The North American Box Art
After the acclaim afforded Metroid on the NES in 1986, the series became central to Nintendo’s plans, ensuring a sequel, Metroid II: Return of Samus on the Game Boy in 1991. However, the sequel, released on the monochrome and low-resolution Game Boy, could not truly advance the exploration platforming genre–a genre for which Metroid became the most prominent example. With the SNES release of Super Metroid (subtitled ‘Metroid 3’) in 1994, exploration platforming games experienced a paradigm shift, instituting many of the generic conventions in what are now called “Metroidvania” titles.
The plot of Super Metroid continues chronologically from the first two games of the series: Samus Aran, having defeated the Space Pirate leader Mother Brain on the planet Zebes, traveled to the Metroid homeworld, SR388, to exterminate all of the remaining Metroids, except for a single, new-born Metroid, delivered to Ceres Station for research purposes. When the Ceres research outpost is attacked, the action of Super Metroid begins in earnest.
Super Metroid revisits locales which are familiar to Metroid veterans.
Use the comment thread below to discuss your approach to the game, challenges you have faced, secrets you have uncovered, and what you are getting out of your playthrough. Do you feel that the presentation of Super Metroid has held up since its original release in 1994? Are there aspects of the game that you would change, or that you would hold up as an example for modern game developers to emulate? How have your experiences with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Metroid Prime, Axiom Verge, and other prominent exploration platforming games released after Super Metroid changed your impressions of the game? And what are your most significant memories about the Metroid series in general, and Super Metroid in particular? Tell us all about it and join in our discussion below! We will select some of the best comments, each week, for our podcast discussion.
The aim in this playthrough is to complete the entirety of the game in two weeks. In the first week, the goal is to complete the game, through the final boss encounter. Feel free to join in, even if you are behind on the playthrough. Anyone and everyone is invited to participate, regardless of speed of play or familiarity with the series. Remember to comment, and please tell your friends!
Without further adieu, it is our pleasure to invite you to join the Lusipurr.com staff members, guests, and readers as we return to Zebes in The Last Metroid: A Super Metroid Playthrough!
