Shadow Complex

I'd imagine that just about everyone who gets into the games industry does so because they're inspired by a particular work, a favorite game that ignites a fire inside of them to proclaim, "I want to create something like that!" Some budding developers make it their mission to design something wholly different from that inspiration, yet which still possesses its intrinsic strengths: its addictive appeal, its balance, its intensity. Others, however, take a more literal approach and create a game just like the one they loved so dearly. Shadow Complex is definitely the latter.
To call Shadow Complex inspired by the Metroid series would be a terrible slander to the word "inspiration." It's not so much that the developer, Chair, looked to Super Metroid for ideas as it is that they took a sheet of wax paper and did a rubbing of Samus Aran's entire career. It's a clone, albeit one for these modern times -- which is to say, it uses polygons instead of sprites, and it's a reasonably-priced download game for Xbox Live. In practically every other way, though, it's completely identical to Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, down to the powers you earn and the map structure. This is a game where you use missiles to blow up red doors, if that tells you anything. Not that the creators have been coy about what they've been striving for here. They've flatly stated, "We love Metroid, and we want to create something like that!"