I took a short break from writing about old Nintendo games in the past few months. This is mostly because I got tied up hunting down the legendary animals in “Red Dead Redemption 2” and running a farm in “Stardew Valley,” but I’ve also been busy and just haven’t had time for video games.
But, spending an afternoon playing an old game on the Nintendo’s NES Mini is a great way of unwinding, enjoying the power of nostalgia and remembering the fun times I had playing those games as a child. Then I played “Metroid” and remembered that sometimes, we remember things as being better than they actually were.
Metroid
“Metroid” is the natural evolution for Nintendo after making “Super Mario Bros.,” “The Legend of Zelda” and “Kid Icarus.” Using its inspiration from “Kid Icarus,” players have to navigate up and down large vertical shafts to reach other hallways and rooms, similar to how players in “Kid Icarus” had to continually navigate upward to reach new stages. The game uses a lot of jumping to navigate its hostile world, like “Super Mario Bros.,” but consisted entirely of large, connected world similar to how players navigated through Hyrule in “The Legend of Zelda.”
“Metroid” follows the adventures of Samus Aran as she (yes, she) explores the subterranean corridors of planet Zebes in her quest to eradicate the parasitic, jellyfish-like Metroid creatures and the space pirates breeding them for their own ends.
Players discover items which enhance Samus’ arm cannon and her spacesuit’s capabilities along the way. She takes on two of the space pirates’ generals, Ridley and Kraid, destroys the Metroids and takes on the pirates’ leader, the organic supercomputer Mother Brain.
Compared to a lot of games on the NES Mini, “Metroid” hasn’t aged well in the past 30-plus years.
The “Metroid” series is more remembered for the third game, “Super Metroid” and the later “Metroid Prime” games than the NES title.
One big reason is anyone playing the original game would need 1.) a few pages of graph paper and some colored pencils 2.) a map of Zebes found in a game guide or 3.) a very good memory. Later games would include an automap feature to help players explore, but the original “Metroid” simply dropped a person into a hostile area and that was it.
While some of the important powers aren’t too difficult to find, others are well hidden and sometimes even located in seemingly random areas.
This game is all about careful exploration because it becomes impossible to complete if players don’t find enough missiles, the only weapon that can destroy Metroids and Mother Brain.
There is one reason “Metroid” is well regarded however. At a time when women were relegated to roles of being the damsel in distress, “Metroid” placed a woman as the game’s heroine. This wouldn’t be revealed unless the game is completed within a specific amount of time or through using a special password because the character generally appears in a space suit.
Samus is one of the first female game characters to be depicted as a tough, capable protagonist, much like Ellen Ripley in the “Alien” films.
Even though the initial game doesn’t hold up as well as “Super Mario Bros.,” or “Legend of Zelda,” that legacy is enough to make “Metroid” memorable.
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