Decided to play this after playing Metroid NES on the NSO service and used a map, and I have to say, it's a major improvement over the original! You can aim downwards now, jump in morph ball without needing to bomb jump, crouch, and have a slew of new handy abilities in this game to traverse the world such as the Spider Ball and the introduction of the Space Jump.
The game is fairly repetitive with mostly easy bosses (other than the troublesome Zeta and Omega Metroids), but the final boss is far better designed than in Metroid NES. I actually had a lot of fun figuring out its pattern on how to stun it and drop bombs in its gut, and the lead up to it with the Metroids guarding it was also well done.
The game is fairly linear which is a good design choice after Metroid NES was insanely labyrinthian and given this was also a handheld game to begin with. Looking up a map will help you get most of the missiles and health upgrades you need and to avoid getting stuck though, even if it's not nearly as easy to get lost as the original game is, and I recommend playing the game with that rather than without.
While this game is even more visually bland/samey than Metroid NES's locales (even if that game also looked like a lot of the same), the atmosphere is a lot better in terms of setting a more dreary tone and the adventure theme is pretty nice for a GB title.
I played this on the NSO service and used the Gameboy Color option for this game which made it look a lot nicer, giving all of the walls and such a nice blue color and Samus a contrasting orange/red that fit her well. I would've gotten more annoyed at the tedium of the scenery if I was forced to look at the game in pure black and white or pure green/black so I'm very thankful that was an option.
While still not an outstanding game, it's a major improvement over the flawed original Metroid, and I can see how this game set up a lot of the foundation that Super Metroid went on to polish to a shine to make one of the best Metroidvanias ever that captured the minds and hearts of many players. Definitely play this with a map if you plan to at all though, it helps a lot in making the game more fun.
With this, I've officially beaten every official iteration of the 2D Metroid mainline games, remakes and all. Now I'll turn my attention more toward the appealing Metroid Zero Mission and Super Metroid hacks that this passionate creative fanbase has made to stave off my Metroid craving, at least until we hopefully get another 2D Metroid title in 2 years or so.
Total playtime (including game overs/rewinds according to my Switch Playtime): Roughly 4 hours
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 2 hours, 23 minutes.
See you next mission!
The game is fairly repetitive with mostly easy bosses (other than the troublesome Zeta and Omega Metroids), but the final boss is far better designed than in Metroid NES. I actually had a lot of fun figuring out its pattern on how to stun it and drop bombs in its gut, and the lead up to it with the Metroids guarding it was also well done.
The game is fairly linear which is a good design choice after Metroid NES was insanely labyrinthian and given this was also a handheld game to begin with. Looking up a map will help you get most of the missiles and health upgrades you need and to avoid getting stuck though, even if it's not nearly as easy to get lost as the original game is, and I recommend playing the game with that rather than without.
While this game is even more visually bland/samey than Metroid NES's locales (even if that game also looked like a lot of the same), the atmosphere is a lot better in terms of setting a more dreary tone and the adventure theme is pretty nice for a GB title.
I played this on the NSO service and used the Gameboy Color option for this game which made it look a lot nicer, giving all of the walls and such a nice blue color and Samus a contrasting orange/red that fit her well. I would've gotten more annoyed at the tedium of the scenery if I was forced to look at the game in pure black and white or pure green/black so I'm very thankful that was an option.
While still not an outstanding game, it's a major improvement over the flawed original Metroid, and I can see how this game set up a lot of the foundation that Super Metroid went on to polish to a shine to make one of the best Metroidvanias ever that captured the minds and hearts of many players. Definitely play this with a map if you plan to at all though, it helps a lot in making the game more fun.
With this, I've officially beaten every official iteration of the 2D Metroid mainline games, remakes and all. Now I'll turn my attention more toward the appealing Metroid Zero Mission and Super Metroid hacks that this passionate creative fanbase has made to stave off my Metroid craving, at least until we hopefully get another 2D Metroid title in 2 years or so.
Total playtime (including game overs/rewinds according to my Switch Playtime): Roughly 4 hours
Total playtime from in-game file counter: 2 hours, 23 minutes.
See you next mission!