Y Can't Metroid Crawl? Let's Play Super Metroid... Blind!

Super Metroid is the third game in the Metroid series, following the NES game Metroid and the Game Boy Metroid II: Return of Samus. But, you're a gamer, you know all this, right?

When I played Metroid on the NES, I didn't care for it. It was one of those wacky games that a couple friends owned, never one that I had, and goofing off in the game, I didn't have any interest in renting it. Likewise, I never played the Game Boy sequel. So when Super Metroid came out, I had no interest in picking it up.

Of course, I didn't live in a bubble, so the reputation of the game wasn't easy to miss. Nintendo Power had an awesome comic based on the game, and probably a million articles I never paid attention to. But 1994 Red Silvers could not be prepared for the effect this game would indirectly have on his gaming interests.

It was 1998 when I first had a feeling that maybe I had missed something special. I borrowed a relatively new game from my friend Sam. That game? Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The game blew me away, hitting a certain special cord that I had never seen before. I blitzed on the game, and when I returned it to Sam, he made a curious comment. "Yeah, they borrowed a lot from Super Metroid, but it works." My love of the game was so much that Sam got sick of me asking to borrow it and got me my own copy.

I moved on to my normal gaming as usual. A game called Super Smash Brothers on the N64 brought Samus and Metroid to my attention again, as well as making me curious enough to try Pokemon. The Game Boy Advance launched with another Castlevania game in the style of SOTN, a game called Circle of the Moon. The game wasn't just referred to as a Castlevania game, though. A new term was throw around... Metroidvania. Was this format really so similar to the Super Metroid I had missed?

The Game Boy Advance also gave me opportunity to try other games in the Metroid series. Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission were both games I enjoyed. But even so, I never did go back and try Super Metroid. When I finally mentioned this on Talking Time, the response said it all:

As a happy coincidence, Super Metroid recently came out on the Wii U Virtual Console. Though I was planning this video LP beforehand, I have to admit that it's hilarious the internet was just filled with several people not knowing how to play the game. But come along and join me on my blind excursion into Zebes. What's the worst that could happen?


...fuck.

Table of Contents

Full Playlist

#1: I'm Sure This Won't Be a Mistake...
#2: Now That is a Lot of Health
#3: Would You Like to Save?
#4: Down the Shaft
#5: Bravely Ran Away
#6: Gotta Hate Yellow Doors
#7: Learn to Swim
#8: I'm Burnin' For You
#9: Ice, Ice Baby
#10: Feed Me, Seymour
#11: Y Can't Metroid Walljump
#12: Samus de Chocobo
#13: I Want Missles!
#14: I'm Not Dead Yet!
#15: Beam Me Up, Samus
#16: The Swingers Life
#17: It's Not the Spineshark
#18: Who You Gonna Call?
#19: Super Troopers
#20: The Land of Troll Blocks
#21: How Do I Get Those?!
#22: Open the Door
#23: Whack-A-Mole
#24: Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
#25: The Hacky Sack Queen
#26: A Turtle Does Bite
#27: A More Fair Norfair
#28: The Soup Kitchen
#29: Screwed Attacks
#30: Space Pirate Ninja Turtles
#31: 5 Hour Energy
#32: The Grand Tour
#33: Ashes to Ashes
#34: Lean Mean Mother From Outer Space

This needs to happen now. XD

I'm playing this for the first time as well. I'd loved Metroid on the NES, didn't play the sequel because the Game Boy was my brother's and he didn't share much (and he didn't have Metroid II either) and by the time the SNES was out I was saving my 2-3 new games per year for things made by Squaresoft.

So yeah... there are at least two Tyrants who haven't played Super Metroid yet.

I got Metroid the ultra missiles and have not met any jellyfish yet. It's fun so far!

Make that three. I've tried it in the past, but never got very far for one reason or another. I'm in the middle of some other games at the moment, but will play this eventually. (The only Metroid games I've played to the end are Prime and Fusion.)

Ditto most of what the OP and bobbywatson said. I think I'll give this a shot today and see how far I get.

Edit: I got to here and gave up because I couldn't figure out how to move forward.

Edit 2: My cousin came over and made me close my eyes while he got me past that part, so I still don't know how to do it, but I'm sure I'll figure it out later. Anyway, next I went down some really long areas and I had to keep pressing F2 to save a state and then reload because there were these SUPER annoying mario-style pipes that just spawn limitless enemies, and I even tried for like an hour to get one of them to run out but they just don't. And I died a bunch of times trying to do that. Then my cousin plaed for a few minutes while I made a sandwich and when I got back his bullets were different and he could super-run. So I started running around everywhere shooting stuff and gathering stuff and eventually I found some boots that let you jump high! Way more useful than running. I don't think I'll use run much in this game probably. It's hard to time things when you're runnning.

Edit 3: I got stuck in this really effed up place and there were these koalas?! And they jumped up walls? And there was no way out, just spikes everywhere, so I called my cousin and he said it was a glitch they had with the game because it's such a badly made game, so he came over and fixed it somehow, though I didn't see what he did because he made me leave the room, but anyway now I have a grappling hook that's impossible to use. There should be an easier way to shoot at an angle!

This game has god awful platforming (I beat Fusion and the original gameboy ones and I've played mario and megaman and both of those games had better jumping and moving, and also they totally ripped off megaman with the charged shot? I don't remember the platforming being nearly this bad in any game ever except Contra), boring weapons and enemies, the music is blah and it's frustrating to figure out what to do next too often (twice during my time playing). I give this crappy game a 2/10.

Three.

I will probably never play this game!

Ever! Hahaha!

I still haven't finished it, I think I had just reached Lower Norfair when I sort of drifted off.

Thanks for making this thread Red! Now we know who to ban for doing vidja games WRONG!

I went back to Super Metroid after playing Zero Mission, Fusion, and the Prime series. It's showing its age if you ask me, but still a solid contender.

I hadn't touched Super Metroid in almost two decades. I remembered a few parts of it - a couple of the setpiece touchstones - but I'd mostly forgotten the actual game. Playing through it was fun and interesting, and I'm interested in seeing how this LP develops.

Only noobs don't know about the Crawl Boots.

Relevant to title. Let's all applaud this young man's victory.

Some peeps might be drawn and quartered if they keep suggesting Fusion was better than Super XD.

Fusion does some things better. I like that, by necessity of the lack of buttons, it does a good job of streamlining some controls, like just having one "angle" should button and then letting you press up or down with it, and I like how you just held a should button for missiles and they stacked the upgrades like they did with the beams. Having to cycle through all the weapons in Super always seemed unnecessary. I also appreciate ledge grabbing.

Basically, I think I like the controls of fusion better, but super is a better overall game.

The controls used in Fusion were also used in Zero Mission, and ZM was a great game. I don't think the controls are the issue though, Metroid Fusion led you by the hand through the entire game, you never had to think or figure anything out because the entire experience was on rails. There wasn't any exploring or major sequence breaking except for parts requiring a Shinespark, which suggest they were programmed in.

Super Metroid is a different beast altogether. With one or two notable exceptions, there aren't any arbitrary barriers in the game. You can go anywhere your skill can take you, and the weapons that will take you to new places are laying around in the world for you to find.

It's a game requiring you to think, explore, and build skill in an era where gamers lack all of those qualities.

What gets a lot of people about Fusion is that they made a mistake with the story. The story was lackluster at best and the Fusion Suit was a mistake, and hardcore fans hated it. I think it was even realized by the developers, because there have been 5 Metroid games released since, and none of them have been a sequel to it. Fusion effectively killed the Metroid story-line.

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Coincidentally, I just watched the GCCX episode with Super Metroid. It reminded me that the game's quirky controls and enemies can be disorienting at first. I'd like to say to the uninitiated that Super Metroid really is one of the best games ever made, but you might find it to be an acquired taste.

I have to admit I'm happy to see the discussion in this thread.


#1: I'm Sure This Won't be a Mistake...

Where Red recaps two games worth of story, totally doesn't like a creepy atmosphere, and might turn on the lights.

Just to keep it clear, I'm not going to look up any maps or guides. So far I like the way the game has been like "You can't go here, but soon!"

I noticed some of the timing on the music is off, even though your commentary seems to be synched to the action. And some tracks loop weirdly, and there are no sound effects. Are you...adding all the music in post?

Yeah, I can't record Stereo Mix, so that's how I've been trying to compensate.

Have you considered using this? This is what I use, because my system can't record Stereo Mix either. I record my game audio, and voice separately and put them together in post.

I guess I can give it a try!

Not sure what you use to record, but most programs can, without stereo mix on, record either mic audio or game audio. You can then use a seperate program, like Audacity to record your voice, and then splice them together.

Sounds like a lot more work, but it really isn't.

Also fun to watch this one, as you so carefully explain your thinking behind every action you do. As I know the game well, I'm then able to see even more how well the game was crafted, but I'm not gonna be the guy spoiling anything. Play on! Going by the first episode, this is a very promising LP.

Nice start. I'm finding I don't know what to do with my index fingers. I'm used to holding my 3DS in a certain way and on the Wii U tablet controller I keep accidentally hitting one or both of the shoulder buttons.

I didn't have any problem with it because I've got one of these, but they're prohibitively expensive.

One of the first things I do in any game of Super Metroid is set jump to B and fire to Y, as God intended them to be. So feel free to do that if you're getting screwed by muscle memory from every other game on the SNES.

I guess this is why everyone sets their videos to link-only.

I've always been that guy that never tried changing the default controls, so never thought about that, but you're the second person to ask me why I didn't change the controller setup.

Naw, I leave my videos as public intentionally. That's why my silly little Exdeath battle video has like 1500 views for reasons I can't define.

I always change my setup on Super Metroid, but I used to make boost A for some reason, but this time around I'm trying using a should button for it. It's kind of tricky on the huge WiiU pad, but I'm wondering if I can change to use the Classic Controller with Wii VC game.

Great LP so far. These are the best kind of games to see someone explore for the first time.

All of my videos are public, and a lot of them are even advertised and posted on different places, (reddit, dailymotion, blip, etc)

It's pretty common for people to switch around the controls for Super Metroid, even I've been known to do it and I almost religiously leave button configurations alone. Just a piece of advice from me, you have a button for jumping, one for shooting, and one for sprinting; make sure you can hit the fire button while holding down the jump button. Samus maintains her horizontal momentum but not her vertical. (Once you get her to max sprint you can let go of the sprint button and she'll keep running at top speed, but if you let go of jump she immediately falls)