Metroid

Metroid on the NES was the birth of this franchise, and is now one of the most highly regarded franchises of all time. Metroid was also very revolutionary with its game design, and how it had no levels and just one huge map to discover. Metroid was one big adventure in a sci fi setting and is one to remember.
 
From the start screen, you'll hear a little chime as Samus Aran appears, then the legendary Brinstar music will play in the background, and it is some of the greatest music you will ever hear in a video game, and one tune to remember. Now you take control of Samus in this very mysterious looking place, just to go out and explore not really having a clue where you are or what you have to do. As most people know by now, you have to move left first to grab the Maru Mari, which is the morph ball. You'll notice right away the controls are very solid, and the jumping feels excellent with a lot of control, but gives you what feels like a pea shooter at first, and only 30 energy, so this game is going to be hard. Your first time through will conclude to lots of searching, and trying to find out about this place, and eventually lead you to items, and how to use items and when to use your items. AS you playthrough more and more, you will eventually find the pattern in how to play the game, like finding items in the right order, and knowing exactly how to get their providing tons of depth. You'll want to pull out a piece of paper and graph paper as well, because you'll writing lots of passwords down, as death is very common in Metroid, as it is one tough game. The graph paper will provide a map if you plan on going that route, and I highly suggest it, so you know where to go, and of course where you have been.
 
Metroid does have really good solid gameplay, but the combat and shooting feels kind of awkward, which is fixed by the time Super Metroid hits, as the shoulder buttons provide diagonal shooting. Enemies all have different patterns and all do different things, and some require a more powerful weapon to kill, and bigger enemies can even only be killed by using missiles. You will notice different colored doors, and they all require a different item to go through, and blue doors are the default, as they just requie one shot from your default blaster.
 
The music for each area is very catchy and atmospheric, and for how long the game takes on your first playthroughs, they'll definitely become stuck in your head, but thats good they have amazing quality to them, and really suit the area they were performed for. Sounds effects and such are quality for being an NES title, and one of the better titles as well. Boss battles have their set of intense music really even sometimes giving you quite a fright. All of the enemies and bosses are really well designed and fit well with the universe of Metroid, and Samus is a really interesting character as he\she doesn't say a word ever, he\she just kicks ass. The main point to the story is to destroy the Metroid, thus the name of the game. 
 
Metroid can and will leave you very frustrated because of the extreme difficulty, and does show age. Anyone who doesn't have the patience for NES games in this day and age, probably might want to stay away from this one, but a least give the game a little play time to see where the franchise made its start from, and then play Super Metroid which is highly superior.
 
Metroid is a great title, and pretty much pioneered the exploring\open world type gameplay to side scrollers, next to The Legend of Zelda. If you have the time nowadays, give the game a try, but it is definitely not for everyone, but a real great solid game.