A full decade before popular female leads like Lara Croft and Jill Valentine became mainstays of gaming, Samus Aran, the badass bounty hunter of the Metroid Series, made waves when her pixilated ...

James Ratcliff joined Game Rant in 2022 as a Gaming News Writer. In 2023, James was offered a chance to become an occasional feature writer for different games and then a Senior Author in 2025. He is ...

Samus Aran vs. Master Chief: Both are genetically enhanced super-humans wearing a full-body armored suit. One has ballistic weapons and explosive grenades. One uses particle beams and morphing ...

Since this franchise title makes up one half of the inspiration for the genre term “metroidvania,” you probably already know what a typical 2D Metroid game looks like, but I’ll break it down anyway.