Just started the original Metroid for the first time on Switch: How many hours is it?

nice

Zero Mission is the best Metroid game.

quote:

---

The original one is near unplayable in comparison to newer ones, IMHO, because there is no map system and a lot of identical corridors.

---

Its hard as frick.

Its always fun going back to an NES game and getting worked and remembering how it used to be.

I have died.......a lot.

What platforms is Zero Mission on?

quote:

---

The original one is near unplayable in comparison to newer ones, IMHO, because there is no map system and a lot of identical corridors.

---

The lack of map is the most obvious issue but the biggest design flaw of the original is that there is no in-game way to recharge your health.

If you ever resume from a code you have like almost no health.

As such whenever you go to fight Mother Brain you are pretty much required to sit in front of an enemy spawn point for 10-15 minutes farming health drops to get up to full HP.

It's no surprise that they immediately added recharge stations in the next game.

The tip to avoid this scenario in the original is to save an uncollected energy tank before the final fight, because when you collect an energy tank it refills you to full. But if you die to Mother Brain you of course gotta farm.

At least you can save in the Game Boy one too. Still no map though.

quote:

---

Of course, visuals alone do not create atmosphere. Some would argue, actually, that it is only with perfect sound design that you can truly create the illusion of being. According to Sakamoto, the Hirokazu Tanaka’s original score for Metroid was designed to “(make) you feel as though you were actually there. Ever since then, I’ve maintained a strong conviction that music has an incredible power to project certain atmospheres.” Further Reading: 25 Best GameCube Games He is most certainly right. Nintendo games may have a proud history of fantastic soundtracks that pre-date Metroid, but no other soundtrack up until this point had been designed to create a singular feeling of dread and isolation. So effective is Metroid’s score that it often feels as if it is coming not from your television speakers, but rather that it is being screamed by the game’s levels in an effort to bleed their pain and infect your mind. But interestingly enough, Tanaka's score might be most notable for the sounds that aren't there. A creeping silence invades the game at times, like you're listening to the void. As music theorist and composer Andrew Schartmann points out in his book, Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art, this again comes from the playbook of Alien, which was scored by the brilliant Jerry Goldsmith.

---

this perfectly describes why Metorid series is amazing.

The music and atmosphere in Metroid games makes you feel alone and isolated.

quote:

---

It must of blown peoples minds with the non-linear gameplay and they upgrading to proceed mechanic.

---

What really blew my mind was the Justin Bailey code b/c the kid who showed it to me was actually named Justin Bailey.

quote:

---

I played a lot of it last night and the game is great considering its a 1986 release.

It must of blown peoples minds with the non-linear gameplay and they upgrading to proceed mechanic.

Great music too.

---

Yes you have to judge it through 1986 eyes, and it really is amazing by that standard, which is the whole reason it became such a popular franchise from that point onwards.

Many of the very early NES titles, even some of the great ones, have some really weird elements that you have to forgive because video game design was just starting to crawl out of the prehistoric era.

The vast majority of all gaming up to that point had been games that mostly consisted of a single screen, think Asteroids or Space Invaders or Frogger. Building a game like Zelda or Metroid, a game that consisted of a very large inter-connected world, was pretty mind blowing.

I don't even mind the no map in the original Metroid, had the game had more graphical variety in the areas, you wouldn't have even needed one or noticed the lack of one. You can build a large sprawling world with no map if the world is well designed, as the Souls games prove in the modern era.

When they did add a map system, they did it right. Super Metroid's map is awesome because it doesn't show any secret areas or shortcuts (which are all over the place). You still feel the need to explore and you never feel like the game is telling you where to go next.

Modern developers should take note of that, you can provide a map system without 50 other blinking arrows and widgets telling the player where they should be going at all times.

quote:

---

PEPE

---

really good post