Also… and I never see anyone else mention this… DOOM does not take place on Mars.
DOOM episode 1: Knee-Deep in the Dead takes place on Phobos. Episode 2: The Shores of Hell takes place on Deimos. Episode 3: Inferno takes place in Hell.
Doom 2: Hell on Earth takes place, as you might think, on Earth.
The whole plot of the first game is that humans are experimenting with teleporters between Phobos and Deimos, when Deimos mysteriously vanishes. To investigate, the player character is sent to Phobos, with the mission to make it through the teleporter to Deimos to see where it is. But upon arriving on Phobos, something is horribly wrong…
Halo is more “figuring out how to defeat this room of enemies IS the puzzle” whereas Metroid’s puzzles are platforming and figuring out how to apply this new item to the areas you’ve already visited, and there just happen to also be enemies to fight.
A lot of people. Artists, programmers, voice actors, designers etc. So what if some fraction goes to a bigot? I’m not allowing her to live rent-free in my head and control my purchases like you are.
Sounds more like an “easy mode” thing. Have certain enemies immune to certain guns on the harder difficulties. Want to just use the shotgun? Play easy mode. Want to be more strategic? Play a harder difficulty.
Cartridges actually have much faster load times than discs. Notice how the Switch has reverted back to cartridges? They’re faster.
As for the controller… It is pretty odd. Though, at the time, we didn’t have the same standard for controller design we have now. So it makes sense that Nintendo would try something bold. Then after they had committed to the design, the world decided the PS1 controller made much more sense, and that became the benchmark for future controller designs.