Looking for game ancestors

[Zoh_Veldae]

I'm looking for the games that can be pointed to as the precursors of specific game genres, like Bejeweled could be pointed as the precursor to match-3 games or how Castlevania and Metroid began the Metroidvania genre.

Right now, I'd like to know what game is the precursor to these mobile Merger games, like Mansion Tale, but if anyone knows who the ancestors for other game genres are, do leave the name here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bakuma1997]

Eversion started the whole "Happy wubbly luvy game OF DOOM" trend that so many horror games came to adopt

 

[90snomad]

Tennis for two spawned pong

Tennis for Two - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Which would arguably grow into arkanoid

 

[PhaseJump]

Golden Sun series from Nintendo on GBA and NDS:

It is a direct descendent of the original Shining franchise from Sega on Genesis, Gamegear & Saturn:

 

[bjork]

Castlevania and Metroid began the Metroidvania genre.

Fwiw: if you're talking "you need an item or an ability to then access a previously inaccessible area or enemy" as a base definition, Hydlide did it before either of those series. This is why they should be called Hydlikes

 

[90snomad]

Fwiw: if you're talking "you need an item or an ability to then access a previously inaccessible area or enemy" as a base definition, Hydlide did it before either of those series. This is why they should be called Hydlikes

I hydlike that idea.

 

[Turbo Kid]

The funny thing about Metroidvania is that Symphony of the Night popularized the term yet 70% of the games that get filed under that moniker don't even do the things that SOTN did to differentiate it from Metroid (like the rpg elements for example)

As far as I know, Spartan X/Kung-Fu Master started the beat 'em up genre yet rarely gets credit for it

 

[Tonberry]

Fwiw: if you're talking "you need an item or an ability to then access a previously inaccessible area or enemy" as a base definition, Hydlide did it before either of those series. This is why they should be called Hydlikes

My favorite Metroidvania is Zelda 2.

 

[90snomad]

My favorite Metroidvania is Zelda 2.

My favorite Zelda 2 is Elden Ring

 

[Tonberry]

My favorite Zelda 2 is Elden Ring

Now we're cooking with gas!

 

[Turbo Kid]

Talking about genres or sub genres always gets complicated because some people choose to define them a certain way. Like I hate when people lump beat 'em ups in with fighting games like they're the same genre, but some people do

I also cringe when people call Zelda an RPG

 

[PhaseJump]

Talking about genres or sub genres always gets complicated because some people choose to define them a certain way. Like I hate when people lump beat 'em ups in with fighting games like they're the same genre, but some people do

I also cringe when people call Zelda an RPG

Pretty sure that's a genre term difference between North Americans and Europeans, probably popularized by the different magazines people relied on.

 

[NotReallyHere]

Bejeweled could be pointed as the precursor to match-3 games

Columns and Puyo Puyo came before Bejeweled, even. And there may be other older examples.

Now you've got me wanting to take a deep dive on the entire history of the tile-matching puzzle game genre

 

[Tonberry]

Chess being the ancestor of RTS games is an easy one, but I guess that's not the kind of precursor you're thinking of. This thread just reminded me of this cool intro so I wanted to share:

 

[No_SuRReNDeR]

OK so as a kid I had a Sega --- Master system - when everyone else had an NES - YEAH Conan is one OLD Cimmerian... anyway, I love Castlevania and I love Metroid -What I am going to suggest may seem a stretch but hear me out . The first metroid-vania I ever played because I owned a total of 10 maybe 15 games back then was the master system exclusive ZILLION.

It had almost all of these tropes including metroid style upgrades to the weapon and like castlevania 3 other characters that had different abilities all in a Japanese anime esthetic... Apple for example could jump higher than the main character JJ. The game is non linear and you upgrade (lvl up) your character and for ME was also the first time I saw a parallax-ish element in a background element on the opening level with "the moon"... It also exposed me to Anime as a genre since I was a kid in Phoenix/Glendale at the time... The music is still in my head to this day. What makes it unique is the puzzle like element of shooting the " trash cans"to get the code symbols to use in the computers on each main room screen...we called them trash cans... they also had health and upgrades and the key cards. For me and my sister we had created a cheat sheet of names that we should just repeat out loud - "Popsicle -Butterfly- Glasses -Y "- I would be saying that out loud on steady repeat to remember and my parents likely were scratching their heads hearing us in the other room... The music had some pretty catchy tunes and there is even a metroid inspired escape the destruction if you get that far... ZILLION for Sega Master System is worth at least a few minutes of your time.

 

[Zoh_Veldae]

Columns and Puyo Puyo came before Bejeweled, even. And there may be other older examples.

Now you've got me wanting to take a deep dive on the entire history of the tile-matching puzzle game genre

Truly? I thought Columns came after. Learned something new tonight.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

how Castlevania and Metroid began the Metroidvania genre.

This game was platforming with upgrades and progression blocks:

I also cringe when people call Zelda an RPG

Same, Zelda is a marvellous franchise but it's not a RPG with stats and level ups.

Before Doom was Wolfenstein 3D, before Wolfenstein 3D was Catacombs 3D, before Catacombs 3D was Hovertank 3D, before Hovertank 3D was BattleZone, before BattleZone... Well you had Maze War:

 

[bjork]

ZILLION for Sega Master System is worth at least a few minutes of your time.

Zillion does not get enough love. The jaunty little tune and trying to learn the map is good stuff. It reminds me of Impossible Mission, but feels tougher than that due to the combat element. Really cool game, though. Shame the sequel is nothing like it.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Takeshi's challenge invented the rage/troll games