Metroid Prime Hunters (Nintendo DS, 2006)

Coming...possibly. :/

Metroid: Zero Mission (Gameboy Advance, 2004)

Coming soon! :)

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, 2007)

Coming soon! :)

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Gamecube, 2004)

Coming soon!  :)

Metroid Prime (Gamecube, 2002)

After an 8 year hiatus for the Metroid franchise, they decided to revive and create a new game. They outsourced to an American developer known as Retro Studios. This game was created as the first 3D game in the series, and it's also technically a First Person Shooter. Oy...I'm not so sure about that...First Person Adventure sounds better. But still...I bought my copy a year ago, and I was skeptical about the whole first person thing, and I decided to play it just to say I did and give it an honest shot. Sigh.

So I played it and....................I LOVED IT!!!!!!!! It was absolutely fantastic. It was also a huge success in general and sold a buttload of copies. Anyways, without further ado...

Story

Samus came across what appeared to be an abandoned space vessel, known as Frigate Orpheon. She landed and began to investigate. It appeared that the frigate had recently been attacked, and several dead Space Pirates were littered everywhere, and there were a few injured Space Pirates that attacked Samus, so she put them out of her their misery. It would seem that following the events of Metroid NES, there were surviving Space Pirates, half of whom constructed the frigate and began taking over Tallon IV (read as 4, not I.V.) which is the fascinating planet that Samus will soon explore, and the other half went back to Zebes and began rebuilding, which is later discovered in Super Metroid.

After exploring the Frigate, she encountered the Parasite Queen. After slamming her with a few missiles and dropping her like a ton of bricks, a self-destruct sequence ensued. (Surprise, surprise!) Samus hauled ass out of there, going through what seemed to be engine pipes. She got out of the tunnels and caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a cybernetically enhanced version of a familiar nasty pterodactyl skeleton dragon. An explosion slammed Samus against a wall and caused almost all of her power-ups to malfunction. She was left with her basic power suit and power beam. Oh shoot! She made it to her ship just in time to escape the frigate as it exploded and crashed on Tallon IV. Samus also landed on Tallon IV to investigate.

Samus prepares to explore Frigate Orpheon

Samus went through different areas of the fascinating planet, and regained her powers and then some. She discovered that Tallon IV was apparently a colony for the Chozo, as there were ruins left over from where they used to reside, along with some artifacts spread out all over the planet that Samus needed to collect to gain access to the final area. Samus encountered a whole bunch of baddies, including a variety of Space Pirates. Some of these pirates required Samus to use specific beams to defeat, and there was also a big, nasty one called Omega Pirate. There were also...you guessed it...metroids! Apparently the Space Pirates were cloning metroids. Samus also came across the aforementioned dragon, who is now Meta Ridley. The "Meta" sure makes it seem scarier! Samus discovered a highly toxic substance called Phazon which mutated a lot of monsters and plant life. Samus needed a special suit to be able to touch it, the creatively-named *sarcasm* Phazon Suit. She collected this suit after wasting Omega Pirate.

After she collected all of the Chozo artifacts, she fought and beat Meta Ridley. After defeating Meta Ridley, she teleported to the Impact Crater. This was a cavern full of Red Phazon, which was way more caustic than it's blue cousin. It even eats through the Phazon Suit. There were also Fission metroids, which were extremely tough metroids that would split into two metroids that could only be killed with the beam that matched the color of their nuclei. (Yellow-power, purple-wave, gray-ice, and red-plasma.) After getting through the large room of the Impact Crater, Samus entered a cavern where a really strange looking monster lurked. This was some kind of odd-looking Phazon-mutated metroid known as Metroid Prime. It had an outside shell which looked spider-like, and Samus had to use beams according to Prime's color, in the same way that she had to with the Fission metroids. She finally defeated this form of Prime, and it shed it's outer shell to reveal it's true form, which was a floating head with nuclei and tentacles. This form was way tougher, since it could only be damaged if Samus stood in a Phazon puddle and absorbed the Phazon and fired it as a beam. Prime put up one hell of a fight, but it still fell short. Samus laid Prime to waste. Before Prime went down for the count though, it (she?) tried to draw in Samus, but instead absorbed her Phazon suit. (Sounds like sequel material!) After the fight, Samus escaped the unstable crater and summoned her ship. Before entering her ship, she observed the collapsing temple. She took off her helmet and seemed a little concerned. She then left the planet.

Meanwhile, back at the collapsed temple, something strange was going on. Where Prime was defeated, a dark hand with an eye on it emerged from the ruins of Prime. Apparently Prime wasn't through just yet. (Sequel!!)

Samus battles Metroid Prime

Gameplay

Ok, so the gameplay turned out to be awesome. I'm not a fan of first-person shooters by any means, and as I said before, I was very skeptical of this game. Since it was Metroid I decided to give it a try. It turns out that this is an action-adventure-exploration game that happens to be in a first person view. The controls were rather simple and easy to use, compared to a typical FPS. This is more appropriately called a first-person adventure, since it's based more on exploration and finding stuff. Yes, you do shoot and kill enemies, but it has more meaning than "see if you can get a kill-chain" or "blow this guy's head off and get extra points." You fight many bosses to regain certain power-ups, and you simply just find other power-ups and run and gun and solve puzzles on the way. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this first person view, since it gives you a feeling of what Samus is actually seeing as she ventures through Tallon IV.

Samus prepares to fire the Ice Beam

This game retains all power-ups from it's predecessors except for Space Jump and Screw Attack. (Which kinda sucks.) It also introduces several new features, including the Space Jump Boots, which allow Samus to double jump in first person view. There are charge combos, which the familiar Super Missile is a part of. The other three are new. Charge combos are a combination attack that uses missiles and your beam. These are the Wavebuster (wave beam combo), the Ice Spreader (ice beam combo), and the Flamethrower (plasma beam combo). Of course the Super Missile is the power beam combo. All of these do devastating damage, although the Wavebuster and Flamethrower use a ton of missiles. Another new upgrade is the Phazon suit, which is this awesome looking suit of black, silver, and red with an orange visor. This game introduces different types of visors. The scan visor allows you to gather information on creatures, bosses, items, areas, lore, and research. This visor also allows you to activate many different devices. There is also the Thermal visor, which lets you detect objects and creatures in the dark by enabling Samus to see objects by converting heat waves to visible shapes. Finally, there is the X-ray visor, which allows Samus to see disappearing enemies and invisible platforms, and of course through certain walls.

The Wavebuster being used against Metroid Prime.

The rest of the gameplay was really good, despite some difficulty, including areas, items to obtain, and bosses. There really wasn't a dull moment in the game. After a while, when going through the Chozo Ruins, you encounter Chozo Ghosts in certain rooms. These ghosts are corrupted specters who can really be a pain to fight before obtaining the X-ray visor. Most of the bosses proved to be formidable, some of them were downright frustrating. Meta Ridley was certainly a fun fight, but it got frustrating when he got on the ground and started charging at you. That was difficult for me to dodge. Metroid Prime was even more difficult but fun. You had to shoot Prime with beams that matched the colors on it's body. I mentioned the gist of this fight in the story section, but I did not mention that sometimes Prime cloaks itself, making you have to use the Thermal or X-ray visor to track it down. It was a fast paced battle, and sometimes Fission metroids and Space pirates would appear to make the fight even more difficult. It was very satisfying for me to finally defeat it after several tries. I found it easy to get lost sometimes, and some items are hard to obtain, but not impossible, since I was able to achieve 100% completion in this game.

Graphics 

Actual gameplay footage

Ok, I think it goes without saying here. But I will say it anyways. The graphics were amazing! For being a Nintendo Gamecube game made in 2002, the graphics are about as good as the gameplay graphics in Other M. The cinematic graphics were really good as well. The different looks for the arm cannon based on which beam is activated was a really nice touch, and the beams were very well animated. The surrounding areas were very well done and made Tallon IV seem like it could be a real place and not just some manufactured video game environment like in Other M. I also must mention that when Samus walks through steam or water, her visor gets dewey and it looks very realistic. Of course, I can't forget to mention that sometimes if there is a bright flash, you can see Samus's eyes reflected in her visor. Awesome.

Totally awesome.

Music/Sound

As for the music, only one word can really describe it: Ear-gasmic. The music for this game is absolutely beyond fantastic. It seems to have a kind of pop-techno theme to it, and a lot of the tracks have the "X-Files whistle" which really adds to them. One of those tracks with that whistle melody is the title theme, as well as the menu theme. I think my favorite track in the whole game is a toss-up between this one and this one. The first one is a theme for the Phendrana Drifts Deep Lake Area, and the other one is the Meta Ridley boss fight theme.

The sound effects were pretty darn good as well. I may only have one small complaint, which is the sound effect used for the power bombs. It sounds like some weird whirring noise, so I feel like it doesn't really do the power bomb justice. Other M's sound effect is how it should be done in my opinion. This is the first Metroid game to introduce any kind of voice over, but there are no spoken words, just Samus grunting when she gets hit and screaming when she dies, along with various monsters growling and grunting, and of course, Metroids squeaking. A lot of the sound effects really added to the atmosphere of the game, like when you enter a room and and you can hear distinct squeaking....meaning that there are Metroids in there. Other times, when you enter a room, after it goes dark, you can hear the shrieking of the appearing Chozo Ghosts.

Overall

Ok, so my skepticism was very much quelled when I played this game. Despite it being in the first person view, the game was fantastic. Honestly, I think the first person view added to the suspense and intensity of the game, since players pretty much see things exactly how Samus sees them. This game does have some difficult boss battles, but they certainly are not boring and they are not impossible to beat. The entire planet was very fascinating and a real treat for the eyes. I'd recommend this game to anyone who wants to try a Metroid game.

Some of the cons are this:
Some frustrating boss battles
Some expansions are difficult to obtain
It's somewhat easy to get lost
The fission metroids exist
This game has an end

Rating

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 out of 10. Well done, Retro!

Samus observes the collapsing temple after defeating Metroid Prime.

Metroid: Other M (Wii, 2010)

Ah yes, the controversial Metroid game, Metroid: Other M. Here's yet another review of the most polarizing game in the series. I will say upfront that I'm on the team that liked the game. In fact, I loved the game. Despite a few complaints I may have about it, it's plain fantastic. *dodges tomatoes from the haters* Sixteen years after Super Metroid and eight years after Metroid Fusion, Nintendo teamed up with Team Ninja and D Rockets to create the first true interquel in the series. (Not counting the Prime games!) This game is a direct sequel to Super Metroid and a prequel to Fusion.

Story 

Ok, this segment is going to be a bit long, so bear with me. The story was a pretty good concept but could use some reworking, some explanations for certain events, and a bit of polish. 

Metroid: Other M is the direct sequel to Super Metroid. The first scene picks up right after Samus was blasted with Mother Brain's rainbow attack in Super Metroid, except in crystal clear, fantastic, 1,987,895,435,454,654,634,364,634,651,654,651 bit 3D graphics. Samus is being carried by Baby M while being healed and Baby M is taking several vicious attacks. The death of Baby M is even more dramatic, as it shows Ma Brain impaling Baby M with a nasty beam attack and then we hear the high pitched cry from the Metroid. The cliche heartbeat sound played as Samus reached up in horror towards her "child" (as if saying NOOOOOOO!!) as she fell from the grasp of Baby M. Baby M exploded into tiny, gelatinous bits as Samus held out her hand to catch a small reminder of Baby M. Enraged, Samus calmly but angrily said, "Mother, time to go!" then following a totally epic view from within her arm cannon, fires the Hyper Beam. 

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Fast forward a bit and Samus woke up in a futuristic recovery room. An officer had her suit up and he began testing her abilities. (Wait, they didn't mysteriously disappear this time?! O.O) After this she headed for the board room to deliver her report. She lamented about the loss of Baby M (or "The Baby" as she called it) for a bit. She flew around in her ship before receiving a distress call, code named "Baby's Cry" due to it's urgency. (I know personally how freaking urgent a baby's cry is, especially when my daughter Sarah is hungry! Oy!) This signal led her to a mysterious facility known as the Bottle Ship (fitting acronym, seeing as how there is a lot of that going on in there!). She landed and discovered a ship that belonged to the Galactic Federation. She went inside and encountered her old team, including her old friend Anthony Higgs, and her ex-commander Adam Malkovich. Adam asked her why she was there, she explained and returned the question. He basically told her it was none of her business and she was a little taken aback. She assisted the GFeds in opening a door then went on to narrate about her past for a bit. The crew was attacked and Samus assisted in it's defeat. Adam told her that he wants her help on the mission and that she would have to follow his commands and use her arsenal on an "as-needed" basis to hopefully ensure the success of the mission. People have complained about the whole "authorization" thing in this game, but I see it as Samus being a respectful person and doing what she can to help out the crew instead of being a hotheaded feminazi who would basically tell Adam that she authorizes him to go screw himself. No, Samus is actually a nice person. (Which was a good place to start. Give Samus a character that is kind hearted but a little more rough around the edges. Think Sarah Walker from Chuck, if you have seen that show.)

I admit that I do have a gripe about the infamous "Lava room with no Varia Suit" fiasco and think Adam was off in La La Land when she went that way, that and maybe Sammy should have been like, "Hey Adam? Ya think I should use my Varia Suit right about now?" Yeah, that was not cool. (Pun slightly intended...) Anyways, a few of the crew members were picked off one by one like some sort of Whodunit sci-fi horror movie, which leads me into another complaint. What the hell was the deal with the "Deleter" thing? Seriously, that was poorly written and was pretty much left up to the imagination, even though evidence points to James Pierce, it was never truly confirmed in the game. There were a good bit of plotholes. Anyways, Samus joins up with Anthony and encounters DLANWVFRANGSLDFWENGVLSAJFNVHOLYSHITSONUVABITCHMOTHERFRACKERARSEFACEIT'SRIDLEYBACKFROMTHEDEADAGAIN!!!! Apparently Samus has a case of PTSD and totally flaked for a few seconds. Ridley grabbed her and Anthony shot at him, causing Ridley to drop Samus. Anthony started taunting and yelling at Ridley cause, you know, Ridley ain't got no style! Anthony decided to try to teach him a lesson about subtlety and how to treat a lady. However this was short lived and Anthony was knocked into the lava. :( NOT EFFING COOL, RIDLEY!!! Again....bad pun. Samus got super pissed and snapped out of it, then creamed Ridley till he flew off like a wimp. Asshole. Samus had lost contact with Adam during that whole Ridley debacle and started thinking to herself again. I admit she sure does talk a lot. Oh well, so do I, as is evident in my reviews. Sue me us. Samus pursued the Deleter, and he dropped the bridge. Samus decided to use her Space Jump/Screw Attack ability ("Any objections, Adam?") on her own accord, since Adam was incommunicado. This showed an inkling of what seemed to be a somewhat naturally rebellious personality, as was depicted in Fusion. She lost track of the Deleter and then ran into a young woman who finally introduced herself as Madeline Bergman. (Madeline's my name too! O.O) Madeline told Samus about what's been going on and revealed that they were cloning Metroids and created an Android named MB who was based on.... O.o YOU'VE GOT TO BE FRACKING KIDDING ME. Samus parted ways with Madeline to deal with the Metroids and MB. Samus arrived at Sector Zero and encountered....a baby Metroid. It squeaked playfully and floated around Samus for a bit. Samus decided not to spare this one and prepared to kill it (she apparently decided not to make a mistake like sparing Baby M again, since it was used to clone more Metroids. D'oh!), then Adam blasted her and somehow deactivated her suit (......!?!!??). She hit the floor and the Metroid saw her laying there helpless and followed it's instinct to try to kill her, but Adam blasted it to smithereens. Samus came to and she and Adam had a discussion. Apparently the more mature Metroids were unfreezable. Adam told her to go take down Ridley and told her he was going to take care of the Metroids and MB himself, basically going on a suicide mission. He apologized to her for blasting her and bid her farewell. Samus loudly protested his decision and tried to stop him. He disregarded her pleas and entered the area, which soon launched away from the Bottle Ship. Samus was distraught over losing her "best friend", the "closest thing to a father she had" (Chozo? What's that?), she cried a little, and then regained composure, suited back up, and went about her business. She found to her disturbing and I guess morbidly pleasant surprise that Ridley had been killed. She entered an area an encountered yet another familiar foe, the Queen Metroid. She fought the Queen, and then the ship slammed on the breaks and Samus and the Queen were knocked over. Samus went after her some more and then allowed herself to be swallowed by the Queen. (Hmmm...I wonder if that's been done before..?) She dropped a power bomb and blew Queenie to bits. Samus encountered a red-haired woman who was terrified of her, so she calmed her down, and then the woman introduced herself as....Madeline Bergman. Samus didn't believe her until Madeline showed her ID and proceeded to tell Samus that the "Madeline" she met earlier was none other than MB. Madeline explained everything to her, including that she called MB Melissa and had grown fond of her. MB eventually turned after the scientists tried to alter her AI programming. Samus and Madeline's conversation was cut short by MB's arrival. MB was super pissed and Madeline tried to reason with her to no avail. MB attacked her and before Samus could go after MB a platoon of GFeds showed up. MB proceeded to sick a bunch of nasty creatures on everyone until Madeline froze her. The GFeds gunned MB down after that, much to Madeline's horror. Some douchbag commander told Samus that she was an outsider and was to be escorted off of the bottleship and was not to have contact with Madeline. However, the escorting officer was none other than Anthony! He had managed to survive the fall by freezing a monster. Since Anthony was still alive, Samus was able to take Madeline with her back to the GF Headquarters, since she would have a lot of explaining to do. Samus starts narrating again. It's decided that the Bottle Ship was going to be destroyed. Samus returned there to collect "something important". She arrived and encountered yet another familiar foe: Phantoon. A whole lot bigger and way more terrifying. Even so, she wasted him and went to get what she came for. Adam's helmet. She deactivated her suit and embraced the helmet as she grieved a little bit. This moment was cut short by the warning alarms alerting her that she had five minutes to get off of the ship! (Haven't heard of that one before, that must be new! Hmm.)

Oy! Um, surprise!

Ok, so the story was pretty good except I think it was somewhat poorly delivered in some scenes. There have been complaints about Samus's voice but I don't think it's that bad. The Ridley scene was a good scene except for Samus's unexplained freakout. There were a few scenes that left me scratching my head, like the "Deleter" substory. Another gripe I have is that there are a few insta-kill sequences, like the famed "Elevator Incident" where if you don't stand in an alcove, you get crushed by the elevator. Overall though, I wasn't too disappointed.

Gameplay

The gameplay was fantastic. The third person controls were simple yet top notch. The first person controls were a little bit clunky. You basically point the Wiimote at the screen to switch to first person. The problem with this is that you can't move in first person. It's not so bad if you are quick though. You can also shake the Wiimote to perform a Sensemove to get out of the way. Which leads me into my next discussion. This game brings back everything from Super Metroid and includes a few things from Prime and Fusion, such as the Seeker Missile and the Diffusion beam. This game also introduces a few new and awesome things. For starters, during a fight Samus will sometimes kick a baddie in the face, which makes this the first game (not counting the Super Smash Bros. games!!) to show melee attacks from Samus. Awesome. The amazing Sensemove was introduced as well, where you can dodge attacks by tapping the D-pad. In first person view you shake the Wiimote. There are a couple more moves introduced, the Overblast, where you can jump on top of certain monsters and blast them at point blank by pressing 1, and the awesome finishing move, the Lethal Strike, where Samus wrestles a downed monster and blasts them point-blank. Sweet. This game does not have enemy-dropped refills, but there are plenty of save stations and you can replenish missiles by holding the Wiimote upright while holding "A". It's kinda strange but it works. This same method can be used to replenish health, but it takes a while and in the heat of a boss battle it's unwise to use it, because you have to be below 40 energy points to use it. This could be tweaked a bit to make it better...better yet there could have been enemy drops!

Aside from the controls, Samus was very quick, nimble, and easy to control. The items were not very difficult to obtain, and their locations are sometimes displayed on the map. Overall the gameplay was excellent and made the game very fun to play. The first person view could use some polish, but it's not too bad. One gripe I have is the forced first person in a few scenes, known as "Pixel Hunts" where you search for a small thing to proceed in storyline. These events are few and far between though, so they are forgivable.

Gets him in a headlock and blasts him point blank. Sweet.

Chuck Norris could not touch this.

Graphics

This is definitely the game's other strong suit. The quality is nearly flawless in the cutscenes, and the gameplay graphics are very clear and impressive as well. This game certainly pushed the Wii to it's limits. Samus is shown in a sleek and simple suit and when outside of her suit, I'd say this game has the prettiest ZSS out of all of the games, maybe on par with how she looks in the end of Hunters, if not better. I'm not sure.

The action graphics were just awesome. The beams were beautifully animated and the Power Bomb animation really sold how devastating those bombs really are. Let's not get me started on the epicness that is the Speedboost and Shinespark. That was very well executed and I just love doing that.

Well, I guess there is not much else to say in this section without rambling, so I'll just say this. The graphics are amazing, even though the environment is rather unoriginal (Zebes ring a bell?), it was definitely a treat for the eyes.

Extremely close to actual in-game footage.

Actual cinematic footage. Samus is horrified by the death of Baby M. :'(

Music/Sound

Ok, so the music wasn't exactly of Prime quality, but it wasn't bad. Ambient and fitting would be the best terms to describe it. While the music is hardly memorable as it is in other Metroid games, it was more or less perfect for the atmosphere. There were a few pretty arrangements in the game, such as the piano melody, and the story title song (which is extended in the credits). Of course when you first start the game and see the game title screen, you are greeted with an ethereal rendition of the classic six notes that are used in other mainline Metroid titles. Very nice. After you beat the game for the first time, the title screen opens up with the piano medley, then it transitions into the six notes. It cycles through the two. In the story recap screen, you are given an awesome rendition of the awesome Theme of Super Metroid. Awesome. Then of course you get a really good arrangement of the classic "Samus Appears" fanfare. One of my gripes though, is that they got rid of the "Item Obtainment Jingle." Not cool at all. They replaced it with some cool-sounding sound effect. I still miss the jingle though. Guess they sort of copied MP3, which is guilty of removing the appearance fanfare except when she gets out of her ship. Not a good trend to follow, sound team!

Sound effects on the other hand were amazing. They were crisp and clear. I just loved the SFX they used for the Power Bomb. It sounded like an awesome, satisfying, hard-core explosion instead of whatever weird whirring noise they used in MP and MP2. I also loved the Wii Loader sound. It was just really epic sounding. So yeah, two thumbs up for sound effects!

Also, the voice acting for the most part was well done. Samus herself has received a lot of criticism, but there are so many differing opinions on this matter as to why she sounds the way she does. I think her voice was pretty good, though maybe it could have been a little bit better.

Overall

Ok, so yes, I really liked the game. I have a blast playing it. Everything I have mentioned in my review are reasons why I loved this game. Of course, like I said also, it has it's faults, which a lot of great games do. (Raucous laughter scene in FFX ring a bell? Draw system in FFVIII *best game ever*? Link jumping in Zelda II? Mario dying from stubbing his toe on a turtle in various sidescrolling Mario games? You get my point.)  Despite a few flaws in execution this game did not disappoint and was a really fun experience that I can't wait to play again.

Some of the cons are this:
Clunky presentation of the story
Confusing sub-plots and scenes (Deleter, Adam's suit-nullifying gun)
3rd to 1st person controls take some getting used to
Music wasn't very memorable
Samus's VA could use some practice
No item obtainment jingle
No enemy-dropped refills
Pixel-hunting was irritating
The famed elevator sequence
The famed "no Varia Suit in lava room" fiasco.

Rating

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
After replaying I have reduced my rating from 9 to 8. Still good, but that story really needs some work to make it great.

What I think of this game.

Super Metroid (Super Nintendo, 1994)

Just a few years after the release of Metroid II, the Metroid creators dish out one hell of a project. 1994 marks the birth of something great, something *ahem* Super.

Super Metroid is the direct sequel to Metroid II: Return of Samus. I certainly enjoyed that game and it's predecessor, but Super Metroid was no less than absolutely FANTASTIC. I will gladly elaborate.

Story

As I previously mentioned, this game follows Metroid II. It opens up with the voice of a man named Dan Owsen narrating these lines: "The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace." Then the game continues into a recap from Ms. Aran herself, talking about her previous journeys on Zebes and SR388. She goes on to mention that after the events of M2 she decided to throw the Baby Metroid into a containment tube and turn it over to the Galactic Federation so they could harness the Baby's power for the good of mankind. Later on she receives a distress call from the Ceres Space Station (where she left the Baby) and headed back there. Unfortunately she was too late and all of the scientists have been slaughtered and the Baby was gone. Samus explored further on and found the Metroid in the tube, on the floor. Seconds later she is greeted by none other than her arch-nemesis, Ridley. (WTF? I thought he was dead!!!) Anyways, she engaged him in a fight but got her butt kicked and Ridley took off with Baby M. Samus followed him back to Zebes. (Wait, what?!) She landed and began exploring only to discover that for a few years the Space Pirates were reconstructing and improving Zebes. She took a trip through Mother Brain's old chamber and even old Brinstar (the Morph Ball is in the same spot too! O.O), where she walked around and was discovered by what would seem to be a camera, because soon after trekking through that familiar place, there were Space Pirates everywhere. She then ventured into a new and improved Brinstar, overgrown with vegetation and plant life, as well as a fascinating pink area, a lower, red swampy area, and of course Kraid's lair, where the diabolical dragon was bigger and (not so) badder than before. Norfair was much bigger but hasn't changed significantly, except for a really cool green bubble room, and there was also an ancient ruins area where Ridley held Baby M captive. Finally, Tourian returns and is bigger and chock full of Metroids and a "bigger, better, more badass Mother Brain". (IGN Entertainment's 'Metroid In 5 Minutes') (How the HELL is SHE back?!?!?) There were quite a few new areas and bosses introduced, such as Crateria (the overworld), the Wrecked Ship, and Maridia (the water area). New bosses include Torizo Chozo statue, (Crateria miniboss), Spore Spawn (Brinstar miniboss), Crocomire (Norfair miniboss), Golden Torizo (Chozo statue, ancient ruins Norfair miniboss), Phantoon (Wrecked Ship boss), Botwoon (Maridia miniboss), and Draygon (Maridia boss).

Moving on, Samus beat the snot out of all of the mentioned bosses, regained her power-ups, tore Ridley apart, discovered that Baby M had vanished, then went into none other than Tourian to take out some cloned Metroids and go after Ma Brain (AGAIN). On her way though, she encountered a Torizo that was lifeless and turned to dust when she shot it, as well as various other creatures in the same state. A sidehopper appeared and then the rogue (and massive!!!) Baby Metroid showed up and killed the sidehopper, and apparently pissed off at Samus (or it doesn't remember her briefly), Baby M latched on and tried to kill it's "mother". Of course either Baby M remembered Samus or forgave her, cause when Samus was down to 1 energy unit, the Metroid let her go and showed obvious remorse and flew away in shame.

Samus luckily came across a recharge station and was in top condition for the fight with Mother Brain. She entered her chamber and destroyed Zebetites again, shattered Ma Brain's pickle jar then pelted her with missiles until she dropped dead...wait a minute...HOLY CRAP KJSAFASKDJAKSJDNFLKSJDNFKJSDZNFK SHE HAS A BODY AND IS TWENTY FEET TALL AND CAN FIGHT BACK!!!!! OOOH IT'S ON NOW!!!! *Cue epic final boss music*
Anyways, Samus spammed her with missile after missile until MB got super angry and blasted Sammy with a gnarly rainbow atttack that darn near killed her. Brainy was about to do it again and then Baby M rushed in and latched onto MB and killed her (or so we thought...OMG REALLY?!?). Baby M latched onto Samus and refilled her health while taking blast after blast from a stubborn and super pissed Mother Brain. The Baby fully revived Samus just in time because one more blast from Brainy was all Baby M could take. Baby M went down in a blaze of glory (NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! :'( ) and bestowed it's "mother" with a final parting gift, the Hyper Beam. A saddened and vengeful Samus bid the baddie farewell and wasted her with Baby M's gift. Finally down for good! Oh shoot, time to get off the planet before it explodes! (Metroid Ball Z? I'm reminded of Goku trying to escape an unstable Planet Namek...) Samus tore through the corridors and shafts and managed to escape the exploding planet. You go, girl!

So yeah, pretty good story.

Baby M to the rescue!

Gameplay

I thought the controls were pretty good and easy to use (I admit it took a little getting used to...) and the overall difficulty wasn't so bad. The boss fights were fun and reasonably difficult. I think Kraid got whacked with the Nerf Bat in this game cause he's much easier to beat. Yeah, he's 100 times bigger, but 4 Super Missiles down the throat is all it takes to drop him hard. The other boss fights were interesting as well, a couple of them you had to be careful what weapons you used. One gets angry and tramples you if you lay a Power Bomb, another gets angry and shoots waves of blue flames if you shoot him with a Super Missile. Still another one will catch missiles and throw them back at you! When you fight Ridley, you pretty much just spam missiles at him, and when you fight Draygon you can use a super cheap move to fry him, by destroying some electrical turrets and letting him catch you and carry you around until you can grab the exposed wires with the grapple beam and fry the boss. Samus takes a lot of damage as well, so be careful, but it's well worth it! The boss fights are pretty simple and fast paced. I personally enjoyed the Mother Brain fight this time around. Samus was a lot tougher than in Metroid 1 and the fight was more than just shooting at a semi-helpless brain until it dies while trying to dodge floating Rinkas. Mother Brain fired various beams and threw bombs so you had to be on your toes throughout the fight. The escape sequence was more intense and dramatic and Samus had an opportunity to rescue the friendly creatures that showed her how to shinespark and do wall kicks.

This game introduced many new techniques and weapons. It did ditch the Spider Ball from M2 but it kept the Space Jump, Spring Ball, and all of the other weapons and attacks from the previous games. This game introduced the Power Bomb, the Super Missile, the Speed Booster/Shinespark, the Grapple Beam, the X-ray Scope, Reserve Tanks, and the Gravity Suit. It also introduced the diagonal shot, running, area maps and an inventory screen. Awesome!

It's easy to get lost in Norfair and Maridia, especially Maridia. There is a spot in Maridia where you need to grapple across the ceiling and that's plain annoying, as well as certain areas where you get stuck in quicksand and while you don't die from it, it's super annoying to try to get out of.

The gameplay is so much fun despite those few annoyances. It's a lot of fun to explore through fascinating areas and go through obstacles to collect the items you need. I found it awesome that Samus was immune to lava after acquiring the Gravity suit.

After you escape Zebes, your completion time displays on the screen after Samus's ship zooms up close and personal. If you took longer than 10 hours, after the credits roll Samus will remain suited and give a thumbs up. If you beat it between 3 and 10 hours, she will remove her helmet and give a thumbs up. She looks like she has another head gear on under her helmet, so you really only see her nose and mouth. Hmm. :( If you beat it in under 3 hours, Samus will remove her suit and take down her hair, revealing a super muscular body in a black crop top and shorts. (She looks kinda Saiyan-esque...) She must be a Super Saiyan cause her hair is blond now where it used to be reddish brown. After that she will jump back and shoot the screen, then the infamous S-logo will appear in bright colors and then turn black and white. After this your completion rate will display. See you next mission!

The middle ending

Graphics 

For a 16 bit console, the graphics are top notch, pushing the cartridge to it's limits. Samus explores beautiful yet dangerous areas, and of course Tourian delivers yet again with the creepy science lab feel. The areas have visible, often animated backgrounds instead of a plain black background. All of the enemies and bosses were very well drawn. The Metroids were plain stunning with the detailed red nuclei and the glowing green exterior, and of course Samus took the cake with her beautifully detailed and rendered suits. Her power suit was yellow with small shoulder pads, her Varia suit was orange with large shoulder pads, and her Gravity suit had a nice shade of pink. The Speed Booster was pretty awesome when it shows a trail of 16-bit sprites following Samus when it's active. I loved the beam animations, and there is a vast improvement of the Wave Beam animation. Instead of some ball floating in a wave pattern, it actually animates as a smooth, triple helix pattern that has a pretty shade of blue when stacked with the Ice Beam. I was thoroughly impressed with the graphics, even compared to Super Mario World.

Samus and Baby M reunion

Music and Sound 

Once again Metroid delivers an excellent and memorable soundtrack just as it did in M1. This soundtrack includes the popular tunes "Green Brinstar" and "Red Brinstar". The former is an upbeat, catchy melody while the latter is a more intense but still fairly lighthearted tune. I favor the latter of the two, personally. The game seems to have more lighthearted stuff for the most part, with a few exceptions. I really don't want to blabber on too much about the music since it would turn into a book, so one of these days I'll just link some sound clips. Fair deal? :) I will mention that the Mother Brain fight features one of the most epic battle themes in gaming, and the ending credits theme was plain fantastic.

As for sound effects, they were awesome. Even the low health alarm was almost kind of cool sounding. (Really, there is nothing cool about low health...) It actually sounded like a low siren that wasn't overpoweringly loud and irritating, and it didn't blend into the music like it did in M2. The beam effects were plain awesome especially after getting the wave beam. It's kinda hard to explain, but if you have played the game you know what I'm talking about!

Overall 

What more can I say? This game is pure awesomeness in a cartridge. Cool story, excellent gameplay, beautiful graphics, awesome music and sound effects, just plain awesome!


Some of the cons are this:
Brief periods of difficulty
Quicksand in Maridia is a pain in the rear
There's an end to the game
The Baby Metroid dies. :(
It's really underrated. (Compared to other SNES titles like Mario and Zelda, this didn't sell well.)

Rating
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10 out of 10, although I want to give it a 9.5 for killing off Baby M. :( But the game is awesome!

The best ending. See you next mission!

Metroid (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986)

Ok so here is my first attempt at creating a website full of video game reviews, so bear with me!

This is my review of the 1986 NES classic, Metroid.

This is the first Metroid game I've ever played, on New Year's 2011 at age 23. Little did I know what I was missing out on all these years!

I'm going to split this review into five parts. Story, gameplay, graphics, music, and overall.

Story

Metroid is the story of bounty hunter Samus Aran, who is sent to the planet Zebes to exterminate the lethal species known as the Metroids and their A.I. ringleader, Mother Brain. Samus would also encounter two mean, nasty dragons along the way. Ridley, who is Samus's long-standing nemesis, and his partner Kraid. For those of you who don't know, Samus is a woman.

Actual storyline in the game is pretty cut and dry. Explore and kill bad guys. Collect power ups. Escape before the area explodes. If you beat it in a certain amount of time, you will get a certain ending. If you beat it in over 10 hours, Samus will turn away from you, almost in shame. If you beat it in under 10 hours and more than 5, she will raise her arm in victory. (That's the ending I got on my first playthrough, even though I think she should have flipped me the bird!) If you beat it between 3-5 hours she will take off her helmet. Under 3 she takes off her suit and she is revealed as a woman in red leotard and she will wave at you. Under 1 hour and she does the same thing except she's in a bikini. Sorry boys, she does not get naked. No 8-bit ta-tas for you!

My very first ending. (Not my actual game, this is a stock photo!)

Gameplay

I found the controls in this game to be pretty easy to use and get used to. They are simple, press A (or 1 on the Wii) to shoot and B (2) to jump. Use the D-pad to move and press select to switch to missiles, and press down to roll into morph ball form and press the attack button to lay a bomb in this form.

I was rather impressed with the actual gameplay. Samus jumps really well even before collecting the Hi-Jump Boots. There is nothing in the game that can instantly kill her. No monsters, acid, nor lava. You don't even get injured from falling, much less die. Her health system is energy based. She gets hit, she loses a few units of energy. She kills a monster, they often drop energy balls which refill your health. Some are worth 5 units, some are worth 20 units. Collect an energy tank and her maximum health increases by 100 units of energy, and full health is restored upon collection. Nice. Same system applies to her missiles, except missiles are not restored upon collection of a missile tank. Not cool, but oh well. Oh, and missile tanks increase maximum missiles by 5 and enemy dropped refills are worth 2 missiles. Collect the Varia suit and the amount of damage Samus takes is halved. Awesome. This is also one of the very first games that offers backtracking (in fact it's required!).

As for the difficulty of the game, it really depends. My first playthrough was pretty difficult, but it was still doable. It's most difficult at the beginning before you collect energy tanks and the Long Beam. The boss fights are somewhat difficult and at first the Mother Brain fight at the end of the game was extremely hard and frustrating, considering the final fight is more or less against the level than MB herself. Leading up to it you have to kill Metroids (which can only be killed by freezing them then shooting 5 missiles at them) and they drop a lot of energy and missiles. In the final level you have to shoot a few of MB's life support systems (called Zeebetites) until they disappear and you take a lot of damage in the meantime. MB just kind of sits there and takes it while those annoying rings (called Rinkas) float around and drive you insane, not to mention there is some nasty liquid that you can fall into and it can be difficult to get out of. It's a lot easier now since my husband had the genius idea of going back and killing Metroids to refill my health. (Destroying the Zeebetites was half the battle and they stay gone.) There is an escape sequence at the end which is somewhat difficult if you aren't careful, but it follows an exact pattern so it becomes predictable. Overall Samus is a tough character and she can take a lot of damage.

The weapon systems are ok, the ice beam is pretty effective and the missiles are powerful. Your original power beam has very limited range until you collect the Long Beam upgrade where you can shoot all the way across the screen. The only problem is that the beams do not stack so you can only have the ice beam or the wave beam, and the ice beam is required to defeat the Metroids, so the wave beam is kind of pointless in my opinion.

One major con is that there is a spot in the first area where if you bomb through the floor you will fall into a pit that you can not get out of and you have to reset your game. I wonder why the heck that spot is even there?

Another con is that an enemy can get trapped inside a hatch with you as you are passing through and damage you. Not awesome. At all.

Graphics

I have to say that the graphics in this game, for being on an 8 bit system and coming out in 1986, are pretty darn good. The details are pretty good in the environment, and same goes for the monsters. I have to say I was extremely impressed with the graphics of the final area (Tourian) and they did an excellent job on Mother Brain. The details were really something. The only thing is that a lot of the areas look the same at first and it gets really confusing.

The impressive details of Tourian and Mother Brain

 Music and Sound

The music in this game is no less than fantastic. From the catchy, upbeat tune of Brinstar to the laid back tune of Norfair, from the beautiful and haunting melody of Kraid's Lair to the intense and foreboding tune of Ridley's lair. Finally you encounter the creepy, ambient sounds of Tourian and the equally creepy and intense sound of the final fight tune. I also need to mention the Title theme which starts with an intense, bad ass sounding melody that smoothly transitions into a beautiful, moving song. There is also the theme of the item room, which is mysterious and ambient as well as the intense escape sequence and then the ending theme which stars out kind of intense then transitions into a happy, victorious melody. You just can't underestimate how good 8 bit instruments can be.

The sound effects are good as well. They are typical of 8 bit sound systems but there are quite a few of them, including the grotesque shrieks of the bosses when they are injured and the swampy sounds of Samus's footsteps. The only sound effect that annoys me and is common amongst other 8 bit games (I'm looking at you, Legend of Zelda and Zelda II!!!!) is the high-pitched low health alarm that just beeps nonstop until you recover enough health to shut that thing up!

Overall

Overall I found this game to be very enjoyable and it set the foundation for me to play the other Metroid games and I haven't been disappointed by a Metroid game yet. It's a fun game with good gameplay, excellent music, and beautiful graphics (for an 8 bit system).

Some of the cons are this:
There is a pit that you can get stuck in and have to reset the game. The simple fix is to know where the pit is and avoid it.
The final fight is very difficult at first. It could use an extra platform for Samus to stand on.
The beams do not stack.
The ice beam can be a little clunky.
The low health alarm is annoying.
It's almost a death sentence for a Metroid to latch onto you.
There is no diagonal or downward shot.
You cannot crouch.
Some of the areas look the same.
The game is initially really difficult without a walkthrough.

Yes, that's a lot of cons, but they are forgivable and the pros were talked about in the rest of my review.

Rating
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8 out of 10

The second best ending, which I finally got! :)

Metroid II: Return of Samus (Gameboy, 1991)

Metroid II: Return of Samus is the sequel to Metroid for the NES. It lacks the colors of it's predecessor but it has new features and more details. It took a little while for me to get into this game but it turned out to be a pretty fun ride.

Story 

Samus journeys to SR388, the Metroid homeworld. Her mission is simple. Destroy all the Metroids. (Of course these Metroids are ugly, evolved forms of the cute but lethal larva Metroids she encountered in NES Metroid.) She does so and defeats the Queen Metroid. After that she encounters a Metroid egg and a hatchling pops out. She was going to kill it at first, but it imprinted on Samus as it's mother and she decided to spare the Baby Metroid. 


When you actually play the game, there isn't much story. The title pops up, you press start, and bam, there you are. No prologues or anything. You explore, collect power ups and kill Metroids amongst other monsters, you destroy the Metroid Queen, you meet the Baby Metroid, it leads you to your ship, you leave. Again the ending you get is determined by your clear time, and again, Samus does not get naked. Sorry! The "honorable mention" ending is where Samus just keeps running. (That's the one I got... >.<) The middle ending Samus runs, jumps up and lands and I believe gives you a thumbs up. The best ending has Samus running, jumping and landing, and her suit falling off revealing her in a tank top and panties. 

This is close to what my ending looked like. Clear time and all. >.<

Gameplay 

The gameplay is kind of slow at first. Samus starts out running at a slow pace and has her standard power beam, some energy, and a few missiles. There are a few good changes from the start of this game. She can crouch before going into Morph Ball form, and she can shoot downward. No diagonal shots, though. The Spider Ball makes it's debut, which allows you to attach to any wall in morph ball form and ride along it. The Spring Ball is introduced as well which enables Samus to jump in ball form. The Space Jump is introduced in this game and allows you float in the air when you time your jumps well. Also new to the Metroid series and debuting in this game is the Spazer Beam which fires a wider range beam and the Plasma Beam, which is very powerful but difficult to aim. Once you find the Varia Suit, Samus can run considerably faster and when you get Space Jump she spins faster. The Screw Attack returns as well, which allows Samus to rip through her enemies just by spin jumping into them.

There are several Metroids that need to be destroyed. Starting from the weakest ones, they are Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega. They are all fairly difficult to defeat at first, since they only have a specific weak spot, and the more evolved Metroids are fast and hard to hit. On the plus side they do not latch on and drain your energy, and missiles will destroy them. They do not need to be frozen. In the final level, which is the Queen's hideout, nine infant Metroids appear and prove to be more difficult to defeat then the other Metroids, since they have to be frozen and can latch on and drain your energy. The Queen was somewhat difficult to beat but not too bad. The best tactic is to stun her with missiles, roll into her and lay a ton of bombs, destroying her from within. The only thing is that Samus takes damage from the Queen's internal acids. It's a gamble but it's very effective. 

There is no intense escape sequence in this game. You defeat the queen, you encounter the Baby Metroid, you follow the Metroid to your ship, you leave. Ta-da!

Graphics  

From a modern standpoint it would be easy to say the graphics stink. However, that would not be fair to the game. Instead I will review it for being a Gameboy Game with technological limitations.

The graphics were pretty impressive, actually. There was a lot of detail, which is most noticeable in Samus's suit. In the original Metroid, when you collected the Varia suit, Samus turned white with a huge red helmet, a green arm cannon, and red boots. Before that she was yellow with a huge red helmet, and so on and so forth. In this game you can actually see suit details and I noticed a significant change when Samus collected the Varia Suit. Her shoulder pads were a lot bigger and there were more details on the suit.

I played this game originally on the Gameboy Advance SP, so there were actually colors in the game! The surroundings are blue and white and Samus and the monsters are red and orange. I've also played it a little bit on the 3DS which is black and white, but crystal clear.

Samus fights an Alpha Metroid

 Music and Sound 

The music was pretty good for the most part. There wasn't much of it though, since most of the areas just played a quick melody and then went into some random ambient sounds. It gets a little nail biting when you see the empty shell of a Metroid and then play on in silence wondering when the Metroid Battle theme will blast from the speakers of your handheld system as a Metroid appears. (Not necessarily a bad thing!) However the first tune you hear when you begin the game and start exploring is a fan favorite. It's a catchy, upbeat melody. Before that is the title theme, which is a jarring, high pitched tune that's similar to the title theme from the original Metroid. There is also the Ruins theme which is slower paced and somewhat haunting. Towards the end you venture into the Queen's hideout and you hear an intense, Ridley's Lair-esque melody leading up to the final battle. Very nice.

The sound effects are pretty good for the system, I guess. They are "cute" so to speak. Anytime you attack any boss in the game they make these cute little low pitched squeals. Some of the effects are somewhat irritating, like when the Screw Attack grates against one of the more evolved Metroids, therefore grating against your nerves. This game improves on the low health alarm, instead of a high pitched beeping sound, it's a more lower pitched chord that starts at about 40 health and gets faster and slightly higher pitched as you get closer to zero health. Honestly I thought it was part of the music at first until I noticed I was about to die... >.< oops!


Overall 

This was a pretty fun game. The gameplay was pretty easy, the graphics were good for the system, and the music (when there was any) was pretty good. The monotonous graphics can get confusing since there is one color scheme throughout the entire game, but the environment was still intriguing. This is the first Metroid game to implement Save Files, which is a major improvement over the password system from the original. This game also introduced energy and missile refill stations. Totally awesome. This game may seem a little bland but this is the game where most of the major power ups in subsequent games originated. Overall this game was created well and everything fits.


These are the cons of this game:
Totally lacking in color which can be a bit boring.
Some of the "music" was nothing more than some quiet noises (which actually worked for the environment).
The fights with the Metroids can be a pain at first.
You have to have precise aim with the powerful Plasma Beam. (I stick with the Spazer until I fight the larva Metroids, then I get the ice beam.)
Difficult to play without a walkthrough and/or map at first.


Rating 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 
8 out of 10. I have raised my score from 7 after my second playthru. 

The best possible ending in the game. *Wishful thinking for me*