Given how much I adore the Metroid franchise, it always feels a bit difficult to revisit the original and realize just how much I dislike it. Don't get me wrong, I respect the hell out of it for the creativity and ingenuity put on display, as well as for the wonderfully oppressive atmosphere it strove to create, but there are far too many annoyances which get in the way of having an enjoyable experience. Most notably, the lack of save features or a map make getting through this an absolute slog. The game presents you with quite a high difficulty and is run based on long passwords to save progress as opposed to save slots. I played this game initially through Zero Mission's unlockable content and tried to play using this method. The end result was miserable. This feature has been saved by modern emulators and save states, thankfully. Even worse, reloading any save starts you off only at 30 health, regardless of how many energy tanks you've collected. This means in order to give yourself reasonable survivability, you'll need to grind for health, a process which can take up to 5-10 minutes depending on the RNG. This is not fun. The lack of a map is primarily bad because the NES has pretty limited visual capabilities. There is so little in the game which feels unique due to this muddled visual cohesion. It becomes easier than usual to get lost in the world of Metroid due to how similar everything is. Getting around in many games like this is meant to be fairly simple with the use of clever environmental cues or deceptive linearity, to which Metroid has neither. Artistically, I can respect the decision to be so convoluted with it's world design given the themes on display, but I can't have fun with it. Of course, the actual gameplay jank is important to note as well. You are immediately given enemies you cannot shoot as they are too low on the ground to shoot, as well as some enemies which take entirely too long to kill with our current abilities. These problems are eventually fixed when you access missiles and bombs, but it still is frustrating. There are loads of environmental hazards once you get out of the opening area, with absurdly quick enemies designed to drain your health in moments. It's not all bad though. The upgrading of your suit as you progress through the world is the most iconic gameplay feature of the franchise and it's done quite well here. Similarly, the series' acclaimed soundtrack gets off to an incredible start here. Pretty much every aspect of the design of this game would be refined and expanded upon by later entries. I'm not entirely sure there is a single facet of the game which isn't done better in Super Metroid, so there honestly isn't much of a need to play this, especially so given the excellent remake, Metroid: Zero Mission. Metroid was evidently well ahead of it's time, and this has unfortunately caused it to be absolutely buried by it's sequels. Still, it's fun to talk about, much like every other game in this wonderful franchise.