Super Metroid (1994)

This Metroid entry is one of the defining games of the 16-bit era and remains one of the most influential titles ever created. The game refined nearly every idea introduced in earlier entries of the series and established a formula that countless games would later imitate. Even decades later, it still feels remarkably focused and confident in its design, offering an experience built around exploration, atmosphere, and gradual mastery rather than constant spectacle or hand-holding. Though it really shows that it is the first iteration of this idea, with less mature mechanics and less organic exploration, when compared to subsequent similar entries, at least when it comes to the classical 2D Metroid entries.

The MC is again Samus Aran, who returns to the planet Zebes after a dangerous creature known as a Metroid is stolen by the space pirate Ridley. What follows is a lonely journey through an interconnected alien world filled with hidden passages, hostile wildlife, ancient ruins, and mechanical laboratories. Dialogue is minimal, and much of the narrative is communicated through environmental storytelling and visual details. And while this narrative style perpetuates in the entire franchise, Super has the strongest feeling ot empty and loneliness. In later entries, there are more well developed dialogs, with interesting characters and even some plot twists. Great examples are Fusion and Zero Mission, with a lot of dialogs and good story-telling, as opposed to the almost completely mute Super.

One of the greatest strengths of this game is its world design. Zebes feels like a real place rather than a collection of disconnected levels. Areas loop back into one another naturally, and progression is tied to the discovery of upgrades that expand your movement and combat abilities. It cemented the most iconic upgrades for the entire series, such as the grappling hook and the different bomb types. Every major item feels meaningful because it permanently changes how you interact with the environment. Finding them opens previously unreachable paths and encourages revisiting earlier areas, and while this may sound very common nowadays, this was one of the first videogames to ever introduce this kind of mechanic. This structure creates a constant sense of curiosity and reward that remains satisfying from beginning to end.

The atmosphere is one of the game’s most impressive achievements, the OST shifts between eerie ambient tracks and intense battle themes, perfectly matching each environment. Just don't expect catchy and iconic song, it'll very much be more than enough if you like ambient music though. Quiet moments are allowed to breathe, creating tension and anticipation in a way many modern games rarely attempt. The pixel art is also exceptional, using detailed sprites and strong color palettes to make each region visually distinct. This was a huge technical advancement at the time since you could now distinguish areas clearly by their visuals. On previous titles, you needed to memorize them based on color-pallets. Despite the hardware limitations of the time, the world still feels immersive and alive.

The gameplay itself is responsive and surprisingly deep once fully understood. Samus controls with a certain weight that may initially feel unusual to modern audiences, but mastering her movement becomes extremely rewarding. So don't expect the same level of fluidity as recent subsequent entries. Or even the ones from portable consoles such as the GBA, which already has a more mature implementation of Samus' movement mechanics. The SNES entry feels much more grounded, and it really feels like controlling an armored character that has weight to it. Combat combines platforming precision with careful positioning, especially during boss fights. The bosses are memorable not only because of their designs but because they often feel like climactic tests of everything learned up to that point.

What truly elevates this entry beyond being simply a great SNES game is its long-lasting influence on the industry. The modern “Metroidvania” genre owes much of its identity to this game’s structure and philosophy. Titles such as Hollow Knight, Ori, and Symphony of the Night all carry ideas that were refined or popularized here. Its emphasis on exploration, nonlinear progression, and environmental storytelling became a blueprint for generations of developers. The community also has a big role on this whole genre, creating fanmade titles such as AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) which I consider one of the best metroidvanias I've ever played. Fun fact: the developer of AM2R was hired by the Ori team to help with level-design for the Will of Whisps title.

Even with its age, this title remains remarkably playable today, some controls and interface elements reflect its era, but the core experience still feels polished and purposeful. The game trusts you to observe, experiment, and get lost, which gives exploration a genuine sense of discovery. Rather than overwhelming you with constant objectives and signposting, it allows the atmosphere and level design to carry the experience naturally. Though I got to admit that, this is the least polished Metroid I've played when it comes to the initial difficulty curve. You can easily get yourself soft-locked if you don't follow a certain upgrade path, which happens way less often in future entries of the series.

Despite all that, Super Metroid continues to deserve its legendary reputation. It is not merely important from a historical perspective, it is still genuinely engaging, atmospheric, and rewarding to play. For those that like Metroidvanias to any extent, this is an absolute must-play masterpiece. It remains an essential experience and one of the greatest achievements of the 16-bit generation. That being said, I still enjoyed playing Fusion and Zero Mission a bit more, since they are not as hard as Super. But when it comes to experiencing the foundational game which still inspires a lot of the gaming industry, even today, there is no match for this SNES Metroid entry. And lastly, while I consider myself a veteran of this genre, this was one of the hardest titles for me when it comes to the exploration, I still need to put some more effort into 100% it.

1. Atmosphere and music sometimes feels like a survival horror game
2. Exploration and overall map connectivity make it super addictive
3. I can't co-sign some of the floaty platforming
4. Annoying ass wall jump and screw attack jump mechanics

If this game had pixel perfect precision platforming like Mega Man, and the epic alien boss fights as Contra 3 this would be a masterpiece (to me). I can see why it's still a classic to others and I really loved my time exploring. To hell with that wall jump tho!

Again Nintendo stepped up their game with even further refinements from both Metroid 1 and 2. This time, Samus finally feels more fluid (it's not perfect mind you). In fact, this is arguably Samus' best moveset in any Metroid game (I haven't played any of the 2.5 D Metroids mind you). Having access to the space jump, the shinespark movements and the Speedbooster. All of these combined give Samus her most robust moveset (that I have played so far. I hear Dread is pretty good). It's immensely satisfying starting off as a clunky intrepid explorer then ending the game as a super powered wrecking ball. Quite literally. Space jumping through rooms with the screw attack is immensely satisfying after getting your ass stomped into the ground for hours beforehand.

This game is also quite non-linear. There are road blocks, much like A Link To The Past, but often you have multiple choices of where you want to go next. Not to mention, that the design is so tight, there are plenty of opportunities for sequence breaking. Both intentional and unintentional. Once you learn how to shinespark or wall jump, suddenly power-ups that looked like they needed a higher jump or some traversal power up can be acquired with the hard to pull off wall jump. Giving you that extra boost. This is slick design and certainly rewards you on a replay.

That all said, there still are flaws. The grappling hook is not only redundant, but also very finicky and clumsy to use. I never really got good at it. It's hard to swing yourself, then midair precise aim at a block and cling on. It never felt good. Then once you get space jump, there's no reason to even bother with the grappling hook. Since the space jump, I found to be more reliable and faster anyways. It certainly takes practice, but once it clicks, it becomes the superior option. I also didn't realize that the shoulder buttons allow you to aim diagonally up or down... that's on me. it made my run artificially harder. There are plenty of instances (most bosses in fact) where you need to shoot diagonally up. Since I didn't realize the shoulder buttons did this for me. I had to always move while aiming diagonally, since I had to tilt the joystick. This meant aiming on narrow platforms was very janky since I could fall off easily. Womp Womp. Again totally on me. Would have made the game easier.

That aside, it does feel smooth especially when compared to Metroid 1 and 2. The game is very action focused and most enemies go down quickly. Maintaining a breakneck pace for most of the game. The exception here are with the bosses. Each boss is absurdly tanky. With Ridley requiring something like 200 charged shots to kill! Given Super missiles and missiles hit him much harder, but that still gives you an idea of how absurdly tanky these bosses can be. Bosses are often not too hard, aside from being endurance tests. It's good you can beat all bosses with charged shots, it still sucks it takes so many charged shots to beat them. So boss fights are tough, but mostly due to how tanky they are and how some attacks can just be pretty awkward to avoid. That said, no bosses ever broke my enjoyment of the game. But if they cut all their health by half, I think the game would have been better for it.

Aside from a more robust moveset and being able to aim diagonally, down and crouch fire and returning save stations, the biggest quality of life improvement was the inclusion of a map! Finally! The map intentionally doesn't include all paths, so there will still be secrets for you to discover, but the map makes it far more easier to navigate. The map is huge too, so it's a great addition. The only quality of life missing is an easy warp between the different biomes. But that's not really a big deal. Would have been nice, but no deal breaker.

Another aspect of the game that feels like a big improvement are with the art direction and music. The game looks fantastic and is brimming with atmosphere. It's kind of a double edged sword that you are revisiting the planet from the first game. It's cool, having just played through Metroid for the first time recently, seeing key areas from the first game. The morph ball and an early hidden energy tank from the first game are in the same exact spots, which is pretty neat. The game certainly expands the world from metroid 1, making it still feel fresh, but still, there really isn't a reason for a metroid game to not occur on another planet. Samus is a bounty hunter after all! We can have some more variety in her missions. This isn't really a criticism, per say, the game still works and delivers in spades on the atmosphere and level design.

Aside from being able to sequence break and the general higher focus on non-linear exploration, another brilliant aspect to the game's design is how very often I would feel like I was stuck, to only find there was an actual way out. In fact, everytime I thought I was stuck, there turned out to be a hidden power up or way forward. Sure these could be hidden in very obtuse places, which felt a bit cheap, but there was a way out and that speaks to the quality of the level design and foresight of the devs.

While Super Metroid doesn't re-invent the wheel with any fresh innovations, it's a very refined experience and made so many improvements over the first two games. It's a pity the Metroid series never sells that well, compared to Mario, Pokemon or Zelda, but even if it did these games seem to be pretty challenging to develop for. It's really hard to make a game this complex and non-linear while also being fun to explore. The controls can still feel a bit clunky, the bosses are definitely too tanky, but still a great game.

I can't imagine how much this game would have blown me away as a kid. I was more in the Mario wing of the SNES and wasn't even aware of Metroid until prime was releases on the GameCube. The amount of fun this game still is is just amazing.

I have two major complaints that are more a product of it being an old game. First, some of the controls are just absolute garbage. Learning to wall jump was a lesson in patience, and there were plenty of other SNES games that didn't make Wal jumping so painful. Secondly, the amount of backtracking and just blowing up random walls to find stuff and move on is not my idea of fun. If there was some visual cue that showed something could be done without having to manually switch to the scanner would have been much better.

I still had a lot of fun with this game and I'm glad I finally got this ofd my bucket list!

Super Metroid has long been on my list of games to visit. I played Castlevania Symphony of the Night earlier last year and loved it, so I felt it would be a good fit.

There is a lot to love about Super Metroid, the artwork is really cool, and the bosses are unique and present new challenges with each fight. I enjoyed the various power-ups I got and felt like the difficulty ramped up at an achievable pace, until the end...

Super Metroid, while a platformer, doesn't have the player dying repeatedly from failing jumps, which I really appreciated.

The music is just ok, which I found surprising, but the rest of the game is well enough put together I didn't mind. Overall it's obviously a gaming classic for a reason; however, it is also a game I found myself only rarely enjoying.

While the gameplay is tight, it relies on a maze-like level layout, with many MANY secret passageways and floors, many of which you need to find to move on. This was exceedingly frustrating for me, and I found I had to have a walkthrough up to move forward much at all.

With the walkthrough though, I often hit a groove and really enjoyed the first 2/3rds of the game. As more and more of the game clicked I found I needed the walkthrough less, and as I found the bosses easier to beat I felt I didn't need to do every little secret passage the walkthrough mentioned, I'm not a completionist, and since this section wasn't super challenging I should be fine right....

(This next part of my review is rambling and contains some spoilers, but gets to the heart of my feelings on this game)

Then I hit the last 2/3rds of the game. First a LOT of the ability to move forward, not just find secrets, but literally continue with the game, relies on a janky spin jump, which I partially sucked at using, and partially I think doesn't work right. It's supposed to let Samus extend her jump to help leap up columns and passageways; however, I spent at least thirty minutes getting halfway to my goal and then Samus would stand up cancelling all my momentum, very frustrating.

To have many of the final parts of the game rely on this mechanic, which was wonky at best, created a tedious end game for me. After literally an hour of failing spin jumps, to succeed, loudly cheer, and then realize it brought me to another similar challenge, I was growing tired of the game.

But the end was in sight, I had to beat ripley and the mother brain and I was home free.

Ripley was tough, like exceedingly tough, I only had 4 energy tanks, and 16 super missiles, which apparently is fair less than recommended, but equipped with the rewind function on my Switch, and save states, and about an hour of retries, I managed to beat him (with minimal rewinds in that showdown) and felt great! I was sad to find out this wasn't the final boss, but hey one last stretch right?

Onto Mother Brain!!!! I grew a little worried since Ripley was SO difficult, and I felt under-equipped, so Mother Brain would probably be worse, but I'd rather just rewind a bunch and beat Mother Brain than enter the collect-a-thon of energy tanks by retracing hours of steps of gameplay (and having to risk those awful spin jump barriers).

I got to the fight, figured her pattern out, and felt pretty good, then she did her auto hit rainbow attack, removing auto 300 damage, instant killing me. I tried like 9 more times, but could not take less damage on the route to Mother Brain, much less once the fight started, to have over 300 HP once that beam attack happened. The attack was impossible to dodge as well-meaning I had two options, I could call it quits, or I could spend hours retracing my steps, going through the maze levels collecting energy tanks.... I ended up calling it quits.

This final design really, really bothered me. If you need at least 6 tanks to even have a chance to get past Mother Brain, why not make that easier to achieve? Or make her big attack able to miss? I felt like I was led to believe through the difficulty of the early and middle game, and my ease of beating earlier bosses, that I had plenty of health, so this felt like a bait and switch.

I didn't beat Super Metroid, despite struggling and getting through to basically the end.

If I hadn't had a walkthrough open, I would have found even fewer secrets... I had to conclude this just wasn't a game for me. I can see why it's considered a gaming classic, and why so many people love it. But for me, someone who isn't a completionist, and doesn't enjoy having to collect every little thing along the way I left feeling disappointed.

Overall, I get why people like it, but between me just being bad at the game, it being a style I don't normally play, and some things which felt like design problems to me, I did not enjoy Super Metroid :(.

I'm playing Super Metroid for the first time. I have a few questions:

• How can Samus fit in that hamster ball
• How can Samus roll in that hamster ball without injuring herself or getting sick and dizzy
• How can Samus see while rolling in that hamster ball
• How can Samus fit so many grenades in that hamster ball
• Why is the alien base full of hamster ball-sized tubes and passageways

And why is her jump so bad

I regretfully never owned this game. I did beat it at least twice while renting it back in the 90s. I got the player's guide book for it for free from Nintendo Power back in the day and of course I specifically rented it again to 100% complete the game.

This game has some of the best atmosphere and storytelling ever. Even now over 20 years later I remember many of the scenes and environments. Most memorable of all is the first time I finished the game; feeling good about finally defeating Mother Brain only to hear the self destruct time limit come on and then the feeling of anxiety and sweaty palm as I told myself not to screw this up. Truly one of the best games of all time.

Update 2021:

Played through the entire game on emulator. It was a nostalgic experience, and a lot of fun. I did find some of the platforming annoying (especially the grappling beam) and was glad to have save states. I did get kinda stuck after getting power bombs because I forgot where I could use them. I eventually found it. I did get stuck in the wall jump and shine super jump training areas because it was not really clear how to time the button presses; I did look up a move guide to learn how. After I was able to use ice beam, wall jumps and bomb jumps to reach some places I was not meant to go yet, including a 1 way ticket to the x ray scope; nope don't have enough health to make it back out. By the end I had found most power ups. I had like 170/230 missiles, 45/50 super missiles, 50/50 power bombs, and was missing 2 energy tanks, 1 reserve tank and the spring ball. I knew where a few of those were but was not sure how to get them. I then read a walkthrough to find everything except 1 missile upgrade. 99% item completion. Good enough. I really don't feel like tracking down the 1 thing I missed. Then I beat the final boss, failed to escape in time twice, and then managed to save the animals and escape with like 6 seconds to spare. I know for a fact that I got out 1st try as a kid. I think what got me this time was a long fall after a platforming fail, on top of all the little fails and going the wrong way.

Still one of the best games of all time. I love the attention to detail and sense of wonder in the exploration. The cool things you can do without the game telling you about the possibility, further enhancing the sense of wonder and discovery. The creepy, foreboding and isolated atmosphere. The challenging but fair gameplay.

9.5+/10