Just looking at the screenshots, it does appear to be Metroid-like. Specifically:
* Health has boxes, so it looks like the game has something like E-tanks.
* The player uses guns, which are ranged weapons; one of them has infinite ammo, so it seems like ranged weapons are your primary (only?) means of attack in the game.

whats wrong with batman arkham?

The Messenger is good (but linear).

Of those which have been mentioned,

Dead Cells is not a metroidvania at all.
Unepic is linear.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is criminally linear. I mean, I love Miriam's puffy hair to bits, but it's still goddamn linear. Thinking I'd sequence broken and then realizing I hadn't was quite a kick in the ovaries.
Blasphemous is linear (but you can pick stages and skulk around for powerups if you suck) with a tour de collectibles. Very good, very comfy, very newbie-friendly, has an excellent skill progression.

La-Mulana, La-Mulana 2, and Hollow Knight are true classics.

It's been awhile since I finished it, but I believe ranged weapons and secondary explosives are the only means of attack.
It's the rare exception where a licensed game is actually good.
There's even a few fast travel locations!

Not as polished as the GBA Metroid games, which The Mummy Demastered draws heavily on, but well worth a play through if one is looking for this style of game.

I really loved The Messenger (personally it's a masterpiece), but it's better not to expect a metroidvania.

I 100% agree with Dead Cells, Bloodstained, La Mulana 1/2 and Hollow Knight. I really wanted to enjoy Bloodstained more (I love Castlevania metroidvanias and I was a backer), but the level design wasn't that good and the game was like a bland copy. It's a pitty, because with better level design the game could have been great. I stil have Unepic and Blasphemous on the backlog.

IMO The Mummy Demastered wasn't that good. It started great, but it got worse after each new zone, the bosses were awful and most challenge was having too many enemies on screen. At the start is really great, I love the graphics and the music, and the first upgrades are cool, but IMO it doesn't keep up. I feel the same about many Wayforward games. It's like they start doing the start of the game with care and end up rushing the rest...

I feel the same about most Shantae games. I really enjoyed the first one on GBC (which is like a Wonder Boy), and Pirate's Curse, but the second one was too short and felt uncomplete, and Half Genie Hero was meh. Haven't played the last one yet.

I really love the Wonder Boy III remaster, but it's not a pure metroidvania and is linear too.

Hello .Keys!

Two in my opinion really good 'metroidvania' type of games available here on GOG.com--that to my surprise were not mentioned so far--are:

Treasure Adventure Game (and it is free!)
or its remake:
Treasure Adventure World (but I have not played the remake, yet.)

Odallus - The Dark Call

"Treasure Adventure Game" is a little rough around the edges (not just graphically), but otherwise a great 'metroidvania' with a focus on exploring the game world and its puzzles, less on fighting. And it does not have an experience-leveling system.

"Odallus - The Dark Call" is my favourite among the new retro-looking 'metroidvania' titles, since it is inspired more by the original Castlevania-experience and atmosphere (Castlevania 1, 3, 4 [Super Castlevania] and "Rondo of Blood). The game world is not 'one' huge interconnected map, but each individual level features lots of freedom to explore and plenty alternative pathways, giving me a very similar experience to the early "Metroid" and 'metroidvania' games. Furthermore, multiple levels have interconnected 'secret' or hidden levels and areas, which on discovery add to environmental story telling in the game. Here is where "Odallus" shines in comparison to many of the so called 'metroidvania' games: the level design, both regarding the platforming/traversal and secrets, as well as the atmosphere!
With each new area you discover, you not only progress with your character's abilities and equipment, but also see the mental state of him progressing or should I say deteriorating--this is depicted by the environments, enemies, sound effects and background music.


By the way, I do not agree with your 'definition' of a 'good', 'pure metroidvania' based on "Castlevania Symphony of the Night".
Neither that "Symphony of the Night" represents the 'ideal metroidvania', that everyone should try to emulate or copy!

First, "Symphony of the Night" itself is plagued by horrible level design with lots of boring corridors and a cheap content/time padding trick of flipping or mirroring the map vertically in the second half. (I do not know which one of these two 'features' were the driving force for the other one, but it is obvious that they would not be able to simply flipp everything around without having to change or adapt a lot, if the map were not constructed of so many empty corridors!

Secondly, I think, that the item or skill progression is not well balanced nor well distributed throughout the game.

Thirdly, the roleplaying elements (experience points and leveling system) feels tagged on and harms both the game balance and the overall pace.

And finally, a really important aspect of the "Metroid" and "Super Metroid" experience is totally missing in all 'metroidvania' games made by Igarashi or those copying just his formular: the loneliness or solitude of the protagonist factoring in not only on the mysterious atmosphere of slowly discovering layer by layer through expanding exploration, but also on the triumphant sensation of overcoming bigger and bigger challenges or odds during the course of the adventure.
Both are replaced and tarnished by a taIkative cast or population almost guiding or at least obviously directing the player to where he should go next, and by poorly implemented roleplaying-like growth systems.
To me it seems that Igarashi only took the map system, progress gated by acquiring corresponding items or character skills, and the teasing of a well equipped character in the beginning only to half-heartedly taking away everything from "Super Metroid".

Maybe those "Symphony of the Night"-like games should be called "Igavania" or "Symphonyvania" instead, since they actually have very little in common with both the original "Metroid" and "Castlevania" games.


Independent from how to call these types of games, I found out, that I do enjoy the more creative interpretations of a 'metroidvania' that focus on fewer or just one aspect, such as "VVVVVV", "Yoku's Island Express", "Ori and the Blind Forest" and "Odallus The Dark Call", much more than the 'jack-of-all-trades' Igarashi 'imitators' and 'copies'.

Kind regards,
foxgog

Unless you play the randomizer, which is built in to the game (in other words, it isn't a third-party mod the way most randomizers are).

Also, there's one part in the game where you can fight a boss that yields an ending, but you don't have to do that yet.

I can't disagree with some points. Thank you for the meditation on those concepts. Really an interesting read. :)
Thank you all for the newer recommendations, too.

By what you all are saying, many of these games aren't really Metroidvanias, as they're more linear. So they're Classicvanias or 2D plataformers, most of the times.

Also, was watching Super Metroid playthrough, and the 'solitude' you just described is real. Metroid was based in an horror movie after all, so yeah, many games considered "Metroidvanias" nowdays are only "Symphonyvanias" or "Classicvanias".

Maybe Hollow Knight is one example that gets closer to that Metroid felling of solitude and isolation with added "Vanias" mechanics? I never played Hollow Knight, so it's a real question here.

In my first post list, I've only played Bloodstained, but only the beginning.

batman arkham has everything , jumpy , weapons ,skills , new weapons and skill opening areas in previous areas
enemies , bosses , story
perfect metroid

No worries :) I fell into that "trap" as well. I thought it was a MV, but then I played it and was disappointed. Not because it is bad, it is a nice game, but I expected it to be a MV.
Couldn't agree more. I loved Super Metroid. SOTN was great, but to me personally it felt more tedious and more focused on handling a huge inventory a la RPGs.

(Actually, the game that seemed closer to Super Metroid for me was Axiom Verge, but unfortunately it is not on GOG and so it doesn't fit this post.)

Did I miss something or no one actually mentioned Ori and the Blind Forest?

Sacrilege!!!!

Worth noting that the game price had recently drop to 5€.


Edit: Re-reading the thread I clearly miss post 6

Thankfully I was forewarned by my brother, so I really enjoyed it for what it was.

Arkham Asylum only sort of counts, being linear and not having much of a movement ability focus or manual jumping.

These are "zelda-likes" meaning they have an overworld and dungeons structure with linear main progression.

• Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
• Ori and the Blind Forest


There's also Guacamelee 1-2

Thank you for the compilation! (but you really should add The Messenger, it's an amazing game and more of a metroidvania than at least 7 games on the list).