Video Essays

Released in the UK by Mirrorsoft one month before Metroid, Dynamite Dan II was a sequel to a platform collect-em-up inspired by Jet Set Willy. The original Dynamite Dan …
Read More

Released in Spain by Dinamic one month before Metroid, Phantomas 2 was renamed upon its release in the UK by Codemasters three months later. Vampire placed you in the role …
Read More

“Metroidvania” is a portmanteau of Nintendo’s Metroid and Konami’s Castlevania. But how has its meaning changed over time?

What got its Wikipedia page deleted for almost a decade? 

And why …
Read More

The year is 1990. Nintendo has just received the latest “Q Ratings” report — a long-running popularity poll that ranks celebrities and fictional characters by weighing their popularity against their …
Read More

The reaction to my “Metroid Hidden Influences” video has been amazing. If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch that one first, then come back here. Because this…is the Bonus …
Read More

In the mid-2000s, a website called TV Tropes began to spread across the internet via word of mouth. Few of us knew what a “trope” was, but the way the …
Read More

Who was the first character with an arm cannon? What was the first game to use weapons to unlock doors? And why can’t metroid crawl?

Read More

It’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again, and everyone is looking for ideas to increase their writing speed. One trick that’s recently become popular is to write your first draft …
Read More

What was the streaking fad of the ’70s? What was the first ’80 arcade game to feature a playable female character? What was Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica?
Read More

What was the first Easter Egg in an arcade game? What was the first Easter Egg in a cartridge game? What was the first Easter Egg in a computer game?
Read More