Simply the Best

I've been sitting on the train working out how I order the Fire Emblem series Best-Worst and I had a thought. What if there was a thread that each week tackled a different series and just asked you to put the games in your favourite order?

There are plenty of series that simply won't ever get a voting thread, Zelda showed that even with a major series like that we have big ol' holes in our gaming knowledge, so I don't want this to be a serious vote thread, I won't total anything up, I'm just interested in how you'd rate some of my favourite game series and maybe a few comments about what makes them the best.

Boo at me when I put a top game at the bottom of my list, laugh at Mas as he picks the hipster option or just come in and drop your list.

Let me know if you think this is a decent idea and I'll drop the first game, it'll be one I think most of us can at least say something about. (Suggestions will also be welcome via MP)


Series 1: Metroid

Series 2: Kirby

Series 3: Sonic

Series 4: Star Fox

Series 5: Donkey Kong

Halloween Special: Scary Games

Series 6: Wario

Series 7: Yoshi

Crumpy Andy wrote:

laugh at Mas as he picks the hipster option

~

Aye, I like the idea. Please not just RPGs though.

Pretty well up for this.

Oh yes, I do intend to cover all sorts of genres, the first one isn't an RPG!

You may proceed.

Up for this, of course.  Any big forum project (that isn't interminably boring) gets a from me.  

Of the big franchises that we haven't voted for, I'd say there's room for a Pokémon vote on the forum, so perhaps leave that one aside?

Game for this, of course.

Agreed with Balla though - Pokémon is huge and we've all probably played enough Pokémon games to cover a vote nicely down the line.

Aye, I was thinking that as well, would likely get a more successful spin off vote with that one too.

I'll kick it off on Friday then, best have it on a day that I'm likely to remember to throw up the next series.

Yes, Andy - do remember to throw up.

Well played.

Great idea, Andy

I vote this idea the best idea on this topic!

Let's kick this off then!

First Series: Metroid

Which Metroid games do you like, which do you hate?

I'll post mine over the weekend.

Like none of them

Hate them all, okay maybe not hate but just not fan of any of them but I get the importance of the series in a historical sense along why peeps might have been mad about a the 3DS game (I can't remember the name) and not having a proper Metroid. I feel similar about the Resident Evil series with thing's like Umbrella Corps where I just want a proper Resident Evil game.

Best Metroidvania though, Symphony of the Night.

I'm going to have to put a bit of thought into this so mine will probably be up at the weekend too, I have 3 laid out so far for my best & there's not any that I outright hate. I shall also have to brace for the impact for the bad things going to be said about my favourite Nintendo series.

Super Metroid is king. Prime 1 almost king. Super Metroid for me didn't put a foot wrong. You, the world you're presented with. Go explore. We've all read about how well it does the "see stuff you can't get to until you have the right toy" and this does it wonderfully. But for me, Super utterly nails the end game with *that* excellent set piece.

You saw the baby Metroid at the start. You know what it looks like. You get to Ridley toward the end. You find the container that housed the Metroid. Empty. You carry on exploring. Then. The Metroid, in your face, now four times the size of you. It latches on. Starts draining your energy. You can't do a damn thing. Then it stops on your final dreg of life. It calls out. It knows you. And flies away.

HANDILY there's an energy recharge station nearby. You recharge. Handily. And carry on once more.

You finally end up at the Mother Brain. A lump of grey matter in a jar. Easy pickings. A few missiles later, it all collapses. Brain on floor. Win.

Then the brain gets up. With a fugly body attatched. She's mad. You attack her, she attacks you. Standard end boss stuff.

But then. Then. The stronger attacks come. With a zing through the air exploding against the wall behind you. This is deadly stuff. But you press on.

And then. Mother Brain unleashes hell. You're pinned against the wall as a rainbow hued death beam saps away your life. You fall to the ground, see Samus take a couple of breaths then get up.

Piling more rounds in to the grotesque figure, it charges the death beam up again. Once more you're against the wall, unable to do a damn thing.

You figure that each attack takes four energy bars off you. As you fall to the floor again, you see you have one energy bar left.

But then, something is... different. You try to get up, but the game won't let you. Samus is unable to move. You. Can't. Move.

Mother Brain squares up to you. And starts charging. You realise that, simply, this is game over. Mother Brain wins. You admit defeat.

And just as death is about to fall upon you, the now very large Metroid, who knows just who you are and how you saved it, swoops in for the save, drags Mother Brain's head back and leeches all the life out of her. Then parks over your head to imbue you with all the energy.

Mother Brain is now turned to stone. Your energy, your life, is returning.

All good. Apart from... Mother Brain seems to be... alive. A moment later, she stands up, roars, stomps over to the Metroid who is still giving you the extra special kiss of life, and attacks it. Then. Just as the Metroid lifts off you to attack Mother Brain, one squarely aimed shot from her kills the Metroid.

A howl rings out as the Metroid explodes in a shower of energy, all landing on Samus, and triggering a change in her suit to give her the most powerful beam weapon, which causes Mother Brain's neck to recoil with each hit. Several rounds later, Mother Brain falls. All good. Until the planetary self destrict is triggered. After all that you now have to fight your way off the planet.

It's all good. All enthralling. Hasn't been matched by any other game I've played myself since. And is one of the main reasons I reckon Super still holds the top spot. Prime was let down by its "end game"

Apologies for the long post

That's a cracking write-up, to the extent where you're making me reconsider the #1 spot in my list. Perfect example of storytelling where dialogue is not needed in the slightest.

*COUGH*



*COUGH*

I'll put up my thoughts in a bit... genuinely need to rethink what's going to top my list now.

OK. Of the main Metroid titles, there are three that I've not played enough of to properly place them. They are as follows - Metroid II: Return Of Samus, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I have put Metroid Prime Trilogy in my Wii U to rectify the latter two, at least. Also not played Metroid Prime Pinball, so that won't appear.

So:

7:

6:

5:

4:

3:

2:

1:

I've had an odd relationship with Metroid. My first was Metroid Prime on the Gamecube, and I enjoyed what I played of it, up to Phendrana Drifts. But then there was some nasty back-tracking and coupled with the less-than-ideal controls, I lost my patience with it. I then didn't play another until Super Metroid on the Wii Virtual Console, which again, I must have started at least 10 times. I'd get to the first boss and then never really went back to it. Revisit it a few months later and start again, inevitably leaving it after the first boss again. The thing is, I love that first bit of Super Metroid and really want to go through the game properly. It's the type of game I'd play on a handheld, but unfortunately I don't have a New 3DS (or a Wii-U any more). The only other Metroid I've played is Metroid Fusion, and I gave up on that immediately. Just way too much jabbing of 'A' to get through the endless text.

Nonetheless, I feel Super Metroid and Metroid Prime are stellar titles that I just haven't quite got sucked in to fully. I'd love a Metroid Collection of some sort for the NX, as I picked up Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii-U Virtual Console when it was £8.99 and wanted to play through them on the Gamepad (with headphones), but no, Nintendo insisted on the Wii controls.

As far as ranks, I'll go 1. Super Metroid 2. MEtroid Prime 3. Metroid Fusion but only because I played just those three. For a bit.

Through giveaways, swaps and bargain hunting, I've managed to get every single Metroid game to date...but I've got no fondness for any of it. What I played of Metroid Prime and Super Metroid seemed quite good, but once I took a break from them that was it, I never went back to either of them. I also really wanted to like Other M, but unskippable cutscenes in an action game such as that are a guaranteed way of making me switch off permanently.

So, aye, no list from me this week.

Those I've played, from least favourite to most favourite:

Super Metroid
Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime



If you wanted only to include games I know anything about, you could, and probably should, scrap the 2D games.  Like Grant, I got stuck on an early boss in Super (the Chozo statue that comes to life, gets you into a corner, and claws at you).  Fusion... I got on with it well enough, but never pressed on.  It never really grabbed me.  

Actually, nor did any of them... not even the divine Prime.  Like Cappa, then.  But I pressed on with Prime, and it rewarded me well.



It's fair to say that Prime is the only one I really loved.  I did love it though, probably partly because it was my first, but also the monster design, exploration, music, collectables, environments...  I went through a lot of it with a walkthrough (NGC's DGG+!), and don't regret it, otherwise head-thumping frustration as I got lost again would have probably set in.  As it is, I 100%-ed the game, and it's one of my top ten games ever.

MP2E I remember as being good, with a decent amount of exploration.  Making half of the environments murky purple spoiled it a little bit though, exploration for me is about experiencing new places and murky purple ain't much of an experience.  Sanctuary Fortress was belting though.

MP3C, on the other hand, took a good series and spoiled it.  New characters ruined the isolation, the beam-stacking spoiled strategic beam usage.  Still an alright game, just immensely disappointing after what had gone before.  Metroid should not try to be Halo.

MPH did something different, and for that the people who came up with the idea must be applauded, followed by being made to sign an affidavit that they will never try something similar in the future ever.  The multiplayer was actually good fun, a nice little character-focussed shooter for a console not drowning in them, especially in local.  I had fun playing as Trace.  But the single-player felt cramped, its worlds unimaginative, its bosses dull repeats; and sacrificing single-player for multiplayer is a thing that no Metroid game should ever do.  Hopefully they won't do that again.


If we're going by the same rules as Drunka's Zelda vote, then the Metroid game from Nintendo Land would come in third place for me in the spin-offs-included vote, and Metroid Prime Pinball in fourth.

Right, I haven't read anyone else's lists yet. I wanted to do mine fresh first, then I'll check y'all out.

Number 9:

Number 8:

Number 7:

Number 6:

Number 5:

Number 4:

Number 3:

Number 2:

Number 1:

Some notes: I've completed all the games apart from Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2. I got them on the gamecube when I was young and crap at playing games to the end and I've not got around to going back yet- they're both on my shelf, though! I haven't included the original Metroid as I feel Zero Mission completely replaces it, and I've not played Pinball at all (though I quite want to!).

2: Metroid Prime 3
1: Metroid Prime (the first one)


That's about as far as I go with Metroid, I'm leaving Fusion off because I got about twenty minutes in and noped the heck out of there.

Metroid is a weird series, especially the Prime games. Every time I try them I can see they're good games, top class GOAT games in the case of Prime 1, but for the life of me I can't get in to them. Believe me I've tried, I played about four hours of Prime back on the 'Cube, I played about six hours of Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii. I chipped in about ten hours on Prime 1 in the Trilogy collection! And each time I just never got hooked, I don't know what or why but something about the franchise is just off-putting for me at the genetic level.

Never let it be said I don't recognise them as top games mind you, Prime 1 is in fact a game I consider to be truly a game worthy of being on a "must play before you die" list, despite my not actually liking it. Which in my opinion says how good the franchise is, that someone cannot stand it, yet recognise it as a class act.

There's clearly something inherently off-putting about the series for a lot of us - Athternoon Delight is the third person to say as much. I remember having to force myself to go back to Prime. I'm really glad I did, of course.

I've just read through everyone else's stuff. Great post by Mandle!

Other than that, I notice the strange marmite effect Metroid seems to have. How odd...