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Who First Coined The Phrase "Metroidvania"??
- Thread starter pauljeremiah
- Start date
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
I thought it was Scott Sharkey, back in one of those Retronauts bonus stage videos.
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
That kind of style of game.
That kind of Metroid style of game.
That kind of Castlevania style of game.
That kind of Metroidvania style of game.
That kind of Castleroid style of game.
That kind of platform-adventure of game.
That kind of Metroid style of game.
That kind of Castlevania style of game.
That kind of Metroidvania style of game.
That kind of Castleroid style of game.
That kind of platform-adventure of game.
Yeah, he was always down with the swirl.
This is how I see it. Similar to Rogue-likes. Diablo-likes.
Metroidvania was coined back when there where two pillars defining the genre.
pauljeremiah
Gold Member
I replied back asking if he knows who coined it.
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
That could be it. Odd that it caught on instead of just saying "Metroid-like." I mean, we don't refer to platformers as Marionic or Sonicario
Neuromancer
Member
That guy's got some 'tudeTFrog tweeted back:
Up until the last few years (maybe since Shadow Complex), I remember "Metroidvania" being used to describe that specific style of Castlevania games, not the genre as a whole. It works in context of talking about the IGA-style Castlevania games against the more traditional (or the newer versions) but it is a terrible attempt at a genre name. And now it gets thrown on games that don't even fit that narrow genre. Dust is an example of a great game that gets called a Metroidvania for pretty much no reason at all.
IrishNinja
Member
somebody should ask him, so he can throw a boot at them
seriously, i along with most here, follow the industry closely, and yet he acts like some bulletin went out about this,
this isnt the same thing as tweeting Kamiya about Bayonetta 2.
Here's an Amazon review from May 2003 with the word 'Metroidvania' in it.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2C0GV...SIN=B00008KU9T&nodeID=468642&store=videogames
petran79
Banned
not so successful term, considering SNES Metroid was never that popular. Especially during the time SOTN was released.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
I've always found the phrase a bit confusing, I'm glad I'm not the only one. Certainly I get the idea, it's functional and reasonable enough, and I'm sure I've even used it, but there's still a part of me that feels like it's sorta like grouping, I dunno, Mega Man X and Contra or something. Of course, I haven't really played a Castlevania since SotN (assuming Mercury Steam's take doesn't count for this discussion), maybe it's even more appropriate now, I dunno.
I wonder what ever happened to Matlock. I like to think that everyone who got banned ages ago and escaped GAF's clutches went on to be very successful like Thera.
What?
this is my new favorite thread.
i do remember the DS Castlevania's hearing the term, i think it started around the time of the DS castlevanias
I wonder if the term dates back to the launch of the games in the 80's and 90's. It seems like "castlleroid" was also a term at some point and didn't last.
Haunted
Member
Fuck Matlock, Amazon customer Ed Oscuro is where it's at.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
I suppose in most Zelda games, you simply can't proceed until you have the required tool / emblem to get into the next dungeon. But you proceed through the game world in a relatively linear order.
Given that Nintendo made both Zelda and Metroid of course, there are obvious design influences in both directions.
MightyHedgehog
Member
Yes, but between Zelda and Metroid, only one of those is immediately compatible with Castlevania's side-scrolling design.
Starwolf_UK
Member
So googles search by date. Is it supposed to actually work? I thought this would be a good shortcut but the problem seems it missunderstands actual dates and also if metroidvania has been in the news that can throw up an unrelated story from 2003 (as the page had the term in the recent news sidebar).
But Zelda isn't 2D...that aside there was a joystiq article a few days ago; 'Metroidvania' should actually be 'Zeldavania'
Tom Nook Sawyer
Member
Yep, I had the same problem. I wish there were a way to filter it only by when a page was first crawled.
except Metroid solidly uses that mechanic, and Castlevania only used it for certain games - or has it now become enough of a staple of the franchise to use it generally?
Zelda and Metroid seem the most regular users of backtracking.
Are you saying that because of the notions that Iga just put out there in regards to where he was actually drawing inspiration from when creating his games? Because he said he wasn't drawing on Metroid, but instead LoZ.
John Rabbit
Banned
i highly enjoy ability-based-level-progression games.
Yep I remember seeing it around '03-'04ish...
The headline that launched a thousand shoulder chips. Thanks so much, Mr. Mitchell.
Yeah a whole bunch of Metroid fans have come out of the wordworks as staunchly against whatever DNA castlevania might be sporting. It's been really weird to see these past few weeks.
Yeah, I honestly kind of remember it being brought up around the Metroid Fusion time. Like EGM or something.
Or maybe when some of the Castlevania GBA games came out? Early 2000s had a lot of Castelvanias for GBA and DS, IIRC.
pauljeremiah
Gold Member
no, I'm saying that because both Zelda and Metroid feel similar to me in the way they present their entire map but limit access to sections until you've progressively tooled up.
sixteen-bit
Member
definitely wasn't Igarashi
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/gdc-2014-why-koji-igarashi-is-grateful-for-the-word-metroidvania
HiddenWings
Member
I remember one of my co-workers mentioning it in Summer '07, which was the first time I'd heard it. This topic now has me very curious about where it initially came from.
I google searched by date and then removed any website that was getting hits for the recent IGA stories that have been going around (i.e. "Metroidvania -gamasutra -digitalspy") cleaned up the results quite a bit. Then I had to - a bunch of Parish indexing sites.
Because Castlevania was more commonly known for being pretty straightforward action-platformers, Symphony of the Night did the whole open-ended exploration & upgrades opening up new areas thing in a much bigger way than any Castlevania before. So it's a Metroid-like-Castlevania, Metroidvania.
Parish categorized this review of Metroid (1987) as Metroidvania when he reviews the updated version in 2002: http://www.telebunny.net/toastywiki/index.php/Games/Metroid
Though the article itself makes no reference to the term metroidvania.
I think this term has been around since metroid and castlevania were a thing.
Though the article itself makes no reference to the term metroidvania.
I think this term has been around since metroid and castlevania were a thing.
MightyHedgehog
Member
Just doing a search on Google Groups' Usenet archives of rec. posts, I found one result going back to June of 2001 using the term in the thread title: "Metroidvania is great..." Pretty sure that, even with not all of Usenet being archived, someone could find an even earlier use on record.
Yeah, I guess that means the games were successful in their design. Keycard progression can get tiring, it's fun to have in incorporated into navigation.
Potentially goes back to 97 on some forum then. I really would sort of expect it to be a fan coined, internet propagated term.
Wow, the use was literally an action of coining a term of reference.
LSauchelli
Member
The difference I always see between Metroid and Zelda (with exceptions) is that Zelda has this big world, filled with smaller worlds that have little to do with each other. Whereas, Metroid has one big expansive world and the areas all have something to do with each other.
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclessia are more similar to Zelda than Metroid, for example, but other games are closer to Metroid.
That's my take, at least.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Yeah, but that's traditionally top down. Unless we include Zelda 2 maybe.
New Genre:
Blaster Zeldaster
Zeldaster Master
I get where you're going, but I think we still need to keep Metroid for being the best example and Castlevania for sticking with the formula the longest. The perspective isn't really the biggest factor, especially since top down 2D games are mostly a thing of the past.
I present you with...
Blastlevania Zeldroid
I like it. Sounds like a villain from a bad 80s anime dub.
Richard Hutnik, creator of the term "Metroidvania."