These Metroidvania games are neither Metroid nor Vania

by JC Fletcher on Aug 20th 2009 9:00PM

"Metroidvania" is a term used to describe side-scrolling games with large, open worlds, new areas of which are accessible only with certain items or powerups. Take away the side-scrolling element, and you've got Zelda; take away the powerups, and you've got Pitfall. It's named after the two most famous series to make use of the format, Metroid and (later) Castlevania.

Shadow Complex has suddenly thrown the Metroidvania genre back into mainstream gamers' attention, thanks to its fancy graphics and being an Xbox 360 game. It isn't the first game that isn't a Metroid or Castlevania to apply this formula -- in fact, many developers stumbled upon the Metroidvania formula or a close variant even before Symphony of the Night.

Join us on a brisk tour of some notable free-roaming games. If you are overcome by Metroidvania fever, you can read more detailed writeups of many of the games in GameSpite's ToastyWiki.

Click here to start your adventure!

Tags: adventure-island-iv, blaster-master, castlevania, legacy-of-the-wizard, metroid, metroidvania, shadow-complex, tomba, wonderboy

Reader Comments (106)

So... Being a 360 game makes it mainstream? What is this meant to imply?

But i had almost forgotten about Tomba! Now i remember playing it on my friend's PlayStation back in the day

Well, the 360 is the cool console to have this gen, like the ps2 was last gen, so it's going to get a lot more attention.

And my sister's the next whore. Can we move on?

oh I'll move on....

MAKE a move on your sister!

hot-cha-cha-cha!

She doesn't wear pants.

tmac, you always gotta say somethin gay. you are SO gay.

www.thinkb4youspeak.com

She wears skirts, seriously does any girl actually wear pants anymore? GEEZ.

it seems like every girl in my spanish class NEEDS to wear jeans. most are cheerleaders too, so that says something.

also, ESC, did you say that or was your comment edited?

ahh... i guess the moderation is getting ramped up after the recent siege by the spammers.

wait, did you say fornication positive, or was that an edit too? because if it was, whoever edited it is really cheeky haha.

No, ESC is doing that deliberately. Mr. Gilbert's style of editing follows as thus;

Edit: No need for that kind of language.

Or something of that type. He only uses square brackets for bans.

"So... Being a 360 game makes it mainstream? What is this meant to imply?"

Well let's face it — there's no shortage of gamers (and I used the word loosely) that won't touch anything unless the Microsoft/360 says it's cool to like it.
So...yeah.

Sometimes I like to imagine an alternate universe where Super Mario Galaxy 2 or even something like Killzone 2 are on the 360 and how awesome they're praised as being instead of derided for insignificant reasons.
Everybody also gets around via flying unicorns, because there are no cars and attractive woman (7.5 & up on the Babeometer) are legally obligated to walk around naked in this alternate universe. People also eat Reeses for breakfast!

all this nonsense aside, Tomba was awesome! especially the second one, there was something really enjoyable about cooking fish with lava

"People also eat Reeses for breakfast!"

Shut the hell up. That's just stupid. I can't believe you'd think such a thing would happen.

360 is the new PS2?

I thought the Wii was the new PS2? Which would make the 360 the new... er Xbox. Which makes the PS3 the new gamecube.

Or something like that...

But, if Shadow Complex is a metroid-vania game... does that mean 360 players are actually closet nintendo fans?

So confused...

There were Zelda sidescrollers, but two of them belong in the deepest pits of hell.

I hope you're not speaking of The Adventures of Link, because that game is awesome. Fuck the naysayers.

I'm glad you don't know what I'm talking about, one more pure soul.

Zelda 2?
hahahaha!!

Dare I mention it...? CD-i.

Zelda 2? It's called the Adventure of LInk. I hope you're laughing in happiness of fond memories of that game, because it's awesome. It was a pretty innovative game for the NES and still holds up today.

You guys are really making me want to go replay Zelda 2. Stop it. I have to beat 'Splosion Man and Shadow Complex first.

Seriously, come on now.

You people don't remember the CD-i and the Unholy Triforce?

Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and Link: The Faces of Evil.

stop Ignatius. everytime you mention "these whom should not be played", a baby dies from over-shaking

I guess the real question is, was that collective ignorance or purposeful repression?

If I was speaking about LoZ 2, I would have said "sidescroller," because there is either some unspoken vow not to mention that horrific console or people are seriously in the dark.

I said TWO sidescrollers, think, damnit, THINK.

I thought we had agreed to never speak of those again. They were abominations. Nintendo had nothing to do with them, they were Zelda in name only.

I gotcha, Ignatius.

AVGN CD-I Video Part 2
http://screwattack.com/AVGN/2008/CDiPart2

AVGN CD-I Video Part 3
http://screwattack.com/AVGN/2008/CDiPart3

Am I the only own who knows what Ignatius is talking about?

*one

@ignatius-

hell yeah! Philips CD-i crap.....although I remember at the time being really bummed that I'd never be able to play that game...it sure looked pretty.

Damnit Ignatius! Look what you've done! You removed the holy seals.

Now those abominations are free in people's memories again! The horror...

...just keep quiet about the third abomination and we might be able to put them back in their little box yet!

*Goes to Wikipedia to unleash 3rd Abomination*

I remember going to Circuit City when i was 9 and briefly playing one of these on whatever random CD-i kiosk they had set up and thinking it was some kind of horrendous tech demo or something. I do remember being enthralled by the bright colors and side-scrolling aspect of it though (considering the previous iteration of a Zelda side scroller was quite.... bland). Do you remember the control set-up for the CDi? It was mix between a universal controller and a wiimote. complete disaster.

I love Blaster Master.

Iji is pretty sweet too.

Cave Story is my favorite game of all time, and I'm dying to play Nicalis' update.

Me too, I just wanna know, does Pixel get the money for it? That's not Nicalis, is it? I'm currently under the impression that Pixel isn't the guy remaking everything, and I want him to get my dough.

i'm pretty sure pixel gets a cut of the sales.

Wouldn't MetroVania or even Castletroid sound a lot better. I'm sorry, but Metroidvania just doesn't roll off the toungue. And didn't Hollywood tabloids, pretty much beat merged names to death?

Your tongue must be tied in a bunch of squishy knots. I don't know about you, but Metroidvania rolls off my tongue pretty well. Castletroid sounds like a disease and MetroVania sounds like a gay bar.

Well MetroVania sounds awful, and Castletroid sound like some sort of STD.

I caught a bad case of Castletroid when blacked out at Metrovania.

Metrovania is where vampire trains come from.

I remember the girl that gave me "Castletroids." I had to go up the chain of command to find the real culprit. It was Donkey Kong during his tour in africa.

How the Hell do you guys know of MetroVania?!!

....uh, I mean......

Alright, alright, my bad. Geesh!

what about rygar, battle of olympus, a boy and his blob? maybe my memory is fuzzy, but i seem to recall these games being the same genre and being pretty good too.

Yeah, Battle of Olympus immediately sprang to mind, as did Rygar. Both are excellent examples of the genre, and among the greatest games of the NES era. Rygar is even better now that you can play it with an emulator, allowing you to use auto-fire and speed-up to grind your way up to being somewhat powerful very quickly, avoiding the punishingly difficult early game.

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These Metroidvania games are neither Metroid nor Vania

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