"The Metroid series always seemed somewhat at odds to the cartoonish, family-friendly vibe shared by most of Nintendo's popular franchises. The games have a brooding atmosphere heightened by Hip Tanaka's stark, synthetic-sounding musical score. The Metroid games are 'platform adventures'- instead of following a linear, unidirectional path through the game world, the player is able (and required) to explore the world non-linearly."

I love articles like this, articles that dig a little deeper beyond the typical game review style and actually go into detail on how elements in a game come together to form something larger than the sum of its parts.  My interest is snagged everytime I come across something like this.