Week 9: Super Metroid

Fight bosses like the magical Liopleurodon!

The tale of Super Metroid follows Samus Aran, who is arguably one of the most famous heroines in video gaming history.  In this installment of Metroid, Samus encounters a newly born Metroid larva.  The larva contains great power, but mistakenly believes Samus to be its mother.  Samus brings the larva to scientists for analyzing and possibly weaponizing purposes.  However, soon after Samus’ departure, the larva kills the scientists and escapes the laboratory (typical).  After that point, it is ultimately Samus’ goal to find the Metroid larva and subdue it.  In order to do this, Samus must navigate through the planet of Zebes while fighting the various creatures and bosses that appear.

The game had enough interesting aspects to make it classifiable as a “good” game.  The power-ups and feats that could be acquired along the way made Super Metroid more varied and even gave it the leveling-up feel.  Another aspect of the game that I enjoyed was the precursor to today’s mini-maps.  The map, located at the top-right corner of the screen, automatically showed the player’s progress during the game.  The auto-map and the save function allowed the player to enjoy the gameplay more and worry less about finding their way around.

For me, the game was not exceptionally enjoyable.  I appreciated the battle sequences, the fluidity of Samus’ controls, and the setting, including the environment, visual cut-scenes, and sounds, but the in-between period of traveling/solving puzzles was too arduous and boring for my taste.  In a platforming game like this, I would have preferred less traveling and more overall fighting.  Then again, I suppose that the style of Super Metroid has made it unique compared to other games.  While I did not particularly value the amount of puzzle-solving aspect of the game, another player could have enjoyed solving the puzzles more than anything else in the game.  Even as I give Super Metroid a luke-warm review, I recognize and reflect that most people would enjoy it more than I did.