Retro Game Review Time: Super Metroid

Time for the first Retro Game Review Time. So sorry its close to two weeks late. Anyways, we'll start with something nice and simple; Super Metroid.



Set the WayBack Machine to 1994. The Super Nintendo had only been out a few years, and not a large quantity of good games were out at the time, outside of Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World(not counting All Stars(and we complain about Nintendo doing nothing but remakes these days :eyeroll: )). Contrarywise, Metroid, and Metroid 2 had made quite a splash, with their suspense, drama, silence, and lets not forget the surprise that Samus was a lady. Such things were mostly unheard of in video games of the time. Surely, in an age of wonderful audio/visuals, Super Metroid would be a symphony of sound, music and graphics. Yet, on the scene of young games, excited and hyperactive, sullen Super Metroid sits quietly off to the side, trading psychedelic countrysides for dreary caves, upbeat marches for suspenseful wailing, and an easily identifiable and comparable majority for an unusual, exotic minority.

The plot shoots back to the first Metroid, but thankfully, Samus does everyone a favour and provides a wee bit of backstory on her interactions with the Space Pirates, and, resultingly, the Metroid species, over the past two games. During an assault on the base of the Space Pirates on Planet Zebes, Samus encounters the Metroid species. After the Galactic Federation deems the Metroid too much of a threat to be left alone, Samus is sent to SR388, the home of the Metroids, to exterminate them. However, after finishing the task, one final Metroid hatches, and does the whole imprinting thing on Samus. Unable to kill her new "child", so to speak, Samus instead keeps it, and turns it over to Federation scientists, hoping they can find a way to use them for the good of the Federation. However, as she is leaving Ceres Station, where she dropped off the baby, Ceres Station puts out a distress signal. Heading back, she finds everyone dead, and the baby in the claws of Ridley, the leader(?) of the Space Pirates, who runs off. Heading back to Zebes, Samus must find the baby, and finally finish off the Space Pirates.

As with the previous two Metroid games, Samus must explore the planet she has landed on, with a slight twist in that she returns to Zebes, the planet that the first game took place on, but this time around, theres more to look at, and new areas to explore, including Crateria, the surface of Zebes, where caves hold creatures hiding from acid rain, Brinstar, a series of caverns that more resemble a jungle than a cave, burning Norfair in the lava-filled lower depths of Zebes, the haunted Wrecked Ship, underwater Maridia, and Tourian, the control centre for the Space Pirate operations on Zebes. The actual gameplay hasn't changed much from the first two, in that its a 2D platformer with exploration and upgrading as gameplay elements. Samus must search Zebes for upgrades to her Power Suit(all of which misteriously vanished from the last games), both to aid in her exploration, and to reach and defeat the four bosses, Kraid, Phantoon, Draygon and Ridley, in order to reach Tourian, and the dangers that lurk within. Players of the previous two games won't be dissapointed by the item lineup, as there are a few new items. Best of all is that Samus can hold more than one beam type at a time, in fact, she can combine all but two beam types.

Unlike many games of the era, Super Metroid shies away from the triumphant marches, jungle romps, and whispers of adventure(just in case, I'm referring to Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country and Secret of Mana). Instead, it opts for more atmospheric tunes, like the soothing tones of Maridia, the suspenceful  tension of the Wrecked Ship, and the dramatic decent into Brinstar.

Super Metroid, as a first game to review, is difficult to fault. Its status as a classic is well earned, and will surely be remembered for years to come.