Incredible sketch artwork by thelionfish!

I always loved the overall map design and upgrade systems of early Metroid games, but was never quite as into the moment-to-moment gameplay as most people seemed to be. The original Metroid especially seemed brutally hard without an in-game map!

I distinctly remember one part where you needed to shoot a random ceiling tile, with no indication that it was any different from every other ceiling in the game, in order to get a mandatory powerup to progress. That was kind of silly!

The series is definitely more memorable than most game series out there however, and I appreciate that! I remember when I first heard the music to the first Metroid, and it sounded like someone was just pressing random notes on a keyboard without any rhyme or reason. Now those random notes are ingrained into my memory, and have become iconic video game soundtrack. It's a little bizarre!