Twenty-five years ago this past Saturday, the first Metroid title was released on the Famicom in Japan. Plenty has been written on how the game revolutionized non-linear gameplay, how it broke gender barriers, how its dark, melancholic mood redefined atmosphere in games, and how Team Ninja bastardized the franchise with Other M. You can find all those articles on other websites.
The story of Metroid is really the story of its creator, Gunpei Yokoi. He’s by far the most tragic figure in the Nintendo game design pantheon–if Shigeru Miyamoto is gaming’s Thomas Edison, Yokoi is Nikola Tesla.
Yokoi’s life parallels the story of the Metroid
