9 Best Stealth Metroidvania Games, Ranked

Highlights

• Necrofugitive is a stealth-action game that combines elements of Metroidvania and horror, offering a unique experience for fans of both genres.
• The Siege and The Sandfox is an upcoming 2D stealth Metroidvania game that emphasizes parkour and evasion of tough enemies until the player’s character is strong enough to confront them.
• Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, a side-scrolling spinoff of the Arkham franchise, features complex stealth gameplay and puzzle levels that require strategic thinking to clear.

Metroidvanias have experienced a resurgence in popularity over the last few years, with games like Hollow Knight and Owl Boy becoming cult favorites. The subgenre harkens back to the classic franchises Metroid and Castlevania and usually means 2D platforming around an open world gathering the equipment and abilities needed to go back through earlier areas.

These games usually have a focus on combat, often utilizing hack and slash or bullet hell mechanics, but there is a niche subgroup that instead requires stealth. Games that require carefully sneaking around their maps and thinking of creative approaches to the challenges they propose.

9 Special Mention: Necrofugitive

Coming soon with a demo currently available

Although it hasn’t been fully released yet, Necrofugitive is a stealth-action game with horror elements and is self-described as a stealth-centric take on Castlevania, meaning that it might be exactly what fans of Metroidvanias and stealth games are looking for.

Players stealthily creep around a dark world map, taking out and consuming enemies via traps, weapons, and evil powers. Then, they can use their shapeshifting abilities to hide in plain sight or use their enemies’ weapons against them.

8 Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

6/10 on Steam

The Arkham franchise is loaded with complex and satisfying stealth gameplay, and that goes for this side-scrolling spinoff as well. Blackgate expands upon the storyline from Arkham: Origins via comic book cutscenes and 2.5D gameplay.

While there are plenty of beat-em up sections, the game is also loaded with puzzle levels that require figuring out how to use the environment, Batarangs, and knockout moves to cleverly clear the room of Gotham’s worst villains.

7 Aerannis

7/10 on Steam

A pixel throwback that takes the gameplay of games like Metal Slug or Mega Man X but uses it for stealth instead of non-stop gunfire. In Aerannis, players will need to sneak around, lay traps, and outwit enemies to avoid being overrun.

The stealth is mostly linear due to the side-scrolling perspective, but the game presents new strategies for nearly every mission, such as the classic move of hiding inside a box or the more sinister option of taking a human shield and having them lead the way through the level.

6 Mr. Sun’s Hatbox

9/10 on Steam

Mr. Sun’s Hatbox is a cult classic roguelike that gives players dozens of ways to address every situation. Players will upgrade their headquarters and build a weird team of small, pixelated blob people that all have unique abilities.

While blitzing through missions with a gun or sword is an obvious option, players can also play stealthily, setting up their team and executing complex (and often chaotic) plans to knock out their enemies without being seen. Plus, players can pay homage to stealth classic Metal Gear Solid V by knocking out enemies and ballooning them back to their base.

5 Rain World

9/10 on Steam

In this atmospheric 16-bit survival adventure game, players control a slugcat, a weird animal hybrid able to slither, jump, run, and when it has to, fight. The slugcat exists in a weird industrial wasteland full of other strange creatures that create a fully functioning ecosystem.

Many of these creatures can be outran or hunted, but there are also plenty of beasts that will devour the slugcat if they get the chance, forcing players to sneak and hide as they explore Rainworld’s massive procedurally generated world.

4 Carrion

9/10 on Steam

It’s possible to be stealthy even while controlling a massive tentacle creature. Carrion is a side-scroller that has players control a rogue science experiment reminiscent of the monster from The Thing as it creeps around a massive facility.

Players will have to be careful and utilize hiding spaces to avoid being blown away by guards. The stealth elements do fade away as players progress, since the more humans they stalk and devour, the bigger and more terrifying their creature becomes.

3 Mark Of The Ninja

10/10 on Steam

While it’s debatable if it truly counts as a Metroidvania, it’s still worth noting Mark of the Ninja, as it is widley considered to be the definitive 2D side-scrolling stealth game, and it has enough similar mechanics that any fans of the Metroidvania genre should give it a try.

Players use quick movement, heightened sense abilities, gadgets, and their katana to sneakily take out enemies across a plethora of difficult missions with multiple ways to approach each one.

2 Metroid Dread

88 on Metacritic

The only game on this list from one of the two franchises that make up the name Metroidvania, Metroid Dread took a big swing by taking the Metroid franchise back to 2D. This choice ended up being the right one, as the game was one of the biggest hits of 2021.

One of the new choices for Dread was introducing stealth elements. Samus must avoid being seen by the ultra-powerful E.M.M.I., an unstoppable robot committed to hunting her. Unlike the more powerful Samus iterations from the Metroid Prime series, this take on Samus is far more vulnerable, making stealth an essential approach.

1 Stealth Inc. 2

7/10 on Steam

In Stealth Inc. 2, players control a clone that has escaped the facility that created him, along with some clone allies he can now control. The game revolves around using the clones to sneak around 60 different levels, all connected via one overworld, allowing them to explore in any order they want.

The stealth gameplay is a mixture of sneaking, using a multitude of wild gadgets, and brutally sacrificing clones for the greater good, making it one of the more unique stealth Metroidvanias on the market.