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*