Over all my years of gaming there has been one feat that has eluded me time and again.

Wall-jumping up the shaft in Super Metroid to get a Power Bomb upgrade.

I had a Super Nintendo with Super Metroid when I was younger, and I distinctly recall being lured into that hellish pit by a damn energy tank. In a show of extreme arrogance I saved down there. As it turned out though, I could not get out. I was fucked basically, and had to restart my playthrough entirely. I only went back after I had acquired the space jump. My tiny 6 year-old brain and hands just couldn't handle it.

Fast forward around 7 years.

At this point I no longer have a Super Nintendo, having made the extremely unwise desicion to sell it, a multitap, five controllers, Super Castlevania IV, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 3/6, Chrono Trigger, Megaman X, Bomberman, Kirby Superstar, and other games lost to the mists of memory. I did however have access to the family computer, and through the magic of the internet I was able to relive Super Metroid. Of course using a keyboard I had even less luck than I had had before with the actual controller.

5 Years later.

I finally have my own computer, and a gamepad. Once again I try, once again I fail. I blame it on my cheap controller, but I'm really beginning to doubt my ability to ever do this.

A little bit later that year.

Super Metroid is released on the Virtual Console. I tell myself that this is the time. On true Nintendo Hardware with true Nintendo Software I will finally outjump those green alien bastards and get teh goddamn Powerbomb Upgrade without the assistance of the space jump. This is by far the closest I ever got. I actually got up next to the tunnel once, but inadvertently hit up and lose morph ball form. I spent nearly another hour on it that day, and never got that close again.

Go ahead a year and change.

One of my younger brothers mentions that a friend never plays his SNES and would almost definitely sell it to me. I snap it up and head off to school. I started a new job this semester that is by far the easiest and best-paying job I've ever had. With money burning a hole in my pocket I splurge on random things, from miracle fruit to a flash drive, but then I decide to focus my spending into a single endeavor, rebuilding my old SNES collection. The first game I bought, was Super Metroid. I got it in the mail Yesterday, and today, for the first time ever, I successfully completed the wall jump up to that Powerbomb upgrade..


When asked what my favorite game is I always say Super Metroid, however, over the years I had become less and less emphatic in that response because of my repeated failure to successfully walljump to any good extent even though I was great at every other piece of the game. I began to feel that in order for it to truly be my favorite game I had to master every aspect of it. I know now that that isn't true, but damn, it sure feels good to have accomplished that.

Being only 19, there are few things in my life that I have pursued for what I feel is an extended amount of time. This was one of them, and it feels great to have finally achieved it.