both visually stunning for the time they were released, i think mario, because of the variety of play areas and assortment of weapons and enemies made the experience fun and exciting, however, the story fun took away from the story. truthfully, i really didnt care about saving the princess after a while, i just wanted to keep busting up koopas and throwing fireballs at the bosses! Metroids story was cool, and the idea that samus was a woman really didnt matter because her battle armor was masculine. not to mention all of her power ups( i remember the first time i charged a hyper jump!!!!!!!!! holy crap!!!!!), and even the graphics of the levels got really old after a while, but it was nice. if you wanted to do a side scrolling playformer, fast paced action always seemed to be the way to go imho. evironments should be colorful, but not too distracing, and new poer-ups seems to keep the action fresh and exciting. i played a game called Gunstar Heroes by Sega, and could put it down until i finished, wanting more! A good side scroller/platformer never goes out of style.