Super Metroid (Super Nintendo, 1994)

I've played Super Metroid back when you could rent it, but I was unable to figure out what you were supposed to do, getting stuck in Norfair (needing to get the Varia Suit). With much more skill with games now, I decided to buy it so I could try again.

Yet, I got stuck in the same spot again. Thankfully, GameFAQs came to my rescue, but only used to get "unstuck". I got stuck again when it came to finding the grapple, but that was the last time. This made me begin to lose interest in the game.

Super Metroid is a fairly challenging game, especially the bosses. The case of having to find the dozens of secret passages adds considerably to the challenge (and is what caused me to get stuck twice). The bosses are interesting in their design and behaviors. Only 2 bosses in this game were a real pain. While I don't know their names, there's this 4-eyed thing that seems immune to damage except the lava it falls into (nice death effects!). I ended up getting game over twice because of it. The hardest boss was the main boss of Maridia, a lobster-like enemy. It's both powerful, hard to hit, and fast. Get hit by the gray goo and you're in real trouble. I got game over 6 times from this thing, even with 1299 in energy available (1099 plus 200 in reserve).

Throughout the game, you, as Samus Aran, go around shooting alien enemies on the planet Zebes (which is also the setting of the first Metroid). Along the way are various power ups such as missiles, bombs, super missiles, power bombs, energy tanks, and reserve energy tanks. Other powerups like suits (the varia suit), enhancers (the grapple), boots (hi-jump boots), beams (the weapon, wave beam), and various other things (morph ball) which are often required, though some are not required. Energy is like HP or health. You start with a maximum of 99 units of energy, but can be extended to up to 1499 with 400 in reserve (giving a sense of 1899 as a total). Each energy tank or reserve tank adds 100 to the maximum. Each pack of missles, super missiles, or power bombs adds 5 to the maximum, and you start with 0 of each. You have an unlimited supply of regular bombs.

My favorite element of Metroid is being able to access things you normally shouldn't have access to early. For example, having 599 in energy and 15 or so power bombs before first visiting Norfair is quite unusual. You'll have to figure out how you can do this but it can be done.

Aside from getting stuck and those two very difficult bosses, I enjoyed this game and I'm already wanting to play it again.

Overall (on a 1 to 5 scale, based on the time this game was made):
Difficulty: 2 - hard
Graphics: 4.5 - very good
Music: 3.5 - somewhat good (it fits the theme, but seems a bit dull (it isn't my type))
Sound: 5 - superior (very fitting and sounds quite realistic)
Game play: 4.5 - very good (it's fun getting access to things earlier than you're supposed to; it's the somewhat awkward controls that ruins it a little (especially the last half of the game)).
Story: 4 - good (although lacking story elements, what few there are, the story is still good (lower rating because the lack of depth))
Overall: 4 - good