Played on Wii Virtual Console

Originally written October 26, 2015

Metroid is the first game in the Metroid series, and it’s one of those games that was completely innovative for its time, but since then hasn’t aged completely well. The game almost feels like a blend between Nintendo’s two biggest series, with some platforming elements similar to Mario games and some exploration elements similar to Zelda. However, Metroid has its own personality, throwing you onto an open-world, desolate sci-fi planet.

You take control of a bounty hunter named Samus Aran, who has been thrown onto the planet Zebes. Space Pirates have decided to hunt down Metroids, which are parasitic lifeforms that suck the life out of anyone that they latch on to. The Space Pirates are trying to replicate the Metroids for their own purposes, so Samus has been sent to put a stop to it. As a whole, the Metroid series has always seemed to pride itself on usually telling its story through the background, never outright telling the player what’s going on and instead leaving clues scattered around. While that idea is never fully realized like it is in future Metroid games, this first game did tend to start that trend for the series, and I think it’s a style that suits the game.

Speaking of starting a trend, Metroid pretty much revolutionized the idea of open-word exploration in the style that it presented it. You control Samus from a 2D side-scrolling perspective, and you are literally just thrown onto the planet Zebes right away without any directions on where to go or what to do. Throughout the game, you explore the large planet, with rooms connected by doorways and elevators to try and find power-ups so that you can go back and access areas that you previously couldn’t reach. For the time, this was a completely revolutionary idea, and one that Metroid absolutely deserves praise for.

However, unfortunately, much like other ideas in the game, it wasn’t fully realized until later games in the series, and so Metroid feels rather primitive in its design and doesn’t hold up too well. The main thing I mean by this is that the game has pretty frustrating room layouts, and absolutely no map to help guide you along it. I kind of take for granted having a map screen in other games when I go back and play something like this that has so many different connected rooms with no indication on where to go, especially when everything starts to look the same after a while. In my opinion this is the main drawback to the game, and the one thing that holds it back from being a true classic. I found it impossible to beat the game without using a walkthrough, or at the very least a map. I suppose you could always try to draw out a giant map yourself if you’re feeling ambitious, but it’s not like in the original Legend of Zelda where the entire map is on a giant grid. Here, everything is laid out in a confusing manner, so it’s very hard to navigate. It’s just a shame, because for a series that places such a huge emphasis on exploration, exploring the world is so hard to do in this game.

I will say that where the game does excel is its power-ups though. While the other games have added other cool power-ups, this one revolutionized some of the power-ups that have become commonplace in the rest of the series. The most iconic one is a morph ball, where Samus rolls up into a ball that she can roll around in it to access tight areas, and also place bombs to destroy enemies and obstacles. However, there’s plenty of other cool power-ups, such as an ice beam and an item called the Screw Attack, which allows you to destroy enemies you touch when you somersault through the air. The powers themselves are cool, and the progression that you get them in is also well done. You start the game off with nothing but a weak power beam and the ability to jump, but as you find more power-ups throughout the game, you become stronger and able to access areas you previously couldn’t. It was an interesting concept for the time, and it was very well done.

I wasn’t really impressed with the graphics in the game, but I will say I’ve definitely seen much worse on the NES. I think the sprites are really well done in here, but the world isn’t. Samus has a very cool design, and every enemy has their own distinct look so you never have trouble distinguishing between them. However, the design of the world is pretty basic, although maybe that is the point since it’s a desolate, lifeless planet. Still, I felt this didn’t work well when the design of the world looks the same in a lot of places. It’s easy to get lost because some rooms look very similar to others.

One thing I do have to praise is the music though…or rather, the lack of it. To understand the effectiveness of this, you have to remember that at the time video games were always trying to have these catchy tunes, the kind that you would always hum or whistle to yourself. You remember music from games like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda because they have catchy music that’s designed to capture the feel of the game. Well, since the feeling you’re supposed to get when playing Metroid is that you’re all alone on a scary planet, the feeling the music is supposed to invoke is that of isolation and creepiness. That’s why Metroid excels wonderfully in its use of silence. The melodies found in the game are very minimalistic, with little distinction between the music and sound effects. Just like in horror movies, sometimes you feel the most tense when there’s silence all around you, and Metroid captures that idea perfectly at a time when catchy music was the norm for video games.

Often times people like to know how long a game will take to beat, and truthfully I can’t answer that for Metroid. If you try to tackle the game head-on without using any walkthroughs or maps then you’re probably going to be putting in quite a few hours into the game, since you’ll be doing a lot of exploring on your own and trying to adjust to the high learning curve of the game. I only recommend that route for gamers with high patience, which I personally do not have. For the rest of us, if you do use a walkthrough or map then you should be able to get through the game in under 10 hours. The game actually features multiple “endings” (that is to say, seeing Samus doing different things) depending on how fast you beat the game. There’s an ending for beating the game in under an hour, so that’s certainly possible to do so, and that made this a very popular game for speedrunners.

All in all, Metroid is a game that revolutionized the genre it belonged to, but feels slightly primitive by today’s standards in certain aspects. I still do recommend the game for anyone that thinks they would be interested in this kind of thing, but you should at least know what you’re getting into.

3.5/5