A playthrough of Nintendo's 1994 action-adventure game for the Super Nintendo, Super Metroid.

Super Metroid is the third game of the Metroid series, following Metroid on NES ([ Ссылка ] ) and Metroid II: Return of Samus on Game Boy ([ Ссылка ] ). Metroid Fusion was its direct sequel ([ Ссылка ] ).

Samus Aran, galactic bounty hunter extraordinaire, had succeeded in her mission to eradicate the metroid threat from SR388. She brought the species' sole surviving specimen, a baby, to a laboratory on the Ceres Space Station before taking off toward her next adventure. However, shortly after departing, she is alerted to an emergency at the colony and rushes back.

She arrives to find everyone dead and the lab in ruins. Discovering that the metroid hatchling is still alive, she goes to retrieve it when she's attacked by the space pirate Ridley. He stops just short of killing Samus, but he steals the specimen and sets the station to self-destruct before fleeing. Samus makes it back to her ship just before the station explodes and follows Ridley to the planet Zebes.

Once Samus lands on Zebes, she's entirely on her own. She will ultimately have to confront the space pirates, but before she can do that, she'll need to expand her offensive and defensive capabilities. Beneath the surface of the planet lies a vast network of caverns teeming with untold alien horrors.

Samus is fairly weak at the start of her adventure, but as anyone familiar with the series can tell you, she doesn't stay that way for long. As she explores, she'll find upgrades to her suit and weapons systems that'll help even the playing field.

Large chunks of Super Metroid's world are gated by obstacles that can only be surmounted once Samus has found and augmented her suit with the appropriate enhancements. As her capabilities increase, more areas become accessible, and eventually she'll become powerful enough to take on the head of the space pirates, Mother Brain.

Super Metroid greatly expands on the core gameplay of the first two games. The game map is huge, and every bit of it has been meticulously designed to promote experimentation. Once you've found the first couple of upgrades, you're free to do pretty much whatever you like. It signposts just enough to provide you a general sense of purpose, but the gameplay is largely non-linear. For as many times as I've played it over the years, I don't think I've ever taken the same exact path twice through the game.

The sheer number of secrets here is mind-boggling, and Samus's new abilities (especially the power bomb and the X-ray viewer) and the new auto-mapping feature go a long way in making the game feel accessible without spoiling the fun of discovery. Pretty much every chamber has *something* useful to be found, whether it be a shortcut through a seemingly solid wall or an energy tank to extend your life gauge. There's a lot of content here, and none of it is filler.

But in my mind, what really propels Super Metroid to stardom is its presentation. The game is drenched in atmosphere. Each area, no matter the theme, looks and feels worn, and the crumbling artifacts that litter the ground speak volumes about the long-dead Chozo civilization that once thrived on Zebes.

The way the aliens feel like organic extensions of their environments does wonders for immersion, and the soundtrack is among the best I've heard in a game, nailing the perfect ambient tone again and again. (And those screams!) More than anything, the cinematic visual and sound design's way of evoking feelings of dread and isolation reminds me of the movie Alien. I don't think there's any higher praise I could give a horror game's presentation than that.

It's not a particularly long game, but it is so packed with secrets that you could play for months and still not find everything on your own.

The only problem I've ever had with the game is its controls. They're awkward and there aren't any button configuration that are comfortable in all circumstances - there are many situations where you'll have to adopt a claw grip on the controller so that you can hit three or four buttons at the same time. It's obnoxious, and for years, it really put me off of the game. (Thankfully they learned their lessons with this one - Zero Mission and Fusion's controls are much better.) I got over it eventually, but it's unfortunate that such a flaw found its way into an otherwise brilliant game.

If there are any Nintendo fans out there that haven't yet played Super Metroid, do yourself a favor and give it a spin. The game is just as good as everyone says it is.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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