Games Like Metroid
Quick Answer
The closest games to Metroid are Super Metroid, Metroid Dread, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge. Below are 10 picks with the reason for each — what carries over from Metroid, and what does not.
What Made Metroid Work
The first Metroid gives you a planet, no map, and a set of doors you cannot open yet. Everything the genre is named after starts here: the ability that turns a wall into a corridor, the backtracking that feels like knowledge rather than repetition, the loneliness. It is harder to go back to than its sequels — there is genuinely no map — but nothing else on the NES was shaped like it.
10 Games Like Metroid
1.Super Metroid
The one to play instead, and arguably the best-designed game on the SNES.
Games like this →3.Castlevania Symphony of the Night
The other half of the genre's name, and where the RPG layer came from.
More about this game →4.Hollow Knight
The modern benchmark, and it withholds the map in the same deliberate way.
More about this game →5.Axiom Verge
The most faithful modern take on Metroid specifically, glitches and all.
More about this game →6.Environmental Station Alpha
A small, hard, very well-built indie Metroid with a real secret underneath it.
More about this game →7.Ori and the Blind Forest
The same structure, far kinder, and beautiful with it.
More about this game →8.Ender Lilies
Melancholy, slow and combat-led, with the map opening the same way.
More about this game →9.The Legend of Zelda
The other NES game that handed you a world and refused to explain it.
More about this game →10.Blaster Master
NES exploration with a vehicle you leave behind to get into the small places.
More about this game →
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How These Picks Match Metroid
Metroid is catalogued here as a Metroidvania on the Nintendo Entertainment System. All ten picks share at least one of its genre tags — ten action games and eight platformers among them.
Five of the picks have their own list on this site, catalogued under the Nintendo Switch (2), the PlayStation, the Xbox One and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge, Environmental Station Alpha, Ori and the Blind Forest and Ender Lilies are from small or self-published studios.
| Game | Genre | Shares with Metroid | Where to play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Super Metroid | Action, Adventure, Platformer | Platformer, Action | — |
| Metroid Dread | Platformer, Action, Adventure | Platformer, Action | Nintendo Switch (catalogued) |
| Castlevania Symphony of the Night | Action, Adventure, Platformer, RPG | Platformer, Action | PlayStation (catalogued) |
| Hollow Knight | Platformer, Action, Indie | Platformer, Action | Nintendo Switch (catalogued) |
| Axiom Verge | Platformer, Action, Indie | Platformer, Action | — |
| Environmental Station Alpha | Platformer, Action, Indie | Platformer, Action | — |
| Ori and the Blind Forest | Platformer, Action, Adventure, Indie | Platformer, Action | Xbox One (catalogued) |
| Ender Lilies | Action, Adventure, RPG, Indie | Action | — |
| The Legend of Zelda | Adventure, Action, RPG | Action | Nintendo Entertainment System (catalogued) |
| Blaster Master | Action, Adventure, Platformer, Shooter | Platformer, Action | — |
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How We Picked These Games
We start with hand-curated similarity data for flagship titles, then layer in tag and genre matching from RAWG's open game database. Every recommendation is filtered to remove franchise duplicates, NSFW content, and games without proper artwork.
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