Well this is what many consider to be a classic on the NES and frankly I can see why. Let’s see if you can guess the game. You can go left. You jump and have an arm cannon. You play as a girl but you do not know until the end! If you were not aware the game that I just described is the original Metroid. So without further ado let’s get into it.

I am going to start off this review by saying there is actually a story. While it is minimal it is a story none the less I can actually tell you all the text that you get as far as story goes. Here is the text:” Emergency Order. Defeat the Metroid of planet Zebeth and destroy the Mother Brain the mechanical life vein. Galaxy federal police. M510.” So from the first game you are already a bounty hunter and you are already going out to kill some of those Metroid as well as your enemy that is Mother Brain. The after you beat the game you get this message: “Great!! You fulfilled your mission. It will revive peace in space. But, it may be invaded by the other Metroid. Pray for true peace in space!” That is cool and all and for an NES game that is actually a good chunk of story. They left the story open and they do want to just because they do keep it open for the second game. I heard that there is quite a bit more story in the game manual especially for the NES. I read through that it and it was actually fairly interesting. Though this is a game review so I must say that the story here is ok. I have to say that it is better than having no story at all which is the norm for most of the NES games of the day.

The game looks ok I guess. There are a lot of graphics glitches that take away from the experience by quite a bit. There will be times that if an enemy is on the left side of the screen and you kill it some of its body explosion can come up on the right side. This seems really cheesy for today’s standards and almost a bit sloppy. Though when you think of how revolutionary the game was you have to ignore these little flaws. Also another weird glitch that you get is if you shoot out the block that an enemy is on instead of falling or something he will spin like a wild man. This is really humorous and kills the dreary atmosphere that the game tries so hard to make. I laugh when this happens because it is really funny. The other thing that is bad about the graphics is the fact that they slow down by a lot. This is awful if you run and there are a few enemies on screen if you so much as jump or shoot your gun the game goes into pretty much bullet time and you want to shut the game off. Really detracts from the experience as well. Other than that the game looks really good with different environments some silly looking bosses as well as a few enemies. I think that the environments look the best it really makes it feel dark and spooky that is if the glitches do not ruin that for you.

The game sound really good. That is until you notice that you better like the tunes and sound effects because you are going to hear them over and over and over. They did not write all that much music for this game which means the music gets very repetitive very fast. I quickly grew tired of the main world theme and the pew pew of the gun. I left the main world just so I could get the tune out of my head. I did and then I died over and over which also annoyed me with its sound effects. The game sounds good as a whole though it is just the fact that you better fall in absolute love with everything that comes out of the speakers because you will hear it again and again and again and again, you get the point. Very repetitive but on it’s own the sound department is good. I have also heard that the Famicom got more tracks as well as clearer tracks I think that would be nice to hear. Since the music in this game is very bleepy and bloopy.

This game is not really all that addictive. I honestly did not really want to come running back to it just because I got lost almost all of the time. I also found that many of the bugs and the music kept me from really just enjoying the game for what it was, a 2D adventure. Though this does not mean that you want to play it over and over again or that you can not put it down. You can put it down quite easily and is enjoyable in short bursts if you want to enjoy it at all. I have to say that out of really addictive games this is not on my list not even close.

One of the reasons it is not that addictive is it is really deep. I am a completionist by most games standards, I just want to beat the game and get everything. I want to play the game and see all of the tricks and everything the game has to offer. But this game is SO deep that it is almost mind boggling. There is a flaw to this depth though, instead of running around enjoying yourself, you have no idea where you are. You have no map and really it is not a lot of fun because of this fact. You are going to get lost and therefore are going to get mad at the game for not giving you any idea of where you are or where to go. This game does not hold your hand at all. In fact it is like playing hide and go seek with everything. Normally in other Metroid games I want to find everything and see everything and kill everything, though that was not the case here. You have no idea of where to go or where to get anything and it is really frustrating to be all on your own relying on guesses of where to go just to die because the game does not want you to go that way with you current powers. That really cuts deep because you will die a lot. Though you might want to explore the world as it is very large. Just look up a map and you will know what I mean. The part that makes the game feel a little bit smaller is the recycled rooms which happens a lot of the time and feels really cheap. These also help you get lost thinking you are going back the way you came when really you took a wrong turn. If you want it there is many hours of exploring to be had, though it is very basic.

The game is really not all that hard. Then again the difficulty matters fully on the fact that you grab something from somewhere if you want to live. If you are not into collecting stuff then you will live easily though if you are not into doing that then you are going to have to be super lucky and skilled to win. The game also has a bunch of really cheap death traps for you to go into. There is a section that if you fall into the lava you will have to wait until you die and you will never get out otherwise, ever. The game over all feels really cheap when it comes to how hard it is. Especially the flying things, if you do not have the screw attack good luck killing them. They will throw you into the lava and like I said that is hard to get out of in the first place and if you are low health you will die! I also hated how if you exit out the door you will get hit by anything still coming toward you. That is not even fair as you can not defend yourself from these attacks.

All in all Metroid on the NES is not that great. The game is a kind of fun game to play at times but I guess that it is just not a game for me. I do have to say though I appreciate what it did for the industry and I do like the series as a whole. This one just feels far to basic for me to have all that much fun with it. To tell if the game is right for you enter in some cheats that are not hard to find and then play. If you like what you see then, you can go ahead and give the game a whirl. If you do not like what you see then, close the game up and do not play it again. The game does not get any better than the cheats. So here is my final run down.

Graphics: 6 – They look good for the most part. I do have to dock of for the graphics glitches just because they look really weird to me and they are fairly laughable when you see them .

Sound: 5 – The game sounds pretty good and I like a lot of the themes in the game but I have to say that they get really repetitive throughout the game. I ended up muting the music because of the fact it loops so many times.

Addictiveness: 4 – This game is not really addictive at all. You feel like the game is cheaping you out a lot of the time and that is not what I call fun or addictive game play. I like the exploration but it is far to easy to get lost.

Story: 7 – There is a story, not a really in depth one or great “transration” but there is a story, end of story.

Depth: 9 – One of the deepest games on the system. You will probably not want to go through all of it because it is not all that fun to do so.

Difficulty: 10 – The game is hard in a really cheap way. I felt like I deserved to live for almost every one of my deaths. That is not how a game should work and it is really annoying when you are almost to the final boss with full health and it is all taken away.

Overall: 6.7 – Not a really great game. I have to say that most of the people that rate this high have to look at it without nostalgia glasses on. Looking at this game and the others in the series this game is not even worthy of the title Metroid. Feels cheap and overall is not really fun at all. I have to say I was disappointed in this one as this was my first play through. The cheats made if the only fun that I got out of the game and that was only fun to mess around with for a little bit.

Metroid is fun to play.  I have it on my 3DS and I play it some of the time.  I love playing Metroid games.  Very good review.

Marcmoney : That is actually why I reviewed this game it is on my 3DS and I have never played it through before. Needless to say I think they could have done better, and other games in the series are superior.