This review contains spoilers
pretty good game imo
Absolutely no idea how to write about this one. It’s Super Metroid. It’s like trying to write a Backloggd review for oxygen, we all know it’s good and we all know why it’s good. It’s just self-evident. I could write you a bunch of paragraphs you’ve already read before about the atmosphere or the movement or the map design or whatever but it would be a waste of my time and yours because we already know this shit. The sky is blue, the earth is round, Super Metroid rocks. Duh.
What I do have to offer is my experience as somebody who had never played this until now. And yeah, the hype is more than deserved. I’ve played plenty of games with a similar structure or tone or gamefeel to this but none have felt as confident, as seamless, as utterly absorbing as Super Metroid and the world it presents. I’m kind of floored this game is already 30 years old, because you could have released this yesterday and it would still feel ahead of the curve. It’s just that good.
It’s interesting playing this with the benefit of cultural osmosis. I went in with a pretty strong idea of what the game would be, so much of its mechanics and iconography burned into the collective consciousness long before I got there. But actually discovering it all for myself was a different beast entirely. I knew what was coming, but figuring out how to get there was up to me, and I felt like I was always left surprised when I figured out the answer. I felt like I was part of this huge tradition that existed long before me and would continue to exist long after, it was really cool.
Of course, those moments I had no idea were coming were some of the most captivating. I’ll never forget hearing the new Brinstar theme for the first time (probably my favorite song in what’s easily a new top 10 OSTs), or uncovering Dragyon in the depths of Maridia, or piecing together what might have happened in the Wrecked Ship. Games like these live or die by their ability to keep you engaged with the world, and few game worlds feel as rich as this one. I explored pretty thoroughly and still only got a 64% in completion—I guess that means I’m due for a round trip.
I’m once again really grateful that I’m playing these games in order. Like a lot of Super Nintendo titles, Super Metroid is essentially a juiced-up version of its NES progenitor. It’s back to Zebes, but with deeper and more refined mechanics, higher graphical fidelity, a greater sense of spectacle and finally, FINALLY an in-game map. You can’t really appreciate how momentous all that is unless you’ve played what came before. The first 15 minutes of Super feel tailor-made for that audience, a rescue mission for the baby YOU saved, tracing your steps backwards through the Space Pirate base YOU destroyed, seeing how much more ambient and expansive that once-familiar planet has become in your absence. Tons of other moments throughout thrive off your knowledge of how this game used to go, from the first Chozo sentry to the jaw-dropping Kraid reveal to even Mother Brain’s final form. It was just rewarding to see how things evolved, and I'm really glad I had given myself that opportunity. Play games in order!
You know, I tried to play this a few years back after beating Zero Mission but dropped it almost immediately because I couldn’t stand how Samus felt to control. Which feels so silly to me now, because coming off of the NES and Gameboy games, this plays like a dream. If only past-me wasn’t such a loser idiot and could appreciate how big a deal “shooting diagonally” really is. I don’t want to make it sound like the early Metroid games are just stepping stones to this one made obsolete in retrospect because I don’t feel that way. Those are both still very interesting (and more importantly, uniquely interesting) games. But it really does feel like THIS is what the series has been reaching for the whole time, the atmosphere, the interconnectedness, the movement, everything, it’s all here and it’s absolutely perfect. It’s like the tech finally caught up to the dev teams' vision and the results are staggering. It's a revelation. 30 years later, we’re still playing catch-up.
Super Metroid, man. What a game.
Absolutely no idea how to write about this one. It’s Super Metroid. It’s like trying to write a Backloggd review for oxygen, we all know it’s good and we all know why it’s good. It’s just self-evident. I could write you a bunch of paragraphs you’ve already read before about the atmosphere or the movement or the map design or whatever but it would be a waste of my time and yours because we already know this shit. The sky is blue, the earth is round, Super Metroid rocks. Duh.
What I do have to offer is my experience as somebody who had never played this until now. And yeah, the hype is more than deserved. I’ve played plenty of games with a similar structure or tone or gamefeel to this but none have felt as confident, as seamless, as utterly absorbing as Super Metroid and the world it presents. I’m kind of floored this game is already 30 years old, because you could have released this yesterday and it would still feel ahead of the curve. It’s just that good.
It’s interesting playing this with the benefit of cultural osmosis. I went in with a pretty strong idea of what the game would be, so much of its mechanics and iconography burned into the collective consciousness long before I got there. But actually discovering it all for myself was a different beast entirely. I knew what was coming, but figuring out how to get there was up to me, and I felt like I was always left surprised when I figured out the answer. I felt like I was part of this huge tradition that existed long before me and would continue to exist long after, it was really cool.
Of course, those moments I had no idea were coming were some of the most captivating. I’ll never forget hearing the new Brinstar theme for the first time (probably my favorite song in what’s easily a new top 10 OSTs), or uncovering Dragyon in the depths of Maridia, or piecing together what might have happened in the Wrecked Ship. Games like these live or die by their ability to keep you engaged with the world, and few game worlds feel as rich as this one. I explored pretty thoroughly and still only got a 64% in completion—I guess that means I’m due for a round trip.
I’m once again really grateful that I’m playing these games in order. Like a lot of Super Nintendo titles, Super Metroid is essentially a juiced-up version of its NES progenitor. It’s back to Zebes, but with deeper and more refined mechanics, higher graphical fidelity, a greater sense of spectacle and finally, FINALLY an in-game map. You can’t really appreciate how momentous all that is unless you’ve played what came before. The first 15 minutes of Super feel tailor-made for that audience, a rescue mission for the baby YOU saved, tracing your steps backwards through the Space Pirate base YOU destroyed, seeing how much more ambient and expansive that once-familiar planet has become in your absence. Tons of other moments throughout thrive off your knowledge of how this game used to go, from the first Chozo sentry to the jaw-dropping Kraid reveal to even Mother Brain’s final form. It was just rewarding to see how things evolved, and I'm really glad I had given myself that opportunity. Play games in order!
You know, I tried to play this a few years back after beating Zero Mission but dropped it almost immediately because I couldn’t stand how Samus felt to control. Which feels so silly to me now, because coming off of the NES and Gameboy games, this plays like a dream. If only past-me wasn’t such a loser idiot and could appreciate how big a deal “shooting diagonally” really is. I don’t want to make it sound like the early Metroid games are just stepping stones to this one made obsolete in retrospect because I don’t feel that way. Those are both still very interesting (and more importantly, uniquely interesting) games. But it really does feel like THIS is what the series has been reaching for the whole time, the atmosphere, the interconnectedness, the movement, everything, it’s all here and it’s absolutely perfect. It’s like the tech finally caught up to the dev teams' vision and the results are staggering. It's a revelation. 30 years later, we’re still playing catch-up.
Super Metroid, man. What a game.
Brintendo
5 months ago
Hold onto that. That statement becomes surprisingly important when discussing the production of this series.
Super Metroid is definitely one of the best SNES games.