Super Metroid Airy is one of those SNES games that just sticks with you. You start off in Samus’ ship, landing on this eerie alien planet where everything feels just slightly off—the music’s got that haunting synth, the corridors are way too quiet, and you know something’s lurking. The controls are stupidly smooth for a 16-bit game, and before long, you’re wall-jumping and blasting through doors like it’s second nature.

What gets me every time is how the game doesn’t hold your hand. You’ll stumble into a room with no obvious exit, backtrack, find a hidden missile upgrade tucked behind some breakable blocks, and suddenly that dead end makes sense. The bosses? Brutal at first, but once you figure out their patterns (and maybe die a few times), it’s so satisfying to take them down.

It’s not just nostalgia—this thing holds up. The atmosphere is thick enough to cut with a plasma beam, and that moment when you finally get the screw attack and plow through enemies like they’re nothing? Pure joy. If you’ve never played it, you’re in for a treat.