Johnny vs. Super Metroid

[Music] one day in 1994 after spending the day in school and coming back home to relax and maybe catch some power rangers my uncle did not hesitate to flash the super metroid instruction manual signifying that he got the game and i was excited because super metroid as soon as i first laid eyes on it on the tv now that was a game i really wanted to play a game so big so intense it transformed a doberman into a whimpering chihuahua that was super metroid the next endeavor of nintendo r d one that's a strange hieroglyph the first to be directed by yoshio sakamoto moving up from his initial role as an art designer and i know i'll have some things to say about the man when we eventually get to other m but this is another m this is super metroid and if you ask me here along with the rest of the team knocked it out of the park here unfortunately this will also be the last game to have gumpy yoko involved before his unfortunate passing in 1997 after a deadly car accident he was taken from this world far too soon but he left one hell of a legacy behind not sure if i would include the virtual boy in that but that's up to you two years was spent on super metroid's development the goal of the team being to create a standout action game that would set the stage for the return of samus aaron which is strange to say out loud when you consider the subtitle for the last game was return of samus do it again they probably said this was also the first metroid to be scored by kenji yamamoto no not that kenji omoto the other kenji yamamoto the one that didn't play drawing songs i still like listening to him while i think yamamoto's best work is in the prime series his contributions here along with monaco himano are some of the best tracks ever to grace the franchise with their amazing balance of melody and atmosphere when you touch down on planet zebus when things take off you won't find another track in the game that makes the hairs in the back of your neck stand up when samus returns on the 3ds brought it back for the finale i was so [ __ ] giddy because oh my god i love this track this was the game to introduce ridley's theme though here it's more of a general boss theme you hear it multiple times throughout the game it wouldn't be until metroid fusion where they officially tied to the purple space dragon the theme of samus aaron which becomes the second theme of the criteria landing site and brought back for the finale against the returning mother brain is so triumphant i'm pumping this monstrosity with the skittle beam and i never felt so powerful super metroid soundtrack is just great it makes you anxious makes you excited makes you cautious makes you engaged that's what i love about it the most it enhances the game's use of environmental storytelling because after the opening minutes super metroid is a game with next to no dialogue if you want some dialogue may i point you in the direction of the nintendo power super metroid comic book tie-in don't get too excited it's non-canon ultimately unnecessary it chronicles the basic gist of the game but takes a vastly different turn in a few ways there's a second bounty hunter named houston who sort of acts as an audience surrogate learning things about samus that we eventually do a very shallow character outside of that you got the chief of galactic federation police named hardy who's the most cartoonish bumbling oath that is so ill-fitting for the metroid series he's fat he loves to eat laugh you chuckle [ __ ] it's true as [ __ ] explains why the federation police can be so incompetent but i like to think it's not because of this lazy douche no a keaton's pretty cool though the chairman of the federation doesn't take to hardy [ __ ] and respect samus a great deal these two [ __ ] kill the baby metroid near the end of the comic yeah one of the most iconic moments in the end game where the baby saves samus and gives the hyper beam is instead handled in such an anticlimactic way here they see the metroid they think it's evil they zap it and that's it it's just that is so [ __ ] lame this comic is not much of anything it's got some good artwork and i dig how the comic acknowledges the crystal flash a technique that's actually in the game itself where you use a powerbomb to heal yourself it's cool to see in printed form and despite how superfluous this comic tie-in is as strange as it sounds get this [ __ ] i think this was the first piece of media to go into samus's backstory how she was from an earth colony that was destroyed by space pirates when she was just a child making her mission against them as a bounty hunter personal how her power suit was designed by the chozo's an ancient highly advanced race of bird people that raised samus since she was a child they confused her with their blood to enhance her abilities and are the ones responsible for all those power-up statues that come across in the earlier games this was years before the metroid manga that tied into zero mission which confirms all this to be true so pretty crazy [ __ ] isn't it but at the same time oddly appropriate metroid always was a series that made more of an impact in the west and in the east so when they eventually started fleshing samus out in later games i guess they figured sure let's just take some elements from the nintendo power comic but not everything who gives a [ __ ] about hardy he's fat the actual story of the game is minimalistic after the opening so samus laid waste to the metroids on planet sr 388 and destroyed the queen metroid regrettably without a giant bipedal crane but bombs inside the stomach were equally as effective upon leaving the queen's lair a single metroid hatched from its egg and immediately identified samus as its mother following the bounty hunter harmlessly afterwards samus sends the metroid hatchling to the serris space station where it could be studied for the good of galactic civilization which is pretty much the federation continuing where they left off in the first game going by that game story in the manual but just like the first game sarah station is soon under attack by space pirates leaving everyone inside dead it's a haunting scene to stumble upon starting off it's something i didn't really notice in the opening title when i first played this game as a kid but i get here in the actual game and i'm like oh oh those are bodies i'm staring at corpses anyway look you gotta understand i was already playing mortal kombat around this time so this was nothing to me after exploring the barren station samus manages to find the baby metroid safe and sound but a much larger ridley makes a surprising return seriously ridley's been eating his wheaties he also lost all of his metal pieces after samus returns he was wearing weighted clothing the whole time and just said that fight didn't [ __ ] count ridley takes off with the baby in his claws unless you manage to shoot him enough times where he drops it like a dope for a second before picking it back up with the baby in hand ridley escapes the new space pirate based on planet zebus with samus giving chase and from that point the narrative takes a backseat the rest of the game is just samus exploring planet zebus once more eventually finding the means to defeat the four major bosses of the planet to gain access to the revitalized taurean familiar locales surround the immediate area but there's also completely new regions that definitely weren't there in the nes game but i don't think anyone would really care it's super nintendo we gotta go bigger we gotta have more however i love that not too long into the journey you're back into the remnants of the old taurean the one you blew up and soon the first area of britstar from the first game gonna cry foul though these platforms were sure as [ __ ] not this wide in the nes game you can't retcon that pain away no sir and check the flashback in the opening samus couldn't aim diagonally on metroid too samus is already embellishing past adventures you're full of [ __ ] samus now look at this you can even find the morph ball in the same place as before now what happened to your upgrades beforehand shut up thank you rucksack that's just something you'll have to accept with this series it's rare that samus keeps most if not all of her things between games you think a bounty hunter will welcome an increased arsenal for easier jobs but that isn't the case they normally try and justify this however stupid it may be with different reasons a parasite infection getting bombarded by insects someone saying no here though she just doesn't have her things which is especially more egregious when you throw samus returns into the mix which ends right before the advance of super metroid kick off where'd all your [ __ ] go samus what the [ __ ] did her subscription run out and forgot to renew this is the future ladies and gentlemen thankfully for samus and for you you'll be finding upgrades in no time as you explore deeper into the planet along with some new toys to play with like super missiles packing a bigger punch than your standard missile and it's just extra crunchy on impact even shakes the whole room i love it power bomb set one off the whole room explodes in a flash of light that chugs the frame rate but leaves nothing alive the charge beam makes its debut here lets you charge your shot for a more potent attack you can even spin jump with the charge and do a pseudo screw attack it's not as powerful as the real thing but early on it's damn handy for some of the spryer enemies of course all the beams from the last two games also make a return but in super they now stack thank god super happy they decided to do this it is so great seeing your dinky little peashooter and it is a dinky [ __ ] peashooter when you start it's great seeing it go from shooting lemons to an eventual spiral of death that pierces walls as well as enemies but if you want you can head into the status screen and turn some of them off you can turn almost all of your upgrades off if you want maybe for an added challenge i don't know why you want to turn certain beams off unless you hate the freezing effect of the ice beam actually you know what yeah that's probably the exact reason why you do that i get that i normally just turn off ice beam when i'm fighting against fan tune the boss of the wrecked ship because he stays on screen longer when you shoot him with the way beam without the ice it's very strange but it is what it is samus is naturally more athletic as well diagonal aiming is now a thing first and foremost it took him a bit to finally do it but they didn't i'm grateful make shooting things a lot easier i don't have to be so precise with positioning you're also able to run now the only game in the series to feature a dedicated run button it's pretty self-explanatory required to get past this bridge and brinstar it's not something i missed too much in later games they would just increase your natural running speed to make amends the only thing i really miss from the dedicated run button is the amount of height i can get with running jumps samus still has a moon jump here and i know for some it's kind of a turn off i get that but with the run button you can get an obnoxious amount of air time and later when you get the new speed booster where samus can tackle through everything in her way like a bullet train after running enough distance you can just go it's so much fun but my hands kind of hurt after a bit it's weird i can't [ __ ] with the default controls of super metroid jump on a dash on b shoot on x ew no that doesn't work for me i have the jump button set to b the run button set to a and the shoot button on y so a complete inversion for the default controls but it works for me until i have to run jump and shoot at the same time then my fingers are like oh [ __ ] you the one thing i'm not a huge fan of is the item toggle as samus's arsenal increases you know when she gets the new super missiles power bomb grapple beam and the x-ray scope you have to press the item button a few times to select the needed tool it's the biggest pain with the grapple beam a tool you use periodically that requires a few button presses to select i've been playing this game for a long time and that still gets under my skin the grapple beam is cool but not very useful outside of the occasional ceiling grapple and i'm not even fully swinging on the things i'm just mashing the button and do these short as little swings and most times i'm just ignoring them with a well-timed jump completely you can also use it on select walls but i'd never ever do this when you have a perfectly good wall jump at your disposal the first game to implement it letting you scale walls as high as you want as long as you keep the rhythm going it is a little awkward to pull off you hug the wall then you press the opposite direction then jump it's nothing like mega man x for example but i think it's something anyone can master in time super metroid has its share of advanced techniques the game doesn't immediately tell you about unless you discover specific rooms or wait long enough on the title screen that was how i first discovered the beam combos as underutilized as they are you charge up a specific beam with power bombs highlighted and you can do some cool parlor tricks sure they do kill things or act as a means of defense but it's not the most practical way to take care of things so i often don't bother with these they are cool though but not as cool as the shine spark where you charge up the speed booster press down to store the charge and then zoom towards your direction of choosing assuming you can manage to work that it is very fickle to shine spark in a specific direction in super metroid they would thankfully simplify this in later games but here especially when they want to go horizontally you have to press the jump button just slightly before holding the d-pad in the direction you want to go it's damn near frame perfect i hate it diagonal shine sparking [ __ ] that's easy just hold the shoulder button down samus go wii the shine spark also consumes health here unlike future games you can't kill yourself fortunately but it's no less worrying the most obscure hidden technique has to be the crystal flash the thing i mentioned in the comic book tie-in it is unlikely as hell you'd ever use this because you have to be on death's doorway with a specific amount of missiles and power bombs in your inventory not to mention you have to do an odd button combination super situational but you do it and samus absorbs the power bomb and heals yourself in this boss's [ __ ] animation and yeah i just described it as boss as [ __ ] i'm cool i can be hit but like i said i never find myself in any situation to rely on this i don't find this game challenging but i also realize i've been playing this game for a very long time so my viewpoint on that is definitely skewed i actually don't have the clearest memory of what my first few playthroughs of this game were like i know certain bosses gave me more [ __ ] than others krait is a huge [ __ ] this go around but he's the first major boss and is basically a pushover i never liked fan tune because i wouldn't have a bunch of energy tanks at this point and he just seemed so damn random in his attack pattern and those projectiles hurt too dragon before i would try and pump her stomach full of missiles but once i found that you could electrocute her death with the grapple beam that's the only method i use now ridley is the only one that consistently gives me [ __ ] even today a far cry from his nes counterpart he's very aggressive his attacks do a ton of damage and the arena isn't very large i find myself taking quite a bit of damage against this guy even when i'm collecting every item in the game i still find myself sweating a bit or maybe it's just the sweltering heat there's a few mini bosses peppered throughout the adventure too hell the first one is the torizo chozo sentinel that springs to life when you grab the bomb power up it's holding you think it's just another chozo statue like before but then suddenly stands up you're like oh [ __ ] makes you wonder if there are more out there like this i recall wondering if the next statue i'd find was going to wake up and give me more [ __ ] it was a great source of tension in my earlier days this game is good for a couple of startling moments late in the game when you finally enter taurian and see the dried husks of other enemies you know deep down oh god i shouldn't be here but whatever if it's a metroid i can take care of them no problem as i have before but damn wham the super metroid it's actually the baby metro that's been fed some miracle grow if you catch my drift and luckily it recognizes samus before he finishes the nasty suck leaving in total shame afterwards it's great to see the child alive but also my [ __ ] heart good lord crocomeyer so earlier i said that the dead bodies in sarah station didn't really faze me because i was already sort of desensitized thanks to more comment and like but you get to this guy and watch him fall into the lava and you see his [ __ ] face melt off look at that [ __ ] the esrb was formed shortly before this game's release and some were wondering if that would affect the reception of the game yoshio sakamoto stated that he wasn't worried because the violence wasn't for the sake of violence but what the [ __ ] do you call this that theater comedy seeing the bones knocked down the wall for one last scare was a funny moment though the other encounters are not as menacing baton is a snake dragon thing that's definitely just there sportsbond the poor [ __ ] he isn't very challenging but he isn't supposed to be because he's an early game boss but i know most just completely ignore this [ __ ] nowadays thanks to a glitch you can do called the mock ball where you maintain running speed and morph ball form which is normally impossible with this you can get super missiles early and thus no reason to fight spore spawn since he guards the first set you're supposed to grab mock ball much like the standard wall jump in shine spark is something i can't imagine playing the game without now ever since i learned to do these myself years ago i always get certain items and even some upgrades earlier than intended with these maneuvers and i love that this game gives me the freedom to do so intentionally or otherwise because again the mock ball is technically a glitch there's just a lot of little things you can do to break super metroid in huge ways for years i thought the special moonwalk was worthless it still is mostly just a harmless reference to michael jackson but with a little finesse you can fall down vertical shafts at light speed almost like mega man in his first game it's just a [ __ ] sonic boom it's been so long since i played this game as intended whatever the hell that means in this game but it's not like the wall jump or shine spark or unintended mechanics no they are intentionally implemented there are things that you eventually learn when you happen to come across these critters that demonstrate them for you they don't tell you exactly how to do it though it's more of a show don't tell and with the wall jump i imagine that wouldn't be enough for some and yet totally understandable but once you do learn how to do these sort of techniques that's it's part of your muscle memory forever and it takes every ounce of willpower in me to play this game without ever using the wall jump or shine spark again i just can't do it i want these missiles early i want the wave beam now i want to bounce up and get this energy tank i want to fight crate as early as possible who the hell is that guy super metroid remains one of my favorites because of samus's movement kit before i just used to say oh it's because super metroid is so non-linear man doesn't keep you in shackles man and as the years passed the more i thought about it no it was never about that it was just i love the things i could do with samus and as compared to other games and what i could accomplish what i could obtain before tackling the next mandatory objective the joy i have in optimizing my route so that i can clear the game at a faster time while collecting every item along the way seeing me get the best ending where samus removes her suit once more then shoots me in the face thanks by the way amazon samus is best samus and i won't hear otherwise why yes i am a simp later games would refine samus's movement for better and for worse but even after so many years super remains one of my favorites to control although zero mission is also fantastic but we'll save that for zero mission all in all you have a samus that can move better than ever before and with super metroid being much larger than previous games you have a significant amount of ground to cover across different areas from returning locales like brinstar and norfair to completely new areas like criteria the submerged meridia and the haunted wrecked ship with creepy ghosts and gank droids from star wars okay that's weird but it's not as bad as it sounds because for the first time ever in the series you have a map feature the mini map on the top right of the screen gives you an immediate view of your surroundings at all times and there's also these new map stations that give you a general layout of the area should you need it they won't reveal hidden passageways in the like you gotta discover those on your own either by bombing the [ __ ] out of every wall if you're very meticulous or you can use the x-ray scope when you eventually nab it this is an item i find it's only useful in your first run and it's only really needed for optional [ __ ] it's just a slow pace breaking tool every other time the aeon ability and samus returns is the x-ray scope done right if you ask me you should never find yourself lost in this game but i will say bombs are your best friends when you're trying to discover secret passages because some pathways are not as obvious as others there's no area in this game i despise enemies are generous with health and missile drops and refill stations are also back and placed in convenient locations some areas are more dangerous than others of course and there's no shortage of spiked floors and ceilings i noticed they have mega man 4 on the mountain making this game although some areas are pretty clumsy when you're trying to nab every item i never look forward to the sinking sands of meridia because but one the sam [ __ ] with your jumps so hard that i want to crack the controller in two and this bishop only makes it slightly more bearable but also grabbing every item here requires you backtracking several rooms and corridors just to grab things like an extra reserve tank and missile expansion thanks you also got the spring ball so late in this game too that's a damn shame i love this ability and you're like three fourths done when you nab it meridia has two of my favorite enemies though i love the sound the snail makes when you boost through it and my man's shack tool just a strange thing digging through the sand mining its own business [Music] you can move a little faster by dude i'm on the clock here leave it alone though or you can't get the spring ball rock on shack tool i'm so sorry about what i'm about to do to this place i never tire of the finale of this game it's set up like the original taurean from the first game the metroids the rinkas the meat jars thunder's mother brain back and static as ever you take her down her explosion not as seizure-inducing as before gratefully but then holy [ __ ] she's got arms she's got legs she's got knee pads okay then does she skateboard on her spare time this mother brain ain't [ __ ] around she's out for blood and it's so awesome even if she's not very threatening if you collected enough items still an effective moment that i'm sure was doubly effective for those that grew up with the first game you do enough damage and then mother brain begins to slowly move her head forward blinking rapidly like she's got an eyelash stuck in her eye but then she starts charging up and then bam you get hit by her new attack and it looks like everything's over but then the baby makes the last second save giving mother brain more of that nasty suck and replenishing samus health you see that's a lot better than whatever the [ __ ] the nintendo power comic did unfortunately it isn't enough because mother brain regains the color in her face and proceeds to kill the baby after a vicious assault before the baby completely croaks though it bestows samus the hyper beam it's only a thing for this battle and the escape sequence after but man is it so gratifying shooting mother brain in the face repeatedly with this watching her violently flail her neck backwards with every hit if this beam doesn't kill her the severe spinal whiplash is sure to do the job in no time mother brain eventually croaks and as before the self-destruct starts but it's not just turian that's set to explode the whole [ __ ] planet is going on to this time leaving samus with very little time to stay ado to her former home oh yes she technically grew up here for a time more on that in zero mission anyway the planet goes kaboom and that's that mission accomplished we lost the kid but mother brain is no more the space pirates are no more a bittersweet victory just don't think about the mother kaiju and her children don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it now i love super metroid but recommending it to others i won't lie is always a tricky thing for me i've been playing it for so long that it's harder for me to recognize it's flaws that i either don't really view as flaws or they're not that big of a deal for me compared to what others might say or think like the controls i know are the biggest sorts of contention particularly the existence of the run button and the floaty jump if you like your space warrior to be a little more grounded super metroid's gonna feel loose it's one of the reasons why i recommend zero mission is someone's first metroid game because on top of that game being easier you know to welcome newcomers and all that it also has a tighter control scheme that i think more people would jive with super metroid though while bouncy is just so fulfilling to play an experience every time it is the game that made me a certified fan and in case you haven't been aware i'm a pretty big [ __ ] metroid fan metroid dread oh my god i make it a thing to play this at least once or twice a year across different digital platforms because i have a lot of copies of this game i have two physical copies of this because a friend of mine managed to snag one for me at a game store for me and then the second was from another friend of mine that matches snag one out of game store for me when i completely forgot that i already had a copy for that very reason i am a dumbass the copy i had in the old sgb review sadly lost its save battery and when that happens firstly it triggers the game's auto piracy it makes you think you're playing a bootleg and i feel like there's a little betrayed there but also when you start the game up samus immediately dies and when that first happened it confused and scared the [ __ ] out of me i had no idea what was going on years later after playing the game and the game is still managing to find ways to give me a good shock when describing the de facto metroid experience not just the metroidvania genre i'm talking strictly metroid this is the game i feel meets that criterion out of all of them that and metroid prime if you want to go 3d this is the metroid game the one i think everyone should try out once maybe not as your first metroid game but if you're at all curious you give it a go it's been one of my absolute favorite games for close to 27 years of my life jesus christ are there more accessible metroidvanias out there yep are there more rewarding metroidvanias out there most definitely but those wouldn't exist without this game and it's not just because it was served as an inspiration for the genre for decades but because even today i feel the game still holds up tremendously well again i know i am incredibly biased when i say that i completely acknowledge that but i'm at a point where i just want you to play this game it's so good it's not for everyone but man if you like it you start playing the other games because of that and then you end up liking those two that is a mission accomplished for me [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: SomecallmeJohnny

Views: 158,203

Rating: 4.9664335 out of 5

Keywords: Somecallmejohnny, Somecallmejohnny Video, Somecallmejohnny Review, Johnny vs, Video Game Review, Somecallmejohnny Super Metroid, Somecallmejohnny Metroid, Somecallmejohnny Metroid 3, Johnny vs. Metroid, Johnny vs. Super Metroid, Metroid 3, Metroid Dread

Id: HediES8Zvkc

Length: 23min 28sec (1408 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2021