NES Legends - One of the few games on the NES that have left an impact on us years later...

User Rating: 9.3 | Metroid NES
By wakasm | Review Date:
It's really hard to describe old school games to younger kids.During the NES era (thats Nintendo Entertainment System - which we would call Nintendo, not NES) you didn't have hype to help you choose a game. Although over the years, many people did get a Nintendo, during its beginner years users were far and between. My first three games ever purchased (after your standard super mario brothers before the duck hunt add on) were ice hockey, the legend of zelda (because it was gold), and Mike Tyson's Punch out. When we purchased a game, you bought it because the box looked good or sometimes only because you needed a new game and you didn't have many choices. It wasn't until i found another Nintendo user a month or two later that we decided to "Trade" games, My punch out for one of his randomly selected games . it was in this way that I found the masterpiece known as Metroid. Having no idea what a Metroid was, I picked up this title and brought it home and asked my brother if he knew what a one was. We both assumed for a long time that the main character in the game was "Metroid" and we played the game eagerly every day for a week. For starters, this game was huge for its time. It had a fulll free roaming world (a first for any sidescroller I had ever played) and also had the first password feature which - at the time - kinda annoyed us because we couldn't save ala Zelda style yet was unique. Not many new gamers know what its like to have random paper all over your room with passwords written all over them and different codes to decipher if a letter was Lower case or Upper case (ours was an underline for lowercase letters). In fact, I still have a lot of my codes packed away on rotting yellow paper somewhere in a box. Let us not even talk about the frustration when you miswrote a letter... *********************************************************************** Spoilers *********************************************************************** The game itself for its time was very rewarding. If you experienced this game as one of the first people to ever play it, you didn't have much help. The instruction guide wasn't much help, although it did provide a basic map for you to follow, as well as gave insite onto what a Metroid was and helped understand more that we were looking for Metroid (the plural version based on the first game) rather than being one. The main character in the game is a bounty hunter named Samus Aran (who was most definitly referred to in the booklet as "he") on a mission to destroy these Metroid. *********************************************************************** End Of Spoilers *********************************************************************** Anyway... in such a big world, it was hard to know what to do. Finding your first add-on was an incredible feeling - and the game started to come together very nicely once you found your first weapon and realized the game you were playing was very very deep compared to the other sidescrolling games you might have played. There was a lot of trial and error involved, but littlle by little you found and explored the whole world and all of its secret niches to uncover what would later be well known as the Planet Zebes. *********************************************************************** Spoilers *********************************************************************** Metroid also had a very strong Climax and odd forumula because it was not until the last hour of the game that you actually got to see a "metroid" and their life sucking capabilities. You then soon learned who the mastermind was and with an ironic and starting revelation, you learn its a huge brain incased in glass known as "Mother Brain". Soon after, a countdown erupts leaving you with one of the most dramatic escapes ever known to video games up to 1986. - Especially finding out that He was really a She (Later retold in sequels) *********************************************************************** End Of Spoilers *********************************************************************** Very few games leave you with as much as this single title has - and I can count the few on my fingers and toes. This definitly was a shining point in my past and will never forget my memories with this game. I also find that i can replay this game over and over without thought and it truly is one of the greatest games of all time and can and should be enjoyed by anyone who hasn't lived the original.

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