Comments on: The Anatomy of Super Metroid | 8 | Free at last

By: Mett M.

Mett M. — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 20:54:16 +0000

Recalling to my comment at the last anatomy. I checked the maps and you were right. You require either the power bombs or the wave beam to reach Crocomire in Norfair. My memory tricked me there.
And, oh man, that wall jump shaft! I remember how long it took me to get to the top with the power bomb update! But if my memory does not trick me again, could it be that the wall jump is much easier to pull off in more recient entries like Fusion or Zero Mission?
However, teaching the player these special techniques non-verbal via the friendly animals is just fantastic game design. The final secret techniques, the energy refill via power bombs, is not shown in-game as I recall, its existence is however hinted/shown in the game demo when you don’t touch the Start Screen. Or is there something in-game showing it besides that?

By: J. Parish

J. Parish — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:32:58 +0000

I dunno, games of that vintage are a lot harder to get useful screens for, so that would really hamper an anatomy series.

By: COtheLegend

COtheLegend — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 14:22:37 +0000

Hey, I have not posted here since the Castlevania 3 anatomy, but I am catching back up. I’d like to state once again how much I greatly enjoy this series, and taking a look at my favorite games and breaking down why they work, or in some cases, why things don’t work.

This is also perhaps my favorite part of Super Metroid. The true joy of Metroid and similar games is seeing the game world tease you that there’s so much more to see, and then finally figuring out how to get there. The game world opens up so much at this point, as you can finally reach a lot of areas that you have missed out on in Crateria and Brinstar, while being able to more adeptly handle any enemies or obstacles. I love the feeling of returning to Samus’ ship, much more powerful then when you touched down, while the Crateria overworld music plays. The player starts to feel very empowered, and is rewarded for his or her’s intuition in trying to locate hidden items and passages. At this point, the player is encouraged to keep searching for more, as you know that nothing is out of reach.

J.Parish, would you ever take a look at the Metroid Prime games? Specifically, the first one? I played it incessantly when it first came out, and I replayed it again two years ago. On that replay, it really struck me just how well Metroid’s level design was integrated into a 3D world. While the Prime games focus more on puzzles, if you take a look at the game world’s structure, everything is all there.