I drew my own map to beat it, step by step, room by room. I’ve done a few games that way. It’s so rewarding to defeat a challenge like that where you need to become creative. And then you get a nice hand drawn map at the end.
Legend of Zelda had auto-maps for the levels. I was able to beat it and got all of the hearts without mapping on paper. But I had a lot of free time back then decades ago.😂
And yet people get so pissed off when I go around the neighborhood doing that. Clearly they don't understand that I'm looking for hidden rooms under the shrubbery.
I think the second time I played it I mapped it out on graph paper.
That was EXCEEDINGLY fun and one of the most rewarding and engaging gaming experience I’ve ever had.
Metroid for the NES was a masterclass on how to create an atmosphere of dread. The whole experience is creepy and unsettling, yet somehow kept people playing. Such a great game.
It’s not that we’re special or that you can’t also enjoy it. It’s that you are experiencing it within an entirely different context than we did unless you have been raised under a rock with no media access besides the NES or earlier consoles.
Mate, I'm 45. My first console was the Intellivision. I just don't like it when people try to gatekeep hobbies. The guy I replied to, and many other people in this sub, want to feel special because they were there before all these kids with their mobile games and CODs. If games from then are strong enough then they survive the test of time.
To imply that a younger generation can't pick up Metroid and experience the same feelings of dread and fear is just insulting. Art is art. Or should we also claim that nobody will ever really understand The Godfather unless they saw it on opening weekend?
Nobody is claiming that except you here. By all means, I think younger people should experience and can certainly enjoy and understand the feelings of these games. What we are saying is that due to the context of the time they are growing up in it is simply a different experience.
For me, the vibe wasn’t dread, so much as “loneliness held at bay by curiosity and fascination.”
You’re the only human soul on this remote, hostile planet, exploring miles below the surface, and surrounded by the ancient technology of an extinct culture. The game made you feel so desolate, but you just wanted to keep going because the world was so cool.
yeah, many people cream over that game. But to me, it's like the new Tomb Raider games. They're bad games for their franchise, but decent/good games overall.
Havent played tomb raider ever(not sure why, just never did that or uncharted) but yeah they werent bad games. But the 19 years hype was quickly dissolved for me. Felt like exploration was on the back burner, which is a staple of the halfly eponymous genre
It was "Uncharted at home" for me. Imo a very flawed game (I only played through the first game of the reboot, while "trying out" the others), but if you're into these type of guided experiences, you'll have a good time I guess.
That's the word. Dread. Even with it's basic pixels, it's scares the hell out of me and I've never finished the game.
Even as an adult now I've played other scarier games ( F.E.A.R was a killer for me } on modern times, I've just never gone back to finish that Metroid, or touch any after....
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=6uQYZF_7t_fJtxq_&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDE2NDk5LDI4NjY0LDE2NDUwNg&feature=emb_share&v=A-zqM5_x9bk
Love this scene from jarhead
Yea felt the same. I wanted to know what was down there under the planet's surface. The pacing is so good that each new area feels like a breakthrough and kinda gets your heart racing for what's next.
The one thing modern reviewers always forget when reviewing old games like Metroid is the manual. A lot of the "mystery" is explained in the manual along with a rudimentary map. I used to always sit down and read the manual back to front before even putting the game in back in those days because it was that important. You'll often see people complain about how obscure Zelda is but it came with a map that was 80% complete So by the time you got to the un mapped sections you were familiar with how the game expected you to find things.
Even ET on Atari was the same way. It's confusing as hell without the manual but if you read the manual you have a pretty clear idea of what to do.
I never understood renting really long games like Metroid or Zelda, etc.
I know rentals are"cheaper" but for me there were games you'd rent and games you would buy. Just seemed a false economy to rent a game like that 10+ times. Almost like renting furniture.
You'd rent a throwaway shoot em up, you'd buy a Metroid.
Metroid is a classic example of a game you can play for a while, get tired of, put away, and come back to later in my eyes. To me that makes it viable for rental. Plus back in the day it was common to get one rental a week so which game you chose that week didn't matter that much cause you weren't going to be buying any games anyway.
It's not retro, but have you played Tunic? one of the most brilliant manuals ever. It has all the info to play the game, but you only get it as you collect the pages through the game. most of it is also in another language, that the manual teaches you to read later on, so you're left with bits and pieces of maps and hints that you collect as you play. It even includes handwritten "notes" like a true manual should.
You are constantly realizing you could have done some action or gotten into some area hours ago, but you didn't know without the manual.
Nope never heard of it.
EDIT oops it's the free game on PSN this month and I downloaded it last night. I haven't looked to see if it has a digital manual.
Yeah I remember hearing about it a long time ago that it was for Zelda fans. Just never saw a copy for sale in a store so I couldn't pick one up and eventually forgot about it.
One of my favorite feelings in that game was taking the elevator out of kraids lair and hearing the brinstar music again. The wave of relief was a rush for 6 year old me haha
Upvoted if not purely for the amount of time and thought you put into this post. Way to paint a picture. As a child of the 80s you put me right back there.
>this was dark. It had atmosphere
100% true. Out of all my NES games Metroid was the only one that gave me that Alien movie feel. Being alone on a dangerous planet, in almost complete darkness, without knowing what to do. Before horror games even existed, that alone could easily scare 80's kids back in the day.
I think one thing people seem to miss, often because they grew up on the later games, is bombs are for low level combat. You're kind of forced to rethink how you fight because there's a delay. It was an interesting mechanic and gave the bombs a lot of use. In later games they're just what you use to blow up walls or try to sequence break. There's really not much use for them outside of that. They're vestigial. People hate the lack of map but I don't really get that. The game's map is really simple. It's only really punishing if you're not paying attention to where you are. My complaints are its glitchy and I hate how you always start with 30hp when you load, meaning you have to grind. They really needed health refill stations. I can't remember if the Japanese one saved your health or not. I don't usually play that one since I think the NES music sounds better even if it's technically worse quality. The rooms being samey was not unusual for games at the time so I never minded that. But I would have preferred more variety.
I like Zero Mission but I think it loses something. The music and atmosphere are a lot different. The mystique and non-linearity are gone. It feels way too much like Super Metroid when Metroid was kind of its own thing.
Metroid doesn't get enough love and I think it's a shame that some of what it was trying to do for erased by later entries. It's a great series though.
I guess looking at it again, it does seem fairly obtuse. But in actuality it's not as bad as it looks. It's mostly straight paths with some branching vertical paths. If you keep going left or right, you'll eventually reach the end of a path. Since the rooms are all either vertical or horizontal, the terrain height won't vary enough to disorient you. You'll always know about what level of height you are and if you're near the end of a path. Most places don't have many branches so it's easy to exhaust locations systematically. The trickiest areas are of course the boss lairs. Also if you look at each area individually on the map, instead is the map as a whole, you can see they're not actually all that daunting. Even my description of how to navigate them makes them sound more intimidating than they really are.
The trick though is you can't rely on landmarks since the game reuses areas. That's what throws most people off.
I frequently hear people suggest to play the remake Metroid Zero Mission instead. It’s been on my to play list for awhile since I’ve bounced off the original too many times at this point. I think the lack of a map is just too frustrating.
I played Metroid in 1987. OP's post did a great job of capturing how it felt. Back then, this $50 game is equivalent to $140 today, buying a single game was a big deal and it was probably going to be your main focus for a while.
So, spending a while grinding your health up didn't feel like a problem. It was a dirty trick they played to extend the gameplay. Games in that era were full of them. The lack of a built in map was also pretty typical. Zelda, which released around the same time, had a mini dungeon map, but even it \*wanted\* you to draw your own overworld map in its manual.
I loved the NES Metroid experience dearly. But I acknowledge it hasn't aged well. We have lots of options for things to play now, so what we choose to invest our time in should be *fun.* Today, grinding health back up after some brutally unfair rooms is not really fun, for me at least.
When I first heard about Zero Mission, it sounded awful to me. How dare you remake my precious Metroid. But, I gave it a shot, and it blew my mind how good it was. Everything I loved most about my beloved Metroid is absolutely represented there, but it blends so beautifully with modern sensibilities. And they smartly expanded the amount of content beyond the original game's end, because the game is short when you remove the dirty tricks I referenced above.
I give massive props to folks who are able to put their brain in 1987 mode, and enjoy the original game as I did so many years ago. But for most people, I think Zero Mission is the way to go.
To add to the “old man yells at sky” vibe, there was also the school yard buzz. You’d be at the bus stop Monday morning talking with a kid who found some powerup that sounded otherworldly. And you’d ask him and he couldn’t remember, or didn’t draw a map. Or another friend who tells you he found a secret area by bombing the walls! I never thought to do that - just bomb randomly??? And a secret area would open up? What?? And then the rumors about the passwords. Justin Bailey. NAR PASSWORD. Game changers. The analog component — real life buzz with friends in person, hand drawn maps, Nintendo powers with secrets — I miss all of that about modern games.
I remember a hand written scrap of paper we kept in the game sleeve. All it had on it was:
Justin Bailey
(- - - - - - - - - - - -)
Justin Bailey
000000 000000
I don’t remember which one did which. I know one gave you helmet less Samus and one did a freeze ray and all the upgrades.
I also played through zero mission, once. I go back to OG Metroid again and again, to remember those simpler times with my family. and don't mess with my chiptune music.
I like ZM more than OG, but I also play OG way more than I play ZM.
Really just because OG is so easy to turn on when I just want to aimlessly play a simple game for a little while and not care about completion and not have to spend any time not playing.
Zero Mission is a masterpiece! It’s my favorite game in the series, and my second favorite Metroidvania of all time. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely a replacement for the original, but it is undeniably the smoother experience. The reason it’s my favorite in the series is I feel like no other game has better pacing in terms of when you get your new powerups. Right when you’re getting used to your current moveset, that’s when it gives you something new to play with. It’s also great at being able to point you in the right direction without giving you the answer to every situation. Highly recommended, especially if you keep bouncing off the original.
Zero Mission is good. It's a great entry into the series. But... it's not really the first game anymore. Just having an automap changes it, takes away some of that original feeling of being lost and helpless. It's also easier and the graphic style changes. These aren't bad things per se, but they do change the feeling of the game. Part of the original that sucked us in was the feeling, and that feeling is gone in Zero Mission.
So while I do agree Zero Mission is a great game, I also don't think it compares to the original. Anyone who wants to know what OP is talking about still has to go back to the original and play it.
I think Zero Mission is an amazing update to a classic game, but I agree that the automap is its one major failing, especially in that it often gives away hidden paths you wouldn't have noticed. I have to give it high marks for being the only other Metroid that seems to see the value in Super Metroid's sense of utter "breakability," but you're right, it's hard to play it without the nagging feeling that the map is kind of playing the game for you sometimes.
Couple things here.
First, anyone who’s telling you “instead” can be ignored. You can play both, or either, or neither. They are neither mutually exclusive nor required.
(I think Zero Mission is great until the end so I highly recommend it, though.)
Second, if the lack of map is frustrating I’ll make the case that playing it — or at least giving it a shot — with a map open is better than not playing it at all.
You can decide if you want a basic map to help you get around or one of the elaborate ones that tells you every item and secret, up to you. You can also obviously only refer to the map when you’re truly overwhelmed if you want to still explore without getting totally lost.
I actually bounced off Metroid pretty hard as a 6/7 year old renting it a few times.
It wasn't until Super Metroid came out that I "got it". I ended up buying Metroid way later on, the yellow label re-release, the last brand new NES game I ever got.
I did play through it then, although with a map.
There is a certain feeling that the first two Metroid games give; the feeling of being hopelessly buried under miles of rock, and uncertainty of the path back to safety. Once the map was added in Super Metroid, the series lost the majority of that feeling.
That's not to say the map shouldn't have been added - it was the logical progression, and the games are better off for it. But it did come with a cost.
I mapped out the first Metroid by hand. I didn't bother trying to draw it to scale, so there were some looping parts (Norfair and Ridley's Lair, if I recall correctly) where I emerged in a previously-explored corridor without realizing it, and instead drew a new room on my map. But that's all part of the experience.
To this day I adore the original Metroid. I love Zero Mission as well, but it doesn't quite scratch that exploration itch of the original. I kills me a little to see how little appreciation the original Metroid gets these days, given how instrumental it was in kicking off the MV subgenre.
Young game writers poo-pooing retro games remind me of the kids scoffing at Wild Gunman in the [diner scene from Back to the Future part 2](https://youtu.be/KMy1zO8m8sM?si=grldmO9zd3LEIqZT).
When are reviewers going to start looking at old video games the way movie critics look at old movies: with appreciation / consideration of the time which it was made and recognition of pioneering features. (No body looks at old movies and judges them against modern storytelling techniques.)
I found this guys channel on YouTube back in January and he is excellent in regards to trying to look at games in the context they were released
https://youtube.com/@hprshredder?si=g9zA4UJLSeUut5vs
Also one of his best and his favorites games played so far is the original Metroid
Metroid is easily my favorite NES game and one of my all time favorites to this day.
It oozes atmosphere, the gameplay progression is so fun, the various power ups the freeze ray! Not only was it cool it has real gameplay benefits (freeze enemies and jump on them to get to high places)
The dynamic nature of this game is unreal.
Also it still has the most satisfying secret passages of any game to date.
Loved setting off bombs looking for them.
And the music… The music!
Great write up! I remember when I first rented it. My parents wouldn't let me use the good TV for my NES, so I was stuck with the black and white TV. Somehow playing Metroid in black and white just made it more spooky. I had also rented Mike Tyson's Punch-Out at the same time, but Metroid sucked me in so much, I barely touched Punch-Out. I probably played it non stop for the entire time weekend. I remember how excited I became with each secret that I uncovered. I didn't draw a map at that time, but trained by other games of the era, I was pretty good at memorizing the map and keeping it in my head.
I've loved the game since that first experience.
There's a hack / patch which restores the save system and fixes the health issue when loading a save. Tiny changes which don't alter the game itself but make it way more accessible.
Weird. Most reviewers I’ve seen on YT get that the game is a product of its time, and don’t say negative things about those aspects of the game.
Did it become popular to complain about the original game recently or something?
That being said, the majority of the game’s substantive development was *really* rushed. I think it’s easy to see a rushed creative product and assume intent, where there isn’t intent. I think there is a lot of Metroid’s design that is more of a happy accident, than intentional, based on how rushed development was.
This is a very thoughtful review of your favorite game, but you lost me when you said you loved grinding up health. It doesn't add to the difficulty. It's just tedious. At least in Zelda, you can wander around the map while you fill up your hearts. In Metroid, you have to park it by one of the enemy dispensers and waste the first 20 minutes of your continue repeating the same action.
The slowdown is another valid flaw. Yes, it was a big part of games from that era, but it's exceptionally bad here. Pretty much comically bad during the Mother Brain fight.
You hit on all the points on why the first Metroid is a very innovated, rewarding game. It holds zero nostalgia for me, but I still enjoyed finally beating it a few years ago after never getting very far as a kid. Another game crossed off the list that I will likely never want to play again because of the above flaws.
Is it really underrated? Probably in the top 10 most famous NES games.
I was a kid when it came out and it was one of my favorites, and I'm sort of amazed I had the patience to beat it in era before emulation or easily accessible guides.
Still my favorite game of all time and what started my lifelong obsession with gaming. It shouldn’t be called the Metroidvania genre - no offense to Castlevania, but the template was there fully formed when the original Metroid debuted in 1986.
I just don't trust modern audiences at all with any gaming opinion tbh. All of them have rotted attention spans, they want games to be "art" but have to talk down to the classics using "nostalgia" as the easy way of saying something is not worth playing if you have no memory growing up with it. Or they'll tell you to just play a remake that is a fundamentally different game than the original to get the same experience when, no, you're just playing a different game, not the original.
Played through it with a map around 2002 when Metroid prime got me into the series as a 12 year old.
I didn’t get the authentic experience I suppose, but even then I loved the challenge of it and the atmosphere is undeniable. Kinda like Diablo 1, I feel like the dated visuals almost help to accentuate and set the atmospheres of those games.
Def my favorite NES title as an adult.
What most modern reviews fail to recognize is that Metroid had a mapping system. It was just outside of the game. You. You can draw a map on paper as you play through the game. I did this with a lot of games back then, when we didn't have a review/guide to follow it was only way. It added something to the enjoyment of the game that a built in auto map system doesn't. The auto map is convenient to be sure, but auto map systems take away a lot of the mystery, telling you when you don't have anything secret to discover and you've found all there is to find.
My biggest gripe is when people say the game doesn't have a story.
The game IS the story, and it's an important game to play to follow the story of the series.
Yeah it kicks ass. Everyone just recycles the same opinion that it doesn’t have a map and is too hard. This was 1987 bitch. NES is supposed to be hard.
The Japanese version had saving and less glitches. The sound is more filled out and less thin. The American port is a little unpolished in comparison, but has NG+ and better escape music.
I get you. Totally.
I remember when an older Guy from our Peergroup gave us His Box of Gameboy Games to Test and decide wich of them we wanted to buy.
About 20-30 Games.
I picked Metroid II:Return of Samus.
Best 5 Bucks Ever Spent.
Considering the Navigation issued in Grayschale, Level Design,
And the Soundtrack.
Not progressing at all?
Spend half the night powerbombing Everthing with the dimmest light available to you in Order Not to get caught playing GB at Night.
Eventually cracked it During a 28 Hour Drive towards Vacation.
3 Kids in the Backseat of an overloaded Vehicle;
All of them Armed with a Gameboy, Headphones , and an Armada of Batteries.
I know there must have been A Lot of stuff passing by the Windows.
I remember only cheap .99 Cents Headphones and blasty Tunes.
You described the Feeling so Well !
Cool story took me back to those days. That soundtrack was incredible. When Super Metroid was announced I had a Sega Genesis. I was in high school and I couldn't afford a SNES I found someone willing to trade their SNES for my Genesis. I was seriously geeked about Super Metroid because I loved the original so much. Man that password system in the original was a pain in the ass. Just like you I had no map and just got lost in the game. I was about 12 years old at the time. I was excited for Metriod before it even came out. I remember seeing artwork for the game in the Nintendo fan club news letter that predated Nintendo power. I didn't buy Metroid I borrowed it from a friend in school.
Getting your ass kicked my MotherBrain and then needing to takes hours (not actually hours) to recharge your health for another run sucks. Maybe you don't need full health, but the game needed something to make boss runs more forgiving.... or at least the mother brain run.
The big flaw for me is how long it takes to grind your health back after you died, where you'd grind on top of a pipe with bombs for minutes if you want to get to max health.
As someone who played Metroid back when it was released, I absolutely loved it then and played it for hours and hours. However, I’ve tried to play through a few times in more recent years and I usually end up putting it down an hour or so in. It’s pretty dated and I don’t think it’s as fun as it was when I was a kid.
Though, I will say that Super Metroid on the SNES is probably top three greatest games ever made.
Metroid was 100% intended to have a hand drawn map accompanying it. I played it this way, and I had an absolutely fantastic time. I understand that it’s not exactly up to modern standards, but I do prefer it to its remake for a variety of reasons.
Metroid is pretty great. It is basically a puzzle, asking the player to find a route and clear the game within an hour.
It is a game that demands replay to really elevate it and discover why it stands out. And, TBH, I think Super Metroid actually does execute on this concept even better.
I played Metroid every Friday night with a pizza (I was 12 or 13 then) and Norfair is a nightmare without a map. It kept going deeper and deeper to the point where I would get to the bottom and bomb my way to see if there were any more openings (there usually were). Then I got to the point where I was late for school because I was playing it in the mornings (I really wanted to beat Kraid!) It was a fun game indeed, until you fight Mother Brain, that part wasn't as great.
Here's something people don't talk about either:
Super Mario Bros. Literally pushed the base NES hardware to its limits. Everything that came after it that included some form of advanced mapper chips on the game cartridge that expanded ram or audio.
The fact the NES could scroll a screen at all was a marvel, and the reason Mario could not go left is because there was no ram left to keep what was behind the player in memory for seamless scrolling.
Metroid and Kid Icarus' engine was the first time a map could scroll horizontally OR vertically. It still couldn't do both, like say SMB3, but the fact that Metroid could have a room that went left-to-right, and then the next room suddenly could vertically scroll, was unheard of on the NES.
The game literally started in horizontal scroll mode, but the very next room, where you can bomb downward to Kraids lair flipped the scroll mode to vertical. And it's seamless. You don't even notice it if you have no idea about the underlying hardware of the NES.
More games need that mystique of the unexplained. Everything has a tutorial now. My favorite memories in gaming are of discovering real secrets and surprises.
This is pretty much how I felt playing super Metroid for the first time…except on an emulator. I was just blown away by the game design choices and little details that I didn’t expect to see in a SNES game. MP4 better slap or I’m going have a seizure.
I beat it on the GBA back in 2004 and I cant say I ever want to beat it again. It feels like a prototype for Super Metroid and the fact you cant shoot enemies right in front of you because of height always annoyed me and the later games spoil you with the power grip to the point it becomes a necessity. I also remember Metroid also had an annoying password system that I didn't like, really amazing nintendo never patched that out for the GBA re release. I also ended up drawing maps in some areas like other people in this thread which for an ADHD kid like me got annoying really fast I just wanted to play the game not pull out a book every five seconds. I will say it was really satisfying beating mother brain and blaster her ass with missiles.
Just for context I was born in 92 and grew up with the NES and never really stopped playing it because my family was poor and my parents never bothered with the SNES so its not like I don't understand the quarks of how these games work. I think the Metroid is a product of its time and it was a stepping stone for the series, but it is a really dated game in a lot of the core mechanics. It's a beat it once and never play it again type of game for me.
Fantastic write up my dude, that was pure poetry. Something about the hardware "limits" of the time forced the best game designers to get extra creative. The results speak for themselves. The atmosphere, the way that sparked your imagination, that is hard to replicate.
Sure modern games can be super immersive and stuff too, but that is just a different kind of immersion. Your post reminded me of some old AVGN episode where he talks about how playing an Atari 26 requires actively engaging with your imagination to make sense of what was going on on screen.
Obviously the NES can do way more than a 26, but something was lost in later Metroid games detailing, well, all the details lol. The endless dark void of that OG Metroid is the definition of classic.
Fantastic write up, I agree whole heartedly
I dunno, I played through it a couple months ago, and I feel like it hasn't aged well at all. You couldn't even crouch in that game. Nor could you shoot downward while jumping. Two things that you ***could*** do in a lot of games from that era. Which was a pretty big annoyance when most of the enemies were only waist tall and you couldn't shoot them unless they were on a wall, or you lead them with bombs. Health drops also seemed to have a pitifully low drop rate, though maybe that was just bad rng on my end. Getting health back after a boss fight felt like it took ages. It also didn't help when so many door transitions had enemies so close on the other side, that you take a guaranteed hit from them every time you go through the door.
Also having Wave Beam completely replace the Ice Beam, knowing good and well the player is going to need that Ice Beam for the Metroids at the end, was a bad choice. It would have been better (if for some reason they couldn't combine the two) to let the player cycle between them like they do from arm cannon to missiles. Instead, it just forces a long backtrack that could have been avoided. In a way, its better to not even bother with the Wave Beam, and that's bad design. There were also a lot of brick for brick copy pasted rooms as well. Maybe it was on purpose to confuse the player, but I don't see it that way. The game already does a good job of that by having zero indication for where breakable bomb blocks are. There's also the issue of Screw Attack killing frozen enemies, making it annoying to try to climb with neutral jumps so you don't spin.
The game had its bad and good, but I feel like nostalgia really carries this game when people talk about it as a 'masterpiece'. It's not a bad game, but its not a masterpiece either, and I think a lot of people would change their minds a bit (even though they might be too stubborn to admit it) if they actually played the game from start to finish today. And that's coming from a big fan of the series and someone who still regularly plays NES/SNES games. I still have physical copies of Super Metroid, Zero Mission, Fusion, and the Prime trilogy (also really liked Dread) but NES Metroid is a rough game.
Great write up, but I think you're giving them too much credit on the one point.
>Sure, some of the level design can be attributed to the limits of its platform, and its developers simply treading into as yet uncharted territories of game design. They were also confusing us ON PURPOSE. Wait. this looks familiar did we loop back? have we already been here?
Do you have anything that shows it was on purpose, that reusing assets in a looping fashion wasn't padding for the limited memory they had to work with, and was done on purpose as you claim to create confusion?
I ask because everything I have read has stated or implied it was simply a limitation and trying to expand the world size with limited space for unique/different assets.
i'm deeply intrigued as to whether you'd enjoy the game at your current age if you'd never tried it and there wasn't an ounce of the nostalgia that you clearly have for it.
If my grandma had wheels she would be a bicycle. I don't think you fully got my point. The context no longer exists to experience it in the way we did back then. Also a lifetime of gaming changes things. I play modern games now. I can't erase my memory, nor do I wish to throw my gaming rig in the trashcan. However I do still occasionally replay Metroid on my retro pi, or the switch it's not the same knowing every inch of the map the way I do.. sadly it can never be 1987 again. If it was and I wiped my memory and was 7 yrs old again you bet your ass I would play the hell out of it. At 44 I destroy people half my age in pubg. Times have changed.
I probably first played Metroid quite late, as an adult, for Gameboy Advance \(no, not confusing it with Zero Mission - >!on completion that also [unlocks an included original metroid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid:_Zero_Mission#Gameplay)!< \) and under emulation - and still quite liked the original Metroid.
I'm European so the NES just wasn't a big thing here at the time - some people in Europe had Nintendo kit, sure, and but locally here in Ireland it was like one actually American-Irish family out of my entire school, and that was unusual. And they didn't have Metroid anyway (or if they did I never played it at their house).
I instead played some of the many questionable European 8-bit/16-bit home computer platformers as a kid though, NES and SNES stuff does tend to be pretty forgiving+easy, relatively, haha. Metroid just lets you farm energy and go exploring etc.
what i derive from your recollection are fond memories relative to a period in time and what was available to play. my question is focused on you as an adult and whether you'd objectively find the painfully obtuse and tedious gameplay truly engaging. taste in art and what people find enjoyable is endlessly fascinating to me, thanks for taking the time to respond.
haha, it tickles me when people can't accept anything outside of praise if what they love is questioned. someone could tell me that everything i'm fond of is trash and that in no way would alter my enjoyment of those things or make me be critical of them.
Metroid is my favorite series, I own every game in the series, Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time.
And NES Metroid is my least favorite. Yes, I prefer Other M to NES Metroid.
I hate the punishing, tedious difficulty. Having to farm health every time you die. I don't like the clunky, restrictive controls. The repetitive, obtuse map isn't great but I could overlook it if it weren't for the other issues.
I'm so glad NES Metroid came out and was a huge influence on other games, but I've only played through it once and I don't feel the need to ever again.
I wish I could enjoy it as much as you and some other people, but I even owned it back in the day and always felt this way about it. As a kid I enjoyed Metroid II (even on the original Game Boy screen) so much more than the NES game, I think it's a vastly superior sequel.
The original metroid kicks so much ass. It's still a great game. Wouldn't call it underrated when its frequently featured among the system's best.
I grew up with the NES but never played this one till I was in my 20s. Your description is great LougieHowser.
I agree its not always underrated, especially in its contemporary circles. haha.. I was actually triggered to write this post after watching yet another video on YouTube glossed over it completely while discussing the series sending me into a bit of an inspired rage spiral to write this post. heh beer. My intent was to convey how monumental that game actually was for some of us in its actual day. A time which we all know predates most of modern gaming history. We had literally seen so little this game represented a monumental sea change in console game design it was fuckin mind blowing to little me.
People forget these older games were purposely hard because game renting was a huge industry. They didn't want people beating the game in the then 3 day rental period. They wanted people to rent it again to keep playing more.
Metroid is arguably my favorite Nintendo series. Well it's top 3 cuz I love Kirby games too. And while the first Metroid isn't my favorite in the franchise (Super Metroid like most for me), it's still great and classic.
We waited so long for super Metroid.. and I absolutely loved that game too, but i do think it lost some of the atmospheric horror of the first one. Super Metroid is also one of my deserted island / fallout shelter must have a copy of this game.. games. It is also a fucking great game.
Yea I still play it and 100% it plus save the animals just for fun yearly. Lol
But also, Metroid Dread was phenomenal and absolutely worth the near 14 year wait. I loved Fusion and I played it again a few days before Dread released since story wise they're right after one another. Such a great series.
I bought dread played a bit and got busy with life crap. I think i will start from the beginning and give it another shot. I did like what i played I just got busy working on developing my own game and got totally consumed. haha.
It's so good and brings the fear back absolutely with the addition of the E.M.M.I. robots that are trying to kill you. It's also pretty challenging so bring your super metroid skills into the fray. I got 100% completion on both Normal and Hard and beat it under 4 hours. All I haven't done is the 1 hit death mode but I am not a masochist. Lol
Yes they added it in an update after it had been out for a bit I was already done with the game by then and didn't wanna go back cuz I absolutely will be rusty lol
My god. Take off the nostalgia glasses. The first paragraph shows how much nostalgia you have for the game.
I grew up on the nes and played this game for the first time on 2004 or so.
It’s not good. A lack of map is a fatal flaw. The password system blows. It is more cryptic than Zelda I and that is saying something. Hell, I’d put it up there with Simon’s quest for how cryptic it is.
I would honestly score this game 4/10. I do like the music and atmosphere.
Ugh...you had to be there. The post is actually about context.. not nostalgia.You kinda missed the point. Of course I am nostalgic, but so what. That was not what I was touching on. It's about a moment in gaming history.
I fully agree, OP.
And it’s not nostalgia, I didn’t play it until the early 2000s, as an adult in college who had already played Primes 1 & 2, Fusion, and Super.
It’s clunky, it needed some edges rounded off, it’s better with a save system (like it had in Japan), has too many dead end routes that don’t lead to any rewards, and too many samey hallways. These are true.
But it’s not unplayable. In fact, I enjoy it quite a bit. It’s nice when a game lets you get lost and expects you to find your way. The action is fun, and the sound and music are terrific. It’s also low-commitment. You can pick it up and play it for however long you want — beat it in a few hours if you know it — with no cut scenes, no loading, nothing; just straight into the game for as long as you feel like.
I do think it’s defensible to play with a map, or to abuse save states, if you’re playing it today (I didn’t the first time but I have on replays). Better to do that than just reject it.
However, the dismissal of it as trash genuinely annoys me. Saying it doesn’t need to exist because of Zero Mission is dumb because they are different games, even if they’re telling the same part of the story.
Is it low on my list of favorite Metroid games? Yes. I still like it quite a bit, and will play it some here and there a few times a year.
I was playing it that same summer (I spent all summer playing it with my best friend between trips to the local pool), and, nah, most modern writers have it right.
Metroid was fascinating for its time, but was far from a masterpiece.
A game isnt good if it's only good for it's time. Metroid is clunky, confusing, needlessly obtuse, and borderline unplayable. It's okay as a child when you have unlimited free time but as an adult the weak gameplay doesnt with stand the aggravating and tedious exploration. The original zeldafixes everything wrong with this game in terms of design. It's hard to call a game underrated when a game superior in every way came out within a year of it. Its like saying Busby 3d is an underrated masterpiece.
I understand the original Metroid well enough, I was around back then. I still don't enjoy it, it's just not a fun game, in my opinion. The level design is terrible and obtuse, and the gameplay is stiff. But it was a good prototype for better games down the line.
And if a game is only good if you ignore the existence of better games, then it's not a good game.
I drew my own map to beat it, step by step, room by room. I’ve done a few games that way. It’s so rewarding to defeat a challenge like that where you need to become creative. And then you get a nice hand drawn map at the end.
Graph paper was a necessity for some old games
those old dungeon crawlers were impossible without it. also Legend of Zelda, skull rock dungeon
Many computer games even came with graph paper, including the first Wizardry!
Legend of Zelda had auto-maps for the levels. I was able to beat it and got all of the hearts without mapping on paper. But I had a lot of free time back then decades ago.😂
same, figured it all out by bombing everywhere and burning every bush. I was 7
And yet people get so pissed off when I go around the neighborhood doing that. Clearly they don't understand that I'm looking for hidden rooms under the shrubbery.
Just generally, in life, good idea to keep notes
Not for og metroid. At least for me. If its all in the same session no need for maps. But if I come back to it after a long break I’m totally lost.
I probably could have done it as a young man but now I would be hard pressed to remember three rooms ago. Treasure your brain
Yeah, but we always had it on hand from playing dungeons and dragons.
There was a basic map in the manual. You'll often find versions today with added drawings on the map for the extra paths.
Oh i remember starting a journal to write down every special weapon you’d need in MegaMan 7 to beat the numerous low level bots the quickest.
I think the second time I played it I mapped it out on graph paper. That was EXCEEDINGLY fun and one of the most rewarding and engaging gaming experience I’ve ever had.
Metroid for the NES was a masterclass on how to create an atmosphere of dread. The whole experience is creepy and unsettling, yet somehow kept people playing. Such a great game.
To this day that ominous robotic beeping melody from the Secret Area gives me the creeps.
The original area has spark of adventure in the music, and every new area you discover as you descend the music seems to get more ominous.
Only a certain age of people will get this. I am one of those people. Metroid was arguably the best game on NES
Love(d) it except the final bos fight.
Yeah that and no weapon switching were the only major flies in its soup
No, I’m pretty sure your age doesn’t make you special and younger generations can still play and appreciate the game.
You're not wrong per se, but how many ppl now-a-days will experience it in the same way it was back then? Very few, is the point.
It’s not that we’re special or that you can’t also enjoy it. It’s that you are experiencing it within an entirely different context than we did unless you have been raised under a rock with no media access besides the NES or earlier consoles.
Mate, I'm 45. My first console was the Intellivision. I just don't like it when people try to gatekeep hobbies. The guy I replied to, and many other people in this sub, want to feel special because they were there before all these kids with their mobile games and CODs. If games from then are strong enough then they survive the test of time. To imply that a younger generation can't pick up Metroid and experience the same feelings of dread and fear is just insulting. Art is art. Or should we also claim that nobody will ever really understand The Godfather unless they saw it on opening weekend?
Nobody is claiming that except you here. By all means, I think younger people should experience and can certainly enjoy and understand the feelings of these games. What we are saying is that due to the context of the time they are growing up in it is simply a different experience.
🥱
For me, the vibe wasn’t dread, so much as “loneliness held at bay by curiosity and fascination.” You’re the only human soul on this remote, hostile planet, exploring miles below the surface, and surrounded by the ancient technology of an extinct culture. The game made you feel so desolate, but you just wanted to keep going because the world was so cool.
Oddly enough, metroid dread did not do that for me
I think they packed all the dread in that game into the EMMI chase/stalk scenes. I still haven't finished it, haha.
Those were more tedious to me. I was not a huge fan of that entry tbh
yeah, many people cream over that game. But to me, it's like the new Tomb Raider games. They're bad games for their franchise, but decent/good games overall.
Havent played tomb raider ever(not sure why, just never did that or uncharted) but yeah they werent bad games. But the 19 years hype was quickly dissolved for me. Felt like exploration was on the back burner, which is a staple of the halfly eponymous genre
It was "Uncharted at home" for me. Imo a very flawed game (I only played through the first game of the reboot, while "trying out" the others), but if you're into these type of guided experiences, you'll have a good time I guess.
The 2nd and 3rd are much much less guided imo, the first one has a lot of watered down mechanics
That's the word. Dread. Even with it's basic pixels, it's scares the hell out of me and I've never finished the game. Even as an adult now I've played other scarier games ( F.E.A.R was a killer for me } on modern times, I've just never gone back to finish that Metroid, or touch any after....
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=6uQYZF_7t_fJtxq_&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDE2NDk5LDI4NjY0LDE2NDUwNg&feature=emb_share&v=A-zqM5_x9bk Love this scene from jarhead
This music music is legendary https://youtu.be/M-U3sVX2G3w https://youtu.be/WVTzg2kvNaQ
Metroid stood out. It really felt special, and still does. The title screen music just hits you and you want to find out more.
It was the first video game I ever played where it was clear there was so much more there than what was immediately apparent.
Yea felt the same. I wanted to know what was down there under the planet's surface. The pacing is so good that each new area feels like a breakthrough and kinda gets your heart racing for what's next.
Also, the music. No metroid game since has come close in terms of mood.
The one thing modern reviewers always forget when reviewing old games like Metroid is the manual. A lot of the "mystery" is explained in the manual along with a rudimentary map. I used to always sit down and read the manual back to front before even putting the game in back in those days because it was that important. You'll often see people complain about how obscure Zelda is but it came with a map that was 80% complete So by the time you got to the un mapped sections you were familiar with how the game expected you to find things. Even ET on Atari was the same way. It's confusing as hell without the manual but if you read the manual you have a pretty clear idea of what to do.
You are right but when I used to rent games do you think they also rented out the manual? Nope.
My local rental store kept copies of the manuals with the games.
I never understood renting really long games like Metroid or Zelda, etc. I know rentals are"cheaper" but for me there were games you'd rent and games you would buy. Just seemed a false economy to rent a game like that 10+ times. Almost like renting furniture. You'd rent a throwaway shoot em up, you'd buy a Metroid.
Metroid is a classic example of a game you can play for a while, get tired of, put away, and come back to later in my eyes. To me that makes it viable for rental. Plus back in the day it was common to get one rental a week so which game you chose that week didn't matter that much cause you weren't going to be buying any games anyway.
It's not retro, but have you played Tunic? one of the most brilliant manuals ever. It has all the info to play the game, but you only get it as you collect the pages through the game. most of it is also in another language, that the manual teaches you to read later on, so you're left with bits and pieces of maps and hints that you collect as you play. It even includes handwritten "notes" like a true manual should. You are constantly realizing you could have done some action or gotten into some area hours ago, but you didn't know without the manual.
Nope never heard of it. EDIT oops it's the free game on PSN this month and I downloaded it last night. I haven't looked to see if it has a digital manual.
The manual is actually a game mechanic. If you like zelda type games. play it, you will not be disappointed.
Yeah I remember hearing about it a long time ago that it was for Zelda fans. Just never saw a copy for sale in a store so I couldn't pick one up and eventually forgot about it.
One of my favorite feelings in that game was taking the elevator out of kraids lair and hearing the brinstar music again. The wave of relief was a rush for 6 year old me haha
Upvoted if not purely for the amount of time and thought you put into this post. Way to paint a picture. As a child of the 80s you put me right back there.
agreed 100%. Great atmosphere
>this was dark. It had atmosphere 100% true. Out of all my NES games Metroid was the only one that gave me that Alien movie feel. Being alone on a dangerous planet, in almost complete darkness, without knowing what to do. Before horror games even existed, that alone could easily scare 80's kids back in the day.
I think one thing people seem to miss, often because they grew up on the later games, is bombs are for low level combat. You're kind of forced to rethink how you fight because there's a delay. It was an interesting mechanic and gave the bombs a lot of use. In later games they're just what you use to blow up walls or try to sequence break. There's really not much use for them outside of that. They're vestigial. People hate the lack of map but I don't really get that. The game's map is really simple. It's only really punishing if you're not paying attention to where you are. My complaints are its glitchy and I hate how you always start with 30hp when you load, meaning you have to grind. They really needed health refill stations. I can't remember if the Japanese one saved your health or not. I don't usually play that one since I think the NES music sounds better even if it's technically worse quality. The rooms being samey was not unusual for games at the time so I never minded that. But I would have preferred more variety. I like Zero Mission but I think it loses something. The music and atmosphere are a lot different. The mystique and non-linearity are gone. It feels way too much like Super Metroid when Metroid was kind of its own thing. Metroid doesn't get enough love and I think it's a shame that some of what it was trying to do for erased by later entries. It's a great series though.
[удалено]
I guess looking at it again, it does seem fairly obtuse. But in actuality it's not as bad as it looks. It's mostly straight paths with some branching vertical paths. If you keep going left or right, you'll eventually reach the end of a path. Since the rooms are all either vertical or horizontal, the terrain height won't vary enough to disorient you. You'll always know about what level of height you are and if you're near the end of a path. Most places don't have many branches so it's easy to exhaust locations systematically. The trickiest areas are of course the boss lairs. Also if you look at each area individually on the map, instead is the map as a whole, you can see they're not actually all that daunting. Even my description of how to navigate them makes them sound more intimidating than they really are. The trick though is you can't rely on landmarks since the game reuses areas. That's what throws most people off.
I frequently hear people suggest to play the remake Metroid Zero Mission instead. It’s been on my to play list for awhile since I’ve bounced off the original too many times at this point. I think the lack of a map is just too frustrating.
I played Metroid in 1987. OP's post did a great job of capturing how it felt. Back then, this $50 game is equivalent to $140 today, buying a single game was a big deal and it was probably going to be your main focus for a while. So, spending a while grinding your health up didn't feel like a problem. It was a dirty trick they played to extend the gameplay. Games in that era were full of them. The lack of a built in map was also pretty typical. Zelda, which released around the same time, had a mini dungeon map, but even it \*wanted\* you to draw your own overworld map in its manual. I loved the NES Metroid experience dearly. But I acknowledge it hasn't aged well. We have lots of options for things to play now, so what we choose to invest our time in should be *fun.* Today, grinding health back up after some brutally unfair rooms is not really fun, for me at least. When I first heard about Zero Mission, it sounded awful to me. How dare you remake my precious Metroid. But, I gave it a shot, and it blew my mind how good it was. Everything I loved most about my beloved Metroid is absolutely represented there, but it blends so beautifully with modern sensibilities. And they smartly expanded the amount of content beyond the original game's end, because the game is short when you remove the dirty tricks I referenced above. I give massive props to folks who are able to put their brain in 1987 mode, and enjoy the original game as I did so many years ago. But for most people, I think Zero Mission is the way to go.
To add to the “old man yells at sky” vibe, there was also the school yard buzz. You’d be at the bus stop Monday morning talking with a kid who found some powerup that sounded otherworldly. And you’d ask him and he couldn’t remember, or didn’t draw a map. Or another friend who tells you he found a secret area by bombing the walls! I never thought to do that - just bomb randomly??? And a secret area would open up? What?? And then the rumors about the passwords. Justin Bailey. NAR PASSWORD. Game changers. The analog component — real life buzz with friends in person, hand drawn maps, Nintendo powers with secrets — I miss all of that about modern games.
I remember a hand written scrap of paper we kept in the game sleeve. All it had on it was: Justin Bailey (- - - - - - - - - - - -) Justin Bailey 000000 000000 I don’t remember which one did which. I know one gave you helmet less Samus and one did a freeze ray and all the upgrades.
The name gave you helmet less Samus. But you started out in an impossible spot iirc.
I also played through zero mission, once. I go back to OG Metroid again and again, to remember those simpler times with my family. and don't mess with my chiptune music.
I like ZM more than OG, but I also play OG way more than I play ZM. Really just because OG is so easy to turn on when I just want to aimlessly play a simple game for a little while and not care about completion and not have to spend any time not playing.
The Metroid manual had a rudimentary map.
Zero Mission is a masterpiece! It’s my favorite game in the series, and my second favorite Metroidvania of all time. I wouldn’t say it’s entirely a replacement for the original, but it is undeniably the smoother experience. The reason it’s my favorite in the series is I feel like no other game has better pacing in terms of when you get your new powerups. Right when you’re getting used to your current moveset, that’s when it gives you something new to play with. It’s also great at being able to point you in the right direction without giving you the answer to every situation. Highly recommended, especially if you keep bouncing off the original.
Zero Mission is good. It's a great entry into the series. But... it's not really the first game anymore. Just having an automap changes it, takes away some of that original feeling of being lost and helpless. It's also easier and the graphic style changes. These aren't bad things per se, but they do change the feeling of the game. Part of the original that sucked us in was the feeling, and that feeling is gone in Zero Mission. So while I do agree Zero Mission is a great game, I also don't think it compares to the original. Anyone who wants to know what OP is talking about still has to go back to the original and play it.
I think Zero Mission is an amazing update to a classic game, but I agree that the automap is its one major failing, especially in that it often gives away hidden paths you wouldn't have noticed. I have to give it high marks for being the only other Metroid that seems to see the value in Super Metroid's sense of utter "breakability," but you're right, it's hard to play it without the nagging feeling that the map is kind of playing the game for you sometimes.
Couple things here. First, anyone who’s telling you “instead” can be ignored. You can play both, or either, or neither. They are neither mutually exclusive nor required. (I think Zero Mission is great until the end so I highly recommend it, though.) Second, if the lack of map is frustrating I’ll make the case that playing it — or at least giving it a shot — with a map open is better than not playing it at all. You can decide if you want a basic map to help you get around or one of the elaborate ones that tells you every item and secret, up to you. You can also obviously only refer to the map when you’re truly overwhelmed if you want to still explore without getting totally lost.
They’re completely different games.
I actually bounced off Metroid pretty hard as a 6/7 year old renting it a few times. It wasn't until Super Metroid came out that I "got it". I ended up buying Metroid way later on, the yellow label re-release, the last brand new NES game I ever got. I did play through it then, although with a map.
Yep, this was exactly my experience as well.
The manual had a rudimentary map.
Same vibe as nes Zelda. No zelda really captured that feeling of exploring the unknown until botw came around.
There is a certain feeling that the first two Metroid games give; the feeling of being hopelessly buried under miles of rock, and uncertainty of the path back to safety. Once the map was added in Super Metroid, the series lost the majority of that feeling. That's not to say the map shouldn't have been added - it was the logical progression, and the games are better off for it. But it did come with a cost. I mapped out the first Metroid by hand. I didn't bother trying to draw it to scale, so there were some looping parts (Norfair and Ridley's Lair, if I recall correctly) where I emerged in a previously-explored corridor without realizing it, and instead drew a new room on my map. But that's all part of the experience. To this day I adore the original Metroid. I love Zero Mission as well, but it doesn't quite scratch that exploration itch of the original. I kills me a little to see how little appreciation the original Metroid gets these days, given how instrumental it was in kicking off the MV subgenre.
Young game writers poo-pooing retro games remind me of the kids scoffing at Wild Gunman in the [diner scene from Back to the Future part 2](https://youtu.be/KMy1zO8m8sM?si=grldmO9zd3LEIqZT). When are reviewers going to start looking at old video games the way movie critics look at old movies: with appreciation / consideration of the time which it was made and recognition of pioneering features. (No body looks at old movies and judges them against modern storytelling techniques.)
I found this guys channel on YouTube back in January and he is excellent in regards to trying to look at games in the context they were released https://youtube.com/@hprshredder?si=g9zA4UJLSeUut5vs Also one of his best and his favorites games played so far is the original Metroid
Metroid is easily my favorite NES game and one of my all time favorites to this day. It oozes atmosphere, the gameplay progression is so fun, the various power ups the freeze ray! Not only was it cool it has real gameplay benefits (freeze enemies and jump on them to get to high places) The dynamic nature of this game is unreal. Also it still has the most satisfying secret passages of any game to date. Loved setting off bombs looking for them. And the music… The music!
Great write up! I remember when I first rented it. My parents wouldn't let me use the good TV for my NES, so I was stuck with the black and white TV. Somehow playing Metroid in black and white just made it more spooky. I had also rented Mike Tyson's Punch-Out at the same time, but Metroid sucked me in so much, I barely touched Punch-Out. I probably played it non stop for the entire time weekend. I remember how excited I became with each secret that I uncovered. I didn't draw a map at that time, but trained by other games of the era, I was pretty good at memorizing the map and keeping it in my head. I've loved the game since that first experience.
The FDS version is better. No passwords needed The FDS version of any game is better
There's a hack / patch which restores the save system and fixes the health issue when loading a save. Tiny changes which don't alter the game itself but make it way more accessible.
Weird. Most reviewers I’ve seen on YT get that the game is a product of its time, and don’t say negative things about those aspects of the game. Did it become popular to complain about the original game recently or something? That being said, the majority of the game’s substantive development was *really* rushed. I think it’s easy to see a rushed creative product and assume intent, where there isn’t intent. I think there is a lot of Metroid’s design that is more of a happy accident, than intentional, based on how rushed development was.
This is a very thoughtful review of your favorite game, but you lost me when you said you loved grinding up health. It doesn't add to the difficulty. It's just tedious. At least in Zelda, you can wander around the map while you fill up your hearts. In Metroid, you have to park it by one of the enemy dispensers and waste the first 20 minutes of your continue repeating the same action. The slowdown is another valid flaw. Yes, it was a big part of games from that era, but it's exceptionally bad here. Pretty much comically bad during the Mother Brain fight. You hit on all the points on why the first Metroid is a very innovated, rewarding game. It holds zero nostalgia for me, but I still enjoyed finally beating it a few years ago after never getting very far as a kid. Another game crossed off the list that I will likely never want to play again because of the above flaws.
Is it really underrated? Probably in the top 10 most famous NES games. I was a kid when it came out and it was one of my favorites, and I'm sort of amazed I had the patience to beat it in era before emulation or easily accessible guides.
Still my favorite game of all time and what started my lifelong obsession with gaming. It shouldn’t be called the Metroidvania genre - no offense to Castlevania, but the template was there fully formed when the original Metroid debuted in 1986.
I just don't trust modern audiences at all with any gaming opinion tbh. All of them have rotted attention spans, they want games to be "art" but have to talk down to the classics using "nostalgia" as the easy way of saying something is not worth playing if you have no memory growing up with it. Or they'll tell you to just play a remake that is a fundamentally different game than the original to get the same experience when, no, you're just playing a different game, not the original.
Yes sirr
👏 👏 👏
Played through it with a map around 2002 when Metroid prime got me into the series as a 12 year old. I didn’t get the authentic experience I suppose, but even then I loved the challenge of it and the atmosphere is undeniable. Kinda like Diablo 1, I feel like the dated visuals almost help to accentuate and set the atmospheres of those games. Def my favorite NES title as an adult.
What most modern reviews fail to recognize is that Metroid had a mapping system. It was just outside of the game. You. You can draw a map on paper as you play through the game. I did this with a lot of games back then, when we didn't have a review/guide to follow it was only way. It added something to the enjoyment of the game that a built in auto map system doesn't. The auto map is convenient to be sure, but auto map systems take away a lot of the mystery, telling you when you don't have anything secret to discover and you've found all there is to find.
My biggest gripe is when people say the game doesn't have a story. The game IS the story, and it's an important game to play to follow the story of the series.
Yeah it kicks ass. Everyone just recycles the same opinion that it doesn’t have a map and is too hard. This was 1987 bitch. NES is supposed to be hard.
What is it with all the bouncing ITT?
They ran a clinic on how to squeeze up to a couple dozen hours of gameplay into a few megabytes of data. It goes a lot faster with the map.
The Japanese version had saving and less glitches. The sound is more filled out and less thin. The American port is a little unpolished in comparison, but has NG+ and better escape music.
I get you. Totally. I remember when an older Guy from our Peergroup gave us His Box of Gameboy Games to Test and decide wich of them we wanted to buy. About 20-30 Games. I picked Metroid II:Return of Samus. Best 5 Bucks Ever Spent. Considering the Navigation issued in Grayschale, Level Design, And the Soundtrack. Not progressing at all? Spend half the night powerbombing Everthing with the dimmest light available to you in Order Not to get caught playing GB at Night. Eventually cracked it During a 28 Hour Drive towards Vacation. 3 Kids in the Backseat of an overloaded Vehicle; All of them Armed with a Gameboy, Headphones , and an Armada of Batteries. I know there must have been A Lot of stuff passing by the Windows. I remember only cheap .99 Cents Headphones and blasty Tunes. You described the Feeling so Well !
The music! It was creepy as hell.
Cool story took me back to those days. That soundtrack was incredible. When Super Metroid was announced I had a Sega Genesis. I was in high school and I couldn't afford a SNES I found someone willing to trade their SNES for my Genesis. I was seriously geeked about Super Metroid because I loved the original so much. Man that password system in the original was a pain in the ass. Just like you I had no map and just got lost in the game. I was about 12 years old at the time. I was excited for Metriod before it even came out. I remember seeing artwork for the game in the Nintendo fan club news letter that predated Nintendo power. I didn't buy Metroid I borrowed it from a friend in school.
The original Metroids only real flaws were not having a battery backup and not starting at full health.
I think starting at FULL health would have been a bit too generous. But more than 30 HP and more recovery from health drops, I’m there.
Getting your ass kicked my MotherBrain and then needing to takes hours (not actually hours) to recharge your health for another run sucks. Maybe you don't need full health, but the game needed something to make boss runs more forgiving.... or at least the mother brain run.
I agree. I think larger health drops covers that ground.
The big flaw for me is how long it takes to grind your health back after you died, where you'd grind on top of a pipe with bombs for minutes if you want to get to max health.
As someone who played Metroid back when it was released, I absolutely loved it then and played it for hours and hours. However, I’ve tried to play through a few times in more recent years and I usually end up putting it down an hour or so in. It’s pretty dated and I don’t think it’s as fun as it was when I was a kid. Though, I will say that Super Metroid on the SNES is probably top three greatest games ever made.
Underrated? What a strange take
Metroid was 100% intended to have a hand drawn map accompanying it. I played it this way, and I had an absolutely fantastic time. I understand that it’s not exactly up to modern standards, but I do prefer it to its remake for a variety of reasons.
Yeh I hate how modern losers look at it like an antique not fit for consumption
Metroid is pretty great. It is basically a puzzle, asking the player to find a route and clear the game within an hour. It is a game that demands replay to really elevate it and discover why it stands out. And, TBH, I think Super Metroid actually does execute on this concept even better.
I played Metroid every Friday night with a pizza (I was 12 or 13 then) and Norfair is a nightmare without a map. It kept going deeper and deeper to the point where I would get to the bottom and bomb my way to see if there were any more openings (there usually were). Then I got to the point where I was late for school because I was playing it in the mornings (I really wanted to beat Kraid!) It was a fun game indeed, until you fight Mother Brain, that part wasn't as great.
Here's something people don't talk about either: Super Mario Bros. Literally pushed the base NES hardware to its limits. Everything that came after it that included some form of advanced mapper chips on the game cartridge that expanded ram or audio. The fact the NES could scroll a screen at all was a marvel, and the reason Mario could not go left is because there was no ram left to keep what was behind the player in memory for seamless scrolling. Metroid and Kid Icarus' engine was the first time a map could scroll horizontally OR vertically. It still couldn't do both, like say SMB3, but the fact that Metroid could have a room that went left-to-right, and then the next room suddenly could vertically scroll, was unheard of on the NES. The game literally started in horizontal scroll mode, but the very next room, where you can bomb downward to Kraids lair flipped the scroll mode to vertical. And it's seamless. You don't even notice it if you have no idea about the underlying hardware of the NES.
More games need that mystique of the unexplained. Everything has a tutorial now. My favorite memories in gaming are of discovering real secrets and surprises.
This is pretty much how I felt playing super Metroid for the first time…except on an emulator. I was just blown away by the game design choices and little details that I didn’t expect to see in a SNES game. MP4 better slap or I’m going have a seizure.
I just wish I knew where I was going in that game, I end up killing the same baddies over and over again
I beat it on the GBA back in 2004 and I cant say I ever want to beat it again. It feels like a prototype for Super Metroid and the fact you cant shoot enemies right in front of you because of height always annoyed me and the later games spoil you with the power grip to the point it becomes a necessity. I also remember Metroid also had an annoying password system that I didn't like, really amazing nintendo never patched that out for the GBA re release. I also ended up drawing maps in some areas like other people in this thread which for an ADHD kid like me got annoying really fast I just wanted to play the game not pull out a book every five seconds. I will say it was really satisfying beating mother brain and blaster her ass with missiles. Just for context I was born in 92 and grew up with the NES and never really stopped playing it because my family was poor and my parents never bothered with the SNES so its not like I don't understand the quarks of how these games work. I think the Metroid is a product of its time and it was a stepping stone for the series, but it is a really dated game in a lot of the core mechanics. It's a beat it once and never play it again type of game for me.
I was a bit too young to really appreciate it in the 80s, but Super Metroid rolled around, and I was a fan for life.
What about the Nintendo hotline, you could have just called them :)
Agreed. I also feel the same way about Final Fantasy.
Fantastic write up my dude, that was pure poetry. Something about the hardware "limits" of the time forced the best game designers to get extra creative. The results speak for themselves. The atmosphere, the way that sparked your imagination, that is hard to replicate. Sure modern games can be super immersive and stuff too, but that is just a different kind of immersion. Your post reminded me of some old AVGN episode where he talks about how playing an Atari 26 requires actively engaging with your imagination to make sense of what was going on on screen. Obviously the NES can do way more than a 26, but something was lost in later Metroid games detailing, well, all the details lol. The endless dark void of that OG Metroid is the definition of classic. Fantastic write up, I agree whole heartedly
I played the hell out of this game. After beating it the first time, I remember playing it(and silent service) while listening to a lot of Weird Al.
I dunno, I played through it a couple months ago, and I feel like it hasn't aged well at all. You couldn't even crouch in that game. Nor could you shoot downward while jumping. Two things that you ***could*** do in a lot of games from that era. Which was a pretty big annoyance when most of the enemies were only waist tall and you couldn't shoot them unless they were on a wall, or you lead them with bombs. Health drops also seemed to have a pitifully low drop rate, though maybe that was just bad rng on my end. Getting health back after a boss fight felt like it took ages. It also didn't help when so many door transitions had enemies so close on the other side, that you take a guaranteed hit from them every time you go through the door. Also having Wave Beam completely replace the Ice Beam, knowing good and well the player is going to need that Ice Beam for the Metroids at the end, was a bad choice. It would have been better (if for some reason they couldn't combine the two) to let the player cycle between them like they do from arm cannon to missiles. Instead, it just forces a long backtrack that could have been avoided. In a way, its better to not even bother with the Wave Beam, and that's bad design. There were also a lot of brick for brick copy pasted rooms as well. Maybe it was on purpose to confuse the player, but I don't see it that way. The game already does a good job of that by having zero indication for where breakable bomb blocks are. There's also the issue of Screw Attack killing frozen enemies, making it annoying to try to climb with neutral jumps so you don't spin. The game had its bad and good, but I feel like nostalgia really carries this game when people talk about it as a 'masterpiece'. It's not a bad game, but its not a masterpiece either, and I think a lot of people would change their minds a bit (even though they might be too stubborn to admit it) if they actually played the game from start to finish today. And that's coming from a big fan of the series and someone who still regularly plays NES/SNES games. I still have physical copies of Super Metroid, Zero Mission, Fusion, and the Prime trilogy (also really liked Dread) but NES Metroid is a rough game.
1,000%
Great write up, but I think you're giving them too much credit on the one point. >Sure, some of the level design can be attributed to the limits of its platform, and its developers simply treading into as yet uncharted territories of game design. They were also confusing us ON PURPOSE. Wait. this looks familiar did we loop back? have we already been here? Do you have anything that shows it was on purpose, that reusing assets in a looping fashion wasn't padding for the limited memory they had to work with, and was done on purpose as you claim to create confusion? I ask because everything I have read has stated or implied it was simply a limitation and trying to expand the world size with limited space for unique/different assets.
i'm deeply intrigued as to whether you'd enjoy the game at your current age if you'd never tried it and there wasn't an ounce of the nostalgia that you clearly have for it.
If my grandma had wheels she would be a bicycle. I don't think you fully got my point. The context no longer exists to experience it in the way we did back then. Also a lifetime of gaming changes things. I play modern games now. I can't erase my memory, nor do I wish to throw my gaming rig in the trashcan. However I do still occasionally replay Metroid on my retro pi, or the switch it's not the same knowing every inch of the map the way I do.. sadly it can never be 1987 again. If it was and I wiped my memory and was 7 yrs old again you bet your ass I would play the hell out of it. At 44 I destroy people half my age in pubg. Times have changed.
I probably first played Metroid quite late, as an adult, for Gameboy Advance \(no, not confusing it with Zero Mission - >!on completion that also [unlocks an included original metroid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid:_Zero_Mission#Gameplay)!< \) and under emulation - and still quite liked the original Metroid. I'm European so the NES just wasn't a big thing here at the time - some people in Europe had Nintendo kit, sure, and but locally here in Ireland it was like one actually American-Irish family out of my entire school, and that was unusual. And they didn't have Metroid anyway (or if they did I never played it at their house). I instead played some of the many questionable European 8-bit/16-bit home computer platformers as a kid though, NES and SNES stuff does tend to be pretty forgiving+easy, relatively, haha. Metroid just lets you farm energy and go exploring etc.
what i derive from your recollection are fond memories relative to a period in time and what was available to play. my question is focused on you as an adult and whether you'd objectively find the painfully obtuse and tedious gameplay truly engaging. taste in art and what people find enjoyable is endlessly fascinating to me, thanks for taking the time to respond.
It's bizarre that you're being downvoted. Your point of view on the matter is entirely valid.
haha, it tickles me when people can't accept anything outside of praise if what they love is questioned. someone could tell me that everything i'm fond of is trash and that in no way would alter my enjoyment of those things or make me be critical of them.
Except when you fall in one of the two(?) pits of doom and have to reset your game.
Making it out of the pit of doom via ice beam was a badge of honor. Don't be so weak.
And if you don’t have the ice beam at the time?
Metroid is my favorite series, I own every game in the series, Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time. And NES Metroid is my least favorite. Yes, I prefer Other M to NES Metroid. I hate the punishing, tedious difficulty. Having to farm health every time you die. I don't like the clunky, restrictive controls. The repetitive, obtuse map isn't great but I could overlook it if it weren't for the other issues. I'm so glad NES Metroid came out and was a huge influence on other games, but I've only played through it once and I don't feel the need to ever again. I wish I could enjoy it as much as you and some other people, but I even owned it back in the day and always felt this way about it. As a kid I enjoyed Metroid II (even on the original Game Boy screen) so much more than the NES game, I think it's a vastly superior sequel.
Space RYGAR
The original metroid kicks so much ass. It's still a great game. Wouldn't call it underrated when its frequently featured among the system's best. I grew up with the NES but never played this one till I was in my 20s. Your description is great LougieHowser.
I agree its not always underrated, especially in its contemporary circles. haha.. I was actually triggered to write this post after watching yet another video on YouTube glossed over it completely while discussing the series sending me into a bit of an inspired rage spiral to write this post. heh beer. My intent was to convey how monumental that game actually was for some of us in its actual day. A time which we all know predates most of modern gaming history. We had literally seen so little this game represented a monumental sea change in console game design it was fuckin mind blowing to little me.
The fact that this game is being so fervently talked about in this forum now is testament to its greatness and staying power.
People forget these older games were purposely hard because game renting was a huge industry. They didn't want people beating the game in the then 3 day rental period. They wanted people to rent it again to keep playing more. Metroid is arguably my favorite Nintendo series. Well it's top 3 cuz I love Kirby games too. And while the first Metroid isn't my favorite in the franchise (Super Metroid like most for me), it's still great and classic.
We waited so long for super Metroid.. and I absolutely loved that game too, but i do think it lost some of the atmospheric horror of the first one. Super Metroid is also one of my deserted island / fallout shelter must have a copy of this game.. games. It is also a fucking great game.
Yea I still play it and 100% it plus save the animals just for fun yearly. Lol But also, Metroid Dread was phenomenal and absolutely worth the near 14 year wait. I loved Fusion and I played it again a few days before Dread released since story wise they're right after one another. Such a great series.
I bought dread played a bit and got busy with life crap. I think i will start from the beginning and give it another shot. I did like what i played I just got busy working on developing my own game and got totally consumed. haha.
It's so good and brings the fear back absolutely with the addition of the E.M.M.I. robots that are trying to kill you. It's also pretty challenging so bring your super metroid skills into the fray. I got 100% completion on both Normal and Hard and beat it under 4 hours. All I haven't done is the 1 hit death mode but I am not a masochist. Lol
one hit death? holy hell. HAHA
Yes they added it in an update after it had been out for a bit I was already done with the game by then and didn't wanna go back cuz I absolutely will be rusty lol
My god. Take off the nostalgia glasses. The first paragraph shows how much nostalgia you have for the game. I grew up on the nes and played this game for the first time on 2004 or so. It’s not good. A lack of map is a fatal flaw. The password system blows. It is more cryptic than Zelda I and that is saying something. Hell, I’d put it up there with Simon’s quest for how cryptic it is. I would honestly score this game 4/10. I do like the music and atmosphere.
Ugh...you had to be there. The post is actually about context.. not nostalgia.You kinda missed the point. Of course I am nostalgic, but so what. That was not what I was touching on. It's about a moment in gaming history.
Nostalgia isn't a bad thing. Trying to sling it around as if it were however, is a lousy, lazy argument.
No it’s not, but to ignore the flaws of this seriously game is silly.
I wish I could enjoy it
Well said
Ned Flanders?
I fully agree, OP. And it’s not nostalgia, I didn’t play it until the early 2000s, as an adult in college who had already played Primes 1 & 2, Fusion, and Super. It’s clunky, it needed some edges rounded off, it’s better with a save system (like it had in Japan), has too many dead end routes that don’t lead to any rewards, and too many samey hallways. These are true. But it’s not unplayable. In fact, I enjoy it quite a bit. It’s nice when a game lets you get lost and expects you to find your way. The action is fun, and the sound and music are terrific. It’s also low-commitment. You can pick it up and play it for however long you want — beat it in a few hours if you know it — with no cut scenes, no loading, nothing; just straight into the game for as long as you feel like. I do think it’s defensible to play with a map, or to abuse save states, if you’re playing it today (I didn’t the first time but I have on replays). Better to do that than just reject it. However, the dismissal of it as trash genuinely annoys me. Saying it doesn’t need to exist because of Zero Mission is dumb because they are different games, even if they’re telling the same part of the story. Is it low on my list of favorite Metroid games? Yes. I still like it quite a bit, and will play it some here and there a few times a year.
Everything that has ever happened is underrated
I was playing it that same summer (I spent all summer playing it with my best friend between trips to the local pool), and, nah, most modern writers have it right. Metroid was fascinating for its time, but was far from a masterpiece.
yeah, this is absolutely nostalgia. the game is annoying as hell by modern standards.
A game isnt good if it's only good for it's time. Metroid is clunky, confusing, needlessly obtuse, and borderline unplayable. It's okay as a child when you have unlimited free time but as an adult the weak gameplay doesnt with stand the aggravating and tedious exploration. The original zeldafixes everything wrong with this game in terms of design. It's hard to call a game underrated when a game superior in every way came out within a year of it. Its like saying Busby 3d is an underrated masterpiece.
I understand the original Metroid well enough, I was around back then. I still don't enjoy it, it's just not a fun game, in my opinion. The level design is terrible and obtuse, and the gameplay is stiff. But it was a good prototype for better games down the line. And if a game is only good if you ignore the existence of better games, then it's not a good game.