I played more than 20 metroidvanias this year other than Silksong, and these are the ones doing the most creative/experimental things with the genre

2025 was the year of the metroidvania, no question. While every genre saw a whole range of gems landing this year, fans of exploration-heavy platformers were positively feasting, with the centerpiece at the table being the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong. A massive, polished, smartly designed and pleasantly familiar game that saw little need to uproot the first game's well-tested formula.

The now-ubiquitous portmanteau we use to describe the genre is, in itself, a reference to it being fertile ground for cross-pollinating ideas.