Understanding the paradox of MetroidBrainias: The case ofAnimal Well
Animal Well is a Metroidvania developed by Billy Basso in 2024.Within this game's community, the frequent use of the term "MetroidBrainia" in reviews and discussions stands out.What does this word mean?Why is MetroidBrainia not Metroidvania?Available sources indicate that Nick Suttner, an indie game designer, first mentioned "MetroidBrainia" in 2015 while commenting on Jonathan Blow's The Witness.However, the term has neither been comprehensively defined nor gained mainstream adoption.We aim to provide a nuanced interpretation of this concept, using Animal Well as an example to illuminate the distinct pleasures and contradictions embedded in MetroidBrainias.This paper presents a preliminary finding based on an online ethnographic observation of the Animal Well community on Discord.
Authors
- Xiang Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6565-2339)
- Wenting Cheng
Institutions
- University of Nottingham Ningbo China (CN)
- Dongguan University of Technology (CN)
- Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory (CN)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-06-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.26503/dl.v2025i3.2535
- Primary Topic
- Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00