Super Metroid - Late Retrospective - Part 2

A tale of two mothers

Welcome to Part 2 of my retrospective on my favourite ever game - Super Metroid.

If you missed Part 1, why not start exploring the depths of Zebes here first:

Super Metroid - Late Retrospective - Part 1

Note: from this point on I will definitely be covering spoilers in the game, particularly the ending, so be warned. I shall also try to explain things that may be familiar to those who have played Super Metroid, yet I will try to explain for newcomers too.

Monsters and Nightmares

Many upgrades appear through exploration, but some are the reward for defeating the bosses. I've found the bosses come in two varieties. There are some that just require brute force to best them, so long as you understand their attack patterns. Kraid and Ridley, for example, are of this type. They can look intimidating, but at the end of the day you use your skills and attack power to come out on top.

The second category is more interesting, since you can use your wits and intelligence to overcome them; think Luke Skywalker escaping the Rancor in Return of the Jedi. Draygon is a flying monster that appears after you come out the other side of the Wrecked Ship. You start as usual dodging attacks and returning fire, yet eventually he is likely to pick you up off the ground and not let go. While he is gradually sapping your energy and you being helpless to stop it, you end up drifting closer to the walls, where you spot exposed electrical outlets. At this point in the game you also possess the Grapple Beam, an electrical beam that latches onto certain blocks to act like a swinging rope. If you put two and two together, you can try to use the Grapple Beam to connect to those exposed outlets and form a complete circuit, becoming a human conductor. You'll of course lose health (you are being electrified, after all), but not as fast as Draygon, who is very quickly dispatched.

Another example is Crocomire found in Norfair, the volcanic region of Zebes. As far as I can tell you can't physically damage him; your shots or missiles to his open mouth force him backwards, while he is trying to push you forwards into a wall of spikes to your demise. This becomes a push-me-pull-you situation, because if you can force him back far enough, he'll fall through the crumbling floor into the deadly lava, producing a rather horrifying death scene for a Nintendo game. For added effect, when you go back through the tunnel thinking it's safe, the ominous boss music plays again and it crashes through the wall - though thankfully it's just its skeleton now. Who knew Nintendo could do jumpscares?

World-building

The game mechanics are incredibly well thought out, and I always wonder, with Metroidvanias, how they are designed so well; the core sequence through the game always makes sure that you experience the upgrades in a particular order, so that you can go to the next essential area fully prepared (unless you're an expert who knows how to sequence break).

As you are interacting with the game though, you may also be noticing subtle environmental details too. As I explained in the previous post, story is not _told_ to you, instead you experience it. With no words at all - spoken or written - story and narrative has to be told in other ways instead. Exploring ruins shows statues and relics of old civilisations long gone but not forgotten. Why are the statues there? What purpose did they solve? And why do you seem connected to them somehow, is there some history between Samus Aran and these bird-like statues you keep seeing?

To me, the most interesting area in the game is the Wrecked Ship, located on the surface of the planet. A large starship of sorts, you can enter through one of the hatches to find an empty, derelict area. There is not even any power anymore, which causes some issues with navigating inside since some doors no longer open to you - even the save point is useless without a power source. The ship resumes some activity once the ghost-like Phantoon is disposed off, where worker robots with a retro 60's design amble around now following their original programming. I don't know about you, but as I go through this area I wonder a lot about this ship. How long has it been here? Where did it come from and why did it crash? Where are the original crew - did this ghost have something to do with their disappearance? Is it even actually haunted? These are all open questions, and this time no answers are given, it is left to your own imagination to fill in the blanks.

What I love so much though is that I'm left to figure out the details, so long as some breadcrumbs are presented to me. Some of my favourite films and television shows follow the "show, don't tell" style of storytelling, assuming that I'm intelligent enough to figure things out without info-dumps of dialogue or lengthy explanations. Games can do this too, and it must take a lot of planning to achieve it and make it look effortless, like Super Metroid does.

The Downsides

I have been gushing a lot about how wonderful this game is, but do I think it's perfect? Well... no, I do have some nitpicks. Specifically one area of the game - Maridia. You encounter it about two-thirds of the way into the game, and unfortunately it is also the largest area of the world map. For its theme, I would describe it as the wetlands of the planet, and probably one of the more drab looking regions. Brinstar features lush green jungles with adventurous music, Norfair is red-hot with lava with a thumping, ominous drum-beat in the background. Maridia is... wet? Beige? Also quite dull sounding. It's quite the maze, where exploring involves a lot of ascending vertical rooms with the Space Jump (a somersault that can keep you in the air for long stretches), yet you can also find sand falling in columns which, if not careful, forces you to a room below and you have to go back and try again. It's as intricately designed as the rest of the game, but I just feel the pacing and identity of it is somewhat "off" compared to the rest of the map.

One other minor quibble is I could never really master the Wall Jump in Super Metroid. There is an area in Bristar where, if you explore, you could end up a long way down the map, the only way back up being a vertical shaft which will force you to master the optional Wall Jump ability. Fortunately, there are some helpful creatures which demonstrate this to give you a clue (there is another helpful creature which demonstrates the Shine Spark too), yet the controls for the Wall Jump could have done with some finessing; you need to time the change in direction inputs correctly and jump at the right moment to physically jump off the wall, then keep that timing up to bounce off the opposite wall to gain height, and so on. It just feels a little too precise for me.

Mother

After all that exploring, monster slaying and upgrading, you will eventually reach the point to take on the final battle, descending into Tourian, the base of the Space Pirates and the lair of Mother Brain. Tourian is not only filled with the deadliest forms of Space Pirates, but even worse... the Metroids themselves! For those not familiar with them, they are effectively floating jellyfish, with their brain clearly visible through the dome, but instead of tendrils they have jaws and fangs. That is because their defining feature is to latch onto any lifeform and literally suck the life force out of them. They evoke a mixture of the facehuggers from Aliens and vampires. The only means to escape their clutches is to bomb them to let go, then fire your Ice Beam to freeze them, followed by five direct missile hits. Not so easy when there are multiple Metroids surrounding you!

I spent many paragraphs at the beginning of this retrospective discussing storytelling, which has taken a bit of a backseat till now. Here though, it comes back in full force, for once you get deep enough into Tourian, you encounter an enormous Metroid - a Super Metroid, if you will. About four or five times bigger than any you've encountered already, there is no escaping this one's clutches as it slowly depletes your energy tanks with you utterly helpless. And yet... it stops just before it is too late, then lets go and hovers around you, making it's curious noises. Why didn't it kill you? Referring back to the introduction at the beginning of the game, Samus recounted how she found the last Metroid hatchling who imprinted onto her. Perhaps this is the grown up version of that Metroid?

Samus presses on (recharging her health after the encounter) to face Mother Brain again, in a recreation of the original Metroid game, though with 16 bit graphics this time. Hitting Mother Brain's glass shield with missiles to expose her for attack whilst dodging the defence systems surrounding her, not to mention the red hot chemical bath below, you eventually defeat her and breath a sigh of relief. Until... Mother Brain rises up and you realise that the "brain" part was just the head, which happens to be attached to a much larger body. And she is not happy!

As you attack, Mother Brain will slowly charge up a beam attack from her head which she unleashes as a massive blast; so massive in fact, it pushes you back and up the wall, absolutely draining your health, yet not killing you (yet). What is worse is that Samus is now so weakened she cannot even stand up straight anymore; you can try and press a button on the controller to try and take control, but she just slumps back down, exhausted and defenceless. This is not how action video games are supposed to end, you are the hero, this can't be the finale, can it? Mother Brain charges up again while Samus waits for her doom...

...Until the Super Metroid swoops in and attaches to Mother Brain, absorbing all the energy blast. While Mother Brain tries to recover, the Metroid moves back to you and transfers energy to you this time; your energy tanks fill back up, and you posses the final upgrade: the Hyper Beam. In it's final act, the Metroid tries to attack Mother Brain, but is destroyed, giving Samus a reason for vengeance. With the Hyper Beam, you can now easily obliterate Mother Brain and dispatch her once and for all.

I find this one of the most unique boss battles I've played because it does feel like a mixture of story and gameplay. Getting past this boss battle is not actually that hard, in fact I would say it is expected that you triumph. By mixing together moments where you take control, but then experience a setback, it seems to perform a particular narrative trick you see in a typical third act of an action blockbuster; the hero resolves to end the villain, but the villain is actually too strong to be defeated, yet in the final moments the hero finds a way to defeat the villain after all. Seeing as the Alien franchise is clearly a big inspiration to the Metroid series, the climax of Aliens in particular feels very apt here. Once again, you are integrated into the story, you are experiencing it. The little touches like Samus becoming so weakened she cannot continue actually adds to the suspense, as you feel even more empowered when you are given the Hyper Beam and lay waste to your nemesis.

Oh, there is also the minor issue of the sudden self-destruct countdown triggering before the entire planet explodes. Time to escape! I'm not sure without definitive research if Metroid was the first game to introduce the "escape sequence" to a game, but it is definitely one of the most effective uses of it. Thankfully, with a beam that can now shoot through pretty much anything, this becomes a wonderful action setpiece, as you blitz through the base to try and get back to the surface of the planet to escape in your ship. As an optional side-adventure, you could even locate those helpful animals you found through the game to not let them perish in the explosion either - just don't let the time run out!

And just like any good action hero, Samus escapes just in the nick of time, where you will be greeted with Samus' ship hurtling into space whilst the planet Zebes explodes into a million pieces.

Mission Complete

I've spent many words in this two-part retrospective hopefully trying to get across my love of this game, and trying to analyse the way it is designed and why it is still relevant today.

To me, the gameplay is about as perfect as you can get; it doesn't feel like it has aged a day since being released in 1994, as you are slowly yet carefully taught how to play the game. The fact this is done without a single word uttered is actually just genius. The graphics obviously look like SNES-era graphics, yet everything is presented clearly and has a wonderful design style that evokes mystery, suspense, sci-fi, action and maybe a tiny bit of horror. In particular, secrets are always visible so long as you keep your eye out for them; no magic walls to pass through, just look for something slightly out of the ordinary, investigate and be rewarded. For me though, the ability to combine the story into what you are experiencing and controlling is actually quite special. Other games I can think of that do this - Half-Life, Portal, God of War (2018) - could have all been modelled on this philosophy. You are a playing a mixture of Ellen Ripley and Indiana Jones; part alien-killer, part tomb raider, all action hero. What's not to love about that?

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to more retrospectives on other games in the Metroid series. See you next mission!