Your favourite Metroid game...

[jayboy]

So spanning across the NES, SNES, GC and Gameboy Advance, what has been your favourite Metroid game, and your best bit of the game?

Having played them all I would plump for Metroid Prime, and my favourite bit would be the first time you are introduced to the flying space pirates, and the subsequent battle, watching them suicide dive into you after taking a few missiles.

So whats yours?

[esar]

In my house i'm going through Fusion and Super Metroid while my flatmate is playing Zero Mission and Prime so I think i'm quite up on this topic.

So for me Prime takes it from Super Metroid (just). Its the whole atmosphere and the feeling of lonliness in Prime that makes it stand out for me, i've never felt so immersed in a videogame.

My favourite bit is when you first enter Phlandra Drifts (or whatever its called). Thats when the game really opened up for me and where I got a sense of the size of the task ahead of me.

[Sprite Machine]

Not played them all, but I'd say my favourite bits are mostly from Metroid Fusion... the first encounter with the SA-X was very scary and atmospheric.

I need to play Super Metroid I think...

(Also, all of Prime was ace, but no one bit stands out really. Maybe the Rock boss thing - I liked that.)

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Super Metroid.

Title-screen/intro, brilliant.

Zebes-layout, brilliant.

Puzzling/maze ratio, brilliant.

Music, utterly brilliant.

I think I just love about everything of it... Of course it becomes even better to return to after you've completed Zero Mission and enter Wrecked Ship again.

[johnj]

I've just got the boost ball in metroid prime and ... I'm stuck. This happened on the SNES too, I'd get the curl ball then get completely stuck and have no idea where to go. I think that will be this summers emulation plan but... in Prime can someone tell me what zone I'm supposed to go to after getting the boost ball, or am I supposed to stay in the ice zone?

Me = Metroid = something broke!

[hub2]

Prime... the escape from the ship. I played that section so many times.

That or the moment when the lights suddenly go out and you're attacked by the space pirates.

Or that massive holographic planet map thingummy.

[Cyhwuhx]

I've just got the boost ball in metroid prime and ... I'm stuck. This happened on the SNES too, I'd get the curl ball then get completely stuck and have no idea where to go. I think that will be this summers emulation plan but... in Prime can someone tell me what zone I'm supposed to go to after getting the boost ball, or am I supposed to stay in the ice zone?

Me = Metroid = something broke!

.::: You can 'do' half-pipes with it. There are also half-pipes in Chozo Ruins and Tallon Overworld without giving to much away.

As for Super; you need to get the two missile tanks in that same blue area you got the Morph Ball then go back upwards to where you entered the planet. You should find a small entrance there you can go through in Morph Ball.

[johnj]

Ah, ta, it felt like it would be a massive haul to go all the way back there then find out I needed to be in the zone I was in in the first play, lot of effort in metroid I reckon. Or I'm an idiot.

[Aardvark]

I think it's probably Metroid Prime, for a single moment I'd pick Thardus (the rock monster), but the subtle hum that all the hidden items give off is also a stroek of genius, the perfect solution doing Metroid style hidden items in a 3d world.

[Dr Seedyman]

I wrote a mini review for Super a while back for www.retro-fish.com

Thought I would share it and watch you all pick holes and make corrections

This is the game I have fondest memories of from the 16-bit era and the game I genuinely believe to be the best on the system. To describe this as a 2D Shooter / Adventure / Platformer would not be fair - its experience is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Every inch of this title has that triple A Nintendo quality beaming back at you. From the stunning weather effects that greet you to the amazing final showdown, you just know that this was Gumpei Yokoi’s love letter to video games and it just felt perfect - a feeling that some would say is maybe missing from later day Nintendo tittles.

One thing’s for sure, it’s a far cry from the “Take you by the hand and gently lead you to the final boss game play” we have become accustomed to.

Personally I am a great believer of “Size doesn’t matter “ but this game was massive and kept even the best gamer from seeing the credits for a good few hours.

This game also features, in my opinion, the single best score ever composed and squeezed into a cartridge. It puts 99% of modern games to shame. The best way to describe it is haunting, you can keep your Final Fantasy’s and your Metal Gear Solid’s - nothing gives me goosebumps like the title music to Super Metriod. You have never felt so alone as when you first touch down in the middle of a storm on the Planet Zebes.

If you thought Ellen Rippley had it tough in Alien, you wait unit you see some of the hideous creatures Samus must face. I’m not gonna give anything away though - Super Metriod is a game that should be experienced first hand. I would hate to spoil it for anyone, I just wonder what expletive you will use when you see just how much Kraid has grown.

Reading it makes me realise just how much of a geek I am.

[phastie]

Hmm... Fusion I think (ooh controversial).

Just finished Zero Misson. Was very good, but wasn't so keen on the 'stealth' bits. Enjoyed the nostalgia of when I fist played it as a little tike of 11 or thereabouts

I enjoyed the constant narrative in Fusion - the computer leading you through a derelict space station. I know this detracted from the exploration aspect of previous titles, but was very atmospheric - really felt like you were a lone soldier on a mission. And the scripted encounters with 'evil samus' were seriously tense. The bosses were tough- so felt very pleased with myself when I finished it.

Couldn't be done with Prime (oooh). Yes it was all very fancy-Dan and I can see why others loved it. But too much hard work to progress for may. I looked up mind-numbing in the dictionary yesterday and it said "colour-specific Space Pirates". Trufax!

[Aardvark]

So Super Metroid remake for the GBA anyone?

[Aardvark]

I enjoyed the constant narrative in Fusion - the computer leading you through a derelict space station.

Yeah, that was pretty good, but I thought Prime's fragments scattered around that you read by scanning was a better way to present a story in a Metroid game.

[Davros sock drawer]

They're all good, but I think I enjoyed Super Metroid the most. Just the right length, creepy atmosphere, loads to explore, very moreish. Plus, I played it for the first time only recently, after Prime, so it stands up amazingly well today.

Must get stuck into Zero Mission at some point.

[vamecum]

only played metroid prime, I would have to say it's favourite

The moment you get the termal visor, and everything goes black and you'r deep inside pirate-research in phenandra. Bliss!!

Best game-implemented turning point ever!

as I recall there wasn't much of a cutscene either, it just twisted the game!

[Jack]

Metroid Prime. Specifically, escaping from the Space Station, Samus stops, and looks up as a shadow moves overhead. That music starts as Mecha Ridley reveals himself, rears back... and flies off. The feeling you get, when you think "Fuck, ten minutes in, and I've got to fight Ridley!", then the relief as he flies away. He could strike you down in a few swipes, but he leaves for now.

[hub2]

Yeah, that was pretty good, but I thought Prime's fragments scattered around that you read by scanning was a better way to present a story in a Metroid game.

Yeah, I really enjoy that way of telling a story - it's puts a lot of control in the players hands. Snippets are drip fed to you and a picture of what went on are slowly revealed. Nice change from meeting a talking head who explains things to you in a five minute cut scene.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: Reading about the Pirates' reverse engineering of morph ball technology was particularly amusing.

[vamecum]

MP2, looking forward so much! ..anyways

the challange of 100% is actually something I am willing to put my self through(Doing it as we speak). There isn't many games which manage to get that effort from you.

[esar]

Hmm... Fusion I think (ooh controversial).

I've really been impressed with how good the GBA games are! When most companies nowadays would have just done a lazy conversion of the console version I think that Fusion and Zero Mission (although its a port) are up there in quality terms with the Snes/Nes games.

[squirtle]

Prime - When you reach the Phazon Mines. You've been trekking through the game for a good few hours, going through the ruins, magmoor, phendrana and the overworld. You think you've seen most of the game now... When suddenly this massive, hard, taxing new section just opens up before you. A great fly by of the opening to the mine, really massive in size and you start to get a hint as to just how much of the planet the pirates and phazon have ruined. Utterly fantastic. And then you start to get the separate pirates and the Omega stuff. And then when you start to get deeper into the phazon, and the metroids start appearing, and then that massive room with big window open along one side... Just amazing. One of my favourite gaming sections from any game. Right up there with AOTCR and Two Betrayals in Halo.

[Graham S]

Super. The end probably, although getting the speed boots runs it close.

[Ktw]

Of course it becomes even better to return to after you've completed Zero Mission and enter Wrecked Ship again.

Ah, hadn't thought of that. Very clever. Now I just need a GBA version of Super Metroid...

That would be my favourite as well. Favourite sections include revisiting old friends such as Kraid and Ridley, and the ending (when you are aided by a most unexpected ally).

[MK-1601]

Prime.

Not sure if there's any one favourite moment, more like hundreds of little ones. The room in Magmoor Caves where you jack up the roof I thought was rather cool. Some of the item/station rooms are breathtaking as well.

[GwiDan]

Walking out onto the Phendrana Drifts in Prime was breathtaking although the battle with the Omega Pirate was pretty awe-inspiring, if a little frustrating. The visuals are dripping with such quality that it's easy to pick a thousand standout moments, even when the gameplay gets tiresome.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: The Crashed Frigate was also terrific, backtracking through the same drowned station you escaped from a few hours ago.

Likewise, scanning one of the containers during the intro only to discover a locked-up Side-Hopper. I wanted to set it free.

Only so I could blast it to the other side of space of course.

Entering Norfair Depths for the first time in Super was also special, the haunting soundtrack and those nailbiting Golds (funny people didn't complain about those but DID about the Phazon Mines in Prime) were really intimidating.