Super Metroid Killed Metroid 64

[TaboriHK]

I'm glad to read that one of my favorite games of all time was so good that it actually changed history and prevented a shitty sequel from entering the timeline. It's like a benevolent Skynet.

 

[Signa]

I just beat Super Metroid again last month. It has to be one of the best 2D games ever made. I love the fact that I found you could insta-kill a boss by electrocuting yourself while he's holding you.

Konami has done a great job filling in the void that Super Metoid created and left unfilled. Those Castlevanias, especially the DS ones are grade-A 2D games.

 

[Electrogecko]

Indeed. Super Metroid is a very hard act to follow. It's hard to beat perfection, after all.

I'd say that your statement is arguably right as far as game design goes, but that the game would benefit greatly from having its control scheme updated to a variant of what was used in Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission.

I agree. Super Metroid was unbelievably awesome, but you literally needed to press 6 buttons in order to lay a power bomb. ( 2 Downs, 3 Selects, then an A).......but still- one of the best games of all time.

 

[Jared]

Its one of those classics, which can never be beat, in my books anyway

 

[Dr. Paine]

... you know, I suddenly feel a little stupid for never actually playing Super Metroid. Aside from Other M (which I've decided to avoid for now, and instead spent that money on books), it's the only one I've never really given a good try/beaten.

 

[Folio]

My sisters ex-boyfriend always said how old games are better than the new ones. Super Metroid in particular, I even bought it for the Wii. He wouldn't want to let go of the controller then, but Metroid Prime? He didn't even want to try!

So I asked myself, if he would compare Super Metroid with Metroid Other M, especially made for fans, would he be pleased?

No, he would not. Samus DOESN'T talk! Samus shoots and thinks for herself! Samus aims where she wants to aim!

Oh well, I liked Other M, but if Nintendo wants to go back to the old days, they are doing something right, or something wrong.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Well the N64 may have been lacking that, but it did have Conker's Bad Fur Day, so all is well and good.

 

[WanderingFool]

Well, that explains why I felt my N64 was wasted...

but I thought everyone had goldeneye for the n64...

anyway I only got into metroid when prime came out so I didn't mind so much.

Yeah but Goldeneye was a pleasnt surprise for me, one of those games I saw and was like, "NOE WAY!!! AWESUM!!!" (I was like 12 when I got one.) But many of my best videogame memories were from the SNES, and one was Super Metroid. At least they didnt make the game, than make a shitty one...

 

[Denizen]

In a very extreme angle on what Yoshio Sakamoto said and what he's done, it seems to be that since Super Metroid was so incredible, it spawned the other M years later.

Read the last sentence and pay attention to how he feels about 3D gaming and for that matter 3D metroid. Since this was supposed to be a return to the 2D metroid games, only the combat (allegedly) is good and it's generally decided that the story was insufferable. This is why it's not furthering the story, Sakamoto wanted to focus on combat and that's (again allegedly) all that is "salvageable" in the game.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Why yes, super metroid is so good that it killed its successor in its infancy. Samus is so bad even Samus can't compete with Samus.

That's interesting and definitely an antiquated idea today since the market favors sequels so much now. I'd be nice to live in a world where we only made sequels if they could surpass the original... sigh. Oh well. METROID FOREVER!

 

[ryukage_sama]

Unfortunately, Team Ninja also ruined Other M. Every female in Team Ninja's games are damsels in distress, even when their winning! It would have been better to make her emo instead of a sniveling, submissive brat.

But Other M is pretty.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

A lot of people loved Prime, and I'm not saying it's a bad game, but I honestly prefer Super Metroid. I found that in my gameplay experience of Prime that too much of an emphasis was on the shooter part of the game as opposed to the exploration. It was just more satisfying to know you explored every possible nook and cranny in Super Metroid. In Prime there were always little areas that were inaccessible in the 3D environment that made me feel like I would never have fully explored the game.

Again, not saying it was a bad game, but I much prefer Super Metroid to any of the 3D adaptations.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

And look! By being lazy and unsure of himself, he's solidified Metroid as a "high quality" franchise.

Let's be honest, Metroid on the N64 would have sucked in the same way that Castlevania game on the N64 sucked (which is appropriate considering the similarities between the two games).

The similarities didn't start until Symphony of the Night, which was on the PS1. That's what kicked off the "Metroidvania" craze.

Eh, not exactly true. Thats just the first one that had a map screen.

Um... pretty much exactly true, actually. The only Castlevania title that had even a little exploration to it was Castlevania 2, otherwise every pre-SotN game was a standard level-based "go right until you find a boss" system.

Anyway, I feel its for the best that we never saw a Metroid 64. Sounds to me like they were determined to make it a 3D title, and the N64-era graphics simply would not have done Metroid justice. Now, if they were exploring the idea of making it a 2D game with maybe a couple 3D effects along the way (ala SotN), then maybe it could have been something worth playing. As-is though, I think they did good in waiting for the Gamecube.

 

[Eicha]

I actually have an issue of 64 Magazine, in which it shows s screenshot of Metroid 64 and talks about how it was talked about at that year's E3. SO that's where it went.

 

[Kyrian007]

A lot of people loved Prime, and I'm not saying it's a bad game, but I honestly prefer Super Metroid. I found that in my gameplay experience of Prime that too much of an emphasis was on the shooter part of the game as opposed to the exploration. It was just more satisfying to know you explored every possible nook and cranny in Super Metroid. In Prime there were always little areas that were inaccessible in the 3D environment that made me feel like I would never have fully explored the game.

Again, not saying it was a bad game, but I much prefer Super Metroid to any of the 3D adaptations.

I gotta agree and add that I thought OM was a good followup and better than Prime as well. Yeah, the story wasn't particularly great, but I don't ask for much from story in videogames anyway, good storytelling in games is pretty rare. And sorry ladies, but I don't care that the "strong female lead" is whiny and hesitant. It could have been a whiny dude and I would have cared just as much... none at all. And the hesitation, well, imagine a giant pterodactyl murdered your parents, came back from the dead and started to try and eat you. She's lucky she didn't soil the suit.

For all it's flaws it was good. Not like Retro's attempt at "3D"ing Metroid. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing Prime. But it had really terrible fundamental flaws. It undervalued it's own story by making it optional. I never bothered to scan every little thing on my 2nd playthrough, got very little story, but the game played much better. Like the story was just tacked on but completely un-necessary. At least OM told a story. If you wanted story in Prime it took forever and was a pain in the butt.

Some folk complained that P2E was too hard. Naa, it was just too lame.

P3C... no beef with it. It improved upon the Prime franchise. Too bad it was the last, it took Retro 3 tries to get it right.

But the biggest fundamental flaw in Prime. 1st person platform jumper. You can't get around it, there is no way to make 1st person platform jumper good. Those elements of Prime are just horrible.

 

[JediMB]

Voice actress is all wrong

As far as the voice goes I think she was alright, but her acting skills made Christensen's performance in the Star Wars prequels seem brilliant by comparison.

I think what really gets my blood boiling about that game is that Samus is just a pathetic, whiny doormat.

She never actually whines in the present. The only whining happened in a flashback, which took place shortly before she left the Federation military for her bounty hunting career.

I think it's perfectly acceptable that Samus decides to honor her former CO by joining him and his team, since it was their investigation, but having her disabling non-weaponry suit functions is completely retarded.

Despite saving the galaxy multiple times she still doubts her own judgement

She does? I recall she questioned her past judgment, when she had pressed Adam to let her go on a certain suicide mission, despite how hard it already was for him to abandon one of his men.

Near the end of the game, she mentioned that one of the fundamental differences between Adam and her was, basically, that while Adam would make the hard decisions of when he had to sacrifice someone he cared for to save many more, she doesn't know when to give up, and that's part of why she is capable of doing the things she does.

mopes

Don't recall any moping outside of how her past was described. Reminiscing, sure, but no moping.

and freezes in the middle of combat.

While it was dragged out too much, I think freezing was acceptable. Ridley killed her family, her mother right in front of her eyes. She got her revenge when she hunted him down in the original Metroid, only for him to return in Super Metroid (I'm not counting the Prime series, since it doesn't seem to be completely in continuity). So she hunted him down once more and blew up the entire planet he was on.

He was supposed to be dead. DEAD dead.

So when he rises from the ashes again, I think it's easy to be struck by a sense of hopelessness. Is he immortal? Will he just keep coming back, no matter how many times he's defeated?

Granted, the scene would probably have been more fitting for the encounter at the very beginning of Super Metroid, but at least I don't consider it the worst part of Other M.

 

[JediMB]

But the biggest fundamental flaw in Prime. 1st person platform jumper. You can't get around it, there is no way to make 1st person platform jumper good. Those elements of Prime are just horrible.

I think Metroid Prime, Half-Life and Mirror's Edge all fared well with the first-person platforming.

The automatic downward-tilting of the camera during jumps in Prime did good, and I'm guessing it works even better in the Trilogy version.

 

[nelsonr100]

I don't mind so much that the N64 Metroid never appeared because Prime was well worth the wait. One of my favorite games on the gamecube and at the time had fantastic graphics that the N64 just couldn't handle. Its not big loss, but only because Prime was fantastic

 

[Cynical skeptic]

And look! By being lazy and unsure of himself, he's solidified Metroid as a "high quality" franchise.

Let's be honest, Metroid on the N64 would have sucked in the same way that Castlevania game on the N64 sucked (which is appropriate considering the similarities between the two games).

The similarities didn't start until Symphony of the Night, which was on the PS1. That's what kicked off the "Metroidvania" craze.

Eh, not exactly true. Thats just the first one that had a map screen.

Um... pretty much exactly true, actually. The only Castlevania title that had even a little exploration to it was Castlevania 2, otherwise every pre-SotN game was a standard level-based "go right until you find a boss" system.

Anyway, I feel its for the best that we never saw a Metroid 64. Sounds to me like they were determined to make it a 3D title, and the N64-era graphics simply would not have done Metroid justice. Now, if they were exploring the idea of making it a 2D game with maybe a couple 3D effects along the way (ala SotN), then maybe it could have been something worth playing. As-is though, I think they did good in waiting for the Gamecube.

I'm sorry, but I never really classified what happened in super metroid as "exploration." Just a lot of "can't go this ways" culminating to eventually finding the proper direction and fighting a boss. The later jp onry castlevanias did have exploration elements, and I'd always classify wallmeat as exploration.

Basically, you're confusing what originally made the titles similar... with a map screen.

 

[fu3lman]

...

Pretty much every 3D console game from that era was utterly terrible. Goldeneye being something of an exception, but not really...

Look, I too was one of those gamers who were all aboard the "3D will ruin our classics" bandwagon during the mid-late 90's, and was absolutely thrilled with Super Metroid and Castlevania: SOTN, but it didn't mean "pretty much" every game that didn't concede to 2D or 2.5D was "utterly terrible". I don't even know where to begin (but I'll try). Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 64, both Zelda's for N64, I could go on all day and still relegate myself to sequels to classic, traditionally 2D/2.5D games. Then you also had Starfox 64, Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake...

Your statement holds no water whatsoever. If anything, that era was likely the golden age of 3D gaming, and I am a die-hard, crotchety old 2D proponent who used to suffer Vitamin D deficiency to the likes of Pong on my parents Zenith cabinet TV, and wishes they would stop fucking up Metroid with this 3D crap.

EDIT: Also want to add that Goldeneye was quite a bit better than your assessment of "something of an exception, but not really". What the hell does that even mean? Seriously.