!Metroid!

Nintendo is good at beating the dead dog when it releases new games but the Metroid series is one that still has lots of life to it. Starting off on the NES/Famicon the Metroid games have lasted as long as Final Fantasy and Mario.


Nice little magic hybrid shooter platformers with collectible items and with recent games a range in difficulty. Having the series span all of Nintendo's systems Metroid currently has itself a rather large fan base. Of course there is the whole "Metroid Pinball" thing but one mess up can usually be ignored while the rest are rather gold. The "Metroid Pinball" game wasn't horrible by any means but it isn't exactly what one comes to expect from Samus.

Samus, the main character in all the Metroid games, is a female bounty hunter decked out with a plasma gun and a high tech space suit with armor abilities. She goes about her galaxy fighting space pirates and removing other scourge like any good bounty hunter but while she's on the job there is a problem with a nearby race call the Metroids. These creatures of unimaginable power are being bred by the space pirates to be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb of today. Starts the story of Metroid (One) on the NES.

Further, Metroid took a to Nintendo's first hand held which is sometimes called by gamers "the GameBrick" rather then GameBoy due to the handhelds bulky size. One this adventure Samus takes the fight to the Metroid home world, trying to wipe out the deadly creatures before any more harm can come. She does her job for all but one Metroid which decides to follow Samus like a puppy.

Taking the "lost Metroid" back to be studied, Samus then decides to leave the space station in pursuit of a bounty. This is where the best Metroid, Super Metroid, starts. The beginning of the game has Samus Aran briefing you, the player, on the past games events and the fact that there has recently been a distress call from the station she left the creature at. Soon, you and Samas find that a giant alien monster, known as Ridley, has taken the metroid for itself. Samus fights the best to no avail, Ridley grabs the metroid and the station starts a self destruct sequence. If Samas manages to escape the station before the countdown reaches zero she follows Ridley to the planet Zeebes and it is there that this adventure truly begins.

Super Metroid for the SNES has to be one of the best games on the system itself. There is plenty of action, a driven story and the game has a mild retention of its difficulty even through multiple play throughts. Mastering some of the extra moves or finding out ones you did not know where there is also a fun thing to try.

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