Metroid

The Good
Metroid is truly one of the great classics of eight-bit gaming. The design efforts of Gunpei Yokoi and production values of Shigeru Miyamoto combined to make what was, at the time, a truly compelling shoot-'em-up that actually required a bit of thought to boot. The exploration aspects of this game were (and still are, in a sense) absolutely groundbreaking, which is little surprise, considering that Metroid was one of the first games to use bank-switching technology that allowed gamers to move in more than one direction.

The Bad
The first time I played this game, it was downright frustrating. Being able to move around in games in three dimensions is something we take for granted now, but Metroid still takes me a great deal of time and patience to complete, and I've completed it before.

The Bottom Line
If you haven't yet played the original bad-bounty hunter platformer, now is a great time to see where it all started.

The Good
If you were a proud owner of the Nintendo NES back in the Eighties, chances are you heard or played a little game called Metroid. Released in 1986, the game casts the player as Samus Aran, a lone bounty hunter who is asked by the Galactic Federation to infiltrate the fortress of the Space Pirates, who are planning to replicate living organisms known as Metroids from Planet SR388 by exposing them to beta rays and using them as biological weapons. Your primary target is the Mother Brain, the giant mechanical organism that inhabits Tourian.

You beam down inside a blue chamber somewhere on Planet Zebes, which has three zones you need to explore fully. The passages you have to explore are interconnected by gates, and there are two types of these. The most common ones are blue. They have no push button, so how do you open them? You go up and shoot them with your beam. There are also red gates, but they cannot be opened this way.

The passages are littered with enemies that drain your energy if you get hit by any one of them. It is also drained if you fall into lava or acid. You can get more energy by destroying these enemies and getting the pellets they leave behind. Once your energy gets below twenty, the game alerts you with a warning sound. Run out, and the game is over. You are then given a 26-letter password you can type in later to continue with the game.

As well as your standard beam, you can obtain missiles that will make quick work of enemies. You need to get missiles to open the aforementioned red gates, which take five hits to destroy. You can cycle between your beam and the rockets by pressing the Select button. You can upgrade your standard weapon throughout the game, allowing you to freeze enemies with just one shot. Power-ups can be obtained, letting you upgrade your basic weapons or perform more advanced moves. The first power-up you can find allows you to curl yourself up into a ball so you can get through narrow gaps. There are many puzzles to solve, with the most common ones involving discovering hidden passages or freezing enemies with your ice beam and using them as stepping stones to reach certain platforms.

I love the animations in this game. When you go through the doorways, you get to see the screen scroll to the next one, Castlevania style. Watching Samus run through the passages is amusing; she acts as if she is full of lead. Good animations for the enemies, as well. The music is brilliantly composed and is easily memorable.

I believe Metroid was one of the first games to feature more than one ending. As far as the game is concerned, what ending you watch depends on how long it took for you to complete it. If it took you more than ten hours, then Samus will turn away from you in disgust. If you finish the game quickly, then she will be more than happy to strip down to her bikini. No matter what ending you view, you will get to re-play the game with Samus resembling the protagonist in Time Gal, which is strange considering she has brown hair in the good endings.

The Bad
Metroid suffers the same problem that plagued Castlevania. You get knocked back whenever you are hit by an enemy, and this becomes annoying when you fall into lava and have to make your way up to the nearest platform. Also, while using the lightning jump power-up that allows you to kill any enemies mid-air, it is rather difficult to jump on platforms. It’s as if there is a gust of wind pushing you back.

The Bottom Line
Metroid is a game every NES owner should be familiar with. It involves a lot of exploration and a lot of shooting. The graphics and sound are excellent, and there is more than one ending to discover. Nintendo could have retained the save system for its non-Japanese users instead of making them type a rather long password. No NES library should be without this one.

The Good
When I think of Metroid, I think of its music. Phenomenal soundtrack for this game! Besides that, the game offers awesome weapons (screw attack, wave beam), great control (high jump, marumari sphere), and dazzling enemies. See if you don't get yourself killed -- by just being mesmerized by how some of the weird and wonderful monsters move around the screen. Challenge level is high, especially Kraid's zone and just before you get to Mother Brain (Tourian). Make sure you have all seven energy tanks FULL before going anywhere near the final sequence. This is another game where the NES Max is indispensable.

The Bad
Can't save energy tank levels. This is a major hassle. Your energy always starts at 30, even when resuming with a password. That means it's best to leave the game turned on from start to finish (and try not to die!). The final stage of the game, just before you reach Mother Brain is frustratingly complex. There is so much happening on the screen, the machine's CPU will get bogged down. I believe they fixed this problem in later games.

The Bottom Line
This was a very advanced game for its time, and like other NES classics, it's still a lot of fun today. When game designers put the focus on gameplay, everything else falls into place. (P.S. this game has possibly the best music of any NES game.)