Metroid II: Return of Samus

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Metroid 2: Return of Samus
Samus' confrontation with the Metroids has started again. You must help Samus save the Galaxy from the Metroids!
Protagonist(s): Samus Aran
Genre(s): Action Adventure
Platform(s): Game Boy
Nintendo 3DS (remake)
Release Date: Return of Samus
NA: November 1991
JP: January 21, 1992
EU: May 21, 1992
Developer(s): Nintendo R&D
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Country: Japan
Series: Metroid
Predecessor: Metroid
Metroid Prime: Federation Force (story-wise)
Successor: Super Metroid

Metroid II: Return of Samus is a 1991 action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is the first Metroid game released for a handheld game console.

Why It Rocks

  1. New abilities, like the Spider Ball (which allows you to climb walls and ceilings in Morph Ball form) and the Space Jump (which allows you to somersault infinitely), as well as new beams like the Plasma and Spazer Beams.
    • The Varia Suit is also redesigned to have a darker color than the Power Suit and bigger shoulder pads because of the Game Boy lacking color. This is an important staple in Metroid history, however, as all future games followed the same route of making their suits different from the Power Suit.
  2. SR388 is much bigger than Zebes in the first Metroid with even more rooms to explore.
  3. There are a variety of newly-introduced Metroid forms to fight, each more evolved and powerful than the last. These Metroids act as means of progression in the game since after killing every Metroid in one area, the next area opens.
  4. Just like the first game, you get a different ending depending on how long it takes you to beat the game.
    • Take seven hours or longer and all you get is a still of Samus facing the screen.
    • Take five hours or longer but not quite seven and Samus will be running.
    • Take less than five but not less than three and Samus will run, jump and strike a pose.
    • Beat it in under three hours and Samus will jump, remove her powered armor, and let her hair down, posing in a tank top.
  5. The graphics looks great for Game Boy standards at the time.
  6. There are now save points, which is convenient for if you don't wanna beat the game in one sitting.
  7. You can now shoot downwards when jumping, which is great for dealing with enemies while falling.
  8. While it only has a few notable tracks (Surface of SR388, the Queen Metroid theme, the Baby Metroid theme, and the credits), they are still great.
  9. The game is a lot more linear, which makes the world sort of easier to navigate compared to the game's predecessor.

Bad Qualities

  1. The only bosses you fight are Metroids with the only difference being how much damage they do and how many shots it takes to kill.
    • They are thankfully more drawn out in both the remakes, Samus Returns especially with the Zeta and Omega Metroids.
  2. Just like in the first game, there is no map and you can't switch between the different beams. Fortunately, this was fixed in both AM2R and Samus Returns.
  3. Being on the Game Boy, there is screen crunch, which makes it kinda hard to see what's ahead.
  4. The Space Jump and Spider Ball are both fundamentally flawed.
    • The Space Jump randomly cancels out if you don't hit A correctly, which is really annoying, especially in the fourth major area.
    • The Spider Ball is hard to activate on a ceiling when you try to reach one via Bomb Jump or the Spring Ball.
  5. Difficulty Spike: When you head to the Omega Metroid area, you are very, very far away from the closest Energy and Missile reload icons, which is really horrible for inexperienced players as the Omega Metroids are really hard to kill and avoid taking so much damage from while also requiring a lot of missiles to kill.
  6. The soundtrack is mostly just "songs" that are nothing but ear-grating beeps, with some mediocre themes like the Chozo Ruins theme and the Metroid boss theme.

Reception

Although considered by a few critics to be the weakest game in the franchise and not as well received as the Nintendo Entertainment System counterpart, Metroid II still received generally favorable reviews. Upon the game's release, Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu gave it a 25 out of 40 score. Because Metroid II has a single large level instead of multiple small ones, Tim Jones of IGN found the game a "refreshing departure from the norm", which made him feel claustrophobic the further into the game he ventured. He praised Metroid II's replay value, considering its non-linearity as the primary reason for this. In their retrospective video on the Metroid series, GameTrailers believed that the game still maintained the high standards set by its predecessor and noted that it also introduced new methods of exploration to the series that have become staples.

Trivia

  • A map for the game can be found here.

Videos

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