I go for ages at a time without publishing anything of any real weight, then all of a sudden, bam! Weeks’ worth of work hit in multiple clumps, each within hours of one the other. So here’s what we have today:
Deus Ex Human Revolution review: It’s almost a return to the EGM three-man review crew format, except not quite. Wonderful game, and I think the nature of this piece makes it the most comprehensive review we could have produced.
Super NES: The End and the Beginning: Blah blah blah personal recollections of the Super NES on the eve of its 20th birthday.
And the crown jewel, our second of the new 1UP Cover Stories. The Metroid Legacy: A belated 25th anniversary piece on Metroid, delayed because I took the time to interview the creators of more than half a dozen Metroid-inspired games (Cave Story, Shadow Complex, Aliens: Infestation, and more) to learn what they’ve taken away from Nintendo’s groundbreaking series as a way of contextualizing the significance of the original game.
I feel like I have provided, or helped to provide, many valuable words about video games for you today. I hope you enjoy them. And that Metroid family tree timeline came out nicely! I want to make it into a poster.
I’m actually starting to get excited for the new Deus Ex game. I assumed it was going to be just another over-hyped sequel, but it appears I am wrong.
The three-person review format is a good idea, but next time could you please present it in the form of a rap battle? Thanks in advance.
Over-hyped? On the contrary, I think DXHR has faced a ton of skepticism
from Deus Ex fans and general disinterest from everyone else.
Personally, I find its brand of sci-fi totally uninteresting, but here’s hoping that it’s successful enough to influence other games with worlds I find more compelling.
For what it’s worth, I’d seriously consider purchasing a professionally printed copy of the Metroid family tree timeline.
That was kind of my intent, but it didn’t quite work out.
Well if you ever do figure out a way to offer it, please let us know. (Also have one of your underlings fix the typo in the Monster Tale box, hopefully the final days of the 3DS won’t happen for a while)
A typo that also doubled as a vicious stab at the 3DS, maybe deserved.
I love your timeline ,and have no idea how you managed the patience to put it all together. (beat) BUT! I wouldn’t say Metroid borrows ‘little’ from Alien 3. The heroine in a situation where she’s a mother to the same alien threat she’s eradicated? A return to the premise/setting of the original? (single Alien, one location, picking folks off one by one). Sounds like Super Metroid / Alien 3 to me.
Great article on Metroid! I really enjoyed it. On the map though, I think Ultima was confused a bit with Wizardry, as Ultima was played from an overhead perspective.
The original Ultima had wireframe first-person dungeons.
I did some digging before posting, but I’ll take your word for it!
That was a great Metroid article, and has convinced me to give the series another try. I’ve only ever enjoyed the first Metroid Prime, and I guess I’ve just never been able to get over the first game, which I find incredibly unappealing and – burn me at the stake – almost unplayable.
Great timeline. Just shy of a couple links and entries (namely, the other Wonder Boy/Monster World series games aside from the auto-scrolling WB3). But I guess that chart was already running low on space.
Was Wizards and Warriors influenced by Metroid? I can’t remember much about it other than liking it, but for some reason that chart makes me think about it. Wikipedia leads me to believe the third game went Metroid-like while the previous games probably weren’t.
Stuff like that Metroid retrospective are why I love 1up. Not just the same old “The first Metroid game blah, the second Metroid game blah blah, the third Metroid game BLAHBLAHBLAH” etc.
Nice to read something different for an anniversary. I’m a Metroid fan – I’ve PLAYED these games! Now I’m going to have to go look up some of the games on that timeline there.