#supermeroid

Super Metroid

Genre: Side scrolling platform adventure

System: SNES

Story: This classic Super Nintendo game starts off where the Nintendo and Game Boy games left off. Explained at the beginning of the game, Samus rescued the last Metroid and delivered it to a research facility. A band of pirate mantises, led by Ripley the dragon monster, stole the Metroid and took it back to the original planet of Zebes.  Samus must fight through the four sub bosses of Mother Brain, gaining special items, weapons, and power ups along the path.  The adventure takes Samus through a couple familiar places seen in the previous game on NES, but showcases areas of water, lava, crashed space ships and more. No real plot development along the path, but a few helpful creatures show you some tricks along the way.

Gameplay: The SNES controller was designed for this game.  Every button has a purpose and mastering the moves and tricks abates over time.  The game’s design and path almost forces the player to find and gain items to progress through the game.  Though some tricks and mastering of the controls can skip some areas and puzzles, those actions are difficult to master. Each new addition to the suit opens new areas or temps exploring.  The enemies are basic, but unique, adding more of a bump then a challenge.  The four boss battles can be difficult depending on the amount of item hunting completed prior.  The number of hidden items, energy tanks, and missile boosts…is a lot.  Finding all of them the first time around is almost impossible, but adds to the replay.

Pros:  The controls, built in map, power ups, and basic platforming is the perfect mix of the old, upgraded with the new, at least the new of the SNES when the game came out in 1994.  Each new area is fun to explore and randomly finding a bonus item or missile tank is always fun.  Easy to pick up and play, hours of fun, and re-playable.

Cons:  The back tracking can get frustrating along with the dead ends requiring an upgrade that you can’t find.  A new player made need accouple hints to get some upgrades, but placing super bombs in each room can also help find those secrets.  The other major frustration is the knock backs from enemy hits. They can be used as a boost in speed running the game, but are very frustrating for a first-time player.  

Rating (1-10 compared to other games from its time and genre)

Graphics – 9 (upgraded from the NES and GameBoy, but still blocky at times)

Premise – 7 (Side view platforming games have been around for a while when this came out, its just a good next step for this genre)

Gameplay – 9 (Awesome upgrades, great controls)

Originality – 7 (Similar to premise, it’s still a sequel to a sequel)

Difficulty – 9 (the perfect mix of hard, but not too hard)