In one of the best game sales of the year so far, Humble is offering hefty discounts on dozens of the best roguelikes and best Metroidvania games ever, as well as some stellar platformers, in the aptly named Plat-Rogue-Vania-Like sale.
This sale is a celebration of backtracking, double-jumping, and procedurally generating, not to mention terrible names for great genres with no universally agreed-upon meaning. It's got indie classics, some extremely well-hidden gems, and plenty of recent successes, most of which happen to fall under the category of My Jam. There are too many good games here to cover in-depth, so I'm just going to pull out a few of the ones I'm familiar with and wholeheartedly recommend.
- Noita - An action roguelike where you break the entire world pixel by pixel.
- Cult of the Lamb - Another action roguelike that doubles as a creepy-cute cult sim.
- Hollow Knight - The single best Metroidvania ever made, and yes I will fight you on this.
- Risk of Rain 2 - A third-person roguelike shooter about covering yourself in as many items as possible while you race an evil clock.
- For the King - A brutal procedurally generated board game that's great with friends.
- Owlboy - A chill and lovely platformer about literally carrying your friends.
- Dust: An Elysian Tail - Arguably the poster child for indie Metroidvanias. Just timeless.
- Broforce - I'm not entirely sure why this is here, but it's a great 2D pixel art action game.
- Carrion - Become the best monster you can be in this reverse-horror platformer.
- Escape Goat 1 & 2 - Criminally underrated puzzle platformers in the rare goat genre of games.
- Blasphemous - A tough-as-nails Metroidvania Soulslike with some of the best and grisliest pixel art in the business.
- Lost Ruins - This Metroidvania is something of an acquired taste thanks to its old-school difficulty and controls, plus a surprising amount of giant waifus.
- Downwell - The gold standard impossible-to-put-down roguelike platformer.
- Exit the Gungeon - You've entered the Gungeon, now it's time to leave it, bullet hell-style.
- Iconoclasts - A beautiful Metroidvania that splices mechanical and naturalistic motifs.
- Inscryption - A roguelike deck builder so clever and packed with twists that it's impossible to describe it without spoiling something cool.
- Katana Zero - Again, I'm not really sure why this is here, but I'll take any excuse to recommend this kickass display of katana acrobatics, if only for the soundtrack.
- Minoria - A slept-on Metroidvania with a lovely storybook aesthetic.
- Monster Train - One of few roguelike deck-builders that can go toe-to-toe with Slay the Spire.
- Salt and Sanctuary - Among the earliest and most enduring 2D Soulslikes.
- The Messenger - A stellar time-traveling platformer with surprising depth.
- Valdis Story: Abyssal City - To this day, this arcade-y Metroidvania is still my pick for the most underrated game of all time.
Phew! Just a few games, then, with plenty more where that came from. Most of these games are upwards of 50% off in this sale, and they're all more than worth it at full price anyway, so this sale really is a steal. Just double-check the keys for each game to make sure you get one for your preferred platform.
Everyone said this new Metroidvania is a "near-perfect mix of Celeste and Hollow Knight," and I see what they meant.
