VGChartz’s Evan Norris: “Only in the last four years, when independent game developers focused on the genre in earnest, has the industry observed some dense concentrations of great or near-great Metroidvania games in a single calendar year. 2015 saw Ori and the Blind Forest and Axiom Verge, among others; 2016 gave us Song of the Deep and The Aquatic Adventure of the Last Human, to name a couple; and 2017 witnessed the long-awaited return of Samus in Metroid: Samus Returns, plus titles like Hollow Knight and Sundered.
None of these recent years quite compare to 2018, however. I would argue it’s the single best year for Metroidvania adventures, in terms of quantity, quality, and variety. To make my case, I will revisit seven special games released over the last 12 months, each of which made a notable contribution to the genre.”
Source: N4G PC 2018: The Year of the Metroidvania