A Look Back at an NES Classic, Super Metroid

Overview

Super Metroid is the third game in a series that started its own genre called Metroid-Vania. It’s a single player campaign-based platform game developed by Nintendo in 1994. It was developed by Makoto Kano and inspired by Gunpei Yokoi’s ideas.

Story

The story takes place after the events of Metroid 2:The Return of Samus, in which after destroying the Metroid race on their home planet Sr388 she finds the last metroid egg and it hatches on its own and gets attached to Samus, thinking it’s her mother. She delivers it to a space station and leaves it there, but before she can even leave the solar system she gets a distress signal from the same space station. She immediately turns her ship around and enters, but comes just a little too late. The entire space station population is destroyed, but by whom? Samus Aran enters the final room to find the metroid sitting there, but then from above the legendary space pirate Ridley swoops down and grabs the metroid and flies to planet Zebes, the home planet of the space pirates. As Samus you travel to planet Zebes. Your mission? To take out the space pirates and save the metroids from being misused.

Gameplay

As a platformer, this game relies on your skills at jumping on different platforms to get to your different objectives.

You gain more firepower throughout the game like the wave beam ice beam and plasma beam. Also, different equipment upgrades like the morph ball and screw attack.

One of the center points of the game is the boss fights. There are several, including spore spawn, Kraid the King of Brinstar, (a sector of Zebes) and mother brain, the leader of the space pirates, and the boss you have to defeat to win the game. You also gain new armors throughout the game to be able to go into different environments. For example, Norfair, one of the sectors, has temperatures too hot for Samus, so after defeating one of the bosses you gain the varia suits, which makes you immune to hot temperatures. Also, you can get the gravity suit to be immune to anti gravity in water.

Graphics and sound

Even though this game was released in 1994, the graphics aren’t irritating or really bad, they generally hold up to a point where the game is still playable. In fact some of the effects on your weapons are pretty good. The music in Super Metroid is great. The music director Kenji Yamamoto wanted a game with eerie sounds instead of eccentric music that wouldn’t fit the game. So most of the music in the game makes you feel alone and on a mission to save the galaxy.

Bonus

After you defeat mother brain and beat the game, Samus will do different things depending on how fast you beat the game. Some of them include Samus revealing that she is a female, and her taking of her power suit and winking.
Verdict

Story: I give the story and plot of this game a 7 out of 10 as it could do more explaining on the point of the game.

Gameplay: I give the gameplay of this game 9.5 out of 10, as it is very good, but some of the platforming is clunky at times.

Sound: I give the sound a 10 out of 10 as the music really captures the point of being alone on a planet.
Graphics: The graphics for its time were unquestionably great, so I give it a 9 out of 10.