By Joseph Walter
She's a ruthless, cold-blooded bounty hunter with a penchant for wiping out entire species of alien creatures and their planets.
Fittingly, the scores that company Samus on her lonely, one-woman exploration and combat missions are sufficiently eerie, even organic. Of course, the crowned jewel of the franchise's musical identity is the threatening main title motif, which calls to mind John Carpenter's "The Thing."
In "Super Metroid," the fugitive space pirate, Ridley, breaks into a science station and captures the last surviving Metroid, an overwhelmingly dangerous entity that has the ability to extinguish a victim's life force in seconds, and the bane of Samus' existence.
The title screen embodies the lonely dread that the series is known for:
The score climaxes with a subtle but threatening rendition of the Metroid theme, with the horrifying addition of Darth Vader-like breathing.
Much like "Demon's Crest," "Super Metroid" manages to perfectly illustrate the dreary desolation that will accompany you throughout the experience.
A superb title screen that is only matched by the original NES Metroid in tone, "Super Metroid" is not only a brilliant game, but also has one of the most effective Title Screens of its time.