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
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.
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| This is close to what my ending looked like. Clear time and all. >.< |
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.
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| Samus fights an Alpha Metroid |
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.
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| The best possible ending in the game. *Wishful thinking for me* |
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