Metroid-style game: Difference between revisions

Metroid-style game (also, Metroidvania) is an umbrella term used to describe video games with a 2D, non-linear, exploratory action structure. The structure was first solidified in Nintendo's Super Metroid, and has subsequently been adopted by the Castlevania series, beginning with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Some fans feel that "Metroid-style Castlevania games" need their own umbrella term, and have thus created the colloquialism "Castletroid".

Elements associated with Metroid-style games

Distinct features associated with the Metroid-style game formula are non-linear, exploration-based gameplay and power-ups. Typical gameplay involves exploring the game-world and discovering areas that cannot be accessed at the current time. Finding an item (either a key or a special ability) usually grants access to the new section of the game. Some upgrade items are needed to obtain others, lending a sense of structure, sequence, and linearity to the game. This structure is often vital in creating a coherent plot by ensuring that events that progress the storyline are triggered in the proper order.

As with other exploratory video games, sequence breaking is often possible in Metroid-style games.

List of "Metroid-style game" Games

Although most Metroid-style game games are part of the Metroid and Castlevania families, not all Metroid or Castlevania games are considered "Metroid-style games"; although the Metroid Prime games retain the non-linear exploration, mapping, and special-ability-collection, their 3D nature excludes them from the category. Likewise with the 3D Castlevania games developed for the Nintendo 64 and the Playstation 2.

Precursors

The original Metroid and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest blazed the trail for the Metroid-style games. Both were based heavily on non-linear, side-scrolling exploration, with areas that could only be reached after attaining items in other areas. However, neither had the automatic mapping feature or any real semblance of plot that can be found in the Metroid-style games that followed. Metroid 2 actually had less in common structurally with Super Metroid than the original Metroid did, and the subsequent Castlevania games after Simon's Curse returned to a strictly linear -- or branching-path linear -- structure until Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

Mainstays

• Super Metroid (1994)
• Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (2001)
• Metroid Fusion (2002)
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (2002)
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (2003)
• Metroid: Zero Mission (2004)
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (2005)
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (2006)

Honorable Mentions

• Cave Story (2004)