“Metroidvania” is a term I feel more gamers should be aware of. Here Jeremy Parish, Scott Sharkey and Chris Kohler of 1up and Retronauts(my favorite video game podcast btw, no offense GH) fame discuss a sub genre that is pretty much obsolete in our current state of gaming. “Metroidvania” is basically a free roaming, back tracking 2D game where your exploration relied on obtaining certain items which allowed you to continue to unlock and explore new areas. What’s funny is that the first Castlevania had definite level divisions with no back tracking whatsoever. That’s easily overlooked considering Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is probably THE pinnacle of all 2D “Metroidvania” games. It’s the gold standard in which all other games in this odd sub genre are compared to.

A totally interesting yet completely hilarious podcast. It made me realize how important and revolutionary both the Metroid and Castlevania series are. I appreciate them even more than I already did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdiv5W9xrQM

I dont think id call metroidvania type games obsolete, there are 3 of them on game boy advance, 2 on nintendo DS, and another brand spanking new one coming out on DS later this year.

me personaly, SoTN was a good game, a nice new fresh take on castlevania, but the fact that now every single CV game is a clone of it is a bit meh.

the fact that the last 2 3D castlevania games were pretty much devil may cry with a castlevania skin slaped on it was meh too.

im going to catch hell for this but castlevania 64 got it right, a 3d castlevania game should be about exploring the castle and it should have a survival horror feel to it and not be so much about twitch gameplay, double jumping and 30 hit combos.

what I would like to see, a 2.5 D , straight up side scrolling old school castlevania adventure game, where you go from left to right on the screen, sort of like the PSP game, but only something new.

also a new 3D castlevania, go back and use the template from castlevania 64, only fix the shit graphics, shit camera, and shit controlls, because the feel , mood, look, atmosphere of that game SCREAM castlevania.

my 2 cents.

I love this style of gaming.

Metroidvania games are pretty much obsolete. They've been relegated to handhelds primarily. I don't expect to see Konami pump out and market a 2D Castlevania game for the PS3 or 360 like an MGS4. Don't get me wrong, I want them to keep making these games but everyday that passes the further and further the industry moves away from 2D. I hope the DS continues to destroy all of the home consoles in sales so that it's still in developers interest to keep making Metroidvania games.

Why does it have to be 2D? I think that a lot of 3D games, including Metroid Prime, The Wind Waker and the Resident Evil games (pre-RE4) were great examples of how this type of gameplay can be applied to modern games. Same with Beyond Good & Evil and any other game with an open world where your progression is only hindered by the tools currently at your disposal.

That's probably my favourite type of game, to be honest. I've played SOTN, the three GBA Castlevanias, the two DS ones, Metroid Fusion, Zero Mission, Super and all the Primes basically to death.

Oh and GFW Radio > any other podcast by far (again, no offense, GameHeroes).

it doesnt "have" to be 2D persey, its just that the cant seem to get the 3D castlevania thing right, they tried on N64 and it was suprisingly close to where it needed to be,, except the controlls, camera, and graphics just blew hard, so then they took another stab at the 3D castlevania thing on PS2, and they turned it into a Devil may cry clone with nothing but a series of straight halls and sqaure rooms with diferent skins copy pasted on them, they were boring and repetious and felt more like devil may cry or other twitch gameplay games then castlevania - it seems the only good castlevania games to come out have been 2D.

I would abso-fuckin-lutly love a good 3D castlevania game IF they did it right, like I said they need to take the template of Castlevania 64, fix the camera, graphics, and controlls, give it a survival horror twist - and lots of blood, make it dark and brooding, with a sense of dread, it should have a sense of exploration - exploring the castle in 3D would be awesome, current 3D castlevania games the castle just serves as a place to have hallways that lead you to the next sqaure room and the next set of enemies you perform 20 hit combos on to get to the next hallway which leads you to the next room . . . .

Catch hell? Not from me. I think Castlevania 64 is very underrated and only got as much shit as it got because it was "too hard" for most kiddies in the N64 era.

I honestly got bored with the Symphony format right after Symphony. Out of all of those types of games, I enjoyed Circle of the Moon the most as a result of its difficulty and replayability with completely different stats depending on your character type. I honestly wouldn't mind seeing a new, NES-style, fully 2D game with traditional, non-rendered design similar to Castlevania Chronicles for PSX. In fact, shame on Konami for not releasing Rondo of Blood as part of a PS2 classic compilation.

That's a really stupid name for it, but I really enjoy those games. Sometimes, though, it gets to be a little too much.

these type of games are not obsolete, one prime example is lost winds for the wii amazing game with great graphics.

don't forget that kirby games go on this format too, 2d free roaming is not limited to CV or metroid alone, these games have been the very foundation of exploration-type of games. all we need is to wait for some unique developer and capitalize on this type of gaming.

Hahaha I love this term!

I actually filled a form last week for a game tester position. That's the word I needed at the question "What is your favorite genre?"

I don't think that the metroidvania subgenre is dead any more than 2d is dead. I mean, every systems on the market right now can process 3d graphics, if 2d becomes mainstream again, and more games are made that way, I believe that we will have more metroidvanias.

And aren't the new castlevanias just like SOTN?

i heard this term before in the gunniess videogame book of world records

I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I sure did, MegaMan ZX joined the Materiodvania play style. Instead of just starting out at a stage select screen you have to do various things and gain various objects to open certain doors to progress to other levels. This does, in a way defeat the original formula of picking what boss you want to play against, but once again this is MegaMan, it doesn't make it less difficult in the least.

ZX Advent right? Yeah I liked that one. Definitely Metroidvania.

Tomba! is one of my favorite MV games ever. I actually like it more than Metroid. Not Super Metroid but Metroid.

While ZX did have it's share of problems(Like the Laviatan suit being useless 80% of the game, and the map system was broken, you never had any idea where to go) but it was a fun game nontheless. I haven't played ZX advent, as my bro lost my DS, but I plan on picking it up when I get my new DS.

I also feel that it's a shame the 2-D has been shafted to handhelds. 2-D is not obsolete. If anything, I someday want to revive 2-D, like clover tried to do with Viewtiful Joe. They succeded, but not enough people bought the game here,(Not sure about japan though)
I just need to learn how to make games...

I have to admit I am addict to metroidvania Castlevania games. I have all of them, and played them all quite a bit...well...with the exception of Harmony of Dissonance. I could never really get into that one.

I'm also very excited about Order of Ecclesia when it comes out this fall.

And if anyone hasn't seen the trailer for it yet...here it is:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34621.html