Timeline | 1987: Metroid

Metroid was one of the shining examples of a great year for the NES.

Metroid launched on the NES in North America in August 1987. Like many of the best NES games coming out in America at the time, Metroid was a port from the Famicom Disk System in Japan and utilized a Password system in leui of an actual saving mechanism. Metroid was a triumph for the Action-Adventure genre of the time, it focused more on exploration than other games of the period and required the player to back track and explore to open different areas, unlock different items (several of which were necessary to win the game like the missiles and Ice Beam - something that was almost unheard of in a time when items like Mario's FireFlow were the norm).

A typical screenshot from Metroid, the EN in the top left is the player's Energy (Life).

The player in Metroid had an Energy indicator that could be refilled with Energy and reduced as they took damage. Metroid had an intricate back story (although you would have had to read the manual to know most of it) and was one of the first games to really inspire a sense of solitude and dark struggle onto the player (at least for me, especially on the NES). Once the final battle with Mother Brain occurs and the player is victorious, they then plant a bomb to destroy the entire enemy facility and have 999 seconds to escape (back track through the entire game)!

If you beat the game quickly enough it is revealed that Samus Aran (your character) is a woman! This was a huge surprise at the time and a big stepping stone to moving women out of the role of 'Damsel in Distress' to much stronger roles.

Metroid, and games like it, paved the way for more mature, intricate storylines and settings. Metroid also defined the 2D action-adventure/exploration genre so much that games like it are referred to as being in the style of Metroidvania (after Metroid and Castlevania, also quite important in the genre).

Metroid went on to found an important franchise for Nintendo, receiving sequels on the GameBoy (Metroid II: The Return of Samus) and SNES (Super Metroid - highly acclaimed). Metroid Prime on the GameCube (and its sequels, Metroid Prime 2 and 3 on the Gamecube and Wii) along with their slightly enhanced bundle Metroid Prime Trilogy, were very highly acclaimed. The game itself got an enhanced remake (in the form of Metroid: Zero Mission) on the DS along with Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime Hunters (and pinball) also on the DS. The last game (currently) in the franchise is 2011's Metroid: Other M, unfortunately the game was not received as well as previous games in the franchse and the franchise has seemingly gone dormant - hopefully it will be revived for the Wii U and 3DS soon!

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_(video_game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid