Super Metroid's fucking good, isn't it?

[Pink Gregory]

After a self-enforced break from Yakuza, I've decided to pick up Super Metroid; not my first metroidvania but my first Metroid.

Oh my.

This is incredible.  Everything feels so *precise*.  I haven't found anything that I felt didn't work or was too finnicky to work with the controls.  I've not even got stuck, which is a rarity for me.

But I also feel that this is something that I could have only appreciated fully now; not when I was  an adolescent playing games for 4-5 hours a day, or when I first got an old SNES off a family friend and I was scared of the puffer fish in Donkey Kong Country 2.  There's almost a mature confidence to it that's impressing me.

Hit me at the right time?  Don't know.  It's an excellent time.

[Pink Gregory]

Finished it.  Felt a bit dumb that I had to look up how to Shinespark/Wall Jump even though the game does quite a good job of showing you the movements.  Probably because I'm using an analogue stick.

Remained good, I liked it.  72% items, something like 8 hours clear time. 

[Consignia]

I played Fusion, Zero Mission, and Super (in that order) after finishing Dread. I think it's because I wasn't an OG Metroid fan, but I found Super the most frustrating despite having loads clearly great stuff in it. I liked it but didn't love it like pretty much all the others. It's mostly down to quality of life stuff, such as tighter controls, better maps, etc. in later games. Definitely superficial but enough to make harder for me to appreciate.

I mean it's clearly a game ahead of it's time, and such as vast improvement on the NES iteration (don't know about 2).

[Pink Gregory]

See I started with the earliest one I could muster - Zero Mission exists and I imagine the original NES Metroid is a bit of an exercise in frustration in comparison - for that very reason.

Maybe the only thing I could criticise is that Maridia is a bit of a brick wall in terms of pacing, the boss fights aren't great; having to switch between missiles/bombs/grapple beam/xray with what is universally a bad button in a linear fashion is the most frustrating.

Other than that I can't really fault the controls, other than not being more responsive than the SNES could manage.

[Pink Gregory]

This thread again, right, but Metroid Fusion.

It does lose a little bit in organic exploration, probably because it's simply a smaller map but dear god it's such a leap ahead of Super Metroid in terms of controls.  No more having to mash the select button.

Bosses are loads better as well, very generous with giving you E-tanks, I've died 5-10 times but that was from carelessness.

[Famous Mortimer]

I keep playing the very first Metroid and after usually ten minutes, I'm disgusted at my own inability to recognise the patterns and avoid the things so I turn it off. It's pretty amazing considering how old it is though.

[popcorn]

I played Super Metroid for the first time 10 years ago and it blew me away. The depth of the level design and the attention to mood seemed so far ahead of its time. I'd already played Prime, Zero and Fusion by this point, and as much as I adore them (and I really do!) something about Super Metroid is grander and more mysterious than any of them.

Definitely agreed that the later 2D Metroids benefit from the quality-of-life stuff, and there are a few control problems with Super Metroid that end up as needless obstacles - most infamously the Noob Bridge - no one realises there's a run button.

[Pink Gregory]

The run button does seem a bit pointless.
 
If you're doing a long run over a flat terrain (ie not being interrupted) there are so few times that you wouldn't want to use the speed boost that you'd think the approach of it happening automatically would be the ideal choice. 

Never did like a run or speed boost being on a face button.  Still struggle with it a bit in 2D Marios.

[Pink Gregory]

Forgot that game demos existed so tried out Metroid Dread.  Dead impressed, although I really struggled to go from Metroid Fusion back to a four button control scheme, bit annoying that you can't remap the buttons but I'm sure I can get used to it.

[Kelvin]

Forgot that game demos existed so tried out Metroid Dread.  Dead impressed, although I really struggled to go from Metroid Fusion back to a four button control scheme, bit annoying that you can't remap the buttons but I'm sure I can get used to it.

Putting aside the actual gameplay, which I loved, I think Dread might be one of the best controlling games I've played in recent years. Its feels unbelievably smooth, the way movement flows from one manoeuvre into the next. I honestly think that's my favourite thing about it.

Here's a speed runner showing off some of the incredible versatility and fluidity of a bunch of late game movement techniques. No major spoilers if you've played the other Metroid games, but it does show off a bunch of late game moves in an early level:

Lovely stuff.

[Pink Gregory]

Finished Metroid Fusion by the way.  Only like 60% item completion, didn't even get all the energy tanks.  Something like 8-12 hours as well.

Freaks my nut out that it's possible to 100% it in 2 hours (being that there's an ending screen for it, Samus in her little pants or whatever).  Something I am comfortable that I will never do.

Again, fantastic.  A bit more linear than Super but very much to its advantage.