CLASSIC GAMING
Super Metroid
Developer:  Nintendo
Publisher:  Nintendo
Year:  1994
Genre:  Shoot-em up
System:  SNES


While Nintendo are most famous for their two fantasy sagas of Mario and Link, there has almost always been a hidden force of Nintendo, lurking in the darkness like the experiment that was never truly abandoned or ever really forgotten but only shown once every while, never in excess and always offering the world something wondrous.  Where fantasy offers warm heartfelt adventure, science fiction brings forth cold alien exploration.

Story - Super Metroid has one of the more deeper stories of the Metroid series.  The intro begins with telling of Samus Aran's mission to Planet Zebes to halt the Space Pirates' illegal Metroid breeding programs, her victory over the Mother Brain, the main enemy of the first Metroid game, and her second mission on the Gameboy game "Metroid 2: Return of Samus" to the planet Sr-388 to eliminate the Metroids.  The story continues from the end of Metroid 2, where Samus was unable to destroy the final Metroid, a just-born creature who imprinted Samus as its mother.  She handed the baby Metroid over to the Ceres Space Colony so they could look after it better and examine its physiology for research.
However not long after her leave of the colony, they send a distress signal to her.  Returning, she finds the scientists dead and the Metroid kidnapped by Ridley, leader of the Space Pirates and her arch nemesis.
After a brief battle with her, he flies away with Samus hot on his heels back to Planet Zebes where the space pirates have once again resumed their illegal operations, with Samus yet again the only one with the capabilities of stopping them.


Graphics - Super Metroid essentially polishes up the environment of the original NES Metroid with full backgrounds different for every area, visibly moving fauna and flora beyond that of the enemies.  The lava-churning fire-pulsing walls of Norfair, the plant-infested landscape of Brinstar, the water-ravaged broken-down land of Maridia and lastly the more open-feeling less dangerous Crateria.  Each part of Zebes is essentially separated by elevators of which the areas are radically different from each other.  Even areas within areas seem different, with differing plants in Brinstar or varying levels of lava concentration in Norfair.

The graphics of the environment are the main eye candy of the game and are actually quite well done thoughtfully so beyond the basic repainting of the first game.  But rather, consideration has been given into Zebes' geology.  Plants become more vibrant and varied when you are nearer to water, the cave walls turn hotter and pulsing with lava turning more unstable-feeling as you go deeper down the planet.  These small but sliightly noticeable touches are crucial in making the world of Super Metroid feel rich and everchanging.
The creatures themselves are also lively looking.  Despite the repetitive attack patterns (except in the cases of the bosses), they look perfectly part of the environment as the very creatures that live in this world.  The bosses themselves are more horrific-looking either by unnatural means or by freakish necessary evolution, ranging from the bloodshot blunt-headed Draygon and the skin-melting Crocomire, to the cruelly frightening skeletal dragon look of Ridley.


Gameplay - While the game is naturally a sidescrolling shoot-em-up, it has its own qualities beyond the blaster arm's range.  Having been away from Zebes for a long while since the first game, Samus is practically undertaking a mission in a whole new world filled with new areas and tunnels that over time you will become familiar with like the back of her suit.  Essentially, Super Metroid takes on more of the explorational aspect than its predecessor, the more richer and varied environments making navigation both easier and more entertaining.  A world where you can find a tunnel from the lava pools to end up in the highest spore-ridden regions.


Joining with this is the return of the optional goal of finding the many items strewn about Zebes, ranging from the essential equipment such as the Grapple Beam and Ice Beam to the optional upgrades like increasing your Missile stock.  The extra challenge of finding all of these items (even the ones you need to continue the game are their own challenges in themselves) bring in a perfectionist feel for the game.  Not only that but it has also made the game incredibly popular to make a challenge among gamers of who can finish the game fastest with everything, and in counterspective, who can finish with the least amount of items the fastest.  The non-linear mechanics of the game are stunning yet simple to think of, when you are probably never going to play through this game exactly the same way twice.

Of course with the exploration is the shooting.  Enemies are generally unchanging in their patterns.  Some crawl amiably along walls, some strike from the ceiling, some make V shaped paths from floor to ceiling and doubling back to attack you.  But that doesn't make them any less challenging if you get stuck in the middle of their swarm.  The bosses too each have their own uniqe strategies as to be expected.  While at first they're "wait and shoot", the bosses later require some more expert evasive abilities as well as shooting.


Music/Sound - The first project of the series by established Metroidian composer Kenji Yamamoto does not disappoint.  His work feels just as rich and atmospheric as his work on the Prime games are.  With each area bringing forth a marvellously musical feel of their different habitats, it will be hard to not become entrenched within the foliage of Zebes itself.  From the organic alien-sounding theme of Brinstar to the bass drumming of lava-strewn Norfair, no area ever has its music unmatched by one bit.  In fact so great is the music to Super Metroid that the deeper Norfair level later in the game has been reused as the Magmoor Caverns in Metroid Prime, without a SINGLE change made to it other than the obvious audial quality.

The sound also is of mention.  When you traverse further into Zebes you face creatures of ever-changing screeches, clicks and chirrups, turning the world into a wider experience that for 1994 was of excellent quality.  The bosses themselves are especially frightening with bestial roars that when heard along with the boss themes, make for a more tenser atmosphere in battle combined with their freakish appearances.


Super Metroid is hailed by many people as one of the finest and greatest videogames ever, constantly hitting game lists sometimes higher than the Prime games, which just goes to show that sometimes just when you think something is dead and faded away, it might just surprise you with how well people keep it alive and healthy just by merely remembering its legacy.  The legacy of the super Metroid.

Fun and Innovation - 4
Replayability - 4
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 5