"Metroid: When jellyfish go bad"

Prior to Metroid, there were not too many female heroines in NES games. The awful SNK game ATHENA is one; you can assume one of the balls you control in Clu-Clu land might be a lady as well. Samus Aran began a trend of having a female heroine in a good playable game, later followed by The Guardian Legend and more!
Metroid was relased around the same time as its sister password pack, Kid Icarus. You played as spacewoman Samus Aran, who has to work her way through a huge complex riddled with alien creatures. Along the way you pick up assorted power ups that not only improve you weapons but increase your abilities to leap, guard from damage, and spin attck in the air. Defeat the bosses Ridley and Kraid and it is on to the Mother Brain's lair, which is guarded by life-sucking Metroids! Defeat Mother Brain in the shortest amount of time to earn the best ending!
Metroid is a very good action/adventure game that requires some brain power to figure out! Well, on to the ratings!

Graphics=8.9 The graphics are dark and futuristic, combining the primal with the modern. Little features, such as the way the bubble doors break open, are a nice touch. The bird statues have an ancient Egytptian look to them. This game does a great job capturing the scary mood of the forbidden caverns! The Mother Brain is one nasty looking, er, Brain!

Sound=9.5 Compliments the graphics in bringing the spooky, scary worlds under the surface to life. The intro music is really creepy!! Whenever a situation comes up where the player should feel tense, the music matches the mood. Even the fact that special items are found in silent rooms is a great touch! Newer games should refer back to Metroid for an idea of how to use mood music.

Play Control=9.4 Samus moves quickly and responds well. As she gets power-ups, she becomes more and more versatile but still easy to control. As you reach the final lair, you will have a huge assortement of power-ups you have earned through the game, none of which hinder your heroine. Solid 8-bit control!!

Challenge=8.7 If you like making maps, this is your game! Mapping Brinstar alone can take a good three days! I'm sure most people will either look at maps in books or just rely on memory, but this game has a lot of confusing mazes and difficult sections. This game is hard for the right reasons (puzzling mazes, tough enemies, need to be powered up) as opposed to the wrong reasons (bad play control, bad animation, etc.)

Overall=8.8 One of Nintendo's best NES titles and an obvious evolution from the first generation of NES games. When NES released the three ''grey box'' series games, they had upped the bar for what a quality NES game should look like (the other two: Rad Racer and Kid Icarus).

*BRU'S MUST GET OMETER*=9 It's like 4 dollars at funcoland, why not?!!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/14/00, Updated 02/14/00