OVERVIEW
 
You are Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter on a mission to planet Zebes to hunt down a species known as Metroid* which are being used by space pirates to take over the universe. The lead enemy is Mother Brain and its minions are Kraid and Ridley and you must defeat them to gain entrance to Tourian where Mother Brain and the Metroid reside.

*Metroids are plural now but around the time of the game's release, Metroid was both used for singular and plural so I referenced it as such.
 
GRAPHICS - A+
 
In another review (Legend of Zelda), I said LoZ and Metroid set the tone for great videogame graphics but the latter did it better. When compared to games like Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Kung Fu, and other early games, this was the first platformer to go all out graphics and make good use of colors that changed wherever on the map you appear and the black backdrop adds to the very effect of being in an enclosed space. You start off in Brinstar within, a blue area which gives the feeling of creepiness and then you cross a little hallway, you end up in a golden section that looks to brighten up the mood a little bit. As you play, you will immediately see that there are secrets that lay abound in the game and tells you that you will need something in order to proceed into other areas of the game. Eventually, you will enter other areas such as Norfair which starts of in a purple bubbly area and Norfair as a whole gives you the feeling of being in hell but that will be taken up to 11 in Super Metroid and future Metroid games where a Varia Suit is need to survive standing in those areas. Since this is the FDS version, Suitless Samus does not appear in the game. That was added to the NES versions of the game.
 
CONTROLS - A-
 
The controls work fine for its time but I am actually taking off points because of the lack of convenience that was given in later games. My personal grade would be an A+ but I am grading this for those who played any of the later games first before playing the original Metroid first and think they can do the same thing here. The Morph Ball for example is done immediately as there was no ducking feature which would have made ground enemies easier to kill with your beam. Fortunately, some tricks do work that would be improved upon in later games like the Morph Ball bomb trick that take you to higher places but harder to pull off at the time. There is also the trick of letting a bomb explode underneath you then jumping up in midair.
 
GAMEPLAY - A+
 
You start off with nothing more that your short beam and you must go around collecting necessary items in order to get anywhere. The first item you will find is immediately to the left which is today called the Morph Ball but in those days it was called the Maru Mari. It allows her to roll into a ball to get underneath low passages. Funny thing about it is that there is a rumor that the feature was made because the programmer couldn't program the crawl feature into the game. Perhaps it was for the better because the numerous hentai situations that more than likely would ensue towards the end of the game. From there you must progress through Brinstar (where you start), Norfair, Ridley & Kraid's hideouts, and finally down to Tourian to take on Mother Brain and the Metroids. If you manage to defeat Mother Brain, it is not over yet. There is a self destruct sequence where you must escape to the top of the shaft before the whole place will explode and it is an instant game over if you fail to escape. This is where you find out that Samus is actually a female if you beat the game fast enough. It may have been a surprise outside of Japan but in Japan, it was given away via a piece of artwork. Unlike the NES versions, there is no password system. Instead, there is a 3 save system made more famous in the US with the Legend of Zelda. Kid Icarus will also receive the same such treatment.
 
SOUND/MUSIC - S

A+ is too low of a grade to judge for the music. Thanks to the extra sound capabilities of the Famicom Disk System, the music is so much better than its NES version and the sound effects are given an upgrade to give a case of realism.
 
REPLAYABILITY - A+
 
There is a lot to explore in this game whether you are playing to get the best time or find all the items you can. It is one huge world out there and so many secrets to uncover. Most of those secrets are not in plain sight. You are more than likely to find them by pure accident. This will go on to be a staple for the Metroid series as in those games, secret areas are the only way to proceed as those maps made them less obvious to their presence. There was no in-game map in the game itself so it was all on your wits there. Even Norfair gave no indication that you had to bomb through a certain portion of an area to find the rest of the level.
 
OVERALL - A+
 
In all, this was the best NES game I have ever played outside of the Mega Man series. It felt good trying to make good use of problem solving skills to find out what to do because even though this game was passed off as a platformer action game, it was pretty much a closet puzzle and strategy game which is what most of these platformer games are and people do not realize it. How else would you know you will need missiles to open a red door? Even at the start of the game, how else where you going to figure out you can't go to the next section when you are unable to duck? Logic will tell you to go left and pick up some conspicuous item, it must have some importance. Those are some examples of puzzle and strategy being put to good use and it would be good for creative thinking and learning.