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
User Reviews
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
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.
