The Metroid Guide to Mentovanias
By Mento 7 Comments
Wait, that title seems a little off... oh, well, I'll fix it in post. Hey! Metroidvanias! We all love those, right? Well I just beat Shadow Complex and I'm in the mood to write about them. So, Metroidvanias are games where.. oh wait, I forget, this is a wiki. This is a Metroidvania. Intro over, we're all done here!
Like I did with that hybrid dungeon crawler thing that went down so well last time, I'll cover three disparate examples of the Metroidvania sub-genre that currently exist and then come up with a few hypotheticals with the same formula. I'm stating now that none of these games will actually be a Castlevania or a Metroid, since that's way too easy. I'll pay my dues, of course, by saying that Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are still the best Metroidvanias available. Think of them as Metroidvania 101 and play them before any others. Really. Go do it. Get you some inverted castle screw attack. This blog will wait. No it won't.
Shadow Complex
So I might as well start with the game I just beat. Shadow Complex tells the story of Nolan North Clone #2141, designation "Jason Fleming", as he takes out an entire facility of mysterious masked Commie-Nazis planning to "liberate" San Francisco. He does this by gradually upgrading his equipment and weaponry while sneaking around the many vents and secret tunnels, in much the same way as other Metroidvanias. The game sets itself apart by allowing standard 3rd person combat--involving cover, headshots and the liberal applications of grenades--with the standard Metroid elements of double jumps, super-speed and color-coded doors. A neat feature, though kind of confusing to aim, is the ability to shoot into the background, with several rooms stretching out some into the distance. If you're the type of manly man who absolutely refuses to play as a woman or an effeminate dhampire--and chances are if you're an Epic Games fan that's more than likely--it's a good, modern (and cheap!) gateway to the genre.Aquaria
Another budget game, and representing the Indie Metroidvania crowd, is this underwater Metroidvania. The most significant difference to other Metroidvanias is, of course, the fact that almost the entire game is underwater. As such, movement is far freer and affords more exploration: For example, you can go up. Without worrying about platforms or timing those Morph Bombs perfectly for lift. You just swim up. Really, there's so much to cover here about the gameplay differences that makes it unique, but I'm kind of fixated on being able to go up. Go figure. Most of the power-ups that facilitate progress are songs, since the Little Mermaid was all about that shit, which you can either try to remember like Ocarina songs or you could just quick key them. Man, do I love PC gaming at times. Naija is a little more compelling than Ariel the Mermaid (though maybe not Hipster Ariel, who prefers to be called "Helvetica"), and there's some neat story beats and contextual narration as Naija passes by points of interest. If you like singing to dolphins, or greedily devouring innocent aquatic life, this game's got it.Vagrant Story
Why hello there controversial entry. "This isn't a Metroidvania, blog fail" - not so fast there imaginary Giant Bomb comment leaving person (also, what the hell, man?), Vagrant Story is a third-person action-adventure with RPG elements, where a protagonist must explore the huge island Lea Monde and its ruins full of keys and puzzles which he has to track and backtrack across to find everything. Sounds Metroidvany (Metroidvaniac? Metroidvanical?) to me. Ashley Riot, high school punk band and intrepid government "Riskbreaker", infiltrates an island of mystery to bring down a devious cult led by a Sephiroth-esque David Koresh. Along the way he encounters various dubious types, such as Templar knight Guildenstern and fellow Riskbreaker Rosencrantz (hey, what are the chances those two characters should meet?), plays Sokoban a lot and fights many enemies that are often completely immune to all his weapons. Which brings us to the customization system, where weapons are given inherent bonuses against certain enemy types dependent on the materials used in the weapon's creation. You can spend many a good hour in Lea Monde's many handy blacksmitheries, making a weapon for every occasion except one that kills ghosts because you ran out of room. Then you meet a ghost. Despite the micromanagement, though, it is at its heart a more action-y RPG and a fine example of both Squaresoft's ingenuity in the early 90s and a Metroidvania which is so divergent from the usual mix it might not even count as a Metroidvania. But it totally does.Okay, so I've written quite a lot of words and that one guy says no-one would read a wordy blog without pictures, which I haven't included (I didn't even make any neat banners or hideous chickenmen mascots. I'm going nowhere fast in the GB blogging community.) So I'm going to just have the one hypothetical Metroidvania to cap this blog off in style.
And since I'm lazy, I'm just going to update a classic. Yup. Game industry in a microcosm, right here.