2026: My Year of Metroidvanias
My holy trinity of gaming genres would be:
JRPGs
Platformers
Metroidvanias
I could play those genres endlessly and never get bored by the thrills of gaming. And yet, oddly enough, I’ve noticed that I’ve been playing fewer and fewer metroidvanias by the year. I decided that in 2026 I would seek out more of them. A few years ago I binged the genre to a satiating point. I had played every Castlevania metroidvania, played all the 2D Metroids, and tons of indies. But it seems to me like metroidvanias are the most popular genre amongst indie developers; it feels like every month theres a new batch of must-play indie games that take the genre and reinvigorate it.
My first metroidvania of 2026 that I completed is Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
When Ori and the Blind Forest first came to Nintendo Switch, I was quite excited and purchased it instantly. For some reason, I couldn’t remember how I felt about it. All I knew is that I finished Blind Forest feeling like it was a good game overall, but not one of my favorites.
The first few hours of Will of the Wisps felt like heaven for somebody who prefers 2D gaming like me. The way Ori naturally floats for a second or two after a jump is just begging for experimentation. The way he backflips and runs up walls all feels so graceful.
I think this is the biggest compliment I can give a metroidvania; every time I found a new power-up I was genuinely excited to see what it was and play around with it. The game adds on the platforming with abilities like an air dash and being able to launch yourself in any direction midair. Unfortunately in the second half the power-ups shift away from the platforming a bit, and the game actually gets quite a bit difficult with some tricky escape sequences and bosses with little to no checkpoints. And this is when I remembered my feelings towards Ori and the Blind Forest.
Both games are gorgeous in every sense of the word, and the 2D movement is something to be studied and copied by future developers. If these games were metroidvanias solely focused on the player exploiting their platforming abilities to get around the world, they would both probably be in my personal top ten of the genre. A good example would be Animal Well; that game doesn’t slow the player down with tedious half-baked combat- its all about your ingenuity with the given abilities.
I wish the Ori games leaned a bit more in that direction, but I still really enjoyed them.
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I’m looking forward to exploring more metroidvanias this year! I’m currently replaying Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, and will soon start Blasphemous. I will keep you posted on my metroidvania journey on a monthly basis. Thank you for reading.
