Super Metroid is one of the best games ever made, and after 13 years, finally resurfaced and is worth $8 and then some!
This is the first time since 1994, so it took roughly 13 years to get an actual port of this game legally. I mean sure, even I think $8 is far too much for most SNES/Genesis games on the Virtual Console from 10+ years ago, but this game is worth every penny and then some. This game is incredibly hard to find for less than eight dollars; Super Metroid is just tough to find period. Since this is the month of Metroid, this was the big game released before Metroid Prime 3, and this right behind Paper Mario is probably the most anticipated game by the hardcore audience who have been Nintendo fans, and boy have they delivered!
For those unfortunate souls who never got around to playing the original on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System; this is a must buy, even if you have never played a Metroid game before. Super Metroid is a Sci-Fi Side-Scrolling adventure game. But its totally different than Super Mario World or Donkey Kong Country. This game is heavily dependant on exploration and is a lot less linear than most side-scrollers. So the story picks up with you having collected the last of the Metroid race and get the Metroid to scientists to study. But you suddenly receive a distress call from the laboratory. Before this game though, you playing as Samus fought a group of rather pesky space pirates whose leader; the Mother Brain tried to use the Metroid to destroy this peaceful galactic civilization. But you foiled their plans once before, and now once again those space pirates are back and you are going to have to kick their asses again! Gameplay:
Like I said before, the gameplay in this game is totally different. You are exploring most of the game. Some people think of exploring as tedious back tracking, but in Super Metroid, there is not too much of this back tracking. Most of the exploring part of this game involves unlocking small areas of the game. This is really one continuous world that you are in, and you; bit by bit, keep unlocking the world as you gain new abilities or defeat bosses in each new area. At first I was turned off by this kind of gameplay, but this game was the only game that could ever get me to love this type of gameplay. Its not boring, there is always something new to explore and the game never is too hard where you can’t figure out what to do without a little thinking. General enemies are not overly cheap, and they even drop items and health for you, so while you are exploring, you have this perfect balance system where enemies will respawn once you leave and come back to the room, so yes, you do have to dispatch them once again, but you also gain an ample amount of health as well as ammunition from these enemies so that you can effortlessly continue your quest without worries of dying if you venture to far from that last save point. This game almost encourages endless exploration; and does not get frustrating where you have to restart if you go the wrong way at first and end up getting low on health. This game also features a biggest and better weapons; the super missile, power bomb and boost. The levels are also brilliantly designed in that there is more leeway and more things to interact in than was in the first on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. And finally, the map system which 13 years later is still present in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was added to this game which is a huge help in getting a handle on where you are and where you have been; and this means almost no backtracking like there was in the original.
Graphics: This game is still beautiful! The sprites and backgrounds were designed with what the SNES could and couldn’t do. What I love about this game is that the developers; Nintendo R&D1, also known as Intelligent Systems have made a game that really shines almost 15 years down the road. It takes a good developer to make a game look and play great when they originally release it, but to make a game that stands the test of the time and is still just as playable more or less 15 years down the roads makes them a great developer. The game is colorful; level designs and color schemes are totally varied, and the game just shines beyond what words can explain. The details are a huge reason as to why this game holds up visually, if you simply play the game for only five minutes you will appreciate the care given to how much time was put into the art style.
Sound:
This game receives an 11 out of a possible 10 for sound. This was the first game that in my opinion really had any atmosphere to it. The music and sound effects were just so creepy and haunting that it just made this game even more of a classic. From the main theme all the way till the end of the game, the sound delivers in ways that many new games still can’t match. The sound in this game gives the player the feeling of actually being alone in the galaxy in a strange and alien planet that is just so different from a planet like earth. For example, when you find a power-up, the sound effect that follows is like instant gratification in that you really did something great!
Control:
This game is great on the classic controller. The setup is exactly the same as the SNES controller, which could no better on any other controller. Everything from running, jumping and shooting you will have seemed to master within the first ten minutes of playing the game. This game is so easy for anyone to just pick up and play and the layout and control scheme is just so well thought out and intuitive! My one and only minor grip is that I am not holding the original SNES controller. The Classic Controller for the Wii is great and literally is a spiritual successor to the SNES controller, but they have seems to make it more round and bulky, so it just doesn’t have that same feel, and the D-pad almost seems too rigid and raised a little more than I would like it to be. But for people who are not obsessive about this game, the controls are excellent!
So, here we are, this game is almost 15 years old, plays, looks and sounds as great as it did in 1994. This game, for its atmosphere, its replayability and its level design has to go down in history as the best game ever made, if not in just about every old school gamers top 10.