SUPER METROID AN ENDURING LEGACY

AS NINTENDO'S SCI-FI CLASSIC TURNS 30 WE REVISIT THE PLANET ZEBES AND SPEAK TO DEVELOPERS OF BOTH METROIDVANIAS AND ACTUAL METROID GAMES TO LEARN WHAT MAKES SAMUS ARAN'S 2D ADVENTURE SO SPECIAL

- DARAAN JONES

We’ve always found Metroidvania to be an odd term, largely because adventures like Aztec, The Maze Of Galious and Nodes Of Yesod existed long before both Metroid and Castlevania. It was arguably Metroid that helped crystallise the concept for many gamers though and that concept was largely refined and perfected in 1994. The game in question is Super Metroid, Yoshio Sakamoto’s hugely ambitious sequel, which would not only take full advantage of the Super Nintendo’s extra power, but would serve as an end to the story arc that had first begun with the 1987 Famicom Disk release of Metroid and continued with Metroid II: Return Of Samus on Nintendo’s Game Boy. We’d also argue that it’s probably the Metroid game most gamers think of whenever the term Metroidvania comes up.

While it’s well known that the Metroid series was heavily influenced by Ridley Scott’s Alien it could be argued that Super Metroid is perhaps the most cinematic of Samus’ early adventures. “When I first heard the words, ‘The last Metroid is in captivity, the galaxy is at peace,’ it was a huge surprise,” admits Darren Kerwin, founder of the popular Metroid website Shinesparkers. “Up until this point, I hadn’t heard much voice acting in a SNES game, and those words spoken by Dan Owsen, made the game’s opening highly memorable.”

Darren’s point about Super Metroid’s cinematic feel is an interesting one, because while it does indeed feature that memorable opening, recalling Samus’ earlier exploits by using text and black-and-white stills, the rest of the story is cleverly told in-game. “On release, it was