The onslaught of Nintendo mascots starts here, guys. Criticise the Big N all you like for not giving the fans what they want (Metroid Prime: Federation Force instantly comes to mind) and the missteps made with the Wii U, but when it comes to creating iconic characters, nobody does it better than the brains inside Nintendo HQ. Case in point: Samus Aran. This is usually where I'd proceed to write two paragraphs about how Samus is a champion for feminism and one of few examples of a female video game character who isn't over-sexualised, but we all know the score. Beating a dead horse and all that. What makes her iconic isn't her gender, but her design. Place Samus alongside any of Nintendo's other mascots and you'll quickly realise just how drastically different the bounty hunter is in relation to Mario, Donkey Kong or Kirby. Whenever the debate over Nintendo's supposedly overzealous focus on child or family-friendly sectors of the market crop up, never let those people forget that the Metroid series is about an ex-soldier-turned-bounty-hunter who has a massive energy cannon mounted on her right arm. Nintendo games are for babies? Yeah, tell that to Samus.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
