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[Fine Ham Abounds]

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.

Zelblastlervania Mastroid

 

[LiK]

That guy's got some 'tude

Just misunderstood

 

[Muffdraul]

The first person who played Symphony of the Night.

 

[FiggyCal]

Richard Hutnik, creator of the term "Metroidvania."

I guess we got our answer.

Richard Hutnik wrote:

For me, the Metriod formula for the GBA version of Castlevania is real
good, well, once I give the GBA enough light that is. Dark Cloud was
sitting unplayed while I was messing with Metroidvania.

- Richard Hutnik

There, call it Metroidvania from now on, or Castloid

 

[MightyHedgehog]

The first person who played Symphony of the Night.

I tend to agree with this thinking. I mean, most CV fans know Metroid since both were popularized on the same platform and defined high quality action-platformers then and now. The more I think on it, the more I'm convinced that it was used quite early on. I remember discussing the changes to CV gameplay with many others who imported the Japanese Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight game in the first weeks after release and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in those first convos about it.

 

[codhand]

Richard Hutnik, creator of the term "Metroidvania."

Someone edit the wiki, have Parish do it, since he's being such a cock about it.

 

[OneEightZero]

I can confirm that the term "Metroidvania" is NOT in the OED.

 

[OneEightZero]

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.

Also, Zelda is not a platformer.

 

[andymcc]

Also, Zelda is not a platformer.

what about Zelda II though.

 

[Sapiens]

As much as Pariah would like the credit, it probably merely emerged from forums.

 

[OneEightZero]

what about Zelda II though.

Side scroller. No verticality.

 

[Het_Nkik]

Side scroller. No verticality.

But all those elevators in the palaces...

 

[OneEightZero]

But all those elevators in the palaces...

But all those pipes in Mario Brothers...

As much as Pariah would like the credit, it probably merely emerged from forums.

Read back about 50 posts. He hates the term and really hates being attributed to it.

 

[andymcc]

Side scroller. No verticality.

it has more platforming than some of Iga's Metroidvania though.

 

[Het_Nkik]

But all those pipes in Mario Brothers...

Are you... saying Mario games aren't platformers?

 

[Version 3.0]

For me, the Metriod formula for the GBA version of Castlevania is real
good, well, once I give the GBA enough light that is. Dark Cloud was
sitting unplayed while I was messing with Metroidvania.

- Richard Hutnik

There, call it Metroidvania from now on, or Castloid

Thank God he didn't call it "Metriodvania".

 

[mantidor]

Metroidvania was the easiest way to differentiate old from new Castlevanias, but it does great disservice to use it as the name of the genre. It's unfortunate it seems to have stuck.

 

[atr0cious]

Metroidvania was the easiest way to differentiate old from new Castlevanias, but it does great disservice to use it as the name of the genre. It's unfortunate it seems to have stuck.

It's hard to say "this game plays a lot like Metroid" over and over, and having two well know franchises use the style lends a little aesthetic validity to the whole thing.

Spoiler

It's not a genre

 

[Hades Hotgun]

Somebody that didn't understand the differences between Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night.

This can't be said enough.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Thank God he didn't call it "Metriodvania".

Or do something silly like tell people it should be pronounced "jiff" so they could argue over the pronunciation for years

 

[Doctor Ninja]

I first heard it around 2004 when I was reading a game magazine, it's really that old of a term and not a one that I am fond of.

 

[marrec]

It's hard to say "this game plays a lot like Metroid" over and over, and having two well know franchises use the style lends a little aesthetic validity to the whole thing.

Spoiler

It's not a genre

I was looking through those old newgroups at threads with Metroid and Castlevania in the title and pre-Metroidvania (or Castleroid) it was pretty awkward to say 'if you like Castlevania: SOTN and Super Metroid then you should check out X' compared to 'X is a metroidvania'.

 

[ToastyFrog]

Someone edit the wiki, have Parish do it, since he's being such a cock about it.

You're adorable! Adorbs, even.

 

[marrec]

You're adorable! Adorbs, even.

We tracked him down T.Frog, you're off the hook for Metroidvania.

 

[FiggyCal]

You're adorable! Adorbs, even.

Awww shit...

 

[John Rabbit]

This can't be said enough.

i think it is clear that the word largely describes the way both games are structured in their progression and has little to do with any similarities between art, sound, or setting.

 

[Phediuk]

Goes back to at least 2002 or so, I remember seeing it in reviews to describe the GBA Castlevania games when they first came out.

 

[lamaroo]

Seems like the term was coined to describe the Castlevania games that took inspiration from Metroid, but caught on to describe any action-adventure platforming game.

 

[Coconut]

I thought it was Scott Sharkey, back in one of those Retronauts bonus stage videos.

Metroidvania was a term before Retronauts.

 

[Muffdraul]

Somebody that didn't understand the differences between Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night.

Yes, because the differences magically nullify the myriad glaringly obvious similarities.

 

[RagnarokX]

It's hard to say "this game plays a lot like Metroid" over and over, and having two well know franchises use the style lends a little aesthetic validity to the whole thing.

Spoiler

It's not a genre

Rogue has had a lot of games use its style and they just call all of them Roguelikes.

 

[Tom_Cody]

This is the greatest imaginable response.

 

[Moon_frogger]

Then why combine the words if they mean the same thing?

Cause not all castlevania games are inspired by super metroid? You know, just the ones that are?? Anyway it's a silly term but it stuck and it's pretty harmless.

 

[Garcia]

Abraham Lincoln.

 

[Santiako]

Abraham Lincoln.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this consoles a new genre, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that not all games are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that genre, or any genre, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their jobs that that genre might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this genre, under IGA, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that genre of the Metroidvania, by the Metroids, for the Castlevanias, shall not perish from the earth."

 

[GetemMa]

A wrong person.

It just a "metroid style game"

Not "metroidvania"

Just because Castlevania did a fantastic job of copying Metroid's fundamentals doesn't mean it invented that style of game.

 

[dark_prinny]

Friedrich Nietzsche.

 

[yamo]

I'm just waiting for a developer to actually make a game called Metroidvania and then cash in on hype. Would probably give similar reactions as to when Valve trademarked DOTA2.

 

[FrostuTheNinja]

The first person who played Symphony of the Night.

Probably. Been hearing it since the late 90's.

 

[Moon_frogger]

I don't care if iga says he was inspired by Zelda cause if he was then sotn would have had a large overworld with unrelated sequential dungeons instead of one connected map that connects different areas together like the metroid games.

 

[verdures]

Rogue has had a lot of games use its style and they just call all of them Roguelikes.

Rogue also doesn't have a tediously vocal fanbase waiting in the wings to give you ~their opinion~ everytime the term Roguelike gets dropped

 

[entremet]

I prefer Castleroid.

 

[RagnarokX]

Rogue also doesn't have a tediously vocal fanbase waiting in the wings to give you ~their opinion~ everytime the term Roguelike gets dropped

Why would they? Roguelike only mentions Rogue... Metroid fans don't like the term because they don't think Castlevania should get equal credit.

If they started calling it Roguesouls or Zombirogue...

 

[Timeaisis]

I don't know why, but this discussion fascinates me.

I'm in the early 2000s camp. I swear I remember starting hearing that term to describe the GBA Castlevanias.

Although I agree with the criticism of the term, it is for sure it's own genre these days. It's hard to express what you mean by "Metroidvania" when you just say "2D action-adventure-platformer". Metroidvania, even for it's poorly choiced term has become a way to much more properly describe these kinds of games.

 

[RagnarokX]

I don't know why, but this discussion fascinates me.

I'm in the early 2000s camp. I swear I remember starting hearing that term to describe the GBA Castlevanias.

Although I agree with the criticism of the term, it is for sure it's own genre these days. It's hard to express what you mean by "Metroidvania" when you just say "2D action-adventure-platformer". Metroidvania, even for it's poorly choiced term has become a way to much more properly describe these kinds of games.

It needs a specific term because 2D action-adventure-platformer doesn't really describe it. 3D games have been called metroidvania and some metroid games have 3D and retained the same gameplay. The most unique aspect of the subgenre is that upgraded gear is used to control progression through an environment in addition to be adventure/platformers.

How about calling them "mochtroids" or "mocktroids"?

 

[MightyHedgehog]

I think the main thing to consider about the name is that it's a product of its time, and it was when there were no Metroidvania competitors or games inspired by the mashup of these two playstyles and series. This was long before they, themselves, became a thing to be followed on. When you used that term, it was clear which CV games you were talking about, as opposed to thinking it referred the original 8- and 16-bit games before. Gamer shorthand. I mean, the first thing that comes to most minds when you play SotN and on for the first time is that, for a Castlevania game, they're so Metroid-like with its specific auto-map behavior and look as well as the focus on Metroid-like layouts and gating of areas via special abilities/tools in that well-known late 80s Japanese console game style. Maybe those who started with Metroid, and never played older CVs couldn't agree or see the accuracy of the naming, but it's definitely a Castlevania-centered POV that produced that term and it's only natural given how it was started by a CV game.

 

[Garcia]

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this consoles a new genre, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that not all games are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that genre, or any genre, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their jobs that that genre might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this genre, under IGA, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that genre of the Metroidvania, by the Metroids, for the Castlevanias, shall not perish from the earth."

 

[Archaix]

Rogue also doesn't have a tediously vocal fanbase waiting in the wings to give you ~their opinion~ everytime the term Roguelike gets dropped

Wait...what? Is this dry sarcasm? If you so much as mention roguelike in a review or a video you damned well better be wearing a helmet to protect from the shitflinging you invited.

 

[Brandon F]

Love that Toasty's avatar is from Goonies 2...another Metroidvania game!

 

[Prototype]

never fully understood the term metroidvania. Castlevania just took a similar approach to the genre as Super Metroid did. If anything Castlevania is a Metroid-like. Which is what the sub-genre should be called: Metroid-likes. same way we use the term rogue-like.