Maptroid is a freeware Metroidvania by lozzajp written in HTML5 and released in 2020. As the name suggests, it strips away all the platforming and combat that the genre is known for to boil it down to its essence: traveling a map and collecting items. And we do mean literally traveling a map: your only sense of what the game world may actually look like is limited to the corner of your screen, as you explore using only the level map as your guide.
The original game can be played on various sites, but was originally uploaded onto Kongregate
. A more expansive version of the game, featuring more planets, has been released for Steam called Maptroid: Worlds on December 12th 2022.
This game provides examples of:
- Ability Required to Proceed: There are obstacles and tiles of various types (such as corridors that are too dark to safely venture through) that you are unable to traverse until you find certain equipment.
- Affectionate Parody: The game takes the Metroidvania genre and strips it only to the map and getting items, getting rid of all platforming and combat, and there's very little serious stuff in it. Despite this, the map design's competent, every useful item has an understandable purpose, and the display in the top-right corner shows this is still a world that could pass for a game in this genre.
- Alcohol Is Gasoline: You find a bottle of super strong vodka in some supplies that is used to fuel the ship.
- Completion Meter: You have a completion percentage for the map and items collected visible in the top-left corner.
- End-Game Results Screen: The ending screen displays your map percentage, item percentage, and clear time.
- Excuse Plot: You run out of fuel and have to land on an alien planet. Now you must collect enough fuel to get back home. Not much more to it, outside of a couple notes from other visitors.
- Level-Map Display: Inverted. The game takes place solely on the level map, while there's a graphical display of the area in the top-right corner.
- Multiple Endings: Two of them. Depending on your clear time, you either miss dinner or are on time.
- No Antagonist: No hostile alien life exists on the alien world. It's just you and some supplies on an empty world.
- Pun-Based Title: The title's a pun on the word "map" and the Metroid series.
- Retraux: The area's graphical representation in the top-right corner is pixel art, despite the rest of the game being made in HTML5.
- Sequel Hook: The ending screen states "Maybe one day you will explore another deserted planet but have to find all those tools again for no apparent reason".
- Shout-Out:
- One of the very first items you can find is an ancient text poking fun at the Morph Ball item from the Metroid series.
- The second document you find has "Help I've fallen and I can't get up!" written on it.
- Unending End Card: You can't leave the ending screen in-game. You need to refresh or close the window.
- Warp Whistle: Once you find a scroll with "TP", you can press 3 to teleport to the ship instantly.
- Wingdinglish: The document in the mountain is written in wingdings, which kind of fits the alien planet atmosphere, especially as it's also the only one with non-white text. It reads "Did you really bother to translate this?".
- A Winner Is You: Parodied by the ending screen, which says "You are win".
