Super Metroid

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Super Metroid
"The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace."
Protagonist(s): Samus Aran
Genre(s): Action-adventure
Metroidvania
Platform(s): Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Release Date: JP: March 19, 1994
NA: April 18, 1994
PAL: July 28, 1994
Developer(s): Nintendo R&D1
Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Country: Japan
Series: Metroid
Predecessor: Metroid II: Return of Samus
Successor: Metroid: Other M (chronologically)
Metroid Fusion (by release date)

Super Metroid is an action-adventure metroidvania video game developed by Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third overall installment in the Metroid series.

Plot

Following the events of Metroid II: Return of Samus, Samus Aran brings the last Metroid to the Ceres space colony for scientific study, where the scientists reveal that its energy-producing abilities could actually be harnessed for the good of civilization. However, after leaving the colony, Samus receives a call to come back due to being under attack, where she then founds the scientists dead. The Metroid larva is seen hiding in one room, and Ridley reveals himself, being the one who killed the scientists. After a short battle, Ridley escapes from the colony, and so does Samus just before it blows up. Samus must now search the planet for the Metroid larva and destroy the Pirates' base there after being rebuilt.

Why It's Super

  1. The graphics are some of the most colourful and impressive ones you'll ever see in the SNES; for a game released in 1994, everything is amazingly detailed, with various enemies' sprites having great sprites that scale up and down amazingly depending on how far away or close they're to the screen; and each sprite is amazingly animated with some unique stuff, with Samus' running animation after firing a missile make her sprite look depending on which way she's facing.
  2. Incredible soundtrack, as expected from a Metroid game; many themes have a dark and mysterious feel, which is very fitting for a place where you have to eliminate the enemies on a planet that features a lot of dark-themed stuff, while the escape music once again sounds very serious as if the game was telling you "This place is about to be destroyed! Escape as fast as you can before it's too late!".
  3. Great and responsive controls; while the game still has the feel of the original Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus in terms of controls, Samus now can shoot diagonally up or down if you hold the R and L buttons, respectively. Holding the B button makes Samus run faster, which is very useful for getting through the game faster.
  4. Over 3-to-7 hours of playtime by exploring every area in the game, and especially destroying any enemy on the way. This makes Super Metroid one of the longest SNES games to be completed.
  5. Good plot for a Metroid game. Samus brings the Metroid from the previous game to one of the space colonies for study, but then, Samus received a call to return back to the colony. She then finds Ridley stealing the Metroid, Ridely escapes and Samus follows Ridely who leads her to Zebes, (the planet from the first game) where the villains have rebuilt a base there.
  6. Some stuff from the first Metroid game makes a return, such as the beginning area where Samus obtains the Morph Ball and the section where she fights the Mother Brain. This is a pretty nice throwback to the first game in the series, especially with a greater design thanks to the SNES being a 16-bit system.
  7. The Metroid larva can be a nice surprise once it appears out of nowhere, draining Samus' HP to 1, pretty much only stopping once it realizes that it's the same Samus that it followed at the end of Metroid II: Return of Samus. The final boss also has an emotional, yet fantastic cutscene where it stops the Mother Brain from finishing off Samus for good before healing her and giving her the Hyper Beam after Mother Brain kills it.
  8. The final battle is one of the most epic boss battles in the entire franchise; normally, it seems like a recycle of the final fight from the first game, until Mother Brain reveals that she's more aggressive this time, making it feel like an actual boss battle. The biggest surprise comes in when she fires a beam that Samus cannot avoid in any way, and just as she's about to finish Samus off for good, the Super Metroid stops her from doing so, healing Samus after that, and as Mother Brain kills it, Samus receives the Hyper Beam, allowing her to finish off the Mother Brain once again.
  9. An amazing opening where Samus briefly describes how her adventure in the previous games was. The difference is that these were remade in the 16-bit style, making them look more polished and better, despite being played only in grayscale.
  10. The areas are very well designed, with each having a lot of exploring potential and several rooms to visit. Most of these rooms can be used to earn some missiles if you don't have enough, or simply test your other missiles on enemies if you have enough and there's a good amount of them.
    • One of the rooms is kind of hilarious, as its design looks like the head of Mickey Mouse, which could look as if the Chozo were fans of Disney.
  11. This is the first game in the Metroid series where we get a look at Samus from her suit, which is very nice to see Zero Suit Samus even before the Game Over screen.
  12. This game introduces many new upgrades that would later become series staples: Charge Beam, Gravity Suit, Speed Booster, Super Missiles, Power Bombs, Reserve Tanks, Grappling Beam, and X-Ray Scope.
  13. Collecting energy tanks will make the it harder to get the game over screen, and they're obliviously needed to win the boss fights. However, see BQ#1.

Bad Qualities

  1. The wall jumping is very broken because you have to press the jump button slightly after holding the button that makes you go to the opposite direction. While wall jumping is still possible, it is very difficult here.
  2. To fight Mother Brain, you need to collect even more energy tanks, otherwise you can die easily during the battle, as Mother Brain's hyper beam is unavoidable, no matter how much you will move to try to avoid it, Samus also needs to have quite a few Missiles and Super Missiles in order to be able to defeat Mother Brain's first form.
  3. Using the Save Rooms that the game's version of Tourian contains can cause players to become permanently stuck in said area and have to replay the game.

Reception

Super Metroid was met with acclaim from critics and players, with praise for its atmosphere, gameplay, music and graphics. Alongside Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the game is credited for establishing the "Metroidvania" genre, inspiring numerous indie games and developers, and the game proved to be great for speedrunning. The game is considered not only one of the best Metroid games, but also one of the best SNES games ever released.

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