The archetypal 2D action sidescroller
Playing as bounty hunter Samus Aran, you return to Planet Zebes on the hunt for the larval Metroid which was captured by Samus and delivered to a laboratory space colony, which was destroyed by the leader of the Space Pirates, Ridley - a dragon-like creature revived somehow to stop Samus from taking the Metroid larva, and destroying the Zebes mastermind Mother Brain.
The control is typical of a sidescroller; A to jump, left and right to move around, B to run, Y to fire, X to cancel item, Select to choose secondary weapon/item, L and R to angle your shot, down to crouch, up to look up, and Start to pause the game to access the map or the Samus screen, where you can select what power-ups you want to equip. If the controls aren't to your liking, you can change them to your liking. I played the Wii version, using the Classic Controller, but rather than using the conventional D-pad, I found myself using the analog stick more.
One prominent feature in this game is exploration. In fact, the entire game runs on exploration. The Legend of Zelda is a massive game, but Super Metroid, well... it's effectively a 2D sidescrolling sandbox. It's superbly well constructed! You explore six areas: Crateria, Brinstar, Maridia, Norfair, The Wrecked Ship and Tourian. The planet Zebes is freaking massive!
There's one other feature common in Metroid games - the power-up system. It allows you to power up more or less anything, be it your arm cannon, your suit, or even just standard abilities. Two power-ups dominate the whole game: the Gravity Suit and the Screw Attack. The Gravity Suit gives you added resistance to damage from enemies, makes you immune to lava, and makes you able to move underwater as you would on ground zero. The Screw Attack, combined with the Space Jump, allows you to somersault into and damage most enemies, and it is so strong, it can kill some enemies ON FIRST CONTACT.
Weapons. It has plenty. You can have the standard beam, charge beam, ice beam, wave beam, spazer, plasma beam, Missile, Super Missile, Bomb, Power Bomb etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
The graphics. Boy, oh boy, they are awesome! The Super Nintendo utilised something called Mode 7, which gave some sprites in certain games, like F-Zero, LoZ:LttP and a few others, a feeling of 3D, even though the sprites were in 2D. Also, this came out when Donkey Kong Country was also released. The main reason I mention DKC is because both Super Metroid and DKC had amazing graphics for the SNES.
This game has some of the more unique bosses in games. Yeah, they have somewhat clear weak spots, but some of the later bosses are so challenging it makes you think one of two things;
1. Go in head on, and if I die, I'll keep trying.
2. I think I'll look for some power-ups and expansions first...
Some will make you a little aggravated first time around, but if you keep a level head, you should beat the boss in a breeze.
The final boss is just epic. For the sake of anyone who hasn't played it, I'm not going to spoil it (Mother Brain's a mad machine!), but I will say it is one of the outright most freakiest things I have EVER seen. Even creepier than Majora from LoZ: Majora's Mask! The music that plays in the background, too, has a ring of 'you dared to play this far, and you dared to go against the final enemy! You are SCREWED!!'. After you defeat Mother Brain, you are given three minutes to escape planet Zebes before it is destroyed (again...).
I will be honest however, the game isn't perfect. The sales in Japan, just like the original Metroid on the Famicom, were poor. It was more popular in America, but to think that the game was made in Japan, it's vaguely ironic to say the least. And they say America and Europe don't have the ideal markets for MOTHER 3...
Also, there are some things in the game you may have to do, like wall-jumping. There are some people who can do it dozens of times a time, but I'm not that great. I can do it, but not brilliantly. You have to spin-jump toward a wall, press the opposing button on the D-pad, then jump again, all in a fraction of a second. Eeeee...
To sum up, Super Metroid is the best Metroid game I have pla--oh, wait...
What about Metroid Prime? Metroid Prime 3? Let's say it's the best 2D Metroid game I have played... Yeah... That's about right.
FINAL VERDICT: 98% (Get it now! Christ compels you!)