I still had the Classic consoles hooked up, and I've still got the Metroidvania itch deep in my soul (and I think I always will X3). It's been a looooong time since I've played Super Metroid, so I thought I'd give it a replay. Considering how long its been, Super Metroid is a game kinda amazingly ahead of its time in a lot of respects, and still holds up as one of the all-time greats of the genre (although Zero Mission is still my favorite Metroid game). I seem to recall my last attempt through this game having a similar completion percentage (74% this time), but a longer playtime (5 hours, 19 minutes). Either way, I really enjoyed my time with it ^w^
Y'all don't need me to tell you that Super Metroid is great. Y'all know it controls really well, has great graphics, atmospheric music, the works. It's an exemplary 16-bit game and one of the best games on the SNES, easily. So instead of going on about that, I'll talk more specifically about what surprised me about what the game has (or doesn't) under the hood for a game in 1994.
What first surprised me big time is something unprecedented for even modern Nintendo games: Rebindable buttons! You can rebind ANY of the face buttons (other than movement) from the title screen when you pick your save file. Something right off the bat that let me enjoy the game WAY more than I otherwise would've because I didn't need to relearn a control scheme all of a sudden. The other really cool bit is a language selection! I can't think of many other SNES games have have an option for English or Japanese text right from the get-go! Beyond that, lots of the design aspects of the game, whether on purpose or not (it feels purposeful), the levels of fuckery they allow you to commit in this game because of how certain powers work, especially the wall jump and the bomb jump, that allow you to sequence break like HECK almost immediately XD. I made some bad choices and managed to have to fight (and win against! ^w^) Kraid without the Spazer or the Hi-Jump powerups. Lucky for me this was the playthrough I FINALLY sussed out exactly how the wall jump works XD
However, parts of the game definitely do make it show its age in ways I didn't remember. Having an auto-completing map in 1994 is freaking awesome and helps the game IMMENSELY, Buttttt going back to play it in 2019, it's really apparent that the map showing entrances to rooms, and not just their location in relation to one another, would've really helped exploration. This adds to the larger problem of the signposting in the game being kinda bad. You can't make marks on your map, objective markers are absolutely not a thing, and you can't see the map of any area but the one you're in. Even though I've beaten the game before, and I was playing it all in one session, I still managed to get lost and forget where I was supposed to go to progress the main game (I found a lot of neat stuff exploring, but beyond that I also did a lot of ultimately pointless wandering hunting for the gravity suit XP).
There are also some mechanical aspects to the game that feel a little unnecessary or not as fleshed out as they needed to be. The grapple hook is a neat stop-gap in platforming aids between the hi-jump and the gravity jump, but it always felt awkward to use and not very fun for me. Power bombs are a neat idea for screen clearing, but most of the nastier enemies you'd want a screen-clear for are so mobile (or otherwise immune to the power bomb) that it feels like something only put in to gate progress arbitrarily. It's hard to hold much of what the game doesn't get 100% perfect against it, considering that it's still an incredible accomplishment for 1994 (and the Casltevania games honestly wouldn't get this good until at least Aria of Sorrow), but it's stuff I couldn't help but notice in 2019 and felt are at least worth mentioning here.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Like I said before, we all know the game is great. This was a neat jaunt for me back to one of the first games I picked up on the Wii Virtual Console. It still holds up really well and has some really incredible accessibility features for a console game in 1994. Modern Nintendo could lean a thing or two about rebindable buttons from R&D1 back in 1994, I can tell ya that much for free XD
Y'all don't need me to tell you that Super Metroid is great. Y'all know it controls really well, has great graphics, atmospheric music, the works. It's an exemplary 16-bit game and one of the best games on the SNES, easily. So instead of going on about that, I'll talk more specifically about what surprised me about what the game has (or doesn't) under the hood for a game in 1994.
What first surprised me big time is something unprecedented for even modern Nintendo games: Rebindable buttons! You can rebind ANY of the face buttons (other than movement) from the title screen when you pick your save file. Something right off the bat that let me enjoy the game WAY more than I otherwise would've because I didn't need to relearn a control scheme all of a sudden. The other really cool bit is a language selection! I can't think of many other SNES games have have an option for English or Japanese text right from the get-go! Beyond that, lots of the design aspects of the game, whether on purpose or not (it feels purposeful), the levels of fuckery they allow you to commit in this game because of how certain powers work, especially the wall jump and the bomb jump, that allow you to sequence break like HECK almost immediately XD. I made some bad choices and managed to have to fight (and win against! ^w^) Kraid without the Spazer or the Hi-Jump powerups. Lucky for me this was the playthrough I FINALLY sussed out exactly how the wall jump works XD
However, parts of the game definitely do make it show its age in ways I didn't remember. Having an auto-completing map in 1994 is freaking awesome and helps the game IMMENSELY, Buttttt going back to play it in 2019, it's really apparent that the map showing entrances to rooms, and not just their location in relation to one another, would've really helped exploration. This adds to the larger problem of the signposting in the game being kinda bad. You can't make marks on your map, objective markers are absolutely not a thing, and you can't see the map of any area but the one you're in. Even though I've beaten the game before, and I was playing it all in one session, I still managed to get lost and forget where I was supposed to go to progress the main game (I found a lot of neat stuff exploring, but beyond that I also did a lot of ultimately pointless wandering hunting for the gravity suit XP).
There are also some mechanical aspects to the game that feel a little unnecessary or not as fleshed out as they needed to be. The grapple hook is a neat stop-gap in platforming aids between the hi-jump and the gravity jump, but it always felt awkward to use and not very fun for me. Power bombs are a neat idea for screen clearing, but most of the nastier enemies you'd want a screen-clear for are so mobile (or otherwise immune to the power bomb) that it feels like something only put in to gate progress arbitrarily. It's hard to hold much of what the game doesn't get 100% perfect against it, considering that it's still an incredible accomplishment for 1994 (and the Casltevania games honestly wouldn't get this good until at least Aria of Sorrow), but it's stuff I couldn't help but notice in 2019 and felt are at least worth mentioning here.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Like I said before, we all know the game is great. This was a neat jaunt for me back to one of the first games I picked up on the Wii Virtual Console. It still holds up really well and has some really incredible accessibility features for a console game in 1994. Modern Nintendo could lean a thing or two about rebindable buttons from R&D1 back in 1994, I can tell ya that much for free XD