Discover connected worlds, unlock new routes with new abilities, and choose between exploration, platforming, and combat. Run-based hybrids are available as a separate option.
Find your kind of game
Explore connected worlds where new abilities open routes and change how you move. Choose platforming, ability-gated routes, or combat. The starting view focuses on persistent worlds; run-based hybrids are available separately.
40 games before play-style filters. Filters combine. Games with unconfirmed details remain in All, and a game can support several activities or play modes. Start with all years to include older classics.
Explore the catalog
Start with a quick scan, then make the same ranked catalog richer until it becomes a long-form showcase.
Best reviewed blends the source score with rating volume. Release order is oldest first, and A–Z is title order. Unusually high scores with very small samples are treated as uncorroborated outliers until more players weigh in.
#01Play styleAbility-gated exploration / Run-based progression
Supporting signalsRoguelite · Metroidvania · Procedural Generation
Metroidvania with ability-gated exploration, run-based progression.
#02Play stylePlatforming / Ability-gated exploration / Interconnected exploration
Supporting signalsMetroidvania · Sandbox · Exploration
Metroidvania with platforming, ability-gated exploration, interconnected exploration.
Observed alongside this lens
Why these games appear
Interconnected exploration gated by abilities that open previously inaccessible routes.
Include when
Ability-gated exploration materially changes route planning: acquiring a movement, tool, or traversal ability opens previously inaccessible areas.
Leave out when
Do not assign Metroidvania to a game merely because its map is interconnected, backtracking exists, or it has Soulslike checkpoints without ability-gated route progression.