Review: Super Metroid

This game has many names. "The pinnacle of platforming games". "The best game ever". "The game by which all other games are compared". All of them are correct - this game is insane. There are few things which I can nitpick, but I really have to stretch to make any sort of argument for calling this game anything other than perfect.

Story
Atmosphere is what Metroid games are known for. The developers have always captured that sense of feeling completely stranded in a hostile alien environment, but have rarely delivered story in any tangible way. Super Metroid is different though. The game opens with a single screen that intrigues and entices the player to start playing - a baby metroid is happily floating in a test tube with three scientists slumped dead all around it.

Holy crap. 

From there the story is delivered in an opening montage with text.  Basically what happened in the second game was your character, Samus, destroyed all the metroids in existence except for a baby which hatched in front of her, thinking Samus was its mother. Picking up where that game ended, Samus handed the baby metroid over to intergalactic scientists so they could study its power. Space pirates invade, kill the scientists and steal the baby metroid. Go get it back. 

That's the gist of the story and the majority of the game from there on out is action focused without much exposition, but the initial setup is more than enough to go on. Plus the atmosphere is so effing thick throughout the experience that you still feel like you're playing through a story, even though you're given no actual dialogue or story to latch on to. The story concludes in a fantastic final showdown which you probably already know, but I won't spoil here.

Design

Super Metroid is set up very similar to the other games in the series - a huge explorable map which you can freely explore. Lots of backtracking comes into play when certain paths can only be opened by certain upgrades or weapons, but it never feels forced. Your goal is to recover the baby metroid, and to do that you have to upgrade the hell out of yourself. From missiles to energy tanks to super bombs to space jumps, there are little treasures hidden EVERYWHERE throughout the world. Some are right in your critical path, while others you have to spend 10-15 minutes sniffing out on a side track. But you literally won't go ten minutes without finding something new.

Samus - Pimped the fu** out.

The biggest upgrade to the game itself from previous iterations is the map. Pause the game and you get a view of everywhere you've been, everywhere you've yet to explore, boss locations and rooms that contain upgrades. But other improvements include save stations, reload stations, selectable weapons and tons of other things. Basically, everything you wished had been included in the first Metroid is in this one. Heck, everything you wished had been part of any game is in Super Metroid. It's pitch perfect.

There are five or six distinct areas including a crashed alien ship, a hostile fire world, and underwater area and even a section of the map from the first Metroid game. Each one connects to the other through elevators or secret passages. Each one is completely unique and offers different challenges and enemies that give every area a flavor of its own. The only level that disappoints is the final one. 

The final march to the big boss is extremely short and given that everyone already knows the secret to killing metroids, it doesn't pose as much of a challenge as the previous two areas. I hoped that after the extremely difficult, super exploration-heavy prior level, that the final level would be enormous and super hard. Unfortunately it was pretty much a straight shot to the last boss without much challenge. But this is totally nit-picky and scraping for something to complain about.

Gameplay

If you've played a 2D Metroid game, you know the deal. The original game was categorized as a combo of Mario and Zelda - a side scrolling adventure like Mario, but free roaming and upgradable elements thrown in like in Zelda. The formula is essentially the same in Super Metroid, just better in every way. Everything is perfectly balanced - walking, shooting, rolling into a ball, jumping, grappling - it all feels completely intuitive and responsive.

The upgrades all feel hugely significant. Every weapon upgrade feels like you have gotten intensely more powerful. There are usually enemies that are impossible to beat right before you get an upgrade to your weapon and coming out of the Chozo chamber with your shiny new gun feels so satisfying when you blow the previously indestructible pirates to smithereens. 

Modifications to your suit and abilities feel important too. The varia suit upgrade allows you to walk around in extreme temperatures which were previously hazardous, the gravity suit allows you to walk and run in normal speeds under water, the grappling beam allows you to cross large chasms and so on. Each of these upgrades can be turned on or off and certain situations call for you to do just that, adding another cerebral level of puzzles to the adventure.

 Yous about to get screwed.

The other fantastic thing about the game is the number of bosses the developers throw at you. There are ten bosses in the game - each one has a different strategy to beat. Some of them are pushovers while others - like FREAKING RIDLEY - take several HUNDRED tries to beat. They are all eloquently designed and beautifully balanced. You usually know exactly what needs to be done to take them out, you just need to be quick enough and good enough to destroy them for good, and when you do, you feel like a beast. 

Presentation

Super Metroid was released in 1994 - the twilight year of the 16 bit era. As expected, its one of the best looking games on the SNES. Special effects look great, the backgrounds are exquisitely detailed, often with floating particles or moving elements. Enemies are really well modeled and unique, bosses often spill over the edges of the screen - one of the first bosses, Kraid, is actually over three screens high.

Kraid is ENORMOUS

The music is RIDICULOUS. From the opening theme to the epic final boss tune, every track fits perfectly with the scene you're in. Sound effects are appropriately alien and foreign, bosses scream and growl with startling 16-bit clarity, enemies react to your presence with screeches and bleeps. 

All in all - there is absolutely nothing that takes you out of the fantasy. Often in games there is something that kills the experience - whether it be corny voice acting, poor graphics, or music that doesn't match the scene - Super Metroid suffers from none of those things. Once you start, you as the player are transported to that planet until you turn the game off. It's as close to reading a good, atmospheric book as you can get with video games. 

Stuff I Loved: 

• Atmosphere is pea-soup thick. 
• Controls and level design that should be studied in history books. 
• Tons of bosses, perfect difficulty, perfect length - perfect game. 

Stuff I Hated:

• Last level is somewhat of a letdown

This is technically best game I've ever played. This is one of those games that can be played over and over by anyone. It's a universally palatable design that anyone can pick up and play through. I can't think of a single thing that anyone could find wrong with it.

It. Is. Perfect.

Final Score: 3/10

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Review in Ten Words or Less: 

Perfect design, perfect atmosphere, perfect gameplay. A technically perfect game.