For over three decades now, Pixar has been changing the game – pioneering the 3D-animated feature, and always delivering complex and characterful films with a sophisticated streak. From Toy Story, through beloved favourites like Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, into Wall-E and beyond, the studio is behind some of the most iconic characters, imaginative ideas and jaw-dropping visuals to have emerged in 21st Century cinema.

But which Pixar is movie is the greatest of them all? Which ones most capture the emotions in our Headquarters, or have us feeling we could win the Piston Cup, or make our souls soar like they did in the Great Before? Read Empire’s official ranking of every Pixar feature film – from Toy Story, right up to Elio.

29) Cars 2 (2011)

From any other studio, the empty but colourful whizz-bang adventure of Cars 2 would be perfectly acceptable. But while the film riffs energetically on throwback spy tropes from Bond to The Man From UNCLE, it's not up to Pixar's usual storytelling standards – lacking in charm and character, over-complicated and under-cooked. It does, at least, have visual pop as Lightning McQueen and crew (now including Michael Caine as secret agent Finn McMissile) set off on a globetrotting world tour with bouts of international espionage – but Cars 2 is the rare Pixar film that seems to play solely to young audience members.

Read Empire's review of Cars 2.

28) Lightyear (2022)

There was a valiant idea in Lightyear – to take one of Pixar’s most iconic characters, and do something totally different with him. But while a full-blown sci-fi adventure from the studio sounds tantalising, the results proved oddly muted. As with weaker Pixar fare, it’s still totally watchable, but Lightyear plays unexpectedly dour, with Chris Evans’ Buzz (supposedly the ‘real’ fictional character on which Andy’s beloved space-toy is based) going on an introspective journey to learn his place in the universe. There are great ideas: a bold sequence in which Buzz repeatedly undertakes an Interstellar-like time-bending mission while everyone he’s ever known ages significantly around him; a interesting Zurg-centric villain revelation; instant-favourite robo-cat Sox. But it’ll ultimately go down as a curio, a film that never goes to infinity, let alone beyond.

Read Empire's review of Lightyear.

27) The Good Dinosaur (2015)

A boy-and-his-dog story if the boy was a dinosaur and the dog was a boy, The Good Dinosaur famously went through much overhauling and retooling – and you can feel the joins. But if it's a relative failure for Pixar, it's at least an interesting one. The emotional weight is brutally blunt (the early death of apatosaurus Arlo's dad is genuinely wrenching), and it's full of weird and wild detours – from cowboy T-Rexs and rustler Velociraptors, to a druggy sequence that sees Arlo and human toddler Spot eat fermented fruit and trip out. Odd, but not without merit.

Read Empire's review of The Good Dinosaur.

26) Cars (2006)

For all the build-up, John Lasseter's long-gestating passion project turned out to be oddly by-the-numbers – a perfectly acceptable piece of family entertainment that lacked the snappy comedy and perfect pacing of prime Pixar, even if it delivered solid plotting and impressive racing animation. Not to mention the sheer mind-bending logistical questions that its world conjures – one in which there are sentient cars but no humans, and the notion of vehicular reproduction can't help but loom. If it doesn't resonate as strongly for older viewers like the Pixar classics, it at least proved hugely popular with kids – raising an entire generation on Lightning McQueen, and spawning the studio's first proper franchise since Toy Story.

Read Empire's review of Cars.

25) Monsters University (2013)

There's a nice idea behind this Pixar prequel – a college campus comedy that's Monsters, Inc. meets Animal House. And it's full of gentle chuckles, cutesy young designs of Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan (Billy Crystal and John Goodman both returning on voicing duties), and a sprightly energy. But it's pretty lightweight stuff, even if it packs in an interesting message: that hard work might not be enough to achieve your dream if you're really not suited for it, but you might find fulfilment in putting your talents to use elsewhere. That's the lesson learned by the young Mike, desperate to become a celebrated scarer before pivoting to a less glamorous logistical role.

Read Empire's review of Monsters University.

24) A Bug’s Life (1998)

Pixar's follow-up to Toy Story transplanted the story of Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven into the world of insects. If it's not as memorable as the first adventure of Woody and Buzz, it proved the studio was far more than a one-hit wonder. Flik is the imaginative drone ant who draws in a team of circus bugs to help protect his colony from the evil grasshoppers who try to steal their food stash. It packs considerable laughs (the moths unable to resist the lure of the light, Joe Ranft's turn as hammy German caterpillar Heimlich), but remains surpassed by much of the studio's subsequent output.

Read Empire's review of A Bug's Life.

23) Cars 3 (2017)

The final instalment of the Cars trilogy is the best of the three – with a more introspective tone and deeper characterisation than either of its predecessors. Yes, it's the Logan of the Cars world – one in which Lightning McQueen is running out of steam and questioning his future, as a new generation of racers speed up from behind him. It's still not Pixar at its peak, but Cars 3 provides a satisfying closure on the remarkably popular franchise – and even nods to a brighter future with Cristela Alonzo's incoming racer Cruz Ramirez.

Read Empire's review of Cars 3.

22) Elio (2025)

If Elio — directed by the maverick trio of Domee Shi (Turning Red), Madeline Sharafian, and Adrian Molina (Coco) — is a glimpse into the future of Pixar's original animation output, then that future is bright. A (perhaps too) gently delivered, visually inspired space oddity about a lost little boy (Yonas Kibreab) whose greatest wish — to be abducted by aliens and taken on an intergalactic adventure — comes true, Pixar's 2024 original offering may carry unexpected echoes of Mickey 17 and Contact in its DNA, but its story of self-discovery and the long road to figuring out where you belong feels entirely fresh and marches to the beat of its own drum. Toy Story told wide-eyed weans to reach for the sky 30-odd years ago; Elio dares to imagine what we might find there. The plot probably won't stick with you far beyond the end credits, truth be told, but the experience of watching it will — and that ain't nothing.

Streaming now on Disney+.

21) Brave (2012)

The story of flame-haired Scottish Princess Merida feels more akin to the recent mainline Disney output (the likes of Tangled and Frozen) than a Pixar film – not a criticism, but a recognition of how tonally different it feels to the studio's usual fare. For one, the humour (mostly involving Merida's trio of young brothers) skews younger, playing a little broader, a little less refined, and the story is a little more generic. But character-wise it's beautifully done – exploring a complex mother-daughter relationship rendered even trickier thanks to a magic spell with unexpected consequences. If the gorgeous early concept art teased something more mystical and contemplative, Brave is nevertheless beautiful inside and out.

Read Empire's review of Brave.

20) Elemental (2023)

On the outside, Elemental looks like Pixar business as usual – set in a gorgeous city inhabited by fire, water, earth and wind people, director Peter Sohn’s analogy for the melting-pot New York he grew up in. But under the hood, it’s unique – a proper Pixar romcom, with water-guy mismatched Wade (Mamoudou Athie) and flame-headed Ember (Leah Lewis) falling for each other while uncovering a mystery in Element City. Their growing bond is incredibly charming, all building to a tear-jerking climax as the pair are forced to fight for each other amid city calamities, their opposite natures, and familial obligations. It doesn’t all work, but it’s an effective deliverer of warm-and-fuzzies, with some gorgeously-textured animation in Ember’s gently-blazing body and Wade’s liquid form.

Read Empire's review of Elemental.

19) Luca (2021)

Whilst Enrico Casarosa’s 2021 fish-based fable may not trouble Pixar’s biggest hitters in the spectacle department, there’s an ineffable charm to the Italian writer-director’s small-scale, sun-soaked paean to childhood, self-discovery, and motorised scooters. Set amid the picturesque town of Portorosso (a loving nod to Studio Ghibli’s Porco Rosso), Luca follows two teen sea creatures — Luca and Alberto (Jacob Tremblay and Jack Dylan Grazer) — who come of age together in the human world over one glorious, long summer. The episodically-structured plot of this literal fish-out-of-water tale can at times feel a little shallow, but the same cannot be said of its exploration of male friendship and the experiences of marginalised communities. Luca feels like a bit of a hidden gem already.

Read Empire's review of Luca.

18) Finding Dory (2016)

If its title hints at a lazy spin-off, the Nemo follow-up is a real surprise – proving that the first film's comic relief side-kick could anchor a whole movie of her own. Taking in loss and abandonment, it packs an emotional punch while also delivering huge laughs, thanks particularly to oddball side characters like monobrowed sea lion Gerald and boggle-eyed bird Becky. It's a little overstuffed with new characters – though Ed O'Neill's grouchy octopus Hank is a mind-bogglingly impressive piece of animation – and if it goes a little wild in the final act (did it really need a car chase, as funny as this one is?), it's far more than an empty cash-in.

Read Empire's review of Finding Dory.

17) Toy Story 4 (2019)

After delivering a near-perfect trilogy that ended with a near-perfect finale, Pixar dared to go back to its old toys. And Toy Story 4 mostly gets away with it, giving us an emotional coda that feels welcome, if not strictly necessary. If the plotting is a tad hectic (it's a road trip that turns into a pit-stop at a fairground next to an antiques shop), it's full of delights – Tony Hale's suicidal, existential arts-and-crafts spork Forky ("I'm trash!"), a much more satisfying incarnation of Bo Peep after her absence from Toy Story 3, Keanu Reeves as Canadian daredevil Duke Caboom, and a poignant pay-off for Woody and Buzz. With Toy Story 5 already confirmed, it remains to be seen how the finale here is paid off.

Read Empire's review of Toy Story 4.

16) Incredibles 2 (2018)

Not quite as dazzling as the original, Incredibles 2 (no 'The', for reasons that remain unclear) is at least a natural Pixar continuation – a superhero sequel in a box office landscape saturated by them, that once again proved animation to be a natural medium for portraying superpowers. Taking place in the aftermath of the first movie, it smartly foregrounds Holly Hunter's matriarch Elastigirl, venturing back into the crime-fighting fray in the wake of Jack-Jack's birth while Mr. Incredible turns stay-at-home dad. Its domestic scenes are smartly observed, Jack-Jack remains comic dynamite (his battle with a raccoon delivers huge laughs), and it pulls off zippy action with an expanded roster of heroes.

Read Empire's review of Incredibles 2.

15) Soul (2020)

Pete Docter’s Inside Out follow-up went even bigger in ambition – delivering an existential odyssey about life, death, and the 'Great Before’, through the story of aspiring jazz musician Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx). After dying on the day of his biggest musical opportunity, his soul teams with unruly spirit 22 (Tina Fey) ands returns to Earth in unexpected form. Soul explores humanity and art with all the freewheeling imagination you'd expect from Docter, while co-director Kemp Powers brings specificity to the evocation of Black communities in New York. It's gorgeous to look at too, from the jaw-dropping lighting in the Earth-bound street scenes, to the black-and-white visual freak-out that accompanies Joe's initial demise. While it aims high and swings big, it doesn't always connect – but it’s a mind-boggling work that only Pixar could have made.

Read Empire's review of Soul.

14) Onward (2020)

Preceded by a string of sequels, Pixar's return to original stories proved a total blast – hilarious, emotional, and imaginative, presenting a contemporary fantasy world that has long lost its magic. At its heart are elf brothers Ian and Barley Lightfoot (Tom Holland and Chris Pratt), who never got to grow up with their deceased dad. When their attempt at a 'visitation spell' goes wrong, they set off on a race-against-time quest to re-try the magic. The result is one of Pixar's funniest films, stuffed with uproarious sight gags, peppered with propulsive action, and with a rollocking tone nicely balanced out by a tug of emotional loss. Add in a glut of D&D references and a beautiful brotherly relationship, and it's a critical hit.

Read Empire's review of Onward.

13) Inside Out 2 (2024)

A thoughtful continuation of Inside Out’s emotional journey slips back inside the mind of a now-teenage Riley (Kensington Tallman), scrambled anew by the onset of puberty — and the arrival of several new emotions. Chief amongst them is Anxiety (an outstanding Maya Hawke), whose calamitous efforts to prepare Riley for high-school life — aided by Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) — see the teen’s childhood emotions left adrift. Sar-chasms, dark secrets, and a recurring bit involving a 2D toon from Riley’s favourite childhood show all handily emulate the first film’s visual invention and quick-witted humour. But, once again, it’s the nuanced take on the complexities of our emotions — here, a profoundly relatable deconstruction of social anxiety and self-doubt — that delivers all the feels.

Read Empire's review of Inside Out 2.

12) Turning Red (2022)

Following her outstanding Pixar short Bao, director Domee Shi made a seamless transition to features. Turning Red is a supremely witty, visually distinctive entry in the Pixar canon – a proper coming-of-age story set in early ‘00s Toronto, in which young Mei’s (Rosalie Chiang) journey into puberty comes with the curse (or is it?) of mutating into a giant red panda at inopportune moments. With its anime-infused unapologetically tween-girl aesthetic (Boybands! Girly magazines!), emotional gut-punches in its exploration of generational trauma, and a bevy of pop bangers from 4*TOWN (penned by Billie Eilish and Finneas, no less), it’s a vibrant and unique entry in the studio’s catalogue. As a result, it’s never not on our minds.

Read Empire's review of Turning Red.

11) Coco (2017)

With Coco, Pixar distilled its propensity for extraordinary emotional punch into just two words: 'remember me'. The film's journey into the Mexican Land Of The Dead is breathtakingly colourful and drop-dead gorgeous even by the studio's own monumental standards – but it’s the thematic explorations of grief, remembrance, and family ties that stands above it all, with a finale sure to have all viewers in pools of tears. With its vibrant and vital portrayal of Mexican culture and folklore, it's a modern classic – even if, to nitpick, you can hear the narrative gears creaking a little when attempting to propel the adventure plot.

Read Empire's review of Coco.

10) Finding Nemo (2003)

The studio's first fish-fuelled adventure was a technical breakthrough at the time – conjuring a believable underwater world complete with refracting light and floating aquatic debris. The big blue is as epic an adventure environment as you could wish for – with floundering clownfish father Marlin (Albert Brooks) encountering sharks, giant turtles, and a maze of jellyfish as he searches for his missing son Nemo who's been nabbed by tropical fish traders. Andrew Stanton's solo directorial debut is packed with memorable dialogue ("Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"), resonant familial themes, and an ocean's worth of loveable characters – not least Ellen DeGeneres's memory-challenged Dory, later granted her own spin-off.

Read Empire's review of Finding Nemo.

9) Toy Story (1995)

All movies are made against the odds – but the ones stacked against Toy Story were monumental. Tussling with revolutionary technology and considerable tonal changes throughout production, the finished film became an instant classic, an all-new kind of animated movie. The game-changing 3D animation set the template for several decades to come, while the film worked for kids and adults simultaneously on different registers – not just one-for-them-then-one-for-you jokes, but on a deeper level of conception and characterisation. If Pixar has since outdone it, Toy Story remains the nucleus of everything that makes the studio great, from the indestructible buddy-duo of Woody and Buzz, to the zinging script with surprising emotional depth, with the darkness of Sid's cracked creations and an exciting action finale, all delivered in 80 minutes.

Read Empire's review of Toy Story.

8) Ratatouille (2007)

Only Pixar could hit on the pun potential of a rat cooking ratatouille and turn it into something this sumptuous and sensory. A culinary odyssey, Ratatouille managed to make cooking cinematic – visualising scents and flavours as dazzling light shows that sing on the screen. If it's recognisably set in Paris, there's gloriously surreal stuff happening here too, as furry wannabe-chef Remy finds a novel way of controlling hopeless kitchen hand Linguine. Downright delightful, with a pitch-perfect Michael Giacchino score, and a climactic scene involving a cold-hearted critic that brings goosebumps galore.

Read Empire's review of Ratatouille.

7) Up (2009)

It's impossible to discuss Up without addressing that opening sequence, distilling the life of childhood sweethearts Carl and Ellie into a mercurial montage of marriage, miscarriage, and mortality – human, heartbreaking, and beautifully handled. In fact, it's such powerful stuff that it's easy to forget how bonkers and vibrant the film is as a whole – with dogs flying planes, houses floating away on balloons, and a giant tropical bird called Kevin. That Up manages to combine all of those those elements into a meditation on grief and the process of letting go, with an octogenarian protagonist to boot, is astonishing – the sort of feat only Pixar can pull off.

Read Empire's review of Up.

6) The Incredibles (2004)

An unlikely mash-up of The Simpsons and Watchmen, The Incredibles lived up to its name – a thrilling, action-packed comic books-meets-vintage-Bond blast. Depicting an alt-universe in which outlawed superheroes are forced into quiet domestic lives, leading into a mystery around the deaths of former costumed adventurers, it saw the studio aim at a slightly older audience – and delivered with glorious super-powered team-up sequences under the guidance of director Brad Bird. There's genius comedy, too, in fashion-forward costume designer Edna Mode. But this is Pixar pulling off a proper action movie – in fact, it's still the best Fantastic Four film ever made. Your move, Feige.

Read Empire's review of The Incredibles.

5) Toy Story 2 (1999)

Just as surprising as the original Toy Story was its supremely confident sequel – so good that Disney upgraded it from a planned straight-to-video continuation to a proper cinematic release. Toy Story 2 doubles down on the core of Woody and Buzz while introducing properly loveable new characters in the Woody's Round-Up gang (Jessie! Bullseye! Not you, Stinky Pete) and taking the toys out into the big, bad world. From its Star Wars-riffing opening, to its airport action finale, via the aisles of Al's Toy Barn, the characters, narrative and gags of Toy Story 2 remain in perfect harmony, with deeper explorations around abandonment, collectorship and the true purpose of toys. And don't even get us started on Jessie's song.

Read Empire's review of Toy Story 2.

4) Monsters, Inc. (2001)

It seemed unlikely that Pixar could dream up a duo as iconic as Woody and Buzz – until Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan entered the building. The creativity on display in Monsters, Inc. is Pixar in full-flow, with the city of Monstropolis – decked out with sight gags and fuelled by the screams of terrified children – among its most dazzling locales. There's tender emotion, too, as Sully comes to discover that human toddler Boo isn't the toxic terror he was led to believe ("Kitty!"). But it's the script that really soars – full of zingers and bickering, brilliantly brought to life by Billy Crystal and John Goodman. When do we get the all-singing all-dancing stage version of 'Put That Thing Back Where It Came From, Or So Help Me'?

Read Empire's review of Monsters, Inc.

3) Toy Story 3 (2010)

For kids, the (then) final Toy Story instalment was another fun adventure with Woody, Buzz and the gang, The Great Escape in a nursery. For adults and anyone who had grown up with the series, it was a tearjerking farewell to childhood, with a climax that evoked racking sobs and bulbous tears barely hidden behind 3D glasses. From that fiery furnace scene, to the passing of the torch from Andy to Bonnie, Toy Story 3 is so emotional that it's easy forget its joys – Spanish-language Buzz Lightyear, Timothy Dalton voicing luvvie hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants, and a Ken doll fashion show. A five-star finale to a consistently five-star trilogy.

Read Empire's review of Toy Story 3.

2) Wall-E (2008)

There's a duality to Wall-E – a film that begins quietly and entirely dialogue-free before shifting into a breakneck adventure; a Pixar movie that's swooningly romantic while positing a bleak-as-hell fate for humanity. As deeply charming as our titular robot is, he's trapped in a future hellscape of our creation – a literal world of trash, littered with remnants of our consumerism and ravaged by global warming. But it's delightfully old-fashioned too, paying homage to Hollywood history with music nabbed from Hello Dolly. There's a spark of hope thanks not only to the arrival of Apple-esque love interest EVE, but the discovery of a single piece of viable plant life. As for Wall-E himself, he rivals Gizmo and Grogu in the so-cute-you’d-die-for-them stakes. Deeply loveable, narratively bold, and already a vital piece of cinema in the climate crisis age.

Read Empire's review of Wall-E.

1) Inside Out (2015)

For a studio full of bright ideas, Inside Out might go down as Pixar's most dazzling – exploring the feelings behind our feelings, it's a film of genuine emotional intelligence wrapped up in a story of intelligent emotions. It takes barely 30 seconds for the tears to start flowing – as baby Riley is born, sees her parents for the first time, and experiences pure joy. And it only get stranger, funnier, and more beautiful from there – as a relocation to San Francisco sends young Riley's inner world into chaos. There's delightful creativity (the abstract thought sequence), witty observations (brief trips into Riley's parents' heads), and a vital concluding message: that sadness is a necessary part of life, and needs to be embraced when the time comes. An all-out miracle of a movie.

Read Empire's review of Inside Out.

READ MORE: Every Studio Ghibli Movie Ranked

READ MORE: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Ranked

After a quarter-century of quarter-mile, nitrous-powered and family (FAAAAMILYYYY) focused carnage, the Fast & Furious franchise — which has grown from humble mid-budget street racing beginnings in 2001's The Fast And The Furious to world-beating 'volleying giant bombs with muscle cars in Rome' blockbuster phenomenon by 2023's Fast X — is coming to the end of the road. And earlier today, franchise star/talisman/ultimate cheerleader Vin Diesel took to Instagram to share the movie's title and release date. True to the franchise's total lack of naming convention, the Toretto clan's last outing is called Fast Forever — and it's coming to cinemas on 17 March, 2028. Check out Big Vin's post below;

"No one said the road would be easy… but it’s ours," wrote Vin Diesel on Instagram, poignantly sharing a photo of himself alongside late franchise co-star Paul Walker. "One that has defined us and become our legacy… And a legacy… lasts Forever," the actor and saga producer added, before revealing that the eleventh Fast film is set to hit cinemas just over two years from now. Now, we don't know exactly what to expect from Fast Forever just yet, or who will be returning for the saga's grand finale, but Vin Diesel did confirm three conditions he set to Universal execs for making the last Fast film at car festival Fuel Fest back in 2024 that certainly offer tantalising hints: "The first is to bring the franchise back to L.A.,” he told the crowd, “The second thing was to return to the car culture, to the street racing. And the third thing was reuniting Dom and Brian O’Conner. That is what you’re going to get in the finale.”

How exactly Brian — originally played by Walker and last seen driving into the sunset at the end of Fast & Furious 7 — will return is anybody's guess at this point. But with one movie left, the saga set to return to its roots for its last hurrah, and Vin Diesel revved up and ready to go, you can bet we'll be there at the start line with our Fast-loving family (FAAAAAMILYYYYYY) when Fast Forever races into cinemas on 17 March, 2028.

Masters Of The Universe has always had a sense of playfulness. Literally. Before it was anything else, it was a toy range, Mattel’s original creation proving an instant hit with kids as it flew off the shelves. A colourful cartoon series swiftly followed, unfolding an expansive canon of tales in which He-Man and his nemesis Skeletor clashed across the land of Eternia, with all kinds of imaginative allies on each side. Now, it’s up to Travis Knight – the Laika legend behind Kubo And The Two Strings, who made his live-action debut with 2018’s Bumblebee – to turn plastic into blockbuster reality with this summer’s Masters Of The Universe movie. Power Swords up, people.

For Knight, it was clear that his MOTU needed to lean into the world’s toys-turned-cartoon origins. “There’s an inherent silliness to it, which we are acknowledging and embracing,” he tells Empire. “I think it’s a virtue, actually. And it’s woven into the script to help some of these things make sense to a modern audience. Like, why would that character have that stupid name? Well, over the course of the movie we show you why.” That means an accurately green-furred Battle Cat, a faithful skull-faced Skeletor (played here by Jared Leto), Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba) donning that chunky helmet, and Evil-Lyn (Alison Brie) with her purple headdress and cosmic orb.

The live-action film also brought the challenge of casting someone buff enough to play He-Man. Though that wasn’t Knight’s primary concern. “I wasn’t looking for a body,” the director says. “I was looking for a soul. I needed someone who had the spirit of this character, and could be funny and charming and heartbreaking and also plausibly a big action hero. Because there’s a duality there: Adam essentially represents empathy, He-Man represents strength.”

Enter Nicholas Galitzine, of The Idea Of You and Bottoms, who landed the role and soon found himself hitting the gym, hard. “I think anyone seeing that iconic physique would find it extremely daunting,” he admits. “Even the animations put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame: the proportions, the minuscule waist, the boulder shoulders… I had four or five months to get in shape. Truly, it was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.” More fun was donning He-Man’s scant armour, which shows off all of Galitzine’s hard work. “You just become kind of abnormally confident in it,” he says. “It’s like when you do sex scenes. Everyone else in the room is more uncomfortable than you are, you know? Wandering around in this costume was empowering.” He has the power.

Read Empire’s full Masters Of The Universe feature – going on set with director Travis Knight and his cast – in the April 2026 issue, on sale Thursday February 12. Pre-order a copy online here. Masters Of The Universe comes to UK cinemas from June 5.

Ever since zombies first rose up on the big screen, they’ve spent decades dominating movies and more in their shuffling hordes. One of the archetypal horror characters, the walking dead have endured in popular culture for over half a century, emerging and evolving in new forms, eating away at the collective consciousness. There’s an inherent sense of the uncanny to a zombie — someone who’s neither dead nor alive, a former friend that has become a mindless enemy, all infused with the terror of cannibalism — and yet they’re also a blank slate, a metaphor ripe to reflect the fears and foes of whatever year they appear in.

With the obvious caveat that no TV shows can munch their way into our line-up (no, not even The Last Of Us — which, technically, isn't about zombies anyway in all fairness!), Team Empire presents a list of the greatest zombie movies. Some represent mindless, blood-splattered fun, others boast brains as well as bursting innards and rank among the best horror movies ever made — but from scuzzy, sickening gonzo gore-fests to genre-twisting hybrids (and even a family-friendly favourite or two), there's a man eater for all seasons amongst the cinematic escapades of the undead masses.

How We Chose The 25 Best Zombie Movies

In creating Empire's list of the 25 best zombie movies of all time, we turned to our experienced team of critics and contributors here at the biggest movie magazine in the world to pool their expertise. Now, having weighed up the team's shortlists and their entries' artistic merit, cultural impact, and overall undead credentials, we have after much heated discussion settled on our final line-up. Destined to delight some, enrage others, and befuddle a great many more gorehounds among you, we nevertheless believe we've landed on a damn fine rundown of a quarter-century of the greatest zombie flicks around.

So don your protective gear, tool up (anyone got a cricket bat?), dive right in — and don't forget to double-tap!

The 25 Best Zombie Movies — And Where To Stream Them

25) Tombs Of The Blind Dead (1972)

Director: Amando de Ossorio | Runtime: 1hr 41m | Streaming on: N/A

Starring: Lone Fleming, César Burner, María Elena Arpón

For anyone eager to sink their teeth into the history of horror cinema, look no further than Amando de Ossorio’s infamous 70s chiller Tombs Of The Blind Dead. This slow-moving film — aptly describing both the movie and its titular ghouls — is a Spanish cult classic. Though it may show a bit of wear with its janky sword-swinging and slow (and we do mean slow) motion horse-riding shots, its eerie tone and the unsettling design of the undead Templar knights — yes, this film's brain guzzlers of choice are actual undead knights — will crawl under your skin. Invite some friends for laughs at its early moments of goofiness, but don’t be surprised when the haunting atmosphere of the Blind Dead lingers with you days after.

24) Planet Terror (2007)

Director: Robert Rodriguez | Runtime: 1hr 45m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis, Fergie, Tom Savini

Robert Rodriguez's trash-tastic exploitation homage is the splattier, squelchier half of the Grindhouse double-bill he cooked up with Quentin Tarantino — the story of a go-go dancer, a bioweapon gone awry, and Texan townsfolk turned into shuffling, pustulous monsters. Leaning heavily into its B-movie roots, with missing reels, scratchy edits and hammy overdubbed dialogue, Planet Terror has its exploding tongue firmly rooted in its rotting cheek. Its over-cranked gore and oozing effects are downright disgusting, and it builds to a stupidly fun finale in which Rose McGowan's hero Cherry Darling has her severed leg replaced with a machine gun. All together now: "I'm gonna eat your brains and gain your knowledge!"

Read Empire's review of Planet Terror.

23) Dead Snow (2009)

Director: Tommy Wirkola | Runtime: 1hr 32m | Streaming on: N/A

Starring: Jeppe Beck Laursen, Charlotte Frogner, Jenny Skavlan, Geir Vegar Hoel

Helping popularise the notion of Nazi Zombies around the same time that it became a Call Of Duty staple, Tommy Wirkola's Norwegian comedy-horror combined cinema's two most enduring forms of villain. When a group of students head off for an Easter holiday in a snowy Scandinavian cabin, they accidentally summon an undead horde of Nazis by meddling with a box of gold loot. It's a premise that plays on reported tales of the Nazis' obsession with the occult, while leaning gleefully into the potential of its unapologetically pulpy concept. The white stuff quickly turns red in a blast of campy shlock — especially once the survivors arm themselves with power tools.

22) Cargo (2017)

Director(s): Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke | Runtime: 1hr 44m | Streaming on: Netflix

Starring: Martin Freeman

Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke's feature-length expansion of their 2013 short film Cargo offers up a delicately balanced, distinctly more emotional kind of zombie movie, evoking the likes of The Road, The Last Of Us, and — with its devastatingly beautiful outback cinematography — Wolf Creek. Martin Freeman is heartbreakingly believable here as a father trying to do everything to secure his daughter’s safety in an apocalyptic wasteland after being bitten by a zombie, while Howling and Ramke's *ahem* biting social commentary and neatly woven in new strands of undead lore lend Cargo impressive heft and credible genre chops. Undertaking a feature-length adaptation of a short film is always a risk, but Cargo, aptly, delivers.

21) The Sadness (2021)

Director: Rob Jabbaz | Runtime: 1hr 39m | Streaming on: Shudder

Starring: Regina Lei, Berant Zhu, Tzu-Chiang Wang, Apple Chen, Wei-Hua Lan

The idea of regular human beings getting infected with a virus that strips their humanity and turns them into mindless undead monsters is horrifying enough as it is, but writer-director Rob Jabbaz's Taiwanese 2021 splatterfest The Sadness goes even further. In Shabbaz's movie, which ostensibly follows the simple plot of a young couple searching for each other amid a plague outbreak in their city, infection doesn't make mindless monsters of men — it rewires the brain and turns citizens of an already crumbling society into murderers and rapists, condemned to carry out the darkest acts their mutated minds can conjure. Unremittingly bleak, utterly stomach churning, and loaded with more trigger warnings than you can imagine, The Sadness is a COVID era zombie joint that makes our pandemic look comparatively utopian. Yeah, it really is that dark. Brilliantly so, though.

20) ParaNorman (2012)

Director(s): Chris Butler, Sam Fell | Runtime: 1hr 32m | Streaming on: ITVX

Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, Bernard Hill

A zombie movie – but, y'know, for kids! Fresh from traumatising a generation with Coraline, Laika continued to push their practical-meets-digital stop-motion model (pardon the pun) further with their sophomore feature, 2012’s Chris Butler and Sam Fell directed, Romero-homaging zom-com ParaNorman. The titular Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an ostracised boy who can talk to the dead — which comes in real handy when a witch's curse summons walking corpses from the town graveyard. Spooky fun, and a rare zombie movie that (due to its target audience) isn't lavished in gore despite its effectively decayed-looking silicone hordes, ParaNorman challenges genre tropes to tell an enduringly resonant story about outcasts and the perils of judging books — or indeed zombies and witches — by their covers.

Read Empire's review of ParaNorman.

19) Pontypool (2008)

Director(s): Bruce McDonald | Runtime: 1hr 33m | Streaming on: Plex

Starring: Stephen McHattie, Lisa Houle, Georgina Reilly

Character acting veteran Stephen McHattie (Watchmen, The Fountain) relishes a rare leading role in Bruce McDonald's micro-budget entry into the zombie canon, Pontypool. Here he plays Grant Mazzy, a grizzled shock jock whose small-town Ontario breakfast show takes a turn for the worse when he finds himself and his small team holed up in their station, live on air, as a viral outbreak rages outside and over the airwaves. As much a visual radio play as a movie (it was inspired, at least in part, by Orson Welles' War Of The Worlds radio production), Pontypool is more War Of The Words — or Word War Z — than straight-up invasion horror, and it endures as a cleverly done addition to the genre that still offers a totally singular take on the man eating masses.

Read Empire's review of Pontypool.

18) The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)

Director(s): Colm McCarthy | Runtime: 1hr 51m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Sennia Nanua, Fisayo Akinade, Dominique Tipper, Paddy Considine, Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close

It takes a lot to make a truly fresh-feeling zombie film — but Colm McCarthy's adaptation of Mike Carey's novel is a smart and thoughtful reinvention, with genre thrills to boot. In this case the zombie condition is the result of a The Last Of Us-esque fungal pathogen which has turned most of the population into 'hungries'. But that remains largely in the background of the story, which instead focuses on young girl Melanie, who's receiving an unusual education in a heavily-armed facility from Gemma Arterton's teacher Helen. As a 'second-generation' hungry, Melanie still wants to eat human flesh, but can think and feel too – and her mere existence could hold the key to the future.

Read Empire's review of The Girl With All The Gifts.

17) [REC]² (2009)

Director(s): Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza | Runtime: 1hr 25m | Streaming on: Shudder on Prime Video

Starring: Jonathan D. Mellor, Manuela Velasco, Óscar Zafra, Ariel Casas

This second dose of panic-attack-inducing found-footage horror is largely as effective as the first film — one that revisits the outbreak-afflicted tower block from a new perspective, as a team of bodycam-wearing soldiers head in to retrieve a sample. It makes for a more action-oriented follow-up, but one with compelling ideas thrown in the mix too — delivering a unique take on zombie lore, with the viral infection compounded by some religious occultism. It's especially impressive for managing to hop between perspectives without ruining the central first-person concept.

Read Empire's review of [REC]².

16) Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979)

Director(s): Lucio Fulci | Runtime: 1hr 31m | Streaming on: Shudder, Arrow

Starring: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay

Imagined as a quasi-sequel to Dawn Of The Dead, Italian director Lucio Fulci's film, notorious for its truly sickening effects, took zombie mythology back to its black magic-inspired roots. Zombie Flesh Eaters — also known as Zombi 2, after Dawn Of The Dead was released as Zombi in Italy — depicts a zombie outbreak on the Caribbean island of Matul as the result of a voodoo curse, with its creaky undead shufflers pictured in various stages of decomposition, often covered in (real) maggots. A famous scene involving some up-close eyeball damage got it caught up in the 'Video Nasty' scandal – and though a cult favourite, it's more beloved by hardcore zombie fans than critics. Bonus points for the stupidly dangerous zombie vs. shark showdown, though.

Read Empire's review of Zombie Flesh Eaters.

15) World War Z (2013)

Director(s): Marc Forster | Runtime: 1hr 56m | Streaming on: Netflix, Paramount+

Starring: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, James Badge Dale, Ludi Boeken, Matthew Fox

Sure, it may bear very little resemblance to its celebrated source novel, but World War Z stands as perhaps the only all-out zombie blockbuster. With Brad Pitt in the lead, a globe-trotting scope, and a considerable studio budget behind it, Marc Forster's film presents the zombie movie as a summer action spectacle with a worldwide outbreak threatening global collapse. Where most zombie films are claustrophobic, this is the opposite, offering up inventive widescreen imagery of zombie swarms – crowds of the undead running en masse, scrambling over each other in insect-like mounds, able to scale walls through sheer force of will.

Read Empire's review of World War Z.

14) Zombieland (2009)

Director(s): Ruben Fleischer | Runtime: 1hr 28m | Streaming on: Now TV

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard, Bill Murray

As the zombie sub-genre ambled towards a cultural renaissance at the end of the 2010s, Ruben Fleischer's irreverent zom-com arrived at just the right time. Jesse Eisenberg is cautious loner Columbus, doing his best to survive the undead apocalypse with a series of audience-winking rules ('check the back seat', 'double tap' your kills). He becomes part of a makeshift family when he teams up with Woody Harrelson's Twinkie-loving hard-ass Tallahassee, Emma Stone's sarcastic Wichita, and Abigail Breslin's doe-eyed youngster Little Rock. With a zippy sub-90 minute runtime, madcap zombie murders (death by falling piano, anyone?), and genius Bill Murray cameo, it's a funhouse ride of a zombie film that culminates in an actual fairground set piece.

Read Empire's review of Zombieland.

13) Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

Director: Zack Snyder | Runtime: 1hr 42m | Streaming on: N/A

Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Mekhi Phifer, Jake Weber, Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly

Remaking Romero's definitive masterpiece wasn't a task to be taken lightly. But, early in his career, Zack Snyder delivered a worthy reincarnation, working from a script by none other than James Gunn. Its biggest change is the controversial move to fast-zombies, offering frenetic survival sequences with a palpable sense of panic — and making for a gripping opening act as the outbreak spreads and society rapidly crumbles. It's appropriately nasty and gory, with early hints of Snyder's keen sense of cinematic style, and some impressively upsetting ideas — most notably, what happens when a pregnant woman is bitten?

Read Empire's review of _Dawn Of The Dead _.

12) One Cut Of The Dead (2019)

Director: Shin'ichiro Ueda | Runtime: 1hr 36m | Streaming on: Shudder

Starring: Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Mao, Takayuki Hamatsu

To say too much about Shin'ichiro Ueda's film would be to ruin its delicious, joyous surprises — but, suffice to say, if the opening minutes come off like a particularly ramshackle horror movie, that's entirely the point. An out-of-his-depth director is attempting to make a zombie film of his own, when the production finds itself besieged by actual zombies. From there? Well, you'll have to see for yourself. But it's a film fizzing with invention, one that manages to turn the zombie movie on its head in all-new ways while displaying real heart. Destined to be a cult classic.

Read Empire's review of One Cut Of The Dead.

11) The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)

Director: Dan O'Bannon | Runtime: 1hr 31m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph, John Philbin

Away from Romero's seriousness, Dan O'Bannon's comedy-horror delivered a more raucous take on the zombie flick, right down to its tagline: 'They're back from the grave and ready to party!' Return Of The Living Dead takes place in a world where Romero's films exist but their rules don't apply — with the townsfolk soon learning that headshots won't work. It played with what zombies could do, too — long before 28 Days Later, O'Bannon came up with the running dead, depicted zombies harbouring a specific hunger for brains, and gave them the ability to speak. Gooey and gory, buoyed along on a punk soundtrack featuring the likes of The Cramps and The Damned, The Return Of The Living Dead remains about as much fun as a person can have with hordes of flesh eaters.

Read Empire's review of The Return Of The Living Dead.

10) Re-Animator (1985)

Director: Stuart Gordon | Runtime: 1hr 24m | Streaming on: Shudder

Starring: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton

Based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator presents a different spin on the undead. Here Jeffrey Combs' unhinged professor Herbert West invents a lime-green liquid capable of reanimating dead animal tissue — and which, before long, he starts applying to dead bodies (some of which he's responsible for). Cue fellow scientists attempting to steal the 're-agent', a rising pile of zombified corpses, and, er, a severed head oral sex scene. It's a swirling, pulpy blend of horror and comedy, and a bloody affair even by gore-soaked '80s standards. With a tight script and bravura approach, it remains sickeningly entertaining.

Read Empire's review of Re-Animator.

9) 28 Years Later (2025)

Director: Danny Boyle | Runtime: 1hr 55m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes

It’s fitting that, 23 years after Danny Boyle and Alex Garland adrenalised the zombie genre anew in 28 Days Later, their return saw the duo hit the ground running. This long-awaited threequel is a wild work from two of Britain’s best, creatively energised as they synthesise decades of national tumult into a pulse-pounding survival story. Or at least, the first half of 28 Years Later is that film, depicting youngster Spike’s (outstanding newcomer Alfie Williams) first trip to the infected UK mainland with his sharp-shooting dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). But it’s the unexpectedly soulful second half that proves to be Years’ secret weapon, delivering depths of emotion as Spike and his mum Isla (Jodie Comer) embark on their own odyssey. Memento mori, memento amoris.

Read Empire's review of 28 Years Later.

8) [REC] (2007)

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza | Runtime: 1hr 18m | Streaming on: Arrow

Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano

If found-footage horror is a mixed bag, Spanish horror Rec used the shooting-style to maximum effect — getting up-close-and-personal at ground zero of a zombie outbreak in the claustrophobic confines of an apartment block. For a handheld film, Rec's camerawork remains mercifully steady thanks to the conceit that our cameraman is a professional — Ferran Terraza's Manu, who's shooting a news reel with reporter Ángela (Manuela Velasco) in the wrong place at the wrong time. Scary as hell, with a set of smarter-than-average characters, and an all-timer final reel as the camera's night vision mode is activated.

Read Empire's review of [REC].

7) Braindead (1992)

Director: Peter Jackson | Runtime: 1hr 44m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Elizabeth Moody, Timothy Balme, Diana Penalver, Ian Watkin

Long before he went off to Middle-earth, Peter Jackson was painting the town red with his ludicrously bloody Kiwi zombie flick — sometimes hailed as the 'goriest movie ever made'. Equally inspired by Romero and Raimi, there's a real Evil Dead streak to the cartoonish splatstick on display. Set in 1957, Timothy Balme plays Lionel Cosgrove, caught in a sticky place when his meddling mum is bitten by a 'Sumatran rat-monkey' when stalking her son on a date at the zoo. She dies. And then un-dies. And that's only the beginning.

Read Empire's review of Braindead.

6) Night Of The Living Dead (1968)

Director: George A. Romero | Runtime: 1hr 36m | Streaming on: Prime Video, Pluto

Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Russell W. Streiner, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne

'They're coming to get you, Barbra!' With his directorial debut, George A. Romero invented the modern zombie movie as we know it. An independent film shot in grainy black-and-white on a shoestring budget, Romero delivered a stark and subversive horror that established the most important facets of zombie lore (bodies returning from the grave, destroying the brain to kill them for good) and proved the director as a filmmaker adept at genre-infused social commentary. As Ben, Barbra and more hide away from the rising corpses in a rural farmhouse, Romero reflects ideas of racism in the USA, the ongoing trauma of the Vietnam War, and the American public facing up to the realisation that their greatest enemy might actually be themselves.

Read Empire's review of Night Of The Living Dead.

5) Train To Busan (2016)

Director: Yeon Sang-ho | Runtime: 1hr 58m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma, Su-an Kim

Four words: zombies on a train. Korean director Yeon Sang-ho takes that elevator pitch and elevates it into a gripping, action-packed horror movie, using cramped interior space (and moments in more wide-open environments) to stage breathlessly tense sequences. Train To Busan's zombies are mesmerising to watch — aggressive and animalistic, their limbs and spines contorting as they rise up to claim more victims. The result is stylishly-shot and pulse-pounding, with a host of memorable characters — particularly Ma Dong-seok's hulking hero Sang-hwa.

Read Empire's review of Train To Busan.

4) Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Director: Edgar Wright | Runtime: 1hr 39m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis

For his feature debut proper, Edgar Wright drew from Romero and Richard Curtis for the definitive rom-zom-com. Simon Pegg is the titular Shaun, a slacker entering his 30s who's forced to grow up, commit to his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), sort things out with his step-dad, and relinquish his best friend Ed (Nick Frost) when a zombie apocalypse unfolds in London. It doesn't hold back as a zombie film — with lashings of gore, well-executed jump-scares and emotional farewells — but indulges its British humour too, as Shaun attacks the undead with a cricket bat and hatches a plot to hole up at the local pub. Glorious.

Read Empire's review of Shaun The Dead.

3) 28 Days Later (2002)

Director: Danny Boyle | Runtime: 1hr 53m | Streaming on: Now TV

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, Brendan Gleeson

Purists will tell you it's not a zombie movie. If they're technically right, they're also totally wrong — Danny Boyle's film about a deadly rage infection reinvented and redefined what a zombie film could be, taking the idea of running infected from Return Of The Living Dead and, er, running with it. It's a gritty, gripping work with an iconic opening, as Cillian Murphy's hospitalised Londoner Jim awakens to find the capital city eerily deserted — until it becomes all-too-clear what's happened to everyone. If the rage infection wasn't perilous enough, Alex Garland's screenplay highlights how the surviving humans are just as deadly.

Read Empire's review of 28 Days Later.

2) Day Of The Dead (1985)

Director: George A. Romero | Runtime: 1hr 41m | Streaming on: Shudder

Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Sherman Howard

The final part of Romero's landmark original Dead trilogy is a more meditative affair than the previous instalments — but it's a powerful piece, with an angry resonance that continues to reverberate. Set even further into the zombie apocalypse, Day finds the non-infected population dwindling, with surviving scientists and soldiers properly cracking up, and the undead themselves beginning to evolve. Enter Bub, an actual zombie hero — reliving echoes of his past life, and with a cognitive function that suggests not all of the undead are mindless monsters. Taking place largely in the confines of an underground facility, Day is a claustrophobic and pessimistic affair, wrangling with meaty themes of hope, faith, and the futility of combat, as human in-fighting leads to more carnage with tragic consequences.

Read Empire's review of Day Of The Dead.

1) Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

Director: George A. Romero | Runtime: 2hr 7m | Streaming on: Prime Video

Starring: David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott H. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross

If Night Of The Living Dead was the birth of the contemporary zombie flick, Dawn Of The Dead was its coming-of-age — bigger, bolder, more confident, and, this time, in colour. The eerie tone of its predecessor is swapped for a rising tide of chaos and panic as the unfolding apocalypse spreads, and a group of survivors hunker down in the local mall. If it initially seems like an ideal place to wait out the downfall of society, rife with supplies, it proves anything but — the zombies instinctively drawn to the place they were programmed to devote their free time and money to back when they were alive. It's another piece of potent satire, packed with playful imagery — though that never gets in the way of Romero telling a compelling, nightmarish tale, exploding with visceral effects from Tom Savini, drawing from the horrifying sights he witnessed as a Vietnam War photographer. The cumulative effect is chilling, thrilling, and remains peerless to this day.

Read Empire's review of Dawn Of The Dead.

This list was voted on by the entire Empire editorial team, and written by Deputy Online Editor Ben Travis, Online Writer Jordan King, and Social Media Editor Harry Stainer.

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S

Metroidvanias – non-linear action platformers – are having quite the resurgence lately. The acclaimed Hollow Knight Silksong finally launched in September 2025, followed by one of the progenitors of the genre returning in December with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. However, both are eclipsed by this phenomenal original effort that immediately cements itself as an all-time great.

As Mio, a diminutive robot, players set about exploring “The Vessel”, a colossal spaceship with no signs of life, but curiously patterned after organic beings. As you explore, you realise you’re aboard a decaying ark, one that’s being wracked by strange tremors draining the dwindling energy of all left on board – including you.

For a lost ship full of robots, this is ultimately a story packed full of humanity, soaked in themes of hope, regret, desperation.

Presented and played on a 2D plane but beautifully crafted out of 3D models, and all painted in a stunning blend of watercolours and ink-wash effects, MIO: Memories In Orbit is a masterclass of environmental storytelling. As you explore the Vessel, you’ll piece together what’s happened in each area – sections crammed with overgrown flora, an industrial zone producing drones on auto-pilot, a fractured deck exposed to the cold void of space, and more all hint at went so horribly wrong for the unseen Travellers who were once aboard.

There’s a weight and emotion to MIO’s unfolding story that belies its animated visuals. Supporting characters have their own little narrative arcs, revealed piecemeal each time you encounter them and delivering some surprisingly poignant moments, while lost logs and data files flesh out lore and history. There are even deeper metaphysical moments that tap into contemporary discussions on the development of artificial intelligence and the nature of sentience. For a lost ship full of robots, this is ultimately a story packed full of humanity, soaked in themes of hope, regret, desperation.

Little of this is spelled out though. Like the best of the genre, MIO rewards exploration and discovery, with barely-glimpsed or unreachable areas inaccessible until Mio has gained some new traversal ability. While that does mean plenty of back-and-forth, finally reaching somewhere that’s been tempting you each time you’ve passed it by feels cathartic. The game also builds up a generous network of fast travel points, taking the edge off some of that backtracking. Although activating it can take some work – hunting down lost “Overseers” to turn save points into teleportation hubs – it helps roots you in the world. By the time credits roll, you’ll fell like a native of The Vessel.

Exploration wouldn’t be so gratifying if it weren’t for an utterly joyful approach to Mio’s movement. Each leap is precise and responsive, right down to mid-air micro-adjustments that brilliantly aids both traversal and combat. An early suite of jumps and double jumps eventually expands with familiar moves like a glide to make it over cavernous gaps, and more imaginative upgrades like Striders, spider-like tendrils allowing Mio to climb walls and ceilings. Abilities share an energy pool, rapidly depleted but instantly refilled by striking enemies or certain environmental markers – chain everything together with combo attacks and well-timed dodges and just making your way around The Vessel is supremely fun.

Exactly how Mio handles can be tinkered with too, thanks to mods that can be installed into her frame. Some of these add counter-attacks – generating an explosion when taking damage, for instance – while others bolster health. Some even prove essential to get around, like one that generates slingshot grapple points with a well-timed dodge. There’s a limit to how many mods can be installed at once, but being able to tinker with Mio’s build adds a level of personalisation that the genre rarely offers.

All those abilities will come in handy too, since Metroidvania games are typically pretty tough, and Memories In Orbit is no exception. Expect boss battles that require you to flawlessly utilise every one of Mio’s skills while learning to react to and counter complex attack patterns, and several nightmarishly complex platforming sections to navigate, where mastering that exquisite fluidity of movement is essential. However, unlike the utterly unforgiving likes of Hollow Knight, developers Douze Dixièmes do extend a few olive branches to players.

One is “Erosion”, whereby bosses are slightly weakened after each attempt you make at defeating them. The effect is incredibly minimal, a sliver less health each time, but that tiny advantage coupled with the knowledge you gain as a player with each attempt – when to dodge, when to counter, the area of effect for the enemy’s attacks, and more – means these milestone encounters feel increasingly approachable, without ever becoming cakewalks. Another is “Ground Healing”, where Mio generates a single additional health node after a few seconds of contact with the floor. This is useful to help make it through some of the tougher platforming challenges, letting you figure out routes and tactics without fully running out of health, albeit at a cost of padding your playtime (sorry, speedrunners).

This isn’t hand-holding though – if you want to experience the game in its purest, toughest form, these assists are entirely optional, and turned off by default. Masochistic players can test their skills, while those who want to progress at their own pace aren’t punished with impassable road blocks. It’s a wonderful approach, and a brilliant way to make a notoriously difficult style of game accessible to newcomers and seasoned pros alike – and given MIO: Memories In Orbit impresses on just about every level, it’s one as many people as possible should experience for themselves.