Now that I’m done sneezing from all the dust I just blew off my Super Nintendo, let’s get this review started…

I had to go back in time for this one, Reader. I was fishing through my closet and came across my trusty SNES (that means Super Nintendo Entertainment System for all you underachievers out there) and one of the greatest, if not the greatest, side-scrolling adventure game ever created, Super Metroid. Please let me apologize in advance if you end up with liverspots and a receding hairline after you finishing reading my review.

Now, anyone who’s anyone knows about Metroid. Before videogamers were oogling and drooling over Lara Croft and Jill Valentine, there was Samus Aran, an equally gorgeous intergalactic bounty hunter. In the first Metroid, Samus was sent to Planet Zebes to stop the multiplication of the metroids, take out the space pirates, and ultimately destroy Mother Brain. After she did her duty, one lone Metroid clung to her as if Samus was its mother. She took the metroid back to SR388, a science laboratory in outer space, for science to see if it could do some good for civilization. Then…the space pirates attack SR388, annihilating the inhabitants and stealing the metroid. So, off goes Samus again to raise more hate and discontent, regain the stolen metroid, and blow the new-and-improved Mother Brain into space dust. Pretty deep story, huh?

For a 16-bit game, and compared to what's out in the video game world today, Super Metroid is an extremely impressive piece of work. Graphics are very well done. Of course, the edges are a little blocky and the all the colors don’t blend as well as they do in today’s games, but it would be unfair for me to grade this game at that level. Nintendo did do great with the resources it had back in 1991. The sounds are awesome, too. They fit that whole "from-another-planet", outer space look perfectly with a lot of “whirrs, bloops, and beeps”. The music always fit the mood of the setting. For example, the wrecked ship stage, which was loaded with weird ghostlike creatures, had a dark, gloomy soundtrack. The other thing about the music that tripped me out was the fact that at the very beginning of the game, there was no music or monsters…just dead silence. That is, until you picked up the morphing ball and tripped a sensor, then all hell breaks loose. It is those subtle elements that make Super Metroid so unique.

The gameplay is what made this game the classic it is today. What Super Metroid had to offer back in the early nineties is what today’s gamemakers use as research. Personally, I never saw moves like the wall jump anywhere until I played this game. Besides that, there was so much more you could do with the tools you picked up, such as the grappling hook, x-ray beam, and the speed boots. The gameplay was extended even farther because you couldn’t gain access to certain places if you didn’t have specific items in your inventory, and that is probably what kept me glued to the game the most because it called for a lot of backtracking. As with most games nowadays, the enemies you faced became progressively harder to defeat as you moved along in Super Metroid. And the bosses were tough, for the most part. It took a lot of thought, strategy, and firepower to take out these beasts, and that’s the way it should be.

Super Metroid is so great, completing it is and should be a milestone in a young gamer’s life. This cart is a definite classic no matter how you look at it. If you still have your SNES, go retro and pick this cart up if you don’t already own it. Since it’s such a great game, it’s probably going to run you somewhere around twenty to twenty-five bucks, that is, if you can find it. The price can jump without notice, so look for yourself. If you do own it, dust it off, pop it in, and let your hair turn gray with nostalgia. It’s worth it.

Why do I feel like I just sacrificed my youth writing this review?


Recommended: Yes