Rew's Metroid Series Run!

[Rew]

I'm back...

So anyone who remembers this thread from last year will recall my great voyage through every game in the Zelda series, and to 100% completion in all of them, at that.

Well, now I've returned to do the same thing for the Metroid series! Like so:
- Metroid (1987) on VC
- Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991) on GBP
- Super Metroid (1994) on VC
- Metroid Fusion (2002) on GBP
- Metroid: Zero Mission (2004) on GBP
- Metroid Prime (2002) on Wii
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004) on Wii
- Metroid Prime Pinball (2005) on DS
- Metroid Prime: Hunters (2006) on DS
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (2007) on Wii
- Metroid: Other M (2010) on Wii

So I'll be playing two of the first three on Virtual Console, the portable games on Game Boy Player on my TV screen (except for the 2 DS games, which are only playable on the DS). And then the Prime games will be played on the Metroid Prime Trilogy compilation on Wii. I'm aware that this makes for some sometimes significant differences. I'm going in general order of release date but keeping like with like, so starting with the first five 2D games (including keeping the two GBA titles together), followed by the five Prime games, to conclude with the latest after that. Also, even though I am aiming for 100% in these games, I'm not a speedrunner, by any stretch of the imagination. So I doubt I'll be going for the fastest endings with Samus stripping down to a bikini and such.

What's going to be different about this series compared to the Zelda series is that with Zelda I had played all those games before, just never all in order as I did until last year. But with Metroid, I've only ever played one, and that's Super Metroid. Incidentally Super Metroid is my favorite game ever produced for the SNES and my second favorite game of all time. So why exactly have I never played a Metroid game before or since? I genuinely have no idea. That's what this current run is for! If I liked Super so much, shouldn't I like many of the other games too? The fun part about this is that except for SM, every one of these games will be a new experience for me!


So up first is the original Metroid on NES! Despite the fact that I'm definitely old enough to have experienced this game in its heyday, for some reason I never did. I've heard horror tales of how incredible difficult it is, so I'm bracing myself for that. Of course, I also made it through both of the NES Zeldas last year without a game-over, so I'm hoping I won't find this one too brutal in comparison. I've already mapped out a solid route for getting me all the items in as efficient a manner as I can find. I'm sure the many enemies throughout the game will have something to say about that, however.

[hupla]

Yeeeeeeeesssss ive been waiting for this! Im glad you are playing fusion before Other M so you can understand my pain : P

Enjoy!

[Rew]

I've actually sampled every game so far (just to make sure they work), and Other M is already painful for me. >_< (Although I do like the play control better than the Prime games, but that's because I've never played FPS's before.)

Anyway, I'll be starting this run tomorrow. I don't know when I'll be finished with the series. Maybe in a couple months? I have no idea.

Later this year, however, I'll be moving on to Mario! Since Mario is basically a metaseries, here's how I plan on tackling the subseries of that one. Assuming Yoshi's Island comes out on VC between now and then, it'll look like this:
- Mario main series (platforming)
- Wario/Yoshi/Peach spinoff series
- Mario RPG games (SMRPG, PM, M&L)
- Mario remake games (All-Stars, Advance, etc.)
- Mario Kart series
- Smash Bros. series

If there's still no Yoshi's Island on VC by then, I'll wait on both Wario/Yoshi/Peach games, as well as the remakes until it is out.

And if Mega Man: The Wily Wars (originally for Sega MegaDrive/Genesis) comes out on VC before I finish the Smash Bros. run, I may run through all the MM classic games as well.

Yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

[hisak]

You're in for some very good games. :D I should take notes during this for my Gamecube run this summer. It's completely your decision, but I'm curious as to why you're playing the remakes separately for Zelda and Mario but not for Metroid.

I'm guessing you won't be finished with this by E3, but you might want to wait until Nintendo announces its release plans for Super Mario/Paper Mario/Mario Kart 3DS before starting your Mario run. And Yoshi's Island is NEVER getting released on VC.

[Rew]

You're in for some very good games. :D I should take notes during this for my Gamecube run this summer. It's completely your decision, but I'm curious as to why you're playing the remakes separately for Zelda and Mario but not for Metroid.

I'm guessing you won't be finished with this by E3, but you might want to wait until Nintendo announces its release plans for Super Mario/Paper Mario/Mario Kart 3DS before starting your Mario run. And Yoshi's Island is NEVER getting released on VC.

Hopefully I won't be in for too many bad ones.

Well, there aren't really any genuine remakes for the Zelda series. ALttP was ported onto GBA, but that was a port, not a remake. Normally I don't include ports on runs such as this (e.g. I didn't play the GBA re-releases of the NES Zeldas), but since it not only included the new game FS but also had cross content (e.g. Palace of Four Sword), I went ahead and replayed it on GBA. Indeed, OoT3D is going to be the first genuine Zelda remake in the series (aside from BS Zelda, but that was Japan only). As for Metroid, the only real remake was Zero Mission, and since it's only one (and the series is small enough as it is compared to Mario and Zelda), I'm just going to run through it as the last of the 2D Metroid games. I don't really count Trilogy as a remake anymore than I do LoZ:TP as remakes from Wii to GCN or vice versa. With Mario, however, All-Stars is a remake with new graphics and such, and if it were the only one, I'd probably play it right after the original SMB1-3. But Deluxe, the 4 Advance games, and SM64 DS are not only remakes with graphical updates, but they actually introduce new gameplay elements that almost make them new games in and of themselves. So I decided for that reason to make a run out of that subseries, starting with All-Stars.

I have no idea how long the Prime games are going to take me, so I could be done with Other M by E3, or I could be still struggling through MP1 at that time for all I know. But yeah, E3 is going to make a big difference for when I start my Mario run (which I'm guessing will be sometime this fall) because I want to know when Super Mario, Paper Mario, and Mario Kart all come out for 3DS. It would be ideal if all three were released in 2011. =D

And Yoshi's Island better come out on VC! D=<

[hisak]

Remake talk

Gotcha. I was thinking that you might want to play Prime and/or Prime 2 on Gamecube so that you could see the improvements in control that were made between Prime 2 and 3 (especially since when you take these improvements out of the picture, as Trilogy did, Corruption is probably the weakest of the trilogy). But it shouldn't make a huge difference either way.

Edit: Will you be playing through each of the Prime games on Hard mode after beating them?

[hupla]

Play the games on vetran mode, Normal on the trillogy games is easy mode

[Rew]

@hisak (and hupla): I will definitely be playing Corruption on hard (or "Hypermode") after beating it because there's stuff you can only unlock by gaining accomplishments on the hardest difficulty setting.

As for the first two Prime games...eh, I don't know. I sampled all three, and my lack of ever playing an FPS in my life really came out. I struggled with the controls badly and almost died on Prime's first bloody boss--and then died on the subsequent escape sequence (and not from running out of time either). I'm thinking about playing those on Normal mode (or "Candyass" as some call it) just to get me familiar with the controls and with that particular genre. Maybe for Echoes too since I hear it's one of the hardest games in the entire series. For Corruption, though, I won't be taking the easy way out! Also, in the Trilogy compilation, there's absolutely nothing to unlock by beating either MP1 or MP2 on hard/Hypermode (or even Veteran).

We'll see, though. I still have a good bit of time to think about it. But for now...


Oh. My. God.

This game was bloody ridiculous! I knew that it was going to be hard (it's from the good ol' NES days, after all), but even with a map and a route prepared, this game still nailed me with some harsh frustration.

Metroid 1 seems to define difficulty in terms of the cheap and unfair. I was warned beforehand of enemies' abilities to follow you into doors dealing you damage during the scene shift when you have no control--as well as the times when the door just dumps you right into an enemy, damaging you before you have a chance to regain control.

What I was not warned about was this one very particular stretch of Norfair. There's a corridor filled with tall bubble columns over lava. There are also these seahorse dragon looking things spitting fireballs at you the whole time. So I got knocked into the lava. No problem--in Metroid games, if you fall into lava, you just take a tiny bit of damage and hop out. The problem here was--the bubble columns on either side of me were too tall! I was stuck in the lava. I tried bomb jumping, I tried somersaults, every kind of jump I could try. Three Energy Tanks later, I finally made some God-enabled miraculous jump that got me out of there. Thank ****ing God. Then the ****ing seahorse straightaway knocked me back into an exactly similar pit 10 seconds later. **** this game.

That part notwithstanding (and how I made it through there without actually dying I have no idea), this game was relatively smooth sailing for most of it. I got all the collectibles from Brinstar (that one Energy Tank in the ceiling almost cost me a game-over), then moved on to Norfair to get everything I could there. Then it was off to Kraid's Crib for my first Metroid boss battle.  The battles with both Kraid and Ridley were remarkably dull--both take tons of hits and just fire off the same projectiles over and over again in the same attack pattern until they're dead. Yawn. That said, it was a good thing I got all those Energy Tanks before meeting Kraid because avoiding all his crap was beyond my meager abilities.

It should also be noted that, contrary to one person's advice, I got the Wave Beam, which I used against both bosses. Ice would've been better against Kraid (Wave worked wonders against Ridley, though). But because I was going for 100% completion in this game, I wanted to make sure I touched every item at least once. So I got the Ice Beam in Brinstar early on, then got the Wave Beam in Norfair once I was near it. And I loved it so much that I used it all the rest of the way until Ridley was defeated and there was nothing else but to go to Tourian. So after leaving Ridley, I got the Ice Beam in Norfair and proceeded on to Tourian.

And that was when the horror really started. I've been so conditioned by Super Metroid that at this point I figured the game was in the bag. Because in SM, by the time you get to Tourian, the game is basically rolled out for you on a red bloody carpet. In Metroid 1, those Metroids are FAST. It doesn't help either that the Ice Beam is so tiny and Samus refuses to fire at an angle (unlike SM)--and of course Metroids love exploiting this by zooming right to you at an angle. Ugh. But that wasn't really so bad. The real nightmare was in Mother Brain's room. Those Zebetites are INFINITELY more frustrating than on the SNES. While you're busy trying to shoot those things down with Samus's slow-ass missiles, you've got Cheerios and tiny bullets flying at you from all directions. And they all do MASSIVE damage, which they didn't in SM. I actually died for the first (and only) time in that room, with one Zebetite remaining.

So after that, I return to Mother Brain, and yeah, you've got to love it--if you get knocked into the lava pit right in front of her tank, you are grade-A screwed. It's almost the same scenario from that bubble room in Norfair, getting stuck in the lava. You have to freeze a Rinka in just the right place to get out, and you'd better not Screw Attack either! And it doesn't help that when Samus gets hit by those tiny little bullets, she just bounces around like a goddamn pinball. (Now we know the true inspiration for Metroid Pinball.) Finally, Mother Brain died--and the explosion practically happened off-screen because of how much I kept getting bounced around.

Now when you get to the escape sequence, if you look at it on a map, you think, "Well, that's not so bad." I guess it's not, but man, that long vertical shaft will psych you out! After such a harrowing ordeal with Mother Brain and her Test Tube-Cheerio tag team combo, I was on pins and needles the whole way up--and once fell almost all the way down when I was almost at the top. My hands were literally shaking by the time I finally made it up, and well, good God, I'm glad this one's done. Good riddance to Metroid on NES. Your successor on Super NES was far more worthy.

Oh, and I got the ending with Samus showing her womanly face but still the rest of her in the Power Suit--second worst ending. Eh. =/


Well, up next is Metroid II: Return of Samus. It's a Game Boy adventure, and I actually know quite little about this one. I had a map all completely mapped out, with all items 100%, when my computer crashed on me today, so that is all gone now. I can only hope the game itself won't prove as frustrating as either that experience with my laptop or Metroid 1. Thankfully M2 is a good deal more linear, so I should be able to wing it more. I just hope the lava/acid isn't as frustrating in this one as in the original. >_>

[hupla]

Yeah Metroid is a very very dated game, more so I think than any of the Other nintendo series first outings on the NES.Bad guys hit harder in this game than anyother.

The wave beam will be your go-to beam in the next few 2d games since it hits Bosses with Large sprites multiple times.

It is very intresting how you mention controling samus feels very slow, thats one of the little charming things I liked about 1 & 2, you really feel like youre moving around in well, a huge power suit. Not to say I dislike the more "acrobat" that samus became in Super-Other M, but I really liked that Prime brought back the tankish movement, well doing what ROS did and making the Morphball you're go to for fast exploration.

[Rew]

Yeah Metroid is a very very dated game, more so I think than any of the Other nintendo series first outings on the NES.Bad guys hit harder in this game than anyother.

The wave beam will be your go-to beam in the next few 2d games since it hits Bosses with Large sprites multiple times.

It is very intresting how you mention controling samus feels very slow, thats one of the little charming things I liked about 1 & 2, you really feel like youre moving around in well, a huge power suit. Not to say I dislike the more "acrobat" that samus became in Super-Other M, but I really liked that Prime brought back the tankish movement, well doing what ROS did and making the Morphball you're go to for fast exploration.

Metroid really is dated, more so than Zelda 1 or any of the SMB or Mega Man games. Still, it's a fun game for running around and blowing things up.

That's an interesting perspective on Samus's movement. I actually didn't feel like she was too slow in this one--it was mainly her missiles that I felt were really sluggish when taking down those regenerating Zebetites. I'm much too used to Samus's rapid-fire missiles from Super Metroid, which can take those things down in no time flat.

For Return of Samus, I might utilize the Morph Ball more for speeding along the ground.

[hupla]

Metroid really is dated, more so than Zelda 1 or any of the SMB or Mega Man games. Still, it's a fun game for running around and blowing things up.

That's an interesting perspective on Samus's movement. I actually didn't feel like she was too slow in this one--it was mainly her missiles that I felt were really sluggish when taking down those regenerating Zebetites. I'm much too used to Samus's rapid-fire missiles from Super Metroid, which can take those things down in no time flat.

Yep, I can get friends of mine to play the first and second mario games and Zelda 1 but metroid its kinda a chore for most of them to complete, Good thing we have Zero mission

Well you also gotta look at the power ups samus gets in super, Speed booster  that leads to shine sparking, and her space jump is waaaaay easier to manage, It just feels like they went for more of a "super woman" than "Bounty hunter" as the series goes on. (ill touch more on this later, esspacialy once yo get to prime 2/3)

For Return of Samus, I might utilize the Morph Ball more for speeding along the ground.

Oh you'll be speeding on more than just the floor with that morph ball  

[hisak]

I'm thinking about playing those on Normal mode (or "Candyass" as some call it) just to get me familiar with the controls and with that particular genre. Maybe for Echoes too since I hear it's one of the hardest games in the entire series.

What? No way, Veteran or bust. We didn't have an Easy mode on GameCube!

I'm not sure if I'll ever play the original Metroid. Your impressions aren't exactly making me want to.

[Rew]

@hups: Super woman as time goes on? Yeah, that's pretty much true. Until Other M. Then she's more like a ragdoll.
And yes, the Spider Ball! Very handy, that was. I hated that Samus went slow as hell in that form, though.

@hisak: Eh, maybe. After all, I want to enjoy Metroid Prime, not hate it.
Tell you what--you play through the original Metroid, and I'll play MP1-2 on Veteran.


So now Metroid II is down! Well, actually I finished it yesterday but was too lazy to post last night.

And yeah, this was quite an improvement on the original. Yet it removed what was Metroid 1's most defining and innovative feature: non-linear exploration (much like how Zelda II removed the original Zelda's drawing feature of overhead exploration). I wonder if people back in 1991 found this to be a problem or an improvement? I don't know. I didn't have a Game Boy as a kid, so I missed out on all those games.

So the game is very simple. You have 39 Metroid creatures to eradicate (47 if we include the 8 that crop up at the end), four ruined civilizations to pillage, and numerous places where earthquakes must drain acid/lava in order to allow you to progress deeper into the planet. You start out fighting the relatively simple Alpha Metroids before the game evolves them into Gamma (not much harder), Zeta (much harder), and Omega (the strongest of the bunch) before you get to the Queen herself.

For the most part, this game was pretty smooth sailing, following a pattern of opening up an area, exploring the ruins, collecting all items therein, then eliminating nearby Metroids to open up other areas. All was well...until the very end. I was going through Phase 9, the final area of the game, eliminating the new regular Metroids, and my smooth game ran right smack into a brick wall with the final boss, Queen Metroid. Much like the original, I found myself stumped by the last boss and actually died on her numerous times without even making much progress in my battles with her. Her lunges came too fast to avoid, and I couldn't get a shot in otherwise because she would fire those three spitballs at me that I'd have to Screw Attack through (with limited success at that) before it was right back to lunging again. Oh, and she takes 150 missiles to kill. 150.

I finally realized that I'd been fighting her wrong. I was focusing too much on dodging her attacks (a habit I picked up from Boss Battles in Brawl, where it's absolutely imperative)--and was mediocre at that--preventing me from getting hardly any attacks in of my own on her. So instead, I simply stood in that bottom corner, let her lunge, and then gave her a face full of missiles (not jumping this time as I'd been before, but standing my ground, letting her come to me as she invariably did). Of course, doing this you actually stun her, so I mashed that button rapid-fire and really did some hardcore damage to her. Soon, she was dead, and I was free! Just for fun, I fought her again after the credits and used this bomb trick I heard about, of stunning her, Morph Balling into her mouth and then setting a bomb in her stomach for MASSIVE damage. Oh yes. And I heard you can do something similar in the rematch in Other M too.

Having felt like I dragged my heels, I found myself surprised to see that I beat the game in 3:22, less than a half-hour away from the best ending.

But you know what, I think my favorite part about this game is the ending. You saunter past the Queen's decomposing carcass to find an egg hatching--and the baby Metroid takes to you as a mother and leads you out of the labyrinthine cave. The music that plays is sublime (my favorite in the game), and it was pretty exhilarating coming out of the cave and seeing stars for the first time since you first entered at the beginning of the game. Then you make it back to your ship for a much more subdued "evacuation" sequence than in Metroid and Super Metroid. It was a nice touch that the ending really did bring you full circle again.

Also, as provocative a moment as it is what happens in the final battle of Super Metroid, it's even more poignant now for those gamers who played Metroid II and first witnessed the hatching of this baby Metroid and felt Samus's initial bond with it.

Speaking of which...


*cues Theme of Samus Aran, Galactic Warrior*

Up next is the one and only Super Metroid!

This is the granddaddy of them all, the very game that made me take notice of this series in the first place, and the one dwarfed only by Ocarina of Time for my favorite game ever, even beating out A Link to the Past during the golden age of 16-bit gaming.

I've beaten this gem numerous times and have rarely failed to achieve 100% completion in so doing. But there is one thing I've never accomplished before: beating it in under three hours, thus earning the best ending possible. Having never had any experience with the first two Metroids before (nor Fusion nor Zero Mission) I haven't been going for these fast endings. I've never been a speedrunner, preferring to leisurely immerse myself in the experience instead of rushing through.

But for this one, which I'm so experienced at, I feel like it's time to elevate my game to the next level. So I will at least try to finish it--100%--in less than three hours. That doesn't mean I'll succeed. But I'm at least going to give it a go.

At any rate, it'll be a while before I get to it, though. I had a document outlining my route for this game, but it deleted itself during a recent computer crash--and besides I was going to completely revamp it anyway. So I'll want time to do that. Plus, I have numerous IRL things going on which need attending to. I'm hoping to get to Super Metroid by or during the weekend.

See you next mission.

[hupla]

Play primes on vetran! >:O

Metroid 2 pokemon Red and LA were pretty much my baby sitters when I  was a kid. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE this game  

Spider ball is such an awesome powerup makes up for the fact that the games is sectioned of by letting you explore every corner of each section :D And It also gave Samus her giant shoulder pads! What a game!

Yeah the final battle with the metroid queen is a very ridley esque fight, dont bother having skill just throw shit at her.

The ending is so awesome and shows how metroid can shine with story telling "show, dont tell". No dialouge, no other characters, just a samus showing compasion for a creature she was raised to kill, really touching.

I would love a remake of this game, come on Nintendo!

HAVE SOME ART

http://i.imgur.com/V5Op5.jpg

[Beh]

I find it objectionable that a humanoid is listed as 6 meters...

[hupla]

Well in a Powersuit they get pretty big!

[Beh]

Brawl has her as tall as normal humans, even out of her Powesuit!

[hupla]

Um exuscse me Beh but Brawl is not canon, please get your metroid facts straight!

[Beh]

Oh hupla you're so silly!

[hisak]

I really hope that this game is out on 3DS Virtual Console by the end of the year. I'd love to play it.