The First Lady Of MetroidVania's Exceptional SNES Title Still Holds Up Brilliantly 29 Years On
What can be said about Super Metroid that hasn’t already been mentioned? Well nothing but lets just go remind ourselves why this Super Nintendo masterpiece is...well a masterpiece!
This game still looks great. The effective colour choices, the shading, glowing events, design (environments and enemies) each make areas feel different, There is the issue that tile sets can be similar and of course palate swaps of the same enemy appear. But this does. There is some slowdown when things get hectic but this is to be expected from the 16-bit era and it happens so infrequently its not an issue.
This is backed up by a damn good soundtrack, helping setting the mood that you’re in a hostile location on your own and (most of the time) underground, going deeper with each new ability you find and boss you destroy. The sound effects are also solid, with the big “woosh” from the smart bombs being awesome.
The controls are overall tight and responsive. Aside from Wall-Jumping. Wall-jumping is a pain to execute, especially for those use to wall-jumping mechanics from other games. The timing and inputs are quite strict. It’s thankfully not necessary to master. Some may find Samus’ jump float, making small tight jumps or tricky jumps that bit harder but in the grand scheme, the controls do the job right.
Of course, the gameplay also holds up well. Like any MetroidVania worth its salt (after all, alongside Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, this did help popularise the (still going strong) trend), it puts a smile on your face when you use new abilities, unlock an area/item early or find a secret. The difficulty is not too hard, though there’s some difficulty spikes but nothing absurd. And boss battles are tense but have room for brute force if you’ve prepared enough.
Because it’s one of the firsts in the genre, its might not feel quite as refined as later games in the genre and it can be somewhat tough if you’re use to more forgiving entries. But overall its still a damn great game to experience and comes very highly recommended. There are many good reasons its considered a masterpiece than and a masterpiece now.
Rating: 10/10
What can be said about Super Metroid that hasn’t already been mentioned? Well nothing but lets just go remind ourselves why this Super Nintendo masterpiece is...well a masterpiece!
This game still looks great. The effective colour choices, the shading, glowing events, design (environments and enemies) each make areas feel different, There is the issue that tile sets can be similar and of course palate swaps of the same enemy appear. But this does. There is some slowdown when things get hectic but this is to be expected from the 16-bit era and it happens so infrequently its not an issue.
This is backed up by a damn good soundtrack, helping setting the mood that you’re in a hostile location on your own and (most of the time) underground, going deeper with each new ability you find and boss you destroy. The sound effects are also solid, with the big “woosh” from the smart bombs being awesome.
The controls are overall tight and responsive. Aside from Wall-Jumping. Wall-jumping is a pain to execute, especially for those use to wall-jumping mechanics from other games. The timing and inputs are quite strict. It’s thankfully not necessary to master. Some may find Samus’ jump float, making small tight jumps or tricky jumps that bit harder but in the grand scheme, the controls do the job right.
Of course, the gameplay also holds up well. Like any MetroidVania worth its salt (after all, alongside Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, this did help popularise the (still going strong) trend), it puts a smile on your face when you use new abilities, unlock an area/item early or find a secret. The difficulty is not too hard, though there’s some difficulty spikes but nothing absurd. And boss battles are tense but have room for brute force if you’ve prepared enough.
Because it’s one of the firsts in the genre, its might not feel quite as refined as later games in the genre and it can be somewhat tough if you’re use to more forgiving entries. But overall its still a damn great game to experience and comes very highly recommended. There are many good reasons its considered a masterpiece than and a masterpiece now.
Rating: 10/10