RTTP because I've tried to beat this game so many times and given up at various points.
LTTP because I finally beat it today
My first encounter with Super Metroid was probably back in high school, roughly 10 years ago now. A classmate showed me his skills at home on his SNES. I was already hooked on all sorts of Metroid Prime hype and was eager to see more of the series. But for some reason, while having tried numerous times to complete the game, I either gave up and quit or just lost interest mid-way through. I've beaten all Prime games several times with 100% collection rates and even tried emulating speed running tricks, especially in the first game. Zero Mission had me hooked as well, just like Fusion. I tried to like the original emulated through Fusion but I couldn't get into it, a bit too rough around the edges after all these years for my tastes.
But, having brought my Wii over to my gf's apartment for some Mario Galaxy adventures, I noticed yet again that I had bought the "Wii version" a long time ago, and I dove right in at any chance I got, which was sadly not all that often. The cinematic intro and subsequent escape, delicious. The initial landing with that gorgeously yellow spaceship, unforgettable. I think that's my favorite area in the entire game. The music and rain, perfect mood setter and just so cozy somehow
I love the sense of exploration, you don't see that all too often these days. And the subtle storytelling, nowadays mainly found in the Souls games, is so great too. First thing I wanted to do after I beat it was to restart a new save! But what I did instead was to view two Games Done Quick speed runs on YouTube, with guys beating the game in a staggering 40+ minutes :lol My final time was 6:39 hours and I found 69% of the items, which chocked me, seeing how I could only remember two seen items I deliberately ignored/gave up on.
Super Metroid is clearly a masterpiece, anyone who's played it probably agrees with me there. Norfair's music made me giddy thanks to Prime, Maridia's mood makes me shiver, the ghosts in the wrecked ship are eerie as hell, the helpful animals are cute and quite a clever in-game way to explain certain mechanics. The breaking of the glass tube with a power bomb is simply mind-blowing to this day, no matter how simple it may seem.
As an aspiring game designer, it's hard to find any real faults in this game. However, the controls on the Wii are a bit wonky though, but I'm not sure if it's the emulation or my classic controller that's broken. Wall jumps and space jumps were very finicky to pull off with any sense of control. Once, Samus got stuck looking diagonally down while running which a reboot solved, so something is surely up with that. But I remember the controls being very demanding in the original as well, and refined and/or dumbed down in games like Zero Mission. That game, if my memory serves me correctly at all, performs as well as speed runners make this game look awesome. I'm not gonna fault the design for being nonsensical in its level design and hidden paths, that's all great and adds a lot to the exploration. But at the end, I found it a bit weird to be running around with about 120 missiles for no reason. Early on, they're fairly scarce, and I've always been a hoarder so outside of maybe bosses and the red doors for sure, I tend to never use my weapons :/ And you quickly get quite a lot of them, and they feel very superfluous to me. But that short melody when you pick up an item, godlike! You basically just want to find upgrades to your weapons or suit just so you can hear that tune one more time, it's so good.
Correct me if I'm wrong but in my experience, switching between missiles etc only works from left to right, yes? That was annoying me quite a bit as it led to me getting hurt needlessly and wasting ammo. That swinging technique though, so much fun! Grappling hooks need to be in more games, I tell ya. Pretty powerful as a weapon too, I was surprised to find out on accident (and pretty damn cool in a certain boss fight as well, very clever). Scanning for items and hidden paths was a well-needed feature too. Too bad the scanning is so slow to move around, but at least the game freezes while you use it.
But these complaints are petty in the grand scheme of things. The major concern I've always had with the game is the lack of hand holding to be honest. I don't mean that it needs modern levels of absurd hand holding, far from it, but while I have about the first half of the game pretty much nailed down, once you get the power bomb and need to head over to the wrecked ship and get the gravity suit, I lose it completely. In fact, this is probably where I've given up the most over the years. Although I beat it today and got through this part a few days ago, I still don't have a clean grasp on where to go in the right order. I'd probably redo some of the same mistakes next time I play this game. This time I almost got stuck underwater for good because I got in somewhere I wasn't supposed to just yet. I seriously contemplated the possibility of starting over, I was that stuck (under water in the sand pits mainly, without neither space jump nor gravity suit, sucks). Getting this stuck is very difficult up until this spot in the game's structure. I even had to use a super missile glitch to get out once. I don't think it's that possible after getting the proper suit either, although I almost managed again xD Don't get me wrong, I love Metroidvanias with all my heart, and Super Metroid's sense of exploration is top notch, but to me, the game loses some of its sense of direction a bit once the power bombs are introduced.
Speaking of power bombs though, the weapon upgrades and the suit abilities are so great and add a ton to the game's exploration. Slowly but surely upgrading yourself to become a complete powerhouse is a great feeling and feels just right, balance-wise. The fact that any of them can be turned off and/or skipped entirely wouldn't fly in modern games but it works flawlessly in Super Metroid, and the way the weapons interact and change behavior is design candy. I noticed today that you can turn off certain suits and you get your original colors back. It even affects the space jump sprite! I was amazed at this. I also learned in one of the speed runs that turning off a specific suit under water can give you a speed boost of roughly 10%, which I assume is a glitch in the code, but cool nonetheless. Although only intentional design in Zero Mission (well-known game for designing the levels around speed runners and their tricks), Super Metroid has so many hidden secrets, both things like the multiple bombs drop to mach balling, and it's just fantastic what can be accomplished with such an old game and physics engine. It's a true inspiration, really.
I'm glad I finally pulled through and finished the game. It's a great journey from start to finish with great music along the way. The game doesn't need fancy enemy AI outside of the bosses. The main bosses are unforgettable, I think I'll always remember Phantoom and Kraid the best. Even Crocomire is funny is his/her own way. I don't think I'll ever get back into the game and try to beat any speed runs, my controls felt way too wonky for that to be doable probably, but finding all items would be nice.
TLDR: Despite some nitpicking issues, I think Super Metroid is an amazing game and accomplishment and holds up incredibly well to this day.
What's your favorite memory of this ageless classic?
