The last Metroid

 is in captivity.

   The galaxy is at peace. . .

So began my childhood. Or, well, the great majority of it anyways. The first game I ever played was Metroid for the NES, when I was 2. I beat it when I was 4. I know, hard to believe without proof, so you just have to take my word on this. I am a huge Metroid fan. When I first played it, I was blown away, as blown away as a 2 year could get anyways. Needless to say, it was frustrating. I had no idea where to go, it was hard, and the game was creepy. But I loved it. I still do.

But then Super Metroid came out. Super Metroid with its voice acting, which I never knew a game could do. Super Metroid with its awe inspiring music. Super Metroid with its crisp graphics. But most importantly. .

Super Metroid was Super. And it always will hold a dear, dear place in my heart. Now, for the review, and I will try to be as unbiased as popular, but some fanboyism might seep through. I apologize ahead of time.

First and foremost is the Game play:

I give the game play an 8 out of 10. And the reason it doesn't get a perfect score is because of one fatal flaw (in my opinion anyways), which I will get to in a bit. Overall, it's Metroid, enhanced and upgraded to feel more fluid and free. For those of you who aren't terribly familiar with the Metroid series, it's an 'open-world action adventure game' akin to The Legend of Zelda, if not nearly identical in terms of game play. Though, in my opinion, the Metroid series does a far better job at getting its point across which is - isolation.

No other game has made me feel as alone and as desperate as Super Metroid. Other than the scene at the beginning of the game where you hand over [SPOILER] the Infant Metroid from Metroid II to the Galactic Federation[/SPOILER], you have no contact with outside forces at all. In fact, in the opening sequence of the game, you come across researchers who perished at the hand of Ridley, leading commander of the Space Pirates. Right then and there, I felt that this was serious, that I would be all alone for the rest of the game. And I was. The only living beings you have to keep you company are the native life forms, which, excluding the Etecoons and the Dechoras, all have it out for you. Not to mention that you [SPOILER]explode the planet at the end of the game, eradicating all life on the planet. [/SPOILER].

But, despite all of this awesomeness, there is the giant flaw I mentioned earlier.

Play the game the first time, and it is mind-bendingly awesome. You have little to no clue as to where to go next, you don't know what's around the corner (or, in this case, in the next screen), you don't know what weapons work on what enemies and which don't, you just don't know. You are, pretty much, thrust into Samus' shoes. You share the same bond with her - she has no idea what awaits her.

But unlike Samus, you can play the game more than once. And therein lies one of the games very few flaws. It becomes far too easy once you beat the game once. You know where to go, what to do, how to kill this boss and how to survive this room, and the list goes on. So, ignoring first time plays, this game is rather easy, unlike the original, which is still really frustrating. Again, one of its very, very few flaws in my opinion.

Overall, the game play is excellent, superb even.

Second up, most importantly, is the Control:

I give the control a perfect 10 out of 10, as not only is it fluid and easy to grasp the concept of, the game play manages to actually give you hints and tips while you're playing in the form of subtlety. It's simple, the D-pad moves Samus left and right, allowing her to crouch, and fire in all 8-directions - completely different from the left / right and up directions she was able to fire in the first game. The shoulder buttons allow her to aim easier diagonally down / up / left / right, and also makes one of the game's many secret techniques easier to use (Shinespark, which I might describe shortly). The default setting, while confusing and I personally don't use it, is the default setting so I'll describe what that configuration is.

To fire, press X, which is at the top of the SNES controller. A bit awkward, but it works for some people. When you get the Charge Beam early in the game (and it IS recommended you get it), hold down the button to charge and release to fire. To jump, press the A button, which is the red button on the right of the SNES controller. Considering that, to dash, you have to hold B, your fingers have to do some odd twisting around to actually manage to do anything with the configuration. Pressing whatever jump button you've configured, Samus jumps. To spin jump, hold left or right while jumping, and to wall jump. . well that's a bit complicated. Jump against most wall surfaces with a spin jump, then press right if the wall is on the left side, or left if the wall is on the right side, and when Samus' frame changes to when she's pushing off the wall, immediately press the jump button. It's a tricky maneuver, but if you pull it off, you can get to a lot of different places. The remaining button, Y, allows you to cancel your item selection (done by pressing select) so you have a faster time selecting items.

When you get the Morph Ball at the beginning of the game, press down twice to morph. When you get the Bombs shortly after, morph, then press whatever button you've assigned to shoot, and you'll lay a bomb. Simple enough, right?

Overall, these are very fluid controls, and as responsive as any game can really get.

Next up is the Graphics:

The graphics get a perfect 10 out of 10. This is one of the shining aspects of the game. The graphics are colorful when they need to be (Red, Pink, Blue & Green Brinstar) and dreary, desolate when they need to be (every area other than Brinstar, pretty much.) Each enemy has nicely animated movements, and Samus is very, very well animated. The many frames of animation for her alone are something for any game designer, or simply anybody to marvel at. The areas themselves are very well designed, and the heated rooms in Norfair and Lower Norfair are simply awe-inspiring. There's a few rooms in particular that I enjoy a lot, and those are the rooms with these firefly type enemies that, when you kill them, the room gets darker. The background in those rooms have a pulsing light, and it's really awesome to see the graphics engine on the SNES pushed to its utmost extreme with Super Metroid.

The bosses are well designed as well, with some of the most imaginative designs I've ever seen in a game up to the release of SM. Kraid is probably my favorite in the game, since he's this huge, room filling creature that is certain to intimidate newcomers to the game. The scales on him stand out as they would on an actual reptilian creature of that size (as much as possible on a 2-D surface, anyways). My second favorite is the final boss, both the first form and second. For spoilers sake I won't mention the name but the second form is among the creepiest looking creatures in a game ever. It's not as big as Kraid, although it is still quite gargantuan. The mechanical parts mixed with the organic parts shine nicely against the background of the arena.

The underwater areas are something to be mentioned as well, as few as they are, they are extremely well done, with one area in particular taking place almost entirely underwater. There's the nice ambient sound of bubbles escaping from Samus' helmet (along with the nice graphic) and, although the water isn't given any sound on its own, there is the sound of Samus entering and exiting the water to appreciate.

Speaking of sound:

I give the music and sound effects in this game another perfect 10. The soundtrack in this game is something I still listen to this day, and is probably one of the most atmospheric soundtracks I've ever heard. Like the graphics, the music is relaxing when it needs to be, and creepy at the same time, and in some areas, it's threatening and suspenseful. There are plenty of music tracks, 39 in total, to keep the player entertained and creeped out while traveling through the giant maze that is Zebes.

The many sounds in this game are excellent as well, from the roars of Kraid and Ridley (not to mention the final boss), to the shot effects of your many beam upgrades.

Story. . where to begin with the story of this game? It's complicated, since many people will say it doesn't have a story, but the thing with that is that it certainly does. Only, it's not thrown in the player's face with massive amounts of text (not to say those types of games are bad, in fact I quite enjoy them), it's masterfully woven into the game play and the player's own sense of fear and loneliness.

I give the story an 8 out of 10, as, while I personally think the story is great, it can be confusing for newcomers to the series, even with the help of the background information given to them at the beginning of the game.

Here's what the story is at the time of Super Metroid:

Samus Aran is an intergalactic bounty hunter renowned for her constant defeat of the Space Pirates and eradication of the Metroid threat on SR388, their home world. By the time Super Metroid rolls around, she's lost her parents to Space Pirates, lost the Chozos who helped raise her, lost her commander during her time in the military, she has thwarted the Space Pirates a total of four times, defeated a clone of herself made entirely out of the otherworldly substance known as Phazon, defeated her closest friends who were infected with Phazon, and eradicated the threat of Metroids in the galaxy. At the end of Metroid II, she finds an unhatched Metroid egg, which she prepares to destroy, but it hatches and the infant Metroid takes to her like a mother. Hesitant to destroy the harmless infant, she takes it with her to drop it off at Ceres Station, a Galactic Research facility, so that they can study the Metroid's energy producing qualities for the benefit of mankind. As she's leaving the station to search for a new bounty, she receives a distress call from the station, and she rushes to find it empty and the scientists dead. Deep within the facility, she encounters an old nemesis, Ridley, the Space Pirate general who attacked and murdered her parents as a child. He has the infant Metroid in his grasp, and, desperate to end his life and protect the galaxy again, she fights with him. He doesn't go down, instead flying out of the station and triggering the self-destruct sequence. Samus escapes the station on her ship and tracks Ridley to the nearby planet of. . Zebes? She had fought the Pirates here once before, in her so-called Zero Mission, and it seems they made yet another base of operations. She had called this place home once, back when the Chozos were still around, so she is hell bent on taking care of the Pirate threat once and for all.

Without some of the fluff I added, most of that story is covered in the opening text, up until the point where Samus arrives at the station. The brilliance of the story is that it's revealed slowly but surely with visual cues, and relies more on the player to piece together what has happened so far rather than relying on in-your-face exposition. Overall, the story is extremely well done and is one of the best science fiction stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing, though despite all that it could be confusing for people who haven't played the previous games.

Now for the final section of this review, the amount of depth this game has is pretty staggering, and could be intimidating for new players. There's plenty to do, with the game itself taking a good while to beat if you're unsure as to what to do. Not only that, there's plenty of secret areas to find and a lot of items to collect, which is enough to keep any player busy for a good while.

A bit unconventional, but there nonetheless, are the game's challenges which were created by fans of the game. These are: Suitless Run, where you go through the game with the beginning suit, challenging as heck since you move slowly underwater, you take damage from the heated rooms which then requires you to do challenging heat runs and all manner of things. The Reverse Boss Order, which requires some fancy sequence breaking, is one of the tougher ones, making the player fight the bosses (excluding the final boss, IIRC) in reverse order. Since the later bosses are challenging on their own, doing so with limited energy and equipment makes it even harder.

There are plenty other challenges, and there's the unconventional technique of sequence breaking which allows players to go to places or do things they're not supposed to do with their current equipment, and all-in-all, it makes for the game being extremely replayable. I still play it often myself, and don't get me started on the hacks of the game, some of which are just as amazing as the original game!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this review, found it informative, and hopefully it's gotten to make you want to play the game if you haven't already. And if you haven't, go do it! The massive maze of Zebes is waiting to draw you into it's clutches.

See you next mission!