Gaming off the Beaten Path

It's back to Metroid for our latest in the saga of GBA Metroidvania titles. After a strong start, the last two of these games I've played have disappointed, one slightly and another drastically, so will this next game right the ship? As I make my way through this series, I found myself leaning more heavily towards the Castlevania games than ever before. I know I've said this before, but I've always considered Metroid a series I liked more than loved, and my reviews of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Metroid Fusion certainly demonstrated that. It's not that I didn't like Fusion, it's just that I could very easily see why there was so much hype surrounding Circle while I couldn't do the same for it. Of course, that train quickly derailed, as I found myself very underwhelmed by Castlevania: Harmony of Disonance and ready to jump into the next game on my list. Which brings us back to the Metroid side of the series. Released in 2004, Metroid: Zero Missi...

It's time to keep the GBA Metroidvania train rolling. We started with Castlevania, then moved on to Metroid, and now it's time to make our way back to Dracula's castle. I was pleasantly surprised last year when I, sort of on a whim, decided to take a shot at Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on the Game Boy Advance. I had heard good things about the handheld titles in the series, but never actually took the time to play any of them. And that's a shame, because Circle of the Moon was outstanding. It was truly an exceptional example of just what the tiny but mighty GBA was capable of. It got me excited to dig into the other games in the genre I had missed from that console, both Metroid and Castlevania alike. I moved right along to Metroid: Zero Mission and while I wasn't as high on it as I was COTM, it was still a solid experience that was incredibly well designed and polished. So naturally, the next step in the progression was back to 'Vania with the next in that...