Ah, yes, better that way.

1) Trying to reccommend games from a genre created on home consoles that are not on home consoles is an exercise in futility.

2) Similarly, the PC games are likely to be derivative or tributes to the console greats I mentioned above.

1. Console MetroidVanias are where the genre began - the original and the best!
2. True. I liked Cave Story though. :)

This is not "my" definition. Google 'MetroidVania' for a while. I propose that Metroidvania genre is commonly held to be referring to 2D platform exploration type games. (Unless of course, someone specifies that they are looking for a 3D Metroidvania. You wouldn't need to say 2D Metroidvania because that would go without saying)

As for comment on what you thought was 'my' definition; may I question whether you do not consider (quotes) "For me genre is more about gameplay" to be 'your' definition of Metroidvania? ;)

Let's look at where the term Metroidvania came from:

Castlevania just doesn't belong in 3D. (It is a 2D franchise at heart and KONAMI should keep it that way!)

As for Metroid... Firstly I should point out that I have played Metroid Prime 1 & 2. I'm not saying that they weren't good games. I'm not saying that they are not officially part of the Metroid canon. But, to me, they just don't feel like you are playing Metroid. All the scanning and locking on and what have you and it ends up feeling like your generic adventure game coated with a Metroid storyline and some Metroid baddies injected in.

I am not conveying myself well, am I? What I am trying to say is that I disagree with the view that it makes no difference whether a genre is in 2D or 3D. That's like saying 'well Tekken and Streetfighter are both fighting games'. Sure, they are. But the difference in perspective between 2D fighting & 3D fighting makes the gameplay quite different.

Hmm, while I agree that the Prime games are not metroidvanias (because they're not sidescrollers), they much more than just a generic game themed like Metroid.
I think they're as close as you can get to being a metroidvania in 3D and with a third person perspective, metroidvania-likes if you will. Definitely not proper Metroid games, but definitely not just a generic game with the Metroid name/story stuck on.
I can't really compare the Prime games to anything else... I'd say they're much closer to Metroid than they are to any other game I've played though.


EDIT: Also Tekken and Streetfighter use the same perspective. Perspective doesn't mean 2D vs 3D.

(reluctantly) Yeeeesss they are closer to Metroid than anything else. I think I know why the Metroid Prime games don't feel like anything else. They are not FPS (because of slower pace and greater emphasis on exploration) and they are not adventure games (because of the FPS shooting elements). Maybe Nintendo created a new genre - the 'FPS-adventure' game!

(I know I am going to get flamed for this, so this is something I thought up just now OK?) I think the closest type of games to Metroid Prime games would be the 2nd generation Lara Croft/Tomb Raider trilogy. Wait, let me finish - if the perspective was first person instead of third person and if you switched all of the jungle/tomb etc environments with sci-fi planets (and the baddies too of course) and sprinkled the result with Metroid/Chozo storyline references... (Reads what was typed, goes to delete it and then decides to keep it). Nope, I can't see any obvious flaws with that analogy. Now to sit back and get flamed by rabid fans of Metroid and/or Tomb Raider!

(BTW the best franchise transition from 2D to 3D was on Legend of Zelda IMHO)
[slaps head] Sorry. I meant the whole 2D vs 3D presentation thingy. You know what I mean. I'll give a better example:

Super Mario World. Super Mario 64.

Both were best sellers in their day.
Both are platform adventure genre games.
Both are Mario franchise.

But I'm not convinced that the change between 2D and 3D doesn't make any difference at all to the game play. For one thing - jumping from platform to platform in 2D is a very different matter to taking a 'leap of faith' jump in 3D.

No flaming from me, I can agree with pretty much all of that. I think Zelda did probably have the smoothest transition, but now I stop and think about it I don't think any 3D Zeldas have had quite as rich and interesting an overworld as say LttP, LA or even the OoX games.

We are verging off the original thread topic but since the thread appears to have been answered, we can continue thrash out the Metroidvania definition even if it means going down interesting side trails like these! ;)

Rich and interesting overworld, eh? I can remember when I first saw/played OoT. The beautiful atmosphere of Kokiri Village really impressed and I wanted to see more of what the game had to offer. Once I completed the gloomy and murky Deku Tree and after the touching scene with Saria at the lonely wind-swept bridge, I bravely turned and scampered through the tunnel... to be greeted with a sheer breath-taking sunny plain with slowly building up epic music... and so on. It's funny how we romanticize games years later. And we return and say, yes it's good but whoa look at those blocky graphics, I don't know how I could have thought it looked so good at the time!

Anyway I digress. I agree with good overworlds for:
OoX (Symmetry Village? The Zoras home world? The Subrosians home world?) and
LA (Still remember stumbling across Animal Village for the first time. And loved the vibrant colour choices in LA DX)
LttP = Not so sure about (I get that whole light/dark world switch is really cool idea but apart from that? I guess I had to have been there when it first came out).

(Personally I feel that the LttP is the most over-rated in the franchise. Not saying it isn't good. It's just not THAT good. Sort of like how FF fans way over-rate FFVII out of the entire franchise. The much vaunted 'oh-no Aeris is dead' scene left me cold. Now if it had been Tifa instead...! But of course Tifa is not the right stereotype for the 'maiden with mystical powers' kind of thing).

Nothing. :-D

Its sound good. This is amazing.

Super Panda Adventures was released today, I won it in ne_zavarj's giveaway, gave it a try and was delighted to find it's a Metroidvania type and actually a very enjoyable and addictive game. (It's by the same developer who did the Gun Girl freeware games.)

Btw, is the freeware game Frogatto & Friends a Metroidvania-like? I don't quite remember, but it's worth checking out, in any case.

Ah, I didn't enter that because I'd just won something in another of his giveaways but I might have done if I'd known it was Metroidvania-ish! I'll bear it in mind next time I'm looking to buy one (got a few Metroidvanias in my backlog already).

Wow, Frogatto has... some of the most beautiful pixel art I've seen. Another upcoming Metroidvania with spectacularly beautiful pixel art is the Iconoclasts. Already mentioned in this thread though, but while I was on the subject of pixel art...

EDIT: Frogatto doesn't look freeware... at least not any more.

Dust: An Elysian Tail is a new Metroidvania game on Steam. I've already bought it there, and if and when it comes here I'll pick it up again full price.

I also hope that it will be released here.

Ah ... that's new. It was free one one or two years ago, when I tried it, sorry.