15 indie games in this list, released 2013–2025, from developers such as Thomas Happ Games LLC, InterWave Studios, Attu Games. Pick one to read our editorial note and jump to its store page.
These are editorial pages. The developers and publishers are not affiliated with The Gaming Nest unless explicitly stated.
Axiom Verge 2 is a Metroidvania and the sequel to Axiom Verge. It follows billionaire Indra Chaudhari, who heads to Antarctica after a mysterious message suggests she may see her missing daughter again. American indie developer Thomas Happ Games made it, first releasing it in August 2021 on Switch, PlayStation 4 and the Epic Games Store before a Steam release in August 2022. Critics gave it generally favourable reviews.
Dark Matter is a science fiction Metroidvania with survival horror elements, combining exploration of interconnected areas with tense, horror-tinged encounters. It was developed by InterWave Studios in the Netherlands and published by Iceberg Interactive. The game launched in 2013 for Windows, Mac and Linux. It stands as an independent attempt to mix the backtracking structure of the Metroidvania genre with a darker, horror-driven atmosphere.
Feudal Alloy is a 2019 platform role-playing game from Czech studio Attu Games, categorised as a Metroidvania. It pairs platforming with RPG elements inside the kind of interconnected world the genre is known for, and its Steam listing adds action and adventure tags. Attu Games developed and self-published it, releasing it in January 2019 on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a Metroidvania and the follow-up to Hollow Knight, starring Hornet after she is captured and carried to the unfamiliar kingdom of Pharloom. Players explore a large web of connected regions, fighting enemies, clearing platforming challenges and taking on quests with an expanding set of skills, tools and movement abilities. It was made by Team Cherry, an independent studio from Australia, and released in September 2025 after growing from a planned expansion into a full sequel.
Lost Ruins is a 2D side-scrolling action game from Altari Games in South Korea, released in 2021 and published by DANGEN Entertainment. It blends metroidvania-style exploration with survival elements. The player controls a young girl who wakes up with no memories in an unfamiliar land, then explores its dark, hostile spaces, fights grotesque monsters and takes on powerful bosses.
Reverie Under the Moonlight is an independent Metroidvania in the Momodora series, a style built on exploring an interconnected map through action-adventure play. It is the fourth entry in the series, which started in 2010 with Momodora I. Developed by rdein under Bombservice in Brazil and made with GameMaker, it first came out on Windows in March 2016 with Playism as publisher.
Monster Sanctuary blends a side-scrolling metroidvania with monster collecting, letting you tame creatures and send them into turn-based battles. Exploration and team building feed into each other as you push through the world. It began as Denis Sinner's personal hobby project, grew through a Kickstarter that raised over five times its goal, and was released in 2020 by Moi Rai Games of Germany with Team17 publishing. It is built in Unity.
SteamWorld Dig is a platforming action-adventure starring Rusty, a steam-powered robot who inherits a mine beneath the Western steampunk town of Tumbleton. Players dig ever deeper, solving puzzles and platforming past traps and enemies while exploring the underground. Swedish studio Image & Form made it as the second entry in the SteamWorld series, launching first on Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and reaching Windows, Mac and Linux on Steam that December.
Sundered is a Metroidvania action game developed and self-published by Thunder Lotus Games of Canada, first released in July 2017 for PC and PlayStation 4. It belongs to a genre that typically centres on exploring an interconnected map and unlocking new abilities. A definitive release, the Eldritch Edition, reached Switch and Xbox One consoles in December 2018, and Steam lists the game under Action and Adventure.
Teslagrad 2 is an action-adventure that borrows ideas from Metroidvania games while keeping a mostly linear route. Players control a young girl with electromagnetic abilities as she tries to make her way back home. This follow-up to Teslagrad was developed by Norwegian studio Rain Games, with a 2023 release. The electromagnetism at its core shapes both how players move through the world and how they overcome obstacles.
Sheba: A New Dawn is a Metroidvania action RPG set in the ancient Middle Eastern kingdom of Sheba. Players follow Enar, a shepherd who teams up with an escaped jinn, through interconnected realms, fighting monsters and bosses with combo-based combat and unlocking abilities that open new paths. The game draws on regional mythology and history. It was made by Kashkool Games, a three-person Emirati studio in Abu Dhabi founded by the Almansoori brothers.
Blasphemous is a Metroidvania from the Spanish studio The Game Kitchen, set in the dark world of Cvstodia. You explore, upgrade your abilities and fight through hordes of enemies with brutal hack-and-slash combat and savage executions. It began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017 and draws heavily on religious imagery.
La-Mulana is a ruin-exploration action game from the Japanese developer NIGORO, originally designed to look and feel like an MSX game and later remade in a richer 16-bit style. You explore sprawling ancient ruins in search of a legendary treasure, deciphering clues and surviving traps. It is famous for difficult, notebook-worthy puzzles and old-school challenge.
Dandara replaces running and jumping with a single idea: you leap between surfaces, sticking to floors, walls and ceilings as you go. That one change turns familiar Metroidvania exploration into something that feels new, with rooms designed around angles instead of ledges. It comes from Brazilian studio Long Hat House and carries a strong, distinctive visual identity.
Hollow Knight is a hand-drawn action-adventure set in a vast underground kingdom of insects, where every new ability reopens places you already walked past. Its combat asks for patience and pattern-reading rather than button speed, and much of its story is found rather than told. A benchmark for small-team Metroidvania design from an independent Australian studio.