The last fast and loose Metroid game
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was home to arguably the greatest library of games on any single console. It had games that set new standards in graphic technology, and stretched 2D gaming beyond the limits of the imagination of the NES-era player. Super Metroid is one such game. As advertised, it contains console-gaming's first ever two-screen-tall boss, but this feat pales in comparison to the astounding quality of Super Metroid as a whole game experience. Its 2D, sprite-based graphics feature some truly amazing attention to detail; the open-ended gameplay structure allows for multiple pathways, serial-sequence breaking, and multiple endings; and the music and sound give Zebes an extremely lonesome atmosphere -- a necessary component of any Metroid game worth its weight in silicon. However, despite the ravings of rabid fanboys, it is NOT perfect, and its (admittedly minimal) flaws will be discussed in this review. Let us begin with the visuals.
Super Metroid uses layered parallax scrolling extremely well. Though the game is entirely two-dimensional, the illusion of depth, and exploring a whole planet is present thanks to the well-designed and varied foregrounds, and backgrounds that -- in some areas -- appear to stretch on for miles. One is given the sense of being alone on a large planet. Of course, we have all been here before from the first Metroid, but there are many new areas that previously went unexplored, and the improved technical capabilities of the Super Nintendo are made evident when one compares the two games side by side.
The creatures are also better looking, with more varieties of enemies, the addition of Space Pirates (above and beyond Ridley and Kraid), and several new mini-bosses and two new bosses makes this game's bestiary quite extensive; most of the aforementioned bosses and mini-bosses are sufficiently mean-looking. There is one mini-boss in particular with an EXTREMELY gruesome death, that, if suffered by a human, surely would have met with censorship at the time. That is how well it is presented. The number one strength of the visuals, though, are the details surrounding Samus herself. Samus' chest will heave as though she is breathing, when she is under water, bubbles will float from the front of her visor, and when she turns left and right, the transitions are smooth to give a believable illusion of a 3D model, without the requisite jagged edges. The visual effects, and subtle touches of detail make the game's (mostly textless) story all the more compelling.
The game's story is not really emphasized in this game, except for the very beginning and the very end. And at the very end, not a single line of dialogue is entered, which makes sense, considering the various parties involved are all different species. But the way the conclusion is presented gives Super Metroid what is undoubtedly one of the most memorable endings in video game history, in spite of the ease with which the final boss can be defeated.
However, Super Metroid's final boss is not representative of the challenge of all the bosses. Super Metroid's bosses are a decent challenge, but can be beaten by anyone able to recognize and exploit fairly basic patterns. The bosses in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Fusion are, for the most part, head and shoulders above Super Metroid in challenge and entertainment value by comparison.
There is more to the gameplay than bosses, and the world-exploration and platforming elements are where Super Metroid most strongly shines. Thanks to certain latent abilities Samus has, the possibilities for sequence breaking on Zebes are almost endless. There are dozens of videos across the internet of interesting types of sequence breaking, as part of the global obsession with speed runs in video games. Seeing the variety in these videos -- and the experimentation this reviewer himself is capable of -- forces one to reach for superlatives to describe Super Metroid's open-ended nature.
Samus also finds several weapons and power-ups, many of which are present in one or both of the first two Metroid games, but most of them are employed in new ways. The ways the different beams you can find can be combined with eachother and with power bombs are several of the best examples of the weapons unique to this game in the Metroid series. There are dozens of expansions of missiles, super missiles, power bombs, and energy tanks, and completionists will revel in the dozen or so hours it will take them to find EVERYTHING the first time through.
And as players engage in the search for missing missiles, they will be accompanied by some of the best lo-fi music in any video game. All of the regions have their own song (some have two or more) and they all convey the environment and the tone of the game extremely well. Most are dark, rich numbers that surely a a weaker-willed character than Samus would not want on their jogging playlist on their iPod. However, Samus is stronger, and has confidence, thanks to the sound effects of her variety of weapons. Clearly the big booming sound of a charged up plasma/ice shot gives Samus the strength to carry on in such a gloomy, depressing landscape. Remember now, this was once her home planet.
It isn't all flowers and sunshine on the audio side though. There are two noticeable flaws: the warning sound when Samus is running low on energy is extremely annoying, and so is the escape sequence music. That it sounds better on the NES should be sufficient evidence of the level of disappointment this causes.
These two flaws are easily overshadowed by the rest of Super Metroid's strengths, namely its gameplay, visual presentation, and replay value. This game is deservedly considered one of the all-time greats. How it is overshadowed by its colleagues in the Nintendo library in that company's obsession with re-releasing games remains a mystery to this day. Quite simply, you should get a Super Nintendo to play this game if you don't already have one.
