and obstacles in the air. These abilities serve double duty for combat and traversal. The mobile version, I should add, also includes accessibility options like auto-parry and time-slow for anyone who finds touchscreen precision tricky.

FAQs

Do I need a Bluetooth controller to play these Metroidvanias on my phone?

You don’t, and every game on this list can be played with touchscreen controls alone. However, titles like Blasphemous and Dead Cells involve quick parries and dodge timing, so a controller can make those moments far less frustrating. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Carrion both handle touch input well on their own, and Swordigo was designed for mobile from the ground up, so it’s comfortable without external hardware.

Which of these games should I try first if I’ve never played a Metroidvania before?

I’d go with Swordigo or Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Swordigo eases you into the genre with a gradual pace and clear direction, so you’re never lost or overwhelmed. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a bigger game, yet it has built-in accessibility features like auto-parry and time-slow that soften the difficulty curve for newcomers. And the screenshot-to-map feature helps you keep track of where to go next, which is half the battle in this genre.

Are any of these available for free through Netflix Games?

Yes. Dead Cells: Netflix Edition is available at no extra cost for Netflix subscribers on both iOS and Android. Plus, the Netflix version includes all DLC packs bundled in, so you’re getting the complete experience. If you already have a Netflix subscription, this is an easy way to jump in without spending anything additional.

Can I play these games without an internet connection?

All of the games on this list can be played offline. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was specifically marketed as a fully offline experience, and Blasphemous, Carrion, Swordigo, and the rest don’t require a connection either. So whether you’re on a flight or somewhere with spotty service, you’re covered.

How much do these mobile Metroidvanias typically cost?

Pricing varies, yet most fall well under what you’d pay on console. Blasphemous is around $7.99, Carrion offers a free demo before you buy the full version, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has a free trial as well with the full unlock at around $9.99. Swordigo and Super Mombo Quest are either free with optional purchases or priced under $5. Dead Cells is available as a standalone purchase or free through Netflix.

Which game on this list is the hardest Metroidvania in 2026?

Blasphemous and Dead Cells are probably the toughest here. Blasphemous leans heavily into the Souls-like side of Metroidvanias, meaning enemies hit hard and boss patterns require patience and memorization. Dead Cells adds permadeath on top of that, so a failed run sends you right back to the start. Still, both games are fair in how they challenge you, and the satisfaction of clearing a tough section makes it all worthwhile.

Which of these games offer the most content and playtime?

Dead Cells leads in replayability because every run generates a different layout, and the DLC packs add new areas, weapons, and enemies on top of the base game. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown clocks in at around 20 hours for the main path, with more if you hunt down secrets. Blasphemous with all its DLC included is also a hefty experience. On the shorter side, Carrion can be finished in a few hours, yet it’s dense and well-paced for that length.

Is Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition very different from traditional Metroidvanias?

Completely. Dandara doesn’t use conventional left-right movement at all. You leap between surfaces in all directions, including walls and ceilings, so the entire map plays out differently from anything else on this list. It can feel disorienting at first, yet once the mechanics click, the exploration opens up in a way that’s unique to this game alone.