The way I feel about Metroid Zero Mission and the NES original is about the same way I feel about Mega Man 2 and its predecessor: Metroid is kind of a bad game that happens to contain some interesting decisions; Zero Mission keeps its flawed core, but is a well made piece of software that gives you about as much satisfaction as you could expect from a series of gear checks.
Metroid has never had the best platforming, neither in terms of its character control or level design. Zero Mission is not the most interesting platformer in the series (an honor which obviously would go to Super Metroid), but it is the tightest, most snappy. Still, you couldn't make a good linear platformer with this exact game-feel and these particular mechanics. Metroid has always relied more on rewarding intuition and exploration rather than skill.
Though to some degree, I see a greater appeal to the more naked sense of direction seen in post-Super Metroid entries: this game is decidedly non-linear, but with a clear goal marked by a waypoint you can generally assume that's where you'll find a new ability, which will open up new paths. The ol' stick and carrot makes the rather rote platforming more bearable. If it weren't for this, combined with the excellent sound design as Samus whips and clicks in and out of motion, the game would get a lot more stale.
In terms of its audiovisual qualities, this is more or less the quintessential 2D Metroid game. The pixel art has a particular look to it, vibrant, stark color contrast, an attempt at a kind of illustrative appearance that I much prefer over the somewhat chunky, noisy pixel art of Fusion.
After beating Mother Brain, I decided to go back to Metroid on NES to see how much of it I could stomach. Conclusion: I still don't like it at all. If I build Metroid's level layouts in Mario Maker and had my friends play the result, they would ask what was wrong with me. The only favorable comparison I could give it when placed next to Zero Mission is the slower, floaty platforming physics, though Super Metroid utilizes this element infinitely better.
Perhaps more than any other Metroid game I'm shocked that this gave me as much trouble as it did when I was younger. It is not a long game, most of the backtracking trips are negligible in both quantity and time spend doing so, and most of the enemies (bosses included) are surprisingly unthreatening. The final boss of the game goes down in little more than half a dozen super missiles, and only managed to take 75 of my 1199 hit points.
The new content after the original ending, the Space Pirate ship and Chozo Ruins, is probably the most memorable sequence of the game. For the entire game thus far, navigation followed by attaining a new power has served as a kind of tension and release. This long stealth segment stretches that to its absolute limit. This is mostly a linear level, and limits the player only to Samus' most basic abilities. As I said, you couldn't make this fun on its own, but the people who made this game knew that, and went out of their way to make you feel how useless you are. The area is made up of somewhat obtuse platforming challenges, which if failed trigger an alert state where enemies that far outclass the player will give chase; sometimes even successfully navigating the area will only reveal a hidden guard at the end. Not to mention the room with the bomb upgrade, where only a glimpse of it is caught before one of the pirates makes off with it.
At the end, another of the games cutscenes (which are tastefully cinematic in a way that makes little interruption), a fine boss battle, and the triple threat of getting the Gravity Suit, Plasma Beam, and Space Jump all at the same time. Once again, the game has changed, everything has flipped, the music has gone from haunting and mysterious to an even more bombastic variant of the main theme.
As much fun as it is to ostensibly be able to tear through everything the game could throw at you, and as cool as it is to revisit the main areas of the game to see the destroyed Tourian and pick up the last few (tricky!) collectables, backtracking all the way to the Space Pirates' ship is a terrible slog that really highlights the degree to which it was made with linearity in mind.
Right before the last boss, there is a room containing the final health upgrade, an extremely precise platforming challenge. I probably failed it fifty times. If this were a linear platforming game, or if such an obstacle were required, it would be almost unforgiveable. Compare that to the boss itself, which dies in just a few hits, and I think the point illustrates itself. Metroid Zero Mission (and most of the series in general) is not a platformer, it is a Rubik's Cube which you happen to control via a platformer character. Controlling the character is almost completely secondary to solving the game's riddles and learning how to execute those solutions fast enough to get the best ending screen. I think understanding this is the key to finding enjoyment in it.
Clear Time: 2:36:43
Completion Rate: 77%
See you next mission!
Metroid has never had the best platforming, neither in terms of its character control or level design. Zero Mission is not the most interesting platformer in the series (an honor which obviously would go to Super Metroid), but it is the tightest, most snappy. Still, you couldn't make a good linear platformer with this exact game-feel and these particular mechanics. Metroid has always relied more on rewarding intuition and exploration rather than skill.
Though to some degree, I see a greater appeal to the more naked sense of direction seen in post-Super Metroid entries: this game is decidedly non-linear, but with a clear goal marked by a waypoint you can generally assume that's where you'll find a new ability, which will open up new paths. The ol' stick and carrot makes the rather rote platforming more bearable. If it weren't for this, combined with the excellent sound design as Samus whips and clicks in and out of motion, the game would get a lot more stale.
In terms of its audiovisual qualities, this is more or less the quintessential 2D Metroid game. The pixel art has a particular look to it, vibrant, stark color contrast, an attempt at a kind of illustrative appearance that I much prefer over the somewhat chunky, noisy pixel art of Fusion.
After beating Mother Brain, I decided to go back to Metroid on NES to see how much of it I could stomach. Conclusion: I still don't like it at all. If I build Metroid's level layouts in Mario Maker and had my friends play the result, they would ask what was wrong with me. The only favorable comparison I could give it when placed next to Zero Mission is the slower, floaty platforming physics, though Super Metroid utilizes this element infinitely better.
Perhaps more than any other Metroid game I'm shocked that this gave me as much trouble as it did when I was younger. It is not a long game, most of the backtracking trips are negligible in both quantity and time spend doing so, and most of the enemies (bosses included) are surprisingly unthreatening. The final boss of the game goes down in little more than half a dozen super missiles, and only managed to take 75 of my 1199 hit points.
The new content after the original ending, the Space Pirate ship and Chozo Ruins, is probably the most memorable sequence of the game. For the entire game thus far, navigation followed by attaining a new power has served as a kind of tension and release. This long stealth segment stretches that to its absolute limit. This is mostly a linear level, and limits the player only to Samus' most basic abilities. As I said, you couldn't make this fun on its own, but the people who made this game knew that, and went out of their way to make you feel how useless you are. The area is made up of somewhat obtuse platforming challenges, which if failed trigger an alert state where enemies that far outclass the player will give chase; sometimes even successfully navigating the area will only reveal a hidden guard at the end. Not to mention the room with the bomb upgrade, where only a glimpse of it is caught before one of the pirates makes off with it.
At the end, another of the games cutscenes (which are tastefully cinematic in a way that makes little interruption), a fine boss battle, and the triple threat of getting the Gravity Suit, Plasma Beam, and Space Jump all at the same time. Once again, the game has changed, everything has flipped, the music has gone from haunting and mysterious to an even more bombastic variant of the main theme.
As much fun as it is to ostensibly be able to tear through everything the game could throw at you, and as cool as it is to revisit the main areas of the game to see the destroyed Tourian and pick up the last few (tricky!) collectables, backtracking all the way to the Space Pirates' ship is a terrible slog that really highlights the degree to which it was made with linearity in mind.
Right before the last boss, there is a room containing the final health upgrade, an extremely precise platforming challenge. I probably failed it fifty times. If this were a linear platforming game, or if such an obstacle were required, it would be almost unforgiveable. Compare that to the boss itself, which dies in just a few hits, and I think the point illustrates itself. Metroid Zero Mission (and most of the series in general) is not a platformer, it is a Rubik's Cube which you happen to control via a platformer character. Controlling the character is almost completely secondary to solving the game's riddles and learning how to execute those solutions fast enough to get the best ending screen. I think understanding this is the key to finding enjoyment in it.
Clear Time: 2:36:43
Completion Rate: 77%
See you next mission!