Metroid

"The 'Mother Brain' gave me nightmares"

Anybody who was anybody in my town had Metroid for NES. It was considered one of those ‘I must have it or I’ll die an incomplete man’ games. But after playing this game for an hour and a half, my opinion is not the same. It’s more like ‘avoid it like you would a man dressed in a Chewbacca suit wielding a yellow plastic cap gun yelling at the top of his lungs, “From this day forward I will be known as King Itchy!” ‘ Sorry…on to the review!

Story: 9/10
Okay, now here is where Metroid shines; the storyline. It’s not just your common ‘save a ’ or collect the Chaos Emeralds, this storyline is unique and original!

''Emergency Order. Defeat The Metroid of The Planet Zebeth And Destroy The Mother Brain The Mechanical Life Vein. Galaxy Federation Police M510''

According to the instruction manual, you are playing as female (who knew?) bounty hunter extraordinaire, Samus Aran. And the Galaxy Federal Police need her to bag these things in space known as Metroids, weird little jelly fish things that suck the life outta anything they get near. Not your normal everyday pests! You ultimate goal is to take down something called the ‘Mother Brain’, which I’m guessing is the ‘queen bee’ type Metroid; the one who sits back and lays eggs all day while barking orders to the worker Metroids.

This is the kinda video game I like; not where the game is trying to simulate something you can do in real life. Such as ping pong, waking a dog, or delivering a newspaper (like Paperboy. That game was LAME. But, there is an alternative Paperboy game called ‘Knife Boy’ which I’ll review later :P). You will NEVER have the chance to put on a cool looking space suit and go venturing around outer space attacking flying jellyfish things in real life. EVER.

I LOVE the storyline. Someone put thought into it.

Gameplay: 6/10
Things get a little complicated when it comes to actually playing this game however. You see, although our heroine may be a bounty hunter, she’s no Boba Fett. The A button makes her do a jump/flip. And B makes her fire her arm-mounted buster gun. She can fire her weapon Up and Forward ONLY, making your quest even more challenging.

When you first start off in the game you can only jump so high, and shoot so far. Samus must located these little orb things throughout the levels that increase her abilities. Such as the first orb you come across, the Rolly Polly Orb. Once you obtain this orb, when you press Down Down on the gamepad, she will roll into a complete ball; allowing her to squeeze through tight spaces on Planet Zebeth. Another essential orb is the High Jump Invincible Flip Orb. What this does is enable Samus to jump higher, and when she does her trademark flip, she becomes invincible! But finding these orbs is such a hard task!

My main complaint about this game, is the size of the levels. I got lost so many times, that it drove me near insanity. Seriously, without a map or guide, I really can’t see any way to defeat this game.

Graphics: 5/10
Ehhhh…the graphics aren’t anything to shake a fish at. They aren’t as lame and bad as say, Pac-Man per se, but considering when this game was released (86’), I’ve seen Nintendo do better than this.

Music/Sound: 9/10
Yet another NES game with a great soundtrack! Any time you enter a new level, there’s some song playing in the background that goes PERFECTLY with the atmosphere of the game. Good job, Nintendo!

Ending 6/10
The ending to this game left me hanging. I don’t like that. When I beat a video game, I want CLOSEURE:

''Great! You fulfiled your mission. It will revive peace in space. But, it may be invaded by the other Metroid. Pray for a true peace in space!'' WTH? There is NO closeure!! And this game is hailed as being so great? Give me a break.

The ONLY saving grace of the ending, is the unmasking of Samus Aran. For the longest time I thought Samus was a he, despite what all my buddies had said. But after defeating the game myself, I finally saw the truth.

Final Score: 6/10
People seem to hail this game as being so amazing and cool, but I beg to differ. I HATE getting lost in real life, and that also goes for video games. There should’ve been a map or something to go with the game.

What would be really neat is if they remade this game for Gameboy Advance. Acutally give you a map screen, and add more to the ending. Maybe make the enemies not so cheap. Overall this game just needs a slight makeover.

I wouldnt' really reccomend buying this game, seeing as it's almost impossible to find now, and if you do find it it'll cost you way too much precious cash. Buy Metroid 2 for Gameboy instead.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/04