Nintendo's Super Metroid

Super Metroid was both developed and published by Nintendo for the SNES. Before its release in 1994, the project of developing the game was actually almost canceled several times, for it was the largest game Nintendo had released at the time.  Though after its release, it became a large success in the US. Named game of the month in May 1994, in the "Electronic Gaming Monthly", it set the standard for 16 bit games. Also, in 2007, it was named number 10 in IGN's top 100 games of all time.

The objective of the game is you play as Samus Aran. As the third installment of the series, the game mainly takes place on the planet Zebes. This large open world is primarily connected by a series of doors, elevators, and hidden passages (the map that is accessible through out the game will become your new best friend). You explore this planet in search of the stolen Metroid larva, that you have previously just delivered to a science facility for research on its life absorbing properties.

Along the way, the player also encounters a series of items and upgrades though out their mission. This upgrades can further enhance Samus' suit or allow Samus to even reach hidden locations. Most of the upgrades are needed though to complete the game.

Now this game is very different from most games of its time. The  most notable difference is , the main protagonist, Samus Aran is a girl ( Oh my god a girl! no way!). Now, at the time, this was huge. Girl characters though out prior video games where most the time either victims, or the main point of the entire game. You can really see this in the popular games of the time such as Mario Bros. and The legend of Zelda. But, in this game the main character is female, when most games, again at the time, had the main character as a male. You only see this though during two points in the game, either when you beat the game and Samus takes of here helmet, or when your power reaches zero and your suits gets destroyed; showing your female attributes, and getting you the game over.

Now what I really liked about this game was how much more adventure it was than action for being an action-adventure type game. that is the ability to find items and upgrades for your character, really brought me into the game as if I had a choice on how the game is played. Also, the game is very puzzling. That is, with out certain upgrades you can not reach many locations. There are a lot of hidden locations can only accessible by either the rockets, morphing ball, or mine laying upgrades. This forces the player to further explore the map to find all the upgrades needed. But there are also hidden locations for you to find that hold access to map rooms, and save locations.

Now talking about the map rooms, as I said previously, they become your new best friend. The map in this game is a very important tool, unlike most games of the time when the mini map was just a black square showing your location. The map in this games shows where you have been and what ares you have accessed, and the mini map shows the directions you are heading and the shapes of the rooms. The map rooms though, are a god send. That is, when you find these rooms, they allow you to download areas of the map. You can access your map in the start menu and it will allow you to see rooms and areas you have yet to visit, these include more map rooms and save rooms, along with the titles to areas (this is extremely helpful to find those hidden door locations).
This menu also allows you to view and activate our deactivate abilities and upgrades that you found for Samus. This I really liked because it gave the players a feeling of control and responsibility in the game, not like most games of the time where you only controlled the a character and all you and to do was "move forward" . Which leads me to an other aspect I liked, which was how the game also has you backtrack to find areas and progress through out the game. Comparing it to other games of the time, you mainly moved "forward" throughout the game to reach your main destination. when in Super Metroid you must also backtrack to ares you have already been to to reach your destination.

This game is not perfect though. That is at moment throughout the game I felt like I was playing Super Mario. A lot of the game includes a series  timed jumps and shooting your enemies as you jumped. I kind of felt like Mario with a Fire Flower upgrade shooting fireballs at goombas, when really I was just Samus shooting at aliens.

This game is very addicting to play, it is a lot of fun and has a difficulty that is just right to give the player a challenge. Though at some points it doesn't seem very original, the difficult boss battles, puzzle making, and action packed adventure make it a lot of fun to play.

Now remember, if you want to play this game you have to download the ROM and use an emulator. I have a link to both above in the "Link to Games" nav bar.

References:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs
http://top100.ign.com/2005/001-010.html
http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Metroid