newly playing: super metroid

2026/10/10

in the big pile of videogames that the world has been practically begging me to play, SUPER METROID has been on the to-do list for maybe the longest. since playing the first two games on NES (via the NES mini) and game boy (via the 3DS virtual console) in 2019, it was obviously supposed to come next, but i just kind of? didn't? play it? for ages?

since i've been considering it this long i've had brushes with it and tried it on and off in these 7 years but i never got much further than like... the first mini-boss in brinstar, near the beginning of the game. because of this, the game remained a *kinda* familiar but ultimately mysterious thing the whole time. the first two games were highly formative for me, getting me to realise as a teen that actually old games can be just as fun as the newer ones. despite what so many say, metroid I and II are thrilling experiences, so i really SHOULD have been excited to try super metroid this whole time. what took me so long???

well a lot of people going "riley, you should play super metroid" helped lol.

there's one part of the video i just released last month, in a segment about X for game boy, where i compare the experience of that game to METROID II. in reality, it shares more with SUPER METROID, both games being directed by the same yoshio sakamoto, but i could only speak from experience and compare it to II with a little note on screen explaining that, no, even though it'd make more sense i haven't played SUPER METROID, my apologies. i do maintain that X shares way more with METROID II aesthetically though.

during the pre-release process the video's guest voice star, kiki, saw this part and *instantly* asked me to play super metroid. it's that significant of a game, that essential of an experience, and she absolutely wasn't the only one to ask me. it was far from the first time i'd been asked to play it -- "what? you haven't played super metroid?" et cetera -- so i decided i'd had enough. although i couldn't play it during video production, i gave myself a break after publishing and thought it'd be worth trying it out during this downtime.

the decision was, also, however, motivated by, the reveal of a new metroid game, which, happened to take place right before i put that video out. the previous entry on switch, "METROID DREAD", didn't hook me in at all because i felt the pressure to catch up before ever trying it. this time though nintendo kicked open the door and quite directly went "SAMUS IS HUNGRY AND WANTS TO EAT" and the hearts of millions of lesbians burst out their chests mine included love u samus call me back samus

so i'm sure you can understand i was more eager to catch up by finally "locking in" and trying super metroid for real. i'd just moved into a new house so it felt good to play portably, on the couch, while relaxing, and it was excellent for this purpose.

despite my playthrough totalling about 10 hours, exploring the planet ZEBETH (i'm standing by this it's funny) is a slow burn, a methodical process in which there's always something around the corner to laser-focus in on. there was only one point, around the middle of the playthrough, where i got lost, but the payoff was that my pal oqto got to say "yeah there's a GHOST SHIP up on the surface you can only reach with the grapple beam" and that sounded so cool. like what do you mean ghost ship. that's awesome. it's a whole other alien ship you didn't know was there? that rules?

if METROID on the NES was about exploring an alien environment and METROID II was about quiet suspense, METROID 3 is all about surprises. within its own original material it holds numerous moments of mystery, whether through its level mechanics or its narrative elements or both. everything is a puzzle to be solved, and as relieving as it is to gain a new powerup, they'll only point you to even more puzzles with even more rewards waiting for you. since this was my first run, i took my time and got every powerup in the game, so i noticed that every ability provided new challenges rather than making things "easier". all the way up to the climactic TOURIAN area, you're prompted to use every tool available to you to make the most of navigating the planet. it's a relentless blend of action and problem-solving.

it's been long enough that i don't pristinely remember my time with the first two games. i still prefer METROID II for how it does absolutely everything it can with the gameboy's capabilities to provide a real tense atmosphere, but super metroid is no slouch in that regard either. its music, sound design and visual aesthetics are all obviously very strong.

what's notable to me is how, in tandem with samus' motivations as a character, SUPER METROID is a whole lot more courageous and adventurous than the previous entries. even if everything's meant to be bigger and scarier upon returning to ZEBETH, samus *has* the guts to get through it all. she's not messing around this time, even as the threats increase in intensity.

i find it especially appealing that this is effectively a remake of metroid, but finds a narrative justification to make it a continuation too. the player is revisiting the planet, which means they'll see familiar sights and prepare for what they expect to be there only to get entirely subverted, whether it's quiet or bombastic.

my favourite instance of this is earlier in the game, when you meet kraid, appearing as his familiar two-tile sprite from your last meeting. except he dies surprisingly quickly, and nothing really happens, because that's not kraid. the real monster is behind the door to the next room, and he's larger than the screen can even show, more powerful than ever before. it's already an impressive technical display, but it specifically hits if you played the first game, if you had that preconceived idea of what kraid is. otherwise, he's still a cool giant monster. this style of intertextuality is seriously super metroid's biggest strength, it's something i've seen so few games do, and it only reinforces the recurring surprises the game holds.

nintendo are far from resistant to reuse ideas and even assets in their games, a lot of their series are built of templates they keep iterating and building on and in the case of the SUPER FAMICOM this is because of the motivation to practically "remake" games from the previous system and see how they could be executed with new tech. the memories of METROID linger, as a result.

the designers are practically asking you to draw comparisons as you play, and if you left enough time between them like i did (the gap between playing metroid 1 and 3 for me was 7 years, in real life the games released 8 years apart, maybe i should've waited another year!) there's a particularly distant but strong familiarity that resurfaces from the imagery alone. 2019 riley was a particularly different person, believe it or not, so being asked to return to that time via a game about samus herself returning to that time made super metroid quite the reflective experience. funnily enough it's a lot easier to see in this game who samus is under that ambiguous suit. no doubts about her identity this time :)

so yeah my experience with SUPER METROID was intensely personal, meaning i have no clue if you'll get the same out of it. i can say for now that if you're thinking of playing the game at all, it's quite essential to play the first two games too if you wanna get the most out of it, if you wanna understand why it's so good. the tricks of familiarity it pulls are an excellent way to mess with the player. videogame series only rarely do this, even if super metroid proved that it's cool as hell. oh well!!