My first experience with the Metroid series was indeed a very late one. The first time I even heard about Metroid was in fact when I bought the first Metroid Prime for 10€ (which is a great deal, I know!). I liked the game from the very beginning and played it a lot, until I, after repeatedly dying, found out that I clearly sucked at it.

Even after several attempts over maybe five years, I still can’t get to the end of this game and I think I totally gave up about a year ago. In fact, the only Metroid game I ever finished was Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which was a pretty easy game overall (thanks to the casual policy of Nintendo). Recently, I downloaded the very first Metroid on VC, mainly to see what it was like but also to see if I maybe got a chance there. Well, after Kraid raped poor Samus in a very horrible way which destroyed a pretty big part of my ego, I knew the truth. The very harsh and brutal truth: I suck at Metroid games. And I’m having fun.

Is this some kind of masochism?

I mean, even though I have all these very frustrating deaths (I think it’s kind of brutal how Samus explodes in the first Metroid. Brutal and awesome!) I’m having a lot of fun and these are some of the most memorable games I’ve ever played. Is this wrong in any way?

Well I don’t think so. Difficulty is a very delicate matter in videogames and I think the concept behind Metroid, the concept of constant development of your character by getting new powers and thus unlocking new areas to explore, allows such a level of difficulty. Mainly because it keeps motivation high for the always reward-hungry player. Also because it’s such a deep experience you sometimes don’t even notice how much you suck at the game. Maybe this is why we accept exploding all the time.
Or because we are masochists.