Description

After having defeated Mother Brain, the leader of the Space Pirates who wanted to use alien creatures known as Metroids to dominate the world, the bounty hunter Samus Aran took the fight to the Metroids' homeland and eradicated them. Only a single Metroid larva remained. Samus took it to a galactic research station, and scientists assured her that the powers of the larva can be harnessed to help people. However, everything goes wrong when a dragon kills the scientists, takes away the larva, and destroys the research facility. Samus follows the dragon to the planet of Zebes, where she fought Mother Brain before. She must explore the dangerous planet, stay alive, and figure out a way to retrieve the larva.

Super Metroid is a platform game and a follow-up to Metroid II. Like the previous games in the series, it is not divided into separate levels; the planet Zebes is an open world which Samus traverses back and forth. This world is divided into rooms separated with doors which must be shot to be opened. Shooting is also used to open up secret passages, some of which contain nifty bonuses, but finding most of them is required to proceed in the game.

There are many items to find on the way, and each new item usually makes heretofore inaccessible areas available to Samus. The items include both weaponry (such as missiles, super missiles, or upgrades to Samus's standard laser gun), energy tanks that increase Samus' max health, and other gadgets (like a grappling hook that allows Samus to stick to the ceiling).

There are various enemies - alien fauna - lurking around planet Zebes. The enemies all respawn after re-entering a room, though Samus' increasing capabilities mean that they become easier to defeat as the player makes progress. After killing them, the enemies typically leave behind some health or ammo.

Alternate Titles

  • "Sūpā Metoroido" -- Japanese Romaji title
  • "Metroid 3" -- Game introduction
  • "スーパーメトロイド" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups


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User Reviews

On a planet with this much intoxicating atmosphere, you're gonna need that space suit! SNES J. P. Gray (111)
Samus in Wonderland SNES YID YANG Bronze Star Contributing Member (162353)
Gameplay greatness and pixel poetry SNES Vecster (24)
A strong classic, if maybe SLIGHTLY overrated SNES *Legion* (138)
I have no idea what I'm doing here. SNES Pixelspeech (888)
The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy, is at peace... SNES Perfil Falso (3346)
Bring back my baby!!!! SNES Daniel Maze (3)
A super sci-fi adventure! SNES Phobos-Romulus (42)

The Press Says

Total! (Germany) SNES Jul, 1994 1 out of 6 100
GamePro (US) SNES Jun, 1994 5 out of 5 100
The Video Game Critic SNES Feb 17, 2005 A 100
Eurogamer.net (UK) Wii Oct 13, 2007 10 out of 10 100
FileFactory Games / Gameworld Network Wii Aug 30, 2007 95 out of 100 95
Jeuxvideo.com SNES Jun 18, 2009 19 out of 20 95
Retroage Wii Jan 09, 2010 9.3 out of 10 93
Consoles Plus SNES May, 1994 91 out of 100 91
Cubed3 SNES Aug 21, 2007 9 out of 10 90
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) SNES Jun, 1994 9 out of 10 90

Forums

Topic # Posts Last Post
The art direction 2 J. P. Gray (111)
Apr 24, 2008

Trivia

Intro Voice-over

The voice during the game's introduction, the one that says "The last Metroid... ...is in captivity. The galaxy... ...is at peace.", is none other than Dan Owsen. He is known for doing much of Nintendo's localization efforts in the 1990s. His work included translating manuals and in-game text. He is also known for his "Ask Dan" column on Nintendo's web site, and can be seen in some of Nintendo's promotional VHS tapes.

Soundtrack

Because the original Metroid used the Famicom Disk System (and its wavetable sound chip) in Japan, and the releases outside of Japan were on cartridges and thus only used the default NES sound system, the original soundtrack had to be slightly reprogrammed. In Super Metroid, the changes made by the FDS-to-Cartridge conversion back in the original game are made more apparent when the older - albeit remixed - themes are used.

The music in Super Metroid, considered to be some of the finest compositions for the SNES, was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenji Yamamoto, and Minako Hamano. Information about the CD soundtrack can be found here.

Speedruns

Super Metroid is, due to its level design and planning, one of the most popular games for speedruns and is still being perfected to this day.

Awards

  • It was #62 in FLUX Magazine's (Issue #4) Top 100 Video Games of All-Time
  • The game received two awards in GameFan's 1994 "Megawards" (Vol 3, Iss. 1)
    • Overall Best Action/Adventure Game of the Year
    • Best SNES Action/Adventure Game of the Year
  • Game Players named the game the best SNES adventure game of 1994 (Jan. 1995)
  • It was voted #29 in the Top 100 Games of All Time poll published by the periodical in it's 100th issue, back in August of 2001
  • It was named #23 out of 200 of the "Greatest Games of Their Time" by EGM Issue #200 (Feb. 2006)
Information also contributed by Calpis, Julian Turner, PCGamer77, Scott G and uclafalcon.


This entry was contributed by Kartanym Bronze Star Contributing Member (10796) and gamewarrior (5078)
 

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