Hey there everyone, hope you're doing well, and welcome to my review of Super Metroid! This game series has been extremely influential over the years, inspiring many developers. In fact it has even helped to create a new genre of games, in tandem with Castlevania, called the Metroidvania genre. When someone refers to that term they're talking about a game that shares similarities with old Metroid titles that are 2D side scrollers with a heavy emphasis on exploration, and finding new items to help you reach new areas. I really love this type of game and wish developers would make more of them nowadays, instead of everything having to be cutting edge and AAA. There are a few that come out here and there, like Axiom Verge, but I don't think anything could top this. As far as retro games go, you can't get much better than Super Metroid, and developers have been hard pressed to make something that even compares since.
Super Metroid is a side scrolling adventure game that revolves around you exploring the environment and finding new powers and abilities to reach new areas to keep progressing. It was developed and released by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo back in 1994. Even though it's called Super Metroid, it's actually the third installment of the series, the first one being on the NES and the second on the Game Boy. All three games sort of go together to tell one larger story, but you don't really need to have played the previous ones to enjoy this one. The incredible level design, the beautiful art style, the spot on sound and music, and of course the addicting fun gameplay is all you need to have a good experience with this.
You play as protagonist Samus Aran, a space traveling bounty hunter. At the end of the first Metroid it is revealed that Samus is actually a woman, making her one of the first female game protagonists to ever exist. I like this little added detail of the character, not that it makes much of a difference, but it makes Samus more interesting knowing this.
In the beginning of the game Samus recounts her adventure from the previous two entries with a narrated cut scene. She talks about traveling to planet SR388 and killing every Metroid left there, until she ends up finding one last larva. As she approaches it the thing begins to hatch, and after it does it starts following Samus around imprinting on it like a newborn animal of some kind. Instead of killing it she decides to bring it to the Ceres Space Colony, where top scientists there would be able to research it. Samus then leaves the Space Colony to find a new bounty to hunt, and a new adventure to go on.
As she leaves the Colony Samus receives a distress call made by the scientists, and she turns around to go back and check it out. Once she enters it's apparent that something has gone terribly wrong here, all the people are dead and the tank that was storing the newborn metroid has been smashed open. She explores the Space Colony looking all over for it until finally she sees her nemesis from the previous game Ridley, a dragon looking creature that appears on the box cover of the game, holding the larva.
She attacks Ridley trying to rescue the baby metroid, but the creature flys off with it and a self destruct sequence begins counting down on the Space Colony. With no other choice Samus has to run for her life and try to escape before the whole place blows. She does just in time, and as she flies off she sees the Colony blow up in a massive blast. Now Samus must track down Ridley and try and get back the last remaining metroid before it's turned into another threat to all of humanity.
This is where the game really begins as you track Ridley to the planet of Zebes and touch down on its rainy surface standing on your iconic yellow ship. From here you take control of Samus and you are free to explore Zebes in any way you want, well kind of. In any side scroller it's pretty obvious that you should go to the right, but in Metroid games you can go left, right, up, or down adding more dimensions than your average game of this type. And even though you can go either way you are going to need specific items and abilities to be able to progress to the areas boss. So actually in Super Metroid the way you want to go first is to the left, where you'll find your first basic weapons and powers that will open up much more of the game world to you.
This is the thing about Metroid games that really makes them special and keeps me wanting to play them again and again. For one thing the entire game map is interconnected but you must explore every nook and cranny defeating all kinds of alien creatures to be able to find your way out. You might get to a point where there's a locked door that you can't get through, but if you go another way you'll find a new ability that opens it up.
It's this process of consistently getting new powers that are tied to progression that makes these games so fun. The first two games were the same way, but as with any new ip it takes a while to perfect the formula, and that's exactly what Nintendo did with Super Metroid. They took what was great about the initial idea and removed minor annoyances while adding more of the good stuff, until we finally got a nearly perfect game.
This time around you get things like the Morph Ball, a staple of the series, that allows you to turn into a ball and fit into small spaces allowing you to reach new areas. This can be found right off the bat by going left instead of right at the very beginning. You also get little bombs that you can use while in ball mode, and once you get the hang of it you can use them to blast yourself up to higher places. You get the regular missiles that open red doors, but you also get super missiles that are more powerful and can open green doors. You get an ability to run super fast, the ability to grapple onto and swing from certain points, and various different kinds of regular bullets, like the freeze beam or wave beam.
As you progress through Zebes killing bosses and exploring everything you can find, you'll end up with an arsenal of different things to help you reach the end goal. The addition of a world map and an inventory screen helps you keep track of where you need to go and what you need to get, something previous entries in the series definitely needed.
The first Metroid game is an excellent beginning point for the series, but it was limited by the NES hardware and has some slightly annoying flaws that might turn some people off. The second game in the series was released for the Game Boy, and at the time I remember loving it, but now I just simply can't play anything for the original Game Boy. The small screen with the greenish grey color palate, I don't know I just can't get into it now that we've come so far. Luckily that one has just had a remake come out for the Nintendo DS that looks really amazing and probably does the game justice. So if you're looking to play the second Metroid game that's the way to do it.
But this third attempt in the series that came out on the Super Nintendo definitely hit the sweet spot and got everything right. I was just playing it the other day to do some research for this review and I didn't want to put it down. Everything came back to me and I started remembering where certain things were and how to reach areas that aren't accessible and I was hooked again. This is such a well done game that it truly deserves being called a masterpiece. The way it's designed gives you a feeling of accomplishment that is so fun and satisfying it's no wonder so many developers have tried to emulate it since 1994. If you have any way of playing this game today I highly recommend doing so, especially if you've never played one of these before. This is definitely one of the best games for the Super Nintendo, maybe one of the best of all time. I give Super Metroid a score of:
A