Editing Metroid (universe)

From SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
Warning You aren't logged in. While it's not a requirement to create an account, doing so makes it a lot easier to keep track of your edits and a lot harder to confuse you with someone else. If you edit without being logged in, your IP address will be recorded in the page's edit history.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then publish the changes below to finish undoing the edit.

Latest revision Your text
Line 20: Line 20:


==Franchise description==
==Franchise description==
After the incredible success of ''[[Mario (universe)|Super Mario Bros.]]'' and {{uv|The Legend of Zelda}} for the Famicom / NES, Nintendo wished to branch out and create a game with fast-paced action like the former, but with intricate exploration like the latter. Nintendo Research and Development 1 division led by Yoshio Sakamoto with producer Gunpei Yokoi were tasked with making this game a reality. The team took inspiration from Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film ''Alien'' for both aesthetics and structure. Like ''The Legend of Zelda'' before it, the team wanted to hide permanent upgrades around the labyrinthine levels and encouraged backtracking to find new secrets with recently acquired upgrades. This game eventually released in August, 1986 as ''{{b|Metroid|game}}'', the name being a portmanteau of "Metro" and "Android."  
After the incredible success of ''[[Mario (universe)|Super Mario Bros.]]'' and ''{{uv|The Legend of Zelda}}'' for the Famicom / NES, Nintendo wished to branch out and create a game with fast-paced action like the former, but with intricate exploration like the latter. Nintendo Research and Development 1 division led by Yoshio Sakamoto with producer Gunpei Yokoi were tasked with making this game a reality. The team took inspiration from Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi horror film ''Alien'' for both aesthetics and structure. Like ''The Legend of Zelda'' before it, the team wanted to hide permanent upgrades around the labyrinthine levels and encouraged backtracking to find new secrets with recently acquired upgrades. This game eventually released in August, 1986 as ''{{b|Metroid|game}}'', the name being a portmanteau of "Metro" and "Android."  


The game tasked bounty hunter [[Samus Aran]] with a lone mission to hunt down and kill all [[Metroid (creature)|Metroid]]s on planet {{iw|metroidwiki|Zebes}}, and taking down anyone and anything that gets in the way of the mission. While initially starting out with little more than basic weapons, Samus eventually finds a multitude of upgrades that will help find and take down any adversary. The game received praised for its inventive gameplay structure and its atmosphere, reveling in the sense of isolation and fear of what comes next. ''Metroid'' was also one of the first games to contain multiple endings, which were awarded based on how fast the game was completed; this had a hand in popularizing the concept of the "speedrun". Finally, ''Metroid'' was one of the first video games to feature a female protagonist - and this was initially presented to the gaming public as a concealed secret, even using masculine pronouns when referring to Samus in promotional material and the instruction manual, until the game was beaten in a fast-enough time. Despite this praise, the game only sold modestly in Japan, starting a trend of the franchise never performing well in that region. However, the 1987 North American release sold much better, and the game was overall considered a success. Also, in retrospect, this seminal entry has not aged particularly well, including a total lack of help over where to go and clunky feeling combat, especially compared to modern standards. Though most of these complaints are offset by its historical and cultural significance.
The game tasked bounty hunter [[Samus Aran]] with a lone mission to hunt down and kill all [[Metroid (creature)|Metroid]]s on planet {{iw|metroidwiki|Zebes}}, and taking down anyone and anything that gets in the way of the mission. While initially starting out with little more than basic weapons, Samus eventually finds a multitude of upgrades that will help find and take down any adversary. The game received praised for its inventive gameplay structure and its atmosphere, reveling in the sense of isolation and fear of what comes next. ''Metroid'' was also one of the first games to contain multiple endings, which were awarded based on how fast the game was completed; this had a hand in popularizing the concept of the "speedrun". Finally, ''Metroid'' was one of the first video games to feature a female protagonist - and this was initially presented to the gaming public as a concealed secret, even using masculine pronouns when referring to Samus in promotional material and the instruction manual, until the game was beaten in a fast-enough time. Despite this praise, the game only sold modestly in Japan, starting a trend of the franchise never performing well in that region. However, the 1987 North American release sold much better, and the game was overall considered a success. Also, in retrospect, this seminal entry has not aged particularly well, including a total lack of help over where to go and clunky feeling combat, especially compared to modern standards. Though most of these complaints are offset by its historical and cultural significance.

Please note that all contributions to SmashWiki are considered to be released under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license (see SmashWiki:Copyrights for details). Your changes will be visible immediately. Please enter a summary of your changes above.

Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

Cancel Editing help (opens in new window)