Metroidvanias

Now that 2024 is coming to an end, I'd love to do a community post and hear about what people enjoyed. It was a banner year for the genre.

What metroidvanias from 2024 stood out to you?

Here's what I played this year

1. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown — Didn't expect it to be this good. Even the DLC is worth it. I'd put it behind Hollow Knight and the Ori games as an all-timer
2. Nine Sols — While the bosses were tougher than I'm comfortable with, this game was a huge surprise for me. Really polished. Luckily, there's a difficulty slider.
3. Animal Well — I'm a sucker for knowledge-gated games, and this brought back memories of Fez and Tunic.
4. BioGun — Super polished game that hits on all the notes that make me love this genre. I wish it was more performant on Steam Deck, but I was able to overlook that.
5. Voidwrought — People complained about the movement, but that didn't phase me. There were some minor endgame bugs that didn't allow me to 100% it, but I loved it enough that I wanted to.
6. Minishoot Adventures — I wasn't thinking I'd play this one, as I'm not much of a bullet hell guy, but it was a ton of fun.
7. Crypt Custodian — I love all of Kyle's games, and he keeps getting better. 100%-ed this one.
8. Ultros — Outside of Animal Well, this might be the most original out of the bunch. It was a crazy experience that was different than usual.
9. Biomorph — Fun, but I felt that I just wanted to beat it to get it over with by the end.
10. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU — I thought it was a great story and pretty polished, but it gets knocked because of how linear it is. There is zero backtracking. Barely fair to call it a metroidvania.
11. Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus* — I almost completed this, but the platforming at the end got very intense.
12. The Mobius Machine — This one felt like a slog to complete. It needed more variation.
13. Turbo Kid*
14. Noreya: The Gold Project*
15. Venture to the Vile*

*Didn't finish