Super Metroid (Super Nintendo, 1994)

I've played Super Metroid back when you could rent it, but I was unable to figure out what you were supposed to do, getting stuck in Norfair (needing to get the Varia Suit). With much more skill with games now, I decided to buy it so I could try again.

Yet, I got stuck in the same spot again. Thankfully, GameFAQs came to my rescue, but only used to get "unstuck". I got stuck again when it came to finding the grapple, but that was the last time. This made me begin to lose interest in the game.

Super Metroid is a fairly challenging game, especially the bosses. The case of having to find the dozens of secret passages adds considerably to the challenge (and is what caused me to get stuck twice). The bosses are interesting in their design and behaviors. Only 2 bosses in this game were a real pain. While I don't know their names, there's this 4-eyed thing that seems immune to damage except the lava it falls into (nice death effects!). I ended up getting game over twice because of it. The hardest boss was the main boss of Maridia, a lobster-like enemy. It's both powerful, hard to hit, and fast. Get hit by the gray goo and you're in real trouble. I got game over 6 times from this thing, even with 1299 in energy available (1099 plus 200 in reserve).

Throughout the game, you, as Samus Aran, go around shooting alien enemies on the planet Zebes (which is also the setting of the first Metroid). Along the way are various power ups such as missiles, bombs, super missiles, power bombs, energy tanks, and reserve energy tanks. Other powerups like suits (the varia suit), enhancers (the grapple), boots (hi-jump boots), beams (the weapon, wave beam), and various other things (morph ball) which are often required, though some are not required. Energy is like HP or health. You start with a maximum of 99 units of energy, but can be extended to up to 1499 with 400 in reserve (giving a sense of 1899 as a total). Each energy tank or reserve tank adds 100 to the maximum. Each pack of missles, super missiles, or power bombs adds 5 to the maximum, and you start with 0 of each. You have an unlimited supply of regular bombs.

My favorite element of Metroid is being able to access things you normally shouldn't have access to early. For example, having 599 in energy and 15 or so power bombs before first visiting Norfair is quite unusual. You'll have to figure out how you can do this but it can be done.

Aside from getting stuck and those two very difficult bosses, I enjoyed this game and I'm already wanting to play it again.

Overall (on a 1 to 5 scale, based on the time this game was made):
Difficulty: 2 - hard
Graphics: 4.5 - very good
Music: 3.5 - somewhat good (it fits the theme, but seems a bit dull (it isn't my type))
Sound: 5 - superior (very fitting and sounds quite realistic)
Game play: 4.5 - very good (it's fun getting access to things earlier than you're supposed to; it's the somewhat awkward controls that ruins it a little (especially the last half of the game)).
Story: 4 - good (although lacking story elements, what few there are, the story is still good (lower rating because the lack of depth))
Overall: 4 - good

Super Metroid is often considered the best Metroid game of the series, and one of the best Super Nintendo games overall. With its fantastic graphics, sound, and music, it offers a lot for fans of the adventure genre. Let's get something out of the way, though: Super Metroid is a confusing game. You'll navigate your character Samus Aran (outfitted with a nifty space suit) through the deepest caves, the dampest dungeons, and derelict ships in search of power-ups and bosses. But the rewards are plenty, and this is a very fun game with a lot of replay value.

You start the game with nothing but a simple blaster, but as you progress, you'll find upgrades for your weapon such as the Ice Beam, which freezes enemies in place, and the Plasma Beam, which travels through enemies. All of these enhancements can be stacked, which means that you can enjoy the benefits of numerous upgrades at once. You'll come across body suit upgrades like the Morph Ball, which allows Samus to collapse into a small ball and roll navigate small spaces. Other upgrades include bombs and missiles, which can help Samus defeat tough bosses and open locked doors. In fact, all of this is commonplace in the Metroid series, and a lot of players make it a point to collect every single item in the game to achieve 100 percent completion. It's a rough task, but completely doable.

There is a diverse cast of enemies, sub-bosses, and bosses in the game, but not a lot of background story to the majority of these enemies. In essence, Samus is hunting a band of powerful space pirates who are attempting to control and clone a dangerous species of alien called Metroids--parasitic beings which can absorb a host's life force. In the previous game, Samus had encountered a lone baby Metroid who mistakes Samus for its mother and begins following her around the space station. In Super Metroid, this Metroid is captured by the space pirate Ridley, and Samus must retrieve the baby alien before it is used to clone an army of bio-weapons. To reach the final boss, Samus needs to first conquer the four main space pirates--Kraid, Phantoon, Draygon, and Ridley. Without spoiling anything, the finale is a highly memorable moment in gaming history; definitely worth playing and seeing more than once.

Overall, Super Metroid offers a lot of rewards for players who are determined and patient enough to play through its many dungeons. Sometimes, players will feel overwhelmed as they backtrack through familiar environments to collect items that were previously unreachable, but this is a staple of the Metroid games--keep the players coming back for more, because hard work is rewarded.

This review is pointless for most of you, but unless you have been living under a rock you probably already know that Super metroid is by far The best super nintendo game ever made, one of the best 2d platformers ever made, and just in general one of the best games ever made in any era of gaming to date. Despite its huge critical acclaim this game did not sell well mainly because of bad marketing and timing, so there is a good chance you have not played it. The graphics are still amazing today from an artistic point of view, obviously there a better more realistic visuals around these days, but the visuals here are great as is. The sound is even better, with an atmospheric soundtrack, class snes sound effects this game just pleases your senses. Controls are amazing too, and they get better as you progress in the game and receive upgrades. The level design in my opinion was ahead of its time. Honestly this game feels huger than it is, thanks to some clever tricks by the creators of the game you really do feel like the whole game is one huge world, when in fact it several small areas tied together. The gameplay is unique even by today's standard. It plays like a platformer with shooter mechanics, yet this is so much more to it. Action is abundant, but the majority of the gameplay involves exploration, puzzle solving (think zeldaish) and of course epic boss battle fights when you least expect it. I think its a testament to how great this game is seeing as how it was released in 1994 and I still play it today now that im in my 20's. Hell, I'm writing a review on ebay for it in 2011 so think about that. The game is also available for download on the wii now so if you have one you can download a pitch perfect port of the game for about 8 bucks, but if you want an original cart it will cost at least 20 bucks which is worth it for the game you get. I have played most major releases on all the major consoles and I still come back to this game and am blown away by its perfection. It is very replayable to thanks to its multiple endings. Just buy this game some way or some how, play it, then play an xbox 360 game and see which one will really hold up through the test of time.

Not much can be said about this game that hasn't been said already but here it goes. The third installment of the Metroid series was released for the SNES in 1994. After the great success of the original on the NES, and the second one going mobile on the Game Boy, fans anxiously awaited the release of this game. This game also is where a lot people got introduced to Metroid, now that video games had become a staple in almost every home. The SNES enjoyed a long line of successful titles and to many this game ranks up in the top 5.

Graphically this game is beautiful, the enemies are easily distinguishable and the colors are bright and vibrant. The shading looks incredible and the level detail is mind blowing.

The sound is right on target, starting out with the all to familiar Metroid theme and following it up with some much more refined boss theme music this game goes way beyond its predecessors. The effects are better than ever, with rockets and lasers all sounding awesome.

The controls don't get much better than this. Solid, responsive, and well laid out the game was built around the SNES controller. Like anything else, you need to practice with it first, but once you get the hang of it the controls will seem like second nature to you.

Now all thats well and good but games don't stand the test of time unless they have one major thing going for them: Gameplay. This is what gives a game that fun factor and makes you say I'll play it again. Metroid delivers in leaps and bounds. Gone are the passwords and here to stay are save files. Best of all the save stations fully replenish your health. There are also missile reloading stations scattered through out. Upgrades and new weapons are just laying around waiting for you to discover them and you can check if you've been to an area before by switching to your map. You start out with your standard beam, then you get an Ice beam, a Wave beam, even a flying attack called the Screw Attack. And this is just for starters. There is tons to explore in this game so can expect to be playing for awhile.

For any SNES collection this game is an absolute must, and is highly recommended to those who have never played it. This game is rated E and is good for all ages only having some mild animated violence. So its a good pick up for anyone.

Before you vote this unhelpful, realize that I'm just explaining my opinion and just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean my review is badly written or unhelpful to potential buyers. This is a common mistake that angers me on almost every site that reviews games.

Now...

This game is the most overrated game ever made. Ever.

Any time you go to any Metroid message board and ask for a good game to start with, you will be told either Zero Mission or this. Why? Well, for Metroid fans this game really fixed all of the issues with the old games (Metroid and Metroid II), with new features such as allowing aiming in a full 8 directions and morphballing in the air (features which Zero Mission and Fusion would later implement). However, just because a game is better than the predecessor does NOT make it a good game; similarly, nostalgia does NOT make a bad game good, and that seems to be what most reviews I have seen boil down to.

Now, to the actual game. Right from the beginning, you are hit with a slow, dull credit scroll and video of Samus on SR388 and killing Mother Brain.

Well, isn't that pointless? I mean, if you cared about the story, you would have played the first 2 games; if you didn't play the first two, you probably don't care about the story enough to watch the videos...

Anyways, you finally land on a space station and quickly have a "tutorial" starting fight with Ridley that DOES NOT END UNTIL YOUR HEALTH IS LOW ENOUGH. Coulda told me that, Nintendo... Anyways, you leave the station and finally land on Zebes (wait, wasn't is Zebeth?), walking backwards through the way the player escaped in the first game, and then let the backtracking begin! This game is quite the large game, and - guess what? - you better get used to it, because you will be walking through the place enough to memorize it if you want 100%.

The thing you will notice playing this game is how easy it is. Energy is all over the place, the charge beam is extremely close to the beginning, a save feature is implemented, and energy/missile recharge stations are plentiful. The bosses aren't exactly hard, but are annoying, such as a fight with a giant green monster that takes a long time because you CANT DAMAGE HIM 99% OF THE TIME. There's energy and missiles all over the place, so WHY WOULD THE BATTLE GO ON THIS LONG?!

And that is basically how they all go. Long, boring, and easy. Especially if you actually take the time to backtrack and collect all the upgrades.

It really hurts your game when the one thing that made your original game notable is gone from the sequels (both of them, though I won't get into Metroid II).

There are a LOT more things I could talk about, but I can't, because of the space I have to talk. It's not the worst game for the SNES, oh no, but its definitely NOT the best by far. Its extremely overrated and needs to be looked at as a single game, NOT as a piece of nostalgia or as part of a series (a series of mediocre games, I should add), and this is NOT what is happening right now. If you liked the original, sure, buy it, but if you didn't play the original OR didn't like it, you probably won't like this game.

Its that simple.

Oh, and just to say a few last things that could be improved:
*Music (boring)
*Dull, often black backgrounds
*No original enemies
*Easy bosses
*No tutorial for hard special moves (Crystal Flash, anyone?)
*Springball should come with morphball (really, it should) or get rid of the morphball mazes