When trying to write out thoughts on a video game, it is very easy to talk about the negatives, since usually, those are specific things that directly subtract from the gameplay experience. However, I find it quite difficult to explain in detail just what makes a game GOOD. Super Metroid is a perfect video game in my personal opinion. Everything that this game does is perfect. Ridley stole the baby Metroid and fled to Zebes. Samus Aran explores Zebes in hopes to find Ridley and save the baby Metroid. Along her way, she explores the different environments for powers and upgrades to assist in her goal. She must face Kraid, Phantoon, and Draygon, before making her way to Ridley's hideout. Once she destroys Ridley, she finds out that the baby Metroid is gone. From here, she goes to Tourian, only to find out that the baby Metroid has grown up, and that Mother Brain has been revived. She has one last epic battle with the Mother Brain, assisted by the now grown up Metroid, before escaping the planet seconds before its destruction. This is a pretty simple story, but WOW. This game takes all of the good elements from the previous two installments, combines it with its own genius ideas, and creates one of the best games of all time. This in essence is the perfect Metroid. The explorable environments are the perfect mix of both that feeling of being completely lost and wanting to explore every last corner, and yet, rarely will you ever get truly lost. The design here is just so exact and perfect for what a Metroid game needs. The powers/upgrades you find are perfectly spaced out and hidden in such clever and unique ways so that you find them at the perfect times. The bosses you fight have such fun patterns to learn, and all pose a different, yet consistent and satisfying challenge that fills you with excitement as you eventually defeat them. The Super Nintendo graphics and soundfonts also perfect set the themes of this games areas whether it be Brinstar, which looks and sounds full of life and growth, to an area like Maridia, which could not seem more alien and dead. Never more has a game filled me with such wonder and interest and excitement more than this game has. AND ALL OF THAT, coming from the year 1994. Every single specific minute detail of this game is 100% perfect. It does not stop here either. This games influence reaches far and wide across the gaming landscape. Even if this subgenre of game has been dubbed "Metroidvania," even the "vania" part of this title, representing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, was directly influenced by Super Metroid. This is literally everything you could ask for a video game to do. It seriously does not get better than this. I recommend anyone at all who likes video games, to throw this on completely blind, and let your self get completely lost in its wonder. What a game!

Reviewed on May 17, 2024


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