7 Best DS Metroidvanias

Scurge: Hive is an action-adventure by Orbital Media that came out on both the Game Boy Advance and the DS in 2006. Bounty hunter Jenosa Arma takes a rescue job at a research lab on the planet Inos and finds it overrun by the Scurge, a parasite that can turn living things and machines into more of itself. It gets her the moment she meets it. An infection meter climbs the whole time, and only the cleansing stations, which double as save points, heal her.

It plays from an isometric view, which makes some jumps harder to line up than they should be. Upgrades open up more of the world as you go, and combat runs on rock-paper-scissors: each of your elemental weapons hurts one kind of enemy and powers up another. Jake Kaufman wrote the music. In 2025, just ahead of its twentieth anniversary, it was announced for modern consoles and PC.

Mega Man ZX is set two hundred years after the Mega Man Zero games, and it swaps the stage select for one big connected world. You change form with powerful artifacts called Biometals, and it was the first game in the series to let you pick your hero's gender, Vent or Aile. It mixes the Mega Man X and Zero series, and it often feels like both at once.

The DS had a slot for Game Boy Advance cartridges, and ZX put it to work: slide the right cartridge in and a hidden room opens with that game's bosses. Critics praised the gameplay and the level design, but the world map can be confusing and the difficulty is high. When players are asked for Mega Man on the DS, ZX is the name that comes up. A sequel, Mega Man ZX Advent, followed a year later.

Monster Tale is a platformer and virtual pet game from DreamRift, published by Majesco in March 2011 and released only in North America. Ellie and her monster companion Chomp have to stop the evil Kid-Kings and find Ellie a way home. Raising Chomp is the part that makes it feel like your own game.

DreamRift said some publishers pushed back on having a young girl as the hero, because they did not want to risk a lead who had not been proven with big audiences. Director Peter Ong called the choice somewhat controversial, and they kept Ellie anyway. Critics gave it generally favourable reviews, and in 2015 the studio announced a 3DS remake, Monster Tale Ultimate, with less backtracking. It arrived so late in the DS's life that a lot of people simply missed it, which is their loss.

Aliens: Infestation sends a squad of Colonial Marines after the Xenomorph, and its story adapts to the squad you choose. You fight through the U.S.S. Sulaco and planet LV-426 with the film's pulse rifles and smart guns. Gearbox was busy with Colonial Marines on PC and home consoles, so it handed the DS game to WayForward, the studio behind Contra 4.

Director Adam Tierney based it on Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, and the play borrows from Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, so you explore one big map and open it up as you go. He said the hardest part was making the Xenomorphs act like the film's creatures while still working as enemies. Players recommend it as a Metroidvania first and a movie game second. It is tense in the way the film is tense.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin has you switch between Jonathan Morris, who carries the Vampire Killer whip, and Charlotte Aulin, who casts magic. It is set in 1944 Europe during World War II, and the villain Brauner has filled Dracula's castle with paintings that act as portals to whole new areas. Two heroes means twice the excuses to revisit every room.

Jonathan is the son of John Morris from Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Sega Genesis. It was the first Castlevania with co-op play and the first handheld one with English voice acting. Critics praised the soundtrack and the co-op, and it picked up several awards as one of the best DS games. Ask players which Castlevania to get on the DS and the usual answer is all of them.

In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia the Holy Whip is gone, and Shanoa fights Dracula with Glyphs instead. The Glyph system has over 100 attack combinations, spread across 20 explorable areas, and a Glyph Union calls up a bigger attack that drains your Heart Points. It is sterner than the other two, and better for it.

It was the first canonical Castlevania where the Vampire Killer whip does not appear in any form. The Belmont clan has vanished, so the Order of Ecclesia made its own weapon from Dracula's power, three glyphs called Dominus, and chose Shanoa to carry it. Along the way you rescue the people of Wygol Village, whom Albus has hidden all over the map. Akihiro Minakata directed it, with Koji Igarashi back as producer.

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow is set a year after Soma Cruz discovered the evil of Dracula hidden inside his body, and now a cult wants that power released. You can equip only one soul of each type at a time, so every swap is a real decision. Draw the correct magic seal quickly, or your enemies will never die.

It was the first Castlevania on the DS, and it is a sequel to Aria of Sorrow that keeps many of its ideas. Koji Igarashi led the production team and wrote the story, and every area has its own theme music. It sold 164,000 copies in the United States in its first three months. It still comes up whenever players list their favourite DS games, and players recommend it more than any other DS Metroidvania.