A honest view on "Metroidvania"
I've seen a Kotaku article criticizing the aforementioned term, and the subsequent people defending its usage. In one side, the article says that the term is not elegant, and the defenders saying that this term has been circulating for a while.
Going back to 1993, when Doom was released, the subsequent games that mimicked part of its design were all bundled together as "doom clones". This went on until 1997-ish, when the term "First Person Shooter" took the reins, and perdured to this day.
The disadvantage of using a title name to name an entire genre or subgenre is that it requires the person to know about said titles, which can get in the way of the communication. Of course, this is not a problem between seasoned gamers, but it could be intimidating to newcomers.
Not only that, I personally find that having your game directly compared to another just because you share a couple elements is awkward at least. Creating is always a process of studying what works and what doesn't, but that doesn't make a game a "direct clone" of another one.
Now, why did FPS become a popular term, while "metroidvania" has stagnated since 1997? I suspect that the main reason for a genre term's currency is the amount of people working on said type of games. Very few big and influent companies have created "metroidvania" styled games.
Nowadays, a lot of indie works carry the metroidvania "DNA", but despite being good, it simply doesn't have the same impact in the culture than if a big company did it. Simply put, FPS was rechristened because it became mainstream concept; metroidvania didn't and remains a niche.
In grand scheme of things, I understand why the term Metroidvania is still in currency. However if this genre becomes really popular to the point of more big companies investing in it, my bet is that a new, more inclusive term will gradually supplant the current term. It evolves!
If you were tasked to create a new term for the metroidvania genre, what would it be? Personally I'd call it a "maze platformer" genre, or "mazeplat" for short. Metroid would be a run and gun mazeplat, Castlevania would be a mazeplat with RPG elements. What are your thoughts?
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