Metroid (1987)

Finally getting around to the Metroid series. This has a very similar feel to the first Legend of Zelda, but is a side-scroller centered on exploration and getting lost all the time. Samus's upgrades make great use of the NES's limited amount of buttons with missiles, the morph ball, bombs, the Screw Attack, and the Freeze/wave beams.

I love the atmosphere of this game, and while I got lost all the time, that helped add immersion to the experience. The music was also great. There's a great variety of enemies and ways to discover new pathways that I appreciated. Naturally, there are definitely some flaws. Getting hit between rooms is unacceptable, and it happened way more than it should have. Refilling energy is extremely tedious as you're constantly just Screw Attacking and despawning enemies to run back and do it again. People also mention that the difficulty is punishing, and I didn't agree...until the final boss. Brutal. However, I have to appreciate from a design standpoint that a final boss that literally can't move is still so challenging.

While I didn't grow up playing this game, it reminded me of my first time playing Legend of Zelda since it has that open-world "feel" and exploration focus. And while I know all about Samus as a character, I'm sure that ending reveal hit hard in the 80s. I look forward to playing more of these games, and I can see the hype!

The discourse around this game is baffling. If I'd listened to the current Internet consensus, then I would have avoided all but a handful of NES games, because they're apparently unfun, dated junk.

I decided to give the original Metroid a shot anyway, and I'm floored. This game is spectacular. Some of the music tracks are among the best I've ever heard. The atmosphere is as thick as butter. The world is enormous and labyrinthian. I felt a sense of vertigo uncovering side passage after side passage in areas I'd previously explored, realizing the map was at least double the size than I'd previously thought.

People are playing this game wrong. Don't use a guide, just read the manual. Be frustrated, and learn the game. This isn't a walk in the park. This is an expedition to a hostile alien fortress.

I feel conflicted about this one. As a kid we had Metroid, and I know my father beat it. I played it a ton...except it was just me running in circles shooting things. I never collected ANY powerups except Maru Mari and the bombs. So this game always haunted me.

I bought the book "Playing with Power" which contains guides for old NES games. There was no way I was going to beat Metroid without a guide at this stage in my life. I just wanted to see it front to back and put it to bed. And I did. I beat it over the weekend. I was having fun collecting powerups and finally experiencing how the game flows when played properly. But once I got to Ridley's Lair the game started to go from a fun platformer to a game with some straight up bullshit. I understand game design was different back then, so I can forgive it. I wasn't miserable playing, but in both Ridley and Kraid's included aspects that were pretty annoying. But, again, it was fine. Then I got to Tourian. Metroids themselves are cool. But you know what's not cool? The random drop rate on missiles. I died on Mother Brain a couple times, and each time I had to farm missiles from Metroids again. Sure, when they drop missiles they drop like 20 at a time. Except when they don't drop missiles. I had 117 missiles and wanted to max out before going to Mother Brain. While farming for more missiles (and you need missiles to kill Metroids), I used ALL 117 MISSILES I HAD and only got 3 drops...which means I ran out of missiles in Tourian. I had to go back to Brinstar, farm missiles on those infinite spawn guys (who give 2 at a time) until I had maybe 40, then go back to Tourian and pray I got better luck. Turns out I DID get better luck, and was able to max out my missiles. I then made a save state (was playing on my RetroPie) right outside Mother Brain's door. I died once, loaded the save once (the only time I used save states) and beat her on the second try.

It feels hollow because I really didn't want to use save states. And I was extremely frustrated at the end there. Like white hot angry at this whole situation. Also, Mother Brain's room is straight up bullshit. I know, I know, in an age where everyone is a master at everything the response is always "wTf iTs SoOo EaSy ThO" but I just wanted to beat this game once and put it down. I'm not going to practice at a game I don't plan on playing again. And I wanted to play only with a paper guide, because it reminded me of the old days.

But in some ways we grew out of the old days for a reason. I'll give Metroid a 3/5, because I really did appreciate it for what it represented at the time. I think my missile crisis at the end was a fluke, and not necessarily indicative of how the game was intended to function.

OK the energy tank in the hallway having a trap was actually a good one. I was already full on energy tanks but that is hilarious, well played game.

Also finished my first run! Did it in 2:15. Mother Brain was heavily annoying and I never realized how scary the Metroids are without Ice Beam even if they're very fleeting (like... 4 rooms?). I'm going to go for a speed time to get under an hour and then end it there.

Not a fun game, and it's not just limitations and the time of release. Movement is super restrictive and everything feels like it lags. I appreciate the violent alien atmosphere that thinks Samus should leave and the disorientation it tries for, but it is so unfun to play and how combat is just "tank the damage and hope for the best" is grueling.

I have no idea how speedrunners beat Kraid, seems like he covers all options in terms of movement and there's no way NOT to get hit. I just tanked damage and bombed and missiled and waved as much as I could and survived with like 90 health. Felt like I cheesed it.

Really, really wish you could switch beams like you switch to missile mode. Also, dear god there are rooms that look exactly the same, with barely a difference other than one has a wall and one doesn't. You really do need to write yourself a map to get around. It just feels like it doesn't fit in a game of sci-fi where Samus has a suit with a visor that could probably give it SOME kind of map, as opposed to La-Mulana where the guy is literally an archaeologist who writes on maps, or Zelda 1 where you're a kid on an adventure. I know the NES has limitations but it also has the capability to make rooms more distinct than this based on other games.

Locking missiles behind different beams so you have to track through more monotonous areas just to get a replacement is insanely annoying, I don't know why I didn't just give up there.

Norfair sucks. It is easily slower to traverse than Brinstar because you are jumping and platforming way more and Samus sucks to maneuver with. Why do people like this game again?

I'm taking the Wave Beam with me to Kraid. I've been told there are like 4 strategies and I didn't choose the easiest or the hardest. Wish me luck.

To the people who played this game without any map or guide to help you out, I'm happy you're built different, but also is it a product of cope, because these walls all look the fucking same and I'm known with being good with directions and I still got lost, which is a first!

Got terrified by the things that show up in some item rooms if you leave and come back. Yeah they barely do any damage but it looked like a fucking glitch

This game is painfully slow. The movement hurts and genuinely is kinda unfun to play.

Wall jump glitch is fun though.

Metroid Rogue Dawn mod.

This is a fan made total conversion of the original Metroid that tells a fanfiction story of the events leading up to the original game. I am a bit dubious about the character you play as since it seems pretty convenient to have essentially a dark Samus. One online source said she was a kidnapped and brainwashed human while another said she was an android built to mimic Samus. Not sure which is true but it is a way to play as a character with the same classic abilities. Though it seems weird for her to be able to morph ball while only wearing a zero suit. About half the game takes place with that zero suit while the other times she wears an environment suit, and she switches back and forth depending on the environment. She never gets sweet power armor like Samus.

I beat it in just under 5 hours with 81% item completion; 6 spare energy tanks and 215 missiles. I did most of the water caverns, federation ship, 1st boss and got to the jungle before I got stuck. That boss was tough but fair and entirely novel compared to the official ones. Now having gotten past getting stuck I know what I missed and don't think I actually needed to backtrack for the wall jump and spring ball. I was not able to find a walkthrough but I did find a map with all items listed, which I used casually to help keep track. I got all of the powerups including ice and wave beams, which work together! I never bothered to go back and fully check the water caves and federation ship after so that is where my missed missiles probably were. I did find some of the Easter egg secrets, which were cool. I am guessing there was no gameplay advantage for finding them. Then I went back for the jungle and completed that. The 2nd boss was dissapointing because it was just Kraid with a new skin, and there were already a few optional regular enemies just like that. The boss version seemed to have more hp, but I think they should have designed something new or made you fight 2 or even 3 of those Kraids at the same time. That would have been an appropriate challenge, but with the wave and ice beams it was trivial to freeze every projectile and wreck him. 3rd boss was interesting and novel. Seemed like it could only be hurt by missiles but was only high enough to hit while moving around. I tried to bomb it while it was on the ground but seemed to do no damage. A boss that incorporates bomb mechanics would have been cool. Then on to the final stretch of the game. Lots of Metroids to fight, and in more challenging situations than the original game. A few times it was difficult to tell where I could go due to the stuff; organic Metroid stuff or whatever it is. According to the map I missed a couple secrets there, but no powerups. Looks like an easter egg that probably requires very tricky platforming involving freezing Metroids to climb up. Tried a couple times but nah, skip. The other was just a shortcut with a healing station and effigy. Final boss was mechanically the same as Mother Brain only without those annoying turrets, and add a respawning Metroid. It was easy enough to keep everything frozen and I found it easier than MB, losing only 2 energy tanks. I failed the escape afterwards by like 2 seconds due to too many platforming screw ups. I feel the default speed of my emulator (60 frames per second) is probably too fast and I lowered it to 20 for bosses and that platforming at the end.

I was very impressed with this game. Excellent level design, including puzzles, platforming and combat. Excellent graphics and music. I especially liked how natural and believable the environments were, not having doors for every area transition. Though sometimes I accidentally zoned back and forth, and occasionally even enemies came with me. None of that lame copy pasted rooms like the original and an actual in game map that shows your position. All of the map is revealed in the beginning though, and it shows the location of every major powerup. Not sure how good or bad that is. The map does not change to reflect where you have been and secret areas never show on the map. I was impressed with the new mechanics; wall jumping, water, refill stations and ball jumping, and feel the game is about on par with Super Metroid. The only major flaw is lack of short cuts to travel between the major areas and to the more tricky to reach deeper areas, which would make backtracking to find missed powerups less tedious. Still a must play masterpiece.

9.5/10

Beat with all powerups found; 6 extra energy tanks and 255 missiles. I remember renting this in the 90s but never got into it. No idea how far I got but pretty sure I gave up within minutes after seeing how hard it was to navigate. This time I used a map. I started off by exploring Brinstar and making notes about what ways I could not progress. I then went into Kraid's hideout, which was a bad idea; massive difficulty spike. By the time I got to him I only had 1 spare energy tank and 15 missiles. I had to lower the game speed to 20 frames per second and was hiding out near the door. I noticed a pattern where every 3rd attack he would not shoot the bottom spike and sometimes his projectiles were spread out enough that a perfectly timed jump would avoid damage, hit him with a shot, then get back by the door without exiting. But this was too unreliable and required extreme save state scumming. I then froze all projectiles except the bottom spike and finished him off with beam attacks. On the plus side I now had 100+ missiles.

Next off to Norfair to get high jump and screw attack. I tried out the wave beam but did not like how it got rid of ice beam, so did not keep it. I was ready to go after Ridley but decided to backtrack for the varia suit because enemies hit hard. Ridley was ridiculously easy; I froze all of his projectiles and wasted him with almost no damage taken. Then I got the remaining power ups and went for Mother Brain. Froze the Metroids and killed them, then busted through the final gauntlet and pumped missiles into the brain until she was dead. I did not like how I could not destroy those turrets and I took a lot of damage. Where possible I froze the circle projectiles. I ended off with 2 full energy takes left and over 150 missiles and beat the game. I had not realized that Super Metroid is pretty much a remake of this game. That time bomb at the end must have just been a small one, instead of the planet destroyer in Super.

I enjoyed this game but it would have been too tedious to play without a map. I fundamentally do not agree with having to make my own maps outside of games. If the game had an in game map like Super Metroid this would be a solid 9/10 for the time. It did not help that many rooms looked identical, even down to the number and placement of enemies. Lazy copy paste design, hardware limitations, or deliberately set up by the villains as added protection? I appreciated the increased difficulty over Super, as the combat felt more tactical and enemy drops more valuable. Still had to grind for energy fairly often, which was not fun.

7.5/10