Super Metroid

This is probably my all-time favorite video game. With the exception of the recent CASTLEVANIA games, not other series has integrated action and exploration so seamlessly, and at the same time provided a story that is deep and involving. Controls are intuitive, even to the greenest of gamers, and there are hundreds of little nooks and crannies to explore, so even though you can beat the game fairly quickly, it pays to be patient and thoroughly explore every room. All of these element alone make for a great game, but this one has the edge over the competition: Samus Aran. Samus is easily the most interesting of all video game characters. A female bounty hunter equipped with a technologically enhanced spacesuit and arm cannon, Samus always works alone, never speaks, and has a vendetta against the race of blood-sucking parasites known as Metroids. Her desire to eliminate them from the entire universe goes beyond the battle between good and evil and becomes an obsession. In the beginning of the game, she is commissioned to bring back the last Metroid in existence for scientific research. Something goes wrong, though, and the specimen is stolen by Ridley, a horrific winged beast and the right hand man of the Mother Brain, a mysterious evil force from the planet Zebes. Samus goes to Zebes to hunt down the Mother Brain and recapture the baby Metroid, but is faced with much more than she bargained with. I've heard that there's a filmed adaptation of the series in the works. IMDb shows no cast, screenwriter or director yet, but word has it Hong Kong action filmmaker John Woo is interested in the project. This is perhaps the first video game with a legitimate shot at becoming a good movie, and I hope that the filmmakers don't overlook certain opportunities. Samus must be portrayed not as a brooding, one-liner spewing action heroine, but as a human being, troubled but not emotionless. There must be a real sense of isolation in her journeys, and maybe some insight on why she must always work alone. While I don't hold out a lot of hope that anyone involved in the film will be reading this review, I feel it important that I get my views out there into the open, so at least someone will know that it could have been done.

Being the third in the Metroid series, "Super Metroid" takes everything that was ever great from the first two "Metroid" and "Metroid II: The Return of Samus" and makes everything better. The game plays the same as the previous two (side scroller) with Samus Aran returning the Metroid Home World to eliminate her past enemies. Again Samus has to locate various weapons such as the ice beam, missiles, bombs, high jump boots, energy tanks along with new weapons; super missiles and bombs, grappling beam and x-ray scanner. Super Metroid uses some of the same maps from the original Metroid which are now deserted and has an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. Accompanying the beautiful graphics is a great soundtrack reminiscent of the music from the series. I'd like to add more to this attempt at a review, but I fear that I might give too much away for those who have yet to play this game.

I always loved the Metroid series, and Super Metroid is no exception. In fact, it is the one to improve the series big time.

It is also the first Metroid to have somewhat of an easy-to-understand story as well, conerning Samus Aran, alter egos Ridley and Mother Brain and a young Metroid.

You also get introduced to new gadgets and weapons in the game, such as the Speed Booster, Super Missle, Power Bombs, X-ray scope, Grappling beam and the Gravity Suit.

If you find this game anywhere, you are doing a big favor by playing it. Yes, it is that addictive.

Super Metroid is one of the most excellent Super Nintendo adventures of my time. I mean the game was executed so well, that I was amazed when I first played it (a few years after the game was released). I can tell you, it shows wonderful potential of gaming to the limit. It's creative, thought provoking, and fun. Shigeru Miyamoto is the Steven Spielberg of video games. While Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear) is the Akira Kurosawa of video games.

This fantastic Snes gem is widely and very justifiably regarded as one of the very best early generation console games of all time and I for one still love it, it surpassed its predecessor in every possible way and even today the non-linear exploration which really above everything else is the central aspect, as well as the atmospheric focus on isolation makes it just as spine-tingling and fun a game as it ever was. You actually feel like you're on your own on an alien planet as you encounter the endless hordes of subterranean alien monsters to blast into oblivion. I love how daunting they made the boss battles, none more so than big 'ol Kraid! He might've seemed like an impossible scaly mountain coming right at you, but he was a pushover compared to some of the other guys! The battle against Ridley is a heck of a lot easier if you have the Plasma Beam, and that nifty trick you can do with the Grappling Beam to win an easy victory against Draygon was such an awesome touch! The world feels so huge, and all the different music scores set up the moods in all the different areas so perfectly. How satisfying it is just to progress and discover the many upgrades, both necessary and hidden. It's a game that rewards your curiosity, and you can just search throughout every nook and cranny of Zebes until the cows come home, and I guarantee that there'll still be something you've missed somewhere... In this one part, behind a room with a missile upgrade, there's a secret room, and then another secret room behind that one! You have to retread a lot but it never gets monotonous, and it never feels unfairly difficult to get through, or that it's going on for too long. Some of it requires extreme patience, with the sand in the watery realm of Maridia being an especially aggravating pain-in-the-ass to slog through, and good luck mastering that goddamn Wall Jump!!! Both engrossing as well as hauntingly beautiful to look at and listen to, even today it doesn't feel all that dated, which is pretty impressive when you realise it's over twenty years old now. It's a certified classic that's very worthy of its reputation, so charge that beam, customise that suit, and roll your way to an explosive victory you'll remember forever! "The galaxy...is at peace."