Shout Out to @Flame for this weeks fight!

Hello everyone and welcome back to a new GBAtemp Series by yours truly, the GBATEMP FIGHT CLUB!
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Here's how Fight Club throws down tempers and temptresses. I'm going to take either 2 franchises, 2 characters, 2 specific games, or 2 of SOMETHING gaming related, and I'm going to pit them against each other for your enjoyment. But how do we declare a victor you may ask? That's where you come in!

The way this will work is I will give a brief synopsis of the two rivaling entities, and leave it up to all of you to vote and debate which one is the better being, and why that is. A combination of the poll votes, and the arguments made in this thread, will determine the victor! I will take poll votes into account for the most part, but the supporting arguments will also heavily decide who the victor will truly be.

This will be an attempted weekly act every Monday, where a victor will be chosen and a new round will begin, so you will have one week to argue and determine who or what the better of the two is. So without further ado, let's get to our competitors this week:

METROID VS CASTLEVANIA

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We have a term in the gaming world for exploratory sidescrolling adventure/platforming titles. We call them, Metroidvania's, rightfully and wonderfully established by our two competitors this week.

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We can thank Metroid and the Later Super Metroid, for establishing the standard of the Metroidvania concepts. Metroid was a revolutionary adventure title that broke linear elements and created one of the most amazing scifi universes in Nintendo's arsenal.

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But our competitor also created the other half of this concept. Specifically Castlevania: Symphony of The Night, establishing and using a large open world to explore, the need to acquire key items to enter certain areas, and the ability to improve the player-character.

These franchises are so similar in gameplay, but so wonderfully different in story. Both are titans that created the standard of Metroidvania's, but only ONE can be the victor!

If you have a suggestion for what the next fight should be, leave a post on my profile page!

 

[orcid]

Hard Choice. I love all the 2D entries of both series. I spent more time with Castlevania because there are just more games. The Metroid games are a little bit better, but there only a few.

 

[mightymuffy]

Oof, hardcore question!! Damn you chav....
I may disgust you all and say SOTN wasn't my favourite CV anyway.... SNES Super Castlevania IV (probably the greatest bgm of any game ever!) and PC-Engine Rondo of Blood being my #1 & #2...... both are complete classics for me! SOTN is still awesome mind, and I also love the NES originals....
But the best actual game out of both franchises for me has to be Super Metroid - will probably go down as one of the all-time greatest games, and basically created SOTN anyway.....

- Still undecided though!! Really though I think, despite Prime 1 & 2 being great, both are sort of relics of a bygone era now - best in 2D and all that, despite the likes of Axium Verge still getting released.. I think my vote has to go to whichever one I'd look forward to the most, were a 2D version/remake of each announced today, and while the answer's STILL bloody tough, it'd have to be Metroid. (And besides, just look at the state Konami are currently in...)

 

[TheCasketMan]

I never been a fan of Castlevania's gothic theme and hard difficulty.

 

[ov3rkill]

I love both games. But my vote goes to Castlevania, simply because of its difficulty. I still remember those days back in NES. Those were trying times. hahaha.

 

[Bimmel]

I never been a fan of Castlevania's gothic theme and hard difficulty.

I desperately tried to beat the death in Castlevania 1. So frustrating to get to him.

 

[VashTS]

i never understood how these two were even compared to begin with. i never played the castlevania series on the nes but i had the gameboy version.

Metroid - all the way.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

I am a huge fan of both series.

The post seems to imply Metroid vs IGAvania/Metroidvania, and to that I say Metroid is vastly superior. I only played SotN but since this game is often considered the best of the MetroidVanias, I have to say I was rather dissapointed by this game. If anything, the RPG elements like levels and equip items ruined the challenge that the castlevania series were so well known for. If you compare it to Metroid it doesn't hold much water either, suffice to say that when you finish Metroid and play a second time, you're significantly more skilled and now know how to use better Samus's habilities, so you explore the game in a different way. In SotN, well... You can play as Richter I guess... *

Now, if we're comparing Metroid to old-style Castlevania this is a very tough decision. I would give a very slight edge to the Metroid series because of Super Metroid, my favorite game of all times. But there are so many great games in the ClassicVania series and, to be fair, Metroid for the nes and Metroid II were not that good, and there are more great ClassicVania titles if only because Konami made one title after the other, while Nintendo focused in developing few but awesome games for the series.

EDIT: *My argument there is that the player need to get more skilled with Samus, but SotN gives the false impression that you're getting better, when actually your character just has higher stats. You can get more skilled in SotN but the fact that the game doesn't require you to be skilled means the game won't be challenging enough for skilled players anyway

 

[Blaze163]

Castlevania for me. Metroid is fantastic with very few missteps in its catalogue (Federation Force notwithstanding) but the early games were way too easy to get hopelessly lost in. To this day I still haven't finished Metroid 2, and that's even with a map. Castlevania has a couple of bad games like Castlevania 64, but it has the bigger library, giving it access to a much wider range of characters and locations, giving a slight edge. Close call once again but with the earlier games being more accessible and the broader scope, Castlevania edges into the lead this time.

 

[mightymuffy]

I desperately tried to beat the death in Castlevania 1. So frustrating to get to him.

Gotta love Castlevania 1 - a true classic for me, but my god the difficulty spikes were insane! After one of the easiest level 1's ever made came those pissin medusa heads on the jumping mid-section of level 2.... and I STILL lose lives there over 25 years later! Bought it on Wii U VC because it holds a special place in my [gamer] heart, but have honestly only completed the bastard once!

 

[RodrigoDavy]

Gotta love Castlevania 1 - a true classic for me, but my god the difficulty spikes were insane! After one of the easiest level 1's ever made came those pissin medusa heads on the jumping mid-section of level 2.... and I STILL lose lives there over 25 years later! Bought it on Wii U VC because it holds a special place in my [gamer] heart, but have honestly only completed the bastard once!

I actually think Castlevania 1 is the easiest of the classic ones. I started with the 16-bit ones since everyone was always saying how Castlevania 1 is one of the hardest games ever made. It turns out I got to Death's level in 20 minutes. The fight against Death and Dracula are stupidly hard, obviously meant to make the game longer, but disconsidering these two bosses it's the easiest classic castlevania for me.

Hardest one for me would be Castlevania X68000/Chronicles in the arrange mode.

 

[Elrinth]

Metroids I've truly enjoyed:
Super Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 1

Castlevanias I've truly enjoyed:
Castlevania 1, Castlevania 3, Super Castlevania 4, Rondo of Blood, Symphony of the Night, Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin

I'm sorry to say but Castlevania wins it for me. I'd like to see a Metroidvania Metroid for once. That would be SOOOOO fukin awesome. I still consider Zero Mission and Super Metroid two of the best games ever made and alot better than most Castlevanias I've mentioned. But Symphony of the Night is just such an amazing game and the amount of great CVanias there are just makes it an easy pick for me.

Also the upcoming game Chasm is probably what I'm looking forwards to most after that new Zelda. The new "Metroid" doesn't even deserve using that name. The new Igarashi Metroidvania game we haven't seen anything from yet, but the art didn't look too appealing to me.

 

[Monado_III]

Super Metroid was just too good for me not to vote Metroid, IMO none of the Castlevania's came close to it. Prime was pretty good too.

 

[SmellyPirateMonkey]

Metroid for sure

 

[tony_2018]

So........which belmont? There has to be a specific character, right? I mean the Castlevania series had multiple main characters

 

[BurningDesire]

need i say more www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLOcT25ph9k

 

[FAST6191]

tony_2018's reminded me that all your history covered these franchises quite nicely

 

[Jwiz33]

Never played Castlevania, but I do like Metroid a lot.

 

[Sakitoshi]

I vote Metroid. why??

I have enjoyed Metroid games more than Castlevania ones. let me think what games I have played (and how many times I beat them if I remember correctly).

Metroid series: Metroid Fusion (+5), Super Metroid (+5), Metroid Prime (2), Metroid Zero Mission (2) and Metroid 2 Return of Samus (1), Metroid Other M (2).
Castlevania series: Castlevania Symphony of the Night (3, maybe more), Castlevania Rondo of Blood (2, maybe 3), Castlevania 64 (1), Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles (1).

Those are the games I have beat of every franchise (and in that order too).
The GBA Castlevanias look cheap to me, so it didn't catch my interest very much. but I do have played (but not finished. because reasons) more games of every series and have enjoyed every game. but Metroid has something that attracts me more (maybe is Samus herself. but I don't think so because she isn't a loli).

 

[Catastrophic]

Old Castlevania > old Metroid
New Metroid > new Castlevania

inb4 Federation Force.

 

[Hungry Friend]

Had to think about it and it's pretty much a draw, but I have to go with Metroid just because I love Super Metroid so damn much. It's CLOSE.

edit: I'm only thinking about the classics up to the GBA CVs and Metroid Fusion & Zero Mission since I've never even played the Prime series or any of the newer CV games. I'm basing my opinion on NES-GBA; never owned a GC or Wii.