I'm old enough to have played this when it came out but I never did, and I just played it now for the first time. No guide used, though it's inevitable that I had read some things about the game. (I couldn't finish the original Metroid without a guide.) Completion was 84%, 165 missiles, 45 super missiles, 45 power bombs, 19/20 tanks, 2/4 reserve tanks, and around 20 hours. I missed the spring ball—I had seen that that block stayed broken but it didn't seem like it was possible to fit through that space.

I got a FAQ and tried to do a speed run, gave up about a half hour in and looked the ending up on Youtube. How many people actually tried to get the best ending?

Obviously any review of the game I can give this many years on will be totally useless, but I did like it a lot, it was a lot more balanced than Metroid I, and it seems strange that Japan doesn't seem to like Metroid games much. Next up is Fusion—I'm basically taking the games in order.

I almost always miss out on the Spring Ball in serious speed runs.

I love this game to death. I disagree about the jumps being floaty, too. I never did like Metroid Zero Mission's speedy speedy jumps.

Also, if you didn't like Metroid NES, Zero Mission more or less makes that game obsolete.

Also, ENGAGE RIDLEY MOTHER FUCKER

edited 13th Dec '10 9:58:05 PM by Schitzo

Yeah, but I didn't miss it for speed—I missed it because I was playing the game as a newbie and didn't manage to fit through a space that didn't look like you could fit through it anyway...

And now that you mention Ridley that's one thing which seemed strange. Fans talking about Metroid enemies by name, when the game is pretty text-light; you can play the game from start to finish and never know anyone's name. Is this just the influence of Nintendo Power?

edited 14th Dec '10 7:07:34 AM by arromdee

I never played it, sadly, but doesn't the prime series have a scan feature?

Yes, and it's easily one of the best parts of the series.

Also, played Super Metroid a couple of months back. It was pretty fun, and I loved how much emphasis was placed on exploration, even though I normally like more linear titles.

I. LOVE. SUPER METROID!

This is one of the best games I have ever played. The controls, the atmosphere, the music, everything just works. It's so cool Its awesome!

edited 14th Dec '10 7:17:00 AM by MrW

They were in the manuals. The first Metroid had all the enemies' names in there.

Can you believe this is by the same guy who did Other M?

trollface.gif

Frankly, none of the original SM team except Sakamoto returned for Other M(For example, composers Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Himano were busy doing Donkey Kong Country Returns), and Sakamoto didn't infuse the same sort of teamwork into it and enforced his "vision" like a dictator(he even threatened to shut down TeamNinja if they used the Nunchuk!). You could say Other M is basically the video game version of Chinese Democracy.

end rant and possible flame war

edited 14th Dec '10 1:56:43 PM by MrW

I recently played through Super Metroid, not really intending on beating it in time. I tried to get 100%, but gave up on two. At the end, I had 98% and only about 2-5 minutes above the best ending, and I had goofed off a little. So if I look up those last expansions I could actually acheive this.

I liked that the Prime games allowed you to take your time for the best ending. Understandable, given that the special endings are a lot more significant and Sequel Hook-ish than the "alternate" endings of the others.

I could never get the hang of wall-jumping in this game.

I propose Ridley's Law: As a discussion of Metroid lengthens, the probability of the discussion devolving into a flamewar about Other M approaches one.

On-topic: Super has what are arguably the best soundtrack, graphics, and sheer scope in the series. The controls aren't as good as the GBA titles' (really don't care for having a separate button to run; as if anyone's going to not run) and I do admittedly like Zero Mission's physics better, but Super has its own qualities. Besides, there's a ROM hack that streamlines the controls a la GBA, which makes it just as enjoyable as Zero Mission.

edited 14th Dec '10 2:52:54 PM by Turtle

Me neither.

It's a little easier if you wait until you see Samus facing away from the wall. There's a larger gap than in the GBA games between the time you press away from the wall and the time you're meant to hit the jump button. Of course, it's still hard to pull off consistently.

edited 14th Dec '10 3:00:06 PM by Turtle

That was my opinion too. The soundtrack, graphics, and scope are amazing, but the controls don't feel as refined as the GBA games that introduced me to the series.

Also, the first Metroid game I played was the infamously linear Fusion (which I really liked) and the slighly less linear Zero Mission, and I just ended up frustratingly lost and going around in circles mmore than I would have liked in Super.

edited 14th Dec '10 3:09:41 PM by Eschaton

I liked Fusion a lot. The linearity wasn't such a bad thing for a change of pace, but Nintendo seems to have gotten this strange notion that every game (except Zero Mission) after it should be as linear. I'm afraid that Zero Mission will end up being the last hurrah that they put out as a sort of apology to longtime fans of the series - "Sorry, but we're taking it in a different direction, enjoy your last nonlinear Metroid game."

Super is great that way. There's a pretty clear intended order, but for those who want to break the game beyond reason can do so. Back when they made the game and let the fans decide how they want to play it.

So, uh... how about that Mockball?

You know, who I really like is Crocomire.

I like using the Grapple Beam on Crocomire. Such odd results. Once I went inside him somehow, and his tongue came out.

I played Super as a kid, and was scared when Torizo broke out of the Chozo statue. It was quite appropriate, in retrospect—I was used to M1's Chozo statues just giving me stuff, and not locking me in and attacking me, of course!

Years later I beat Super, after watching a few speed runs of it. Unlike with ZM, I didn't try to follow the 100% run, and I ended up with about sixty-something or seventy-something percent.

You should try grappling, plasma-beaming, and finally power-bombing Crocomire. (Poor Crocomire...)

I think that Super is amazingly designed. However, the controls of the GBA games are better; I'm not a fan of floaty jumping at all. Also, there are a few quirks of Super that got fixed in the GBA games, such as a few inconsistencies in the way blocks were presented, and Samus being annoyingly 3 blocks tall, and the existence of a run button (even if it made for funny noob jokes). The rechargeable and redesigned shinespark, along with a better method of hinting at hidden items (i.e. away from the "make the player bomb every wall" method) were also improved.

That said, Super will forever remain a classic, being one of the two games that really ushered in the metroidvania genre. Dare I even say that the many glitches made the game better—that it wasn't just a game with two mostly-similar-apart-from-fanservice endings and speedrunning and packratting capabilities, but the game's exploration aspect was itself meta-explorable, by exploiting glitches left and right. And then there are the numerous romhacks that this game has spawned...

And finally, the atmospherics are top-notch. And so is the soundtrack—ambient, sometimes creepy, but always apt. Yamamoto and Hamano created a soundtrack that is both memorable AND ambient—not an easy feat. The graphics are drawn beautifully to create an alien but rich and diverse play environment. Just two more reasons why this game is such a classic.

I love Super Metroid simply because it continued exaggerating the elements that made the series awesome.

Atmosphere, exploration, bosses, and that awesome item jingle.

The map was the single greatest thing about the game.

If the first two games had had one, I might not have ragequit them both.

Return of Samus at least was tolerable, because most of the environments weren't downright identical.

I tried this after the insistence of some people.

I shut it off after half an hour. It is one of the most boring action games I have ever had the misfortune of trying. The pacing is godawful, the controls lacklustre, the story a joke, the enemies either annoyingly numerous or annoyingly hard to hit, with none actually being satisfactory to kill, the bosses are pathetic, and the layout insulting. It dpesn't have a single redeeming feature.

Ouch.

This post was thumped by the Eldritch Flyswatter of Horror