Retronauts #104 early access: Metroidvania origins (Patreon)

Good morning and happy E3 week to you. In celebration of all the indie games likely to be demoed at the show over the next few days, we've put together a timely little episode on what inspired most of them in the first place: 8-bit metroidvania games.

Well, sort of. This is one of those cases where I had put together a ton of notes for the show, but we covered only about half of the material. This is perhaps the most digressive episode I've ever hosted. Everything is on-topic, but not necessarily on-track. We didn't actually make it to the overview of formative 8-bit metroidvania games! Instead, we discuss the term's origins (I didn't coin it, OK?), the roots of platforming and action RPGs, and the perils of linguistic prescriptivism. It's a pretty broad episode... but a good one, I think. And one due to be revisited before too long. After all, I need to make use of all those notes I put together. — Jeremy

Description: Benj Edwards and Chris Sims join Jeremy for what was intended to be a quick overview of 8-bit games that helped define non-linear platforming but ultimately gets bogged down in exploring side paths… as in any metroidvania worth its salt, really.