After the past two years being so jammed-packed with excellent releases, looking at the release calendar for this year is a little discouraging. So I’ve been digging around to see what I can find. One particular “Metroidvania” genre seems to be brimming with potential in lieu of not much else appearing to be all that exciting this year. That’s not to say there isn’t potential elsewhere, but I’ve found a number of games in the genre that might even give last year’s best and one of the best in years, Hollow Knight, a run for its money. Shall we begin?

The Siege and the Sandfox

This one is a “stealthvania,” as its developers put it. I’m not sure this one will make it out this year, but the concept is wrought with intrigue. It’s generally just assumed that a metroidvania is going to be something of an action-platformer, so the idea of another hook is refreshing. It’s been some years since Klei’s Mark of the Ninja now, and that was a level based affair. We’ll have to see if the folks at Cardboard Sword can deliver on their even more ambitious stealthvania promise. Early footage is looking mighty encouraging.

Ghost Song

I can’t be ascertain when this one will make it out the door, but I’m definitely deeply intrigued. It is by far the Metroid looking game on this list and while I’m not sure if the trailer succeeded in telling me it will be fun to play, it really succeeded in making me want to play it. Ghost Song seems to be capturing that haunting and desolate feel those early Metroid games really nailed. And that screen shake looks like it could dethrone Vlambeer.

Unworthy

This seems to be going for more minimalist aesthetic reminiscent of the original Gameboy and really doing it quite well. A lot of metroidvanias these days seem to be trying to cash in on that Dark Souls money, but this one seems to be going a bit further than the rest, not allowing players to jump. It’s looking like this one is going to be all about matching that more deliberate Souls combat in a 2D space with its stamina management and rolling around with i-frames. The sole developer seems to think it will be released sometime this summer, so we’ll have to wait until then to find out if this ones actually is worthy of its Dark Souls associations and influences.

Chasm

The metroidvania to end all metroidvanias is to be upon us this summer. Promising to be a game with infinite replayability through random map generation is an interesting goal for a game in this genre. Sundered last year did something somewhat similar with levels shifting between deaths, but Chasm seems to be aiming for recreating a whole new map every time you start a new save. As someone who doesn’t really replay games much, it might still be interesting to see how much changes between runs in this one.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Koji Igarashi who put the vania into metroidvania is at it again here. I have to say though, even as someone who has played and enjoyed every post-SOTN Castlevania, this one looks the least promising of the games on this list. While many of the other games on here seem to be pushing on the boundaries of the formula, Bloodstained seems pretty traditional and not all the exciting as a result. Judging by some of the footage I’ve seen I’m pretty relieved to see this one got pushed back into this year. With the extra time I hope Igarashi and his team can deliver something that lives up to his past work, while also pushing the genre forward, lest we might have another Might No. 9 on our hands. No one wants that.

Blasphemous

This game ran a much more successful Kickstarter campaign than a relatively unknown bunch of developers thought they could probably get away with, but for good reason. It wouldn’t surprise me if one look at the art would sell you on this game, and it’s almost upsetting that it looks as good as it does and it looks even better in motion. Its twisted biblical aesthetic is pixel art at its most disturbing. I can only hope it plays as well as it looks, because it looks damn good.

Death’s Gambit

This is perhaps the game I’ve most been looking forward to for what must be a few years now. It looks like it flows really well and seems to be taking the right pages from the Souls series’ book. It’s got a sense of scale that seems unrivaled in this genre, seeming to mix the traditional metroidvania stuffs with just a little bit of Shadow of the Colossus to hype inducing effect. I’d say this is far and away my most anticipated game on this list, but Blasphemous is right there with it and it’ll be interesting to see how they compare and compete, especially if they end up releasing around the same time.

Bonus: The Messenger

I don’t rightly know if this is a metroidvania, so I’m including it as a bonus, because it looks rad. It looks like someone saw in the retro-inspired wave of indie games like Shovel Knight and Axiom Verge and was like, “Enough’s enough! There are all these retro games and none of them think of Ninja Gaiden, I guess I have to do it.” It really looks like whoever this person or these people are, they are doing it. Plus that silly boss gag gets me every time.

So while I’m not sure how this year will measure up to the past two in terms of game releases, the Metroidvania genre seems to be thriving at the very least. There are even more out there like Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Heart Forth, Alicia and even more beyond those two. With how fruitful my dig for games was I’m starting to think it might not be just the Metroidvania genre that is booming though. That was just where I happened to look. It might be actually be the indie scene in general that’s flourishing. It’s reassuring to know that when there doesn’t seem to be a lot of those big company, monster budget, triple A titles coming out, the little guys have our back and are always coming out with cool stuff. And these days, little guy stuff is often cooler than what the man is trying to put out anyway.