turgar

@frontman12: Yeah! I still want to write down a few thoughts about it, but it was a lot of fun as a co-op shooter.

They say your taste buds change every seven years.

Where would Axiom Verge fall on this list? It should get a place of honor. :-P

I liked what Nintendo was going for with Prime, but exploring and backtracking in 3D was exponentially more tedious and confusing to me. Also, Super Metroid was (and arguably still is) a top-tier 2D action game. In my mind, Prime didn't stand out against Western first-person shooters when I played it.

I'm with you on the future of Metroid. Nintendo is obviously aware of Metroid's appeal, given its prominent use in marketing. Great games aren't easy to make, though, and I'm not sure how a modern Metroid would look.

It's interesting to think of solitude as a facet of game design. Several puzzle and/or exploration games (e.g. Myst, Gone Home) feature the player in a quiet, lonely environment. Survival/horror games often isolate the player for stretches to build suspense. Metroid is a different game, but it shares common themes with both of these styles. It definitely creates a unique sense of immersion and atmosphere.

@majormitch: I've mentioned it before but, in my mind, Dark Souls really brought back some of the classic adventure game conventions. Partly by design and partly because of technical limitations, games often didn't hold the player's hand, relied on indirect, obscure or atmospheric storytelling and weren't afraid to be challenging, complex or expansive. Guides were rare (especially pre-modern Internet), so players were left alone to work through challenges (sometime with hints from friends, manuals or other sources). It wasn't all good but, like with Dark Souls, daunting challenges and immersive exploration can create truly memorable experiences.

The Dark Souls series may be (and perhaps should be) truly resolved, but we've already seen its influence on the industry. It's shifted the paradigm even if the series itself is done.