Spinning for Sony during the PS3 product cycle must be the marketing/public relations equivalent of doing a tour in Falujah.

- "You were in PR in the late 00's? Really? Were you in the sh_t?"
- "Yeah, I was on the Sony PS3 console."
- "Wow! You really must know what hell is like!"

Yeah, I think you're right, the genre was popularized by and is typified by Metroid/Super Metroid, and the Castlevania games which borrowed the formula, great as they were, didn't add much to it. The -vania suffix only exists because there have been so many iterations in the Castlevania series. As Joystiq pointed out yesterday, there have been many other versions of the Metroid formula (see: Battle of Olympus, Rygar, etc.), but none have spawned enough sequels to suggest co-ownership of the genre.

Yep, it's a competent 7. Maybe if I hadn't been spoiled by last summer's retrorgasm Bionic Commando: Rearmed, this game would be scratching the platformer itch a little better, but instead I'm merely somewhat enjoying a pretty by-the-numbers entry (albeit another gorgeous one) to the genre. It's a good game, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than $15 for it. If anything, it's motivating me to revisit its better ancestors: Castlevania: SOTN and Super Metroid.

"militant hardcore Wii fanboys" - do such people exist? I've seen PS3 and 360 owners who would probably be gladly beating each other to death with maces in another century, but the Wii crowd seems to be pretty docile. It's like being the worlds biggest fan of the perpetual losing team: no one cares enough to listen to you, so you keep your pride to yourself.

I'm paying for hardware. I'm paying for software. I'm paying for Live. Why on earth should I be forced to have any advertisements on my XBox?

This should do wonders for mod chip sales.