Super Metroid
Comparing Super Metroid to its NES forebear is beside the point. It’s neither lonely nor foreign nor hostile. Its world concedes to you: the persistent map that keeps you from truly feeling lost, the save rooms and recharge stations that comfort with the promise of a safe reset, the x-ray scope that pushes the land’s “secrets” closer to the realm of “collectibles.” There isn’t much risk. It has little to actually say.
It does, however, kick mondo ass.
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This is the Aliens to Metroid’s Alien, an infinitely stylish, fat-free popcorn game tuned for action more than horror or introspection. It’s not trying to portray dread. Space warrior Samus Aran lands on the planet Zebes a professional badass, you get the tools to keep her that way, then you’re given a steady stream of cool-as-shit upgrades that only make her stronger. She is/you are the hunter. This is a game where you can infinitely roll through the air as a big glowing energy blade, destroying everything in your path. It has a big epic soundtrack and a melodramatic twist ending. It has this intro.
It, to put it succinctly, rules. And it knows it. That it had this refined of a voice and aesthetic in 1994 is still remarkable.
8/10
Note: This review was originally published on my blog, Jeff Reviews Games.
