Coming Back to Super Metroid

 I think in anticipation of Metroid Dread coming out next month, I picked up the old Switch Super Nintendo collection and booted up the old Super Metroid. I had some save file there that had gotten the Morph Ball and that was it, so I figured that was close enough to a fresh one.

In the last two days, I've blown through most of it, though I'm now at the super space pirates right before Ridley and have, weirdly enough, gotten the urge to go collect more energy tanks and missiles and such.

I will say that I don't think the Switch Joy-Cons are really as good for the game as a classic SNES controller. For one thing, having to reach for the Minus button to select items is a real pain (though the item-switching system in that was never really great.) Frankly, as someone with somewhat larger hands, I've never loved the Switch controls, and should probably invest in a Pro controller, which is probably more ergonomic.

One thing that strikes me as kind of funny is that one of the most classic Nintendo franchises is, to an extent, a horror game. The feeling you're supposed to get in a Metroid game is one of creepiness and isolation. The monsters are lovecraftian horrors.

Playing through again, I am definitely more impressed by the speed runners who do all sorts of sequence breaks and perfect boss fights, because I generally come out of most of them with about half a tank of energy left (Crocomire was a real pain until I figured out the tell for his "spit" attack. Still had to make use of the charge beam because I ran out of missiles pretty early on.)

Anyway, this is a game that really managed to feel iconic. It's also interesting that it makes a lot of references to the original Metroid. It's explicitly taking place within the same parts of the planet Zebes as the original game. Kraid's region of lower Brinstar even seems to have a more old-fashioned visual design, even if the boss himself was seriously upgraded for Super Metroid.

Officially, Super Metroid is Metroid 3, and Dread, coming out nearly 30 years later, is only the 5th game in the main series. This, of course, ignores the Metroid Prime trilogy, as well as Metroid: Other M, which it seems most fans would rather pretend didn't exist.

Anyway, not sure that I have a ton to say about the game, other than that it's really good.