As is the case with upcoming Mega Man and Castlevania tributes Mighty No. 9 and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night respectively, sometimes it's over to the fans to fund certain developers when the bigger studios fall down. And there's never been a bigger case of a studio tripping and face-planting the floor with a specific property, than Nintendo's insanely flat announcement that the next Metroid game would be... a 3DS multiplayer-focussed experience. Thankfully, if you're looking for something that plays more like the best Metroid game of all time - Super Metroid - look no further than Axiom Verge. A one-man tribute to the Metroidvania style of gaming, Axiom gates chunks of the world behind specific items and weapons, wrapping the whole thing up in a side-scrolling shooter that's as satisfying to look at as it is to pull the trigger. Aesthetically you can tell developer Thomas Happ grew up loving everything about Metroid pre that first-person transformation, and although the vast majority of Axiom looks and feels very similar, there are some subtle graphical touches such as warping abilities, world design or the way bosses explode when you take them out, that help bring the 90's formula up to speed. The way the levels glitch out like old-school NES malfunctioning cartridges used to is a particularly brilliant touch. Annoyingly hard in that timeless way that pays off once you figure out where to go and what to do, Axiom Verge is one hell of an achievement from a creative genius determined to get Metroid-style gameplay back on the map, despite its current cultural state.
