Several people have mentioned Metroid so I thought I'd elaborate on that one more in the vein of my original post.
Metroid, along with Castlevania, essentially succeeded in creating a whole new genre in its day. The premise being to create what basically amounts to a labyrinth for players to explore. And as you explore you find new gadgets, fight bosses, obtain weapons, and generally increase your power in various ways that allow you to access and survive new areas of the map. Backtracking is a very big part of the "Metroidvania" model, allowing the acquisition of new tools to open areas of the map that you may have seen before, but couldn't access.
The series REALLY hit stride with Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo system, becoming a huge success and, more importantly, being one of the few, if not the only, first-party Nintendo franchise to actually have a progressing story, despite its basically-silent protagonist.
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill almost immediately after that game. While Super Metroid did do well, Nintendo chose not to follow it up for quite some time. The entire Nintendo 64 generation passed without an addition to the franchise, excepting a couple GBA releases that did modestly well.
On a more positive note, the series came roaring back in the form of Metroid Prime on the Gamecube. Possibly the most remarkable feature of Metroid Prime was its ability to transition nearly-perfectly from 2D to 3D. Platforming still worked great even from a first-person perspective and the exploration and upgrade aspects of the series remained well intact. Prime was followed up with a successful sequel on the Gamecube, and another on the Wii (which I enjoyed but never finished due to the Wii controller giving me arm-cramps), which brought full voice-acting to the series for the first time in just about any Nintendo game.
Unfortunately, Nintendo then made an ill-fated decision. They chose to hand the series over to Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame) to develop a new entry called Other M. Unfortunately, the game was panned by fans, mostly in the story department. The essential complaint came down to Samus' character, previously one of the few truly capable, strong yet sexy, and importantly unobnoxious female characters in gaming. Team Ninja did away with much of that and reduced her to a stereotypical female stock character whose personality did not match what it was before. Samus had never had a voice before Other M, and many fans saw it as a betrayal to finally give her a voice only to undo all of the amazing character that she had taken on without ever speaking a word.
Fortunately, that is the only truly bad time in the Metroid line (unlike Sonic's numerous flops), so perhaps it can be written off as an anomaly, and future titles in the series will get back to what the series is great at. Only time will tell.
Metroid, along with Castlevania, essentially succeeded in creating a whole new genre in its day. The premise being to create what basically amounts to a labyrinth for players to explore. And as you explore you find new gadgets, fight bosses, obtain weapons, and generally increase your power in various ways that allow you to access and survive new areas of the map. Backtracking is a very big part of the "Metroidvania" model, allowing the acquisition of new tools to open areas of the map that you may have seen before, but couldn't access.
The series REALLY hit stride with Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo system, becoming a huge success and, more importantly, being one of the few, if not the only, first-party Nintendo franchise to actually have a progressing story, despite its basically-silent protagonist.
Unfortunately, things started to go downhill almost immediately after that game. While Super Metroid did do well, Nintendo chose not to follow it up for quite some time. The entire Nintendo 64 generation passed without an addition to the franchise, excepting a couple GBA releases that did modestly well.
On a more positive note, the series came roaring back in the form of Metroid Prime on the Gamecube. Possibly the most remarkable feature of Metroid Prime was its ability to transition nearly-perfectly from 2D to 3D. Platforming still worked great even from a first-person perspective and the exploration and upgrade aspects of the series remained well intact. Prime was followed up with a successful sequel on the Gamecube, and another on the Wii (which I enjoyed but never finished due to the Wii controller giving me arm-cramps), which brought full voice-acting to the series for the first time in just about any Nintendo game.
Unfortunately, Nintendo then made an ill-fated decision. They chose to hand the series over to Team Ninja (of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame) to develop a new entry called Other M. Unfortunately, the game was panned by fans, mostly in the story department. The essential complaint came down to Samus' character, previously one of the few truly capable, strong yet sexy, and importantly unobnoxious female characters in gaming. Team Ninja did away with much of that and reduced her to a stereotypical female stock character whose personality did not match what it was before. Samus had never had a voice before Other M, and many fans saw it as a betrayal to finally give her a voice only to undo all of the amazing character that she had taken on without ever speaking a word.
Fortunately, that is the only truly bad time in the Metroid line (unlike Sonic's numerous flops), so perhaps it can be written off as an anomaly, and future titles in the series will get back to what the series is great at. Only time will tell.
