WaspRanger
1986
The first game i ever beat, the first game to scare me, to make me understand storytelling in games, and the first game to make me cry. A truly fantastic final boss of an angry mother trying to protect her last child and a uniquely beautiful ending afterwards. This was 1991 and it was pushing the medium of storytelling forward light-years without saying a word
1994
All time classic with THE best final act of any video game I have ever played. A culmination of 3 games worth of story only silent spoken and it beats everything from Final Fantasy 6 all the way to The Witcher 3 in terms of impact. Still the best Metroidvania game, proving RPG mechanics are a (fun!) crutch to this core style of game
2002
2002
Excellent remake of my precious Metroid 2, but still not quite as good. Does a ton of magic in terms of level design and puzzle solving. If Mercury Steam made an original Metroid game, it'd be the best on, easily.
Wins over AM2R purely because its actually canon and will affect the series going forward
Wins over AM2R purely because its actually canon and will affect the series going forward
2010
The current pinnacle of storytelling in video games as a medium. If you are writing a game with an "interesting" story, play this and pour over it and then throw your trash away and start over. An ode to everything beautiful and fun about B-tier media and the best possible way to end the PS4 generation
2020
2021
While Something holds it back from being truly perfect, it stand shoulder to shoulder with the best in the series and has some of the greatest thrills you could ask for in a modern Nintendo game. More importantly, it fulfilled a lifetime of expectations and joy and left me hopeful again for the future of a series I was positive was dead forever