14 best metros on PC

Metroid is one of those genres whose boundaries are difficult to formulate. Its name itself is a combination of two rather different series of games - Metroid and Castlevania. Signs of belonging to a genre have always been a subject of controversy. Therefore, we suspect that this will be one of the most controversial lists: we will definitely miss someone's favorite game that we did not consider to be a metro show. However, all the games we have selected are awesome.



We must honestly admit that we have limited ourselves to a rather conservative interpretation of the genre - only those games that fit the classic model of the vast explored world with unlocked areas that need to be returned, and the new features obtained. Whenever possible, we sought to weed out games that best fit the “roguelike / lite” category, as well as those that can simply be described with the word “platform”. Yes, such a choice is a real minefield. We have not yet found the ability to detect mines on the map.



Therefore, no, Dark Souls and her relatives do not belong here, as does Batman with his adventures in Arkham. Are you against As you please. However, the most controversial game, not included in our list, was Dead Cells. Someone passionately objected that this is a true metro show, others rightly argued that it was a roguelite-platform with an increasing skill set. Yes, it was not without controversy.



Games are not ranked and listed in random order. Well, let's go!

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

Developer: DrinkBox Studios

Release Date: August 2013



The main occupation of the player in this colorful madness with a Mexican theme is a two-dimensional tactical melee, and a set of movements brings him closer to the fighting game genre.



The good news was the recent announcement of Guacamelee 2, because the developer of the game DrinkBox finally gets out of the vicious circle of creating remakes of the first part. First came Guacamelee !, then Guac Gold, and finally the Super Turbo Championship Edition. The latter added new levels and abilities, and even a cooperative mode for four players.



Sometimes this game is rough and incoherent, and battles with bosses often turn out to be incredibly difficult, but the spirit and personality distinguish this project from a number of other representatives of the genre.

Ori And The Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

Developer: Moon Studios

Release date: March 2015



One of the most subtle and perfectly realized metropolis. The first version of Ori & The Blind Forest gives a higher priority to research and achievements, and not complexity, which is why the audience of metro-enthusiasts has reacted to it contradictory. The new version, released a year later, added new areas, new features, and, more importantly, different levels of difficulty, expanding the base of the players for this most stunning and expressive game.



The player controls Ori, the glowing spirit of the forest, which is accompanied by the Sein flying ball. Together, they are trying to figure out why their world has decayed and declined. To do this, they will have to jump, run, upgrade and fight, making their way through an ever-increasing set of locations, each of which is more beautiful than the previous one.



The game stands out not only thanks to the graphics and animation of James Benson (who later even more impressed us with Firewatch), but also due to perfectly matched controls.

1000 Amps

Developer: Brandon Brizzi

Release Date: February 2012



If there is a game on this list that you haven’t heard about, but which you should play immediately, it is 1000 Amps. Minimalistic graphics hide behind a very deep and surprisingly complex metropolis consisting of rooms. Each room is first immersed in darkness and illuminated when the player’s character touches all the lights in the area. The more lit the room, the higher you can jump in it. And the more skills you get in different places of the game, the more you can do in already completed rooms, gaining access to previously unattainable aisles.



It could easily become an ordinary straightforward puzzle game from a series of levels, and remain quite good at that. But it is the metro system that demonstrates 1000 Amps in all its brilliance. It gives much more, stimulates to return to the old areas with new skills, for example, with the possibility of teleportation, and reinvent the solution to puzzles. Therefore, it is without a doubt metrosides, albeit with a greater focus on puzzles than is usual for the genre.



More importantly, this game is great. The mechanics of the height of the jumps, depending on the amount of lighting in the room, maintaining the lighting of the room only if you lit all the sources and the ever-expanding map with rooms for acquiring skills in the Metroid style add up to create something unique.

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Developer: Humble Hearts

Release date: May 2013



Despite its falsity, the terribly voiced saccharine characters and merchants meeting the protagonist with phrases like “I was expecting you”, Dust won a huge army of fans thanks to a combination of the design in the metro style and the side scrolling battle system. After all, the truth is that if the game is fun to play, then you will forgive her characters in the form of a flying orange fox / bat, whose voice resembles the gnashing of nails on a school board. You forgive her a lot.



Dust is similar to the creation of a Disney animator who has gone mad: the combination of big-eyed little animals with hurricane attacks on billions of 2D monsters creates a rather vivid palette. Thank for this you need illustrator Dean Dodrill, who developed the game almost alone. The player controls Dust, who is trying to regain his memory and save the country of Falan with the help of the speaking sword Akhrah. (Why are the plots of metro-ideas always the same? And how is it that this feverish nonsense turns out to be the same?)



But the game takes place in full force thanks to the active battles in which the player holds chains of combos to increase his firepower and gained experience. New features, as you can guess, allow you to access new zones. And when you re-visit, the old zones are again filled with 409 billion of enemies, who get theirs with lightning-fast pressing of buttons. This is definitely not the most difficult metropolis. In fact, the hardest to endure is the impenetrable cutscene, accompanied by a creaking voiceovers. But, fortunately, the levels between them are worth it.

Salt & Sanctuary

Developer: Ska Studios

Release date: May 2016



I think it is fair to say that most of the games related to the metro genre are closer to Metroid than to Castlevania. But in the case of Salt & Sanctuary, this is not the case, although at first this game was compared with Dark Souls.



Salt & Sanctuary is intrigued by how shameless this super-complex game with battles and exploration of castles is borrowing elements of Dark Souls, but because of its two-dimensionality, it rather resembled a source of inspiration for From Software itself. Castlevania served as the basis for both games, and although S & S is actively copying DS, it looks like a curious close relative of both.



Surprisingly, this game is much more attractive for those who have never played Dark Souls, because it so often repeats the features of DS - return to the point of death for the selection of their XP, weight-based equipment, fight with the accumulation of stamina - which actually familiar with many other games before her. In addition, the game does not give you a map, which strongly distinguishes it from the background of other metros and again resembles DS. But to be honest, you should forget about all these comparisons - no need to worry about them, just enjoy this outstanding 2D combat with the complex bosses along the way.

Axiom Verge

Developer: Thomas Happ Games

Release date: May 2015



There are a terrible set of Metroid clones, and those with pixel art that remind of early NES games are particularly notable for their disgusting quality. And the terrible multitude of them becomes even more disgusting because it makes a mistake by copying its “ancestor” too carefully than direct comparisons cause. This is a stupid approach, a guaranteed way to cause dissatisfaction with your game when comparing it with the best of the best.



And yet, Axiom Verge is damn wonderful. First of all, Axiom took a chance and became even more minimalist than the Metroid of the SNES era, and nevertheless preserved itself. In many ways, it became a tribute, but at the same time remained independent, with many of its own ideas, the most interesting of which is the hook-cat. And all this was implemented by a lone developer.



After an accident reminiscent of the accident of the Small Hadron Collider, the scientist Thrace falls into an amazing world consisting of monochrome corridors and cells filled with thorny enemies. Trace is armed with a cannon, the most useful parts of which are scattered throughout the world. The player is in familiar conditions, limited by the possibilities that he has to open.



The cutest unique feature of the game is that from time to time flickering, hard glitches appear in it, reminding us of the era of low-quality cartridges. You can get rid of these glitches by finding the appropriate tool. Oh, and the game has a device that allows you to teleport through walls.



Axiom Verge brazenly tells us to compare it with Metroid, and it survives after this comparison. No, it is not as good, but surprisingly close to the classics.

Owlboy

Developer: D-Pad Studios

Release date: November 2016



After long, long years of postponing, Owlboy finally appeared and did something very important: turned out to be charming . She is funny, smart, sad and unusual, and all these aspects are complemented by charm.



In addition, she is very sophisticated. Even from the first tutorial, which gently undermines the player's confidence in their own abilities before the game starts, she constantly unobtrusively communicates with the player. But she's also very funny, and her sense of humor is like portable games about Mario and Luigi.



In addition, the game has a strong effect on the emotional level. There is one moment in it, having survived that, you will definitely want to discuss it with another person who played this game. It is incredibly well made, its design is so clever that you do not notice it until you see your previous mistakes. Besides, she's just very good.

Environmental station alpha

Developer: Hempuli Oly

Release Date: April 2015



Environmental Station Alpha raises the bar for Metroid low-fi clones to a whole new level. It limits itself to the minimum number of pixels, however, creating an excellent addicting game. However, there is a problem - the player may not endure to the end.



When we did a review, we had a question - if we liked the game for long hours, and then it stopped causing joy, is it worth recommending it? How important is it to remain interesting in its entirety?



The ESA is the most curious case, because it is incredibly good, but until a certain point. This is a metro sideway with perfect movement, fantastic bosses balance and high-quality level design.



But at some point, further passage requires a significant change in the whole game, and it swings the player against the wall of difficulty with a sweep, turning into a chaos of annoying battles and routine.



However, the first third is so excellent and brilliant that we still recommend this game. And for superhardcore players, the final stages will turn into a pleasantly spent time.

La-mulana

Developer: Nigoro

Release Date: July 2012



Back in 2012, Adam described our games as “Dark Souls, but ...”. It is necessary to pay tribute to him, he has overtaken his time. He described his beloved La-Mulana as “Dark Souls in the form of a retro platformer, demanding ingenuity and thoroughness, punishing those who are too self-confident”.



The original Japanese version of 2005 was a tribute to MSX games, the Japanese home console, the predecessor of NES. Then it was converted to a 16-bit game for the Wii, and finally, in 2012, it reached the PC.



To a greater extent, it stands out for its trust in the player. The project in the style of Indiana Jones hides an incredibly difficult game, get a chance to win in which you can, taking notes and sketching cards yourself. In this game, every detail has its own reason, and if you fly past, then skip the vital details and get stuck. But the game strongly believes in the player, in the fact that he will be attentive and notice the signs scattered along the way - this is very rare in games.

AM2R

Developer: Milton Guasti

Release Date: August 2016



There was not the slightest chance that Another Metroid 2 Remake would survive a clash with Nintendo lawyers. The company not only sells the original in its online stores, but also prepares its own remake of Metroid: Samus Returns for 3DS. AM2R lay in the network only a few days, after which lawyers choked him .



But this is the Internet, and anyone who wants to play AM2R will not need much time to search for it. And it is definitely worth seeing: it is a decade-long work by one author, Milton Guasti, in remaking the whole game with improved graphics and controls, remaining true to the black-and-white original from the Gameboy. And this is actually the only decent way to play on a PC in a real Metroid, in the copyright sense of the word itself.



Does it make sense after the release of Samus Returns? Good question: the 3DS version is excellent and definitely more qualitative. But at the same time, it did not become a complete remake of Metroid II. By the way, AM2R turned out to be not just an amateur port: along with completely new color graphics and improved animations, Guasti added clinging to ledges, mini-bosses and better AI enemies. This work was done with love. In addition, Nintendo is not going to release a PC version of Samus Returns in the foreseeable future.

Strider

Developer: Double Helix Games / Capcom Osaka Studio

Release date: February 2014



Strider began its life in 1989 as an arcade game; over time, it was ported to home consoles and computers, and in 1990 a quality port for the Mega Drive / Genesis from Sega appeared. It was a chaotic and brutal side-scrolling platformer, brightly lit by fierce attacks and gymnastic leaps of the main character of the game Strider Hiryu.



After an unsuccessful attempt to restart in 2009, complicated by the bankruptcy of the game developer Grin, Capcom finally instructed Double Helix to do a remake released in 2014. In the process of creating a remake, the developers combined all the skills that Hiryu gained in the original Strider and his sequel, but implemented a development system that turned the game into metro. Oddly enough, but the very mediocre Shadow Complex, which inspired this game, did not find a place in our list.



But look, Strider is here. And he is great. So fast, active and high quality. Luxurious and funny arcade entertainment, complemented by colored gates, which have to come back later with new features.

Cave Story +

Developer: Studio Pixel / Nicalis

Release date: November 2011



The project, created with great love by the self-taught developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya. Cave story borrowed some aspects of the classic design of Metroid, the most notable of which were the key items that give access to new areas, but its strengths do not fit into the usual pattern. Intuitively weighty movement of the character, a pleasant boevka (especially with bosses), a fantastic soundtrack and a simple but well-laid out plot about a tribe of charming rabbit-like Mimiga, friendly inhabitants of a hostile world.



Research and experiments provide very valuable rewards. Very few are able to see them when they first pass, but those who dared to dive deeper will discover the true last level - Blood Stained Sanctuary and retain indelible memories: levels of difficulty close to Super Meat Boy, more fantastic music, the final plot turning and the game culminating. The ending provides catharsis proportional to the suffering that the player experienced during the passage.



Although the PC version is no longer the best iteration of the game (the winner’s crown switched to a graphically improved version for Switch), Cave Story + remains one of the best ways to appreciate the beauty of this treasure.

Aquaria

Developer: Bit Blot

Release Date: December 2007



Today it seems very strange that the Simus McNally Award at the IGF awards ceremony received such a calmly beautiful game like Aquaria. But, thanks to heaven, she got it. Aquaria presents the subtlest combination of standard research in metro-style with a singing-based spell system that created something completely unique.



If you look at the names of the authors, you will understand how it happened. Derek Yu, who later became "Mr. Spelunky" and Alec Holovka, who later co-authored the amazing Night In The Woods. These two masters created the depth and power of Aquaria, which no one was able to copy.



The game takes place under the water, so this time jumping is not an important aspect of metro. Player character - Naija - creates a melody from flowers to interact with the underwater life and cast spells, rather than directly affecting objects and enemies. The result was a memorable and surprisingly “lonely” game, peaceful and melancholic at the same time.

SteamWorld Dig 2

Developer: Image & Form

Release date: September 2017



SteamWorld Dig was something unusual: a new approach to the concept of metroidwany. In fact, it belonged to many genres - partly platformer, partly RPG, and very correctly used the resource extraction theme popular in 2013. Connecting all these ideas and released on the desperately waiting for something like the 3DS console, the game told the magnificent short history of the society of resource-producing desert robots living on the post-apocalyptic Earth. The player controls Rusty, his task is to dig, mine gems, fight enemies and make an incredibly long way into the underground bowels of the planet. The deeper he digs, the more new equipment he can buy and improve, and the more areas he can visit.



But it is very important that it was not a purposeless Minecraft 2D clone; the game had a storyline, well-defined goals on improvised underground routes and the exact balance between gadgets and skills needed for passing in the metro-style.



But this is not exactly that game. I’ll talk about SteamWorld Dig 2 released in 2017. I chose the recently released sequel not because it’s very different, but rather because it has become a better and smoother implementation of the same concept. This time the player controls Dorothy, the NPC of the first part, exploring the bowels under the new city in search of the lost Rusty.



Steamworld Dig 2 is a fairly simple game, in many aspects it is very “familial." And because of this, it demonstrates a very useful property - in no way does it depend on battles with bosses and complexity. These are games that want them to go through and get great pleasure in the process.