10 Best Metroidvania Games on Steam (September 2026)

Looking for the best Metroidvania Steam games in 2026? Steam has a huge collection of games, and Metroidvania titles bring some of the most fun experiences out there. These games mix action, exploration, and puzzle-solving in a way that keeps you playing for hours. With so many great choices, we’ve picked out a list of the ten best Metroidvania games you can enjoy right now. Each one offers something special, and all of them are packed with exciting moments and smart gameplay.

What Defines the Best Metroidvania Games?

When picking the best Metroidvania games, I care about a few simple things. Exploration has to feel natural. I want to get lost, but in a good way. The game should make me want to look around, not just rush forward. Movement matters too. If it feels boring to jump or climb, I lose interest fast. Combat should be responsive and fun, even if it’s simple. I also look at how upgrades affect the game. The best ones change how you move or fight in ways that feel worth it.

List of 10 Best Steam Metroidvania Games in 2026

These games have the right mix of smart combat, fun movement, and exploration that keeps you hooked.

10. Rain World

Survive as a small creature in a harsh, predator-filled ecosystem

Rain World puts you at the bottom of the food chain as a slugcat, a creature about as fragile as the name suggests. Everything around you is bigger, faster, or hungrier, and the ecosystem operates independently of whatever you happen to be doing. Lizards will track your scent across multiple screens, and vultures patrol from above, scanning for anything exposed in open space. Even the other prey creatures compete for the same food sources, and the handful of bats or fruits available in any given area might already be gone by the time you get there. Your survival depends on eating enough to hibernate before a deadly rainstorm floods the landscape, and that cycle repeats over and over as you push deeper through the world.

The creatures here also interact among themselves, and a predator chasing you can suddenly become someone else’s meal, opening a narrow gap for you to slip away. Navigation requires memorizing safe paths, alternate routes, and hiding spots, since your slugcat has very little to fight back with against larger threats. Spears and rocks can be thrown to occasionally stun or kill smaller predators, but against the bigger ones your best option is almost always evasion. Rain World asks you to be observant, patient, and resourceful in equal measure. You learn the world by failing in it, by watching how predators move, by figuring out the timing of the rain cycle down to the last few seconds.

9. Carrion

Play as the monster escaping a research facility

Well, horror games almost always put you behind the eyes of the survivor, like the person hiding under a desk or running down a hallway. Carrion goes the opposite direction by handing the role of the creature to you. Here, you are a mass of red tendrils and gnashing teeth, ripping through ventilation shafts, smashing containment glass, and devouring the soldiers who are desperately trying to stop you. The humans scramble for cover, fire their weapons, barricade themselves behind reinforced doors, and all of it barely slows you down once you have enough mass behind you.

Every person consumed increases your size, and a larger body can crash through heavier obstacles, absorb more gunfire, and dominate rooms full of armed guards in seconds. The power fantasy here is immediate and visceral from the very first room. But the facility also has a logic to its layout. Certain barriers respond to specific body mass thresholds, so progressing sometimes requires shedding parts of yourself at a biomass pool. For example, you’ll have to squeeze through a narrow gap in a smaller form, then recollect your full size on the other side. In short, Carrion does something rare by making you the thing everyone else is afraid of.

8. Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition

Leap between surfaces in a gravity-defying world

Dandara throws out the standard left-to-right movement you expect from a platformer and replaces it with something completely different. You leap from surface to surface, sticking to walls, ceilings, and floors with equal ease, and the moment you launch into the air you are completely vulnerable until you land on the next valid platform. So, direction stops mattering pretty quickly, because rooms rotate and twist around you as you bounce from one marked surface to another, and your brain has to let go of the idea that “down” is always beneath your feet.

Combat works through this same leaping mechanic, so engaging enemies is less about standing your ground and more about picking the right surface to stick to, firing off shots between jumps, and repositioning again. Enemies occupy the open spaces between surfaces, and their projectile patterns are designed to punish hesitation mid-air. The further you go into the map, the trickier the surface layouts become. Dandara carved something genuinely original out of a crowded space by making traversal itself the core skill to master. Every room in the game tests your command of that single mechanic in increasingly creative ways.

7. Crypt Custodian

Clean the afterlife as a mischievous dead cat

Picture dying and waking up in the afterlife, except instead of eternal peace, someone hands you a mop and says get to work forever. Well, swap the mop for a broom, and that’s Crypt Custodian. You are Pluto, a cat whose afterlife punishment is permanent janitorial duty outside a grand palace ruled by the Afterlife Guardian. Here, sweeping trash is literally how you interact with the world. Every pile of debris you clear feeds into your upgrades, every corridor you tidy up opens the map a little further, and the whole time you’re supposed to be an obedient janitor, you’re secretly plotting to break back into the palace.

The top-down camera angle also changes how you read the map compared to a traditional side-scrolling entry, since threats can come from all directions rather than left and right. The mood carries a lighthearted energy all the way through, driven by the ghost cast and Pluto’s own stubborn refusal to accept eternal punishment. If you’ve been curious about metroidvanias but find the darker entries on this list intimidating, Crypt Custodian is a perfect starting point that still delivers on exploration and a well-paced sense of growth. Also, the ghosts hanging around outside all have their own personalities and backstories, their own reasons for being banished, and talking to them between broom sessions brings a charm to the afterlife that balances out the absurdity of the whole setup.

6. ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist

Purify corrupted creatures and turn them into allies

ENDER MAGNOLIA takes place in a kingdom that basically collapsed after its artificial servants, called Homunculi, got corrupted by toxic fumes and went hostile. Humans created these beings to serve them, and then everything went sideways when the fumes spread. Now, in this world, you play as Lilac, a young girl moving through the wreckage of this fallen civilization, and she can actually purify corrupted Homunculi by defeating them in combat. After purification, they become her companions, her fighters really, since Lilac herself has no direct way to attack on her own.

Combat plays out entirely through summoned allies at her side. The roster also grows steadily as you progress through the game, and different companions offer completely different combat styles ranging from close-range melee to ranged firepower, so your approach to any given encounter can shift dramatically depending on who you bring along. Exploration follows the standard metroidvania blueprint of locked pathways that open up with new abilities. ENDER MAGNOLIA holds a well-deserved spot on Steam’s best Metroidvania games list, because the companion-as-weapon design philosophy gives it a distinct mechanical identity.

5. Rogue Legacy 2

Die, pass down traits to your heir, and try the whole castle again

Every run in Rogue Legacy 2 ends in death, but every death leads directly into choosing your next character from a lineup of randomized heirs. These heirs carry forward the gold you collected on your last attempt, yet they come with their own class, their own body type, and a set of genetic traits that can radically alter how your next attempt plays out. One heir might see the screen in black and white, another might be tiny enough to slip through gaps in platforms, and a third might have a condition that flips the entire map upside down. The classes themselves range from heavily armored knights to oddball picks like a chef who fights with a frying pan.

The randomized traits also prevent any single run from becoming routine, as you are constantly adapting to whatever quirks your latest heir inherited. By the time you have cycled through a dozen heirs, you start developing preferences for certain class-and-trait combinations that suit your playstyle. Between runs, the gold you banked goes toward a skill tree that permanently strengthens every future heir in your bloodline. So if you are searching for something unique among the best Metroidvania Steam games, I would 100% recommend trying out Rogue Legacy 2 first.

4. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown

One of the best Metroidvania entries Steam has seen in a while

Prince of Persia went back to 2D here, and probably it was the best decision the franchise has made in years, at least for Metroidvania fans. You play as Sargon, part of an elite warrior squad called the Immortals, on a rescue mission that gets weird very quickly. The map is packed, like genuinely packed, with tucked-away passages behind breakable walls, vertical shafts hiding optional challenge rooms, and clever shortcuts looping you back to places you have already been. There is also this neat Memory Shard feature where you can screenshot any spot on the map and pin it, so you never have to remember “oh wait, there was a blocked path somewhere back there.”

Bosses hit hard but follow clear patterns, so learning their sequences before jumping in is the way to go. Moreover, side quests are threaded throughout the world in a way that encourages thorough exploration rather than just beelining from objective to objective. NPCs scattered across the map offer optional challenges and lore fragments that gradually fill in the larger story. Also, Sargon’s combat moveset expands at a steady pace. Prince of Persia has been around for decades, and this particular entry proved the franchise still has plenty to offer.

3. Blasphemous 2

Pick your weapon and survive a nightmarish religious Metroidvania

Blasphemous 2 is steeped in religious horror, the kind of dark, grotesque imagery that borrows from Catholic guilt and suffering on a massive scale. Every screen is packed to the edges with hand-drawn pixel art, depicting decaying cathedrals, flesh-bound statues, and monstrous saints in painstaking frame-by-frame animation. From the opening, you pick between three distinct weapons, a heavy sword, a fast rapier-and-dagger pair, or a long-range flail, and your choice shapes how combat plays out for hours to come.

The sword hits hard in slow arcs, the daggers let you dart in and out at close range, and the flail creates distance between you and your enemies, so each option creates a completely different rhythm when you’re fighting through the same encounters. The lore is spread across item descriptions, cryptic NPC dialogue, and environmental details hidden in every corner of the map. The pixel art animation stands out here, because the frame count on major boss transformations and attack windups is absurdly high for a 2D title. Overall, Blasphemous 2 expanded on its predecessor in every meaningful direction.

2. Dead Cells

One of Steam’s highest-rated Metroidvania games and an all-time classic

Dead Cells revolves around one very addictive loop. You start a run, fight through enemies, collect weapons, grab upgrades, and eventually die. Then you’re right back at the beginning, in the same starting room, ready to do it all again. However, the layout of rooms shuffles, the weapons available to you change, and the enemy placement shifts around. So even after dozens of attempts, the early sections still surprise you. On top of that, certain progress carries over permanently between runs, so your tenth attempt has more options than your first, your fiftieth has even more, and by your hundredth you’ve unlocked a massive pool of potential gear to discover during future attempts.

Moreover, the combat itself is blazing fast, closer to an action game than a traditional side-scroller. You’re dodging through enemies, chaining attacks across rooms, and rolling past projectiles at the last second. Every weapon type has a completely different speed and range, from heavy two-handed swords to rapid-fire crossbows to deployable traps that trigger when enemies walk over them. Plus, boss encounters punctuate the end of major sections. Dying to a boss results in losing everything from that run, yet the permanent unlocks you’ve earned along the way guarantee that your next attempt starts a little stronger.

1. Hollow Knight: Silksong

Explore Pharloom as the agile warrior Hornet

Hollow Knight became one of the most celebrated indie games of the last decade, selling millions of copies on the strength of its massive hand-drawn world, tight combat, and deeply hidden secrets. Silksong is its sequel, and it shifted the spotlight to Hornet, a fan-favorite character from the original. The first game starred a small, silent knight who moved with patience and fought at close range. Hornet is the opposite in almost every way, built around speed, acrobatics, and aggressive momentum. Her attacks are faster, and her jumps cover more distance.

The world in Silksong is significantly larger than the original, filled to the edges of the map. Exploration follows a familiar structure of locked paths that open up once you’ve progressed further, and the sheer density of hidden rooms, optional bosses, and side quests scattered across the map is staggering. Boss fights are the highlights, ranging from towering guardians blocking your path forward to well-hidden optional challenges that test everything you’ve learned. Silksong takes the top spot on this best Metroidvania Steam games list by being exactly the sequel fans waited years for.

FAQs

Do I need to play the original Hollow Knight before trying Silksong?

You can jump into Silksong without prior experience because the story is set in a completely new kingdom called Pharloom with its own lore and characters. The protagonist Hornet appeared in the first game, but her journey here is self-contained enough to follow on its own. Playing the original will give you extra context about who she is, so if you have the time, it’s a great place to start before moving on to the sequel.

Can I enjoy Metroidvania games if I’m bad at difficult platformers?

Absolutely. Several entries on this list cater to different skill levels, and Crypt Custodian in particular is an excellent entry point because the difficulty stays approachable throughout the main story. Rogue Legacy 2 also eases the pressure because permanent upgrades between runs mean you grow stronger over time regardless of how often you fail. ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist includes multiple difficulty options too, so you can tailor the challenge to your comfort level.

Which of these Steam Metroidvania games are the longest?

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the largest on the list, with a map that dwarfs the original and over 40 boss encounters spread across it. Dead Cells can technically last hundreds of hours because the randomized runs and massive weapon pool create new combinations every time. Blasphemous 2 and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown both offer around 15 to 25 hours depending on how thoroughly you explore, so they sit in a comfortable middle ground.

Are any of these games playable in co-op or local multiplayer?

Metroidvanias are traditionally single-player experiences, and every entry on this list follows that pattern. If you are looking for something to play alongside a friend, you would need to take turns or watch each other play, which honestly pairs well with games like Rain World and Carrion because they are entertaining to spectate.

Which Metroidvania on this list has the most replay value?

Dead Cells leads comfortably here because the randomized level layouts, hundreds of weapon combinations, and multiple branching paths through the map mean no two runs are identical. Rogue Legacy 2 offers similar longevity through its heir system and randomized traits, so each attempt at the castle produces a fresh experience. Blasphemous 2 also encourages replays because the three starting weapons open different early-game routes.

What exactly is a Metroidvania, and how is it different from a regular platformer?

Metroidvania refers to a style of game where you explore a large, interconnected map and gradually unlock new abilities that let you access previously blocked areas. Regular platformers typically move you forward through separate levels in a linear sequence, but Metroidvanias encourage backtracking and revisiting old locations with fresh tools. The name itself blends Metroid and Castlevania, the two series that popularized this structure decades ago.

Which of these games has the most unique gameplay mechanic?

Dandara: Trials of Fear Edition stands apart because it removes walking entirely and has you leap between surfaces in any direction, so the entire movement system is unlike anything else in the genre. Carrion also breaks convention by casting you as the monster rather than the hero, and Crypt Custodian swaps the traditional side-scrolling view for a top-down perspective inspired by classic Zelda games.

Should I play these Metroidvania games with a controller or keyboard?

Controller is the preferred option for most players because the analog stick and responsive buttons suit the precise platforming these games require. Dandara is an exception worth noting because its surface-to-surface movement system translates well to mouse aiming, so keyboard and mouse can actually be the smoother choice there. Either input method will work across the entire list, so go with whatever you are most comfortable using.

Are there any story-heavy picks on this list for players who care about narrative?

ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist delivers one of the stronger narratives here, centered on the moral tension between saving humans or their artificial creations. Hollow Knight: Silksong weaves its story through environmental details, NPC dialogue, and item descriptions rather than cutscenes, so the lore runs deep if you pay attention. Crypt Custodian handles its themes of death and the afterlife with surprising emotional weight, especially toward the final act of the story.