so what else can we call metroidvanias

To refine the definition (and admittedly narrow it a bit) I would add that the game needs to not just have a space (maze-like or otherwise) that is navigationally challenging but also that in order to reach the end of the space (maze, etc.) the player first must find some item or items through exploration that enable further advances through the maze.

So Wolf3D and Doom count because they have keys/keycards/skulls which you find through exploration that open up doors and unlock more of the maze. Pac-Man would still count because it he has to eat all the dots to reach the next screen. Zelda, Druaga, etc. still count for the obvious reasons. But in the primary bit of the definition is still revolving around advancing through a space via exploration. Some games like Metroid or Zelda fall under the definition automatically, some lean into it as a secondary characteristic of their core design like Wolf3D or Doom, and it can still be stretched to include games you wouldn’t normally consider like Pac-Man.

I propose the term “explore-em-up”.

QWOPtoid

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or its more popular form, ‘explmup’

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We need a better name for raspberries because they’re terrible at shaving wood

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Rasps are also terrible at shaving wood~

often mispronounced as ‘explump’ by people who don’t know better

Ever since this thread first debuted, my brain has been running a constant tiny background process trying to come up with the best name. I was on the “lockmaze” train for a while but I just thought of a good one in the shower: Key Ring Platformers, or Keyrings for short.

Your player character is essentially a key ring, and all the abilities you collect are the keys that allow you to bypass the various locks the game puts up.

Keyrings baby, guaranteed to be less embarrassing to explain to your significant other!

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This is very good.

Between “keyring” and “lawnmower sim” (and the venerable “shootmans”) we are developing an entirely new and superior videogame classification system that only we will understand. That’s the old sb elitism we all love

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vidcon classification*

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vidconclass

Seriously though, lawnmower sim is maybe my favorite SB vidconclass name. it’s so useful and any time I have used it, people instantly know what you mean with only the slightest explanation.

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Yeah I love using lawnmower sim as a descriptor

is “lawnmower sim” about going back and forth sucking up map icons in Ubisoft games?

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yes exactly that

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An apex of the form is Crackdown 1, where they served as micro-platforming challenges.

In general I think these are descended from collectabobs in the dead 3D platformer genre; their primary purpose is to give the player cause to poke into corners and notice micro bits of level design but they’re too often placed without thought or wit.

And you can’t build levels if you can’t tell a joke.

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is Crackdown 1 at all acknowledged as an influence on Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system? The way the gangs were organized such that each gang leader had a distinct and specific influence on their control of the island as a whole and the order you take them out alters the feel of later locations; killing the weapons dealer will mean the gang will be using cheaper weapons, etc

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Seems like it’s coming at a similar problem from a different direction. Personally, I didn’t feel like the changes to the gangs were pronounced enough that replaying while taking bosses out in a different order was sufficiently meaningful.

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Not that I’m aware of but it’s worth asking! Nemesis was envisioned at the start or Mordor’s development but that project coalesced as a fusion of a canceled Assassin’s-tinged Batman game and a canceled Lord of the Rings game and the stamping out of any multi-game development as the ruins of Surreal, Snowblind, and Monolith existing in WB Games Seattle reasserted as a one-project studio, Monolith, with one last shot at a game before closure.

It’s why the codename for Mordor was Project Firebird.

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And there are plenty of ex-Microsoft Studios folk here and plenty at that time, too.