I've been fighting a mutant cold all week, which means I just don't have the energy to tackle my shiny pile of virgin games. Yes, I am an example of humanity at its laziest and most spoiled. Any further down the ladder and I'll be a quivering puddle of goo that manipulates game controllers with an oozing pseudopod.
Surely you can relate, though. Mr Cole Stryker recently spoke of “relaxing games;” in the same vein, I have my stash of “comfort games.” Digital chicken soup. Something to turn to when I'm just not up to slogging through a ten-hour tutorial.
Games that don't make me work. Or even games with one special trait that brings me inner peace.
One such game is Super Metroid, fresh-picked from the Virtual Console. Super Metroid hovers near the top of everyone's list of favourite action games, and I'm no exception. But for me, the title really shines (somehow ironically, I suppose) because of its dark atmosphere.
Taken on their own, Super Metroid's backgrounds aren't very impressive. Combined with the moody music and the game's setting (deeper and deeper underground until Samus touches Norfair's molten core), they do a brilliant job. Though I really enjoyed Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Talking Fusion, the detailed, colourful backgrounds in those games stood out like exclamations in the sombre simplicity of a temple. I don't want to be shouted at when I'm sick. I want to swaddle myself in thick, warming shades of dark purple and red.
I suppose simplicity just suits Samus well.
Related Links:
Metroid Prime Trilogy Retrospective: Part One
Rebuttal Rebuttal: I Stand With Metroid
Metroid: Wishful Thinking