Classic NES Series: Metroid on the GBA is basically the same legendary 8-bit adventure from the NES, just portable now. You start off weak—just a jump and a pea-shooter blaster—but that’s the whole point. Zebes feels huge and hostile, with corridors that loop back on themselves and enemies that hit hard if you’re not careful.

What’s cool is how open it is. You’ll bomb random walls just to see if they crumble, and half the time, they do. Finding the Morph Ball or the Ice Beam changes everything, and suddenly paths you couldn’t reach before are wide open. The music’s all eerie synth, and the lack of a map means you’ll be scribbling notes like it’s 1986 again.

It’s clunky by modern standards, sure, but there’s something about the way it makes you feel lost and then brilliant when you finally figure it out. If you’ve only played the later Metroids, this is where the vibe started.