Metroid NES: A Flawed But Ambitious Start
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- Опубліковано 30 лип 2024
- Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first episode of my 6 part retrospective series on the Metroid series, starting fittingly with the one that started it all: Metroid on the NES. Despite a lot of ambition, this first game struggles with a number of issues because of the console it was created for.
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Calling Metroid games “Metroidvania” sounds ridiculous lol
Also funny when you can't call the first Castlevania game a metriodvania.
Metroidvania is a weird word to begin with, who decided castlevania and metroid should be combined to make a genre? It works, but why is not just an action-exploration genre or something generic?
Name works now though, gets the message across, so I guess it works.
@@sparemobius7430 Why it's not called Metrovania is beyond me, rolls off the tongue better.
@@sparemobius7430 The Term originated when Catlevania adopted Metroid-like exploration rhythms. They called Symphony of the night "Metroidvania" because, back in the day, it was quite different from the rest of the series.
Since Metroidvania sounds a lot better than "Metroid-Clone" the name stuck for a pretty explicit sub-Genre of the action adventure.
I like the name, though it implies that Castlevania helped creating the genres defining features, when it merely adopted it.
TheSorrel Only sort of though, as Simon’s Quest was the first open world Castlevania, and predated all but the first Metroid.
I seem to recall not only hearing the term “Castleroid” but there was a time in the late 90s in which each of the two were interchangeable when it comes to awareness.
Castleroid doesn’t seem to be well known in today’s video game scene though, and I don’t think I’m clever enough to have come up with it on my own either, so wonder what happened to its use?
On the whole, I totally agree with most of your criticisms - but I actually like how Metroid handles its enemies. They feel more like animals, rather than "bad guys." Most of them are basically just chilling and doing their thing, with only a few actively trying to attack Samus. And I think it was 100% deliberate that, much of the time, you can bypass them unless you need items. Samus is on a mission, and she has no reason to stop and kill every single living thing. Dodging them makes sense, contextually.
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The funny thing actually is that to me, as someone who grew up on the early games in the series, Samus Returns was annoying specifically because of how often it forces you to stop and precision-shoot stuff, breaking up the flow of the exploration and platforming. I prefer the og Metroid's way of making enemies more like moving barriers that you're free to avoid if you can, which keeps the overall pace up.
Contextually, but still not...really exciting
"For some bizarre reason, the game has no map."
Because 1986.
lol... It's always fun to hear young people try and understand games from a period they didn't grow up in.
It had no map because you had to make one on your own. I thought I was the only kid who did that but it turns out other kids did that as well. Ha Ha Ha. It frustrates me personally to hear that if a game doesn't do everything for you that kids lose interest in them. They think they are good players when in reality they are not because they can't do real challenging games.
It's inaccurate to say "it had no map because you had to make your own." It would be more logical to say, "You had to make your own map, because the game was limited by its time and didn't have one built in."
@@chucksucks8640 drawing a map ain't challenging
It's just bothersome, it's in no way hard just dumb
The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus and Goonies II, those are games from 86-87 and they all have a map from the maingame or the dungeons, one of them even share the same engine with Metroid, so the lack of a map was not a limitation, It was a game design choice, and a bad one.
Great game. I drew my own maps at the time, so it was not a very hard game until the last level. I just replayed it, and it's stll great.
Drawing your own maps was part of the fun. That's what actual explorers do, they don't expect it all to be easy and laid out for them!
@@RandyRydberg hate that people think metroid sucks because they don’t spend any time exploring or learning the game. It’s really not that hard of a game if you’re decent at it which you should be by the time you get the varia suit and move on to norfair or kraids lair it’s not the games fault if you skip the exploration in an exploration game and die in kraids lair while only having 2 e tanks and no varia suit, and yes drawing the map is fun and I did not grow up with these games I grew up with gamecube and beyond. Speaks to how great of a game metroid and super metroid are
@@Practicalinvestments but Metroid still isn't good
The copy pasted rooms are inexcusable, and so is the health spawn, and the way you start with a fraction of your health after dying
I think Metroid is still fun for the right kind of person
@@Mqstodon The excuse is that it was made for the Famicom Disk System and had to be contained on a 112 kb file to fit on a disk. The health issue is a huge pain in the ass, completely agree there.
I'm finding it refreshing to get a different perspective on games I grew up on... interestingly, things that are glaring shortcomings of classic games in retrospect weren't always lost on those of us who had little alternative at the time, but we lacked the 'future history' of games for comparison. Many of the refinements that are par for the course now just didn't exist, and we took many of the bitter frustrations with the sweeter aspects of a given title.
@Bertrum Arthur i mean, that's completely wrong
Metroid is still incredibly flawed in a vacuum, no matter it's sequels and other metroidvanias that came after
We are getting old....i remember making maps, calling a nintendo counselor, meetings on the schoolbus....boy scout metroid think tanks....wow
We are also having more games than time.
Better times, eh.
@@jimreid5 i hear that
It isn't that you are getting old it is more the fact that video game designers have made games easier for fear of customers getting so frustrated that they don't buy it. Younger generations have gotten use to this and it is sad that many very good games have literally had the challenge factor stripped out of them just so they won't lose customers.
@@chucksucks8640 cant u guys that want a hard game for play on hard mode?
There really is no reason to get the Nes Original in my opinion. Zero Mission even allows you to play the Nes Original after beating it so just get Zero Mission.
You mean besides the fact that they're very different and one gives zero historical context?
@@thechrononaut1 as if historical context even matters lols it's a videogame not a history book man
@@silverbasscross That's a pretty lame statement. Would you say the same thing if it was an old movie? An album? A game like Metroid is one of the most important games of all time. It may be dated, but it deserves to have the proper historical context.
@@thechrononaut1 who's talking about being dated? I'm saying it's a videogame, not a history book, be it a newer or old game, it is what it is
Although Zero Mission is considered a Remake of the first game you will notice that Zero Mission is practically a different game.
Metroid II Return of Samus will be out next week! =D
yay
Can you make JoJo Bizarre Adventure videos
I mean on the anime channel sure, but not likely on this channel. XD
Is it out yet?
My first Metroid game was this one, and it was the NES version. It was a gift from my nephew, back in the 1980s. What surprises me is that you did not mention the way you saved your game. It was a code based save system, in which upon quitting or a "Game Over" event, a code would pop up and you had to write it down. When you wanted to continue from the point your game ended, you had to use the code entry screen and enter the code you got in your earlier play. It was a tedious way to save, but it allowed you to start from the exact place you were in when your previous play was ended. Also, there was a special code "Justin Bailey". If you are playing on the NES, I suggest you try that code to see what it does.
As for game play, yes it is seriously outdated compared to most later games in the franchise. That said, for its time, the game was actually groundbreaking. Most games at the time only allowed moving along a set path, with no way to go back to areas already visited. This is known as linear game play. Metroid on the other hand was the first to introduce nonlinear game play, as you could return to any area already visited at any time during a game. This was a purposeful design that allowed certain upgrades and pickups to be unreachable in a given area until you got something that allowed you to finally reach them.
The game quickly became my favorite for the NES. A close second was The Guardian Legend, but only because the playable character could transform. Samus, as we all know can morph into a ball, which allows her to move through narrow tunnels.
Samus's Ball form has additional abilities, such as the Morph Ball Bomb, and the Spider Ball. Other upgrades are to her Suit or Weapons. In the original game, certain beam weapon upgrades would replace the one you currently had. Knowing where to find those was paramount to successful mission completion, because you might need the Ice Beam to perform a certain task, but you had the Spazer Beam instead. Finding your way back to where the Ice Beam is located was something you had to do.
What really nailed Metroid as my favorite was finally beating the game in under 2 hours and learning that the character I was playing was a woman.
Whilst I agree this original Metroid is quite dated, I found a rom hack for it that adds a bunch of quality of life changes to the game to make it much more playable. It is called Metroid Mother. It adds a save system, a map, stackable beams, restarting a death with not just 30 energy. Honestly, I highly recommend it as it feels way more streamlined whilst also feeling not like a totally new game.
I think the most frustrating part about the game is if you have low Health and missile's you have to go farming for it to you reach a comfortable amount of Health and ammo which can waste time
As much as I often disagree with your conclusions, I admire your willingness to give games a shot and offer your genuine feelings towards games released decades before your time.
If I could give a bit of advice, several of your criticisms owe simply into the fact that the game is nearly 30 years old. Keep this in mind when thinking about developer choices. The NES and Famicom standard chipset was designed to play an optimized game of NES Donkey Kong at best. Anything beyond that required additional chips which added cost. NES games often cost $30+ in the late 80s ($70+ in today's dollars) which made adding more expensive chips hard to justify - hence no map. Difficulty owed to the lack of memory and games being relatively short once the challenged was mastered. Watch a 100% no skip speed run of Metroid and see it barely runs an hour.
Again, however, I admire your willingness to take on challenges simply for the sake of your own curiosity. Best of luck!
Got here from your Creepypasta vid and plan to binge these Metroid analyses here soon. Keep up the good work!
I think most would prefer a map, but I much prefer not having one.
It seems like not having a map would be a subtraction of content, but when you consider what happens when you don’t have one you might make the argument it actually adds to content.
Think of it this way: imagine you got lost in the African Jungle somewhere. If you have a map then you can just go straight back to civilisation while knowing where vital resources are along the way. Without a map it becomes a memorable struggle for survival and you have to find ways to keep hope with no guarantee you’ll make it out.
Some challenges added from the lack of a map:
* Remembering your general location while everything seems the same.
* optional pencil & paper activity for kids where they need to draw their own map.
* Feeling lost and alone.
* No clues to spoil where your next health upgrade will be.
* Respawn locations become an important landmark.
* Dying and retracing your steps incorrectly can lead to new discoveries (like falling in fake lava).
* No need to be constantly checking a map.
* Discovering, on your own, a shortcut or loop around to the same part of the game.
* Finding key areas is a complete surprise.
* Having to pay attention to and learn subtle differences so you don’t get too lost.
As an enormous Metroid fan (it's my second favorite VG series behind Pokemon) I'm so glad to see you cover them. Really hope going full time goes well for you! I'm rooting for you!
Glad I have a couple big fans of the series. I hope the rest of the videos end up being entertaining.
And thanks! I'm hoping the full-time thing goes well. =D
I think biggest flaw is having to refill after you've died, it takes forever
Great video!
I grew up in the SNES era. I played this game in like 1997 and I felt the same: I was really surprised at how good it felt considering the year it was made in, but I got lost the more I explored. In the end it was a fun experience but after playing it for a day I decided I was never going to finish it.
And now with Zero Mission there's really no reason to revisit the game other than for novelty reasons. Still has some rather impressive attributes though.
Props to you for completing the game that started it it all, it's been over 30 years, and I haven't had the will or patience to do it, yet I still have so muh admiration for this game (and series overall). I did a similar playthrough before Metroid Dread dropped in October '21, but I replaced Metroid and Metroid 2 for their superior offiial remakes. This is a beloved series of mine, and I've thoroughly enjoyed your analysis of it.
The remake released 18 years later on far superior hardware fixed the issues??!!? YA DONT SAY!
silent hill 2 remake was worse than the original, so yes, it is valid
@Kelly Hansen hey if u like re2 as well, u would be pleased by the remake,,, does that ocunt for something?
@Kelly Hansen i didnt understand shit of that game lol, can u explain it to me?
@Kelly Hansen what an imagination xD
do u hate ppl that dislike this game?
"The game is too hard, that makes it a bad game!"
---Every gamer of the current modern era.
There is a fine difference between challenging and unfairly hard
Dude that is fucking insulting
@@maryl1889 is it insulting because you know that’s you? 😂
I mean it's not hard. Dk you think grinding is hard? It just takes long, but shooting at respawning enemies is incredibly easy
Metroid in general is imcredibly easy aside from the grinding, as the bosses die in an instant and mother brain doesn't attack you like in the remake
How dare you insult the Mother Brain fight like that!
"Dumb rings"? Pah!
They're Froot Loops.
If you understood the limitations of the first NES games, I think you’d be way more forgiving.
There was no advanced stuff like Super Mario 3, but instead they had the same limits of Super Mario 1.
They also had a rather short time to make it in.
Great analysis!, Metroid is a childhood classic of mine and honestly I feel like your retrospective does it justice (for all the game did right and wrong). Looking forward to the next video!
Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm also really looking forward to the next video, as I have a lot I want to say about Metroid 2. =D
The original NES game has nostalgic value for some of the older fans of the series, but as a gameplay experience, the fan made Super Metroid/SNES remake of the first Metroid game is a better and more enjoyable game than trying to play through the NES version of the game. The original Metroid is also artistically unique, both in the designs of Samus (as depicted in the 80's artwork) and the overall world design which is very atmospheric; it captures the quality of "ancient extraterrestrial ruins" very well, which also translates excellently into the SNES remake.
There's also an MSU-1 patch that is an updated analog synth rendition of the original soundtrack.
If you thought the grinding for energy/missiles in Metroid is bad, you should try playing Dragon Warrior. Anyway: as a 7-8 year-old in 1988/1989, Metroid was mind-blowing. The things you find fault with were some of the stuff I loved the most: The exploring, the backtracking, finding hidden rooms - back then, without a map, it would literally take days for us to find things like the Wave Beam. Once we did, the sense of accomplishment was unparalleled. The repetitive nature of the rooms is actually due to memory issues - Metroid was insanely expansive for its time and used a mapping trick to program rooms (the entire game is under 150k, miniscule but massive for its day). In essence: rooms from the different areas are clones from other areas with a different palette. The game would have been a fraction of its size without this programming trick (and this is also why there are a large number of stable 'hidden' rooms you can only access with the door jump glitch - they're literally rooms from, e.g., Brinstar with Ridley's Lair mapping). I owned Metroid II and Super Metroid and could just not got into them. I'd much rather play a Nestroid hack.
Just subbed!
BTW, Don't worry about it bro, I grew up with the NES and I just beat Metroid for the first time last year!
I grew up in the NES era and I played this game a lot as a kid despite never beating it. I agree with your opinion that it isn't necessary to play unless you're a die hard fan. Super Metroid is essentially a perfect remake of it even before Zero Mission was made. So there ya go. 2 remakes of the same game and both are much more fun.
This is another old game where I'd forgotten that it could be cryptic as far as navigating through it goes. It's alot more fun once you've got it memorized... but whose looking to do that these days...
Travis Speer me! Finally beat it on NES and keep going back. Just memorize where the screwball is and you’re set (psst. It’s just after the boots)
People who want to get 112% on Hollow Knight. Trust me when I say you need your reactions to be based on memory or instinct to get all the endings in that game.
Same, I grew up during the PS2/GameCube era, I never owned a GameCube though, I had a PS2
This video was great. As someone who has been thinking about how to get into the Metroid series, this video has helped me see pros and cons of the original NES game. Also quick question, do you intend on mentioning the fan made remake of Metroid 2 called "Another Metroid 2 Remake"? I figured I'd ask ahead of time rather than wait and see you get bombarded with several comments asking the same question but maybe a week or so later.
Keep up the awesome work on your videos.
For now no, AM2R is not planned to be included. If I get enough requests I will cover it, but since it's not an official release, it's hard to fit it into this. (Not to mention I already have to play Metroid 2 twice. XD)
But regardless I'm glad you enjoyed the video. =D
DuoStuff i highly recommend AM2R even if you already played samus returns. Although they are based on the same game they both have vastly different takes on the original and really don’t feel like the same game at all
The NES era at the time was revolutionary. For most people they went from the primitive Atari 2600 or arcade games that weren't really that in depth but more for trying to get a high score to this. It doesn't seem like much now but it was a huge leap forward. If you had money maybe you played some games close to something like NES games on the Commodore 64 or the Colecovision. If you were in the U.K. you had the ZX Spectrum or Amstrad and between those you may have played games like Impossible Mission 1 and 2 or Nodes of Yesod but this took it to the next level and made a huge impression world wide. But, yeah, like most NES games of the era it's hard as balls and frustrating as Hell. But we also were young, having tons of games or collecting them wasn't a thing yet, so if you paid $50 in 1986 money you wanted a game you could play for a while to feel like you got your moneys worth. Nowadays we have so many options we don't need that so much and can go the opposite route and say a game is wasting our time. How things have changed.
The reason a lot of rooms are identical is pretty simple: every single room in the original game is built not of individual tiles, but of _chunks_ of tiles that were quite large, to save on memory as you guessed. I forget the size of the chunks (a quarter of a screen maybe?) but it's large enough that none of the rooms are really unique.
Great video keep them coming.
Thank you! =D
A useful trick to know about the first Metroid game is the air jump glitch. Morph into your Maru Mari, roll off the edge of a platform, unmorph and then jump. Viola! You can jump in the air. It's useful for certain secions and for getting the Energy Tank in Kraid's room super easily.
Ironically, I think I have the reverse opinion. Im glad this was my first Metroid game, because after playing newer Metroid games, Im too spoiled by quality of life to ever go back. But I enjoyed it a lot on my first playthrough.
Yeah, having to go backwards to it was definitely not ideal if I'm being honest. It is what it is though.
@@DuoStuff I think one of the hardest things was not having the 8 directional aim of Super, if I remember correctly NES Metroid was only 4 directions. That and having a map in game. Super really kills any enjoyment I could get trying to go back and play the first one. But Im happy I started with NES, because it hooked me on the series.
I'm 40. I've never played this game! Guess it's time!
One thing was way back then us old timers had the 800 number to call. And there was the players handbook, which DID have a map. In retrospect, it kinda was the original DLC that you had to pay for to make games worthwhile. A spot later filled by Nintendo Power magazine.
As someone that played this as a kid, not knowing where to go and not having a map was part of the novelty. The game *felt* massive and you had to explore *everything* and get better as a player to figure out how to continue. It's not fair to look at it on this side of Super Metroid, which is arguably the best video game ever made. Compare it against Milo's Secret Castle or ET on Atari and then you'll be able to appreciate it a bit more. It is still fun for me to play, though you are right about too many rooms being so similar. And frankly, you're also right that Super Metroid has was more playback value (or Metroid Prime for that matter), but OG Metroid is absolutely still worth playing on its own merits.
Facts. I've tried so many times to play these games over the years because they looked fun, but they were hard has freak!
Yeah it's really difficult to get into NES era stuff if you didn't grow up in that era.
My brother and I had Metroid 2: Return of Samus for Gameboy. It was cool, but we had no idea what we were supposed to do, and had no clue where we were the whole time.
I got another copy of it, to give it another shot, I can also finally play Super Metroid whenever I want on the SNES mini, and I think I got Metroid Prime Corruption on Wii or Wii U (I don't remember, it's in a GameStop case), but I had no idea what I was supposed to do (now it's in 3D).
I don't really understand the "no direction, lots of backtracking" criticism. That's literally the point, explore and solve the puzzle.
Does anyone know what he's talking about at 1:18? Was there some sort of drama with the DK and Metroid fanbase over Tropical Freeze???
Oh yeah there was. People were really mad that Retro Studios were making another DKC instead of Metroid Prime 4. It was a weird time. Thankfully the Switch port didn't get the same treatment.
It is generally true that the most embitious games usually age worse than other ones, but there are several exceptions. For example, Super Mario Bros. 1, Super Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time were both extremely ambitious and pioneered all kinds of stuff which became industry standards. And yet, they are some of the most accessible games from their respective eras.
Same goes for Final Fantasy VII, which... okay, the gameplay was the exact same as IV-VI, but it did the whole pre-rendered backgrounds thing, and even using those backgrounds to transition to CGI cutscenes. And it still looks more pleasing to the eye than most other early 3D games. Sure, the characters looks like Lego figures, but the art style with the locations really makes it memorable and immersive.
As for Metroid 1, I generally agree, and this is a nice review anyway. I do think you undersold how cryptic this game can be, I mean there is a fake Kraid, and when you kill it, there is no indication that "haha this was just my clone" or something, you may very well think you did it, only to return to the bridge to the final area and find that it hasn't triggered for some reason. And I think one mandatory powerup was in a hidden place under lava which usually kills you... But the biggest flaw is definitely the fact that you start with only 30 HP after dying and have to grind for minutes each time. Zelda 1 did the same thing, but at least it gave you a healing spot pretty close to the starting point.
NES Metroid was an extremely difficult, never-ending grind for more health and missiles, but it was a very clever and unique concept for its time.
I love the music in this game so much. There isn't any direction on where to go and that was frustrating. The music really did instill the creepy atmosphere and it sunk in that you are ALONE and left to fend for yourself.
This is still my second favorite Metroid game, I really love how the Mother Brain fight made me feel invasive and I didn't feel excited about beating it, instead I felt somber and like I finished my mission because i had to, not for elation or joy. The only other time a boss fight has made me feel this way was, well The Boss from MGS3.
As much as I want to shake my fist at you and tell you to get off my lawn, I feel like I need to address your concerns about this game. I grew up in the Nintendo era. I loved SMB, Zelda, Tyson’s Punch Out, etc. I’ve never played a Game Cube game.
Here’s what you missed playing it now: the instruction manual. Reading that thing was critical to game play, and something that is a complete afterthought in today’s games as the game walks you through the mechanics in some kind of tutorial. That wasn’t possible on the NES. That and the social aspect of this game before the Internet or social media were a thing was what made it a hallmark. Before this game it was all about how many points you scored. Now it was all about who found what power up, who had the Nintendo Power magazine, whose map drawn on notebook paper was best, you get my drift. Bitching about the graphics from today’s perspective seems a bit unfair, as this is going to happen with any game. Did I ever beat this game as a kid? No. Did I love discovering Metroid Zero Mission recently on an emulator and having it fix all the broken stuff on the original? Absolutely.
I did enjoy your analysis of this game though and to see it from different eyes. I hope this provides you some chronological context though.
Yeah I didn’t really get the comment “The graphics aren’t befitting of a Metroid game....”
Dude it was the FIRST Metroid game, there was no style guide or examples to go by.
That's cool insight!
The idea of of many games at the time was to take notes on a note book, make your own map etc, it was part of the fun! Games were expensive, so you would have to Waite months until you get another game! So being hard was the replay value
thanks for the video
You're welcome dude!
Impressive! Even some of us long time fans never beat the original NES game. That's what Zero Mission is for.
Video games are going to be as important as films and books. There are some really important early books that are hard to read but still very rewarding to learn about and appreciate. Those important early books are utter marvels, inventing and/or popularizing so many conventions of the medium in one go. Hundreds, even thousands of other books published in their era have already been long forgotten. No, these important early books are not going to please our modern whims. Video games still market themselves as fun ways to spend your time. This is so flawed, because it assumes a flipside where if they're not fun, then they're not worth your time. If we're going to spend thousands or more on a sealed copy of an old beloved video game, then we're going to need to recognize that those early games are utter marvels. A sealed SMB sold for 2 million this year. Money like that does not come from nostalgia. There are some (not many) Charlie Chaplin films that will blow your mind and make you cry, and it would be a bonkers criticism to say the silent, black and white style was just too hard to sit through. With all due respect - I enjoyed the quality of your video, I appreciated your sincerity for Metroid - this game does not "struggle with a number of issues because of the console." This game is 35 years old and will continue to be played and talked about by generations beyond our years.
Imagine playing this and Zelda with no internet. It Was so rewarding finding secrets along the way and it was fun sharing and exchanging tips with friends. Now days all kids have to do for any game is pick up their phone and it gives them the answers... makes me happy to have been a kid in the 80s. 😀
Well hey, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Inevitably, there were both positives and negatives to both of the eras we grew up in. I'm personally really glad to have grown up when games could have deeper lore and fully 3D world personally.
@@DuoStuff I was an older kid when 64 hit the scene. Mario 64 I still think is one of the greatest games ever. so I feel you on that tip. After 64 though I was kind of done with games. But all these retro throwbacks coming back now I'm kinda getting into it... I ordered an NBA Jam arcade 1up... HAHAHA! My wife thinks I'm nuts. HAHAHA
Even back in 86 I never thought of Metroid as ground breaking in the same way Mario and Zelda's original games where. Well not until Super Metroid.
I never go hard on games like this or Simon's Quest. It was the nature of adventure games of the time to be cryptic guide sellers. Zelda 1, as much as ppl deny, is also a cryptic guide game. It's like lives in games: "Lives are bad game design so old games are badly designed"...... no, it was just what developers knew, it was the law of the land and difficulty was a big part of gaming.
That's why we have progress. It's not like the majority of games still do this. Old games should be judged by context before asking whether or not they're enjoyable today. They're not "bad games" as much as they were games of their time.
In 1986 this game was unbelievable. The other day I defeated Mother Brain for the first time since I was a kid. I have been patting myself on the back ever since.
That's cool :) I'm 23 and i've been doing that too with my childhood games, like rayman. I'm pretty proud as well hahaha
Metroid was a game where kids had the advantage if they got video game magazines like Nintendo Power that provided maps.I beat the game in a day because of what I got from those magazines. I continued playing it and made my own maps , and improved to beating it in time to get the special ending.
We had no issues with no map, or repetitive rooms back in the day this was new; we only had a couple of games, so if we didn't like it, TOO BAD. So we played everything all the time and didn't recognize it's 'faults'. I went from Atari 2600 to this, which was an incredible step up. The 'faults' of this game weren't faults at all. Especially if you've played 'ET' on the 2600. We never would have finished Mega Man if we'd had all the options people have today; we were stuck? Try again. And again. Don't like it? Keep going, there's only a couple of other games that we've already played to death, might as well. Now, if someone comes across something tough, they quit. If they find a fault? They quit. We were forced to persevere, or go outside and jump on the trampoline or something. This is 'old man' talk, but there is a lesson here; keep going. Persevere. Don't give up, recognize how fantastic we have it now, and appreciate what we have... things in the video game world actually keep getting better, whether one realizes it or not.
It's so weird to hear so many people try to play Metroid without a map just because it's not an automated function. Trust me, no one who made the game expected you to memorize it in full as you played. Drawing your own map was a more widespread practice in games back then, and they fully expected you to do it. I know you eventually used one you found online, but making the map is part of the fun. So was sharing secret areas and hidden item locations with friends to try and find everything. A lot fewer games came to market at any given time, and you can bet dozens of kids at your school were playing and talking about this game after its release. At this point I would definitely just look up a complete map for 100%, but it's perfectly beatable with far less than that with a homemade map.
The complaint about shared rooms is valid, but keep in mind this full game is smaller than any given Win10 desktop icon on your desktop and had to fit on a 112kb Famicom Disk.
The health issue is 100% crap, especially if you die after getting a lot of energy tanks. No excuses, that does suck.
It's cool to hear impressions from newer fans that grew up on GC games, lol. Metroid has always been a mainly niche, mostly US audience so it's pretty unique for Nintendo properties.
Dude, what the heck? My experience is kind of like yours. The first Metroid game I ever played was Other M, (I had no idea how different it was, I was like 11 when I got it.) Never beat the game, and I hate it today especially now that I'm a fan. Played through almost all of Prime and loved it, because I got the trilogy on Wii U (Now I'm kinda just waiting to continue the trilogy on the Switch) Anyway, Samus Returns released, and I kid you not, I played through it once, immediately played through it a second time and got 100%, and then played through a 3rd time consecutively. All of a sudden, I was a huge fan of Metroid and in 2018 or 2019 I spent some time playing through every 2d Metroid game released, and I had a blast playing through every one. Oddly enough, this game is one of them that I've now beaten dozens of times; I powered through my first play through of the game, struggling to figure out where to go, and then after that I just got addicted to trying to beat it as fast as possible. It's so weird, because technically I think it's the weakest game in the series (apart from Other M), so I have no idea why I've replayed it so much.
The NES has a kinda weird set of games.. but much fun could still be found on the old brick! Especially Kirby's Adventure!
If you're Sonic fan, the Game Gear game Tails' Adventure is classified as Metroidvania
There's also a fantastic fan game that combines classic Sonic gameplay with metroidvania world: Sonic Chrono Adventure.
However, I recomend playing Sonic After the Sequel first to understand what is that owl thing. It's more traditional Sonic fan game with unique zones. I find it as good as official classics.
What Metroid are you playing at 2:00? I lost interest in the series after Prime. Not big on FPS.
Don't know if you still care, but it's Samus Returns, a remake of the second
To this day I still wonder how much would I liked original Metroid as a kid. I've played it somewhere around 2007, but gave it a proper run only after getting it for Wii U Virtual Console. And even then I've stuck quiet a lot and mostly abandoned it for Super Metroid's playthrough. Kraid's lair was ridiculous with it's map design and enemy placement and the fact that they can hit you, when going to another room annoyed me quiet a lot. And then there was Norfair where you need to bomb that one specific block to progress toward Ridley's lair. There was some points when I've got to look over the internet to understand what I was missing. Compared to Super Metroid where Maridia almost drove me crazy, I actually beat entire game by myself. And then there is gameplay quirks. Most annoying is, of course, no sit/crouch button. And for me personally ice beam isn't worth using until final stage or getting some secret items earlier.
While I certainly don't hate this game, I'm sure don't like it now. As a kid I would probably enjoyed it, but not on the same as many other games on the system.
I feel bad because I beat this game 100% and enjoyed it, however I played it on Nintendo switch and constantly used the rewind feature all the time and I used a a 100% guide
Nah it's all good. As long as you enjoyed it, it doesn't really matter how you played it.
This video is my exact thoughts T-T
I love the original Metroid, I play it every now and then. Having no maps or markers telling you where to go helps giving you that feeling claustrophobia and possible getting lost down in deep caves and really helps with the atmosphere. Handholding is not always a good thing.
I think Super Metroid and Meroid Prime was fine games but I still like this first one best.
Calling Metroid the first Metroidvania is like calling Demon's Souls the first Souls Like, or Doom the first Doom Clone.
Doom was just a Wolfenstein 3d clone.
@@TheChuckFina
True. But all FPS games were known as Doom Clones until Halo was released and the term 'first person shooter' was coined.
If nothing else play it through emulation. I got a Famicom Mini last year and that’s how I was able to make it through and made the game fun/playable for me. I even drew my own map until I got to Norfair which is no fair. I tried it the original way for a while but I couldn’t deal with low 30 energy health every time I got back to it and grinding for life every time.
Sure I dealt with tiny controllers fair trade for decent save ability. I’m glad I got through this Metroid first. After I’m through with 2 it all gets better from here. That’s the idea.
Metroid is the most immersive game on the nes.
Actually that's probably true. For an NES game, Metroid has an impressive atmosphere and a sizable world.
The problem is that Zero mission is way to expensive
There is a map for metroid. Its in the manual but it wont show obsticles
To be fair, I didn't have the manual. A lot of people threw away their NES cases and instructions and it's so frustrating. XD
I like the Ridley theme. Yeah it's repetitive but it's creepy and ominous as hell and perfectly fits the atmosphere.
eh, dont feel too bad. i grew up on the NES myself, game's like this, castlevania 2 and zelda 2 raised my ire enough times. blaster master vaguely pulls this crap too.
hell, considering the internet was an entirely different beast in 1996, playing both zelda games with game genie codes active caused a load of problems due to the fact that i had NO idea of where i was going.
While I honestly have a ton of problems with the original Metroid, I can almost forgive all of its shortcomings besides one and that is that moronic decision of starting every game with 30HP, regardless of how many Energy tanks you've acquired.
When you die and are already feeling frustrated, why in the world would any developer even back in the day think that I would now really enjoy wasting another 15 or more minutes farming respawning enemies for health pellets before I can even proceed to start over with retracing my steps?
It's padding and the worst kind there is :/
Something else that served as kind of a roadblock for me the first time I played it was the red doors you need missiles for.
After firing 3 missiles at one to apparently no effect and with a sound that sounds like they are just reflecting off, I thought I was on the wrong track and needed some other means to get through. I don't see any reason why they couldn't just require a singular missile to open?
And that's without getting into any of the cumbersome stuff where you have to bomb unassuming walls and floors everywhere to move forward.
The game is also just littered with too many knee-high enemies that are just begging for a crouch function that isn't there -_-
This first instalment really doesn't hold up very well, despite it being an important step for better things to come. But Zero Mission is really the only proper way to enjoy this.
There ARE some really nice hacks of the game out there though than introduces a lot of much-needed quality of life stuff like introducing an in-game map and save files over Passwords (So no more 3DS killing codes here xD)
Metroid: mOTHER is a particularly good one
www.romhacking.net/hacks/1988/
You know I didn't even think about it, but yeah, requiring 5 missiles is really dumb combined with the lack of feedback given by the doors. I guess having experience with the other games just kind of clued me in, but I probably should've mentioned that. (It was the first video of this type I made though, so I'm not too surprised.)
@@DuoStuff I think the only reason I even made any progress in the less obvious parts of the original Metroid was because I had just played through Zero Mission so I had an idea of where to go and what random floor tiles needed bombing.
This seemingly endless climbs throughout the game sure is a chore as well.
I think your video was excellently done though and you got around to a lot of good points. It was a once watch.
The NES games era were, mostly, all completely beatable. Growing up in the Gamecube era, sadly, made you weak. (Not flaming you, it's just how it is.) And it's been a steady slide down-hill for gamers, ever since.
Still, enjoyed your video...
I disagree. With games like dark souls and cuphead modern gamers can play difficult games.
What I *still* don't get: is Space Pirate supposed to be a species or an occupation? Because all of them who aren't Mother Brain seem to be the same type of creature. In every game I remember seeing "space pirates" appearing.
"I grew up during the gamecube era"
damn I feel old
Yeah it's just kinda like that. The fact that the Gamecube itself is almost 20 years old is terrifying itself.
It so weird for me to hear the intro of this video. After I was gifted my snes on Christmas at seven with Aero the acrobat and Mortal Kombat (yes my mom got me that at 7 and them she was shocked after seeing fatalities). After all that the first game I got of my own choosing was Super Metroid. My father loved it and to me Metroid represents nostalgia playing alongside my father.
This was a gem of his time ...centennials don't understand that, their typical criticism is always about how hard and inconvenient it is ...you can't judge technology from the past with your modern standards ...that's idiotic
Something easy to forget about the NES era, is that while the design could often be obtuse and easy to get lost in, strategy guides and other publications like Nintendo Power abounded. Or, god help you and your parents’ phone bill, the Nintendo Power hotline....
being 7 years old on 1986 and playing metroid and finishing it. is enother story.
0:00 yeah that's zelda for me
I like some of the things you verbalize. Like games that start or really evolve a genre are going to age badly, because sequels and copycats will refine all the rough edges. It makes sense, but I've never heard it verbalized that well.
It explains why Mario 1 is definitely important and was a great game, but is not a very good game anymore.
Yeah it also took me a while to really be able to verbalize it too.
Though I will say I still like Mario 1, mostly because on a basic level it's still an enjoyable game, just a bit simple.
@@DuoStuff Yeah, Mario is still fun. I'm not trying to say it's bad. It set the bar for platformers really high and had a lot of minor nitpicks and a small scope as the only negatives. But 30 some years later, the platforming genre has just been refined so much and the bar raised higher that Mario 1 is outdone comparatively.
You gotta pull out that graph paper and map things out manually. ;)
I love the game but you're not wrong about it aging poorly.
okay but
i couldn't get through the first missile door because i didn't have enough missiles and the enemies only dropped health
If anyone wants to experience a slightly better version of the original Metroid, there is a fan rom hack called Metroid mOTHER, Samus has a better model, there's a map, etc.
Actually, Metroid wasn't exactly the first of its kind. Pitfall! is often regarded as the first one.
Pitfall! The Metroidvania...
the "can't get into it" struggle for me is Zelda. *crowd gasps...*
I'm appalled....lol
I'm finally playing A Link to the Past, and I've had the strategy guide for 20some years, just never had an SNES (until the last 2 years or so, I have a Retro-Bit Super Retro Trio and Trio+, an SNES Mini, and finally a real SNES, which I removed the tabs so I can play Super Famicom games, as well). I still feel like I need someone to walk me through every step of the game... but I'm dumb.
@@JonathanMartin884 tbh the puzzles just never click with me, and once i solve them, i leave feeling infuriated instead of satisfied XD
@@LunalynDragon The thing about Zelda puzzles is there is basically like a language of Zelda puzzles, the more you do them the easier they are. My suggestion would be to give the original Zelda on NES a shot or Link to the Past on SNES a shot (Zelda 2 also has a limited amount of puzzles, but brings a whole plethora of other "issues").
9:54 super mario bros castle theme
If you have a short attention span or aren't looking for exploration over twitch reflex action, early metroids will just make you mad.
Once you get into it, though, you grow to like it and then love it
I agree with you. Metroid on NES is absolutely outdated, like Legend of Zelda or Super Mario Bros 3. Only for the nostalgics! The SNES versions of these games are a too much progression of what those games should have been...
None of your opinions about this game are wrong, but I was around when this game came out. I was so young, this game used to scare the shit out of me. Anyway, I actually didn't come back to this game until after Super Metroid came out, cuz it reminded me of this game. And despite all of its flaws, I still look back on this game finally, even with Metroid zero mission out.
My favorite games are still super Metroid, and most recently, Metroid Dread, but I still love this game
I get it, trust me.
And as far as my favorites go, mine are probably Dread, Fusion, and Prime 1.
While I don’t necessarily agree with you on a lot of this, it’s still a quality video. I’ll hit that like button 👍
When I was a kid, I loved this game. I had to make my own maps and had pages and pages of the ridiculously long save codes. LOL At the time, it was impressive.
LMAO - You're biggest complaint about every old game is that it's hard... regardless of the reason(s) why the bottom line is that it's "hard". It's just funny because I hear it from younger people all the time and somehow that then becomes "bad game design". To also say that it doesn't hold up to "modern game standards" due to that is silly because by definition one would have to lower standards to make the skill level required easier. From my point of view modern games don't hold up to vintage game standards - which many times means players don't have to be as good to beat them. Regardless, all of our views have their place. I just come from a different time. The beautiful graphics and overly powerful hardware of today have led way to a whole new world in terms of gaming and watching that evolve led to me being a computer technician and programmer so I can definitely respect that... and honestly even now I like to just sit and basically experience it all as a whole without having to feel "stuck" forever on some part so I get that too. Back then the time spent was an adventure and the difficulty in beating enemies, even the small ones, was rewarding when your abilities rose to the level necessary to readily handle them as you traversed your way through the game - it made you feel good and made you better and separated you from other players (I suppose that sentiment may be a byproduct of the arcade culture I grew up in). All that said, it helped getting a few tips from a friend or from Nintendo Power magazine back then to find things as you'd likely never find them all without being obsessed and playing 24/7 for months on end, LOL. I'm just as guilty as the next guy for taking any tips I could get back then. There was no internet, etc. back then... now THAT was hard! :-)
Hey! I’m scared of Luigi’s mansion to this day!
Not me. I ain’t afraid of no ghost! 🚫👻
H o w?
Anth A I let myself be scared, it makes a much better experience.
As an OG gamer who started with pinball in 1975 then PONG soon after I gotta say something.
If you are going to nitpick the failings of games that were on a console 2 generations before the one you started with, try going back to the consoles that came before the NES. Try your hand at Adventure or Superman on the Atari 2600. Give Smurf Adventure a shot on the Colecovision or one of the AD&D games on the Intellivision. Familiarize yourself with the limitations of those games. I guarantee you're going to hate them since they are so damned awful. I'm suggesting you look at the games that came before the NES only to understand what they grew out of.
Then when you step up to the NES you'll see what we saw in the improvements at the time. Games with music AND multicolor sprites! Games we could PAUSE when mom called us to dinner! Games we could write down a passcode and turn off the console then come back the next day after school and pick up (almost) exactly where we left off!
14 YEAR OLD MIND BLOWN.
Mind you, the C64, Apple computers and IBM clones were doing most of this from the start...
Adventure had a little under 30 non-scrolling screens off the top of my head. Metroid had over 200 screens!
I don't blame you for not being as enthused about NES games when you grew up with the GameCube and beyond. My kids are spoiled as hell with the current generation of consoles but I've made sure they at least appreciate how far games have come by playing a few old school games with them.
Your Content And Review About NES Metroid Is An Overview From A True Millennial...
Ummm... Don't you mean zoomer? You do know that old millenials were born before this game came out?
Yeah, you mean zoomer. But hey, this is life, our opinions as zoomers aren't wrong and yours aren't as well. Its simply a matter of different context and perspectives.
This game had a LOT of the same problems that plagued Zelda 2. It’s advantage was that enemies drop energy refills.
You should do top 10 videos like top 10 Nintendo games, GameCube games, Mario games, etc
I definitely will from time to time. =D
DuoStuff sweet definitely will watch :)
telegraphed = I need the game to literally point to where I need to go so I don't have to use my brain to find out on my own.