What Is a Metroidvania? The Genre Defined

A Metroidvania is a 2D action-adventure game built around a single interconnected map that the player gradually unlocks by acquiring new abilities. You hit a wall too high to jump. Later, you find a double jump, come back, and now the wall is a passage. That feedback loop — see a barrier, find the ability that bypasses it, return — is the entire genre. The word combines Metroid (1986) and Castlevania (specifically Symphony of the Night, 1997), the two games that defined the template.

Where the word comes from

Metroid launched in Japan on the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and reached the NES in North America in 1987. Built by Nintendo R&D1 with a team that included Yoshio Sakamoto and Makoto Kano, it dropped Samus Aran onto the planet Zebes with a single interconnected map, hidden upgrades, and ability-locked passages. There were no levels in the traditional sense — you explored, found a missile upgrade, and the previously impassable wall could now be blasted open.

Eleven years later, Konami reimagined Castlevania with Symphony of the Night (PlayStation, 1997), with Koji Igarashi as assistant director. Apart from the experimental Simon’s Quest (1987), the series had mostly been linear stages until then. Symphony of the Night made the entire Dracula’s castle one connected map, gave Alucard ability-gated progression, and added RPG stats. The blueprint matched Metroid’s almost exactly.

The exact origin of the “Metroidvania” term is unclear. Games journalist Jeremy Parish helped popularize it in the 2000s, crediting his former 1UP.com colleague Scott Sharkey, and Igarashi has said he did not coin it. By the 2010s it had become standard industry vocabulary.

The mechanical checklist

A pure Metroidvania has most of the following:

• One large interconnected 2D map. No level select screen. Areas connect physically; you walk from one to the next.
• Ability-based gating. Progress is unlocked by acquiring new abilities (double jump, wall climb, dash, transform) rather than story flags.
• Backtracking with payoff. Old areas reveal new paths once you have new abilities. The map is designed to reward return visits.
• Combat plus exploration. You fight enemies, but the central activity is figuring out where to go next.
• Map system. A visual map (auto-revealed or collected) helps the player track explored areas and unexplored exits.
• Light RPG elements (in the -vania branch). Some Metroidvanias add equipment, stats, leveling. The Metroid branch usually doesn’t.
• Save rooms and fast-travel points. Almost universal — the map is too big to traverse on foot every time.

Games that meet the first three are unambiguously Metroidvanias. The rest are variations.

The Metroid line

The “Metroid” branch is descended from Nintendo’s original — sci-fi setting, isolation, exploration over RPG depth.

• Metroid (1986) — the original. NES, side-scrolling, no map, brutally cryptic.
• Super Metroid (1994) — widely considered the genre’s gold standard. Added a map, tightened controls, gave Samus a wider ability set, and set the template every modern Metroidvania still references.
• Metroid Fusion (2002) — Game Boy Advance, more linear and story-driven, but the formula intact.
• Metroid Dread (2021) — Switch, the first new chapter of the 2D story since Fusion, nearly two decades later. Faithful to the formula with modern controls.

The Castlevania line

The “vania” branch is descended from Symphony of the Night — gothic horror setting, RPG stats, looser combat.

• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997) — the founding text of -vania design. Inverted castle, a huge item and equipment list, familiars, and Alucard’s transformations.
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003) — Game Boy Advance, soul-collection mechanic. Many fans rank it above Symphony of the Night.
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005) — DS sequel, more of the same with stylus integration.
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) — Koji Igarashi’s spiritual successor after leaving Konami. Crowdfunded, deliberately Symphony-of-the-Night-shaped.

The modern indie wave

The genre’s commercial revival came from indie developers in the 2010s, often single-person or tiny-team productions taking advantage of digital distribution.

Axiom Verge (Thomas Happ, 2015)

A solo-developed love letter to Metroid. Glitchy, alien, deeply mysterious. Happ spent around five years making it in his spare time; the result feels like a lost Super Nintendo sequel to Super Metroid.

Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios, 2015)

The “pretty” Metroidvania. Hand-painted art, orchestral soundtrack, brutally tight platforming. Its sequel Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020) raised the bar further.

Hollow Knight (Team Cherry, 2017)

The defining Metroidvania of the modern era. A tiny Australian team, a Kickstarter, beautiful hand-drawn art, an enormous interconnected map, melancholic atmosphere. It sold millions of copies and is widely considered the genre’s high-water mark since Super Metroid.

Dead Cells (Motion Twin, 2018)

A roguelite-Metroidvania hybrid. Levels are procedurally generated each run, but permanent rune abilities open new routes between biomes. An interesting experiment in genre fusion.

Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen, 2019)

Spanish Catholic horror through a Metroidvania lens. Brutal combat, deliberate pacing, gorgeous pixel art.

Metroid Dread (MercurySteam / Nintendo, 2021)

Nintendo finally returning to the well. Tight, modern, and proof that the 1986 formula still scales.

Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry, 2025)

For years the most-anticipated unreleased Metroidvania, originally planned as Hollow Knight DLC before growing into a full sequel. It finally launched on 4 September 2025 across PC and consoles, starring Hornet.

What separates Metroidvania from adjacent genres

Metroidvania vs platformer. Platformers are level-based and linear. Metroidvanias are map-based and exploratory. A platformer that adds a few backtracking levels isn’t a Metroidvania; the entire structure has to be built around interconnected exploration.

Metroidvania vs open world. Open world games (Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring) let you go anywhere from the start, gated mostly by combat difficulty. Metroidvanias gate by ability — you literally cannot reach an area without the right power.

Metroidvania vs Souls-like. Souls games (Dark Souls, Bloodborne) share some Metroidvania DNA — interconnected world, gated by stamina-based combat skill — but the gating is execution-based, not ability-based. Hollow Knight, notably, draws from both.

Why the format keeps working

The genre’s appeal is the specific satisfaction of pattern recognition. You file away a memory of an unreachable area; thirty minutes later, you acquire a new ability; ten minutes after that, you mentally connect “this ability solves that wall” and feel like you, personally, figured something out. The game never told you the door was solvable. You remembered.

That payoff scales with map size and ability count. The bigger the map, the more “aha” moments. Hollow Knight has dozens of them across a long playthrough. Super Metroid packs them into a game you can finish in an evening or two. The pacing of the realizations is the genre’s craft.

Where to start

For the historical curriculum: Super Metroid (1994) and Symphony of the Night (1997), both still playable through official re-releases (Super Metroid via Nintendo Switch Online, Symphony of the Night on PlayStation and mobile). For the modern recommendation: Hollow Knight (2017) is the most universally praised single Metroidvania of the decade and a great entry point.

Most Metroidvanias are not browser-playable — they’re commercial games on Steam, Switch, and other platforms. The Castlevania Advance Collection (Switch, PS4, Xbox, PC) bundles the GBA Castlevanias. Hollow Knight is available on every major platform.

If you want a quick palate cleanser between Metroidvania sessions, the Chrome Dino game is the other end of the spectrum — no map, no abilities, no progression, just the run. Sometimes that’s the right answer.

Frequently asked questions

Is The Legend of Zelda a Metroidvania?

No, but it shares some DNA. Zelda games (especially A Link to the Past) have ability-gated dungeons and an interconnected overworld, but the structure is more linear (dungeons completed in sequence) and combat-RPG-leaning. Most genre definitions exclude Zelda from Metroidvania proper.

Is Hollow Knight the best Metroidvania?

It’s the most consistently rated as such by both critics and players. Super Metroid still has its defenders as the genre’s pinnacle, and Symphony of the Night is the foundational -vania text. “Best” is taste-dependent; Hollow Knight is a defensible starting point.

Why is it called Metroidvania and not something else?

Because Metroid and Castlevania were the two series that defined the template, and combining the names was the easiest way for players and journalists to describe the hybrid. The name stuck. Alternative terms like “search action” (common in Japan) or “exploration platformer” exist but never caught on as widely in English.

Are there 3D Metroidvanias?

A few. Metroid Prime (2002) is the most famous — Nintendo’s 3D first-person Metroid. The Batman Arkham series and the Souls games have Metroidvania-adjacent structure in 3D. But the genre is overwhelmingly 2D by convention.

Can I play Metroidvanias in a browser?

Not the major commercial ones. Some small indie and game-jam Metroidvanias have browser versions on itch.io, but the genre’s depth and asset weight mean most live on Steam, console, or mobile. For older titles, stick to official re-releases.

The bottom line

Metroidvania is the genre where the map is the puzzle. You start with limited movement, you find abilities that expand it, and the world reveals itself the more you explore. Nintendo set the formula in 1986; Konami refined it in 1997; indie developers spent the 2010s perfecting it. If you’ve never tried one, Hollow Knight is the safe bet. If you want to know where it all started, Super Metroid is still teaching modern designers how it’s done.

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