I wish I had listened to general fan wisdom and played Super Metroid first. Having played the original Metroid, then Zero Mission, this is my third romp in the planet Zebes, and I’m finding the game extremely redundant.
The original was a little tedious, but I absolutely loved Zero Mission. I appreciated the slightly more linear gameplay. Paired with the manga, it also had a surprisingly good story that establishes Samus as a character. In context with the manga, the Wrecked Ship segment where you lose and then regain your suit is an amazing piece of gameplay-driven storytelling.
And then Metroid II was just as interesting. A completely new horror-esque locale plus a really creepy minimalist storyline that makes you really question the orders forced on you by the Galactic Federation.
So I was expecting a lot more out of Super Metroid. So far, I’d say I’m about halfway through the game. I beat Torizo, the Spore Spawn, Kraid, and the Crocomire. Aside from a really stellar cinematic opening, there hasn’t been any plot to speak of, just a nonlinear dungeon to explore without a clear path. I know that in development, Super was meant to just be a 16-bit remake of the NES Metroid game, but was later retooled to be its own game, so that might be why the story feels so barebones?
Everything feels like a rehash of the original. I looked up the wiki and all (Brinstar, Norfair, Crateria, Wrecked Ship, and Tourian) but one of the levels (Maridia) are lifted from the original game, and I’ve heard that one new level we get is considered the worst one. It feels like a remixed new game+ rather than a full-fledged game that stands on its own, and honestly, I’m bored. It kind of reminds me of what I didn’t like about Castlevania after a while, that game after game took place in the exact same mansion.
This might seem a little unfair. Super Metroid came out first, so it might be more accurate to say that Zero Mission is just an asset flip, that it’s the less original game – which is absolutely true, but I played Zero Mission first. And nonlinearity isn’t a bad thing at all and it’s great for this genre, but since I feel like I’ve done all this before, I don’t feel motivated to discover all of Super’s secrets. Does it get any better, or can I skip to Fusion?
TL;DR I played Zero Mission first and read its tie-in manga. Now Super Metroid feels boring because it “reuses” all but one of its areas on the planet Zebes, and it has a comparatively barebones story. Should I keep going or skip to Fusion?
I’ve never played the GBA games, and I still found Super Metroid bland.
I didn’t have an NES or SNES growing up, so I came to those games a little later on. However, Super Metroid was still the most recent game in the franchise when I played it. There were plenty of rave reviews even then, so I looked forward to playing it once I got my hands on a copy. I even bought a new controller for it.
Initially I actually found the game somewhat frustrating, but once I got used to Samus’ momentum and how the game had been designed to be played, I found it to be very well balanced. But I never felt like there was any real reason for me to go on other than to open new areas. Since it wasn’t referenced in any way (that I noticed) outside of the manual, “The Mission” didn’t seem important. And while the graphics were gorgeous for the time (and still are), that wasn’t enough for me. People often talk about the haunting and creepy feeling of the game’s world, but I didn’t get that. I felt that way about the Prime games, but Super Metroid just seemed empty and abandoned to me, not atmospheric.
A few years ago I was able to play AM2R and stuck to it all the way to the end, even 100-percenting it, and enjoying it thoroughly. But I don’t think I ever finished Super Metroid. I just put it down one day and never got back to it. And I don’t feel like it’s something I need to tick off some gaming bucket list. If you’re not really enjoying it, stop playing and don’t feel bad about it. There are already more good games in the world than anyone can complete before they die. You can’t play them all, so stick to the ones that resonate with you personally.