March 19th marks the 25th anniversary of Super Metroid, released in 1994 on Nintendo’s still popular 16-bit console, the SNES. Partly responsible for creating an entire genre of gaming, heralded as one of the greatest video games of all-time, and still highly influential today, Super Metroid is the third game in the series, boasting some of the most impressive uses of SNES hardware.
It’s a shame Nintendo doesn’t give Metroid the attention it gives to other franchises, such as The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, or that infamous ‘Jump Man’, Mario. On the other hand, the series never reached the heights of the aforementioned franchises, especially financially, despite the part it played in the creation of the Metroidvania genre. With Metroid Prime 4 on hold for now, let’s hope plans for something to celebrate this occasion come to fruition soon. The addition of SNES games on the Switch alongside the NES library gifted to ‘Nintendo Online’ subscribers would be nice…
With that being said, Super Metroid prompted an age old Miiverse question which has yet to be answered… “y cant metroid crawl?”
As the third instalment in the Metroid series, set after the events of Metroid II (Gameboy), in Super Metroid (SNES) players resume control of infamous space bounty hunter, Samus Aran – Bobba Fett’s fearsome competitor, to say the least. Having survived and defeated the Space Pirates, their generals – Ridley and Kraid – and their leader, Mother Brain, during the events of the first Metroid (NES), Samus was tasked with exterminating the parasitic Metroid race during the events of its Gameboy sequel. As fans will remember, a lone baby Metroid follows Samus back to her ship, mistaking her for its mother.
Super Metroid continues shortly after these events; with the baby Metroid safely in captivity aboard a Research Facility, Samus returns to discovers its crew slaughtered and the station in disarray. Before Samus can react, her nemesis, fan-favourite Ridley, swoops in and steals the parasitic jelly-creature, returning to Zebes – the setting of the first game – with Samus in hot pursuit. You can practically imagine Samus quoting Sigourney Weaver’s infamous “Get away from her, you bitch!” if not for that universal vow of silence protagonists of the decade seem to have taken…
The story is relatively simplistic, but that’s largely due to gameplay and atmosphere being more important aspects of Metroid. All you really need to remember to follow the story is a space dragon stole an alien jellyfish baby, who Samus chases after, laying waste to innocent native creatures on the way. How many insectoids crawling over platforms, merely a minor irritant, get blasted by Samus during her exploration of Zebes?
Returning to Zebes not only provides a sense of continuity within the series, it also offers creators the opportunity to re-explore the familiar setting from the NES title, which has been creatively updated and altered to match the story. One thing’s for sure: Samus is every bit as badass as her reputation in popular culture alludes, which you’ll come to appreciate despite the lack of dialogue or communication with other characters. Without the use of dialogue, Super Metroid sets some powerful themes that are vital to its identity. In particular, the lack of NPC’s, narrow halls, empty caverns, and antagonistic creatures, aided by the visual and sound design, help attribute a sense of isolation and loneliness – perhaps an integral story element in itself.
It’s not a stretch to say gameplay and atmosphere are the biggest draws of the series, and arguably it’s most recognisable element, leading to Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1, 1997) being credited for the term ‘Metroidvania’ – an inventive splice of the two long-running series’ titles, used to describe the ever-popular subgenre of action-exploration games.
Super Metroid refines the gameplay of past entries, expanding on and adding new mechanics to the formula. The planet Zebes is notably larger and in places appropriately more decrepit – with both new and old areas making their return. As can be expected from a Metroidvania title, the journey consists of collecting items to add to Samus’ impressive arsenal, exploring the map, discovering secret locations and items, blasting through hordes of Space Pirates, slaying bosses, and relishing the atmosphere squeezed out of that SNES cartridge. ‘Super’ indeed.
While series staple items such as Energy Tanks, Ice Beams, and (of course) the infamous Morph Ball make their return, new weapons and items include, but are not limited to, the Power Bomb and the Grapple Beam – both of which are now reoccurring items in the series. The Grapple Beam in particular, which allows Samus to swing from certain ceilings for those harder to reach places, was integrated into the 3D environments of Metroid Prime on the Gamecube years later.
It’s a good thing these items are conveniently integrated into Samus’ suit – designed by the Chozo to avoid the need for larger Item Pouches like Link. Though he seems to manage to carry bombs, arrows, shields, lamps, boomerangs, and giant hammers without much hassle.
As can be expected, Samus will need to switch between different weapons on the go – not only to combat different enemies, but they also serve to unlock special doors and areas. No wonder intelligent life on this planet died off… Cycling through weapons can be controlled via the Select button, which is convenient enough and thankfully doesn’t interrupt with the gameplay too much, unlike Link to the Past, which requires players to bring up an item menu to change items to link (as it were) to the appropriate control.
Uncovering said items, however, means exploring the map and making return visits to past areas, aided by newly acquired items. Backtracking is key to getting that Super Satisfying 100% completionist goal Metroidvania players oh so dearly crave – though admittedly to those who have yet to be indoctrinated into the Chozo Cult, this may come across as tedious at times.
Thankfully Super Metroid’s art direction and level design means that each area stands out well enough to be easily identifiable. More-so than the black-and-white gradients of Metroid II, which aside from its lack of colour, was hard to navigate because of its zoomed-in camera and lack of map, thankfully improved upon in it’s remake, Metroid II: Samus Returns for 3DS.
The planet Zebes is split into different areas: the surface world of Crateria; Brinstar, the first area of the first game now overgrown with vegetation; Norfair, remembered not only for the damaging atmosphere and lava, but also its hot soundtrack, which contrasts against the eerie underwater Maridia, and the haunting Wrecked Ship – a crashed frigate – with Tourian serving as Mother Brain’s new Bat-cave.
Each location features unique enemies, including boss fights which range from the pitiful Kraid Spawn, to the massive, half-a-screen sized Kraid. Yeah, the little green fella from the original game. One of the more memorable boss encounters includes the ever disturbing Phantoon – who, as his name might suggest, is a phantom-like entity aptly found in the Wrecked Ship, with the ability to phase. The creativity of these boss designs, and enemies overall, are a key feature to the series’ identity, certainly making this game worthy of the ‘Super’ in Super Metroid.
The controls are intuitive, allowing Samus the ability to shoot in a staggering eight directions, the ability to crouch, and most importantly, to moonwalk. She wears a bulky space-suit that presumably crushes her body into a ball when required: she’s earned this. As previously mentioned, the Select button switches between her beam, missile, and Super missile, however different beam types are accessed through a menu. Fortunately, there isn’t much need to switch between them, and the most recently acquired (often being more powerful) will automatically be equipped.
One issue with the control scheme, however, is that the famous Super Jump can be tedious to perform, considering it’s so important. While this largely boils down to mastering the art of timing and button-pressing, it’s perhaps less intuitive than you might wish.
Accompanying tight exploration-based gameplay is an expertly crafted atmosphere, enhanced by a memorable soundtrack and overall sound design. With atmospheric sounds from creature chirps in the background, to the unforgettable screech of Ridley, the atmosphere is all-encompassing and heightens the impression that you’re trespassing on an alien planet inhabited by wildlife that shouldn’t be interfered with. Even the blaster sounds from Samus’ arm-cannon are satisfying enough.
But the original soundtrack, which has found its way into every Metroid game since in the form of remixes, has to be one of the best OST’s on the Super Nintendo. Mixing original scores with updated remixes from the original Metroid, from the caverns of ‘Lower Norfair’, to the ethereal ‘Maridia’, which works well with its underwater exploration, composers Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano utilised the SNES hardware to craft a varied soundscape that encapsulates the darker tone of the game, as well as its themes of exploration, isolation, and of trespassing a toxic, antagonistic alien world. Let’s not forget the return of the infamous ‘Title Screen’ and ‘Item Room’ themes, which make great ringtones.
Complimenting the impressive sound design is the impressive 16-bit graphical power of the Super Nintendo itself. A gorgeous display of 16-bit pixel art, with beautifully animated alien sprites – Samus’ suit even has a greater sense of liveliness to it over it’s 8-bit NES representation. There are subtleties in the background and creative design elements which bring the planet Zebes to life.
One impressive moment see’s Samus approach a room with a corpse, now the unfortunate victim of dozens of tiny bugs (I shudder at the thought) – all part of this worlds food-cycle – which proceed to scatter the closer she gets. Not only does this eerie tension nicely set up the dread and anticipation for what happens next, but the attention to detail in sprite form is profound, for such a minor moment.
Furthermore, the aesthetic style of Super Metroid – alongside the aforementioned Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – has served as a major influence to many indie developed Metroidvania titles, including Thomas Happ’s excellent Axiom Verge, which is in itself a tribute to the Metroid series as a whole. The aesthetic is heavily associated with the genre and revered by many as one of the best looking games on Nintendo’s popular 4th generation system, which boasts the likes of Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Link to the Past, to name but a few – and there sure is an impressive list to choose from.
Super Metroid is regarded as one of the greatest games of all-time, has a refined gameplay style which lead to the creation of a genre, has one of the greatest soundtracks on the SNES, and features a gorgeous art style which receives praise even to this day.
There’s no question about Super Metroid’s influence in gaming, yet even still it’s always attracted more of a cult following. Maybe Prime 4 will change that, when it eventually releases? Until then, if you haven’t dived into the isolating world of Zebes in all its 16-bit wonder yet, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. Besides the Wii Virtual Console, which is sadly no longer available, if you happen to be the proud owner of a ‘New’ 3DS, SNES games including Super Metroid are readily available to download (to some making it worth the upgrade), and there is also the successful SNES Mini/ Classic – showing once more that retro gaming is as popular as ever.
If you still find yourself craving more, aside from Castlevania’s expansive back-catalogue, there’s also the BlasterMaster series and a whole plethora of indie devs who have heard your call – from Axiom Verge to Hollow Knight, to the popular SteamWorld Dig – to give you an impression of its influence. If that’s not enough, Symphony of the Night producer, Koji Igarashi has his own ‘vania title, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, due June 2019 – with a retro-inspired companion game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon already available.
