Don't forget that Metroid on the NES was the birth of one of the best franchises in gaming history!
Introduction
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Metroid's first release for the NES was back in 1986. In Europe it came out in 1988, that's almost 2 years after its release in Japan. This game built the base for many sequels, and today Metroid is still one of Nintendo's big 3 franchises with Mario and The Legend of Zelda.
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Story
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The story is told in the booklet of the original NES game. Samus Aran as the best space hunter is sent out by the Galactic Federation Police to the deepest grounds of the planet Zebeth to destroy the base of Space Pirates including Mother Brain, to stop them in multiplying the stolen life form Metroid. The awesome thing of the story was the ending. If you managed to finish the game in less than 3 hours, you could see Samus armor-less for the first time, in less than 1 hour almost nude. That was a big shock, because in the manual Samus was described as a man. For this time Metroid has a genial story.
10/10
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Gameplay
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Controls are quite simple and it won't take you longer than 10 or 20 minutes to eliminate all your bigger problems with the control system. The controls have just one problem: you just can shoot forward and up, but not diagonal or down.
The biggest part of the game is exploring. There's no linear path to follow, there are many similar rooms, which can contain hidden gates and so on. Sometimes it can be frustrating, the difficulty is very high and because of that I propose to use a map when you play it the first time, or you will quiet sure put this game away soon because you always got lost and died. The interesting thing is to play it through twice or more to unlock the best ending, which is a big challenge. That's a big plus factor.
9/10
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Graphics
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Design and Animations look great for a NES-game. But there is one big problem. If you're in a room with lots of enemies or if you shoot a lot with the wave beam, the screen begins flickering. That's nerving because this flickering also causes lags. These lags can get you some serious problems.
8/10
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Sound
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The music is very important in Metroid. The songs are very atmospheric and match perfectly in their region. My favorite song is the one in Brinstar… simply amazing. There's one song which can become really, really annoying if you're stuck in that region. It's the song in Ridley's Lair, you should try to make your stay there as short as possible.
9/10
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Conclusion
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All in all Metroid is a great game. The best thing is the replay value. You won't be satisfied until you have unlocked the best ending. Beside this and the great music there are also some problems which can be frustrating, but the positive outweighs the negative. This makes it a great game which is still fun playing in our time of HD- and 3D-gaming.
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Final Score
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9/10