It's true, but it raises the interesting question of why those genres are named for their ancestors and not others. We don't refer to "Doomlikes", "D&Dlikes", or "Ultimalikes".

@pjc50, well, we actually used to! I was going to post this as an answer but unfortunately the question's protected. First-person-shooters used to be called "doom clones" until the late 90s, despite Wolfenstein 3d coming out in 1992: i.stack.imgur.com/U12vk.png

@ymbirtt feel free to edit this question to include that information since you cannot give an answer of your own! Because that's really interesting I did not know about that :)

@pjc50 That's mostly because other genres of games have well defined names, such as First Person Shooters, Tabletop RPGs and RPGs. We call games "4x strategy" rather than "Civlike". However, Metroidvania and Roguelike aren't so neatly defined, so we've come accustomed to using these terms for them.

@ymbirtt I know that for a while after GTA3 came out, other similar open-world games were referred to as "GTA clones".

To maybe address why the naming scheme doesn't adhere to the FPS/RPG/MMO mechanics-based formula: "Roguelike" and "Metroidvania" simply refer to a collection of mechanics too complex to encompass in 3 words, so the corresponding acronym would be unwieldy.

@Pahlavan Yeah, "Roguelike" sounds better than JAAWYDITGYLAYS a.k.a. "JumpAroundAndWhenYouDieInTheGameYouLoseAllYourStuff"

@Charanor, Yeah, or PGDWTBMCPPNIW (procedurally generated dungeon with turn-based movement, character progression, permadeath and no information whatsoever) if you want to be pedantic about it. Yours is way easier to pronounce though.

It's also fair to say that there aren't many Castlevania games like Symphony of the night outside of castlevania. Neither are there many games like metroid outside of 2D metroids. So when you say Metroidvania it's pretty clear cut what you can expect. Upgrades, bosses and Backtracking in a similar fashioned mapstyle.

Metrid Prime is more or less an FPS and still metroidvania (largen open world with doors blocking access). So it really doesn't need to be side-scrolling...

Not JAAWYDITGYLAYS but PDL (Procedural Death Labyrinth). - Edit: C.C: @Pahlavan - Addendum: Evidence of use 1, 2

As it stands, this answer really has brought up more questions for me than it answered. If the defining element of Metroidvania is "open world, interconnected map, access limited by e.g. doors", and not side-scrolling 2D (cf. Polygnome's Metroid Prime mention), is the STALKER series metroidvania? Fallout New Vegas would be very much metroidvania, right? Please clarify.

@Theraot Point taken, although I'd argue the larger point of genres sometimes being very specific collections of mechanics that are hard to abbreviate still stands. That and historical names sticking around for longer than maybe makes sense.

@Polygnome - Yes, yes they do need to be 2D platformers, or they suck big time (i.e., every game since SotN). There's no platforming in a Creation Engine game, ever.

@Mazura Metroid prime is one of the highest rated games, ever. It was tremendous fun. It combined the locked doors of the previous metroid games with plattforming (jump & run) and an FPS perspective (and the bosses, and whatnot).

To me the essence of the metroidvania is capabilities-as-keys. You get the high-jump boots, now you can access new areas that were too high before. Gun that shoots through walls? Now you can trigger gates that open when shot with the lock on the other side. The actual doors are in fact the laziest instance of that (since they simply only open for particular weapons, without actually making use of the mechanics of those items). Metroid Prime 1 stuck to that formula even through the transition to 3d; Metroid Prime 2 had a lot more keys that were purely plot tokens.

"Metroidvania" implies sidescrolling, but "FPS Metroidvania" can be a thing. Kind of how "soup" implies something savory, but "sweet soup" is a thing because it resembles soup in every way except that fact that it is sweet.

@Exerion I wouldn't call Antichamber an FPS. The S stands for shooter, and there's not much shooting going on in that game, as far as I recall.

Hi folks! Our comment system doesn't handle long back-and-forth discussions very well, so I've moved this thread to chat so you can continue here if you like.

While I'm here, some food for thought about how we classify genres in games, and why it's not always as simple as enumerating controls & mechanics: :)