Metroid

"Atmospheric and innovative...but poor gameplay ruins it"

The first Metroid game started another famous Nintendo series that would last for years, and still does. Since the first game was released, we have had a high number of sequels, and the series fame hasn't exactly been lowered. Instead, when the series hit Gamecube, with the Metroid Prime games, the series took a giant leap and still proved they could match the newcomers of today. The first Metroid game is with no doubt a ground-breaking game, and an important game in the development of the gaming world, but how does it stand out, if we strip it of its "classicness", and review it as a solid game on its own? Let's find out...

The story takes us to a universe in the far far future. A group of scientists have discovered a new life form on the planet SR388 - the Metroids. A metroid is a jelly-fish like creature that lives of sucking out the energy of its prey. The metroids proved to be very powerful and fearsome creatures, and the scientists captured a few of them, to bring them to the science centers for further investigation. But on their way back, their ship was hijacked by space pirates. The pirates killed the scientists and stole all the metroids, and went back to their planet Zebes. The space government feared that the pirates would take over the universe using the metroids as an indestructible weapon, so they decided to send a bounty hunter to Zebes in order to wipe out the pirates and the metroids. They chose the best one in the whole universe: Samus Aran.

And that is in fact all we get during the whole game. Even though Metroid is one of those classic adventure games, where you explore a whole world, finding new items that opens new gateways and so on, we get no further dialogue and plot development. This is much due to the nature of the early adventure games. Most of them had this type of dry storylines and
uninspiring plots. But for once, this works very fine! Although Metroid is old, with a quite simplistic plot, it manages to carry it out with success. Why? Because the game's style and design fit for loneliness. It really adds atmosphere, when you first enter Zebes, the huge planet, with nothing more than a short message on your datascreen. There is no one here to assist you. You are all alone...

Let us get two things straight: (1) Metroid is a very very old game, but, (2) it is very atmospheric. The game struggles with poor graphic palettes, a low quality sound system, and undeveloped programmers, but still, Nintendo manages to create their own universe. The planet Zebes quickly becomes interesting and inspiring. The design on the enemies and the territories is nice and unique, and the soundtrack hosts some really catchy and dramatic
tunes. Travelling through the fiery corridors of Norfair, avoiding the lava horses spitting fire, while the dark and cold music is playing; venturing down to Kraid's hidden lair, seeing small green plants growing in cracks on the steel structures, while a mysterious tune is playing; is simply amazing, and gives a feeling of closeness and realism that few games as old as this one can produce. And who can forget when you finally go down deep into the
final lair - Tourian - with its sterile surroundings, and terrifying music theme, and finally encountering the creepy and deadly metroids? Each time a metroid jumps out of the darkness, I'm still getting terrified, even though the game is almost 20 years old. And my hands are still sweating when I enter the final room of Mother Brain...

But still, there are things that simply can't be forgiven. Age has had a surprisingly weak effect on graphics & music, but as for the programming and gameplay bits...hmm...

It is clear that Metroid never was that top-notch perfectly controlled game, like the Mario series. Controlling Samus Aran in 1986 was an annoying experience...controlling Samus Aran today makes you want to ram a fist through your TV-set. I will say it straight in your face: The controls are awful. Almost all the things Samus does, like aiming, making precise jumps,
turning around, morphing into a ball etc. are very stiff and unprecise. Samus reacts quite slowly to your commands, and she often seems to slide around too much, as if the floor was made of ice or something. She can't duck, and she can't aim diagonally. Easy tasks, such as jumping down on that specific one-square-block, or getting up again after falling into a lava pit almost become very difficult side-quests because of the corny controls.

And there is more...We all know that those old games have a high difficulty and a non-friendly gameplay. Well, Metroid is really one of the worst games in that genre. Only Zelda II beats it in unfairness and merciless difficulty.

Just look at some of the things the game puts you up against. First of all, Zebes is a huge planet, with many rooms and corridors. The problem is, we're not getting any maps! While playing the game, we have only either our own sense of direction to trust, or the maps we are forced to make ourselves. This wouldn't be too bad, if it hadn't been for the fact that all places literally look the same! Yep, while roaming around in areas like Norfair and Brinstar, you come across that forest-clad corridor a million times. Man, you are really going to need a good sense of direction, even WITH your own maps, because pleading the game to show some landmarks of identification isn't going to take you anywhere! How many times have we been stuck somewhere, not knowing where to go, and having to reset just to get back to the beginning of the stage and try again? Too many times...

Furthermore, the resistance is extremely tough on some occasions. But it's not just this that bothers me. The problem is, there are plenty of areas where the enemy respawns. In these areas, because of the buggy control and the fact that you can neither duck nor shoot in all directions, it is very easy to quickly lose all your energy and die, even though you might have gathered something like four energy tanks. And this happens very quickly. It is unfair parts like these that make the game lose a lot of its charm.

And if you die, you can always continue from the beginning of the stage you perished at. Does that sound fair? Well, think again, because the game lets you start with only 30 points of energy. THIRTY! Imagine that you are in a very tough area, you have collected four full energy tanks, which makes up a total of 99 * 4 energy units (396). Now, you accidentally fall into a fire pit, and getting out of there is a very difficult work. You lose a lot of life. Shortly after that, you are ambushed by three types of enemies. They all run around and knock you all the time, preventing you from getting away. You die quickly, and get to restart in the beginning of the stage, with only 30 energy units! Which means an instant death if you touch the enemy the slightest.

Metroid also hosts no save function, but a password system, which is very worthless. I remember when my friend's older brother played Metroid on the NES, and he had got to the final boss. Then he had to stop playing, and wrote down the password exactly as it was. The next day, the password didn't work. He was so mad that he could almost toss his NES out of the window. Things like this shouldn't happen...

And why do we have this stupid weapon system? During your trip, you can find some new weapons, but when you find a new one, it cancels your current one, which means you can never use it again unless you find it again. And since certain enemies require only one specific type of gun, you can only pray that the old gun you lost when you picked up the new one won't be used anymore. Was it really that hard to program a system for changing weapons?

I so want to give Metroid a higher rating. No, more correctly: I so want Metroid to be a better game than it is! Nintendo did the perfect shell for a game. A good main plot, a good atmosphere, a unique design, and some good music & graphics. The puzzles and the design of the levels are also excellent. But still, I can't deny the fact that they also wasted away all of this with poor programming and gameplay. Why, Nintendo? Why?? Why couldn't we get a great Metroid game?

So, honestly, don't bother to play this one too much if you are an average gamer. For all of you who love hard challenges, it may be an excellent game, since it actually has something more than just a big challenge to offer. Myself, I am a person who loves big challenges in games, and I have a lot of patience, a good sense of direction and I don't go furious when I die for the 1000th time. This means that I can actually enjoy Metroid a lot. But since I know that almost 90% of the gamers out there are people who like games with a more civilized challenge and gameplay (and you are the sane people! I am the weird one), I will make this review for them. The game deserves the grade I give it.

Even for the average players, I do recommend a few trials though, just so you experience Zebes as it was on the early days of gaming. And really, try to get your hands on a code so you can experience the final level Tourian, and meet the metroids. They are a guarantee for scaring the hell out of you!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/05