A Diehard Metroid Fan Defends Federation Force

Well, the Metroid news has dropped… and Nintendo fans aren’t pleased. The trailer was lumped in with a bunch of other short 3DS teases, but there’s no denying it — we’re getting a new Metroid game. The real shocker is that despite hints from Nintendo, and even from Miyamoto himself, that we’d maybe be seeing both a classic siderscrolling Metroid and a Metroid Prime-style game released in the near future, Federation Force isn’t either of those; not really. Metroid Prime: Federation Force uses the perspective of Metroid Prime, but it looks to be a squad-based multiplayer shooter with an oddly cartoony art

High Heels and Hard Light: Sexism, Pandering, and the Fall of Samus Aran

Samus Aran. Badass bounty hunter. Galactic savior. Hero and protagonist of a videogame series that has endured for almost thirty years. Samus Aran is among the most iconic videogame characters of all time. As far as female protagonists go, Samus is the earliest surviving one. Aside, I guess, from Ms. Pac-Man, but can you really count an anthropomorphized yellow blob? Samus is — at the very least — the oldest surviving female protagonist we can identify with. You know, since she’s human. Or at least humanoid. Back in 1986, even if you owned the original Metroid, even if you’d beaten

Star Fox 2: The Forgotten Flight of Fox McCloud

Star Fox was a bit of an obsession in my household back in the day. My brother was something of a master — even playing competitively — and while I can’t claim I approached that level of dedication, I always had a soft spot for it. I returned not too long ago, with the intent of finally conquering so-called “Level 3,” the most difficult route to Venom, and the one I had never been able to see through to its conclusion. How unexpected, then, that I made it through after only a few tries. From the moment I defeated Andross’