Game of the Year, with metroidvanias in bold:

• 1000xRESIST, sunset visitor 斜陽過客
• Animal Well, Billy Basso
• ARCO, Arco Team
• Balatro, LocalThunk
• Crypt Custodian, Kyle Thompson
• Lorlei and the Laser Eyes, Simogo
• Mouthwashing, Wrong Organ
• Neva, Nomada Studio
• Nine Sols, RedCandleGames
• UFO 50, Mossmouth

Additionally, "Animal Well" picked up a nom for Solo Development, "Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus" and "Ultros" got noms for Visual Design, and "Minishoot Adventures" and "Nine Sols" got noms for Gameplay Design"

Not a bad year!

Explore a stunning hand-craft world ravaged by war and ruled by an evil tyrant. Face a wide variety of enemies as you customize your strategy, change your weapons and unlock different abilities.

🌐 Steam

Become a wise-cracking immortal fighting an evil regime in world’s first comixvania. Every page could be your last. Every joke has a punchline. Every death wipes a piece of your memory. Welcome to Comix Zero.

🌐 Steam

This looks good enough to make me want to get a Playdate…

FYI: The Playdate has a "season" model where you get 12 games over the course of 12 weeks.

An owlet afraid of flight sets off to explore a vibrant mysterious world and rediscover itself. On this heartwarming adventure, you'll confront the owlet's deepest fears as only the greatest challenges can lead to the most profound growth.

Owlet's Embrace is an action exploration platformer, blending fast paced grappling hook maneuvers with combat and emotional discovery.

Good, but not great reviews. I'm on the fence, but I love the boss designs and the visuals.

Voidwrought is a 2D action-platformer set in a hand-drawn world of cosmic horrors. Explore the thawing ruins of the First Civilisation and strike down the gods that dwell there. Grow your powers, uncover ancient artifacts, and expand your shrine amid the wreckage.

🎮

• Steam
• Switch

✅

• Noisy Pixel
• CGM
• The Games Machine
• SwitchUp

Reviews are a bit all over the place so far…

Weave your own story in this dark fairy tale. In the mysterious ancient ruins, you will adventure with Tania to reveal her origins and fate. Is there any chance of survival in the darkest and desperate place?

🎮

• Steam
• Playstation

✅

• Beebom
• I Dream of Indie Games
• Noisy Pixel
• Game8

The reviews aren't looking so hot. I've looked at a good handful of them and only two are above a 7.

When giant monsters fight, no one’s safe. Embark on a thrilling quest of survival in a city that’s become a battleground for Titans. Use the lethal strength of Kong and other monsters to your own advantage in this official Monsterverse game set shortly after the events of Godzilla vs. Kong.

🎮

• Steam
• Playstation
• Xbox

✅

• God is a Geek
• Way Too Many Games
• Blog Critics
• TechRaptor
• IGN
• GameSpew
• Push Square

TIES: Soul Link is a beautiful 2D Metroidvania that combines elements of action RPG and platform adventure with a strong and immersive narrative with decision-making.

Enhance the protagonist’s abilities to solve puzzles, defeat enemies, and advance through the various populated cities. Coming to Windows and macOS Steam, and Nintendo Switch.

TIES: Soul Link is framed within the science fiction – fantasy genre with a very personal graphic section: it mixes Cartoon style with cyberpunk, Japanese, Nordic, classical Greek, and Persian/African settings.

🌐

• Kickstarter
• Steam

Fuse, Split and Swap to escape! A fast paced, hand-drawn action-adventure involving a rambunctious rat and its multiple mech parts that you can fuse together or split apart at will. Use these powers to explore a mysterious facility, solve puzzles and beat the bad guys! Can you escape the Rat Trap?

🌐 Steam

It's getting solid to good reviews.

Anima Flux is a co-op metroidvania with two genetically enhanced soldiers, special agents of a theocratic dictatorial regime. Fight your way through swarms of mutants through a desolate, dystopian space city and save humanity's last stronghold, if, of course, anyone is still alive...

🎮 Steam

✅

• Soulsborne Seeker
• I Dream of Indie Games
• Mega the Micro

In Bungie's latest developer livestream, the team teased that the Apollo expansion for Destiny 2 will include a "Metroidvania-inspired destination." The expansion will take a non-linear approach, with players being able to explore multiple destinations from the start. Progressing the story and finding a specific item will open up new areas for exploration, as Bungie's goal for the expansion involves keeping players invested in the world. New concept artwork for this destination was shown, confirming that players will meet a new group of people, uncover untold secrets, gain new powerful abilities, and make important choices along the way. Bungie also teases that 25 to 30 "different threads" of stories may be experienced as players complete different activities.

• Codename: Apollo will launch in Summer 2025.
• The expansion takes a non-linear approach, with its destination being explorable from the start.
• Players will meet a new group of people and make important decisions in the expansion.
• There will be 25 to 30 "different threads" of stories.
• There will be secrets to uncover and new abilities to obtain.

This game was fantastic — great story, art style, gameplay. It's very hard, but there are sliders to control the difficulty. I have this game in my top 10 metroidvanias, so I'm excited for others who don't have a PC to try it out

This game was fantastic — great story, art style, gameplay. It's very hard, but there are sliders to control the difficulty. I have this game in my top 10 metroidvanias, so I'm excited for others who don't have a PC to try it out

Voidwrought is a 2D action-platformer set in a hand-drawn world of cosmic horrors. Explore the thawing ruins of the First Civilisation and strike down the gods that dwell there. Grow your powers, uncover ancient artifacts, and expand your shrine amid the wreckage. All Reviews:

🌐 Steam

Exographer is an exploration game based on science. Become an explorer, stranded in an alien planet, and discover the secrets of an extinct civilization. Gain new powers to avoid dangers and obstacles in your journey, and use your camera to reveal particles and hidden clues.

🎮

• Steam
• Switch
• PS5
• Xbox

✅

• God is a Geek
• Game Reactor

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/16204715

The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!

Let's discuss Hollow Knight. What aspects do you like about it? What doesn't work for you? Feel free to share any thoughts that come up, or react to other peoples comments. Let's get the conversation going!

If you have any recommendations for games or series for the next post(s), please feel free to DM me or add it in a comment here (no guarantees of course).

Previous entries: Nintendo DS, Monster Hunter, Persona, Monkey Island, 8 Bit Era, Animal Crossing, Age of Empires, Super Mario, Deus Ex, Stardew Valley, The Sims, Half-Life, Earthbound / Mother, Mass Effect, Metroid, Journey, Resident Evil, Polybius, Tetris, Telltale Games, Kirby, LEGO Games, DOOM, Ori, Metal Gear, Slay the Spire

The ascension to penitence never ends. Strike down the enemies who stand in your way as you reveal pathways within Cvstodia to forgotten areas. Retrieve the shards and feel the stinging pain in your hands from the punishment you embraced, once more.

Key Features:

• Embark on a brand new quest

• Mea Culpa returns with savage attacks, devastating combos and special abilities

• New savage executions and abilities

• 2 new bosses await their end

• Uncover 2 large new zones, once forgotten

• Experience an alternative ending for the Penitent One

• Add to your arsenal of penitence with new resonances, abilities, prayers, rosary beads and more

Marko: Beyond Brave is an action-packed Metroidvania adventure. Wander through lush forests and crumbling castles, battle corrupted creatures, and escape intricate traps. Jump, slash, and shoot your way through challenging foes and mighty bosses inspired by Slavic myths and legends.

Not the strongest reviews, but the devs seem committed to fixing the feedback

🎮 Steam

✅

• Game Grin
• Kakuchopurei
• Soulsbourne Seeker

Anima Flux is a co-op metroidvania with two genetically enhanced soldiers, special agents of a theocratic dictatorial regime. Fight your way through swarms of mutants through a desolate, dystopian space city and save humanity's last stronghold, if, of course, anyone is still alive...

🌐 Steam

For $5

Mask of Darkness is a story DLC that adds a thrilling new chapter to Sargon’s saga. Experience a new story around Radjen, the assassin of the Immortals, as she traps Sargon in her Mind Palace, a nightmarish dimension created with her dark magic.

Dive into a new world born from the shadow assassin’s dark past and soul. Discover four surprising and surreal new biomes with more than ten totally new types of platforming elements, including deadly traps and merciless mechanisms. In between platforming sequences, face six otherworldly new enemy archetypes inspired by Radjen’s surreal dreams, as well as three epic bosses. Use newly acquired combat abilities to overcome them.

• Experience Sargon's darkest quest yet: step away from Mount Qaf to dive into a brand-new story of loss and danger.
• Uncover Radjen's fate in a story that resolves hanging questions from The Lost Crown's main story.
• Use Sargon’s abilities and Time Powers to navigate this intricate and interconnected new dimension.
• Experience an improved combat experience with new Amulets to complement Sargon’s arsenal.
• Gain a new outfit for Sargon, inspired by the Immortals’ best.

Uncover the secrets that lie behind the Mask of Darkness, buried deep within Radjen’s mind!

🎮

• Steam
• Switch
• Playstation
• Xbox

Weave your own story in this dark fairy tale. In the mysterious ancient ruins, you will adventure with Tania to reveal her origins and fate. Is there any chance of survival in the darkest and desperate place?

🌐 Steam

Decades after the events of ENDER LILIES, Homunculi — sorrowful, artificial life forms — roam the land. In this dark fantasy Metroidvania, face formidable enemies and explore a bewitching post-apocalyptic world. Humans and Homunculi — what awaits at the end of the quest for their salvation?

🌐 Steam

ReSetna is a 2.5D Metroidvania set in a crumbling world. The once great civilization has collapsed, leaving its fragments struggling under APEX. When a mysterious Signal emerges, driving robots to violence and madness, ReSetna and her drone companion, IXA, are dispatched to unravel the mysteries of the Signal and discover its true purpose.

Are you ready to delve into the ruins, navigating this broken society, to face untold challenges, and eventually ReSet the future?

🌐 Steam

Crypt Custodian is a charming metroidvania about cleaning up the afterlife. Play as Pluto - a mischievous cat who has died, and is sentenced to be the afterworld's janitor... FOREVER! Hang out with other doomed ghosts, battle beasts, and explore a vastly expansive landscape.

I'm diving in right now. Loved Islets…

🎮

• Steam
• Switch
• PS5
• Xbox

✅

• Dot Esports
• Prima Games
• The Xbox Hub
• Finger Guns
• Cannot Be Tamed
• Feiito Gaming