There has been a void that has been left empty for what has seemed to be an eternity. When in actuality it has only been a few years. The travesty that has occurred during this time span is the total lack of released 2d style Metroidvania games. If you haven’t heard of the term before it comes from combination of the Nintendo released Metroid inspired exploration gameplay mixed with the level progression of the Castlevania series made by Konami. A really simple yet addictive style of gameplay. Where in you collect items and acquire special abilities that let you access previous unavailable levels of the game. Which was proven popular with the releases of Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo and later Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (sotn) for the Playstation One. With the release of sotn, the term Metroidvania was born. This style of gameplay was ever so popular that several more games of this style were released in each series respectively. I say were because we have not seen a Castlevania released game in this style since Order of Ecclesia in 2008 for the Nintendo DS. It has been even longer for the Metroid Series. The last 2d Metroid that was released in this vein was Zero Mission back in 2004 for the Game Boy Advance.

The main question to ask is why have these two companies been non-committal in bring back these two popular series to their 2d glory. I think their are several factors in play and I don’t buy any of the them. The last released Metroid game was Metroid: Other M back in 2010 for the Nintendo Wii while Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was released this year for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Now neither of these games were 2d platformers like the previous mentioned games above. Lords of Shadow was a 3d action game a la God of War and Other M retained qualities of a classic Metroid game but was a 3d First Person/Third Person hybrid video game. The sales of Other M were disappointing but Nintendo hadn’t released a 2d Metroid game for the 6 years before and a 2d Castlevania game also hadn’t been released for 6 years before Lords of Shadow 2. Konami and Nintendo have strayed in their recent past of what used to make both of these franchises great and they can return to their former glory by returning to what they do best. What they do best is the Metroidvania style of game play. Heck Koji Igarashi, who was heavily involved in all the Metroidvania Castlevania games from Symphony Of The NIght all the way to Order of Ecclesia left Konami earlier this year when his frustrations grew with no Konami’s uninterested in returning to the Metroid style of gameplay. I strongly believe Nintendo and Konami are making a hug mistake but not making these style of games anymore for these two franchises.

I could go on and say more on why the metroidvania style gameplay is so great but I believe I would be wasting my time. I think Nintendo and Konami don’t really care what the fans want and if we continue to beg and plead for new game in these series, we will just be more disappointed when they continue to not listen. One of the reasons why they won’t listen to us is because the sales of the last 3D Metroid and Castlevania games were not great. I think it is because we know that they were not as high of quality as their past efforts. They try to make the new games bigger and better than the last, without incorporating the tried and true gameplay that the games contained at their core over a decade ago. If they did that then I would like to believe the fans would come in droves and support the games released by these two companies.

I may have spewed some hatred on these two companies but they have recently begun to give us the chance to prove that we still want these style of games. They have given us this chance in the form of the Virtual Console for the Wii U. Some of the most successful released games in the Metroid and Castlevania series were released on the Game Boy Advance. We now have the opportunity to play these classics through Nintendo. We just have to take them up on these offers. The following list of games have just recently been released as Virtual Console Game Boy Advance games for the Wii U through the Nintendo’s EShop.

Original release: June 2001

Virtual Console release: October 2014

Original Release Date: June 2002

Virtual Console Release Date: October 2002

Original Release Date: May 2003

Virtual Console Release Date: October 2014

Original Release Date: November 2002

Virtual Console Release Date: April 2014

We owe it to Nintendo and Konami the favor to buy these games, so we can get new games released for these series in the future. You can complain all you want about them not releasing the games you want, but if you don’t support the games they do release then the likelihood of the games you want getting released are slim to none. Let’s show Nintendo and Konami that we really do want new games to be released. I have already showed my support by purchasing the four games described above that were just released for Virtual Console. Now will you all join me and do the same.

Update: After completing this article I finished up and beat Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for Virtual Console. It’s still as good as I remember and it looks and plays phenomenal on the Wii U. I went back and compared it to the version on the GBA and its almost unplayable on the tiny screen. Playing it on the Wii U on my big screen gives it a new dimension that it didn’t have before. I now consider it a must but for Castlevania veterans and Newbies a like. I can’t wait to go and play Harmony of Dissonance and Aria of Sorrow next and they look even better than Circle of the Moon did. I really recommend playing these games because these are truly the best game that the genre has to offer.