Review - Super Metroid (SNES, 1994)

 
Super Metroid is the third game in Nintendo's Metroid series and the first game in the series on which Gunpei Yokoi did not serve as producer. Yoshio Sakamoto would serve as designer and director here and as well as for the next three Japanese Metroid titles (Fusion, Zero Mission, and Other M.) This game serves as a direct continuation of the previous two games' stories and includes a slow opening cutscene explaining the last two stories, hindered by a hilariously awful bit of voice acting on the opening lines. In spite of that, Super Metroid mostly feels like a remake of the original game. It's a very good remake, fixing every problem that the original game has, and is ultimately one of the best games on the SNES, but Super Metroid lacks the originality of Metroid II in spite of being an overall better game.

Review - Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy, 1991)

I remember playing Metroid II briefly when it was fairly new and having a pretty bad time. I got lost way more easily than I did in the original 1987 NES title, I had trouble seeing what was going on, and I didn't make it very far. That was 1991 on an old green screen Game Boy. Today, playing the game on better hardware, I can see what's happening a lot more clearly and have a lot more patience for figuring this game out. I still get lost way more often than I did in the original.

Review - Metroid

I played the original Metroid a lot when it was fairly new. Along with the first Castlevania, Metroid is one of my earliest gaming memories. I had fond memories of it from back then, when I'd play for an hour, die, record my password incorrectly, and start over from the beginning. Back then, I didn't really know what I was doing, so I'd just wander the endlessly similar corridors shooting aliens and not really caring that I wasn't getting anywhere. Nowadays, that doesn't really cut it.