Game Debate #125: Super Metroid

[Reed Rothchild | 9,577]

[Gloves | 11,826]

A really beautiful looking game (and series) that I can't seem to enjoy no matter how hard I try. 

[TDIRunner | 2,771]

Easy 10 for me.  It's one of my favorite games of all time.  I've completed it more times than I could count.  Super Metroid is as close to perfect as any game I can think of.  It's very difficult for me to come up with anything in the game that I don't care for.  I wish the game offered a boss rush mode and a more challenging difficulty setting (I know that hacks exist, but I'm not really into those).  I can beat the game in under 3 hours for the best ending, and I can complete it with 100% items, but unfortunately, I've never been able to do both in the same playthrough.  I think my best is around 3:20 with 100% items.  

Oddly enough, I can't seem to get into any other Metroid game.  Zero Mission is the closest for me, but even that game I've never technically completed.  I've gotten to the alien ship on two different playthroughs, but I loose interest at that point.  So even though the other games in the series don't do much for me, Super Metroid is something special.   

 

[ifightdragons | 234]

Super Metroid is pretty damn close to a timeless example of perfection in game design.

It's still the complete package, almost 30 years later.

I highly recommend the Super Metroid Redux patch, for an even better experience. It provides a lot of QOL features that makes a stellar game completely perfect.

 

 

[Brickman | 4,012]

Another 10/10 for me. 

Pretty much a perfect game, if that can even truely exist. 

[phart010 | 1,708]

13 minutes ago, Gloves said:

A really beautiful looking game (and series) that I can't seem to enjoy no matter how hard I try. 

[mbd39 | 2,029]

10/10, it is one of my all time favorites that I have completed on numerous occasions. Top notch music and atmosphere that makes you want to explore. As far as I know there isn't an analogous experience on the Genesis.

There are some small nitpicks that I noticed on my last run. The grappling hook is a bit annoying to use, and Maridia is a sluggish mess. But overall it's a 10. 

[Philosoraptor | 468]

I've played a bunch of Metroidvanias but I've never played a Castlevania or Metroid game. I keep worrying they won't live up to the hype.

[wongojack | 220]

10/10 from me.  The real clincher on a 10 is that I absolutely love the original Metroid (and Metroid Zero Mission), but Super Metroid is somehow better than all of them.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

I never had the game as a kid and I've probably only played it about 5 minutes as an adult so I have to go with "I'm interested" until I get around to actually playing it.

[Tanooki | 4,950]

Deserving of a 10 but I gave it a 9.   Why?  Because of the wording, it's not one of my favorites of all time, or even on the system either.  It's great, utterly fantastic, and not only really created a whole new for then feeling within a game, but laid down half the groundwork for the dumb genre it got half named into the metroidvania style of play.

The atmosphere in this game is nothing short of stunning, even now, but in 1994 holy hell that was untapped territory really on a console and with that I mean the combination of exploration, ambiance of the visuals, and the creeping sound effects coupled with great music that blends into the whole package.  That backed with some super solid core gameplay mechanics and equally tight controller handling for all the functions.  It never was too little, never was too much, and never like more recent Metroid games felt cumbersome and fiddly with button kung fu to pull off somewhat basic stuff like mercurysteam bungled into with 3DS and Switch.  It's just done right, you don't have the fight the controls as much if not more than the junk on screen just to play and enjoy yourself... your death is on your hands, not wonk design.  The game is outside of the intro basically wordless, textless, yet tells a story far better than most with a book worth of print.  That too says a lot, when you can craft something like that so well your story makes itself without having to be told to the reader (user/player in this case.)

I don't see a need to do a real review of this or get more detailed, I think that says more than enough.  Voted a 9, worthy of a likely 10 had that gibberish up there wasn't written next to it.

[Lynda Monica | 350]

I gave it a three.

I don't actually understand what makes Super Metroid so special, as most of Super Metroid is really boring to me. The farthest I ever got was beating Phantoon, and then giving up because I knew I was in for another hour of wandering around before anything fun happened again.

The original Game Boy version of Metroid II was gripping from start to finish, as the clear goal of how to progress was more fun to me. Metroid fights could be lurking in any room, which made the wandering sections more tense. Samus felt more like a badass in Metroid II because the whole game is exploring rooms to seek out dangerous battles, where in Super Metroid you kind of just stumble into bosses you weren't really looking for because they happen to be there.

People seem to love exploring in games, but I've always found getting lost to be annoying and boring.

I'm expecting a bunch of disagree emotes, but luckily I'm not trying to convince anyone that they should feel the same way. I'm just stating my experiences with the game, so don't get all mad over little ol' me.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Lynda Monica

[JamesRobot | 5,825]

3 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Deserving of a 10 but I gave it a 9.

So close!

[Brickman | 4,012]

56 minutes ago, JamesRobot said:

So close!

We'll get a 10 out of him one day! 

[JamesRobot | 5,825]

Gotta give it a 10.  And I'm not a Super Nintendo guy.  But there are certainly a few truly great games on the system and Metroid is in the top 3 somewhere.  Metroid, Zelda, and Mario are pretty interchangeable for the top slot on SNES.

Super Metroid is uniquely atmospheric in a way few other games achieve.  I might throw DOOM and a couple others on that list.  

Edited October 28, 2022 by JamesRobot

[DarkTone | 988]

9. Fantastic game. Really shows why the Snes is the greatest console ever. 

[OptOut | 8,892]

I used to like it more than I do now, I get kinda bored with all the back-tracking and stuff these days. A lot of the time you're kinda wondering what to do if you haven't played it in a while, I prefer a more streamlined experience. I'll give it an 8, personally, although in the past I might have given it a 9 or even a 10.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

23 minutes ago, OptOut said:

I used to like it more than I do now, I get kinda bored with all the back-tracking and stuff these days. A lot of the time you're kinda wondering what to do if you haven't played it in a while, I prefer a more streamlined experience. I'll give it an 8, personally, although in the past I might have given it a 9 or even a 10.

It's probably not a popular opinion, but I prefer linear games. Like @Lynda Monica said, I'm just not into the exploring and backtracking. It didn't bother me as much as a kid when I could sit down and put hours into a game, but now I just find it tedious. I'd rather play a game where I'm always going forward and making consistent progress.

[RH | 4,965]

This got a 9 from me but I 100% see why this deserves a 10.

As one who skipped the SNES/Genesis generation in his home (yeah, I was stuck playing my NES, Game Boy and Game Gear until I got an N64)  SNES games always amazed me and looked amazing but I only rarely got to play them on kiosks or rarely when I went to a friends house for a party or something like that.

Super Metroid would be off my radar because of that but when I got my Wii I decided to buy and download Super Metroid.  This is one of very few games that can take a while to beat (on your first, no-help playthrough that it is) that I beat as an adult.  I LOVED the experience.  I understood why many felt that it's the best Metroid game and if I was being objective and studied everyone 2D version, I'd likely come to that conclusion.  However, playing it as an adult I found it to be fun, but also something to remember and move on from.  I really enjoyed the experience but I'm not overly compelled to do it again.  That's a solid 9.

I do have much more of an affection for Metroid II, though.  It's funny @Lynda Monica that you mentioned you enjoyed that one better.  Though I do rank that one in my "10" list, part of it is because of the nostalgia of playing through that game multiple times and loving how it too crafted a story with pretty much no words.  However, due to the simplistic nature of the GB graphics, I found myself getting lost in that game more easily on the first few playthroughs than I did in my single playthrough of Super Metroid.  I guess we're all different, and that's cool.

Anyway SM is a great game.  I'd say "all should play it" for sure, especially if your like "Metroidvania"s as they are called now.  These aren't just the genesis of the genre.  This is a really stellar series and Super Metroid is the 2D Opus Magnum for Samus.

Edited October 28, 2022 by RH

[Tanooki | 4,950]

I prefer linear too, and maybe I'd think of it less nice, but being a life long (under Nintendo publishing) reader of Nintendo Power and having earned many guides yearly for free and others too, I had, have, the Super Metroid guide.  I'd refer to it at times when I didn't want to get lost going in circles.  I'm generally not a fan of open world stuff, or at least non-linear open enough to get stuck going in circles play either.  SM3 skated the line between both, it didn't dog leash you along like Fusion (metroid 4) and others have since, but it wasn't a dumpster fire of indecision that Metroid 1 was.  That's probably why when they redid 1 on GBA as Zero Mission, they ripped the SM3 playbook and slapped it on top to make it one amazing adventure with 1/2 the confusion.

SInce Metroid II is coming up, I consider it one of the worst, maybe bottom of all, but only because it just was a bit too confusing and easy to get lost for hours in circles despite the creeping growth of where you could go.  I largely blame it on the lack of color so it feels too samey, but also because how big the spaces are and how repetitive the tiles get, NO DAMNED MAP.  If that had been included I'd put it at one of the upper tier games in the franchise.  Same the shit show on 3DS was so awful when they remastered it, ugh...sold that one off with zero regrets.  Shame someone can't hack a map into the old GB game like how someone hacked Castlevania II on NES with an overworld map boosting it up to using a MMC chip.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Tanooki

[RH | 4,965]

14 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

SInce Metroid II is coming up, I consider it one of the worst, maybe bottom of all, but only because it just was a bit too confusing and easy to get lost for hours in circles despite the creeping growth of where you could go.  I largely blame it on the lack of color so it feels too samey, but also because how big the spaces are and how repetitive the tiles get, NO DAMNED MAP.  If that had been included I'd put it at one of the upper tier games in the franchise.  Same the shit show on 3DS was so awful when they remastered it, ugh...sold that one off with zero regrets.  Shame someone can't hack a map into the old GB game like how someone hacked Castlevania II on NES with an overworld map boosting it up to using a MMC chip.

I can definitely see this issue and a map would have helped a lot, but it also helps to have an exploration strategy.  I always followed the line of the walls/floor, and that can get you through the game.  There are very few internal "islands" so just tracing a path will get you through the game.  To me, it also helps me remember the outline of the landscape too.

 

[Strange | 1,700]

Near perfect if not perfect. I’m just stingy with 10s.

[mbd39 | 2,029]

I usually hate non-linear "Where do I go now?" type games, but Super Metroid gets it right. The auto-mapping and generous save points help.

 

 

[phart010 | 1,708]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

SInce Metroid II is coming up, I consider it one of the worst, maybe bottom of all, but only because it just was a bit too confusing and easy to get lost for hours in circles despite the creeping growth of where you could go.  I largely blame it on the lack of color so it feels too samey, but also because how big the spaces are and how repetitive the tiles get, NO DAMNED MAP. 

I figured this out when I was a kid.
Going down means you are going forward.
Going up means you are going backward.
Its not always obvious, but the game is similar to a straight line with some stops along the ways so no map was tolerable . 

[phart010 | 1,708]

11 hours ago, Lynda Monica said:

I gave it a three.

I don't actually understand what makes Super Metroid so special, as most of Super Metroid is really boring to me.

I found this offensive