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ExploreSuper Metroid was the third game in the Metroid series on SNES. The first two were pretty good on their own, though whatever their rough edges were, they were completely gone with Super Metroid. Some would argue it was the best game ever made. I’ll let you be the judge of that, but the fact is, it was pretty damn amazing. Why was it so cool, you ask? Well, let me count the reasons.
The first one should probably be the size of the game itself. This is going to sound stupid, but the game had a huge game file of insane 24 MB. Yes, you read that right, and it’s not a typo. Sure, today we have games that go to 24 GB (24 MB times 1000), but back in the day, that was immense. Nothing else was as big as that, and there was a good reason for the size. It needed that size for the sheer size of the rooms/levels.
Which brings us to the design of the levels themselves. The genius of Super Metroid is that it’s almost completely linear, but it feels completely unlinear. There’s usually only one obvious path to take, since the game traps you so you can’t really go back to the wrong exits. Until you get the correct upgrade that is. And by that point, there’s no reason to go forward, because it makes sense to go back.
Btw, here’s a fun Indiana Jones/Metroid crossover video:
The best reason though is probably this. There is no tutorial. There’s no real guidance. You’re thrown into the game and you learn the hard way. You either learn to swim or die trying. The game doesn’t make it easy on you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ridiculously hard for no reason, it just expects you to be smart enough to figure certain things out. And you do. It might take you some time to figure some things out, but eventually you do. Everything is right there in front of you, you just have to think about it sometimes. And that’s it. That’s why I love Super Metroid. Because it’s awesome. Like these t-shirts.
SUPER METROID T-SHIRTS!
