Super Metroid

[Abnormal Palm]

This is supposed to be one of the grandfathers but I never owned a SNES way back when and it's not really the kind of thing you'd play with your buddies so I never played it. I don't play a lot of Metroidvania games because I don't really know Castlevania either but this seems like a really good game. Creepy atmosphere, but I expected lots of wandering aimlessly and it's been quite condensed so far. Got the morph ball pretty quickly and missiles and shot some alien guys. Platforming is OK, maybe a bit fiddly for me but I'm no good at platformers really. It's nice and chunky. I'd like to see a Zeldtroidania one day, add the area specific items from Zelda, you guessed it, and take it even further with a Rockman structure so you can get them in any order and sequence break. Zeldtroickmania. Maybe that will be the new thing.

I hope this continues to be fun and that it's still very playable not just influential. It seems as rock solid in its own way as Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart and A Link to the Past. I wonder if the SNES had the best first party catalogue ever. F-Zero and Starfox would be there, too.

Anyone played Super Metroid?

[Sin Agog]

When I hired it from blockbuster for the weekend on the Snes, I got stuck sans some power at a spike-jumping bit.  Back-tracked everywhere and couldn't find a way past it.  Then when I played it fifteen years later I got completely fucking stuck at the exact same point.  Never progressed past that point. It probably required some obvious splodey ball-roll, but hot damn was that perplexing, and I'm usually alright at metroidvanias, except, apparently, the original.

[Shaky]

I'm probably a bit old and jaded but it feels as if the likes of Super Metroid nailed that formula in a way yer modern, retro games (Hollow Knight etc) struggle with. If anyone's into the emulator thing, the two Metroid games on GBA are in a very similar vein and well worth playing as well.

And obviously Metroid Prime is one of the best games ever made.

Metroid metroid.

[madhair60]

I preferred the GBA ones. Lots of parts in Super where I was just fruitlessly bombing the walls, looking in vain for the way forward.

Very good finale.

[popcorn]

I came to Super Metroid very late. Played it for the first time about 10 years ago and was absolutely blown away - easily jumped into my favourite games list. I'd only played (and enjoyed) Prime by that point and had no idea how much cleverer Metroid is in 2D. The level design is spectacular, and the sense of atmosphere was ahead of its time, emphasising mood over tunes. The idea of save point you can't use until you turn the power back on is brilliant.

Not flawless, of course - it's mainly amazing, but some of the level design is a bit anal, there's no way of knowing there's a run button (hence lots of first-time players getting stuck at the n00b bridge), one of the main areas looks like James Pond puke, etc.

The GBA games are excellent too, better in some ways (particularly the simplification of the controls). Replayed Fusion last year and really enjoyed it. It's like a sort of punk rock Metroid.

[Delete Delete Delete]

I'd like to see a Zeldtroidania one day, add the area specific items from Zelda, you guessed it, and take it even further with a Rockman structure so you can get them in any order and sequence break. Zeldtroickmania. Maybe that will be the new thing.

Yuo know this exsists right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWNGWrZ8wec

[Kelvin]

Super Metroid is good, but I find it a bit boring and flabby around the middle, in a way I didn't with the GBA ones or Prime series.

One of the reasons I prefer Prime is that I've always found it easier to navigate through the more distinctive 3D environments by memory than in the relatively samey chambers of the 2D games. I couldnt actually visualise many of the rooms in Super Metroid, but in Prime and Prime 3 (less so in 2), I can picture whole rooms and how they interconnect, primarily because of the more distinctive architecture.

I wonder is any Metroidvania gets the amount of backtracking absolutely right. It's either too linear and too easy, or too spread out and too boring.

[Abnormal Palm]

This game is truly atmospheric but it is a pain in the ass. The boss fights are a total pain in the ass because the boss expresses new attacks which you cannot foresee and you have to walk a big distance to repeat the boss fights. This is Dark Souls or Metroidvania, you know? Why you cannot walk through a boss but you can roll sometimes? Why sometimes?

Will I continue with this game? For me, it's like a historic lesson. Perhaps I will continue another time.

[popcorn]

I haven't played it in years, perhaps it's bollocks.

[ErnestTakadichi]

Second best game ever. Would be first were it not for Super Mario World.

[madhair60]

Second best game ever. Would be first were it not for Super Mario World.

Which is really strange given that Super Mario World is the worst first-party 2D Mario game

[The Boston Crab]

You don't half talk some chod, you know?

[madhair60]

What do you care? It doesn't even have a second loop.

[The Boston Crab]

Woe betide anyone criticises fuckin GEX or some piece of shit you feel sentimental towards.

[madhair60]

I still think Mario World is a 10/10. It's just the worst 10/10 of the lot. Settle down, Beavis.

[The Boston Crab]

Absolute bollocks pretend opinion and I don't even like it very much.

[madhair60]

No it isn't. You're the one who routinely makes stuff up, mate. "Mushihimesama Futari"? Are those seriously supposed to be words?

Mario World is too easy. It requires levels to be replayed, which I hate. It has levels that cannot be cleared without bringing items in from other levels, which I hate. I don't like the way Mario looks in it. There are too many water levels. I don't like it as much as 1, 2, Lost Levels, 3, or any of the NSMB games. I still think it is great.

Edit: actually I've decided that I like it better than the NSMB games.

[The Boston Crab]

I never made up anything in my life about videogames. Even the gaming pub is true in part, I'm just obviously not going to share any information about it with anyone on this AIDS recuperation forum in case they get a tonne of saliva on the games and I accidentally drink it all and get AIDS that way.

[madhair60]

You can't get AIDS twice you fuckin victim.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Mario Land 2 is the best one

[Fry]

By massive coincidence I just finished this over the last 2 days, the first time I've ever played a Metroid game. I agree with basically everything everyone says, it's an amazing game for all the reasons everyone mentioned. I had a similar feeling playing this as to when I played A Link to the Past (last week) - there's just so many secrets! It's really missing from many modern modern games, finding something and believing it was something I could've easily missed had I not been paying as close attention, if I hadn't been as curious, or just lucky in some cases. Thinking it's something hundreds of other players probably missed.

Platforming is dogshit though, and I say this as someone who is fairly good at platforming games. Stuff like the walljump is way too hard to successfully pull off 100% of the time and I dreaded any extended grapple hook section. I wish the map screen was a little clearer too. It also suffered from a severe lack of shortcuts for a game without a fast travel system. Getting from the bottom of Norfair to the top left of Crateria was a pain in the arse.

This game is truly atmospheric but it is a pain in the ass. The boss fights are a total pain in the ass because the boss expresses new attacks which you cannot foresee and you have to walk a big distance to repeat the boss fights.

I dunno about this, I think there's a save point at most 3 screens from pretty much every boss fight. I've been making a point to play these old snes games without using an emulator, and having just played ALTTP it was something i was very sensitive towards (having long treks back to a fight after dying), this game felt a lot more forgiving on that front.

Anyway I wanna mention my favourite parts.

The death of the big red fucker at the bottom of Norfair, when he falls into the lava and his skin melts off his bones then he appears behind you and he's just a skeleton and you're like "fuck more fighting I only have 30 energy left and barely any missles" then he just collapses into a load of ol' bones. Fucking brutal. Amazing.

Draygon, the green bloke who looks like a 6 legged dragon fetus. He has big ol' bloodshot eyes like he's been up since 3am and a mouth that looks like a puckered anus. He spunks on you then grabs you you're like "ew urgh fuck no this is gross I'm covered in spunk and being grabbed it's disgusting". Amazing boss design.

Getting the super dash ability and just plowing through corridors, splashing alien guts everywhere like the Samus Express has derailed and is crashing through a christmas market. beep beep coming through fuckers.

The entire last sequence when the big boss drains you to 1 HP and you're knackered and Samus can't stand or move and is breathing heavily and the Metroid comes and gives you a hand, clamps on the final boss then give you energy then dies and Samus is like "Oh you what? You goggle eyed fuck you're in for it now. and you stand right under it's head where it can't reach you for some reason and you blast it to pieces.

1000% amazing game loved it.


Alright, so that's ALTTP and Super Metroid done. What classic should I go for next?

(Oh, and Super Mario World bangs. Madhair you're nuts. I also got Gex: Enter the Gecko for my 5th or 6th birthday and that bangs too.)

[Kelvin]

Alright, so that's ALTTP and Super Metroid done. What classic should I go for next?

You played Yoshi's Island on the SNES, Fry?

[popcorn]

Yoshi's Island is of paramount importance.

[madhair60]

(Oh, and Super Mario World bangs. Madhair you're nuts.

AGAIN. It's an excellent game. 10/10. I just prefer the others.

When Draygon grabs you, you can shoot the grapple beam into the electrified walls of the arena and FRY THE CUNT.

Yoshi's Island is 11/10 quality but bear in mind if you're not going for 100% completion it may seem pedestrian in placed.