Trying to play this again mostly making me realize I didn't give Metroid II enough credit for improving on this lmao.

I think it sucks, not getting to play this when it was new, cause I can see things like the atmosphere, how enemies being best avoided than fought for a good long while, and getting lost only to finally stumble on the next big upgrade being a big source for letting your imagination run wild. Just the take-away at the end of the day is this game is not very fun, cause it's far from satisfying for a bonk from a super bullet-spongy enemy to take down almost half an energy tank, and dying meaning you have to manually refill all your energy. Slowly and agonizingly.

Worth playing as a time capsule that pioneered a whole genre, and also because it makes me appreciate future 2D Metroids better.