Just to let you know pretty much the last bit of Samus’ ‘family’ died in Other M. Probably the last person she could connect with is a black guy that was in her platoon back in the day. I’m not gonna go too far into it just in case you happen to want to blow through that game at some point.
No because it describes them pretty damn perfectly. They took the Metroid formula and superfluously injected RPG elements and loot into with little thought or foresight on how it would effect the game. I find it strange that CV pretty shamelessly (Which is fine, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) adopted the Super Metroid formula, but instead of looking at it and going “How can we make this better?” they just jammed a bunch of junk under the hood and put Castlevania paint on it with little rhyme or reason.
Which is why I think SOTN and it’s offspring are pretty over rated. SOTN is a good game no doubt, I don’t mean to say it’s garbage. I think it’s a good game, even a great one. I just don’t see any reason to pick it over Super Metroid which does everything SOTN does, but better. There’s an actual pacing to Metroid, and a logic to how the maps flow together. SOTN lacks this. Every piece of equipment and item you pick up in SM has a point, a purpose, a reason for being, while the vast majority of the stuff you pick up in SOTN is junk. There’s good stuff in there but the majority of it could be cut and the game would be better for it.
The only really solid reason i can think of to pick up and play SOTN over Super Metroid is because you’ve played SM to death and need a new map, and in that department Nintendo has utterly failed it’s fanbase and Konami has filled the void. This is from a purely gameplay observation standpoint. They both offer other things like wonderful music, and wonderful aesthetics that appeal to certain taste which would have one choose one game over the other.
So no I don’t hate the term Metroidvania. In fact I think it’s quite apt. It even explains the orders the games came in. Metroid first. Metroid style CV’s second.
I think all metroids are great. Unfortunately a lot of gamers let the horribly overblown writing of Other M and it’s major changes to the 2D formula blind them to it’s positive aspects. Team Ninja showed a lot of creativity and cleverness in their approach to innovating on the classic formula without taking away from it’s core appeal. Soo many things could have gone horribly wrong in tackling such a difficult project, yet for the most part TN succeeded, too bad gamers had too much of a knee jerk reaction to appreciate it. I’m not denying it’s a very flawed game but think about everything TN had to contend with. How do you take such well worn game play into new territory without looking like a cheap cash in or a fundamental lack of understanding of the source material? How do you walk the line between 2D and 3D withour polarizing your audience? How do you make your Metroid different than the Prime series without looking like you’re trying too hard to be different? Other M might not be in the same league as the others but it’s fun and different which is what counts at the end of the day.
Anyways Fusion is the best Metroid and I stopped playing Hunters years ago, came back to it recently and had no idea what to do so I gave up lol.
As a Metroid nut I’ve been religiously following any morsel of info about Dread for years…sadly it’s nothing. More than an idea shelved until Nintendo gives someone the green light to make it.
Hey guys check this out:
[media=youtube]c1uOZIU61CQ[/media]
I own this bad muthafucker.
I love Metroid. This series and Donkey Kong Country are the only Nintendo franchises I still care about. Sad to say that the last Metroid game I liked was Zero Mission. I didn’t like the Prime games mostly because I don’t like the first person perspective. It didn’t feel right playing Metroid in first person even though they faithfully adapted everything. Never played Other M but I youtubed a few walkthoughs and the story is beyond awful. I want for the series to go back to Super, Fusion and Zero Mission. Those games kicked ass.
That right there is the sexiest piece of hardware that I’ve ever seen anything always forever.
I actually enjoyed the online deathmatch on the DS version. Kinda wish I still had it… I doubt anyone plays still though.
To this day the Metroid enemy still creeps me the fuck out. I remember getting scared as fuck when you finally see a metroid for the first time in prime when it breaks from the test tube. I unloaded on the mother fucker. 
The Chozo Ghost freaked me out the first time I faced one. You think you’re going to backtrack through an easy area you’ve been before, and then someone turns off the lights, creepy music starts playing, and these things are screaming at you. Your visor gets fucked up when they hit you, they turn invisible and are invincible to elemental attacks. They are hard to beat without the X-Ray visor. Fuck those guys.
I’m real jelly right now, lol. But for real, I always wanted a tricked-out SNES like that. How much did that job run you?
On topic, Super Metroid is one of my favorite games of all time. I always make an effort to replay it once a year. I hold it up there with Mega Man X as one of those few games that has a perfect pacing. The game gives you everything you need to complete it without excessively holding your hand. Everytime you get a power-up, it plays right into the next section that it opens up.
That article was well-written, and his points on the pacing and the use of the power-ups was spot-on. Like how in Maridia there’s that section before Draygon where you have to abuse the shit out of the Grappling Hook, as almost a sort of farewell before beating the boss and getting the Space Jump. I always used the Grappling Hook method to take Draygon out as a final ‘thank you’ as the item becomes redundant afterwards.
Think I need to dust off the SNES and play some Super Metroid again…
Shit I’m glad I’m not the only one who flipped his shit on this. The moment I walked into that lab and saw the metroid’s in that glass container I was like ‘awwww shit…I’m getting bad horror movie vibes right now’. I’m fucking staring at the tank as I’m walking by it in the slowest manner possible with the cannon pointed at it just waiting for it and it’s a sigh of relief at first when nothing happens…But oh my fuckin god later when all hell breaks loose. Hearing the first glass break is easily one of those moments when you’re thinking ‘Fuck me…’
Those Chozo ghosts were little assholes too and I completely feel the same way about them.
Prime 3 had that goddamn ship.
[media=youtube]glxAj434dDI[/media]
The moment I set foot out of the ship and saw the dried out husk of bodies about the beginning of the ship was when I knew I was going to hate this place.
If I weren’t knee deep in alttp I’d fire it up myself, but I have games running right now…gotta finish one first haha. Was mad tempted after the article tho.
I don’t remember how much it cost. I think somewhere between $200 and $300 though, not including the purchase of the hardware/game. I have an NES just like it. Two controllers for each system, also painted in that style. It was a bitch and a half tracking that guy down. Took forever for him to respond to my messages. It was all worth it though.
Super Metroid is easily my favorite game. I sometimes play it on my free time to see how far I can get before I have to stop. I can beat the game 100% within 1 hour and 45 minutes. I suck balls by speedrun standards though haha.
Here is a fairly interesting read on the development of Super Metroid. I would have posted the content in a spoiler, but it’s too big haha. Anyway, there’s a MUCH better and far more detailed article out there somewhere, but I can’t remember where I found it. I’ll post it up when I remember.
Is that the “Remember me” guy? Yo that shit was funny when I saw the trailer.
I was like NOPE I DON’T REMEMBER YOU BLACK PERSON.
I feel like the current state of the Metroid franchise demonstrates just how much influence Gunpei Yokoi(rather than Sakamoto) really had over the series’ direction… He oversaw the joint development project that led to both Metroid and Kid Icarus, as well as greenlit Metroid II, which created the renewed interest at Nintendo in the franchise. Not to mention he’s the father of the Game Boy and made Nintendo tons of money in the early to mid-90’s.
After his death, Metroid all but disappeared for nearly a decade, until Miyamoto gave Retro Studios the go ahead on the Prime games and resurrected the franchise.
I don’t know what’s in store for the future of Metroid, but I hope someone with a clear vision and good ideas can rejuvenate the IP like has been done before. Metroid still has a lot of untapped potential and I’d like to see it stand up alongside Mario and Zelda as one of Ninty’s go-to franchises.
^ Good stuff.
I think Metroid lends itself well to multiple genres. 2D platforming and FPS are the big ones so far, but there could be a third person Gears of War-esque installment, or even an RPG.
Also:
In Super Metroid, when I realized there’s a “Norfair Depths,” and hearing the music, and seeing the true fiery inferno it becomes, is an experience I remember fondly to this day.
Maridia, however, is kinda dull. I could have done without it, or a bunch of the overworld near Maridia and the ghost ship. Maybe if Maridia was explored earlier, I dunno. Brinstar is very memorable to me.
You know, I have a bone or two to pick with whatever fucklard wrote the story for Other M. The gameplay was awesome, the graphics were awesome, the combat was awesome, but what got me most excited about the game before it even came out was that Samus was going to have a voice. Yes of course, I was skeptical, but at the same time I just pretty much thought I’d be so happy to hear her voice that I wouldn’t even care how bad or good it was.
Boy, was I wrong.
Nintendo transformed one of my favorite gaming characters from a strong, adaptive, mysterious, and amazingly lethal bounty-hunting badass into a diary keeping, stay at home mother who’s feeling a little down because she’s on her period. Seriously, the story revolves around her becoming emotionally attached to a mutative alien lifeform who instinctively seeks out and drains other life forms of their energy. Of all the stupid, convoluted spin-offs that I have seen in my long and extensive career as a gamer, this one makes top of the list. I’ve beaten every single Metroid title released to this day. Other M is the exception, and I will never again even think about touching it.
On a lighter note though, I love ALL of the other games. Particularly the Prime games, and Zero Mission as well as Fusion. I really can’t decide which Prime is my favorite, because they’re all just so fucking good. I love all of them for different reasons. In terms of the 2D games though, Zero Mission or Super Metroid is my favorite hands down. I played Zero Mission almost as much as I played Pokemon Sapphire when it came out, and **that’s **saying something.
Good Lord I can see it now…Metroid Prime 4 on a system that is 6 times as powerful as a PS3…wow. The graphics, the scale of the bosses, the scale of the worlds. Just picture it. They could even add RPG elements. I loved how Corruption had multiple planets you could visit, but just think of how big this game could be on the WiiU. What if there are multiple worlds, each world at least as big as the general map for Echoes?
Thinking about all the possibilities for this system gets my gears going… 
not much for me to throw in, but I hope that in the next 2d Metroid that it’s like Super Metroid in the sense of being able to equip/de-equip items. I loved going around in Varia. Sorry Gravity.
Also, although I’m probably like the only one, but I would love the charge beam + hyper bomb attacks to be in it too. I loved using those things despite them being pretty lame.
Making me feel all nostalgic.
Oddly enough, my favorite part of Super Metroid was actually the title screen.
“The last Metroid is in captivity, the galaxy is at peace”
[details=Spoiler] It set the tone for the game for me. The title was a trick, we see said captured Metroid surrounded by dead bodies. The brooding music only enhanced that imagery of dread; holding onto this Metroid is probably a bad idea. I mean hell, Samus eradicated every other Metroid in existence in Metroid 1. The baby Metroid probably killed all these people. But playing through the game though, you come to the realization that the Metroid itself wasn’t the problem. In this game, it was Samus’ savior; that shit blew my god damn mind the first time playing it. It honestly made me feel sorry for Samus, it is like her only child had died and it was all to save her.