Super Metroid (SNES, 1994)

Video games are a strange medium in that sequels often improve upon the original design.  Super Metroid (1994) is the third game in the Metroid series and continues the story of the bounty hunter Samus Aran.  In the first Metroid game for the NES, she was sent to the planet SR388 to hunt and destroy the Space Pirate leader, Mother Brain.  In Metroid II for the Game Boy, she was hired to exterminate all of the metroids (floating monsters that leech energy from their host) from the planet Zebes.  Upon killing the metroid mother, Samus comes across an egg, which hatches a single metroid infant.  The baby follows her off of Zebes and she turns it over to scientists.  This is where Super Metroid picks up.  The instant that Samus leaves the research facility, she receives a distress signal from it.  Upon her return, she finds that the whole crew has been killed, and the metroid hatchling is stolen by another Space Pirate leader, Ridley (pictured above), and taken back to SR388.
Atmosphere is this game's strongest feature.  This game makes you feel completely alone with its dimly lit corridors and eerie music.  You have no contact with any other human beings.  The earlier games attempted this same effect, but due to the hardware limitations of the NES and Game Boy, this was not quite possible.  Now with the SNES's superior graphics and sound technology, it is perfect.  Consider the opening scene when Samus enters the research station.  There is fog in the air, the lighting is damp, and the only sounds are distant whirrings and beepings of malfunctioning equipment.  There is a sense of foreboding.  Samus comes to a dark room where on the floor lies the metroid hatchling's container, then Ridley emerges from the shadows and lets loose an ear-sickening cry.  This scene is startling even when I am expecting it.
Like the previous games, you are set loose in a world where you have no sense of direction.  You start at point A, and you know what point B is, but you have no clue how to get there or where it is.  However, navigation is not as difficult as it was before.  In Metroid I and II, many areas looked the same, which made you feel like a rat in a maze.  Now you have a map that charts itself as you explore, and different rooms look like new environments.  This allows the world to be much larger than previous games, and exploration is not left unrewarded.
The Metroid games have always had an upgrade system, where you can find parts to improve your fighting and maneuvering capabilities, but Super Metroid improves on every aspect of that.  Energy upgrades can be expanded tenfold.  You have two types of missiles.  Introduced here are the grapple beam, speed booster, and X-ray visor.  Each new upgrade gives a heightened sense of empowerment, and makes the game progressively even more fun as you go.  The game also does a fantastic job of teaching you how to use each power without needless exposition.  When you collect the speed booster, for example, acid raises from the floor, and you must use your newly equipped power to dash out of the corridor unscathed.
Great science fiction seeks to create a world that is as real and tangible as our own.  Super Metroid achieves this by creating a world that feels like it would go on if you weren't there.  There are some creatures that will not attack you unless provoked.  Tiny insects dine on the flesh of a deceased creature, and when you approach they scatter.  Space Pirates patrol the corridors of their facilities, and applying a little stealth, you can get the drop on them.  This game is more than an adventure.  It is an experience.