"A good old B&W Gameboy game"

I will say this first, I love Metroid. I love everything about the series. I won't waste your time by telling you what everyone else has said about the game. I've noticed you'll either love it or hate it. But the people who are hating are hating it for all the wrong reasons and reviewing the game by today's standards. You can not do that. I remember when Metroid II came out, I was 13 at the time. I however did not get the game because I wasn't into the Metroid series. Mainly because when the first Metroid game came out I was too young to understand it and the idea of a sequel at the time did not excite me. It wasn't until Super Metroid came out did I fully understand the joys of Metroid. With all that said, let's move on the rest of the review.

Gameplay & Controls 7/10: When I give the gameplay a 7 I do so by comparing it to every other B&W GB game I've played. Sure it's kinda difficult to control the game at times. Esp when you in the spider ball form and climbing a wall. If you stop moving it takes a second to figure out which direction on the d pad you have to press to keep moving. It also sucks that you can't shoot at an angle. However, the game has a lot of exploration involved and maintains the ideas of Metroid at it's simplest form. This game is no where near as complex as Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion for the GBA, but come on it's one of the original Gameboy titles. It's pretty impressive for the day.

Graphics 5/10: Ok I will agree this game looks bad. Most Gameboy games back then looked bad and if you try playing this game on the B&W Gameboy you'll hurt your eyes. I only give it a 5 because it's playable on the GBA in "limited" color and if you have an SP that helps a lot too. It's not anything special but it gets the job the done. Sure most of the background is black and blue but I'll over look it. Once again this game is an original Gameboy game so don't expect much.

Story ??/10: Well the only story you're going to get from this game is what it tells you in the instructions, which is how it went with most every old school Gameboy game and Nintendo game actually. However now a days if you find this game you'll find it used and most likely without any instructions or box. If you want to know the basic story it's this: Samus has landed on the Metroid home planet to kill off all the Metroids. That's it and yes I know it's not that epic, it sets things up for Metroid Fusion which is an amazing game. So there really isn't much a story to really give it a ranking but it's a mini version of Metroid so it doesn't really need one.

Overall 8/10: Let me put it this way. If you don't like Metroid you'll hate this game. If you kinda like Metroid or just a game or two from the series, you'll most likely hate this game. It's not very long in my opinion and by today's standards, or course it's not going to look all that great. The average player will run around the same 5 or 6 tunnels because it's easy to get lost since there is no map. Also if you're not familiar with the series I suggest taking away 2 or 3 points because the game will confuse you. The flip side of this is if you love Metroid and you've beaten all of them but this one, then add a point or maybe two to my score. The game feels a lot like the old NES game only it's a B&W game. It's a shame there are no bosses in it other than Metroids, but that doesn't mean there isn't some classic Metroid fun to be had. I picked up recently used for less than $5, but I'm lucky enough to run my own video game store. If you end up paying more than $10 it may not be worth it unles you feel like you must own all Metroid titles.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/06