Super Metroid Review

We have reached the granddaddy of an entire genre. I am well aware that Metroid on the NES and Metroid 2 on the game boy paved the way for the success of Super Metroid. But it was Super that, in my opinion, made gamers sit up and take notice. This is the game that inspired Symphony of the Night and this is the game that continues to serve as the benchmark for Metroidvania to this day. Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Axiom Verge, and the Ori games, all of them owe a huge debt to Super Metroid for paving the way. Not to mention the excellent follow ups in its own franchise, Fusion, the Prime games, Zero Mission, Returns and of course Dread. This game is Genesis and the most amazing thing about it is that when compared to all the games it has since inspired it holds up remarkably well.

In fact without the above mentioned games I think it would be much more difficult to point out its shortcomings. All those games highlight improvements that could be made to this game. They are not flaws though, far from it, they were on the bleeding edge, learning as they went. It is the rough draft for all the others so of course it has been improved upon. But again I can not stress enough how unbelievable it is that this game remains so playable to a modern audience. I love this game as much for its effect on the gaming space as based on its own incredible design. But enough gushing I suppose it is time to dig in.

I have given a theme to several of the 2D games I have reviewed so far. Dread is, of course, Dread. Zero Mission’s theme was adventure and Fusion’s tension. Super I would say is filled with intrigue. The game bleeds mystery and discovery which leads the player to explore every pathway and experiment. I liken it to something like Breath of the Wild, every time I have picked up that game I have taken a different path. Super Metroid is very much like that. In my most recent play-through, through some clever wall jumps I reached Krade early and unlocked the Varia Suite. This freedom expands as the player becomes more skilled. You want to get better at the game because you want to see what is at the top of that shaft. And on your next play-through you know what is up there but you wonder if you can reach it early. With enough practice and skill you absolutely can.

The game drops subtle storytelling everywhere. Samus navigates an empty and seemingly dead facility in the first area. You pass the remains of Mother Brain from the first game. The room is dark and deserted seemingly for years now. You can practically feel the dust settling on the remains of this broken and destroyed place. But then you get the morph ball and an alarm and camera capture Samus presence. Suddenly the deserted path is well lit and filled with enemy soldiers. It is not so deserted as it first seemed. The game is full of little details like this. Crocomire’s bubbles beneath you as his skeleton moves under the stage to the other side to break down the wall. The Dead soldier outside of Kraid's lair, the smaller Kraid outside the boss room, all these details are incredible pieces of the puzzle.

Speaking of details, Samus animations and flourishes for movement are lightyears ahead of most games from the 16-bit era. When Samus’ health is low you can see her body movements change as she pants from exhaustion. When she runs through water you can see the splashes from her feet and from when she jumps clear. Her unique posing for left and right traversal of walls and aiming her gun up and down. The suit has a real sense of weight and the floaty jump allows for precise enough movement that I don’t find myself missing the ledge grab like I thought I would. I forgot the speed that Samus can move in the game and the animation for that movement is smoother than Zero Missions. That may sound crazy but playing them back to back has really impressed me with how smooth the game is compared to Fusion and Zero Mission. It probably comes down to screen size more than anything and the GBA small screen limits the space in which Samus can move and with the more zoomed in perspective of Zero mission it becomes more apparent when you play them back to back. Samus swings her arms as she runs, pumping them like a sprinter and there is consistent pace for her leg movements. In fact there are two animations for running, one while she is shooting and another just for sprinting. This is true for other games in the series of course but compared to other games of the time on 16-bit hardware it is superb.

I have more praise for this game to give, but I do feel like I should take some time to address how the genre has been improved over the years. I want to point out again that these are not flaws, but using hindsight, here are a few features that I found myself missing after playing backwards through the series. First, I miss the clear distinction between collected and uncollected items on the map. Fusion and Zero Mission handle this in a simple fashion that honestly even Dread should have kept. In Dread the collected items are labeled and the icons become opaque. But having a circle and a dot is so much quicker to process. Super opts for a dot only and so if you do not keep track of collected items yourself it can be difficult to remember whether you grabbed certain things or not. Second, Zero Mission streamlining of the selection of missiles, super missiles and power bombs is flat out superior. I understand what they were going for in Super but hot keys making these power-ups instantly available would make combat so much more intuitive. Also the water physics are awful before you get the gravity suite and are better implemented in literally every other entry in the series. But that is it, everything else is perfect as is and in some ways better than any other game in the series.

For example, something that has not aged a day is the music and general soundscape. The title theme perfectly sets the tone for the game and in the background you can hear the baby metroid cooing vulnerably but also menacingly. It established a connection between the player and the infant instantly. When you run through the station and come across the room from the title screen the Metroid is gone and you know what you need to do. All the tracks are great and invoke several emotional responses. Triumph, intrigue and tension, they are all here and purveyed masterfully through the soundtrack. It is the best soundtrack in the series and absolutely holds us to this day.

The opening of this game is unmatched in the series. Landing on the station and discovering the dead scientist followed by getting wrecked by Ridley as he steals the baby Metroid is iconic. Ridleys boss fight is also incredible and is the real final boss of the game. That is no mark against Mother Brain mind you. That fight is so well scripted and it is truly a spectacle. My kids continued to ask me if I was about to beat the game again as the ending is so effective they come back to watch it anytime one of us completes the game.The sacrifice of the baby is still a gut wrenching moment and so much is conveyed to the player with so little effort the only game I can think of that ends in such a dramatic fashion on the SNES is Earthbound.

It is a masterpiece, it is not timeless, as there are a few things that need some improvement. But only because it laid the foundations for other games to make those improvements and in spite of those streamlined features the game more than holds up. It is a triumph, building a cohesive world and giving the player incredible agency to explore it. The more skill you gain in the game the more you can accomplish in that world. It is the reason it is still praised as a speed game today and the reason it launched a flood of incredible games in its genre. It has been a long journey from 1994 but in the end, Super Metroid is still king, a stone cold classic.

If you liked this review I have another one below you may enjoy. Thank you for reading.