Survivor Charlie
CAGiversary!
- Feedback
- 1 (100%)
Feedback would be cool. In the past, I've done reviews of wrestling shows so I carried over the five-star system from it. It's what I'm used to.
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Super Metroid
Review by Charlie (Stablewars.com) 2/13/08
Platform: SNES
Developed by: Nintendo R&D 1 (Yoshio Sakamoto)
Published by: Nintendo 4/18/94
Legacy
The third chapter of the Metroid saga has been named by several publications as the greatest video game of all time. EGM named it so in 2002, eight years after it's release. In 2006, IGN's readers voted it the forth best game ever. IGN themselves named it #10 in 2005 and then #7 in 2007. Pretty remarkable legacy for a game that most would consider to be somewhat un-mainstreamish. I decided for my first game review, why not put Super Metroid to the test and see how well I think it holds up. I've only played through the game twice before in my life, once in 1994 when the game released and once in the late 90s/early 2000s. Needless to say, it's been a while.
Graphics
Super Metroid's 24-megabit cart was, at the time of it's release, the biggest SNES game to date, and it shows it. Compared to the static black background of the original NES game or the colorless worlds of Metroid 2 on the Game Boy, Super Metroid is like a marvel. The world of Zebes is very much alive and organic. The attention to detail was far and away higher in quality then anything released up to this point, and in my opinion was not eclipsed by the lifeless, pre-rendered backgrounds of the Donkey Kong Country games. Objects shimmer and shine, enemies change in apperence, and water drips off Samus as she exits the underwater level of the game. Special effects do tend to slowdown the notoriously slow SNES, but that's the fault of the hardware, and slowdown rarely effects gameplay. Animations are excellent throughout as well, with Samus moving very naturally and realisticly. Lots of awesome stuff happens as you eliminate boss characters, such as skeletons returning from the dead to attack you or turning into dust. It's very cool.
Rating: ***** If you want the best graphics on the SNES, look no further then Super Metroid. They're not gimmicky and they're not just for show. They serve a function and set a true atmosphere to enjoy the game in, without getting in the way or compromising the system.
Sound
I would guess there's well over a dozen tunes to listen to, and considering there are only six 'worlds' in the game (plus an opening sequence on a spaceship) that's a pretty hefty variety. At no time did I ever say to myself "Wow, this music is absolutely stunning!" It's not catchy, but it's still epic. The sound effects are somewhat limited. There's only a small sample of enemy noises, the sounds of the various missiles exploding don't fit the grand scale of their effect (especially the super missiles, in which the sound effect was achieved by slowing down the sound made of the normal missile). The super-bomb noise is quite memorable and does fit the scope of it's effect. There's even voice samples, as the opening two sentences are actually spoken. Plus, the last Metroid kind of screeches the word "Mommy!" It's neat.
Rating: ***3/4 Ultimately, the music carries the sound department as most of the effects come off as pretty generic. Future Metroids would raise the bar in the sound department, but Super Metroid was content simply to be the best in the graphics department. The music is good enough to earn a higher then average rating.
Play Control
I have to say, at no point did I feel the controls of Super Metroid were natural. No matter the control setting, shooting and jumping felt mapped to the wrong buttons and switching weapons with the select button felt downright clunky at times. Movement is actually pretty solid, but at times jumping feels a bit floaty. Additionally, achieving a spin jump felt almost random. And then there's the issue of the wall jump. It feels almost broken. It's achieved through pushing the opposite side of the wall you're hitting on the D-Pad followed very quickly by the jump button. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. It's so difficult to pull off at times that it's maddening. And that's not hyperbole. I fell to the floor of my game room in emotional pain after multiple failures to scale a wall. After the emotional pain came the physical type as my thumb started to blister. The last time I used it, to get the Space Jump, I got so angry I actually broke a controller in a fit of rage, something I'm not prone to do when I play games. Upon replacing the controller, I attempted to scale the wall again, this time getting to the top... only to be hit by a monster at the top of the wall I was scaling. A cussing fit the likes of which are only heard on the docks followed. And if you're playing off the original SNES version and happen to have an instruction book handy, don't bother. It doesn't even cover the Wall Jump. Plus, the damn thing can only be done by using a spin jump, which as I mentioned before, seems to not happen at times almost randomly.
I had a friend growing up who could have been a professional Super Metroid player. He posted times under one hour for beating the game using various wall-jump tricks. He made it look natural. I never got it. Thankfully, future entrees in the Metroid series (the GBA versions) corrected this awful play mechanic. However, the Wall Jump isn't the only issue. The shoulder buttons on the controller are used only for aiming your gun at angles, which seems a bit wasteful. I did use those angles for times like when I had the grappling hook, but otherwise they weren't neccesary. Other issues include using the power jump. Using the speed-shoes, once you've built up enough speed you can push down to 'Turbo Up' Samus and allow her to jump at a great height or to shoot yourself at an angle and crash through walls. However, actually pushing the down button while running to turbo up can become a test of patience as I found many times I was not hitting it fast enough or at the right angle. Again, using the shoudler buttons would have been more desirable to achieve this turbo effect. The actual jumping part itself can also lead to complications as the small delay in 'take off' of the super jump can result in you shooting off to a side instead of straight up. And everytime you finish a super jump by crashing into something, you lose a decent chunk of health.
Rating: **1/2 The controls are substandard. Unnatural, uncomfortable, and at times beyond frustating. The floaty jumping is something that you can overcome in any platform based game. However, issues like the turbo boost and wall jump can at times cripple the gameplay along with your hands. Granted, the main reason these actions are mapped out so poorly is because there's a ton of different things to do in Super Metroid and only so many buttons to do them with. That's a decent argument, but it doesn't entirely excuse Super Metroid. Dare I say, some of these features should have been cut. I'm willing to bet the Wall Jump almost was. Hell, maybe it was a last second addition to the game, which would explain why it's missing in the instruction book. Instead, it's explained to you by little green trolls who demonstrate it. They don't actually tell you how to do it, and you have to figure it out on your own. A green ostrich-like bird explains the power jump. Mind you, they don't actually tell you what buttons to push, just what it looks like when you're doing it. I would describe them both as semi-broken play mechanics and I'm willing to bet that if the Metroid producers had one take-back, those features would be it.
Game Play
After busting the chops of the game's controls, I have nothing left to complain about. Despite not controlling as well as it could, Super Metroid is better then almost any game ever created. The world of Zebes is so huge and open-ended that you can beat the game without getting some of the weapons and tools found on it. Not only will you not miss them, but you won't even know they existed. Finding the various missile/super missile/super bomb upgrades hidden throughout the game always results in a moment of glee, moreso then finding various hidden treasures in Zelda games. So much crap is hidden in the game that I would be impressed if anyone could find it all without the use of any strategy guides or walk throughs. In playing through Super Metroid, I finished the game with a time of 4:42, having found 7 of 10 Super Missile packs, 28 out of 46 standard missile packs, and only 6 of 10 of the Super Bomb packs. Hell, I never even found the X-Ray scope! I forgot it even existed. And I never found the Wave Gun either. That's how much crap is stored away on Super Metroid.
And the main quest itself is something to behold. The object is to find and kill the four main bosses of Zebes. Along the way, you will upgrade your main gun, boots, armor, and morphball. You'll often upgrade three or four times between boss encounters. There's no puzzles to solve here... it's all action, guns blazing, pure platform goodness. The challenge comes in the form of navigation. Zebes is simply huge and finding your way around it requires the ability to figure out how to get from point "a" to point "b". It's not always easy. Even with maps provided to you by special in-game stations, you'll make your way to what you think is the entrance for the area you are going to, only to find a dead end. You can see the target you're going for, but you can't get to it, and you must find another way. Other times, you'll be within reach of an item only to find the floor crumble beneath you, only steps away from your target. You'll be pissed for a few minutes, but upon actually getting the item the sense of satisfaction is undeniable. You'll feel good as you complete Super Metroid. It's a wonderful rush to play through.
Backtracking is something that a lot of modern games get scored poorly for. I always found it a bit funny that EGM would call Super Metroid the greatest game of all time and then go on to bitch about games that require a lot of backtracking, such as Final Fantasy games or Devil May Cry. Simply put, you'll be backtracking a lot in Super Metroid. You will backtrack when you beat bosses, you'll backtrack for items you missed, you'll backtrack to reach new areas of the game. By time your mission is finished you'll be qualified to give a walking tour of Planet Zebes. Half the time you'll know exactly where you want to go and the best route to get there. The other half of the time, you'll be looking for the section you're missing that will allow you to pass through to the next zone. By time you find that route, an entire section of the map and it's various passageways will be commited to your memory. You can't help it. It just happens.
You'll notice one aspect while exploring Zebes... there's not a lot of save stations. In fact, I would say there's just enough to make the game pretty intense between visits to them. At times, you'll be sweating bullets, having collected so much stuff since your last save that you'll dread unlikely situations like the power going out, nevermind simply dying. And as you hazard your way through the game, you'll take a lot of damage and notice yourself low on life with no save stations (or the even more rare health stations) nearby. There are other methods to save yourself. Many rooms contain tubes where flying insects swarm up to divebomb you. You can shoot these guy one at a time until you've refilled your health, plus are your missiles and bombs. You'll get to know where these rooms are because you'll spend time there filliing up your health after every failed attempt to find the next route. But it never feels like a chore when you're doing it. That's one of the best aspects of Super Metroid... it never feels like you're doing busy work. Even the annoying as hell Wall Jump segments *feel* important, and not just something that you're doing because you have nothing better to do.
Not to mention the action isn't one-dimensional. You won't just be running and jumping. You'll end up spending a great deal of time looking for secret passageways, which usually lead to upgrades to your supply of missiles and bombs. The morphing ball will have you bouncing yourself using bombs looking for hidden passages. The grapple beam, found later in the game, will have you swinging off special blocks (and even enemies) to find more hidden stuff for your collection. At many times in the game, instead of killing enemies you'll be trying to use them to gain passage to other areas of the game. Using the Ice Beam, you'll freeze enemies to turn them into platforms. Sometimes, you'll have enemies burrow through rock to help you advance further into the game. By time you're near the end of Super Metroid, you'll be using caution when dealing with enemies, wondering if you should kill them or use them. Or maybe use them and then kill them. Hey, they unfreeze at a certain point!
As previously mentioned, there are four main bosses to the planet Zebes, along with a few minor bosses. Most of these fights are intense and enjoyable, well above the scale found in other games of the era. You'll even encounter a version of Kraid similar to the one found in the original NES Metroid. A fan service, even before such a thing existed, that also serves as a way to throw you off before your encounter with the real Kraid. Upon seeing him, you'll understand that this is not the same Metroid you've dealt with before. Kraid is several screens tall and shoots the platforms you need to use to kill him out of his stomach. It's an intense fight that sets the tone for the ones you will encounter later. Another remarkable aspect is some of the bosses don't have a specific pattern that needs to be discovered before killing them. The underwater boss, for example. You can shoot him with your missiles and beat him that way. Alternately, you can allow him to grab you and then electrocute him by shooting an open energy port with your grapple beam. If there's any complaints about the bosses, it's that the final fight against Mother Brain is WAY too easy. Coming into it, you're fresh off a fight with Ridley who is pretty tough to beat. It feels like a letdown for the final boss to be such a wuss. On the bright side, upon beating her you're given three minutes to escape from the planet before it blows up, another callback to the original Metroid. It's funny, that Super Metroid is arguably the first 'fan service' game considering that it was not the most popular NES game.
Rating: ***** There's no complaints here. Super Metroid is an absolute joy to take in and explore. You'll never find yourself bored with the action and the sense of satisfaction of making it through the game is felt time and time again with every new area discovered and every new item aquired. The feeling of "Ta-Da!" is felt so often you'll actual wonder if the game will ever leave you without it. It won't.
Test of Time
As of this writing, Super Metroid is fourteen years old and still feels as fresh today as it did in 1994. The graphics still hold up well... better in fact then most Nintendo 64 or Playstation games. And the gameplay holds up even better. In some ways, I was feeling like I had missed out by not replaying this game more often over the years. And at other times, I was happy I didn't. The fact that I was on only my third play-through in fourteen years meant that many aspects of Super Metroid were entirely forgotten. How cool the underwater sequence was, the boss fights, etc. It also confirmed to me that anyone going into this game fresh would enjoy it.
Rating: ***** If this game was released today on the Nintendo DS, having never been released before, it would be a contender for Game of the Year. Normally, I would subtract points for having so many control issues, but the fact is you will ultimately force yourself to ignore them. Super Metroid is that compelling.
BOTTOM LINE: I wouldn't call Super Metroid the greatest game of all time, but it's up there with the very top 1% of games ever made. A showpiece for the SNES. A masterpiece of gaming in general. I doubt there's any gamer on the planet who couldn't find some aspect of Super Metroid to be likable. A few very small segments of the game will have you ripping your hair out. The rest is pure gaming joy.
Overall Rating: *****
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Super Metroid
Review by Charlie (Stablewars.com) 2/13/08
Platform: SNES
Developed by: Nintendo R&D 1 (Yoshio Sakamoto)
Published by: Nintendo 4/18/94
Legacy
The third chapter of the Metroid saga has been named by several publications as the greatest video game of all time. EGM named it so in 2002, eight years after it's release. In 2006, IGN's readers voted it the forth best game ever. IGN themselves named it #10 in 2005 and then #7 in 2007. Pretty remarkable legacy for a game that most would consider to be somewhat un-mainstreamish. I decided for my first game review, why not put Super Metroid to the test and see how well I think it holds up. I've only played through the game twice before in my life, once in 1994 when the game released and once in the late 90s/early 2000s. Needless to say, it's been a while.
Graphics
Super Metroid's 24-megabit cart was, at the time of it's release, the biggest SNES game to date, and it shows it. Compared to the static black background of the original NES game or the colorless worlds of Metroid 2 on the Game Boy, Super Metroid is like a marvel. The world of Zebes is very much alive and organic. The attention to detail was far and away higher in quality then anything released up to this point, and in my opinion was not eclipsed by the lifeless, pre-rendered backgrounds of the Donkey Kong Country games. Objects shimmer and shine, enemies change in apperence, and water drips off Samus as she exits the underwater level of the game. Special effects do tend to slowdown the notoriously slow SNES, but that's the fault of the hardware, and slowdown rarely effects gameplay. Animations are excellent throughout as well, with Samus moving very naturally and realisticly. Lots of awesome stuff happens as you eliminate boss characters, such as skeletons returning from the dead to attack you or turning into dust. It's very cool.
Rating: ***** If you want the best graphics on the SNES, look no further then Super Metroid. They're not gimmicky and they're not just for show. They serve a function and set a true atmosphere to enjoy the game in, without getting in the way or compromising the system.
Sound
I would guess there's well over a dozen tunes to listen to, and considering there are only six 'worlds' in the game (plus an opening sequence on a spaceship) that's a pretty hefty variety. At no time did I ever say to myself "Wow, this music is absolutely stunning!" It's not catchy, but it's still epic. The sound effects are somewhat limited. There's only a small sample of enemy noises, the sounds of the various missiles exploding don't fit the grand scale of their effect (especially the super missiles, in which the sound effect was achieved by slowing down the sound made of the normal missile). The super-bomb noise is quite memorable and does fit the scope of it's effect. There's even voice samples, as the opening two sentences are actually spoken. Plus, the last Metroid kind of screeches the word "Mommy!" It's neat.
Rating: ***3/4 Ultimately, the music carries the sound department as most of the effects come off as pretty generic. Future Metroids would raise the bar in the sound department, but Super Metroid was content simply to be the best in the graphics department. The music is good enough to earn a higher then average rating.
Play Control
I have to say, at no point did I feel the controls of Super Metroid were natural. No matter the control setting, shooting and jumping felt mapped to the wrong buttons and switching weapons with the select button felt downright clunky at times. Movement is actually pretty solid, but at times jumping feels a bit floaty. Additionally, achieving a spin jump felt almost random. And then there's the issue of the wall jump. It feels almost broken. It's achieved through pushing the opposite side of the wall you're hitting on the D-Pad followed very quickly by the jump button. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. It's so difficult to pull off at times that it's maddening. And that's not hyperbole. I fell to the floor of my game room in emotional pain after multiple failures to scale a wall. After the emotional pain came the physical type as my thumb started to blister. The last time I used it, to get the Space Jump, I got so angry I actually broke a controller in a fit of rage, something I'm not prone to do when I play games. Upon replacing the controller, I attempted to scale the wall again, this time getting to the top... only to be hit by a monster at the top of the wall I was scaling. A cussing fit the likes of which are only heard on the docks followed. And if you're playing off the original SNES version and happen to have an instruction book handy, don't bother. It doesn't even cover the Wall Jump. Plus, the damn thing can only be done by using a spin jump, which as I mentioned before, seems to not happen at times almost randomly.
I had a friend growing up who could have been a professional Super Metroid player. He posted times under one hour for beating the game using various wall-jump tricks. He made it look natural. I never got it. Thankfully, future entrees in the Metroid series (the GBA versions) corrected this awful play mechanic. However, the Wall Jump isn't the only issue. The shoulder buttons on the controller are used only for aiming your gun at angles, which seems a bit wasteful. I did use those angles for times like when I had the grappling hook, but otherwise they weren't neccesary. Other issues include using the power jump. Using the speed-shoes, once you've built up enough speed you can push down to 'Turbo Up' Samus and allow her to jump at a great height or to shoot yourself at an angle and crash through walls. However, actually pushing the down button while running to turbo up can become a test of patience as I found many times I was not hitting it fast enough or at the right angle. Again, using the shoudler buttons would have been more desirable to achieve this turbo effect. The actual jumping part itself can also lead to complications as the small delay in 'take off' of the super jump can result in you shooting off to a side instead of straight up. And everytime you finish a super jump by crashing into something, you lose a decent chunk of health.
Rating: **1/2 The controls are substandard. Unnatural, uncomfortable, and at times beyond frustating. The floaty jumping is something that you can overcome in any platform based game. However, issues like the turbo boost and wall jump can at times cripple the gameplay along with your hands. Granted, the main reason these actions are mapped out so poorly is because there's a ton of different things to do in Super Metroid and only so many buttons to do them with. That's a decent argument, but it doesn't entirely excuse Super Metroid. Dare I say, some of these features should have been cut. I'm willing to bet the Wall Jump almost was. Hell, maybe it was a last second addition to the game, which would explain why it's missing in the instruction book. Instead, it's explained to you by little green trolls who demonstrate it. They don't actually tell you how to do it, and you have to figure it out on your own. A green ostrich-like bird explains the power jump. Mind you, they don't actually tell you what buttons to push, just what it looks like when you're doing it. I would describe them both as semi-broken play mechanics and I'm willing to bet that if the Metroid producers had one take-back, those features would be it.
Game Play
After busting the chops of the game's controls, I have nothing left to complain about. Despite not controlling as well as it could, Super Metroid is better then almost any game ever created. The world of Zebes is so huge and open-ended that you can beat the game without getting some of the weapons and tools found on it. Not only will you not miss them, but you won't even know they existed. Finding the various missile/super missile/super bomb upgrades hidden throughout the game always results in a moment of glee, moreso then finding various hidden treasures in Zelda games. So much crap is hidden in the game that I would be impressed if anyone could find it all without the use of any strategy guides or walk throughs. In playing through Super Metroid, I finished the game with a time of 4:42, having found 7 of 10 Super Missile packs, 28 out of 46 standard missile packs, and only 6 of 10 of the Super Bomb packs. Hell, I never even found the X-Ray scope! I forgot it even existed. And I never found the Wave Gun either. That's how much crap is stored away on Super Metroid.
And the main quest itself is something to behold. The object is to find and kill the four main bosses of Zebes. Along the way, you will upgrade your main gun, boots, armor, and morphball. You'll often upgrade three or four times between boss encounters. There's no puzzles to solve here... it's all action, guns blazing, pure platform goodness. The challenge comes in the form of navigation. Zebes is simply huge and finding your way around it requires the ability to figure out how to get from point "a" to point "b". It's not always easy. Even with maps provided to you by special in-game stations, you'll make your way to what you think is the entrance for the area you are going to, only to find a dead end. You can see the target you're going for, but you can't get to it, and you must find another way. Other times, you'll be within reach of an item only to find the floor crumble beneath you, only steps away from your target. You'll be pissed for a few minutes, but upon actually getting the item the sense of satisfaction is undeniable. You'll feel good as you complete Super Metroid. It's a wonderful rush to play through.
Backtracking is something that a lot of modern games get scored poorly for. I always found it a bit funny that EGM would call Super Metroid the greatest game of all time and then go on to bitch about games that require a lot of backtracking, such as Final Fantasy games or Devil May Cry. Simply put, you'll be backtracking a lot in Super Metroid. You will backtrack when you beat bosses, you'll backtrack for items you missed, you'll backtrack to reach new areas of the game. By time your mission is finished you'll be qualified to give a walking tour of Planet Zebes. Half the time you'll know exactly where you want to go and the best route to get there. The other half of the time, you'll be looking for the section you're missing that will allow you to pass through to the next zone. By time you find that route, an entire section of the map and it's various passageways will be commited to your memory. You can't help it. It just happens.
You'll notice one aspect while exploring Zebes... there's not a lot of save stations. In fact, I would say there's just enough to make the game pretty intense between visits to them. At times, you'll be sweating bullets, having collected so much stuff since your last save that you'll dread unlikely situations like the power going out, nevermind simply dying. And as you hazard your way through the game, you'll take a lot of damage and notice yourself low on life with no save stations (or the even more rare health stations) nearby. There are other methods to save yourself. Many rooms contain tubes where flying insects swarm up to divebomb you. You can shoot these guy one at a time until you've refilled your health, plus are your missiles and bombs. You'll get to know where these rooms are because you'll spend time there filliing up your health after every failed attempt to find the next route. But it never feels like a chore when you're doing it. That's one of the best aspects of Super Metroid... it never feels like you're doing busy work. Even the annoying as hell Wall Jump segments *feel* important, and not just something that you're doing because you have nothing better to do.
Not to mention the action isn't one-dimensional. You won't just be running and jumping. You'll end up spending a great deal of time looking for secret passageways, which usually lead to upgrades to your supply of missiles and bombs. The morphing ball will have you bouncing yourself using bombs looking for hidden passages. The grapple beam, found later in the game, will have you swinging off special blocks (and even enemies) to find more hidden stuff for your collection. At many times in the game, instead of killing enemies you'll be trying to use them to gain passage to other areas of the game. Using the Ice Beam, you'll freeze enemies to turn them into platforms. Sometimes, you'll have enemies burrow through rock to help you advance further into the game. By time you're near the end of Super Metroid, you'll be using caution when dealing with enemies, wondering if you should kill them or use them. Or maybe use them and then kill them. Hey, they unfreeze at a certain point!
As previously mentioned, there are four main bosses to the planet Zebes, along with a few minor bosses. Most of these fights are intense and enjoyable, well above the scale found in other games of the era. You'll even encounter a version of Kraid similar to the one found in the original NES Metroid. A fan service, even before such a thing existed, that also serves as a way to throw you off before your encounter with the real Kraid. Upon seeing him, you'll understand that this is not the same Metroid you've dealt with before. Kraid is several screens tall and shoots the platforms you need to use to kill him out of his stomach. It's an intense fight that sets the tone for the ones you will encounter later. Another remarkable aspect is some of the bosses don't have a specific pattern that needs to be discovered before killing them. The underwater boss, for example. You can shoot him with your missiles and beat him that way. Alternately, you can allow him to grab you and then electrocute him by shooting an open energy port with your grapple beam. If there's any complaints about the bosses, it's that the final fight against Mother Brain is WAY too easy. Coming into it, you're fresh off a fight with Ridley who is pretty tough to beat. It feels like a letdown for the final boss to be such a wuss. On the bright side, upon beating her you're given three minutes to escape from the planet before it blows up, another callback to the original Metroid. It's funny, that Super Metroid is arguably the first 'fan service' game considering that it was not the most popular NES game.
Rating: ***** There's no complaints here. Super Metroid is an absolute joy to take in and explore. You'll never find yourself bored with the action and the sense of satisfaction of making it through the game is felt time and time again with every new area discovered and every new item aquired. The feeling of "Ta-Da!" is felt so often you'll actual wonder if the game will ever leave you without it. It won't.
Test of Time
As of this writing, Super Metroid is fourteen years old and still feels as fresh today as it did in 1994. The graphics still hold up well... better in fact then most Nintendo 64 or Playstation games. And the gameplay holds up even better. In some ways, I was feeling like I had missed out by not replaying this game more often over the years. And at other times, I was happy I didn't. The fact that I was on only my third play-through in fourteen years meant that many aspects of Super Metroid were entirely forgotten. How cool the underwater sequence was, the boss fights, etc. It also confirmed to me that anyone going into this game fresh would enjoy it.
Rating: ***** If this game was released today on the Nintendo DS, having never been released before, it would be a contender for Game of the Year. Normally, I would subtract points for having so many control issues, but the fact is you will ultimately force yourself to ignore them. Super Metroid is that compelling.
BOTTOM LINE: I wouldn't call Super Metroid the greatest game of all time, but it's up there with the very top 1% of games ever made. A showpiece for the SNES. A masterpiece of gaming in general. I doubt there's any gamer on the planet who couldn't find some aspect of Super Metroid to be likable. A few very small segments of the game will have you ripping your hair out. The rest is pure gaming joy.
Overall Rating: *****
