Metroid

I have no words for this game it is too hard for me and my little brain✌️☮️

While the veneer of this being one of the absolute standouts of the NES looms large over Metroid, hind-site from almost 40 years is bound to tarnish the limitations of this 8-bit colossus. Metroid is a flawed work that's ambition definitely tower above the competition of the day, but overall it is severely hampered by just how damn confusing and difficult it is. Definitely one of those games that REQUIRE a guide and thats where Nintendo made the dough in Nintendo Power. Its a shame that that cheap cash grab has hampered a modern players perspective on the overall experience.

Metroid sees you trek the dangerous and cyclopean caverns of the planet Zebes, a refuge for a nefarious pirate gang hell bent on galactic conquest, but there is one thing they didnt plan on; The galaxy's greatest bounty hunter, Samus Aran. Clad from head to toe in a fully armored space suit and armed with all manner of deadly weaponry to ensure your survival, the game is as basic scifi as anything from 80's arcade shooter/ home console gaming. While later entries in the series expanded heavily on all manner of the verses lore and characters, that basic setup for me is still enough to entice you into entering this world. And what a world Zebes is (once you figure out where you are that is).

Metroids ambitions, sadly, were heavily constrained by the hardware of the NES itself, and I would say that thats its main downfall, that thankfully was rectified on the much superior Super Metroid. Still with the Narvas Sword0 cheat and an online strategy guide, its still holds up as a challenging platformer.

Wow! This was a gigantic waste of my time!

When I look back on the defining experiences of the NES era, playing Metroid definitely comes to mind. As a child, it was simply too much for me to comprehend with is labyrinthine corridors and oppressive music, but I absolutely wanted to understand and tried to play it many different times. I think it'd be easy for me to chalk that up as being too sophisticated for my young self, but even disregarding the age I was at the time, it truly is like nothing else released before, and, if it can be likened to things that have come since, it's only because Metroid was so innovative both in its design and in its presentation.

At first glance, Metroid seems to be a simple run and gun, and there is an element of that to the game. As a child, that itself seemed to me like a revelation, as it felt much more realistic than jumping on enemies and throwing fireballs in Super Mario Bros., but the game is obviously much more than just firing projectiles at enemies. From the very opening, you could tell that it was a different kind of game. Most games to this point had only scrolled right, but there was no barrier to move left upon the game starting, and you were quickly rewarded when moving left with the Morph Ball power-up. This set the tone for the game that would follow.

It's hard to emphasize just how revolutionary the open-ended mechanics were without descending into hyperbole, but it seemed to be a game without borders, where every room might hold a secret power-up or passage. This was only complimented by the harsh visuals and audio. The game was openly inspired by the Alien series of movies, taking the name Ridley from the first film's director and giving it to one of game's bosses, but it took much more than just the name, matching the film's coldness, firmly cementing that you are in a hostile, alien world. Hip Tanaka's score was just as daring as the gameplay here. Certain tracks are the same types of anthems that you would hear in other games, but whether it be the stark and atonal title music or the songs heard in the depths of Norfair and Tourian, Tanaka knew that game music could be much more than just peppy background music. Likewise, the visuals are dark and full of unusual creatures, and both of these went along to establishing that you were in another world.

Despite being an innovative game, it does have its problems. The game desperately needed a mapping system, but if you were to use a map, you had no choice but to draw it by hand. This complaint goes hand in hand with another weakness of the game: the areas can be a bit monotonous. Although I appreciate that the game allows you to get lost, a big part of it is that there just isn't enough variety in terrain. There is almost nothing that you could use as a landmark, and even when you know your way through the game, it's not exactly easy to traverse. Particularly when the screen scrolls vertically, it sometimes just feels needlessly punishing. I'm of two minds about the level design. On the one hand, the monotony goes a long way to establish the atmosphere of the game, but it also makes it less enjoyable and later Metroid entries did not have such a problem with this. Even Metroid II: Return of Samus with its grayscale graphics, was easier to get around.

To be completely honest, it's hard to know how to appraise Metroid outside the context of its release. At this point, there have been many games even just in its own series that have improved upon what it offered, and it can be a chore to play, today. However, to some extent, I feel that this is exactly what the game's creators wanted it to be, and it does a fantastic job of establishing Zebes as an inhospitable, alien world. That is the true legacy of the game, but the influence it would have on the design of later games can also not be understated. Although it is easy to get lost in the game and sometimes the difficulty is not entirely reasonable, you have to admire it for even trying what it did. Although it was not alone in establishing the action-adventure platforming genre, or Metroidvania, if you prefer, it was undoubtedly the most influential.