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Metroid NES Nintendo 1986 Quite possibly the best female bounty hunter series ever. Okay, definitely the best. Enough with the sentence fragments. Samus Aran makes her debut in this ground-breaking game, fighting against the evil Mother Brain and her cohorts, Kraid and Ridley. The game used a very simple six-bit mapping system, allowing for a fixed number of repeating vertical rooms (one screen wide, many screens tall) and horizontal rooms (one tall, many wide). These rooms were given various colors and slapped together to form an incredible map spanning three areas of Planet Zebes: Brinstar (planty) Norfair (fiery) and Tourian (Mother Brain's crib, if you like rap music). Brain's henchmen, Kraid and Ridley, had their own cribs in Brinstar and Norfair respectively. Both hideouts were incredibly difficult to navigate, since the enemies were impossible and you had to find all kinds of secret passages. Additionally, the weapon system in the game was ghetto, to say the least. You need the long beam to get more distance (duh), the ice beam to freeze stuff, and the wave beam (basically) to kill anything tough. Unlike the SNES sequel, you could only equip one of the two main beams at once, leaving you to use the crappy ice beam when needed, then go BACK for the wave beam when you actually had to fight. The ice beam sucked because odd numbered hits (the 1st, 3rd, 5th...) would freeze enemies, while even hits would unfreeze them. Enemies got all twitchy when they unfroze temporarily, and killing even basic enemies took like eight shots, since freezing didn't do damage. This beam eats goat ass. No two ways about it. The wave beam, on the other hand, was badass. It killed stuff, went through walls, and hit over a better vertical range since it was wavy. But it cannot last. Alas, metroids (the evil energy zapping leeches that gave the game its name) must be frozen then shot with missiles, sticking you with the crappy ice beam for the last chunk of the game. Metroid's lasting legacy (the game, not the series) lies in the complexity of the map. Intentionally or otherwise, approximately a third of Zebes' enormous territory went unmapped by Nintendo and other video game producers. Using the bizarre wall-door technique, Samus can be transported through walls or floors and into normally unavailable hidden areas. These areas have kept Metroid as one of the most played NES games around, and a handful of entrances have been found. Often, this glitchy area will make Samus get stuck, or she will disappear from the screen, leaving you with only footsteps to judge distances. As a kid, I was never good enough at video games (and didn't have stuff like the internet to tell me secrets) to play through this game. I always used the famous "Justin Bailey" password and played through with Samus in her bathing suit deal. Somehow, I knew my way from the Norfair entrance, to an E-Tank (fills life) to the ice beam, to Mother Brain. Go figure. After not playing the game between 1st and 7th grade, I picked it up used for seven bucks, and somehow still knew the way. I never made it through start to finish (never tried much either) till this year, when a friend did most of the playing as I directed him so I didn't have to write a paper on "Death in Venice," a book which features a homosexual/pedophile (possibly Alucard, of Castlevania, late in his life) lusting after a young boy. So, after reading that repulsive description, you understand why I was less than thrilled to write a paper, especially since I didn't get the book till 8 hours before the paper was due. It got done late, I got a B, but my friend and I beat the hell out of Metroid in the process, making the Alucard book totally worth skimming for three quotes and writing four pages on. What I liked: Phenomenal concept, weapons and other options Some cool bosses, sorta. (Sorry. Obligatory boss comment, will appear in any applicable review from here on out. They are cool, despite pitiful animation) This game is SO deep for its time. There is so much to do in the course of one game, so many areas to see and secrets to find, both legitimate and (seemingly) illegitimate What I didn't: Damn this is hard. You only start with 30 life, and you can't really shoot small enemies. Even late in the game, staying alive is a huge bother. If you die, you start again with 30 life so you can be repeatedly sodomized by all the enemies around you. Jumping sucks. Ice+Wave=Good. What happened with that anyway? Controls: 6. Spin jumps are rough, and things like the ice beam can mess you up. Graphics: 7. Not bad for 1986, when you get down to it. Sound: 9. Stellar tracks, although the beepy one really bothers me. Style: 10. I'm probably overrating a lot of games, in general, but I really can't find a flaw here. These guys took a phenomenal concept (aliens, guns, lots of land, lots of power-ups) and threw together an absolutely amazing game given their obvious limits. In a world of superior graphics and high powered systems, this is a feat that will never be duplicated. 1st hour: 6. I suck. 2nd hour: 7. I suck, but I have bombs or missiles or something. 1st week: 8. Beat a boss or two, loading up on weapons and stuff. 2nd week: 9. Eat it, Mother Brain! 1st month: 10. SOOOOOOOO much to do. I love it. The number one reason I HATE THIS GAME is that if you die once, you're gonna die a helluva lot more immediately after it. by Evil X |
