Yesterday, I finally took the advice of many Dtoid members who told me to play Super Metroid, when I talked about the first Metroid on the NES. I hopped online with my Wii and downloaded the game. I will give you now the first part of my first impressions on Super Metroid. I hope it will be of some entertainment for you to see, how someone new to the series experiences it for the first time.

Of course, I heard a lot about this game beforehand. Some people go as far to call this game one of the very best of the SNES, which means something considering its great selection of titles.

Let’s begin with the intro: After the title screen, which is introduced in a great way, we get some text that recaps a bit of the first two Metroid games (the first one for NES and the second one for Gameboy) we land on a space station, which after exploration, explodes. Now, I told myself that this is something I already saw: in Metroid Prime 1 and also a bit in Corruption. Samus landing somewhere and it’s exploding. But it’s a nice introduction.

Having arrived on the planet, there are many moments where I think I already saw the area. Now this is funny, because I played the first Metroid a week ago. For most people back then, there have been years between the first and third Metroid, but they should also have noticed the similarities (which is logic, it’s the same planet, right?). It’s a really nice touch and I like it.

The controls never posed any problem to me (using the classic controller) and the graphics are simply amazing. They even hold up until now and I’m simply amazed about all these little details, like the Visor of Samus. Speaking of Samus, she gets a way deeper character in this game, as she tells us at the beginning her back story and now has a voice (at least when she’s hit). Also, her death scene is kind of sexy and rewarding, but maybe that’s just me.

The overall Game and Level designs are flawless until now; I just got the ice beam, so I can’t talk about the rest of the game. But Super Metroid does a good job about pointing you in the right direction. It doesn’t force you to go anywhere, like the first Metroid, but it doesn’t give you to many deadly alternatives, not like the first Metroid. Every Power-Up is rather fast to reach and you get one every five or ten minutes, which is a great pace. The Pover-Ups are also very different from each other and interesting.

Now, I talked once before about the unforgiving difficulty of the first Metroid. Super Metroid is also difficult, but at least it doesn’t try to break your neck constantly. The bosses I encountered so far were hard and I died at least several times in my first hour of play, but they weren’t impossible and got easy as soon as you worked out how to beat them.
Now, this is how games should work in terms of difficulty!
You rarely feel frustrated, because the game keeps motivation high, for it rewards you for exploring the area. The athmosphere also is quite superb, music and environment effects are very well done and varied.

Of course, these are only my impressions of the first hour, but this far I really like the game and I’d like to thank all those who told me to play it. I’ll write more about it as soon as I play it again.

Hope you enjoyed it.