”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.
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.