Genre: Action platformer
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Clearly taking influence from another internally developed game, the previous year's "Super Mario Bros.", this 1987 release has lots of brick, pillar, bridge, and plant tiles which look great on an interlaced CRT. The black backgrounds make it easy for the player to distinguish the well animated and interesting enemy designs. The framerate does struggle mightily when lots of sprites are on screen, but the way in which it happens is always manageable.

Hirokazu Tanaka was really doing the rounds during this era, creating the music for Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Ice Climber, Kid Icarus, Tetris, and many more iconic games. For Metroid he went with lots of minor key, and an emphasis on creating that "Aliens"-like atmosphere over all else, with "Kraid's Hideout" being a real show-topper. The game's sound effects are just as well done, with plenty of information encoded within them.

As the creator of a new genre, Metroid's basic formula is familiar through today's lens: explore a room-based labyrinth while growing an ever-expanding arsenal of weapons and abilities, which in turn open up even more areas. The game's physics are both nuanced and easy to control, although it's difficult for this reviewer to imagine some of the sequences, such as the final boss, without the advantage of emulation rewind capabilities. Health farming is also a constant annoyance-- save rooms wouldn't be invented until later entries.

Like Super Mario Bros., Catacombs 3D, Minecraft, and many other luminaries, Metroid is a game which quite literally invented a whole formula. While later series entries, particularly the third title on the Super NES, would add modern-day amenities such as an automap and an inventory, there is something to be said for this original's simplicity and atmosphere.