Thank you to QuentTheSlayer for giving me the final push that made me play through Super Metroid.

The Super Nintendo was probably the ultimate time of refinement for Video Games. So many game series, that are now held up as timeless classics found their definitive formula on Nintendo's second console generation. Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy and of course today's subject: Metroid. Super Metroid is still considered by many to be the peak of the metroidvania genre, and it's admittedly strange to realize that I had never played it. Even as a huge fan of the series, I just always put it off to the side. I'll get around to it eventually. After all: In the same amount of time it would take me to get into Super Metroid, I could just replay Fusion for the 50th time. I haven't played Prime 2 in a hot minute. What's that shiny new Dread game that just came out ? And so on and so on. But then in 2024, I set aside the excuses, committed, and I can now say that I have finally finished Super Metroid.

Its hard to put into words how much of a mindfuck my first playthrough of Super Metroid was. This almost 30-year-old Super Nintendo game has you in a chokehold the moment the title screen appears. The pan across a quiet, dark laboratory. 1994. Nintendo. Presents. Metroid 3. SUPER METROID. Right there, with the bodies of dead scientist strewn across the floor and the baby metroid trapped in a glass tube, the title of the game towers in gigantic, bold letters. It's one of the most striking introductions to a Video Game I have ever seen. A statement, before you even press a single button.

Of course this strong in medias res opening is only possible due to the fact that Super Metroid is the canonical third entry of the series, continuing on from the ending of Metroid 2: Return of Samus. And the game does an excellent job of catching you up to the events of the previous games. In a moody monologue, Samus recounts her fight against Motherbrain in her first adventure, her mission to eradicate the Metroid species for good and her sparing the last baby Metroid at the end. She brings said baby Metroid to the Galactic Research Station Ceres. There, the baby Metroid is supposed to be further studied while Samus is off hunting another bounty. Of course, she barely makes it out the door before receiving the call that Ceres is under attack. Ridley and his space pirates have decimated Ceres in order to capture the last Metroid. It's here where Super Metroid first gives you control over Samus in an action packed and atmospheric opening. She blasts through the invading space pirates and storms into an inevitable confrontation with long time nemesis Ridley. After an early sneak peek at this late game boss fight, Ridley flees with the baby Metroid in his claws. Samus follows in hot pursuit and lands on the planet Zebes. The setting of the original Metroid. This series story telling has always been and would continue to be very subtle, but even this opening stands tall among its peers in terms of how much you can get across just through a quick opening text crawl and pure gameplay. Really, the recap from our badass heroine is the only dialogue you will get across the entire game, and yet it still manages to tell an engaging story as you make your way down through the underground tunnels of Zebes.

Zebes is what all metroidvania maps should aspire to be in my opinion. Isolating, with long, winding corridors and  incredibly distinct environments. This map is so well-designed that I rarely felt lost or directionless even when I wasnt exacly sure what my next step was. The map screen is there, but it does the bare minimum to give you any general information on the environment. Because it doesn't have to tell you more. The drive to explore and the invisible hand of the developers guiding you are enough. Very, very rarely did I find myself lost as to where to go next and the few times that the game had me stumped, I can attribute to my general impatients I have been trained on due to modern video games. If I spend more than 30 minutes figuring out the way forward, then it must be bad game design, right ?. Fuck you, David Jaffe. By paying close attention to the game, you can always intuit where your way forward is. It's a masterstroke of game design.

The other side of gameplay besides navigating the game world, is combat and finding upgrades. Because Samus isnt badass enough already. That was Metroids bread and butter from the very beginning really. Super doesn't hugely change the formula, but still excels in teaching you its mechanics naturally. The game has you collect all the now famous Metroid tools like Super Missiles, the Grapple Beam and so on, while always showing you how to use them with a reward that seems just out of reach, right after you got that shiny new upgrade. Again, all without a single interruption or textbox. If somebody had to nitpick any aspects of the gameplay, it would probably have to do with Samus jump and the way you switch through different weapon modes. Firstly: Samus jump arc is a weird one to get used to for sure, since she gets an unusual amount of air time for a 2D platformer. The standard jump, which can also be altered into a summersault forward, seems very stiff as well. It almost feels like the Castlevania 1 jump arc as if some weirdo happend to turn on low gravity. Weird maybe, but those quirks still very much lend themselves to the often tubelike level design of Zebes and I rarely had any problems with jumping up to ledges or across platforms. The second, more annoying nitpick would probably be how you switch weapons via the select button. It's an awkward solution that had me often fumble around when I wanted a specific weapon equipped, but it's not a dealbreaker either, just something I wished was a bit better by default. Oh, and there is a run button. Never forget that you have a run button. It had me stuck for a bit and you will thank me later, fellow non-manual readers. Those minor flaws aside, the gameplay is incredibly rewarding to master and once you do master it, the real meta game of Super Metroid begins. Sequence Breaking.

Again: It's an aspect of the genre that Metroid is already famous for and its the game that popularized it, but Super Metroid does it on a whole other level. This game has one technique in particular, one you unknowingly have access to from the very beginning, that is designed to break the game's intended progression. It's a tricky one to execute, and the game will teach it to you in an organic way at some point. Once you fully master it, you might as well throw all preconceived notions out the window that this game was ever linear to begin with. Already deep into my second playthrough, I feel the effects of playing at a higher level. Upgrades and bosses, that seemed so far away in the beginning, can now be acquired basically as early or as late as you want to. The genius decision of teaching you this high level play during your first trip through Zebes does wonders for replayability. Pay attention and the game will infinitely reward you for it. You might of course go to areas you're not equipped for yet, but if you persevere, you get the best abilities incredibly early. Risk vs Reward, entirely on the player's own terms. Genius.

I honestly didn't expect to sing this game's praises so much, and I still haven't talked about the incredible sprite work or the god tier soundtrack. Two aspects I can not find a single flaw in, and talking about them would have me repeating myself again with only superlatives. The game is one of the most gorgeous games I have ever seen, it's like a immaculate painting. The soundtrack gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, and taking the elevator down the Brinstar for the first time is already one of my top 5 magic moments of all time. There you go.

Saving my credibility for reviewing video games, whatever that is even worth, I should probably still mention my one big rage-quit moment. As no game is perfect, but Super Metroid is damn close. Maridia. Maridia fucking sucks and seems to be the one area where the developers couldn't hold back the urge anymore to design a cryptic hell maze. Not only is getting to Maridia a bullshit ordeal all on its own, actually navigating this oversized fish tank with all its invisible walls is a confusing slog. And god help you if managed to come here without the gravity suit, like i did. Now, try to figure out how to get back to dry land while Samus jogs across the ocean floor in slowmotion. Or hope your most recent save isn't too far away. Hey, there is this giant purple tube you can go up and down through, that is clearly showing you an entirely different area in the middle. Well forget that. Ain't going there yet, no matter how hard the game implies it. Finish off the underwater journey with two really sub-par bosses. Please just end me.

Alright. Despite the grueling stretch through the sludge waters of Maridia, despite every bone in my body telling me that now this supposed all-time classic has finally fallen to the rose-tinted nostalgia glasses of fanboys across the globe, it shinesparked back up like a phoenix and stuck the landing. More than that, it destroyed the landing pad and drilled itself deep into my heart to become one of my favorite games of all time. I already know this will get more than one playthrough in the near future, because Super Metroid fucking rules. Go play Super Metroid you cowards!

outside of the (understandably) on-the-nose coloured doorways nearly every instance of environmental interaction is rich and tactile. thirty years later it's still a wonder to grope and paw at every (Possibly Maybe) malleable surface and leverage every new upgrade toward greater structural manipulation and command

in ensuring how and when are given as much significance as what and where it forms a relationship between actor and environment that bears uncommonly personal patterns and markings as you learn to use Your body as an implement to interface with the world. sidepaths and back alleys that carve Under - Over - Through reshape the familiar thru layered mechanical discovery and shift the internal v external dynamic in turn; mastery of the self begetting exponential mastery of the other

a fitting problem then that the biocircuitry, plunging intestinal mazes, and gloomy dark ambient synthesis quickly become less something to endure so much as to dominate; the dissonance for show, and the brutality nakedly glamorous and one sided. so much of it exists in service to the pursuit of (Your) power, kneeling with its neck outstretched waiting to feel bones shatter for Your gratification. sure, I feel obscenely powerful, but I'd rather feel anything else

My first metroidvania.

I have never been a fan of platformers and I still think this is not really my kind of game, regardless of that I have been able to enjoy it.

It is hard to believe that this game is 30 years old, the ambience is unbelievably well achieved thanks to the visuals which make each area iconic and is supported by an outstanding sound design.

The level design is remarkable, but I will say I didn't enjoy when the game forces you to backtrack. Arriving at an area that you have already explored earlier with a newly revealed shortcut and having to go all the way there just by backtracking are two completely different things. Super Metroid sometimes manages to make interesting shortcuts with it's upgrade system, but forgets to do so in some scenarios, forcing you to go all the way back where you came from (not just a few rooms away) a copious amount of times.

Some rooms where platforming was needed seemed to drag for too long, specially when provided with some foes and proyectiles along the way for increased anxiety.

The movement was smoother than I expected overall, but I struggled with the jump, specially with wall-jumping and using the space suit roll jump.

Despite all that, the exploration of new zones always feels fresh, and the upgrade system not only provides with a sense of progression of Samus's power level but also providing a variety of tools to delve deeper into each area and progress towards the next one.

Many of the upgrades seemed very advanced for the time where this game came out, for example , the grappling hook feels surprisingly smooth. By the end of the game Samus's arsenal has changed so much that it almost feels like another game, also making dealing with enemies much easier and satisfactory. I had one huge issue with the arsenal tho, and it's swapping between weapons, which felt incredibly clunky probably because the console lacked enough buttons or maybe because I played this with an Xbox controller.

I have also tried practicing some techniques like bomb jumping and wall jumping, although they were useful to me in a small number of situations as I'm not any kind of speedrunner, I can begin to see and appreciate how this game influenced the world of speedrunning and how the developers took care in making it possible.

My favorite part of the game were the first few zones, I feel this is where I enjoyed the exploration and ambience the most, every area felt unique and I really like the abandoned and hostile planet it helped to picture, I enjoyed the wrecked ship as well. The ending was pretty cool and the areas were visually impressive but having to backtrack and getting stuck not knowing how to progress kind of worsened my overall experience (I probably should be more patient with this kind of games, can't help it tho it's my first metroidvania). I have the feeling that I will appreciate this game much more when I come back to it in the future after tackling some other games of the same genre. With my platforming skills honed and the patience required to tackle the genre ( I was looking foward to other titles that I mean to play in the following days, which stressed me to finish this one faster).

Overall this game surprised me and helped understand how ahead of it's time it truly was, I will surely come back to it in the future.

This is my first Metroid game.

Samus movements are a bit clunky. First, I never became truly comfortable with the Spin Jump. I couldn't get used to the momentum of this move, and often ended up slipping off platforms.
Figuring out how to use the Wall Jump wasn't obvious at all. I had to train on a wall for a few minutes to get a good grip of it.
And worst of all, the Space Jump: Underwater, I was able to perform this move without any issue, but outside of that, I was never able to chain them consistently. The timing is just so weird and unintuitive, and that's the reason I had such a bad time in the last area, Ridley's Lair. You need to fly across rising lava as quickly as possible using this move, and that was terrible.

Also, this isn't the game's fault, but I don't vibe with the sci-fi/alien/futuristic setting... Different strokes, right?

There are some items that are fun to use. I liked being able to freeze the enemies to use them as platforms, thanks to the Ice Beam. Swinging myself around with the grapple beam was also kinda fun.

I didn't like the abundance of hidden paths. Having to stop constantly to use the X-Ray kinda ruins the pace of exploration. It's the biggest issue in the game for me.

I enjoyed the boss fights for the most part. They aren't too easy nor too hard. I do want to note that I was using save states. So whenever I died against a Boss, I could respawn in front of it and retry immediatly.
Crocomire was pretty cool, the fact that you need to push him into the lava rather than reducing his HP to 0. And the way he comes back as a skeleton to scare you one last time was neat.
Draygon was my favorite Boss in the game, and I also had a good time with Golden Torizo.

Using the Power Bomb in Maridia to break the glass tunnel was such an Eureka moment for me. I was stuck for so long, and it felt very satisfying to finally figure this out!

As I said earlier, I kind of had enough once I reached Ridley's Lair. I got stuck at the 2 Ridley's Guards.
I didn't have enough ammo to deal with them, and I was really fed up with this area, so I didn't have the courage to backtrack to gather HP & ammo. The lack of teleporters is definitely a deal-breaker.
So I stopped here and watched the rest of the game on YouTube.

Honestly, I had a good time in the first half of the game. Before I reached the last quarter of the game, I thought about giving it 3.5 stars, or even 4 stars. But it became really tedious near the end, hence my final rating.
I'm still happy I played such an iconic game, it was about time I played this series! I feel like I would have more fun with Metroid Dread tho?

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on May 5th & stopped on May 7th 2024]
Playtime: 18 hours
I stopped at the 2 Ridley's Guards.

From the first minutes of the game I could already understand why this one was everyone’s favourite. Palpable atmosphere, and I finally got the people complaining about zero mission and am2r missing that “isolating, lonely, cold” atmosphere of the originals. This is what they were talking about. It's a pretty substantial tone shift, from the station to going back to Zebes. Everything is darker, more terrifying, lonely, and hopeless. Almost like Peace Walker to Ground Zeroes, raiders to temple of doom, or high school to university. It adds so much to the depowering at the beginning of the game, and the contrast to eventually tearing shit up everywhere feels like such a cool progression. You become more comfortable and less scared, and now you're back on your grind!! The main path is more like a corn maze where all the dead ends had corn for you to eat. I never felt like going off the beaten path just got me random power bomb increases, they could be whole ass optional upgrades. It's nice knowing that no matter how much I cheese out the order, I will never get softlocked. I always think I am, but super metroid has me covered. I eventually learned to leave it all to god's plan and explore without worry. The bosses were so cinematic too, seeming so well balanced that I was always reasonably challenged no matter how much e tanks or super missiles I got. I also wanna talk about the dash in this game, and how much I cheesed with it. The dash, the wall jump, the space jump, I did stuff out of order and I LIKED IT. The charge beam was the last upgrade I got because FUCK YOU THAT'S WHY!!!!!! and tell me how the ending made me emotional despite the fact that no one in this series has spoken a word? I love this game a lot, I'm giving it 5 stars, and I'm gonna play metroid fusion next.

One of the best games ever made, for reasons that everyone has already said, and yet I will repeat anyway.

This game's design just holds up so well. The way it rewards exploration is timeless, and makes the game downright cathartic to revisit. The game somehow manages to give you no guidance while simultaneously avoiding being outright cryptic (with some exceptions which I'll get to) and letting the player figure out solutions for themselves. That is a groundbreaking achievement in exploration-based game design and it's no wonder that this game essentially spawned a genre. When you find a solution in Super Metroid, it truly feels like you earned it, and the game completely understands how good that feeling is. Environmental clues and experimenting with your abilities are the keys to finding your way through (and if not, just use the X-Ray visor), and it is just as satisfying a gameplay loop today as I'm sure it was in 1994. The game is not very lengthy, but it's just long enough that I feel the game gets the most out of its gameplay structure and locations, without going on for so long that it starts getting monotonous. I feel I must stress this game's lack of monotony; each of the game's locations are very distinct from both a visual standpoint and design standpoint. They're all just the right size, with no repeated rooms, and some notable landmarks to help you remember the layout, which is a huge improvement from the first two Metroid games. I also appreciate how the game starts small before opening up. The compact beginning area where you get the morph ball and missiles is a great way to ease new players into the structure of Metroid games before letting them out in the deep end. And of course, this game wouldn't be nearly as fun to play if it didn't have that map.

That's not even mentioning the game's incredible presentation. The visuals are fantastic, with great attention to detail and subtle but impactful visual effects bringing the world of Zebes to life. And of course, the atmosphere is unparalleled. Between the creepy and the serene, every tone is executed perfectly in Zebes' compelling mixture of sci-fi and nature. Gorgeous environments matched with an ambient yet melodic soundtrack really does go far. I love Crateria, the moody rain and damp grassy caves is such an appealing aesthetic to me and it would be recaptured with Prime's equally breathtaking Tallon Overworld. And that moment when you go down the elevator and the energetic upper Brinstar theme gradually fades in is just... wow. It's so subtle but it really feels like the game kicks into gear in that moment. It's a perfect demonstration of how this game excels in atmosphere and tying its audiovisual design with its world design. It's an all-time great moment for me, and this is a game filled with all-time great moments. The opening in the space station is an immediate hook, the previously mentioned beginning area serving as a recreation of certain Metroid 1 rooms is a great bit of continuity (something games of the era almost never had), Ridley's Lair isn't very long but the music and visuals make it feel like the epic last stand that it is, and the story comes full circle with an absolutely legendary final boss and ending that still ranks among the most memorable in any video game. It's mindboggling how cinematic this game feels considering the time it came out, and it does so without speaking a single word outside of the opening!

I don't think this game is a 10/10 though. It just has too many flaws that hold it back. My first issue is the occasional lack of clarity. While the vast majority of this game can be solved with good intuition, there are a few moments in the game that outright require a guide, which is a huge no-no for a game like this. Some stupid moments that come to mind are: that bridge in Brinstar that requires you to run across, breaking the glass tube with a super bomb to enter Maridia, being able to go through lava with the Gravity Suit, and exiting Ridley's Lair through a completely normal looking wall which the X-Ray visor doesn't work on for some godforsaken reason. None of these are ever told or indicated to the player. I thought putting players in a situation where they have absolutely zero way to know what to do without a guide was Zelda's job, not Metroid's! It would also be nice if doors were indicated on the map; I think that's the main quality of life feature this game is missing. Side note, but I also found the Maridia area generally frustrating and unfun to traverse, but it's immediately followed up by Ridley's Lair and that is peak Metroid so I'll forgive it.

My other main criticism is the controls and movement, which I find downright unenjoyable. The jump has too much vertical momentum and not enough horizontal momentum. Pressing L to aim diagonally downwards and R to aim diagonally upwards is archaic. Why is there even a run button? And wall jumps are the biggest offender. You all know what I mean. Screw that one pit. What I'm saying is, if you got MercurySteam to remake this game in Dread's engine, add a few QoL features, and make a few small alterations to the world design, you'd probably have the perfect game. Some food for thought.

Basically, Super Metroid is a masterpiece, a must-play for literally everyone, the single best action game on the SNES, yadda yadda yadda. You get the idea. PLAY IT.

And yes, I saved the animals.

It was interesting starting Super Metroid as someone who's essentially been playing the 2D Metroid games in reverse order. From what I've seen, each Metroid I've played so far has been held in very high regard, but Super Metroid was on another level. Built up as a landmark title and one of the best of all time. I wasn't expecting this to top Fusion or Dread. I'm not usually one to assume that older games in a series are "worse" than newer entries, but based on my experience with the aforementioned games, Dread especially, I predicted that I would think of Super as a great foundation for the Metroidvania genre, but not much more. But now, I don't think any Metroid after this point could ever strive to be as brave as this one.

Super Metroid gives the player almost no direction, not telling you where to go at almost every point. It really just says, "The Space Pirates have stolen the last Metroid. Go get it back", and then leaving the player to their own devices. This was seen as an issue by many and was changed in later games. While this did make the series more accessible, I've realised that it took away some of the magic from this game. Don't get me wrong; this doesn't make the later games bad at all (Fusion especially uses this to its advantage in the narrative). They're great games. But the core appeal of Metroid is the feeling of growth. To go from a common soldier with a pitiful arsenal to an absolute powerhouse. Super Metroid does this the best because, shockingly, the issues other people have with it, to me, are the same ways it rises above its sequels.

Yes, the controls are awkward at first. But this enforces the feeling of growth because, by the end, you've mastered them, and you think nothing of controlling Samus because it's just natural.

Yes, the game often requires you to shoot at walls with no indication that they'll open the path you need to take. But this enforces the feeling of growth because it makes you feel like you're carving out a path for yourself. In real life, the way forward is never going to be clear. You need to find it yourself.

Yes, the game gives you no direction. But this makes the journey truly your own.

These "issues" make this game feel much more interesting to me. Getting to tear through areas and bosses with new power-ups has always been a strong point of Metroid, but Super pulls it off the best. Finding an upgrade in Super Metroid is way more satisfying than almost any other video game because it truly feels like I found it myself. I got stronger. This also helps better define Samus as a character in the later games: Someone who lost everything but rose back up and found her own strength.

I don't know. Am I wrong for liking what others see as archaic design choices just because I feel they suit the game better? Maybe. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe not having these "issues" would make the game better. Maybe a remake of this game with Dread-style movement and QOL changes would be the best game ever made. Maybe. But I don't think it would have as big of a legacy as it does now.

You know what? This isn’t just Super Metroid. This is Superb Metroid!

Despite having played several other metroidvanias in the past, I never actually tried to delve into one of the franchises that gave name to the genre, mostly because at the time I had a general avoidance of older games due to thinking they could have “aged poorly”…

But here’s the kicker! That past version of me from 2021/2022? HE IS FUCKING GONE (for the most part)! And it’s about time I came back to a genre that I was obsessed with in the past in some capacity, by going all the way back to the game that started it all!

The NES, short for Nintendo Entertainment System, is a video game console that, while I admire it, I don’t really like the idea of going all the way back to actually playing those games more than theorizing about them, the biggest reason is that for some of the more well known titles in the NES, looking back at them with the power of hindsight, though not as obvious as it is with franchises like Ultima, most of them just planted the seeds for what would grow into full blown trees with later entries, some of them ended up growing fast enough that they are still fairly solid like Castlevania and Super Mario Bros, but for others like Final Fantasy or Metroid… Yeah, I’ll pass.

And speaking of Metroid, its seed would eventually grow, but only in the NES’s successor for the next generation, the Super Nintendo, however, the seed that had grown into a small sprout with Metroid 2 on the Game Boy, would very suddenly grow into a Big Fucking Gun Tree, one so big that several people would eventually try their hands at getting as many fruits from there as humanly possible in a short amount of time, memorizing everything about the tree and finding out the most effective way to get through each branch and collect the most fruits as fast as they could, and to this day people still try their hands at such task, AKA speedrunning. But if that wasn’t enough, that tree would go on to inspire many, many other gardeners (or developers) to try and plant trees inspired by that one, even creating an entire genre (alongside Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) called Metroidvania. And yet, even if we try to ignore this game’s long-lasting cultural impact within gaming, this is still one of the medium’s finest touchstone classics.

But what makes Super Metroid so compelling in the first place? Well, there are many reasons for why, and by many, I do mean it.

Crateria: A Strong Introduction

As soon as Samus touch its foot on Zebes for the second first time, the game immediately manages to instill both a sense of curiosity and fear on the player, curiosity as it makes the player hooked and eager to explore this wonderful “new” planet, touching on the human desire to explore new worlds, and fear as the place seems completely empty of any life, as a foreboding track plays in the background, further accentuating the feeling of exploring the ruins of a desolate planet completely unknown to the player, not helped by the fact Samus just escaped from Ridley invading a research station to steal the Baby Metroid there, so on top of that there’s a sense of something lurking around in the shadows, waiting for your presence to then attack you. That’s until you get the Morph Ball where the first game ended, and something like that does in fact happen, and what was once ridded from life is now filled to the Brinstar brim with enemies ready to kill anything potentially invading Zebes.

Super Metroid nailed the introduction so hard it could probably pierce through marble pillars, not only by introducing some of the fundamental aspects of the core gameplay loop to the player, but also by excellently establishing Zebes as a setting in every way imaginable, but especially gameplay and presentation. And speaking of the latter…

Brinstar: A Phenomenal Presentation and Atmosphere

As it can be noticed in the first ten minutes of the game, the presentation is amazing!

First of all, this is one of the most visually impressive in the SNES, and that’s saying a lot. The graphical leap of the Super Nintendo, going from a 8-bit to a 16-bit console, really allowed the developers to bring Edson Samus Arantes, Zebes and its denizens to full life here, with the colorful yet dimly lit colors giving an extra edge to Samus and especially to the enemies, Ridley and Mother Brain especially look even more alien and menacing than ever, and every area standout from one another due to their unique environmental detail along with their stark color palette, there’s a reason why most renditions of Metroid’s most iconic characters, both within and outwith the franchise itself, use their Super renditions as their main source of inspiration for their look. And soundwise it’s also great, having a mix of eerily ambient tunes to accompany this game’s most atmospheric moments and catchy upbeat songs that complement this game’s more action-focused moments while keeping the player going forward.

All of this combined makes for one hell of an atmosphere, one of feeling alone in a stranded alien planet while everything in there tries to murder you, and that’s what draws us into exploring those alien worlds, isn’t it? The idea of exploring worlds that would seem impossible to do otherwise in real life, ones that seem completely out of the ordinary, and then trying to get as much out of exploring it as possible, whether by understanding the inner workings of there or simply gathering every possible loot you can get…

Norfair: A Powerhouse of Mobility and Murder

But normal human beings can’t feasibly traverse the entirety of Earth itself, let alone a planet as dangerous as Zebes, they would probably die in one way or another.

Don’t worry, Samus Aran got you covered, and with some damn fine movement at that. Since we are talking about one of the games that established the Metroidvania, you slowly unlock Samus’s true power instead of immediately getting everything right off the bat, and with every major upgrade unlocked, it opens up a slew of new possibilities for you to go through every crevice of Zebes, and by the time you reach Mother Brain, you will have become a invincible god. There is one ability though that is available from the start that can fundamentally change the way you approach the entire game:

The Wall Jump

Where as in other games from the time like Mega Man X the wall jump is as simple as pressing the jump button against a wall repeatedly to climb up that wall, in Super Metroid that requires mastery, as you must be spin jumping against a wall and then go to the opposite direction of that wall and press the jump button WITH THE RIGHT TIMING! It’s incredibly satisfying to master the usage of wall jump, as it allows for the player to sequence break through levels that not only accommodate, but even encourage learning how to properly use the wall jump. And that’s not even the only hidden movement tech in the game either, there is also the Shine Spark which allows you to jump insane heights as long as you get enough momentum to use the speed booster.

And speaking of the upgrades themselves, they are all really fun to use in their own right. As I mentioned in the first paragraph of this section, they all open up new possibilities for uncovering secret upgrades in incredibly rewarding ways, but aside from that, a lot of upgrades make traversing the map incredibly fun as well, as you can just blast through every area at a quick pace to make backtracking engaging, with notable ones being the aforementioned Speed Booster which allows you to run at a insane speed as long as you gather enough momentum through running in a large straight line, and the grappling hook which, when latched onto specific blocks, will allow Samus to launch herself from larger gaps.

All of this lends for some of metroidvania’s, heck, even some of 2D platformers’s finest controls and movement ever seen, movement which many metroidvanias still haven’t quite matched. But here’s the kicker…

Maridia: An Incredible World and Level Design Chock Full of Secrets

You can’t simply make a game with controls as good as these without putting them to good use, don’t get me wrong, you can literally do that, but that would make it a pretty lackluster experience, wouldn’t it (isn’t that right Jedi Academy)? Here’s where I finally talk about the elephant in the room:

The level design

It has some of the most intricate level design ever seen. It manages to be both linear and open-ended at the same time, never feeling too confusing and always being pretty clear where to go but also open enough to encourage you to explore it to its fullest, and damn there is a lot to unpack here, there are a ton of hidden collectables, and by ton I mean so many that by the time I had beaten the game, I hadn’t even got 60% of progress in the game, and it was still fun as hell to find out all the upgrades I did find, since the game forces the player to fully learn how to best use every upgrade and movement tech and will make many concessions to the 100% Nutcases who want to get the most out of exploring Zebes.

Now about that “linear and open-ended at the same time” stuff, despite how big its levels are in comparison to any contemporary released at the time, the game still manages to communicate to the player where to go really well, not only in how the game generally teases you on what's to come with all the gateways (literal or figurative) locked behind different upgrades, but also in how the pathways are always cleverly designed in a way that the player still ends up knowing where to go but becomes willing to engage with what’s outside the main path towards the next major boss/upgrade, and even when you need to use a bomb to progress through, it’s often fairly logical where you need to use the bomb, all of that without ever explicitly telling you where to go (unlike some other titles in the same franchise).

Actually, I was going to reach the ultimate conclusion here but…

Wrecked Ship: A Interactive Painting Disguised as a Game

The reality is that thinking about Super Metroid started to slowly lead into a path that at first I wasn’t willing to consider talking about at all, but now I just cannot stop but think about this:

What separates video games from mediums like cinema, literature and music?

The most obvious answer would be how a video game actively forced the viewer to engage with the work in a tactile level, and thus not only absorbing its sights and sounds, but also participating in the game world in some form or capacity, and a game will have roadblocks that will test the player both physically and mentally. What I think best describes video games as a medium though is that the developer is essentially a painter, the game itself is one big painting carefully made so that it portrays everything they want to portray in there, while leaving enough space for the viewer to play the role of a different painter trying to find new ways to fill in the blanks both literally, drawing new things and leaving those paintings marked with your own ideas, or figuratively, soaking up what’s already there and trying to find meaning to it.

What does all of this have to do with Super Metroid though? Well, the artistry in the game lies on how its world is structured, if you just look at it you can beat the game just fine, but the real deal is in trying to understand the inner workings of what’s present in that painting, or, to put it better, trying to get the most out of exploring every crevice in the game to then reach an ultimate conclusion to what’s actually there, and that also seeps into another major aspect of this game, its visual “storytelling”, where nothing outside of the opening cutscene is explicitly told to you, and because of that, this lends an extra layer of mystery to planet Zebes, as even after leaving it, it’s still unclear how the alien lifeforms found there actually behave, and then there’s also a sense of loneliness whenever exploring the planet as Samus doesn’t speak, and neither does the enemies as they are too busy trying to murder you, and then you get to Tourian and it’s probably, in my personal opinion, one of the most disquieting moments I’ve ever seen in any Super Nintendo game outside of Earthbound, as Samus trudge through the mechanical lair of Mother Brain, and hears a unfathomably alien ambient song, and as you think she is destroyed, she brings her true form to life, an demonically terrifying amalgamation of flesh and steel.

Tourian: A Definitive Conclusion

Super Metroid is one of the best and most influential games of all time, that should be obvious by now, but the reality is that not many games have even attempted to replicate most of what makes it such a iconic game in the first place, even other titles in the same franchise couldn’t quite capture what made Super Metroid the SUPER Metroid, and even after the release of so many great metroidvanias like Guacamelee 2 and Yoku’s Island Express, games that brought their own new spin to the genre by focusing on a amazing and varied combat system or even completely redefining how we traverse worlds in metroidvanias, this one is still one of the very best, I mean, there’s a reason why people have done so many speedruns of this game (and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night).

And if you somehow still haven’t played this, why are you slacking off from playing it?

1994
A cry rings out. The room is engulfed in darkness, with just enough light to see the outline of a corspe as the camera pans over machinery.
NINTENDO PRESENTS
As more of the room is revealed, the music intensifies and grows louder as that same cry is heard again. We can see computers and the dead bodies of scientists on the floor.
METROID 3
The source of the cry is finally identified: a single baby Metroid, stuck in a test tube. We zoom out to see the entire room, while the music beeps louder and louder. Finally, we hear a somber, yet familiar tune, as the title fades in.
SUPER METROID

This intro alone is enough to tell you that this game means business. It is such an improvement from Metroid II that it's almost unbelievable. I'm not going to bury the lead here, Super Metroid is one of the best games ever made. It is perfect in every regard and basically flawless. every positive thing you've heard about it are true. it is an absolute monolith of game design in every sense. from the story, to the art direction, to the atmosphere, the gameplay, the level design, the music, it is absolutely fantastic.

I'm honestly kind of stumped because, what do you want me to say? it's Super god damn Metroid! everyone and their mother has already sung their praises of this game, justifiably so. do you need to tell me that the movement is impeccable, that the power-ups are all amazing and satisfying to use, that the progression really makes you feel grow more and more powerful until you become unstoppable, how the game is challenging yet never unfair, how the world is a joy to explore and feels like a real place while giving you the freedom to choose how you advance, how the soundtrack is fucking incredible, how the graphics are absolutely gorgeous yet never once slowed down, how fun the bosses are to fight, how satisfying it is to find out a secret after you followed your intuition, how cool it is to sequence break even by a tiny amount, how the game actually freaked out a couple of times and genuinely jumpscared me once?

there's a reason Super Metroid is cited as a pillar of the metroidvania genre, because every single game in the same vein has been trying to replicate it, with the single exception being Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I'm not really one to oppose differing game opinions, even if they go against the majority, but if you wanna start talking shit about Super Metroid you better have some air tight arguments because you're going up against one of the greatest, most focused, well-designed and polished games to ever exist.

While it hadn’t gotten as much love as other Nintendo franchises at this point, like with Mario, Zelda, Kirby, and others, the Metroid series was still considered to be one of their big IPs at the time, and had a bit of a reputation at that point. The original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus, despite not reaching the same level of quality as future titles in the series, were still good games in their own right, and were a pretty good launch point for this series as a whole. Not to mention, they were pretty successful, selling 2.7 million copies and 1.7 million copies respectively, so naturally, a sequel was going to be made… but not right away. There would be somewhat of a gap in between releases, primarily because the devs were waiting for just the right time, the perfect time, to bring Samus back into the limelight once again. This perfect time would come in 1994, and with the help of Intelligent Systems, who had developed plenty of games with Nintendo before (including the original Metroid), they would then release the long-awaited next chapter in the Metroid saga, Super Metroid.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t go onto sell as well as its predecessors, but it would go onto garner universal praise from fans, die-hard or otherwise, and critics alike, with it now considered to be not only one of, if not THE best Metroid game of all time, but also one of the greatest video games ever made. Many have sung its praises over the years in many ways, it would get plenty of mods later down the road supporting replayability, it would become a favorite amongst speedrunners, and it would help go onto establishing an entire sub-genre of video games as a whole. As for myself though, I wouldn’t jump onto the Super Metroid bandwagon for quite some time, despite watching plenty of videos about it that would praise the game and go into great detail about why it was considered a masterpiece. When I eventually did decide to give the game a fair shot, I immediately understood why, as it is an incredible game, and absolutely deserves the reputation it has garnered over the years. While it may not be my personal favorite Metroid game, it is clear when playing the game that the devs put plenty of love, detail, and care into this game, making it one of the best games you could ever play not only from this era, but from any era.

The story continues on from where Metroid II ended off, where Samus Aran, now with a baby Metroid in her possession, brings it to a team of scientists at the Ceres research station to conduct further study on the specimen, but shortly after she leaves, the station is attacked by Ridley, back in the flesh after his defeat in the original game, killing everyone inside and stealing the baby Metroid, and fleeing back to the planet Zebes, so it is up to Samus to travel to Zebes once again, get back the baby Metroid, and uncover what is really going on here. It is a fairly simple premise, one that is easy to understand for new players, but also complex enough to create intrigue for those that are wanting to learn more about this game and its universe, making it very pleasing to experience and ponder about.

The graphics are absolutely phenomenal, not only bringing Samus to the 16-bit era in the perfect way, but also creating plenty of iconic locations, enemy designs, and atmosphere that still holds up tremendously well almost 30 years later, the music is wonderful, creating a perfect balance of being moody, setting the tone for many of the environments you travel in, yet still being filled with plenty of life, while also being tense and action–packed when it needs to, the control is perfect, feeling like the perfect evolution for how Samus should control in one of these games, while giving plenty of new things to mess around with right from the get-go that give you more versatility than ever, and the gameplay is pretty similar to the last two titles in the series, but now it has been made to be a lot more exciting, approachable, and memorable.

The game is a 2D action-adventure game, where you take control of Samus Aran once again, go through the depths of the planet Zebes once again, this time with much more detail, life, and secrets to find, defeat plenty of creatures, big or small, that inhabit the planet and want you dead as you go deeper and deeper into the planet, gather plenty of upgrades to Samus’s arsenal to make her into the ultimate warrior, such as with health upgrades, beam power ups, or regular power ups that give you new abilities, and take on plenty of bosses, both new and old, that will provide a challenge to those unprepared for what is to come. It has all the same elements that the previous two games had, not really introducing anything that majorly different for the series at the time, but there is one thing that it does manage to do above all else: perfect the formula.

As I mentioned earlier, Samus is now more capable then she has ever been before, not only having the same basic abilities and powers that she could get from the previous game, but she is now also able to aim in eight separate directions, she can crouch, and she even now has a wall jump, where you can continuously scale up a wall if you press the right sequence of buttons, allowing you to ultimately make the game YOUR BITCH. It is the perfect way to naturally evolve not just Samus and her capabilities, but also how the game plays, because when compared to the original game and Metroid II, this is just perfect in every way. Not only that, but the arsenal of weapons that she can acquire throughout the game is just as helpful as before, with classics like the Missiles, the Morph Ball, the Hi-Jump boots, the Screw Attack, and the various beam powers making a return, and each of them are incredibly helpful in plenty of situations.

Not only that, but there is also a good amount of new power ups for you to mess around with in the game as you go about finding them. There’s the Speed Booster, which allows Samus to run extremely fast and make her an unstoppable bullet train, the Shine Spark, which allows you to fire yourself through hard structures while using the Speed Booster, the Grapple Beam, which can be used to latch onto certain surfaces and swing around all over the place to reach new areas or more goodies, and the X-Ray Scope, which allows you to scan nearby areas to see if you can find any hidden passageways, power ups, or otherwise. Most of these new additions would become staples in the series in the coming years, and all of them are extremely useful and wonderful to test out in plenty of locations… with the exception of the X-Ray Scope, which I barely used at all, but hey, it is there for newcomers, so that is good.

And speaking of newcomers, like I mentioned before, this game is much more approachable when compared to the previous two titles, not just in terms of what it provides the player, but also in terms of design. In the first two Metroid games, there was always the possibility of getting lost or confused while traveling through these corridors, because not only did you not have any way to track where you were in the game, but also because a lot of the hallways look almost identical to each other, meaning you could think you are in a whole new area, but instead are stuck back-tracking when you didn’t want to so that.

Thankfully, with Super Metroid, not only do you now have a map which can track where you have been, making it a lot easier to decide where you want to go next, but every single area in the game, big or small, now has a distinct look and design to it, making it so that you will always have new things to discover, and even if you haven’t fully explored one area due to a lack of tools needed to do so, you can always find your way back in order to do so later. With that being said though, even though you do have a map, it doesn’t automatically point out every single thing to you, encouraging you to explore around more and see where more items and secrets can be hidden, which is always a great thing to have when it comes to any video game.

One last admirable quality about Super Metroid that I really admire, especially when it comes to video games of this era, is in terms of its storytelling. Most games around this time either don’t give you too much story at all, or they are all saved for cutscenes and the instruction manual, which is fine on its own, but it doesn’t give you much opportunity to really connect with the game’s world as a whole. Super Metroid, however, manages to do this flawlessly, starting off with an intro sequence that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, or about what happened in the previous two games, but they tell you enough to where you get ready to go and want to learn more. Even when you land on the planet of Zebes, you can tell that it’s gone through plenty of changes, with the first areas looking all desolate and destroyed, no doubt a result of your actions from the original game. However, after you get the Morph Ball, this beam of light shines on you from the corner of the room, and suddenly, all kinds of baddies are up and at 'em, ready to take you down, which is a really nice detail.

Everything else remains relatively normal and simple from there on out, until you end up fighting Ridley, where after you defeat him, you end up finding the capsule that the baby Metroid was sealed in… but it is now shattered, and the baby Metroid is gone. You have no clue what could’ve happened, so you end up going about the rest of your business, getting more items, fighting more guys, and breaking the game to your heart’s content, until you reach the final area of the game, where you descend down further into the core of Zebes, and that’s when the final events of the game start to kick off. Oh, and by the way, spoilers for the final act of the game are coming up, so if you haven’t played or seen through that part of the game yet (even though you have had 30 years to do so), then just skip to the final paragraph of the review.

As you enter this area, you notice that it is surprisingly… quiet. There isn’t that much going in with the environment, and the only enemies that you find in this place are Metroids and those weird ring things that shoot out from the walls. Eventually, you find more enemies later on, but they appear to be… drained of their life, disintegrating upon contact, leading you to suspect that something weird is going on here. You then find another one of these enemies, alive and well, seemingly impossible to kill as you try every single weapon on it, but nothing works. Before you can think of what to do next, all of a sudden, this GIGANTIC Metroid comes out of NOWHERE, and latches itself onto that creature, draining it of its energy, and probably scaring the shit out of whoever is playing the game at that point.

After it finishes off this creature, it then heads straight for you, starting to completely drain you of all your energy as well, with you being able to do anything about it, as you fidget around in an utter panic. However, before your health bar drops to zero, all of a sudden… it stops. It stops draining your health, and it detaches itself from you, letting out some cries, until ultimately fleeing the scene. It is then you realize that this giant Metroid that almost killed you was the baby Metroid that you got from SR388, and it had one HUGE growth spurt, but even after becoming the ruthless killer that all Metroids naturally are, it still cares deeply about Samus, and wishes to bring no more harm to her.

Once that is all over with, you once again go through the game like normal, finally reaching Mother Brain, back once again from the original game, right alongside a fight that seems like it was ripped straight from that game, with you needing to defeat her in the exact same way. However, when it seems like she is destroyed, she then rises up from her defeat once again, now rocking this brand new body. Naturally, you start to throw everything at her, but it doesn’t seem like anything is really doing all that much to her, as she fights back and then starts to charge up something. This then leads to her firing this gigantic rainbow laser beam of death at you several times, which not only starts draining away all of your health like crazy, but it also takes away all of your missiles and bombs too!

At this point, you are now stuck, unable to move, and getting continuously beat up by Mother Brain, wondering how the hell you are going to get out of this one. However, before Mother Brain can land the final blow with one more laser beam attack, the full-grown baby Metroid then suddenly barges in and starts draining Mother Brain of all her energy, causing her to start to stagger and cry out in a panic, until she is left petrified for a brief moment. The Metroid then goes towards you, latching onto you once again, but instead of draining your health again, it then starts to… heal you? No clue how the hell they are supposed to be doing that, but at this point, you’ll take it. But then, while the Metroid is starting to heal you, Mother Brain gets back up.

It then starts to fully attack the Metroid non-stop, causing it to grow weaker and changing to a much weaker shade of purple and yellow, until the Metroid then unlatches itself from you, and then goes in for one final attack. Unfortunately though, before it can land that final blow, Mother Brain gets the upper hand, killing the Metroid, and causing it to explode into dust. You may not have known him for long, but you are probably feeling pretty saddened and angry about Mother Brain killing your baby, but fear not, because from the ashes of the Metroid, you gain one final upgrade to your beam that is capable of killing Mother Brain: the Hyper Beam.

You then unload plenty of shots from your own rainbow laser, right into Mother Brain’s dumbass face, until it ultimately crumbles to the ground, ending your mission, and leading you to quickly escaping from the planet. This entire sequence of events, from where you find the destroyed capsule all the way up to when you kill Mother Brain, is executed flawlessly. It is such a simple sequence of events, but they are presented to the player so naturally, without any real pauses in the gameplay, allowing you to fully get absorbed in these moments, which make them all the more surprising, jarring, heart-breaking, and satisfying. Of course, you probably already knew about all this, and you may not think it is such a big deal, as did I when I went into this game, but even when I knew all of what was going to happen, it still made it so that those emotions were rushing through me by the end, and if a game manages to do that even when you already knew it was coming, then that deserves only the highest regards.

Overall, while it still isn’t my favorite game in the entire series, or even my favorite 2D Metroid for that matter, I can’t help but fully admit that Super Metroid, on its own, is almost completely flawless, giving a natural evolution for this series that excels it to new heights, and providing so much fun throughout all that it offers, whether it be through gameplay, presentation, story, or otherwise. I absolutely recommend it for anyone, those who are big fans of the Metroid series, or if you are someone that is wanting to get into the series yourself, because it is not only a perfect starting point for newcomers, but also a title that has held up masterfully after all this time, and it is clear why it is still so prevalent in plenty of gaming communities to this day. Although, I will say one thing, for those of you who are planning on playing this at some point… make sure to save the aliens. You may not know what I am talking about, but trust me, you will want to remember that, so that you won’t get shunned by your peers for doing something wrong.

Game #492

Veredito: Muito, mas MUITO melhor do que eu lembrava.

Super Metroid é um dos muitos jogos 16-bit que emulei infinitas vezes na pré-adolescência, mas nunca zerei porque ele nunca me fisgou a esse ponto. Sempre achei ele... bom. Decente, mas não passava disso. Essa opinião se firmou ainda mais quando anos depois joguei metroidvanias que considero infinitamente melhores, como Hollow Knight e o próprio Metroid Prime. Enfim, joguinho legal, mas nem de longe tudo isso que os fãs falavam, e certamente não bom o bastante pro CDX pré-adolescente se dedicar a zerar.

ONDE EU ESTAVA COM A CABEÇA?????

Super Metroid é muito, muito, MUITO FODA!

É verdade que ele ainda não supera Metroid Prime ou Hollow Knight pra mim, mas isso é igual dizer que qualquer doce muito bem feito não supera sorvete. Não passa de uma comparação redundante e óbvia que não faz nenhuma jus à qualidade do produto em questão.

Super Metroid é sólido. Mas assim, muito sólido MESMO. Sólido para um senhor caralho. Cada mínimo detalhe dele com certeza foi pensado, repensado e refinado até a medula pelos devs.

Combate? Impecável.
Exploração? Impecável.
Progressão da personagem? Impecabilíssima.
Atmosfera? PUTA QUE PARIU IMPECÁVEL PRA CACETE!!!

Cara, só joga. Confia no pai aqui. Joga essa porra logo e não discute.

Finished playing super metroid.
Another amazing game finished in 2024. Super metroid along with Castlevania symphony of the night are the most influential games for the metroidvania genre. So far this is my favourite metroid game and it definitely lives up to the hype.You play as Samus and you explore the planet zebes to find the stolen metroid creature. The progression and world design are without a doubt excellent, as you explore zebes you will find various power ups such as the gravity suit and the morph ball which will give you access to areas that weren't accessible before. The combat is simple but still very enjoyable and the graphics and soundtrack are awesome. Not knowing where to go and the backtracking are usually expected in a metroidvania but an issue i had with the game is that all boss fights are kinda meh, their not the worst boss fights ever but their really nothing special, they are ok at best. By the way am i the only person who had 0 issues with the controls? Anyways i would give super metroid a strong 9/10

Sure, there are aspects of Zero Mission I'd take ever so slightly over their Super counterparts, namely slight tweaks to the control scheme's shortcuts and some basic quality-of-life updates to the map system... but man, even if I've called Zero Mission my favorite Metroid for a long time there really is just no topping Super on most other levels this series operates on.

The soundtrack is one of the most impressive aspects of this game - it may not be the first game to do ambient and almost new age-ish music the way it does, but Super Metroid has such a distinct sound within the Super Nintendo's library that it's beyond impressive. Tracks like "Upper Brinstar", "Maridia - Swamp Caverns". and "Tourian" are pretty singular within the realm of 16-bit music, and you'd need to look to something like EarthBound to find sounds operating on the same level of experimentation within the console's library.

These sounds compliment a well-established atmosphere that's been discussed to death elsewhere, but for good reason. Super Metroid often toes the line from adventure game into action-thriller, and even horror thanks to its mood, colors, sprite artwork, and direction. One of the best things Super Metroid does with its color language is break its own rules, and early on: where much of the game paints Planet Zebes in naturalistic greens, browns, reds and greys, some of the areas depicted that the player should recognize on cue from the original Metroid title retain their spacey blues and blacks. Mother Brain's lair is kept more or less intact from its 8-bit depiction. Indeed, this leans into the minimal but effective story too - you really don't get the full weight of Super Metroid and all the impressions it sets to leave without the full trilogy under your belt.

Samus' arsenal is at some of its most balanced and effective here. The endgame combo of upgrades feels really fun to use, also I do feel the Screw Attack saw better and less finnicky days down the line on the Game Boy Advance. I'm actually a big fan of the X-ray Scope, except for the few times it doesn't work consistently - a few fake walls in Tourian spring to mind.

Still, for a trailblazer like Super Metroid, it would be excusable should time have worn down its gold sheen into ragged glory, but this isn't the case. I'm not the first nor the hundredth to tell you this, but this game remains one of the all-time greats. The small nitpicks I have here would be more or less cleaned up by the time Fusion and Zero Mission come around, and it should speak to how minimal these complaints are that even after having just replayed the game with my best friend, I'm already getting the itch to land down on Planet Zebes again.

Meus caros, antes de tudo: RESPEITO!

Vocês estão frente à grande matriarca dos metroidvanias! Aquela que se tornou um marco na história dos jogos por, não criar, mas aperfeiçoar um estilo com tanto primor que fez com que este se elevasse dos confins do desconhecimento até o nível de um imponente sol cuja luz de infinitas possibilidades abençoa o universo dos jogos até hoje.

ENTÃO MACETEM ESSE "F" PARA PAGAR O DEVIDO RESPEITO À ELA, PQ ELA MERECE!!!!

Agora, com o devido respeito dado, podemos começar a falar dessa pérola!

Super Metroid, meus amigos! QUE JOGO!!!
Essa série fez com jogos Side Scrolling o que The Legend of Zelda fez com jogos isométricos, que é um total remodelamento e adaptação do estilo com base na exploração.

Para os que não sabem, em resumo, Metroidvanias são jogos com um único mapa gigantesco (que pode ser fragmentado em áreas), mas que você não consegue explorar direito devido à limitações no seu personagem. O objetivo do jogo é explorar o mapa, seguindo por onde você consegue ir, para encontrar upgrades que não apenas te deixam mais forte como vão te permitir explorar novas áreas desse mapa que você não conseguia acessar antes. Dessa forma você vai abrindo o mapa até finalmente conseguir chegar no lugar onde está o boss final e terminar o jogo.
Parece algo simples, em teoria, mas esse estilo de progressão não apenas é extremamente complicado de fazer como é extremamente divertido de se jogar.

Metroid (o original) e Metroid 2 também tinham esse estilo, porém foi Super Metroid que fez a coisa brilhar de fato!
Foi ele que entregou um mapa colossal que, em pouco tempo de gameplay, se abria em diversas possibilidades, com uma liberdade de exploração indescritível, repleta de cenários fantásticos, com artes e ambientação impecáveis, músicas incríveis, inimigos bizarros diversos e chefes medonhos memoráveis. Tudo isso misturado à upgrades hypantes e inúmeros segredos (áreas secretas e upgrades secretos) perdidos aqui e alí que induziam uma curiosidade e desejo sem fim de continuar explorando.
Não é a toa que esse jogo é uma obra-prima!

Então, acredite, se você gosta do gênero Metroidvania e/ou gosta de exploração, confie em mim, você DEVE JOGAR SUPER METROID! Sério, jogue! Você vai me agradecer por isso depois!

E mais uma vez um grandioso "F" em respeito à grande mãe dos Metroidvanias!

Excelente jogo.
Tem o level-design mais CABULOSO que já experienciei. Juntando isso com a atmosfera muito imersiva, a progressão extremamente satisfatória e as ótimas boss-battles, resultam num jogasso da Nintendo.
Parabéns aos desenvolvedores.

O único defeito dele é ter partes muito confusas, por não ter um indicador de onde ir; forçando muito o uso de guias externos. (Ao mesmo tempo que isso é ruim, agrega muito ao fator replay)

This was my introduction to the the great and holy video game genre that is the Metroidvania. It was truly an eye-opening experience; how could I have not known about a genre so divine for so long? I shall now make my formal apology to the Metroidvania genre for my years of ignorance of its qualities, such as its maps, its abilities, and its secrets. From now on, my heart is truly devoted to the Metroidvania genre and all the amazing games it has given us.

(im joking but this is an amazing game and it did introduce me to metroidvanias)

NOTA: 8,25

Simplesmente fabuloso, a excelência de Super Metroid é nítida e conseguiu em 1994, elevar ainda mais a qualidade na transição do Nes ao Snes, com uma pixel art fantástica, trilha sonora que caracteriza a ambientação e uma gameplay desafiadora sem dúvidas.

Quando se pensa na franquia, eu diria que esse game é a cara dela, a exploração que ele exige é extensa, a jogabilidade é tão boa que não só jogos metroidvanias utilizam como a própria franquia sempre tem essa mesma identidade que Super Metroid desenvolveu.

Falando sobre jogabilidade, com a exploração como chave e a ação em segundo lugar, Metroid representa quase que um gênero nichado de jogo, fora a dificuldade que pode variar dependendo do nível de interesse/ Imersão e descoberta do player, muito do progresso principal de Super Metroid também é dependente de prestar atenção em tudo à sua volta e apurar cada skill obtida no momento, o que pode de fato afastar players ou fazer com que se apele à um guia, o que eu não acho nada errado, desde que não estrague a experiência por completo.

Sobre sua dificuldade e gameplay geral, os trechos de plataforma também são bem presentes e a fisica do game não é tão fácil de lidar, é um pouco imprecisa. Alguns inimigos e chefes tem movimentações bem rápidas o que exige bastante reflexo também e a troca entre os mísseis e outros elementos é muito limitada e dificulta um pouco quando é necessário usar algo específico para abrir portas ou acertar inimigos.

Por fim, acho que o game tem ótimos chefes onde é preciso entender um pouco suas mecânicas e tem bastante save points, por outro lado, acho que eles poderiam ser menos porém dar de volta refill de vida/mísseis já que mau existe no jogo e as vezes é preciso consegui-los na base de farm dos inimigos.

Concluindo, minha experiência com esse game e sotn de fato definiu o porque gosto de side scrollers e principalmente metroidvanias, como o foco do castlevania é mais na ação, acaba que prefiro ele, mas sem dúvidas Metroid vem logo atrás também devido às suas experiências em 3D que a Nintendo soube fazer transições fantásticas. Recomendo muito!

It’s 1996… 4 year old me can barely even play Super Mario World to a competent level, never mind a deep, complex game like Super Metroid. 1 or 2 hours was enough to get me to a point where I didn’t know where to go, so I would drop it.

Returning to this game nearly 30 years later, and I know see why it is considered a revolutionary masterpiece.

Stacking it up against games of the time and nothing comes close to how it looks, plays and feels.

The opening atmosphere, the game does an excellent job of making the player feel lonely and creating a desolate world. And the atmosphere through the game is top notch.

The sound. The shooting of the beam, the jumping and spinning sound, the music, the alarm sounds. Everything is on point and feeds the atmosphere, similar to the first Alien film.

The gameplay and power ups. Again, revolutionary for its time. Traversing the world is so much fun when you start to unlock some of the power ups.

The story. I had the benefit of having played Metroid: Zero Mission before this, so knew a little bit about what was going on. A simple story but a very effective one.

The outrageous, amazing ending. I loved it. So unexpected and exciting.

I couldn’t give it a rest. Super Metroid is one of those games where you just have to keep playing and want to find out what’s around the next corner. I didn’t even think about any other game whilst playing this.

I just can’t give it a 10. Mainly due to the confusion and the time it took me to figure out where to go at the end. This game does not hold your hand. And I know this is meant to add to the mystery of the world building and is meant to make the player carve his own path. But I just wish it gave you even a slight hint of what to do next. Near the end, when the paths become much more complicated, I felt a little frustrated at times. But it was satisfying when I did manage to carve a path. A minor gripe.

Overall, I’m so glad I have now experience this game in full. And I know see why people consider it a masterpiece.

”The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy… is at peace.”

Boy, the Federation sure has a bad habit of just straight-up lying to Samus, huh?

Anyways, what can I say about Super Metroid that hasn’t already been said thousands of times before? The game is a masterpiece, one of the greatest in its medium, and a near-perfect sci-fi adventure that stands tall even amongst giants like Star Wars, Star Trek, or the works of H.G. Wells, Ridley Scott, and John Carpenter.

Now, while Super Metroid is undoubtedly a masterpiece, is it completely perfect? No, of course not; no game is. The Grapple Beam is a bit finicky to control, there’s this one really useful secret exit in Norfair that just doesn’t register on the X-Ray Beam for some reason, and I flat-out don’t like the Phantoon boss fight. But aside from those blemishes, the game is practically flawless (plus, once you get used to the Grapple Beam, you can fling yourself across the screen like a certain web-slinging menace).

While I definitely prefer the controls from Fusion onward, there’s something so… freeing about Samus’ more floaty jump physics in this game. When paired with run button, the Speed Booster, and the wall kicks, Samus’ moveset can practically break this game’s progression in half. In this particular playthrough, I used all of those abilities to cut corners and access areas early (mainly Kraid’s lair), which led to me shaving off a whopping TWO HOURS from my original save file. The best part? It’s pretty much impossible to soft lock yourself in this game. If you can get somewhere out of the intended order, there will always be a way back.

On that note, that’s a big part of what makes Planet Zebes such a masterclass in world design. The game always subtly guides you in the right direction, but never grips your hand too tightly or punishes you for exploring. The environments are all remarkably distinct. You’ve got Crateria, which is basically just a shrunken version of the first game’s world; Brinstar, a lush, green cave system with music that screams “adventure”; Norfair, the hellish, foreboding home of Ridley; the Wrecked Ship, the haunted remains of a spacecraft shrouded in darkness; Maridia, a treacherous aquatic region filled with quicksand and powerful enemies; and finally, Tourian, Mother Brain’s base of operations, where she continues to experiment on and cultivate the Metroids for her nefarious goals. These distinctive, well-designed regions are precisely what make Super Metroid such a timeless classic.

The story is minimal, but what’s there is well-conveyed and highly impactful. Despite the complete lack of dialogue after the opening cutscene, the characters are all easy to understand based on their actions. Samus, despite being a mercenary who mainly does heroic stuff for money, immediately jumps into action to save the Baby Metroid for no personal benefit, because she’s just a good person. The Baby Metroid itself clearly views Samus as its mother (even though she, y’know, killed its actual mother and all of its siblings), and her presence is the main thing keeping it from being as monstrous and bestial as the rest of its species. Ridley introduces himself by massacring everyone aboard as space station, getting his claws on the Baby Metroid and… just sitting there, waiting for Samus to show up, which serves as an early indicator of his sadistic personality that’s become central to his character. Then there’s Mother Brain, a calculating mastermind who keeps tabs on Samus at all times and is capable of harnessing the powers of the Metroids and building her own body, yet whose sheer pettiness and arrogance end up costing her dearly. None of these characters talk other than Samus in a single scene, yet their personalities are still very clear and very memorable.

The story is very much a culmination of the previous two games, effectively making it the series’ climax until Dread came along decades later. With almost total silence, we understand that this is a battle for the fate of the galaxy and the ultimate showdown between Samus and her two nemeses. Without a single word, the finale is one of the most devastating things I’ve ever seen, as the Baby Metroid, now forcefully mutated into a giant monster, saves Samus’ life before being heartlessly killed by Mother Brain out of sheer spite. Then Samus gets the Hyper Beam, and both you and the bounty hunter use it to utterly annihilate that big-headed bitch on behalf of your lost child. Fuck Mother Brain, killing her is IMMENSELY satisfying, akin to killing Makarov at the end of the original MW3.

Visuals and music? Check. Super Metroid is one of the most detailed games on the SNES in terms of graphics, without sacrificing the excellent character design or moody art style. The music has so many bangers, and the fact that this is the debut of Ridley’s theme automatically makes it an S-tier OST for me.

Yeah, that’s Super Metroid, and surprising absolutely nobody, it’s still a phenomenal experience through and through. Despite it not being my first Metroid game (technically, that’d be Prime Hunters when I was like 5 years old, followed by the first game, which I never finished because it sucks), Super was the first one I fully got into and the one that made me a Metroid fan.

The Geek Critique seems to have sent me on another Metroid bender and now I’m replaying Fusion, so stay tuned for that.

THE LAST METROID IS IN CAPTIVITY
THE GALAXY IS AT PEACE

I very much doubt that I'm the first person to start a Super Metroid review with that quote, but it's a great set up. Not only does it introduce two facts about this world that are about to smash out the containment unit, and shoot right out the fucking window, but it does so in a technical marvel of an introductory sequence, showcasing techniques you didn't even imagine your SNES was capable of. At that moment, you realise that you have no idea what this game is going to be. You dive into the unknown.

You land on Zebes. Sky filled with lightning. You head inside the first cave and travel deeper underground. Strange alien bugs in the foreground, scuttling out of frame as soon as they pan in. SNES transparency clouds obscuring the ominous platforms. You soon find yourself back in the opening area from Metroid 1, taking small comfort in the familiarity, but there's now security cameras tracking your movement. Something else has been here.

I sometimes get asked which game I play. These are the folk who just play CoD or FIFA, and the concept of being generally interested in games has never even entered their imagination as a possibility. I should just tell them "Super Metroid", though. Because it's all Super Metroid. Metal Gear, Half-Life, Resident Evil, Zelda, ICO... just different flavours of the same thing. And that core concept - exploring intimidating locations, gaining abilities, and progressing on the back of your own ingenuity and dexterity - is so rich here. I don't think it's ever been this pure. Though the game's much more manageable with modern convenience like portability and save states, it's really begging to be played on a SNES connected to a 4:3 CRT; the phosphorescence glowing through those monitors on the title screen. Some of the most striking experiences in the game are in those moments where you're weighing up the unknown threat that's lurking ahead against your willingness to travel back to a save point. You think you've played Super Metroid on your fucking telephone? Get real. You want to play this alone in a little square room. Draw the curtains and close that fucking door.

Super Metroid is far more intimidating without save states. You're denying yourself so much by leaning on them. Erase that option and you immediately feel the danger. The game's full of narrow corridors and shafts, but see when you enter an open area on your last bar of health? You feel so fucking vulnerable. And those save points? They don't regenerate health or ammunition. Welcome to the world of survival horror.

You frequently enter areas with no idea how you'll get back. Dropping down huge pits or walking through instant-locking doors that can only be opened from one side. Dread and regret. This is the sensation of exploration without precedent. You don't know if someone can survive here. If you've gone too far. Sure, this is a Nintendo Video Game, but it's unlike anything you'd typically associate with that. Thanks to the open-ended design and single save slot, you can utterly fuck yourself here. Venturing into locations that you're not equipped for, and effectively trapping yourself there. It happened to me, this time. I went to Maridia without the Gravity Suit, and saved mid-way. It threatened my entire playthrough, and I had to drag myself out of there with a very precise sequence of six well-placed wall-jumps (if you've never played Super Metroid before, you have no idea how much harder this is than your post-Mario Sunshine reference points would have you believe). It was a miserable experience, but I gained a respect for the threat the game held if I wasn't careful enough in how I explored. They never allow this kind of dynamic in commercial software any more. These are colours that game designers have stopped painting with. We've all become fat and entitled. Super Metroid is your grandfather's formative camping trip as a SNES cartridge.

The sound design in this game is unbelievable. The second you enter Norfair, you feel like you've just walked into hell. The suffocating, rhythmic beeping as you view the pause screen, reinforcing the omnipresence of utilitarian space tech. The strange organic, bubbling noises as you approach Mother Brain. The SNES's audio was a big feature of the console, but its sample support was primarily used to create a suite of synthesisers. Super Metroid prioritises ambience and atmosphere over toe-tappers, and there's a great deal of attention poured into the strange sounds of Zebes.

Something that I think is lost on the later games is that areas in Super Metroid are frequently unspectacular. Boring, drab, flat. That's a feature. There's no less effort in selecting the colours of these pixels than the ones that comprise Samus's heroic Gunship. Super Metroid feels like digging your way through abandoned space caves, until you stumble on something especially strange or ceremonial, and the contrast is striking. Super Metroid is happy to get weird. The b-plot is about getting your revenge on the purple pterodactyl that killed your parents. Of course he has his own demon temple.

A lot gets made of the game's fussy controls. I make a lot of the game's fussy controls. Playing on the SNES shook off a lot of my modern sensibilities, though, and I only counted one time in the game where a wall-jump is mandatory. If you're a big pissy pants, you can use a guide to make sure you never wade too far in the deep end of the game. But past the opening hour, the game didn't feel half as daunting as I'd feared. Only one boss took me more than two attempts, and that can likely be blamed on how little time I'd spent searching for optional upgrades until then. I didn't have to push myself to enjoy this experience. I was cursing how much of this approach has been lost in modern game design.

I just love being inside these kinds of games. Where you're becoming more intimately familiar with the larger map each time you play, and still thinking about it when you're away from it. I went right from NSO Zero Mission to original hardware Super, and I didn't trust myself to stick around until the ending, but I never wanted to let go. I think I'm good now, though. I'm pretty sure Mother Brain blew up properly this time. I think I'm ready to back to games that aren't just a different shade of Super Metroid again. Why should I fucking bother, though?

One of gaming's indisputable crown jewels, and a lesson in how to correctly structure a game with backtracking. Once you know how to and realize where you can walljump to expediently acquire items, Super Metroid transforms from a backtracking laden labyrinth into a mostly linear run&gun. And this is all before even including any of the other techniques that allow for further circumvention of the obvious path. This is why Super Metroid outshines all of its genre kindred that mandate players zip back and forth across their maps in order to acquire pickups. Hiding a secret more expedient path through the game that necessitates greater mechanical mastery is why I enjoy Super Metroid a bit more each time I play it, and Metroid Prime just a bit less when I return to it likewise.

You don't need any speedrunning exploits in order to pull off: SuperMissiles>Spazer>Varia>HighJump>WaveBeam>SpeedBooster>Grapple>IceBeam.
This alteration to progression enabled by walljumps is so fluid, and not especially taxing to execute, that I'm convinced this is the developer intended route for second playthroughs. It eliminates all backtracking until the journey to Ridley post-Maridia, making for a super smooth experience.

Pretty much every complaint I used to have has disappeared with my increased familiarity to the game. I advise all new players thusly: If you've entered Maridia without the Gravity Suit, leave immediately and search elsewhere.
- - -
Every legitimate complaint I can think of that someone may have:
The Lower Norfair false-wall does not properly react to the X-Ray visor.
Swapping between beam and missiles can be awkward.
The map system is more obtuse than its successors.
Tourian Save Room #2 is a point of no-return.
Lots of players get tripped up by the true entrance to Maridia.
Maridia. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀(tbh I like it now)