Feature: What The Heck Is A 'MetroidBrainia'? Introducing The Newest Genre On The Block

The Witness, Obra Dinn and Deathloop definitely fall into this non-genre barely-even-a-tag that I refuse to call MetroidBrainia. I do like it when games take into account the fact we have brains and don’t need everything spelled out.

I quite like the name Metroidvania, but I'll be damned if I ever call a game a MetroidBrainia.

Yeah, "metroidbrania" sounds catchy but effectively filters out almost every game linked in the article itself since the core of the pun references a dominantly - if not outright entirely - 2D sidescrolling genre (as you'd think its portmanteau name would be enough to clue a video game enthusiast in). To me, all the discussed titles have always just been "adventure games" (with some wading into "actventure" territory - see, I'm guilty of silly names myself - depending on the amount of combat, real time danger or similarly, well, action elements involved). Games like The Witness and Obra Dinn may have come a grand distance since the days of early ">GO CORRIDOR" and point'n'clicks, but they still share the spirit. They're all about gradually advancing further thanks to the puzzle pieces discovered and connected. Heck, by the nomenclature logic discussed above, that would even make Ace Attorney series qualify as a "metroidbrania". Then again, if it helps some people navigate games better akin to how the likes of "sim RPG" and "actventure" help the likes of me... more power to them, I suppose. Granted, all these genre naming debates (heck, I once penned a whole fanzine article on the damn subject) are a big reason why I never sort "by genre" on various storefronts and dekudeals. The mileage may vary a bit too much.😆

While a top-notch explanation by Kate, this would seem to be an example of name accreditation which has far far exceeded the boundaries of description and/or homage to source material.

Don’t u just love metroidvanias until about halfway through, can’t figure out where to go next after seemingly trying everywhere, then feel dirty and cheap inside after u look where to go on YouTube then slap your head, then realise it’s not worth the effort, then read a good book or something xxx

MetroidInsania...

Ahh, video game genres., the most confusing part of the entire industry. I'm not sure what annoys me more, this name, the fact that we've come up with multiple names for 3D Beat-em-ups, or that somehow Tetris ended up being called a puzzle game.

The game — like history — is laid out before you, and you can't really change anything — just comprehend it.

This applies to the practice of sciences like geology and astronomy, as well - anything concerned with macro-environments, in fact. There are too few games that tickle the same neurons that science does. Excellent article!

(I am quite excited by that upcoming Sorcery! release. Thanks for the recommendation.)

Great, more marketing buzzwords. Just what we need!

Hey Kate, what's your favourite game genre?

Honestly, I don't think genre names in any industry are particularly helpful. I stopped paying attention to music genres a long time ago as it feels like each artist is in their own genre anyway. Also, to me the best movies are ones that don't follow the standard formula of their specific genre.

Naming a genre after an example of the genre is just awful. Especially since the Metroids and the Vanias are now arguably not the best examples of their own kind of exploration game. And how many people who now regularly use the word roguelike even know Rogue was a game? And of those who do know how many have even played it? Can we really describe these games as LIKE Rogue?

Why not just call it a Mystery or Detective game?

Genres can be useful for discussion. And I've heard this argument against things like Metroidvania before, but people who have never heard of things like this before, aren't likely to be having the discussion. It can also be helpful to people who have a limited budget know what they're getting into when choosing what game to buy with limited funds. The worst is Action-Adventure. It has become truly useless. Uncharted is way different than something like Psychonauts, but both could wear the genre title. The problem comes when people get super snobby about they're genre titles.

The same problem happens with music. Even genre terms breaking down into subgrnres makes sense, because power metal is wildly different from folk metal or thrash metal. But when someone says Post-hardcore-prog-math metal, this is useless and tends to discourage people and to turn them away from discovery.

It annoyed me when I saw people calling Metroid Dread a Metroidvania. The audacity!

@DioBrando Is Post-hardcore-prog-math metal not just Meet Me In St Louis? I know what you mean though, genres can be a bit silly at times. Neoclassical Darkwave I’m looking at you. Although some stuff has names which are just perfect. Witch House literally sounds like a coven having a rave.

People have been complaining about the term "metroidvania" for years, and I've always been like, well it's not ideal but it's understandable, and a useful shorthand. But no. I cannot get behind "metroidbrainia." That's an abomination of jargon. "Detective game" is fine; just use that.

Speaking of, I just watched a roundtable on dectective games a couple of days ago that had, amongst other people, Mark Brown and Lucas Pope (LP being the creator of Obra Dinn). Mark made a comment about loving video games that required you to use a real-world notebook to solve, and Lucas replied that that was one of his design goals for Obra Dinn. That stroked my ego, as I beat it without one. Lovely genre, whatever you label it.

I tried to get people to call "Breath of the Wild, " Zelder Scrolls for years. It never caught on.

"They're not helpful for casual consumers (who often don't know what things like "roguelike" are) and they're largely descriptive of the actions one takes or responds to ("shooter", "platformer") rather than the tone or feeling of a game."

Well that's because tone and feeling are not the directions people turn towards games for, more often than not. Or if they do, they're usually just variations on "fun" (with a few major exceptions sometimes like in survival horror or life sims). Roguelikes are called roguelikes because there is little to no crossover between casual gamers and roguelikes, quite frankly. The same way that I don't generally expect Dua Lipa fans to know what math rock is. It's a niche genre name for a niche genre that the niche audience is interested (or at least aware of).

I don't think genre discussions have a useful end-goal, if your end-goal is simply "here is why my arbitrary lines between how we define different games is better than YOUR arbitrary lines between how we define different games". If you have a cool, interesting game, a random two word phrase isn't gonna magically sell me on it, generally speaking (if it did, I would've bought an indie Zelda-like already, almost certainly).

I agree that something like ‘Investigation’ or ‘Mystery’ games works do a much better job or describing a lot of these titles than ‘MetroidBrainia’.

I’ve just about got around to processing the fact that ‘MetroidVania’ describes a subset of games whose unifying concept is that they are exploration games viewed from the side (‘Sidesplorer’ is an equally dumb but at least more mechanically descriptive/less self-referential alternative).

All the games above seem to be lacking the defining qualities of MetroidVania games, so to then give them a label that suggests its a spin-off of sub-genre only compounds the confusion.

Perhaps it’s better to step back and use a term that’s slightly too vague (‘Investigative’, ‘Mystery’, etc.) than make up something impenetrably obtuse (‘MetroidBrainAgeEliteBeatLuigi Lite’).

If people want to learn more about a game in a genre, they can do their research. That’s arguably preferable to having people scratch their heads over what the genre is in the first place.

Use 'Metroidvania' all the time but nothing could convince me to utter 'MetroidBrainia' out aloud in any situation with another sentient being present.

This despite the fact that, looking at that list, I am definitely an afficiando of [waves hands] whatever this genre/tag/vague descriptor covers, games-wise.

The list also reminds me that I really need to pick up Overboard and Heaven's Vault, dammit.

@Bakajin Yeah, I'm with you in that, in my head at least, I think of most of these as "detective/mystery games", which I used to classify as a sort of subset of "adventure" games in ye olde days, til that term became so broad as to be meaningless.

OMG why isn't The Witness on Switch?

I really love this kind of game! The Witness is great and very innovative and Outer Wilds was one of the most awe-inspiring gaming experiences I've ever had. I really hope this becomes a more common style of game in the future. (I've been calling them "knowledgevanias" but "Metroidbrania" is pretty good.)

@Maxz Aren't the metroid prime games metroidvanias? .-.

Since we're just taking an unrelated genre and inserting the word brain, what about calling them brain 'em ups? Or first person brainer?

@Rats Brainformer! Action-Brainventure! Role Playing Brain!

I prefer Sports Brainulators.

How come this article is also on steamguides but written by a sebastian rosas and beginning "Recently, I used to be speaking to my accomplice about my all-time favorite area of interest style of video games. He’s a game developer..."
curious

@fenlix God knows. Some definitions seems to be stricter about the need for a 2D/2.5D perspective.

https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Metroidvania

It’s another reason why the term Metroidvania is stupid. You’re creating a genre based on series that aren’t themselves tied to a strict genre, resulting in all sorts of confusion and silly, unnecessary quibbles.

(in regards to 2nd paragraph): Overarching genres work fine & are descriptive of the game play styles (action adventure, RPG, shooter, etc). It's not that difficult to understand. It's the sub genres that seem to cause the most confusion, especially when given by publishers for marketing purposes.

And why does a game who stole a gameplay style get credit for it, lol? The sub-genre should be called "metroid-like", FWIW.

No need to check who wrote this one.

"Metroidvania" has been a dubious genre name since "'vania." The correct term is "Metroid style game.*"

These games are nothing like metroid, it's not even close. I see the analogy but it is very weak.

Entertaining and personal, excellent article unlike anything i see elsewhere. Good job!

Just, please think of another genre name. 😅

Personally I consider these "adventure games," and i admit that my definition is broad. I think broader terms are for categories and narrower terms are for conversations such as this one 😊 but theres no room for "metroidbrainia!"

(*copyright brent weinbach.)

@alexybubble

OK, I'll bite. How is tetris not a puzzle game?

@-wc- To me, there are 3 main rules that make a game a puzzle game:
1: There must be a defined start and end to each puzzle
2: The player has a specific set of actions/tools that they can use to solve the puzzle, and the set can only be changed through player action.
3: All influences on the puzzle are either predetermined, or by the player.
All three of these rules are broken by Tetris and its derivatives. Rule #1 is broken by a game being able to last forever, and rules 2 & 3 are both broken by pieces being determined by RNG.

The term Metroidbrainia has been misunderstood for years. Kate fails to have done her homework on the history of Mystroidvanias nor understands the basics of Brainmospheric (Brmups) game design.

13 Sentinels has some aspects of this.

Video games should be described first and foremost by the actions you perform! That why they're video games and not just another kind of novel. Really, many walking simulators out there would be better off just cutting out the interactivity altogether and marketed as just visual novels sold exclusively on PC.

Anyway, whether you prefer "knowledge node" or "MetroidBrainia," that works just fine as a sub-genre of narrative games, but there's no need to divide that game genre by story genre anymore than there is to divide JRPGs by story genre. Just read the freakin' basic story summary (alongside the gameplay description, spoiler-free reviews, etc.) and see if it interests you!

@nhSnork Obviously, the "Metroid" part of the name refers to the style of game progression, not 2D sidescrolling, and I would never consider 2D sidescrolling to be Metroid's dominant gameplay feature in the first place, especially considered the "Prime" trilogy and "Other M." It's still a pretty stupid name, but that's not the reason why.

Also, the "Ace Attorney" games are too linear to fall under this particular sub-genre. You could, however, arguably include many point-and-click adventure games as part of it, although they won't let you skip straight to the end if you already know the answers, but I consider that to be a good thing.

@Maxz No, they aren't! 2D has nothing to do with the Metroidvania genre, and there are plenty of 3D examples, including four actual Metroid games!

Metroidvanias are basically games that require non-linear exploration to unlock new abilities that allow you access to new areas in a non-exclusively predetermined order (meaning part of the order may be predetermined, but exceptions abound).

@-wc- Yes, the "vania" part of the name is suspect, since unlike the Metroid series only a select group of "Castlevania" games themselves are part of the genre, but they also tend to be the most popular Castlevania games and still works decently well as part of the shorthand by this point.

@BulbasaurusRex

Well, and castlevania has nothing to do with it except that starting from SOTN it borrowed elements from super metroid. Hence, "metroid style game."

@alexybubble

So, falling pieces in a well games are their own thing, got it. I can buy that. 👍

A puzzle game, then, is what? Threes? Myst? Panel de pon? Picross?

@BulbasaurusRex That’s one definition. Here’s another:

"Metroidvania" is a genre of 2-D or 2.5D platforming action-adventure games that emphasize non-linear exploration and story, with access to new areas restricted until new abilities are gained. The player often comes across obstacles that require an extra ability, and must find this ability before backtracking to the obstacle.

https://metroid.fandom.com/wiki/Metroidvania

The fact that people can’t seem to even agree on what the MetroidVania genre is makes it all the more foolish to use as a block on which to build other genres.

I’m willing to accept either definition, but the fact I have to choose means that the term itself has failed to clearly define its parameters, which is exactly what a genre label is supposed to do.

I have no horse in this silly race. I’m not even sure it’s a horse race. It could be greyhounds or rally cars or snails or slinkies. All I know is that I find the whole thing unhelpful and confusing.

What is the problem in calling a puzzle game as puzzle game? Why another genre? Why Metroid? Do people know what Metroid is?

"Metroidvania" was originally used specifically for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. That game was itself called "Metroidvania" — not a Metroidvania, but just "Metroidvania" as a derogatory title — because it was the first in that franchise to incorporate Metroid-like elements. The first few Castlevanias struggled to find a consistently good genre and game design, and when SotN came out, "Metroidvania" was some people's way of saying "Oh so you're just going to steal a genre from some other series, then."

Unfortunately, it is a universal law that any clever put-down you invent for your enemies will immediately be turned against you. And so "Metroidvania" leaked into the common parlance as a name for all games with Metroid-like exploration characteristics.

The problem with this word isn't exactly that it's ambiguous; no genre name has ever fully described or contained its members. There's no solid line between Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Action RPG, RPG, etc. etc. And few genre names inherently distinguish between 2D and 3D. So there's no inherent problem with mixing and matching terminology for games that straddle genre lines

No, the problem with "Metroidvania" is that Castlevania post-SotN has a bunch of leveling up and farming in it that specifically makes it less Metroid-like. Maybe you could argue that "Metroidvania" means "Metroid-like with RPG elements", but then that means Metroid itself is not a Metroidvania. Which I guess would be fine if we could agree on it.

ANYWAY, the reason I say all this is that "Metroidbrainia", while aesthetically repulsive, does a really good job of pointing to this aspect of game design (which I'm also obsessed with), and is memorable. Throughout history, the most important task of genre names has been SEO, whether the search engine is Google or your local bookstore's shelf signs. So if, five years from now, I can Google "Metroidbrainia" and see what's new in this space, not only can I live with such a horrible word, but it will make the corruption of "Metroidvania" all worth it in the end.

One last thing on genre ambiguities. The Myst series is my thing. They're all adventure/puzzle games (even then I have to use a slash!), but only Riven qualifies as a Metroidbrainia. Which is why it's my favorite (and probably the reason most people think it's the best in the series). So these terms are all useful even if no single one does 100% of the job.

I dislike the name a lot though. Stop with the "metroid" this "metroid" that already. It is being far overused to the point of becoming meaningless. Information games works a lot better, in my opinion.