@@renx81 yeah I like to use the gravity suit exploit where you jump with the gravity suit on and the immediately take it off and your momentum carries you all the way to the top
Eh, I don't think ALttP was very good...I thought Zelda 1, 2, LA, and OoT were far better and more enjoyable than ALttP. Super Metroid though should definitely be played by anyone and everyone.
Green Brinstar, Theme of Super Metroid, Menu Theme, Red Soil Brinstar, Lower norfair, Ridley Theme, Crateria Theme.... literally every theme in this game is perfect!
There is NO super nintendo game that makes dark atmosphere like Super Metroid.. It was barely even attempted.. let alone perfectly achieved. The music is easily the best in the entire series, here.
It's not just him, I really don't think the soundtrack is enjoyable to listen to without the game play And that's because it isn't supposed to stand on it's own, it's supposed to be like the B.S L ambiance tracks
Yeah, so why even judge anything ever? It's all personal preference! The music in this game is, at least by consensus, very good. Uncultured idiots think otherwise. They probably think bach and ravel and debussy and beethoven and wagner are "meh" too.
finally watched this all the way through and I officially wanna buy you a steak dinner my man. You get it. This video is as timeless as the game itself.
You: Yes the Chozo statue in the beginning is meant to feel like an accomplishment but really its easy. Me: *sweats because it killed me on my first playthrough*
"You can disable upgrades from the menu, even though there's absolutely no reason to do that." On the contrary, there are some rooms with ceilings that will harm the player, and having the Hi Jump on is to your disadvantage there. It's also a good idea to have the Ice Beam turned off, unless you need to freeze an enemy, because it will actually take longer to kill enemies with it turned on.
If you sequence break or use a randomizer to get screw attack early, there's rooms you don't want it for as it removes platforms you otherwise need. Particularly bad in some rooms with water if you don't have gravity suit yet. Moreso though, the option to turn upgrades off feels less about there being reason to, and more about the devs preempting the necessity.
@@danielahn5140 That's what I mean. Metroid 1 had quite a lot of design flaws (Unhinted bombing, respawning with 30 health etc.). Super Metroid fixed it and it defined the genre.
@@danielahn5140 Fair point about the Ridley wall. However, the wall to Kraid's lair is marked on the map. And the tunnel to the Gravity Suit is visible through the floor. But what item is cryptic to get? I can't think of any.
@@CyberdustStudios Insert Samus reenacting Captain Picard’s _“I will make them pay for what they’ve done”_ speech. At least I always imagined the video just skipped forward to cut out the rest of the speech.
"Because technology was no longer an obstacle for these developers, quite the opposite, Super Metroid is where technology finally caught up with what Metroid was trying to be this whole time." I love how perfectly this parallels what's been revealed about the development of Metroid Dread, how it was always canceled because the technology simply couldn't produce what the developers wanted the game to be.
@@DropkickNation it’s too linear. It gives the illusion of freedom, but there’s only ever 1 way you can really go. There are some extremely difficult tricks that gamers have found to cheat bosses and get places you’re not supposed to, but not like Super. In Super there was a clear path you’re supposed to go, but there was freedom to go other places if you try. All the jumps and run spaces weren’t so micromanaged. In Dread every inch of the game is designed to prevent players from using easy tricks to get somewhere new. All of that just falls into the freedom category of complaints. There’s others. Like the entire character of “Adam”. I know he’s used an an important plot point in the end, but I saw that coming a mile away, and before that he was just annoying because everything he said was useless. It’s still a good game though. Just not as good as Super.
Yeah I mean I lied the music in the game but I see where he’s coming from. It’s definitely not as memorable as brinstar or Krause lair from the original Metroid.
As a 33 year old lifelong Metroid fan, I feel confident in saying your critiques for all these games (especially this one and I watched the all in a row) are not only spot on, but full of such depth and passion while being honest about your personal preferences and not letting any bias get in the way. Excellent, excellent work, man. From an old fan to a new one. I'm very much so looking forward to your future videos. :)
I went back and listened to it, like a podcast. I love how you go through the game by telling a story. It really brings it to life and puts the emotion & reverence at the forefront. A winner is you! 💚
@@NeftoskladYep. The Samus X breakout and Samus struggling to regain her abilities with her evil X clones trying to hunt her down. Metroid has always been good with it's music and atmosphere creating a good mix for afton creepy moments and they outdid it here with the sudden change of music and the echoing footsteps announcing the Samus X.
@@TheOmegazerox you know, i played super metroid at least 10 times and died under 10 times, but in fusion the difficulty rises higher than i expected. So i like fusion a little bit more because of the difficulty and story (and also because the power grip)
Over 25 years later and this game still holds up remarkably well. This is where the Metroid franchise started getting really good compared Mario 3 & World did for Mario and A Link to the Past did for Zelda.
I can just imagine Sami’s looking at her arm cannon and saying “let’s see here what’s speed runner mode?” Then the arm cannon starts swinging up and down
@@galfinsp7216 A lot of them use it as enemy taunts also during their death animations. You will see most, if not every speedrunner do it after beating a boss since there is nothing you can do until it's sprite is faded away, except sit there and make fun of it. :P It does not have any speed advantage, no, just something fun. :D
I'd say the "Save Point Error" is actually a "Door Lock Error"... think about all the stuff you'd have to go back through to get to Mother Brain if you died without that Save Point... The door locking on the other hand, there's no reason for that. AT ALL.
You can always just glitch the game out with the VAR beam and bug your way through the door. Of course, that ends up in the game restarting from the beginning with you keeping all of your upgrades, but hey whatever works.
See, my reading of the door closing is this: In the rest of the game, an extreme of nonlinearity is emphasized. You can go anywhere, you can get things in different orders and feel free to explore, and in some cases you can even sequence break. The story is delivered in an ambient, background sort of way -- here are mochtroids, here's the Wrecked Ship, come to your own conclusions or move on. Tourian, though, is an entirely different story (literally). It's a basically linear level with what are, essentially, cutscenes to deliver story, culminating in an incredibly epic escape sequence. The reason you can't go back is because if you're in this part of the game, you're not here to collect things -- you're here to finish the game. Whereas before it made sense to do things out of order, here it would feel really weird if you got these super dramatic, suspenseful scenes building up to an ending boss fight -- and then you paused and went and found missile tanks for half an hour.
Something else I love about this game is its soundtrack, something Nintendo loved too. If you pay attention to the Metroid Prime games, you'll notice that a large fraction of their tracks are remixes of some of this game's tracks. The track "Hunters" from Prime 2 Echoes (the default multiplayer track) is the green Brinstar theme. Torvus Bog's underwater track is the red Brinstar one from here. Fantastic.
@@johndelzoppo1366 true, but that one's been changed quite a bit in comparison to the ones I mentioned. Not saying it's bad of course, because it isn't, js.
I recieved a super nintendo from my mom around Christmas 95 and the intro freaking blew me away as a 7 year old kid. I had never played or hear of metroid before but think it came with the system. Its arguably the best game of all time
Being 30 years old in 2021, my first experience of Metroid was metroid prime on the GameCube and its sequels. It's one of my favourite games of all time and one of the many things that stands out to me aside from gameplay is the amazing soundtrack and atmosphere . Super Metroid is a game that I always wanted to play and just never got around to it, until I played it on the Nintendo Switch and it just blew me away. I never realised how much was borrowed and remixed from a game from 1994! It really gave me a new appreciation of super metroid. While the Metroid prime trilogy is my favourite of the whole series, that is mostly due to the nostalgia and I wholly appreciate what super metroid brought to the series. What an amazing game, even in 2021.
I decided to rewatch this video on a whim...its crazy how well it holds up. Got genuine chills despite knowing the general flow of the video. My writing (and editing to some degree) has improved since then which only makes me appreciate your style that much more! Not sure why I'm leaving this comment. Its pretty vauge all things considered. I'm just glad I was here for most of what you've done is what I guess I'm saying. Your new stuff is good too! I've in general been less internet savvy compared to before so that's part of why I missed out on some livestreams...so I guess this is just my way of saying I still appreciate all the awesome videos you've made since I'm passing by again! It takes time to realize on my end that good writing is something I really appreciate about video essays and yours manages to mix that with a genuine sense of positive/appreciative energy that's just so hard to find elsewhere... TL;DR Noone does it (critiquin') quite like you, and I wouldn't have it any other way! ;) (P.S. My writing has improved to the point where I can write some scripts without cringing at them afterwards...if I ever make something that I'd think you'd find interesting/like...I'll be sure to see it your way! Till then I'll keep geekin'! :D)
Super Metroid was my first Metroid game and I had no idea what it was about. The story pulled me in immediately. I was unsettled and completely engrossed. It was magical.
Man, just seeing those last moments of the Mother Brain fight actually got me a bit teary-eyed. I got this game on some Christmas during the 90's and it was so overwhelming and everything about it has this perfect combination of nostalgia and still-valid design decisions...
Once I finally played and beat Zero Mission, I speculated that the wrecked ship from Super Metroid was the pirate Mother ship from Zero Mission. They both even have the same worker robots (the walking trash cans.)
It's not, tho - the wrecked ship technically exists in Zero Mission but isn't acknowledged by the map - it's the small series of mechanical chambers that connect Chozodia to Crateria. Additionally, the presence of the Chozo statue carrying Samus to the Gravity Suit seems out of place for a space pirate ship.
@Kurt Fox "Hey Captain, where do you want we should put this statue?" "Put it in the spike room." "Why do we have a spike room??" Think about it. It's a Power Suit trial. Chozo design, Chozo ship.
@@Eltrotraw Yep...in Zero the wrecked ship is mostly buried, but there are a couple rooms from it you can see between Chozodia and Crateria. The pirate ship blowing up is what uncovered the wrecked ship (and also made Maridia).
I don't know about that- theirs some groovy ass music in Symphony of the Night, plus the Castlevania series has always been known for excellent music. I'd say its hard to compare them since they are drastically different music genres and the attempts at writing spooky atmospheric music for a cartridge with much more limited storage space compared to a CD were the primary reasons for why they are so different. Besides that- Rondo of Blood has the better CD soundtrack anyhow.
Yup, it's called the Crystal Flash: metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_Flash And while it's not called that specifically in Brawl, it is what Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash is referencing.
Super Metroid is one of my all time favorite games. I played the crap out of it as a kid. Twenty something years later, I learn something new about it. Mind=blown.
Austin Gravley How the heck can't you know what the Crystal Flash is after TWENTY YEARS of playing Super Metroid?!?!? After you beat the game for the first time, the game literally shows you gameplay footage when you start the game of Samus performing a crystal flash.
30:45 "You can disable upgrades from a menu, even though there's no reason to do that" Wrong 1. To use Power bomb's secret abilities, you need to disable all but one beam types 2. Speed running benefits greatly from deactivating ice beam 3. For challenge runs, you use said ability just to get through areas that you can't go without it
Mihzvol Wuriar, reasons most players are unlikely to ever find out. I didn’t know the charge beam had different special abilities for some combinations, but I guess a particularly investigative player could find out about that. Now, who would think to use a power bomb with certain beam combinations?
This game also has amazing little details, like the water splashes when walking in wet areas, the detailed way the bubbles come out of your helmet underwater, and even the lighting on the Metroid capsule on the title screen.
Totally agreed. Super Nes was the golden age of gaming. So glad I was a kid during that era. The games of today just arent the same...Ive tried prime & I just dont care for it. Metroid should always be side scrolling. Shooting, jumping etc is akward and sluggish in 1st person view.
@Corey Stokely Not really..I just prefer side scrolling game vs a semi open world slow paced game like Metroid Prime...Super Metroid was fast paced & looked like a work of art while Prime looked ugly & you could see all the polygon shapes, i prefer 2d look..Has nothing to do with nostalgia bc even the fan made AM2R I Liked more than the nintendo version again the fan made looked way better & I never played Metroid 2 before..The Super NES had some of the greatest games ever created to this day..No other system had that many amazing games from Super Metroid, Link to the Past, Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, FF3, Super Castlevania, Super Ghouls and ghosts, Fzero...lol thats pretty much a fact.
I know it's your opinion and I know you said it was going to be controversial, but man I have to supremely disagree on the music front. I listen to Norfair, red Brinstar, Maridia, and Crateria themes all the time. Beautiful pieces and perfect for the atmosphere the game has set. The mesh so undeniably with the game that any other piece in it's place would feel wrong. Outside the game they make for very nice, catchy, easy listening songs that I never feel will get old. I do want to say though that even though it's not "hooking" you, and it's not more "upbeat" and "melodic", do you really think that would have made sense considering the atmosphere and ambience the game has set? Imagine Megaman or Mario's soundtrack ( or their styles ) put into this game. I honestly cannot see it working one bit. Imagine tomahawk man's stage theme, or the over world music for super Mario world overlayed in areas of this game. Catchy, hooking, but totally wrong for 90% of the game. Super Metroid does how ever have those uptempo and meldoic tunes when appropriate, like in boss fights, or escapes, when tensions are high. Anyway, I respect that you have a different taste and that you particularly don't care as much for the music as others would, I just want to voice an opinion a lot of others would have in response, thank you for the video, and for going into such great details to review a stellar classic.
Arexsis You ever checked out Sam Dillard's Metroid Cinematica? It reimagines the soundtrack as an epic film score. It's fully licensed and is my favorite fan made Metroid album.
No game has music that builds a better atmosphere than super metroid. Upbeat music is good and funny, the main music in metroid 1 is upbeat. but does it build atmosphere? nope it makes it funny. Zelda alttp builds good atmosphere too, but super metroid is the masterpiece
qhodave link to the past has amazong music too, def agree.. Sometimes wjen I'm playing super metroid or link to past, I say "this game has the best music" .then I put in the other one and go "what am I, crazy??" Lol.. every song from both games are in my phone as ringtones... can't get enough... and ps, GODDESS APPEARS is a great alarm tone, try it out.. nice and soothing to wake up to, instead of jarring other alarms
I will always maintain that Super Metroid is the singularly best designed game of all time. The first time you play it, the difficulty curve is perfect…I can’t find any flaws in it. As you get more powerful, the game begins expecting you to know what your potential is. The animals are such a seamless tutorial built into the world without shattering the immersion with text boxes. Once you understand the fundamentals, the game let’s you use them to sequence break. Everything is so meticulously designed and I have yet to find any other game that can come close to the design perfection that is Super Metroid
Super was the first Metroid I played when I was 7 not long after it released. I had no idea what the series was about, but that intro intrigued me even at that young age, and is still one of my favorite parts of that game to go back and replay 30 years later.
I like that there’s an easy way to beat every main boss but Ridley. Kraid quick kill, phantoon without enrage, Draygon with the grapple beam. But Ridley? Nothing but skill.
Actually there is an easy way to beat Ridley. It's called collecting most if not all of the super missile and energy tanks. You can kill him quickly if you have good accuracy with those super missiles. The energy tanks allow you to ignore dodging his attacks while you unload your super missiles.
True, I mean, a prescription of 30 wall shakers will do the trick and there are easier strats for sure, but there's no real quick kill/easy mode like the rest of G4.
Ridley was definitely the easiest main boss you literally just jump with the screw attack and shoot your super missiles and you barely even have to dodge
Dammit, Geek Critique! I've got TWO essays to write and TWO finals to study for and WHAT DO YOU DO? You make this awesome review that just makes me want to go back and play Super Metroid again and 100% it again. Now I can't do ANYTHING until I do that very task. XD Keep up the great work, dude! :D
Agreed. Played prime and dont really care for it. I still want a brand new 2d metroid with new story, bosses, items etc on the switch so they can take advantage of the latest tech! Samus returns is great but its a remake...
in my opinion Zero, Prime 1 and 2 are really really good metroid games just surpassed by super metroid. The other games are way too easy and lineal I hate the dialogue in this game is just corny.... so fusion, prime 3 and other M are trash to me.
I just want you to know, these are my favorite videos I’ve ever found about Metroid. You encompass what I love about this series with words in a way I can’t. I appreciate what you’ve done here a lot, and I hope you see this, 3 years after posting
When I bought this game for Wii U and the title played, my dog was afraid of the singing soprano "voices". She whined and barked at the TV whenever it came on. Creepiness factor: check.
The fact that I didn't know there WAS a Wave Beam until it was mentioned here is probably worth mentioning. I just assumed the gap between the weapon options was because you could have both the Charge and Ice beams all the time, but had to choose between the lower two (Plasma and Spazer).
This may be something not many people would say, but Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion don’t need remakes, they’re perfect the way they are. Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus did need remakes because they were heavily flawed compared to Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, and compared to their remakes.
Don't forget the European version of that intro on the SNES, which forced you to choose between either massive all caps French subtitles or massive all caps German subtitles which dominated the screen.
I only just noticed when you grab the morph ball, the floor statues also turn towards you and glow. 20+ years later still seeing new things in retro games is an awesome feel
That intro was so scary to me as a kid, it took a lot of courage to get past the start menu. Hell, I spent my first hour playing trying to get Samus back into her ship so she can fly away to a less scary planet.
18:37 Wondering why there are Chozo statues and upgrades in the ancient ship? It's the ship the Chozo originally used to reach and colonize planet Zebes! By the way, WHERE is the room at 24:24?! In all my years of playing this game, I have NEVER encountered that one!
Ooh yeah, that's a weird one isn't it? Once you have the Power Bombs, go back to the room in Brinstar with the big rocky overhang from the original Metroid that you have to morph ball under. I think it's where you get your first or second missile upgrade. Use a Power Bomb to blow away that overhang, then either jump up there or use the speed booster, and you'll find that room.
Cameron Moore Zero Mission implies its the ruins of the space pirates mothership,which was around chozodia. The explosion could have made chozodia's ruins end in the ship,explaining the upgrades there and the fact the pirates are working around the ship(the platforms close to it) makes it seems that the pirates are after repairing it. Phantoon could be the ghost of all the dead in the ZM ending explosion. But all this doesn't really matter anyway.
Actually no it doesn't. The space pirate ship is in a different place. And you CAN find part of the Super Metroid wrecked ship in Zero Mission, before the space pirate ship is destroyed. It's way underground. It's actually implied that the explosion at the end of Zero Mission unearthed it.
If you look at the maps of Zero Mission and Super Metroid... The Space Pirate ship actually sits like 30+ map tiles above the location of the "Wrecked Ship", and the Chozo Ruins, if they still exist, would be far above the traversable area in Super Metroid (they're like the highest point in Zero Mission, and they actually sit on top of that huge wall (rock cliff) where the elevator that goes into upper Brinstar (to the right of where your ship lands) is located. Likewise, the Destroyed Pirate Ship is also further to the right than where the Wrecked Ship is actually located.
Great job on these videos. Metroid is such an underrated series that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves, so it's good to hear such a well thought out and fresh perspective on the games. Looking forward to the coming videos.
Retro Soul It doesn't. Sure, it gets critical acclaim by the gaming community but the series was never one to sell well. That's why we get tons of Mario and Zelda games but hardly any Metroid.
Well that's what I meant, it gets plenty of critical acclaim. And yeah, from a sales perspective that is true I suppose. But I can say the same thing about the F-Zero series. Imo it's the all-time best futuristic racing series and Nintendo has abandoned that franchise as well. It sucks. I can tell you what though, if Nintendo intends to keep Metroid and F-Zero (my favorite N franchises) derelict, than I most likely will not buy a Switch.
This was my first Metroid game, back when I was just learning to read. It quickly became a favorite, and remains one to this day. The opening was a big deal for me as a kid, though. It is very text heavy, and Kindergarten me realized that it was beyond my comprehension. When I fell in love with the game, I would revisit it often as my reading ability and vocabulary increased. Having quickly lost the manual, making sense of that intro was important to me. At some point, my older brother pointed out that in the lead up to the title screen it says "Metroid 3" and that blue my mind. I had always just known it as Super Metroid, but the idea that this was part of a series changed everything. The opening gained a new meaning. It wasn't just some backstory for the game's world, it was giving me a glimpse into other Metroid games that existed out there somewhere. It gave me a mission, outside of the game. While it was my brother that found Metroid 2 for me, I'll never forget how good it felt to finally, 5 or so years after first playing Super, find Metroid for NES at a yard sale. So yeah, that's how the opening of Super Metroid got me into the hobby of collecting and playing old games at a young age. Probably helps that you could get a NES with games included for like $10 at a yard sale in the late '90s
Even after all these years, the ending segment about the enormous footprint Super Metroid left behind always pulls at my heartstrings. That was very well worded.
Played Super Metroid the first time ever last July. I was born in 95 so I have no nostalgic connection in the slightest attached to this game. This game is without a doubt one of the top 5 greatest video games ever made. It’s a masterpiece through and through. Just beat Dread about 2 hours ago and damn I cannot wait for the next game to come out.
I’ve pulled out all my Metroid games because of your channel and The Orpheons channel, I love these detailed game review/history videos, keep up the good work!!
In my life, I've only had two games on release day. Super Metroid and Castlevania: SotN. I had Mortal Kombat on Genesis and Sonic 3 day after release day. They were close. Super Metroid was an early birthday present for my birthday in '94. In the early 2000s, I sold it along with most of my SNES collection, including my console. Mere days before my birthday this year, I found a near flawless Super Metroid cartridge for a very cheap price in a store in Indianapolis (cartridge and label looked brand new except for a name written in Sharpie on the side of the cartridge). It was an early birthday present to myself. I spent my birthday this year playing through Super Metroid just as I'd spent my birthday in 1994. I didn't forget to rescue the animals.
In my head cannon, Zebes was never destroyed; I always imagined that the self destruction sent fire and debris through the tunnels of the game, purging everything in them, but ultimately leaving the planet intact. After all, you can see Samus on the surface of a planet at the end of Metroid 1; I kind of always just assumed that she was standing just outside of the escape route.
1) The room at the top of the Wrecked Ship where you have to kill all of the enemies for all three doors to open. Once you kill all of the enemies you just need to open the doors once, then they will be unlocked forever (unless you start over on that save file). 2) I see in the thumbnail for the upcoming Fusion video that it will be called "The Corruption of a Masterpiece." I'm not from the future so I have no idea what that means, but I don't see Fusion blemishing Super in any way. Another great video. Other than the last Save Room and "rusty" controls compared to Fusion and Zero Mission, the only negatives I have with the game are nit picks at most. Like you said, nothing is perfect, but Super Metroid seems to be one of the closest a video game has gotten to perfection.
...are you SURE about #1? Because I know I have footage where I made my way through there multiple times, and had to kill all the enemies each time. Does it no longer trigger if you take the time to open all three doors when you've got them all killed? And yeah, nothing Fusion does sullies Super Metroid in any way. The title is more about how Fusion uses Super as a framework, and twists it into something else. You'll see!
"Does it no longer trigger if you take the time to open all three doors when you've got them all killed?" Yes, once you kill all of the enemies, you can open all of the doors since they will be switching between a blue and gray color. If you take the time to open all of them once before leaving the room, the doors will be blue forever, meaning that if you go back to that room later, you can open all of the doors even if you haven't killed all of the enemies. There are other doors that work that way as well... although I can't think of any specific examples right now.
The controls for Super Metroid are far superior to Fusion and Zero Mission. You just have to practice them and you'll be rewarded. Don't believe me? Ask any speedrunner.
Really? I played through Fusion and Zero Mission first, and then played Super Metroid. I beat all 3, but I liked Zero Mission/Fusion's controls a lot more. I liked the auto run a lot!
Well, for my money, back in 1994, I'd poked around at Metroid a little at a friend's house, but this game was really my introduction to the Metroid series. And... that intro was sooooo good. The primer on the previous games was really nice for someone who never owned an NES or Game Boy, and the digitized voice and all really set me up for a very different experience from the likes of Mario World and Star Fox. And then... Well... I mean, keeping in mind that I'd only been exposed to Ridley as a little hopping sprite that spat fireballs, and then it's like HOLY SHIT SPACE DRAGON WAS THIS WHAT HE ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS PEOPLE WATCH THE TAIL OH GOD SELF DESTRUCT RUN RUN RUN! I loved it.
Quick note to players playing nowadays (though this may have been noted elsehwere in the comments): In the Top room in Wrecked Ship, where you have to kill everything to progress, if you open all three doors after killing the enemies, you don't have to do it again, and the doors stay blue.
"You can turn off upgrades from the menu, even though there's absolutely no reason to do so" Let me introduce you to my friends Gravity Jump and Mockball
"Technology was no longer an obstacle for these developers." That makes me think of Terminator 2, for which Cameron waited until CGI was developed enough to depict the T-1000. That movie also stands the test of time, nearly 30 years later.
Fun fact:The guy that voiced the "last metroid is in captivity" bit also did a voice for the star fox games, mainly the "good luck" at the start of every mission
I played SM nonstop as a child and throughout the last 25yrs so I've probably played it over a 1000 times, but no matter what, the Super Metroid dying will never not make me shed a tear.
Oh. The Genesis boss you fight in AM2R? Those weird freaky things from SR388 that are supposedly the oldest things on the planet? The Chozo genetically engineered THAT into the Metroids.
Towards the end of this video, when you're describing the ending, the narration alone literally gave me goosebumps. Such a great video and tribute to a masterpiece.
I want to take the time to say thank you for making such an excellent review and an enjoyable experience, being taken thru my favorite game of all time in a half hour.
I would like to disagree on 1 point, the initial cut scene, I played Super Metroid having never played a Metroid game and everything portrayed kind of dictated my love of minimal intrusion of narrative over gameplay.
Man, this game is so incredible. Despite the fact that it was made about 5 years before I was even born, I feel that this game has barely aged in many aspects. Played it for the first time on the 3DS Virtual Console a couple years back, then proceeded to beat it 5 more times over the course of that year. The music is fantastic, the enviromental design is beautiful, and the capacity for sequence breaking via walljumping shenanigans is kind of astounding. Everything about this game makes me just want to gush about how good it is. Definitely one of my favorites to come back to.
I bet TGC was talking to himself out loud, "Should I put such an obscure game reference in my review?" In that instant, he heard the female announcers voice shout "Just Go For It!"
This is by far my personal favorite. It's an absolute masterpiece, just wonderful. Truely epic, thanks to the devs and producers, it marked my childhood and life.
I played this for the first time in quarantine on a Snes emulator in my PC... The experience was just overwhelming. I never knew games could be design in such a complex and engaging way. It really made me love and respect more the 16-bit video game era and has changed the way I look at video games forever. I was so anxious when I couldn't solve a puzzle and so relieved when I found something new that would help me to move forward. It's an experience like no other, and one that no one should ever neglect.
I'm actually one of those folks who don't really like Super Metroid that much... ... and it's all because of the controls and physics. The floatiness, the weapon switching, some of the animation feedback... I just can't get truly _into it_ because I always feel like Samus doesn't control the way I want her to.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
"Forget everything I said about the Space Jump being ancillary; you NEED just to get in here"
*many speedrunners have joined the chat*
His own comment about reverse boss order prior to that makes it all the more Hilarious
never even realized you needed space jump to get through the lava dive room
@@renx81 well you don't but it's much easier with it.
@@renx81 yeah I like to use the gravity suit exploit where you jump with the gravity suit on and the immediately take it off and your momentum carries you all the way to the top
@@Stitastic How would anyone know to do that?
In Metroid you play as Metroid is a bounty hunter who shoots a dinosaur in outer space with his missile 9.5/10
Not to be confused with Samuses the weird alien creatures that suck the life out of you.
John James Rambo GAME OF DA YEAR
@Siggesatan Pretty sure they're the same. It's probably just a translation error, the NES library is filled with them.
@Siggesatan Yeah, I know about the jokes about the protagonist. Same like Zelda.
A Dunkey fan I see
Super Metroid is one of the best pieces of media ever made by human beings. .. Such a masterpiece
Recht_voor_zijn_raap this and Alttp are games every child should play. Adults should play once a year, keeps the mind sharp.
"media", well said.
Eh, I don't think ALttP was very good...I thought Zelda 1, 2, LA, and OoT were far better and more enjoyable than ALttP.
Super Metroid though should definitely be played by anyone and everyone.
A Link to the Past is still a great game. But I'll play Super Metroid over A Link to the Past anyday.
man someone’s riding on nostalgia
Every time I rewatch this, him saying how the enemies REDHOT KICK always makes me laugh.
Absolutely love that line lol
The ending of this game still sadden me to this day...and knowing that I couldn't do ANYTHING about it.
I still want my Samus-metroid buddy cop kind of thing.
@@pubcleespecially after Samus Returns 3DS. End game soooo cute with the Metroid following you around
Yeah I still get a little emotional every time I replay it... and I've replayed it a lot of times
"none of the music here sticks"
Lower Norfair?
Green Brinstar?
C'mon man
Green Brinstar, Theme of Super Metroid, Menu Theme, Red Soil Brinstar, Lower norfair, Ridley Theme, Crateria Theme.... literally every theme in this game is perfect!
I wouldn't say the music in this game is perfect, but it is pretty good.
Listen to it by ToxicXeternity, in metal format. It's amazing.
Yeah, his review was going well until we dissed the music...Super Metroid has some of the best and most memorable music for any game EVER!
There is NO super nintendo game that makes dark atmosphere like Super Metroid.. It was barely even attempted.. let alone perfectly achieved. The music is easily the best in the entire series, here.
Yeah, the music... that's definitely just you. The ambience is what makes it great.
It's not just him, I really don't think the soundtrack is enjoyable to listen to without the game play
And that's because it isn't supposed to stand on it's own, it's supposed to be like the B.S L ambiance tracks
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink
In the end, it’s all just personal preference
Yeah, so why even judge anything ever? It's all personal preference! The music in this game is, at least by consensus, very good. Uncultured idiots think otherwise. They probably think bach and ravel and debussy and beethoven and wagner are "meh" too.
The music is great.
m.th-cam.com/video/oXBxkEDqYf8/w-d-xo.html
finally watched this all the way through and I officially wanna buy you a steak dinner my man. You get it. This video is as timeless as the game itself.
You: Yes the Chozo statue in the beginning is meant to feel like an accomplishment but really its easy.
Me: *sweats because it killed me on my first playthrough*
Same. Feels bad, man.
The wrecked ship is a Chozo ship. Talon IV is their homeworld but Zebes is one of the worlds they lived on.
Yeah, it killed me too. It’s no big deal, though. I was still getting used to the controls and all. Now I can beat it easily.
it killed me about 2/3 times
I think it killed us all on our first playthrough, but it's a lot easier the second time, as with most of the bosses
"You can disable upgrades from the menu, even though there's absolutely no reason to do that."
On the contrary, there are some rooms with ceilings that will harm the player, and having the Hi Jump on is to your disadvantage there. It's also a good idea to have the Ice Beam turned off, unless you need to freeze an enemy, because it will actually take longer to kill enemies with it turned on.
If you sequence break or use a randomizer to get screw attack early, there's rooms you don't want it for as it removes platforms you otherwise need. Particularly bad in some rooms with water if you don't have gravity suit yet. Moreso though, the option to turn upgrades off feels less about there being reason to, and more about the devs preempting the necessity.
Might use that when I let’s play super Metroid.
theres some cool tricks you can do with enabling and disabling your items, like gravity jumping and spring ball jumping.
YES! I love this feature.
Also all the beam combos!
A game so perfect it created it own genre.
The only other I know is Dark Souls. Dark Souls is so good, but dead, sadly...
@@danielahn5140 You're wrong. Super Metroid is what nailed the formula.
@@danielahn5140 That's what I mean. Metroid 1 had quite a lot of design flaws (Unhinted bombing, respawning with 30 health etc.). Super Metroid fixed it and it defined the genre.
@@danielahn5140 Can you give me examples of cryptic design?
@@danielahn5140 Fair point about the Ridley wall. However, the wall to Kraid's lair is marked on the map. And the tunnel to the Gravity Suit is visible through the floor.
But what item is cryptic to get? I can't think of any.
The last metroid is no longer in captivity. The galaxy... has gone to sh!t.
I would like but 69
The last Metroid has escaped. The galaxy is no longer at peace.
*TerminalMontageReference*
@@CyberdustStudios
Insert Samus reenacting Captain Picard’s _“I will make them pay for what they’ve done”_ speech.
At least I always imagined the video just skipped forward to cut out the rest of the speech.
@@CyberdustStudios N O ! NO! Nooooo!!
@@littleladylunatic *The baby*
"Because technology was no longer an obstacle for these developers, quite the opposite, Super Metroid is where technology finally caught up with what Metroid was trying to be this whole time."
I love how perfectly this parallels what's been revealed about the development of Metroid Dread, how it was always canceled because the technology simply couldn't produce what the developers wanted the game to be.
Even then, it was only just enough. The game was so massive for its time that it was nearly cancelled 3 times
And then they ended up overthinking and micromanaging the game too much. Dread is a good game, but I have a lot more complaints about it than Super.
@@yozarian86 Such as?
@@DropkickNation it’s too linear. It gives the illusion of freedom, but there’s only ever 1 way you can really go. There are some extremely difficult tricks that gamers have found to cheat bosses and get places you’re not supposed to, but not like Super. In Super there was a clear path you’re supposed to go, but there was freedom to go other places if you try. All the jumps and run spaces weren’t so micromanaged. In Dread every inch of the game is designed to prevent players from using easy tricks to get somewhere new. All of that just falls into the freedom category of complaints. There’s others. Like the entire character of “Adam”. I know he’s used an an important plot point in the end, but I saw that coming a mile away, and before that he was just annoying because everything he said was useless. It’s still a good game though. Just not as good as Super.
@@yozarian86 I agree with you. Dread was good not great by any means.
"none of the music here sticks"
Excuse me Ridley´s theme?
Yeah and the last mother brain fight theme
Yeah I mean I lied the music in the game but I see where he’s coming from. It’s definitely not as memorable as brinstar or Krause lair from the original Metroid.
*
Red soil area
Green vegetation zone
Norfair wardrums
*
Dude's crazy.
*
All the music sticks for me
This game has one of the best soundtracks from that era.
0:17 “Metroid was a game”
*credits roll*
As a 33 year old lifelong Metroid fan, I feel confident in saying your critiques for all these games (especially this one and I watched the all in a row) are not only spot on, but full of such depth and passion while being honest about your personal preferences and not letting any bias get in the way. Excellent, excellent work, man. From an old fan to a new one. I'm very much so looking forward to your future videos. :)
Same here brother
I went back and listened to it, like a podcast. I love how you go through the game by telling a story. It really brings it to life and puts the emotion & reverence at the forefront. A winner is you! 💚
Hi
Hands down my favorite game of all time. I've played through it at least a hundred times since 1994 and it truly never gets old.
I'v played this game on snes, wii, Wii u and 3ds. I curently have it on Wii u and 3ds.
I love this game, but metroid fusion is great too
@@NeftoskladYep. The Samus X breakout and Samus struggling to regain her abilities with her evil X clones trying to hunt her down. Metroid has always been good with it's music and atmosphere creating a good mix for afton creepy moments and they outdid it here with the sudden change of music and the echoing footsteps announcing the Samus X.
@@TheOmegazerox you know, i played super metroid at least 10 times and died under 10 times, but in fusion the difficulty rises higher than i expected. So i like fusion a little bit more because of the difficulty and story (and also because the power grip)
Over 25 years later and this game still holds up remarkably well. This is where the Metroid franchise started getting really good compared Mario 3 & World did for Mario and A Link to the Past did for Zelda.
I can just imagine Sami’s looking at her arm cannon and saying “let’s see here what’s speed runner mode?” Then the arm cannon starts swinging up and down
Why do speedrunners do that in SM? Does it make the player faster?
@@galfinsp7216 Too just pass time waiting for something, it looks funny to the audience because of how fast Samus is moving.
@@galfinsp7216 A lot of them use it as enemy taunts also during their death animations. You will see most, if not every speedrunner do it after beating a boss since there is nothing you can do until it's sprite is faded away, except sit there and make fun of it. :P It does not have any speed advantage, no, just something fun. :D
@@galfinsp7216 one thing it can do is help you run faster, and you can even skip the first Torizo fight if done properly
It's called arm pumping
@@kupokinzyt nab it's actually faster, it makes her walking speed faster because of some technosorcery with the animation frames
Loved your review of Super Metroid :) Not many longer videos will get me to watch from beginning to end, but your emphatic narration kept my interest!
I'd say the "Save Point Error" is actually a "Door Lock Error"... think about all the stuff you'd have to go back through to get to Mother Brain if you died without that Save Point... The door locking on the other hand, there's no reason for that. AT ALL.
Maybe it was a security lock-down because the Super Metroid was on the loose and running amok in that area? That would be my explanation.
You can always just glitch the game out with the VAR beam and bug your way through the door. Of course, that ends up in the game restarting from the beginning with you keeping all of your upgrades, but hey whatever works.
See, my reading of the door closing is this: In the rest of the game, an extreme of nonlinearity is emphasized. You can go anywhere, you can get things in different orders and feel free to explore, and in some cases you can even sequence break. The story is delivered in an ambient, background sort of way -- here are mochtroids, here's the Wrecked Ship, come to your own conclusions or move on.
Tourian, though, is an entirely different story (literally). It's a basically linear level with what are, essentially, cutscenes to deliver story, culminating in an incredibly epic escape sequence. The reason you can't go back is because if you're in this part of the game, you're not here to collect things -- you're here to finish the game. Whereas before it made sense to do things out of order, here it would feel really weird if you got these super dramatic, suspenseful scenes building up to an ending boss fight -- and then you paused and went and found missile tanks for half an hour.
+Calvin Schwa Okay, I just got a chuckle out of imagining that scenario, I think that proves your point.
You're thinking of the Spacetime beam. The VAR beam is the one that crashes the game if you're shoot it to the right.
Something else I love about this game is its soundtrack, something Nintendo loved too. If you pay attention to the Metroid Prime games, you'll notice that a large fraction of their tracks are remixes of some of this game's tracks. The track "Hunters" from Prime 2 Echoes (the default multiplayer track) is the green Brinstar theme. Torvus Bog's underwater track is the red Brinstar one from here. Fantastic.
The Tallon Overworld theme in Prime 1 is a remix of the Brinstar theme from the original / zero mission as well.
17:19 😅😊ok
@@salemm4815 Aside from its use in the Wrecked Ship in Super, I can't say I recognize the track playing at 17:19 from anywhere else.
@@johndelzoppo1366 true, but that one's been changed quite a bit in comparison to the ones I mentioned. Not saying it's bad of course, because it isn't, js.
I recieved a super nintendo from my mom around Christmas 95 and the intro freaking blew me away as a 7 year old kid. I had never played or hear of metroid before but think it came with the system. Its arguably the best game of all time
Being 30 years old in 2021, my first experience of Metroid was metroid prime on the GameCube and its sequels. It's one of my favourite games of all time and one of the many things that stands out to me aside from gameplay is the amazing soundtrack and atmosphere . Super Metroid is a game that I always wanted to play and just never got around to it, until I played it on the Nintendo Switch and it just blew me away. I never realised how much was borrowed and remixed from a game from 1994! It really gave me a new appreciation of super metroid. While the Metroid prime trilogy is my favourite of the whole series, that is mostly due to the nostalgia and I wholly appreciate what super metroid brought to the series. What an amazing game, even in 2021.
I decided to rewatch this video on a whim...its crazy how well it holds up. Got genuine chills despite knowing the general flow of the video. My writing (and editing to some degree) has improved since then which only makes me appreciate your style that much more!
Not sure why I'm leaving this comment. Its pretty vauge all things considered. I'm just glad I was here for most of what you've done is what I guess I'm saying. Your new stuff is good too! I've in general been less internet savvy compared to before so that's part of why I missed out on some livestreams...so I guess this is just my way of saying I still appreciate all the awesome videos you've made since I'm passing by again! It takes time to realize on my end that good writing is something I really appreciate about video essays and yours manages to mix that with a genuine sense of positive/appreciative energy that's just so hard to find elsewhere...
TL;DR Noone does it (critiquin') quite like you, and I wouldn't have it any other way! ;)
(P.S. My writing has improved to the point where I can write some scripts without cringing at them afterwards...if I ever make something that I'd think you'd find interesting/like...I'll be sure to see it your way! Till then I'll keep geekin'! :D)
Super Metroid was my first Metroid game and I had no idea what it was about. The story pulled me in immediately. I was unsettled and completely engrossed. It was magical.
Man, just seeing those last moments of the Mother Brain fight actually got me a bit teary-eyed. I got this game on some Christmas during the 90's and it was so overwhelming and everything about it has this perfect combination of nostalgia and still-valid design decisions...
Once I finally played and beat Zero Mission, I speculated that the wrecked ship from Super Metroid was the pirate Mother ship from Zero Mission. They both even have the same worker robots (the walking trash cans.)
88DreadGT That makes it even more weird that there's a Chozo statue in there.
It's not, tho - the wrecked ship technically exists in Zero Mission but isn't acknowledged by the map - it's the small series of mechanical chambers that connect Chozodia to Crateria.
Additionally, the presence of the Chozo statue carrying Samus to the Gravity Suit seems out of place for a space pirate ship.
It's a Chozo ship, likely shot down or failed to launch when the Chozo tried to bug out after Mother Brain went rogue.
@Kurt Fox "Hey Captain, where do you want we should put this statue?"
"Put it in the spike room."
"Why do we have a spike room??"
Think about it. It's a Power Suit trial. Chozo design, Chozo ship.
@@Eltrotraw Yep...in Zero the wrecked ship is mostly buried, but there are a couple rooms from it you can see between Chozodia and Crateria. The pirate ship blowing up is what uncovered the wrecked ship (and also made Maridia).
"it is not difficult to escape"
on my first playthrough I only had 3 seconds left
This series of Metroid Retrospectives is so unbelieveably rewatchable, just like Super Metroid
The music is nothing short of stellar, what are you on about?
It rivals and could very well surpass the music of Castlevania SOTN.
I love the music in this game too. But the music in SoTN, is arguably the best video game soundtrack ever made.
I don't know about that- theirs some groovy ass music in Symphony of the Night, plus the Castlevania series has always been known for excellent music. I'd say its hard to compare them since they are drastically different music genres and the attempts at writing spooky atmospheric music for a cartridge with much more limited storage space compared to a CD were the primary reasons for why they are so different. Besides that- Rondo of Blood has the better CD soundtrack anyhow.
Did you guys never hear of opinions? Or are you that nostalgia blinded to not accept others opinions?
@@Crichjo32 lol no
You can use your ammo to heal?!
Yup, it's called the Crystal Flash: metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_Flash
And while it's not called that specifically in Brawl, it is what Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash is referencing.
Holy shit! the crystal flash is so ZSS's final smash in Brawl. I had no idea. That Sakurai. What a guy.
Super Metroid is one of my all time favorite games. I played the crap out of it as a kid. Twenty something years later, I learn something new about it. Mind=blown.
If you let the intro demo run, Samus will use the flash in the last scene. It shows several shine spark tricks.
Austin Gravley How the heck can't you know what the Crystal Flash is after TWENTY YEARS of playing Super Metroid?!?!?
After you beat the game for the first time, the game literally shows you gameplay footage when you start the game of Samus performing a crystal flash.
22:51 what the metroid remembers
22 years I've played this game and never realized. MIND = BLOWN
David Franco DUDE I KNOW!!!! I never knew that and I’ve run this game dozens of times.
30:45 "You can disable upgrades from a menu, even though there's no reason to do that"
Wrong
1. To use Power bomb's secret abilities, you need to disable all but one beam types
2. Speed running benefits greatly from deactivating ice beam
3. For challenge runs, you use said ability just to get through areas that you can't go without it
I mean, he clearly means in a casual or first-time playthrough.
@@TackyRackyComixNEO Still wrong, if you want to use power bombs secret abilities, you need to deactivate other beams...
@@MihzvolWuriar you aren't gonna necessarily know about that on a first playthrough so why does that matter.
@@TackyRackyComixNEO There are reasons to do it, simple.
Mihzvol Wuriar, reasons most players are unlikely to ever find out. I didn’t know the charge beam had different special abilities for some combinations, but I guess a particularly investigative player could find out about that. Now, who would think to use a power bomb with certain beam combinations?
This game also has amazing little details, like the water splashes when walking in wet areas, the detailed way the bubbles come out of your helmet underwater, and even the lighting on the Metroid capsule on the title screen.
The music was amazing! what are you talking about! lol
also, I do consider this one of, if not THE best game(s) ever made.
Totally agreed. Super Nes was the golden age of gaming. So glad I was a kid during that era. The games of today just arent the same...Ive tried prime & I just dont care for it. Metroid should always be side scrolling. Shooting, jumping etc is akward and sluggish in 1st person view.
@@peterc504 ok boomer
@@acanaxr2829 ?!?!
@Corey Stokely Not really..I just prefer side scrolling game vs a semi open world slow paced game like Metroid Prime...Super Metroid was fast paced & looked like a work of art while Prime looked ugly & you could see all the polygon shapes, i prefer 2d look..Has nothing to do with nostalgia bc even the fan made AM2R I Liked more than the nintendo version again the fan made looked way better & I never played Metroid 2 before..The Super NES had some of the greatest games ever created to this day..No other system had that many amazing games from Super Metroid, Link to the Past, Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger, FF3, Super Castlevania, Super Ghouls and ghosts, Fzero...lol thats pretty much a fact.
I know it's your opinion and I know you said it was going to be controversial, but man I have to supremely disagree on the music front. I listen to Norfair, red Brinstar, Maridia, and Crateria themes all the time. Beautiful pieces and perfect for the atmosphere the game has set. The mesh so undeniably with the game that any other piece in it's place would feel wrong. Outside the game they make for very nice, catchy, easy listening songs that I never feel will get old.
I do want to say though that even though it's not "hooking" you, and it's not more "upbeat" and "melodic", do you really think that would have made sense considering the atmosphere and ambience the game has set? Imagine Megaman or Mario's soundtrack ( or their styles ) put into this game. I honestly cannot see it working one bit. Imagine tomahawk man's stage theme, or the over world music for super Mario world overlayed in areas of this game. Catchy, hooking, but totally wrong for 90% of the game.
Super Metroid does how ever have those uptempo and meldoic tunes when appropriate, like in boss fights, or escapes, when tensions are high.
Anyway, I respect that you have a different taste and that you particularly don't care as much for the music as others would, I just want to voice an opinion a lot of others would have in response, thank you for the video, and for going into such great details to review a stellar classic.
Meh, Prime blows them out of the water.
Prime's music was made by the same composer, Kenji Yamamoto. Further, I prefer Lower Brinstar much more than Magmoor Caverns.
Arexsis You ever checked out Sam Dillard's Metroid Cinematica? It reimagines the soundtrack as an epic film score. It's fully licensed and is my favorite fan made Metroid album.
No game has music that builds a better atmosphere than super metroid. Upbeat music is good and funny, the main music in metroid 1 is upbeat. but does it build atmosphere? nope it makes it funny. Zelda alttp builds good atmosphere too, but super metroid is the masterpiece
qhodave link to the past has amazong music too, def agree..
Sometimes wjen I'm playing super metroid or link to past, I say "this game has the best music"
.then I put in the other one and go "what am I, crazy??" Lol.. every song from both games are in my phone as ringtones... can't get enough... and ps, GODDESS APPEARS is a great alarm tone, try it out.. nice and soothing to wake up to, instead of jarring other alarms
I actually nearly shed a few tears toward the ending speech of the video with the Metroid ending music in the background. ;___;
Nintendo. Y u no make a game like Super Metroid?
Because "Other M" happened...
gamephreak5 But Nintendo made Other M.
Yeah... but its not like Super Metroid, so...???
RudySpino Gunpei Yokoi was the head of Super Metrod, that's why. He passed away after that.
I will always maintain that Super Metroid is the singularly best designed game of all time. The first time you play it, the difficulty curve is perfect…I can’t find any flaws in it. As you get more powerful, the game begins expecting you to know what your potential is. The animals are such a seamless tutorial built into the world without shattering the immersion with text boxes. Once you understand the fundamentals, the game let’s you use them to sequence break. Everything is so meticulously designed and I have yet to find any other game that can come close to the design perfection that is Super Metroid
Super was the first Metroid I played when I was 7 not long after it released. I had no idea what the series was about, but that intro intrigued me even at that young age, and is still one of my favorite parts of that game to go back and replay 30 years later.
28:29 "Think.... Think.... BRAIN BLAST!"
Amaroqdricaldari Underrated comment
Amaroq Starwind
My Metroid experience in a nutshell. Lol!
Seriously, if I had a dollar for every time I got stuck in a Metroid game...
I like that there’s an easy way to beat every main boss but Ridley. Kraid quick kill, phantoon without enrage, Draygon with the grapple beam. But Ridley? Nothing but skill.
Actually there is an easy way to beat Ridley. It's called collecting most if not all of the super missile and energy tanks. You can kill him quickly if you have good accuracy with those super missiles. The energy tanks allow you to ignore dodging his attacks while you unload your super missiles.
True, I mean, a prescription of 30 wall shakers will do the trick and there are easier strats for sure, but there's no real quick kill/easy mode like the rest of G4.
Ridley was definitely the easiest main boss you literally just jump with the screw attack and shoot your super missiles and you barely even have to dodge
You inspired me to finish this, my first Metroid game
"It's rare even now that a later game let's you return to a place like this."
Sonic fans: Oh yeah? What's that feel like?
God, us Sonic fans just wish for Green Hill to go die in a hole at this point.
As an 11 year old in '94.. this was like NOTHING I'd played before. The atmosphere, music, storyline, gameplay.. THIS is Metroid done right.
You literally described *everything* as to why this game is one of my favorite games of all time. Really appreciate this video, thank you!
Dammit, Geek Critique! I've got TWO essays to write and TWO finals to study for and WHAT DO YOU DO? You make this awesome review that just makes me want to go back and play Super Metroid again and 100% it again. Now I can't do ANYTHING until I do that very task. XD
Keep up the great work, dude! :D
Still my favorite game ever.
J.P. Czerniak Me too. And the music is in my top 10.
Agreed. Played prime and dont really care for it. I still want a brand new 2d metroid with new story, bosses, items etc on the switch so they can take advantage of the latest tech! Samus returns is great but its a remake...
in my opinion Zero, Prime 1 and 2 are really really good metroid games just surpassed by super metroid.
The other games are way too easy and lineal I hate the dialogue in this game is just corny.... so fusion, prime 3 and other M are trash to me.
I have replayed Super Metroid countless times, and yet I never knew you could heal yourself
I just want you to know, these are my favorite videos I’ve ever found about Metroid. You encompass what I love about this series with words in a way I can’t. I appreciate what you’ve done here a lot, and I hope you see this, 3 years after posting
I find myself going back to this series and watching it over and over
So happy I came across these videos. This one in particular felt just as special as Super Metroid itself.
When I bought this game for Wii U and the title played, my dog was afraid of the singing soprano "voices". She whined and barked at the TV whenever it came on.
Creepiness factor: check.
Heck my mom hated me playing that game cuz it sounded like a horror movie. And she did catch me dying once and grumbled at Samus in skimpy clothes :P
The fact that I didn't know there WAS a Wave Beam until it was mentioned here is probably worth mentioning. I just assumed the gap between the weapon options was because you could have both the Charge and Ice beams all the time, but had to choose between the lower two (Plasma and Spazer).
Super Metroid is pure magic from the golden age of videogame development
This may be something not many people would say, but Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion don’t need remakes, they’re perfect the way they are. Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus did need remakes because they were heavily flawed compared to Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, and compared to their remakes.
I have played this game back and forth since its release. Truly, a masterpiece!
Don't forget the European version of that intro on the SNES, which forced you to choose between either massive all caps French subtitles or massive all caps German subtitles which dominated the screen.
I only just noticed when you grab the morph ball, the floor statues also turn towards you and glow. 20+ years later still seeing new things in retro games is an awesome feel
That intro was so scary to me as a kid, it took a lot of courage to get past the start menu. Hell, I spent my first hour playing trying to get Samus back into her ship so she can fly away to a less scary planet.
The Viewtiful Joe reference was much appreciated.
18:37 Wondering why there are Chozo statues and upgrades in the ancient ship? It's the ship the Chozo originally used to reach and colonize planet Zebes!
By the way, WHERE is the room at 24:24?! In all my years of playing this game, I have NEVER encountered that one!
Ooh yeah, that's a weird one isn't it? Once you have the Power Bombs, go back to the room in Brinstar with the big rocky overhang from the original Metroid that you have to morph ball under. I think it's where you get your first or second missile upgrade. Use a Power Bomb to blow away that overhang, then either jump up there or use the speed booster, and you'll find that room.
The Geek Critique
Wow, thanks! I can't believe I've missed it all these years!
Cameron Moore Zero Mission implies its the ruins of the space pirates mothership,which was around chozodia. The explosion could have made chozodia's ruins end in the ship,explaining the upgrades there and the fact the pirates are working around the ship(the platforms close to it) makes it seems that the pirates are after repairing it. Phantoon could be the ghost of all the dead in the ZM ending explosion. But all this doesn't really matter anyway.
Actually no it doesn't. The space pirate ship is in a different place. And you CAN find part of the Super Metroid wrecked ship in Zero Mission, before the space pirate ship is destroyed. It's way underground. It's actually implied that the explosion at the end of Zero Mission unearthed it.
If you look at the maps of Zero Mission and Super Metroid... The Space Pirate ship actually sits like 30+ map tiles above the location of the "Wrecked Ship", and the Chozo Ruins, if they still exist, would be far above the traversable area in Super Metroid (they're like the highest point in Zero Mission, and they actually sit on top of that huge wall (rock cliff) where the elevator that goes into upper Brinstar (to the right of where your ship lands) is located. Likewise, the Destroyed Pirate Ship is also further to the right than where the Wrecked Ship is actually located.
Great job on these videos. Metroid is such an underrated series that doesn't get nearly as much attention as it deserves, so it's good to hear such a well thought out and fresh perspective on the games. Looking forward to the coming videos.
super metroid and the first metroid are underrated? HAHAHA WHAT
Trust me the Metroid series gets plenty of deserved attention. Maybe not from little teenagers nowadays but in general it definitely does.
Retro Soul It doesn't. Sure, it gets critical acclaim by the gaming community but the series was never one to sell well. That's why we get tons of Mario and Zelda games but hardly any Metroid.
Well that's what I meant, it gets plenty of critical acclaim. And yeah, from a sales perspective that is true I suppose. But I can say the same thing about the F-Zero series. Imo it's the all-time best futuristic racing series and Nintendo has abandoned that franchise as well. It sucks.
I can tell you what though, if Nintendo intends to keep Metroid and F-Zero (my favorite N franchises) derelict, than I most likely will not buy a Switch.
Turo Ortiz Well it sells more than most Nintendo series. I might be wrong but, I thought it was behind only Mario, Pokemon, and Zelda.
This was my first Metroid game, back when I was just learning to read. It quickly became a favorite, and remains one to this day. The opening was a big deal for me as a kid, though. It is very text heavy, and Kindergarten me realized that it was beyond my comprehension. When I fell in love with the game, I would revisit it often as my reading ability and vocabulary increased. Having quickly lost the manual, making sense of that intro was important to me.
At some point, my older brother pointed out that in the lead up to the title screen it says "Metroid 3" and that blue my mind. I had always just known it as Super Metroid, but the idea that this was part of a series changed everything. The opening gained a new meaning. It wasn't just some backstory for the game's world, it was giving me a glimpse into other Metroid games that existed out there somewhere.
It gave me a mission, outside of the game. While it was my brother that found Metroid 2 for me, I'll never forget how good it felt to finally, 5 or so years after first playing Super, find Metroid for NES at a yard sale.
So yeah, that's how the opening of Super Metroid got me into the hobby of collecting and playing old games at a young age. Probably helps that you could get a NES with games included for like $10 at a yard sale in the late '90s
Even after all these years, the ending segment about the enormous footprint Super Metroid left behind always pulls at my heartstrings. That was very well worded.
Played Super Metroid the first time ever last July. I was born in 95 so I have no nostalgic connection in the slightest attached to this game. This game is without a doubt one of the top 5 greatest video games ever made. It’s a masterpiece through and through. Just beat Dread about 2 hours ago and damn I cannot wait for the next game to come out.
I’ve pulled out all my Metroid games because of your channel and The Orpheons channel, I love these detailed game review/history videos, keep up the good work!!
As a fan of Super Metroid, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. You explained the game beautifully. Thank you!
You are most welcome, and thank you for saying so!
In my life, I've only had two games on release day. Super Metroid and Castlevania: SotN. I had Mortal Kombat on Genesis and Sonic 3 day after release day. They were close. Super Metroid was an early birthday present for my birthday in '94. In the early 2000s, I sold it along with most of my SNES collection, including my console. Mere days before my birthday this year, I found a near flawless Super Metroid cartridge for a very cheap price in a store in Indianapolis (cartridge and label looked brand new except for a name written in Sharpie on the side of the cartridge). It was an early birthday present to myself. I spent my birthday this year playing through Super Metroid just as I'd spent my birthday in 1994. I didn't forget to rescue the animals.
One of the things I like the most is a teeny tiny detail: when you use the X-ray visor, Samus tilts her head according to the angle of your scan beam.
In my head cannon, Zebes was never destroyed; I always imagined that the self destruction sent fire and debris through the tunnels of the game, purging everything in them, but ultimately leaving the planet intact. After all, you can see Samus on the surface of a planet at the end of Metroid 1; I kind of always just assumed that she was standing just outside of the escape route.
Zero Mission pretty much confirmed that fact.
1) The room at the top of the Wrecked Ship where you have to kill all of the enemies for all three doors to open. Once you kill all of the enemies you just need to open the doors once, then they will be unlocked forever (unless you start over on that save file).
2) I see in the thumbnail for the upcoming Fusion video that it will be called "The Corruption of a Masterpiece." I'm not from the future so I have no idea what that means, but I don't see Fusion blemishing Super in any way.
Another great video. Other than the last Save Room and "rusty" controls compared to Fusion and Zero Mission, the only negatives I have with the game are nit picks at most. Like you said, nothing is perfect, but Super Metroid seems to be one of the closest a video game has gotten to perfection.
...are you SURE about #1? Because I know I have footage where I made my way through there multiple times, and had to kill all the enemies each time. Does it no longer trigger if you take the time to open all three doors when you've got them all killed?
And yeah, nothing Fusion does sullies Super Metroid in any way. The title is more about how Fusion uses Super as a framework, and twists it into something else. You'll see!
"Does it no longer trigger if you take the time to open all three doors when you've got them all killed?" Yes, once you kill all of the enemies, you can open all of the doors since they will be switching between a blue and gray color. If you take the time to open all of them once before leaving the room, the doors will be blue forever, meaning that if you go back to that room later, you can open all of the doors even if you haven't killed all of the enemies. There are other doors that work that way as well... although I can't think of any specific examples right now.
The controls for Super Metroid are far superior to Fusion and Zero Mission. You just have to practice them and you'll be rewarded. Don't believe me? Ask any speedrunner.
Really? I played through Fusion and Zero Mission first, and then played Super Metroid. I beat all 3, but I liked Zero Mission/Fusion's controls a lot more. I liked the auto run a lot!
That's kind of a moot point because you can run to the right, get the missile upgrade, then head left and you have to carve through them all anyway.
Well, for my money, back in 1994, I'd poked around at Metroid a little at a friend's house, but this game was really my introduction to the Metroid series. And... that intro was sooooo good. The primer on the previous games was really nice for someone who never owned an NES or Game Boy, and the digitized voice and all really set me up for a very different experience from the likes of Mario World and Star Fox. And then...
Well...
I mean, keeping in mind that I'd only been exposed to Ridley as a little hopping sprite that spat fireballs, and then it's like HOLY SHIT SPACE DRAGON WAS THIS WHAT HE ALWAYS LOOKED LIKE HOLD ON TO YOUR BUTTS PEOPLE WATCH THE TAIL OH GOD SELF DESTRUCT RUN RUN RUN! I loved it.
Oh yeah, that's cool... I hadn't even thought of what a strong impression Ridley would've made if the only way you'd seen him before was on the NES.
That intro pulled me in like mad in 1994. I was 12 years old, it was my first Metroid game, and I was utterly gripped.
Quick note to players playing nowadays (though this may have been noted elsehwere in the comments):
In the Top room in Wrecked Ship, where you have to kill everything to progress, if you open all three doors after killing the enemies, you don't have to do it again, and the doors stay blue.
"You can turn off upgrades from the menu, even though there's absolutely no reason to do so"
Let me introduce you to my friends Gravity Jump and Mockball
I still tear up when I see the baby metroid die.
If a person claims to be a fan and doesnt tear up when that happens, they arent a real fan at all
I will never forget that memory of the Baby Metroid. Thankfully, playing Metroid Fusion many years ago, actually brightened that up.
It is the saddest part of the game. And also it was even sadder in other m
Dude please do the Prime series! your work is outstanding.
prime 3 is my fav metroid game
I enjoy the Prime series. I don't care whether Metroid goes into 2D or 3D, I just love alot of these Metroid games for what it stands for.
Having the same two sentences of Super Metroid's intro having played at the end of AM2R is amazing.
This game has like 5 keys that unlocked the door of greatness. The music is most definitely one of them.
Now THAT was thorough. Excellent video!
9:45
Someone NEEDS to make a band called Ridley & the Space Pirates
"Technology was no longer an obstacle for these developers." That makes me think of Terminator 2, for which Cameron waited until CGI was developed enough to depict the T-1000. That movie also stands the test of time, nearly 30 years later.
Thats a good analogy. T2 and Super Metroid are when two franchises could really expound upon their true potential.
Fun fact:The guy that voiced the "last metroid is in captivity" bit also did a voice for the star fox games, mainly the "good luck" at the start of every mission
I played SM nonstop as a child and throughout the last 25yrs so I've probably played it over a 1000 times, but no matter what, the Super Metroid dying will never not make me shed a tear.
20:25 - "I'm hilarious!"
Yes, you are.
Ok I've been playing this game since I was 7 y/o. THERE ARE THINGS IN THIS VIDEO I DIDNT EVEN KNOW EXISTED IN THIS GAME!!!
That’s the magic of super Metroid. I have been finding knew things in this game almost every new play through.
Oh.
The Genesis boss you fight in AM2R? Those weird freaky things from SR388 that are supposedly the oldest things on the planet?
The Chozo genetically engineered THAT into the Metroids.
...eh? They are not related at all and they look...totally different???
Towards the end of this video, when you're describing the ending, the narration alone literally gave me goosebumps. Such a great video and tribute to a masterpiece.
I want to take the time to say thank you for making such an excellent review and an enjoyable experience, being taken thru my favorite game of all time in a half hour.
I would like to disagree on 1 point, the initial cut scene, I played Super Metroid having never played a Metroid game and everything portrayed kind of dictated my love of minimal intrusion of narrative over gameplay.
Man, this game is so incredible. Despite the fact that it was made about 5 years before I was even born, I feel that this game has barely aged in many aspects. Played it for the first time on the 3DS Virtual Console a couple years back, then proceeded to beat it 5 more times over the course of that year. The music is fantastic, the enviromental design is beautiful, and the capacity for sequence breaking via walljumping shenanigans is kind of astounding. Everything about this game makes me just want to gush about how good it is. Definitely one of my favorites to come back to.
22:46 - Holy shit, a Viewtiful Joe reference!
I thought I was the only one that noticed...
I bet TGC was talking to himself out loud, "Should I put such an obscure game reference in my review?" In that instant, he heard the female announcers voice shout "Just Go For It!"
This game is Viewtiful Forever.
This is by far my personal favorite. It's an absolute masterpiece, just wonderful. Truely epic, thanks to the devs and producers, it marked my childhood and life.
I played this for the first time in quarantine on a Snes emulator in my PC... The experience was just overwhelming. I never knew games could be design in such a complex and engaging way. It really made me love and respect more the 16-bit video game era and has changed the way I look at video games forever. I was so anxious when I couldn't solve a puzzle and so relieved when I found something new that would help me to move forward. It's an experience like no other, and one that no one should ever neglect.
Awesome content so far. You earned a new sub.
28:06 -- "She goes down real easy" -- lol
I'm actually one of those folks who don't really like Super Metroid that much...
... and it's all because of the controls and physics. The floatiness, the weapon switching, some of the animation feedback... I just can't get truly _into it_ because I always feel like Samus doesn't control the way I want her to.
18:46 Actually, there are some answers - the Wrecked Ship is actually the ship on which the Chozo first crash-landed on to Zebes.
Beat this game for the first time today. This video makes me appreciate it even more. It felt like a real accomplishment beating it.