0:00 - Introduction
3:22 - Story
5:19 - Ceres Space Colony
9:47 - Presentation
11:25 - Zebes
18:01 - Controls
25:25 - Sound
35:26 - World Design
38:37 - Progression
49:10 - Sequence Breaking
1:00:42 - Level Design
1:11:23 - Navigation
1:20:11 - Combat
1:25:04 - Bosses
1:36:57 - Immersion
1:40:01 - Expansions & 100 Percent
1:44:05 - Speedrun
1:46:02 - Conclusion
"Every game needs button mapping" FINALLY! Someone who understands! It absolutely SHOULD be an industry standard! Great video!
I think the controls are great specifically because they’re a little clunky. It feels like you’re trying to pilot a mech suit, but once you’ve got the controls down, it’s like you’ve become proficient with the power suit itself
Yeah its like walking on the moon and not in a bad way
this.
You get it.
Man SNES game devs that did include button mapping were such Chads and Chadettes.
I get what you're saying But I wish you said it in a different way That's not up to me, though.
We have better words for this than "Chad and Chadettes" is all I'm sayin'.
@@the_lizardfaceMeaningless
So is this like, a mad about including women thing, or like a mad about using the phrase Chad at all, or like "the proper term in 4chan Lore is Stacy" or like... I don't know, help me out here.
@@deletedTestimony keep digging if you wanna, but it's really not that deep....
Its so wierd that i very recently replayed Super metroid this year. This is by far my favorite review of this game. I really like the bosses in this game because they are all unique and have a different feel from eachother with that amazing presentation mentioned. Crocomire is built more like prey instead of a predator with its eyes on the side, and defensive nature. I love that bosses like crocomire and spore spawn feel more like habitants instead of actively being against Samus.
I got cross bombs early in dread and i didnt even realize it was a sequence break until i saw my partner play through that area
You are absolutely right about the dpad up* cancelling the spin jump is definitely the most annoying issue I have with the movement. That one issue being fixed would have made the game so much better.
Ur just bad bro
Pushing down on the dpad immediately morphs into ball off a wall jump though... There's a lot of utility in that mechanic as speedrunners have come to find out.
@@Blueeyedmerleto add, there are places where you wall jump up and there are flying enemies waiting, like in maridia (before spring ball), and you nees to aim up from a spin to shoot those. So yeah, breaking it for morphball, and for shooting arent a glitch.
The point was never that canceling a spin is a glitch, it was that it is way too easy to do. To give you an idea of how Super could have done it, Fusion/ZM/AM2R/SR/Dread make great examples. For one, you can enter a spin jump in mid-air just by pressing jump at any time. This fixes the issue of having no choice but to sink all the way to the ground just to re-enter a spin. But these games also make it so that when you’re spinning as long as you are holding left or right, you cannot cancel the spin jump. If you want to enter morph ball mid-air or take aim, stop holding left/right and then tap up/down. It’s simple, intuitive, and it still offers all of the same tricks that you guys are describing like mid-air morph. Super’s d-pad, meanwhile, is extremely sensitive during a spin jump, and canceling a spin jump can easily be accidentally triggered because the slightest input on up/down always forces you to sink all the way to the ground. It’s not a skill issue or a glitch, and every other 2D Metroid game proves this by fixing this issue while preserving the mid-air morph and taking aim.
@@leoalberts9514 No.
Great video. Small channel but I can see a very clear future with your in-depth review style and holding no punches on dropping your opinions to the viewer.
It is easy to state your opinion. What he does well is explain why he has the opinion.
i just played through this game for the first time! it’s very interesting to watch.
nice shout out to Vizzed, used to love that website
This is my #1 Video Game of All Time. I grew up wishing i could play this game when i was like 5-6 years old, and once my aunt lent me her SNES+Super Metroid (with her supervision of course) i was around maybe 8 years old but i couldnt pass the game & always ended up getting stuck or frustrated in numerous places, but i was HOOKED on the game. It saddens me that she's a mom and she hasn't touched Metroid ever since her teen years.
The sounds the bosses make sometimes, are in fact straight out of a Godzilla movie, Ridley uses modified angirius roads and crocomires death uses modified titanosaurus roars
LET'S GOOOOOOO man your metroid videos are peak
Peak video essays
My earliest memory is dying to Draygon when I was 2.
Very pro feeling video. Amazing job especially for a small channel. 10/10
I just found this channel a couple days ago and figured this would be the next video, I’ve been looking forward to this! Keep up the great work!
Glad someone else has the same spinjump problem as me. Never realized it was actually because of the Dpad angle lmaoo. I played on an emulator w/ an xbox controller [easier on my hands :( ] and I STRUGGLED w/ both spinjumps and chaining spacejumps together but never quite knew why. That makes so much more sense LOL
Investing in the pipi dafeces stock before 1k subs.lock it in. All aboard my pipi train
As an SM speedrunner I must say this is an excellent video! Your gripes run almost parallel with mine, especially breaking the spin jump. This is by far my favorite game of all time. I appreciated every minute of this video!
Super Metroid has always been one of my favorite games. I found it when I was eleven the year it came out. I remember being completely fascinated by it. When I finally got the title for Christmas, I thought the game broke after the Ceres Station sequence. I kept asking where all the enemies were. I was also so stumped by the morphing ball that... I called the Nintendo Hotline for help (It was only my 2nd video game ever). Coming back up that elevator to find space pirates waiting? It suddenly showed me what Metroid and video games could truly be.
Dread's sequence breaks are INSANE. I love them so much. They're so intuitive, too. I barely had to look anything up, and when I did, the solutions were jawdropping.
Awesome video, keep up the great editing.
Whoa this is a very high quality video. Very nice work I am subbing now😈
Subbed. Great SM analysis, truly the game that keeps on giving.
I never get tired of playing Super Metroid. It's too fun trying to best my own time. Great video!
clicked solely for the thumbnail. gem video
Dude you are so underrated. All of your videos are great. I can’t wait to see what you make next
...this rules
My favorite game of all time, thanks for another great video! Look forward to fusion next! Enjoying your personal retrospectives! Hope you crack 1K soon!
ever since I watched the Metroid NES video I subbed and ive gotta say you make really good videos. thank you for your work!
Great video, all points are extremely valid. Even if SM hasn't aged as gracefully in some areas it still is a complete triumph of it's genre. I see SM almost like a ballet. It can be clunky/difficult if you're not used to it, but if you take the time to understand it's mechanics the movement can be downright gorgeous. That's why it will always be my favorite game of all time.
Love to discover hidden gems like this channel on KZhead man, really enjoyed this video, looking forward to more
very professional and well written script for this video!!! also the fact you drew the thumbnail by hand is INSANE. i am very impressed and i’m looking forward to more content from you!!
I’ve been really enjoying your detailed reviews. Keep up the awesome work
Your critique about the controls, particularly jumping and surrounding abilities, resonates with me so much that it unlocked the memory of exactly how this game feels to play despite not having touched it in about 2 years. I'm well versed in platformers on both ends of the momentum spectrum (Mario = very momentum, Mega Man= no momentum, constant movement when direction pressed) and way horizontal movement definitely always bothered me. I think in the context of the way spaces are designed, it kinda makes sense though since there aren't really many large-room jumping opportunities to feel cool, the claustrophobic design is definitely restrictive toward feeling the controls in that way I think. On the opposite side, in a game like Mario Odyssey I would be pressing buttons and doing all sort of fancy moves just when moving across flat ground because there's just so much physical room for player movement expression. But of course the player expression in Super here comes from finding ways to utilize niche tech to skip stuff, or do things in "unintended" ways which makes it a bit more like a puzzle with stringent execution than a true platformer.
I want to congradulate you on your well written script for such a relatively 'small' channel. I subbed and please keep up the Metroid content.
I just discovered your channel and I have to say I'm really liking your content. And I love the original artwork you use in your thumbnails!
Small detail that I’d like to mention about the Metroid attacking Samus; there’s another theory that the Metroid may not immediately recognize Samus, but that the suit’s “low energy” beeping made it remember her. Since she would likely have been on low energy after fighting the Metroid Queen and encountering the baby Metroid.
Glad you're seeing this through, keep up the good work
Played this game for the first time two years ago and was shocked by how well it held up. It could have been released by some indie developers today. Aside from a few quality of life things, it immediately hooked me and never let go. It is very rare for me to enjoy a game that old. I’ve only been able to finish three Super Nintendo games. Chrono Trigger, Mario World, and Super Metroid.
Woo new vid!!!!
I have a very funny history with Super Metroid. I'm a gamer, well before the term was ever coined. I've played every single Mario up to Sunshine back in the day(including hotel and Mario's missing) I'm a huge Fighting Game cat too. I've always heard how great of a game Super Metroid was and as soon as I had an emulation, I tried it. First attempt I gave up due to the enormous cutscene. Second attempt I couldn't find even Bombs(I am not a metroidvania guy) than tried many times after that but never got any thrill from it, with the passing of each year, I've grown to love watching longplays and Speedrun of games I've beaten and those I did not, Super Metroid was among the bunch. From watching so much of it I've beaten it, kind of bitter with the back tracking after Ridley but sure, mission complete. But, curiously, after each time I've beat it, the game became exponentially BETTER! To me Super Metroid akin to Shadow of the Colossus is a game not of instant gratification, the satisfaction coming from the power trip of overcoming the clunkiness of the controls and becoming omnipotent in a scenario where you shouldn't thrive. Donkey Kong Country also fits this bill.
Yea, love the shoutout to mother brain's theme. Something about that music is just so freaking apt to what is going on. Maybe that is why it is not as praised as other music which can easily be listened to while not playing. Of course, that is subjective but I feel there are a lot of metroid's music that I could just listen to at anytime, while the mother brain theme feels to me more dependent on the context. That being said, it doesn't subtract anything that song accomplishes, the lows being constant as they are feels like an analogy to the monster you are facing, multiple times larger than you, ever encroaching forward to end you, unwavering. The highs feels to me like a reflection of my internal screams during this whole event hahaha. The panic, the emergency of the moment, the confusion of the metroid doing what it does and the aftermath. Analyzing music is absolutely not my forte and I most likely didn't catch on to other subtleties but hot damn, being able to communicate so much with so few channels and bits is genius work. Great video, thanks and cheers!
I think the "Sequence breaking" here is good because, it's based more on player learned skill, the wonk ass wall jump that doesn't work right, turning into being able to do it fairly reliably enough to scale a wall when you want to on a future playthrough. And over all the player is often alot more free than they would initially believe. Sure it could go for some variety, but It is nice that, you don't need an item to do it, you're free to try jumping around on a 2nd or 3rd playthrough and see what you can do or maybe reach early. Even a few places they expect you to have the grapple beam, you can by pass it like the one area with a bunch of spikes, you can just tank the damage, you don't gotta swing, or run through an area with heat without the suit to protect you. Even in this video talking about going back to an old area with abilities you show the room in Pink Brinstar with just a bit of water on the floor to make you think you need the Gravity suit, but you can wall jump on top of that platform, go the end, sprint and and press down at the very tippy end of the platform and have just barely enough room to do it and then shine spark sideways to get that Energy Tank without the gravity.
That thumbnail really got me
Super Metroid is a game I don't enjoy as much as I would like. A lot of what it does I love in theory, but I haven't given it enough time to be used to the quirks of its movement and world. I've beaten it once, with a second run that I set down while combing the world for enough missiles to get past Ridley. I think I will eventually become comfortable enough in it to replay it regularly and then it will probably shoot up my top games list, but I can't pretend it doesn't have a couple hurdles to new players which I think you did a good job of highlighting.
The reason I had several years in between the save station before Ridley fight and finally beating it (the other reason is not having a save room NEAR the boss fight itself) was the mechanic of being cancelled out of the spin jump with the slightest touch on d-pad up or down. So no, you're not the only one who had problems with that mechanic.
This is great overall. My only gripe is the music is way louder than your voice in many places.
That music issue is especially noticeable with how loud I made Green Brinstar. Makes me cringe a little bit seeing how loud it turned out.
23:25 you're not alone. I have a ton of problems with my spin getting interrupted. It drives me nuts and I thought I was crazy.
I hate the item selection, but I will say for it's time before we had dual sticks and could allocate such things to a dpad, it's def superior to having to menu.
It would have been elegant if they had programmed it so if you pressed select and a direction to toggle through the 4 items. Then use select to deselect used item and keep select when just on the beam to go to missiles. Granted I get this game was coming out late and was probably over budget to put more effort into the controls.
@retrofraction I'm hoping we get a super remake from Mercury, and that they port Samus Returns to the Switch.
Thanks for going through the trouble to make that thumbnail.😂
This is by far my favorite game on the SNES.
1:34 it is the year 2024 and i am now discovering you can KILL THE SILVER GEEMERS?? Ive played this game upwards of 15 times and never knew that. Incredible video man!
I only found out in the making of this video actually, while I was gathering footage.
I haven't even watched this yet but anyone who devotes a nearly two hour episode to their Super Metroid nostalgia deserves a like.
You are definitely not alone in your critiques of the run button and control scheme. These aspects of Super are the main things that turn players away before they finish the game. As someone who joined the fandom after Super, going back to it after playing with better control schemes was especially awkward and irritating. Metroid 2 had a bad space jump but was otherwise rather inoffensive compared to Super - I find Super clunkier even than Metroid 1. Uncancellable spin jumps are also very annoying.
what a fucking channel name lmao
I grew up with super Metroid as my first metroid game. Maybe because of that, i never had issues with controls. I really loved that you can wall jump on one side of the wall, which you cannot do in any other metroid. Giving you the ability to sequence breaking. I mean super invented the idea of sequence breaking
Super Metroid is the first game in the series I played, and I enjoyed playing it a lot in the years between the release of it and Metroid Fusion. One criticism I have on your video is how you kept comparing the use of shinespark in Super Metroid to what came years later in future games. I greatly appreciate that the shinespark puzzles in Super Metroid are few and treated as more of an extra easter egg. I can't stand the way shinespark has been overused in games starting with Fusion. The puzzles are tedious, and I'm glad Super Metroid doesn't want the player to do maneuvers like what Dread wants the player to do at times. I don't think any Metroid game after Super comes close to being as great as Super is. Super Metroid feels more pure and lacking in gimmicks.
22:20 "I also don't feel like I need that much time in the air, so maybe the falling speed could be increased a bit. I'm unsure about this one, but I do know that I prefer the jumping physics in any of the sequel games". Super Metroid Redux comes with an optional "Heavy physics" module which does just that, and I GREATLY recommend trying it out. I used to wish I could have Super Metroid with the jump physics of the GBA games, but that's changed--now when playing the GBA games, I wish the physics were as good as in SM Redux.
8:20 I wish this idea was used in Mega Man X01 against Vile. There's no way to defeat him, you're not rewarded with a slightly different outcome for performing better. You just run into him to take damage quickly and trigger the cutscene of Zero saving you.
love this video but describing the continuous walljump to skip past the moat and reach wrecked ship without speed booster/grapple beam as "just another walljump" is absolutely wild and if you ever try to do so yourself you will see why. It's ungodly precise and just really fucked up lmao nothing like normal kinds of vertically ascending walljumps. red tower climb is also by no means a super simple affair either...and i think that personally the speed booster version of early wrecked ship is rad. managing to squeeze in the charge window to then skip across the entire long entrance corridor in an instant is such an iconic and satisfying trick to pull as you mention there is a lot of silly and glitchy stuff too and while I understand that you'll never learn what a mfing springball jump is without looking it up, it's still just really cool that a lot of that stuff is there and especially if you frequently play things like randomizers, the sheer breadth of techniques to get around in Super is so awesome and appreciated also while i agree that dread's sequence breaks are godlike, i think that zero mission's sequence breaks are lame as fuck lmao they're all just bomb jumping or random ass missile block reveals a hidden passage. only good one is "early" super missiles but that one is pointless because you just get supers by going to ridley first anyways. the fact that literally the entire game is open with just bombs and missiles is also sleeper as fuck imo and really hampers it as a randomizer game too imo...also i know it's a glitch and it's not super fair to call it out bc like there are some glitchy skips in super that also suck titanic balls but like FUCK early power bombs that clip is so aids oml i hate that shit it singlehandedly saves like 10 minutes of meandering about looking for power bombs in Zero Mission Hard 100% but its so stupid to set up and guhhhhhh
also FYI: if you do those one way sand pit items AFTER you've beaten draygon, you can take the shortcut that opens in the room that the big pipe connects to to enormously streamline the process. The fact it also naturally leads to obtaining both Plasma Beam and Spring Ball, while then placing you next to the area exit makes the looping design pretty inoffensive IMO as long as your routing is smart. lastly, while I can agree that the bosses aren't incredible (Though I love Super's Ridley, I also agree that that fight is a big slugfest lol), there's actually a lot more in terms of what weaponry does best in what fight: Crocomire limits Supers to one at a time, so you're required to either time hits with regular missiles and quickly switch to a super while firing, or rely on your charge shot which actually does the same damage but with a much bigger hitbox if you have wave/spacer/ice. Phantoon massively punishes using a Super for anything other than the last hit (but also takes increased damage from them to make counting your hits rewarding) Draygon has the secret Grapple Beam kill, Golden Torizo dodges your missiles and outright catches your Supers and throws them back at you, heavily encouraging the use of your charged Plasma Beam instead, which...is actually stronger than Super Missile spam anyways, actually! Likewise, as long as you have Plasma, the optimal way to defeat Mother Brain (past her first form) is to use charged shots, and spend your super missiles to get through the first part of the battle faster instead. Ridley is actually the only fight past Kraid that has the order of Supers>Missiles>Charge, and this is specifically because he takes double damage from both super and regular missiles. Charged Plasma is still really good against him though and has the advantage of being able to better keep track of his HP, so often you'll see 100% speedruns use it over regular missiles after using up their supers.
I have tried that wrecked ship wall jump countless times and have never been able to do it. Though it is insanely precise, I do still think it ultimately is just another wall jump. I guess my greater concern is that the intuitive breaks are rather samey. Though upon reflection, I’m not sure you could really call that particular wall jump intuitive since it’s so difficult. I think my larger point is made even worse if there’s less to offer when it comes to varied and intuitive sequence breaks. Admittedly I’m unsure of what you mean when you say the red tower climb is no simple affair. If you Super Missile the rippers, an IBJ will get you back to Green Brinstar from the bottom. And if you’re starting at GB trying to go up, Super Missiles will again clear the way to make for what I see as another basic wall jump. You gotta shoot out the ceiling and get through it before it regenerates, but I think that’s not enough for me to consider this sequence break very unique. I agree that it’s cool that Super has plenty of glitchy stuff too. Though they aren’t very appealing to me personally, I get that they appeal to a lot of people and deserve to be celebrated. On the matter of ZM’s sequence breaks, I’ll leave the specifics for my own eventual video on that matter. I’ll agree that there aren’t that many tricks, and it has more alternate sequences and less straight up breaks, but I actually quite enjoy the breaks that are just hidden paths. It’s totally valid to dislike that the whole map opens so quickly, but for me it’s kinda like how I put it in my Metroid NES video. Metroid 1 kinda does its own thing with de-emphasizing item progression in favor of a small but open experience. I really like that about it, but I also get the hate. I’m very curious to check out what you’re talking about with Maridia’s shortcut after Draygon. I’m gonna make sure to poke around to find this more optimized routing because I’m eager to make that part quicker. Great to know there’s something to be done to make it go faster. I can see your point about Crocomire. I’m sure that landing charge shots is faster, though I still do think that merely makes the fight faster instead of more complex or interesting. I’d like for Crocomire to have some more interesting behaviors or attacks. I mentioned Phantoon’s Super Missile quirk, and I do appreciate that they included that, but I had no idea that any one boss takes more or less damage from specific attacks like your mentioned example with Ridley. I meant to talk about the Golden Torizo, and I was going to bring that stuff up. I noticed that if you stand in the right place, he’ll miss when he throws the Supers back at you. If if you just want to tank the few hits, you can fire Supers at him fast enough where he can’t catch them all and dies pretty quickly. Charged Plasma might be stronger but I’m curious if spamming Supers is higher DPS against him? If Missiles are useless against Mother Brain and possibly against Ridley compared to your beam then I’d actually consider that a let down because it means there’s little incentive to go out of your way to find the missile tanks. It’s interesting to know that there are optimizations for using specific weapons against specific guys. I kinda wish the game had some means of indicating boss weaknesses to specific weapons, maybe such as a specific sound effect when hurt with a weapon they’re weak to, or maybe the boss could flash a unique color, but it’s interesting to know it’s there. Glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate you teaching me so much about hidden little quirks in Super, as well as sharing your own thoughts. I’m gonna search up “Early Power Bombs Zero Mission” to see this hell for myself.
@@FlatulentFetus Sorry, for red tower I was more talking about doing it while leaving the Rippers still alive--it's pretty simple if you go out of your way to kill them, I agree. (Worth noting that if you got Power Bombs from the room after Crocomire, you can drop one to kill all of the rippers considerably more quickly than if you used Supers. I know you could have just gotten the Ice Beam at that point, but that's a little slower than going and getting it when it's time to fight Ridley) If you crouch down and aim straight upwards into the Golden Torizo, your charged Plasma Beam will hit it twice with every shot, utterly obliterating the thing's health. There's actually a certain place you can stand (Pretty much on top of his foot) that acts as a safespot from his wave attack and lets you keep firing those double hitting shots into him. Sadly, ever since I got good at that safespot, that boss has turned from one of my favorites to a total pushover....feel bad for the guy, honestly. As for the faster route to get Maridia 100%, in order to do it, after beating Draygon you need to backtrack to that long hallway that you speed boostered through on your trip there--while the game doesn't let you turn back around from Botwoon's room, by standing around in the sand pits directly beneath that room's Energy Tank, you get pulled downwards into the room beneath, and then can go from there back into the big room that is connected to those two one way pits. Then it's a matter of taking one of them down, getting the items, using the shortcut that opens from beating Draygon to get back to that hallway, and finally get the second pit's items and get the hell out of there. Hopefully I described things well enough. You're right that all the missile tanks are pretty superfluous, but at the same time...when have you ever *really* needed much more than like, 80 missiles? And even that's a bit generous, to tell the truth...even in games where Missiles are very good, like Zero Mission, still have way more missiles than you could ever really know what to do with. (Well, obviously every tank is worth it in 1 and 2 but besides those it's really hard to actually spend all the missiles you get in a 100% playthrough)
Bro that thumbnail just got me xDDD
Unlike most content creators, you started out with pretty high production values and solid presentation. (yes, I did see your very first video to be sure) Even I took a few videos to really get into the swing of things. Honestly my biggest gripe is just your lack of confidence when you're reading a script, there's a good amount of pauses here. Also maybe think of if you need a visual video example for *every little thing* you want to mention. It absolutely shows your shining commitment and worm ethic but sometimes it's not needed imo. I'd like to see what you eventually cover next outside of metroid. Also please consider a different name, try looking up here on KZhead "pipi da feces" with that space between 'da' and 'feces' and you'll see what I mean.
fun fact: the red brinstar track was later on sampled by producer cardogotwings for the song gang activities by baby keem, give it a listen it’s a banger
I just gave it a listen and my girlfriend filmed me twerking to the song. It’s not my kind of music but that’s still neat.
a lot of newcomers dont know that the Escape From Zebes theme from super metroid is a different song from Major Boss/Ridley's theme. the escape theme is more frenetic and panicked due to the feature of a siren/alarm and dissonant staccato of percussions
“He forces you to hang out and periodically open himself” 😳
I have no explanation for some of the other bosses, but Kraid being back, as we can see, there's more than one of them. Which this game shows you by first murdering the child and then its mother... and then its planet taking care of any family that might be around.
Button Mapping is always a good idea to include as an option. Especially in a game where the default layout isn't really that great.
Gold Torizo is kinda cool tho because he throws your super missles back at you lol. Kinda badass imo.
I played Super Metroid after playing Prime 1, Fusion, and Dread. It was interesting to have that previous metorid experience from "easier" games. It definitely helped for a few puzzels. If i tried to play super metorid as a kid i don't think i would get very far. Overall i really enjoyed Super Metroid. My only complaints are controls. Wall jumping and shine sparking are difficult to learn.I did get stuck on the noob run bridge because i forgot there was a run button, even though i saw there was when i was in the menu. Also the fake wall on lower norfair got me too. But otherwise the game combot is pretty fair. You don't get bosses that are impossible to kill. I can see why people like this game. It definitely a classic and has aged fairly well comapred to others from the time
I'm enjoying the video a lot, but in my personal opinion, Super Metroid is the pinnacle of Samus' movement in the entire series. For example, the jumping in Fusion and Zero Mission might feel tighter at first, but they're so much more limiting. The more skillful you get at Super Metroid's movement, the more flowing and graceful it is, to a point where it vastly eclipses any of the other games. Just my opinion though.
I can’t fully agree but I totally respect it. Something was lost in the sequels and Super does maintain a unique je ne sais quois with its movement. I think the main game doesn’t utilize this movement all that much, but I do know that it’s insanely useful in many rom hacks and such.
Pink Brinstar is supposed to mold or some kind of fungus I think. So those are spores floating around the area.
The world would be a much dark place without this game
I really like your analysis video could you do a Castlevania one ?
Wait until he finds out that the boss sounds actually do come from some of the og Godzilla movies.
Regarding samus’s jumping, I think it is overly criticized and I actually prefer it to the other sidescrollers due to its flexibility. Want to not jump as high? Let go of jump. Want to move around in any direction and change poses mid-air? Have at it! Also you’re not the only one who hates the spin breaking mechanic; it is a bain to all speed runners!
I love this game to death, but my main complaint about it (and I never see anyone mention this) is they just give you way way way too much health. To me it just feels so bad as a way to make the player more powerful, because it doesn't *feel* more powerful, it just feels like I'm free to make more dumb mistakes without dying. Ideally upgrades should promote skill rather than being a crutch. This is a big part of why my favorite Metroidvania of all time is Hollow Knight, even though both Super Metroid and Zero Mission do a lot of things better than it. There are 16 health pickups but you need 4 of them to get one additional mask, so you go from 5 health at the beginning of the game to 9 at the end. Under normal circumstances, you're only ever 9 hits from dying to even the weakest enemy, and you have to use your brain to avoid them rather than being able to just tank them. This also solves the problem mentioned in the video about how "having every enemy challenge you would quickly become exhausting" because even though easy enemies aren't "challenging" they're still engaging. Their attacks are easy to avoid by dodging or just pre-emptively killing them, but you aren't turning your brain off because there are still real consequences to getting hit.
I don’t think I really touched on that in this video but I agree that health is especially lenient in games like Super, Zero’s normal mode, and the Prime Trilogy. Fusion, SR, and Dread all did a great job of making taking hits actually feel like a big deal, and I really like that about those games.
1:25:20 "the sounds that they make sound like something out of a Godzilla movie" Does he know, chat?
I'm curious why you didn't discuss the special charge combos and crystal flash? Such a cool hidden mechanic.
I legit forgor
I had straight A's in school. Truthfully though, I learned way more important and useful things from video games, mainly RPGs. About life, philosophy, virtues, and much more. The medium of video games deserves far more respect than most people will give it. Video games are art, and much more. 🐾
One reason why Shinesparking left or right in this game is so hard is because I think they tied it to a rather unintuitive method: aiming diagonally downward. No later game does this so few players used to later games ever try it.
You were talking about the weak enemies from lower norfair, you forgot to mention the elite pirate trooper duo that throw stuff at you
My question is, do people not immediately try all the buttons when they start a new game? Like why do any basic controls need tutorialized?
People do not try all the buttons, but also even if they did, things like the wall jump or shine spark are not a straightforward button input, they require a combination of inputs that's very specific.
@morganlak4337 this was more in reference to the noob bridge and the run button. Advanced skills should maybe have some kind of prompt, but I also like the animals teaching you too.
How do u like ur Torizo cooked ???? I like mine Golden & mixed with eggs & hot sauce & a side of rice & refried plasma beams !!!!!
Vizzed fucking ruled
This was a good video. This is my favorite game of all time, but it's getting harder to recommend to people as time goes on, because of the controls and some obtuse design decisions, I also don't have the newbie's perspective with the game, unfortunately. The game is amazing without all the weird sequence break tricks, and as you touched on a bit, no Metroid game even after this has been quite as open as this one. You can't reverse the boss order in the later games, for instance. It's for things like that that this one ever so slightly edges out over the later games, Zero Mission, Fusion, and even Dread. For one other reason, as well. 100%ing Super Metroid is still the best experience in any of the games, in my opinion. I have a massive dislike of the later game's tendency to make you do a huge item collectathon at the end of the game. It breaks the flow and just feels tedious to me. With Super Metroid, I can reasonably get 100% of the items by the time I reach the time to go and fight Mother Brain. But again, because of the controls, I believe one can only appreciate them when they have a decent grasp of them. Despite how apprehensive I am about retro games being reviewed through the modern lense, I understand your critique. Good review.
This is a very well done video essay with a lot of well-articulated points. The only point I had an issue with was where you compared SM's sequence breaking to Dread... You lament that SM's sequence breaking feels either "samey" or "esoteric". While both of these things might be true, it's odd to me to lament SM's more advanced tricks needing video guides while in the same breath praising Dread's sequence breaking that utilizes tricks like slide jumping that are explicitly not ever explained in game and either take pure coincidence or video guides to actually grasp. I just feel like SM's sequence breaking, despite possibly feeling samey, is better simply because a large chunk of it can be taken advantage of by tricks that are taught within the game. That in contrast to Dread, whose most consequential sequence break (early screw attack) is hilariously esoteric and impossible to stumble upon by pure chance. Just my two cents. Both games are phenomenal in their own right, but SM's sequence breaking will always take the cake for me.
I go over this more in my Metroid NES video, but there’s a big difference between intuitive and counterintuitive sequence breaking. I gotta stick up for Dread’s sequence breaking and say that while the tricks I mentioned may not be explicitly explained, they are still intuitive. The whole point of them is to reward experimentation, such as with figuring out that you can shinespark underwater without the Gravity Suit. As soon as I found out about the new slide move in Dread, I immediately tried to see if you could use it to gain extra jumping distance. Early grapple beam, early bombs, and early Flash Shift just ask you to experiment with where you try that move you learned yourself. Early Cross Bombs just asks you to use the tricks you already know, but in a new context. You gotta break a hole in the ceiling to jump in and use your shinespark there. As for early Supers, wall jumping speed booster is indeed not explicitly stated, but again you just gotta experiment with your speed booster to see what it can do. Super also has intuitive breaks, but directly comparing the intuitive breaks of Dread to those in Super shows that Dread’s are far more varied and interesting to me. I disagree about Dread’s early screw attack being counter-intuitive. It’s a tricky Shinesparking challenge followed up with a hidden pathway that can be found by using your beam, scan pulse, cross bombs, normal bombs, power bombs, or just noticing the little path from the other side of the map. I would say that particular sequence break falls well within the realm of intuitive. Super relies on its counter-intuitive tricks to offer more variation, whereas Dread has a greater variety within its intuitive breaks. If you like counter-intuitive tricks all the same, then Super does offer plenty of variety. But as I say, specifically from the perspective of someone who wants to discover these myself, it feels like Super doesn’t go much further than just asking me to wall jump a lot. Regardless, nothing wrong with you preferring Super’s sequence breaking and I’m glad you enjoyed the video.
@@FlatulentFetus I ended up watching your Metroid NES video, and that explanation added much needed context (guess I should've watched the videos in order, but the soyjack boss thumbnail was too good to pass up). Admittedly I have played WAY too many Super Metroid randomizers, so I had taken for granted internalizing all the "unintuitive" tricks so long ago. I still prefer SM cause I'm an old head that grew up with it, but I completely understand where you're coming from now
Please keep making videos with fottage feom the wii I miss it so much
I was a huge metroid fan before dread. Dread is still my favorite metroid game. Supermetroid is amazing, but it's controls(equipment selection) make it one of my 2 least favorite because they all are so good.
completely correct again , except for the controls and the wall jump , were you able to ever play it on the snes with it's original controller? or with a controller of similar quality? while i agree the controlling of super metroid can feel a bit hmm clunky for lack of a better word , i however still praise it's genius with my favorite way of describing it which is , you have to learn to make love to your controller , and that's when samus rewards you with the smoothest and most complex gameplay experience the 2d platforming genera has to offer , as evident by speedruns wuuut how did you not take dmg from the arm rocket at 1:34:05 O:?? >super isn't your favorite metroid in the series , but it is definitely your top 3 games of all time but that means your 2 most favorite games are also metroids XD ...
18:01 Controls. The old Metroid also had a pretty weird control. Considering Super Mario Bros felt to me like the whole game is one big Ice Level with all of Mario's sliding, Metroid 1 was floaty(especially the spin-jump) and compared to Mega Man imprecise. Also, if you played Super Metroid on a real Snes controller, you would have that issue allot less with canceling a spin-jump, or at least I think so. 25:00 Sluggish and clunky is what Metroid 1 felt also, I think they overtook that a little bit. Not that I am particularly fond of this. 36:03 Actually I think Zebes consists of 8 areas, not 6. But the 2 additional areas are more hinted. The original Metroid had Brinstar, Norfair, Miniboss 1 and Miniboss 2 and Tourian. The two Miniboss areas are still there, but only Ridleys area is pronounced enough to really stand out. I remember in the original Metroid Kraids area was actually more unique and pronounced and Ridley's felt more like an extension to Norfair, which made me always think it is part of Norfair back in the day. 45:05 To get further in Maridia, you have to bomb that glass-tube. The game hints at that with a broken tube. Originally I went to Maridia through the Wrecked Ship, but that way you can't explore it all. Which made me sit down and think back in the day, to the point where I said that the only other place you are within Maridia is that glass-tube. So I played around and placed a Power Bomb... which is one of the spots that blew me away. Especially since I figured that out by myself while playing. 1:27:50 No. The NES also had two Kraids, one was a fluke. Same here, it is more then obvious... especially to a NES player, that this is not the boss. Overall the bad part of Metroid bosses is the fact that with enough Energy Tanks you can take most on without issue. Great video, though I have more to say I wont type it. ;p
23:10 cancelled spin jump is the worst part of the controls in super Metroid. It makes me lose space jump in ways that feel completely randomly
And to think, we almost didn't get more Metroid games after Super Metroid because this absolute masterpiece didn't sell as well in Japan as Nintendo wanted. (it's why Nintendo didn't make a Metroid game for the N64 or Game Boy Color) Keep in mind, Pokemon released only a couple of years after Super Metroid and went on to become the single largest and most profitable franchise of all time, so there is some modicum of logic behind Nintendo's business strategy for the period. Frankly, it's a miracle we got the incredible Metroid Prime and Metroid: Fusion games we did when we did. Those kicked off a nearly 8 year long Metroid Renaissance...only for Other M to nearly kill the franchise again. (it's not an irredeemably bad game; but its bad points are really, really bad)
that thumbnail xd
I think that it is good that Super Metroid allowed you to remap your controls, but it is also unfortunate because the original mapping is the optimal one for playing the game with a SNES controller. But since the buttons used in the standard control scheme are a bit unconventional many players just go straight to remapping them without trying to understand why the buttons are mapped the way they are, and what benefits that gives. The second best control scheme that doesn't sacrifice anything regarding mobility and aiming options is to map shoot to Y, jump to B and run to A, but it is clearly worse than the original in one important aspect, equal in all others. This is, of course, not counting speedrunners as they use unintentional glitches that I am unaware of, which then might require other button press combinations that weren't intended.
yikes, big chirp here! 19:42 x.x
This wasn’t in my video when I was editing it. It just kind of appeared out of nowhere during the rendering. Is this preventable?
@@FlatulentFetus I don't know i'm no video editing expert, im not sure why this kinda thing happens really x3 maybe its a volume or clip thing? Or just simple audio that kinda messed up for no reason and my just need a re-recording to fix? tho it doesn't ruin the video for me personally. I'm enjoyin' so far!
20:40 They should have an animal teach you this. In the background or something.
I think a lot of your criticisms are just what gaming was like at the time. Sure quality of life came as the years and generations progressed, but these games were meant to be played over and over as you slowly discovered what Samus can do, and what power/control you have as a player. It's easy to think of just running through a game nowadays, but back then the market wasn't as saturated with gaming, and you were meant to play this game of "discovery" (in all forms) over a long period of time. And of course, the instruction manual; a thing of the past, was far more common, and players would definitely pay attention to them believe it or not. Internet wasn't really around back then (really only just getting started) so while these things weren't in game, players were still aware of this information. So it's nice you bring up these points, but I do think it's a little unfair without the context of the era. It's almost impossible to convey to new generations of gamers just what it was like to game back then.
2:44
Ask speedrunners about breaking spin in mid air 💀
why video so quiet??...