My Metroid Journey

[Mases]

A few years back I had a long chat with Andy, out Editor-in-Chief at Zelda Dungeon, and also the owner of 'Omega Metroid', the video game website and podcast, dedicated to Metroid. I made a promise that I'd play through the first 4 Metroid games. Well, it has been 3 years, and I'm just about done with game #3. My thoughts so far...

-Metroid (NES) - As an NES connoisseur, how I never played this makes no sense. I've played literally 100's of NES games and this one alluded me. Nevertheless, I finally got around to playing it and well... it's okay... The game has not aged well. It's cryptic, confusing where to go, and honestly, not incredibly fun to play. I ended up using an issue of Nintendo Power magazine to guide me through. Though with the guide in hand, it just wasn't too exciting.

I feel like I this would be fun if I was 7 years old, there was no internet, and I had unlimited time on my hands. By 2022 standards, this game set the foundation for an entire genre, but it is not a good game. I've said this, kind of as a joke, but the more I think about it, I really mean it. I don't think Metroid is one of the Top 50 NES games to play today. It's worth by standards is its legacy, not its fun-factor to play.



-Metroid 2 (G - I think this was an improvement over Metroid. The world wasn't nearly as confusing as it was more sectioned off. Reach a new region and you can do everything in that region. You don't need to backtrack to a previous area. The game was still cryptic, but not as much. It does suffer from being an early GB game, with no color. Nevertheless, a good successor to Metroid and I thinka better game.



-Super Metroid (SNES) - This is a good game. Significantly better than any of the first two. It's not even close. The basic mechanics, especially early in the game are fun. That said, as you progress, it does get a bit complicated to play. I feel some of the later game mechanics, I could never consistantly get working and at times I wonder if I missed a tutorial or if I was missing an item. I can't wall jump to save my life, and using the grapple beam was very frustrating. Jumping in the sand is so tedious and even now, I can't tell you how it works. I can't consistantly use the Space Jump either.

I do feel like there is a LOT, and I mean, a LOT of little secrets and backtracking, as well as entire areas that are optional. However, the game doesn't guide you and you don't know what's required and what's optional. Lots of locations lead to Missle Upgrades or other inventory upgrades that feel a bit meaningless with how many there are. Lots of stuff is stll cryptic, but at least there is an in-game map.

Super Metroid is Fun. It's a good game and one of the better SNES games I've played. I fortunately played this on the Switch with rewind feature. Some parts drove me insane and if it wasn't for that feature, I don't think I would have gotten through the game. I was initially only using it for parts I really struggled with, but by the end of the game, I used it for everything. Tough enemies, bosses, and navigation. In the final analysis, I think this game is good, but it's flawed. This is a great game, but I feel like it's just overrated. I don't think it stacks up with some of the other upper-echelon SNES games.


My ranking so far... Super Metroid > Metroid II > Metroid.

I'm excited to play Metroid Fusion. I'm hoping with such a large gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, the gameplay is more tight and less frustrating. It seems that most 2D Metroid fans love Super Metroid, but there are certainly some Fusion lovers how there too, so I'm anxious to see how it stacks up.

 

[VikzeLink]

Fusion was the first one I ever played. It's quite creepy and has a more active storytelling. I've not played the original Metroid, but I did play the remake, Zero Mission, which I think you'd probably enjoy more.
As for the other 2, I've yet to touch them at all

 

[Turo602]

I think Super is a game you'll come to appreciate the more you get a feel for the series. Navigation can be a little confusing in some of the later parts and the grapple beam is a little clunky, but overall, it's definitely deserving of all of the acclaim it gets, especially during its time.

There are things the series has improved on since, which you'll definitely take notice of with Fusion and Zero Mission (which were actually my introduction to the series), that'll make Super feel a bit dated by comparison. Which was similar to my experience with A Link to the Past after having grown up playing Minish Cap first. Not necessarily overrated or bad by even today's standards, but still products of their time.

I can't even imagine going back to the NES Metroid or even Metroid II which personally don't do the series any favors. Super Metroid got the formula right and the leap from Metroid and Metroid II is incredible. Unfortunately, the genre isn't really for everyone as the games typically expect a little more from the player.

Luckily for me, the games I started with, being Fusion and Zero Mission, offered a much more guided experience that quite honestly serve as great introductions to the series. I know as I've grown and immersed myself with Metroid over the years, I've come to appreciate the ways games in the Metroidvania genre are designed because they often don't tell you what to do, yet invisibly guide you through the world and teach you things in subtle ways that you constantly get that light bulb just going off in your head as you subconsciously figure things out and it's something I've noticed more and more with every playthrough and even during my first foray with Dread last year. Kinda like how once you learn about film and editing, you can start seeing the strings and cogs spinning in the films you watch.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

I'm guessing you were committed in doing them by original release? B/c Zero Mission just outright replaces the original that I think anyone who wants to see the series beginnings should start w/ that instead, and heck it even includes the original as an unlockable

 

[thePlinko]

I still had fun playing the original Metroid, but by all accounts it’s literally just a diet Super Metroid. Theres really no reason to ever go back to it. I’d say the same thing about Zero Mission too despite the fact that it released after Super. Pretty much everything that you could get out of playing either of those games, you will get out of playing Super and then some. Zero Mission is also incredibly hand-holdy, and shoehorns in this awful stealth segment at the end.

Metroid 2 is still pretty fun imo, I like it far more than its (official) remake for what it’s worth. It’s just not something that I’m scrambling to replay.


Super is a masterpiece. One of the greatest games ever created, and for reasons that just haven’t been replicated in the series since outside of maybe Prime. The way the game gives you a linear system of progression yet subtly gives hints about how that progression can be broken is amazing, and something that is sorely missing in modern Metroid and especially Zelda. There are major items that you can completely skip, some by design, some not. The game never tells you which ones or how, it respects the player’s ability to figure that out for themselves. It’s a brilliant game that does a better job rewarding player knowledge and creativity than nearly any other game that I’ve ever played.

Fusion is… good. It definitely sacrificed a lot of what made Super so amazing for a much more streamlined and easy to understand game, and the result is something that manages to tell a pretty good story with some great scripted moments, but with a progression thats much more strictly linear.

And then Dread is very much Fusion again, though with the progression slightly less strict, which is absolutely a good thing.

 

[Mases]

I'm guessing you were committed in doing them by original release? B/c Zero Mission just outright replaces the original that I think anyone who wants to see the series beginnings should start w/ that instead, and heck it even includes the original as an unlockable

Yes - I think i wanted to experience the series as it was released. That's the goal.

Plus, as a HUGE NES fan and collector, it was a glaring whole in my gaming history, why I hadn't played Metroid. That said, I DO plan on playing Zero Mission, after Fusion. I think I'm going to break the order of the games, for that.

 

[Turo602]

That said, I DO plan on playing Zero Mission, after Fusion. I think I'm going to break the order of the games, for that.

Actually, that's correct. Fusion released in 2002 and Zero Mission in 2004.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

Yes - I think i wanted to experience the series as it was released. That's the goal.

Plus, as a HUGE NES fan and collector, it was a glaring whole in my gaming history, why I hadn't played Metroid. That said, I DO plan on playing Zero Mission, after Fusion. I think I'm going to break the order of the games, for that.

I can get that, though I think for a better player experience, it would be best to go for a remake first then check out the original if you really want to, granted this depends on the remake but I certainly think this applies to Metroid

 

[Mases]

Actually, that's correct. Fusion released in 2002 and Zero Mission in 2004.

I meant that as in... I think I'm going to play Zero Mission before touching Metroid Prime.

 

[thePlinko]

I meant that as in... I think I'm going to play Zero Mission before touching Metroid Prime.

Does that mean you’re also planning on playing Samus Returns and Dread before Prime too?

 

[Mases]

Does that mean you’re also planning on playing Samus Returns and Dread before Prime too?

At this point, I plan on playing Metroid Fusion and then I think Zero Mission. I don't really have ideas of playing anything beyond that yet. I'm kind of really taking my sweet time on this, so that will last me awhile.

I'm not too anxious to play Metroid Prime.