{"id":456536,"date":"2025-11-10T00:03:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T00:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/article.php?article_id=2181813"},"modified":"2025-11-10T00:03:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T00:03:44","slug":"2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 in review: Samus returns, or how a double-A games provided some of the year&#8217;s big showstoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Hello! Over the next few days we&#8217;re going to be going back over some of our favourite games and moments and themes and whatnot from this very strange year. We hope you enjoy looking back with us!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It has been, the story goes, a quiet sort of year for video games. After the fun and festivities of 2020, which against the backdrop of a pandemic somehow saw two new consoles being released, there&#8217;s been a lethargy to 2021 &#8211; a Boxing Day fug as we&#8217;re caught in the liminal buffer between the big launch year and 2022, where every big release has seemingly been delayed to. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-12-28-2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/2021-12-28-2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello! Over the next few days we&#8217;re going to be going back over some of our favourite games and moments and themes and whatnot from this very strange year. We hope you enjoy looking back with us! It has been, the story goes, a quiet sort of year for video games. After the fun and festivities of 2020, which against the backdrop of a pandemic somehow saw two new consoles being released, there&#8217;s been a lethargy to 2021 &#8211; a Boxing Day fug as we&#8217;re caught in the liminal buffer between the big launch year and 2022, where every big release has seemingly been delayed to. Read more Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":456537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2021 in review: Samus returns, or how a double-A games provided some of the year&#039;s big showstoppers | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hello! Over the next few days we&#039;re going to be going back over some of our favourite games and moments and themes and whatnot from this very strange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2021 in review: Samus returns, or how a double-A games provided some of the year&#039;s big showstoppers | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hello! Over the next few days we&#039;re going to be going back over some of our favourite games and moments and themes and whatnot from this very strange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-10T00:03:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"269\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"2021 in review: Samus returns, or how a double-A games provided some of the year&#8217;s big showstoppers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-10T00:03:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":126,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/\",\"name\":\"2021 in review: Samus returns, or how a double-A games provided some of the year's big showstoppers | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/2021-in-review-samus-returns-or-how-a-double-a-games-provided-some-of-the-years-big-showstoppers.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-10T00:03:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Hello! 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