Special thanks to sponsor Ironside Computers. Specifically for giving me a computer, which
I will be using at the exact moment this video finishes rendering to celebrate and play literally
anything other than Metroid. Good morning, everybody, and welcome back
to VG Myths! The online internet video game TV show insert
vague comparison between exploring alien planets and being bad at video games. Metroid is the first game in Nintendo's flagship
Metroidvania franchise and origin of half the genre title, but unlike most games in
the genre it sucks, I hate it, and I want to hate it even more! Can You Beat the Metroid Minimalist Pacifist
Challenge? We'll be playing the Famicom Disk System version
of Metroid via Nintendo Switch Online, both for the convenience of save files and the
extra sound channel. If you'd like to do the run on the NES version,
most strategies you'll be seeing here are still applicable. Our goal is to beat the game while killing
as few enemies as possible and collecting as few upgrades as possible, with pacifism
taking priority. If, at any point, we accidentally kill an
enemy, we must reload our most recent save. Before even starting the run, we'll need at
least a basic idea of what's necessary to reach the end. This is a map of the entirety of Zebes. The door to the final hallway in which we
beat the game will only appear after the death of Mother Brain in Tourian. Mother Brain can only be damaged by missiles,
requiring exactly 32. But to actually reach Mother Brain, we need
1 missile to destroy her glass jar, 8 missiles each for the 5 Zebetite doors, and 25 missiles
for the red and orange doors leading through and into Tourian. Adding these together we get a minimum of
98 missiles necessary to enter and exit Tourian. The player starts with exactly 0 missiles,
so we'll have to find all 98 of them somewhere on Zebes. There are three ways to obtain missiles: the
first is to murder random enemies for missile pickups. These will only replenish missiles up to your
maximum, and since murder is required, we're probably never going to see one. The second method is killing Ridley or Kraid,
each granting the player with 75 missiles added to both their current missile count
and maximum missile count. It's worth noting that it's required to murder
Ridley and Kraid to beat the game anyway, but Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System was programmed on duct tape so no it isn't. The third method is to grab a missile upgrade,
each granting the player with +5 missiles to their current count and maximum count,
and, very importantly, not adding anything to their murder count. Of course, these do add to our item collection
count, but being the only non-murder missile source, we'll be exhausting these upgrades
as much as we need to. Speaking of how much we need to, since we
need 98 missiles to complete Tourian, we'll need to collect at least 20 missile packs. Guess how many missile packs are in the game? 21. While this is technically enough on paper,
logistically this should still be impossible with missile packs alone, since many of those
missile packs are themselves located behind doors that require missiles to enter. But I think for now we do have at least a
basic idea of what we should focus on as our long-term goal: go grab every single missile. Let's get this run started! We immediately grab the Morph Ball to get
out of the tutorial area, then make our way over to the first available missile, sitting
in the middle of a nearby hallway. Now that we have 5 missiles, we turn around
and head back up: our next goal is the Morph Bombs. You might be tempted to grab the E tank along
the way, but remember: since increasing our maximum health isn't technically required
to beat the game, and this is a minimalist run, we're not allowed to grab a single E
tank. Unfortunately, since the only way to recover
health is to murder, we're also stuck with exactly 30 HP: the amount Samus starts the
game with and respawns with upon every death. But since we have infinite lives, that's not
going to be as much of an issue as it sounds: just die a couple dozen painful and horrible
deaths until eventually you've memorized every single enemy pattern and can blaze through
safely. Now that we've reached the Morph Bombs, you
might notice a problem: they're behind a missile door. But trust me, we absolutely need the Morph
Bombs for reasons you'll be seeing in a few minutes, so this missile toll is well worth
it. However, now that we've spent 5 missiles,
there are now only 100 total missiles available in the game: if we want to avoid killing Ridley
or Kraid we'll need to obtain all 20 missile packs without opening any missile doors, which
I must stress is impossible by design. But we'll worry impossibility when we get
there. For now, there's one more missile pack at
the top of Brinstar that will require some hectic dodging. Be careful while bombing through any walls,
lest any nearby enemies get caught in the blast. Once that pack is obtained, we're heading
into Norfair both to grab some more missiles sitting in plain sight and to grab the final
unique item for our playthrough: the Ice Beam. The main path to the Ice Beam is through a
missile door, but luckily there just so happens to also be a secret passageway through the
hallway behind it, accessible with the morph bombs. In order to reach that pathway you're theoretically
supposed to already have either the Ice Beam or High Jump boots, but we have a backup for
extra jump height: morph and immediately plant a bomb. Since Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System was programmed on duct tape, after the bomb bobs you into the air you'll still
legally be considered grounded and capable of jumping. By moving slightly to the side of the bomb,
you can even use this to give yourself some great horizontal distance. The rest of the pathway doesn't need any fancy
tricks, but will still be extremely difficult: Samus dies in three hits in Norfair, and you'll
have to dodge through two sets of highly dangerous marbles to reach the Ice Beam. On top of that, you're practically required
to take damage once from the second set of marbles since the spawn pattern has them going
straight for you as soon as you enter the room. But once you get past that set, you can finally
grab the Ice Beam. We won't explicitly need this thing until
much later in the game, but we will absolutely be abusing it until then. When an enemy is hit with the Ice Beam, it
temporarily freezes in place and can be used as a platform, but there's a secret secondary
effect: things that are frozen aren't capable of murdering you. Now that we've got this baby, there are no
more unique items that are required to beat the game, and thus no more items that could
possibly make any of these missile packs easier to grab. We're just gonna have to grab them all as-is. Since we've already started Norfair, let's
grab everything else while we're here. There's a dead end on the western path from
the elevator with some missiles. To reach them, we have to go through two hallways
full of the absolute most dangerous hazard in the game: lava bubbles. In Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System for the Nintendo Entertainment System these projectiles are randomized on duct tape,
effectively just making them decorations rather than hazards. But in Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System for the Famicom Disk System, the duct tape's randomization is far, far better in
the worst possible way. Getting past every individual lava bubble
will necessitate perfect timing and good RNG. For those just past a ledge, you're safe while
morph ball'd directly next to them. Sit and wait for the exact moment they stop
firing, then make a run for it. Once you're near the missile pack, you'll
notice it's protected by the only enemies in the entire game who can't be frozen: any
attempt to do so will just murder them, and dodging them is also kind of out of the question. My personal strategy was just having enough
health to not have to care. Once you've got the missile you're probably
going to instantaneously explode, which is functionally just a shortcut to the save menu. We can get a couple more missile packs in
the lower-right area of Norfair, but then we run into an issue. There are three missile packs located in this
chunk of the map. As far as the game is designed, the only entrance
to this chunk of the map is a secret crawlspace within the High Jump room, which is blocked
by a missile door. Since opening this door isn't an option, we're
instead going to have to throw the duct tape in the trash and break reality. Notice the vertical room in the lava bubble
area is directly above a vertical room in the chunk of map we want to enter. This means we can use the glitch everybody's
been waiting for. If you open a door, stand in its place until
it closes, then rapidly morph and unmorph, you'll gradually gain height and clip upwards
into the wall. If you do this past the highest possible screen
position, Samus will loop to the lowest possible screen position. I'll spare you the details both because it's
very technical and because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but if you do this
in a very specific way you can get Samus to fall past the floor and into the lower room. There is, however, a bit of a caveat. The screen doesn't catch up with us, making
the game basically unplayable. However, notice on the map there's a door
right next to where we land. Even while off-screen we're still fully capable
of opening and entering this door. Unfortunately, just going through the door
isn't quite enough, because Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System was programmed
on noneuclidean duct tape. If you enter the door ASAP, Samus will arrive
in the room normally entered through the upper door we originally dropped down from. This is because the room Samus enters is determined
not by the door used but by the current screen position. If the screen is positioned too high, it will
assume she must have entered the upper door. In fact, if you make a pixel perfect entrance,
you'll even enter the nonexistant door inbetween the two actual doors, leading to an inescapable
junk room and softlocking the game. The only way out of here is by using the game's
secret co-op feature. Just press Up and A on controller 2 to helpfully
murder Player 1. I experimented a while to get the screen low
enough, and eventually discovered it's as simple as staying in the morph ball and planting
bombs. Each time you're juggled the screen will change
position slightly. As for exactly when to enter the door, I used
this bubble as a tell. When none of the lower pixels are visible,
you'll enter the upper door. When exactly one of the lower pixels are visible,
you'll enter the nonexistant door. When at least two of the lower pixels are
visible, you'll successfully enter the lower door, thus making the game playable and allowing
us to grab the three missile packs. It'll still be a pretty long trek to get there,
but none of the rooms are as difficult as the lava bubbles you already had to get past
so it shouldn't take too many attempts. With every Norfair missile pack collected,
we head down into Ridley's hideout. There are some super cramped hallways in here,
and enemies have been given another huge buff: we now die in 2 hits. Carefully but quickly inch your way forward,
freezing every enemy before squeezing past them. These cramped hallways lead you to 2 missile
packs. The third and final missile pack can be reached
by going through this extremely dangerous bouncing marble room. Since Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System was programmed to hate you, it's literally random chance whether you'll automatically
take damage on entrance. In the long hallway, carefully edge your way
forward and freeze the marbles as they come close. If they're too low to roll under, don't worry:
they're able to survive one bomb blast, and enemies are incapable of hurting you immediately
after said blast, letting you slide right through eachother. After exiting the hallway, we'll be at the
bottom of a long vertical drop, the missile we're after being accessible from above. But as you might expect, we can make our way
up using the door clip glitch. If you're on the upper portion of the screen
and jump while in the wall, the screen will scroll upwards slightly to follow you. This lets you very, very slowly make your
way upward. Before actually grabbing the missiles, I recommend
taking a small detour to get trolled by the developers. Be very careful to scream profanities while
doing so for maximum efficiency. With Ridley's Hideout cleared, we head into
Kraid's Hideout for the last four missile packs. Two of them require some fancy tricks to get
into this door. It's technically possible to get over there
with some fancy bomb placements, but whether or not the player is allowed to place bombs
in midair is basically RNG because Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment System wasn't
programmed. Instead, there's a much more consistent way. If you loop over the left side of the screen,
you'll end up in an area below where you're able to freely walk around. Walk a little bit to the left and you'll loop
to the right side of the screen. Then jump up and do some more morphing to
rise back on-screen. In the very similar looking room just after,
we can do the door clip glitch with a much different result. Just mash morphs constantly, over and over,
and you'll gradually scroll the screen down. When the hallway below is almost totally visible,
jump up a few times to scroll the screen a couple pixels past where the upper doors are
visible, then continue. This ensures that the enemy in the lower hallway
won't be able to spawn, letting you proceed safely. We're now able to get both missile packs in
this lower area. There's just one more missile pack to cover:
the one behind this missile door right next to the elevator. There are no vertical hallways we could use
to trick our way in there: the door is the only option, and opening the door is not an
option. We'll just have to enter the door without
opening it. Do the same clip trick seen earlier, and while
invisibly bumbling around with no idea what you're doing, make sure you accidentally position
yourself exactly in the middle between the door and its red blocks. Too far to the right and you'll automatically
enter the first door you come across; too far to the left and you won't be able to do
the trick properly. If you're close to the sweet spot, you can
open the first door and reposition yourself if you want to be more exact. Once in position, scroll the screen alllllllll
the way up, and stop exactly one block above the door we're trying to get past. Since we're halfway into the block on the
right, we're legally allowed to walk to the right. It doesn't seem to work 100% of the time,
but if the duct tape isn't paying attention you'll phase into the next room, where very
thankfully the missile is a couple short hops away. Of course there's no way out of this room
other than dying a painful death, which we have already thoroughly established as a valid
strategy. With every single missile pack obtained and
only 5 of those missiles spent, we now have exactly 100 missiles and just barely the minimum
equipment to enter Tourian and beat the game. Tourian's entrance is where Ridley and Kraid's
murder are normally required: after their deaths, you're able to fully extend a bridge
over this pit of lava. This bridge room is where the Ice Beam is
finally used for its main purpose. If you lure one of the bird-like enemies next
to the door, then enter, it will follow you through. Jump around above to get it positioned just
right, morph down into the lava, and make a very risky attempt to freeze the bird at
exactly the right elevation. It needs to be as high as possible while just
barely low enough for you to reach with your highest possible jump height. I say "highest possible jump height" because
your jump height in lava is so inconsistent it's effectively random, because Metroid for
the Nintendo Entertainment System was programmed while the devs were trying to escape a pool
of duct tape. After accidentally jumping correctly, plant
a few morph bombs and try to bounce yourself up to the door. The bird should have enough health to survive
the blast, letting you continue to the elevator. Thankfully, no matter how low your own health
is, Tourian's entrance acts as a respawn point, so just die a painful death for a free refill. Now that you're in Tourian, there are two
main enemies to focus on. Metroids, similar to their namesake, are incredibly
pathetic and not worth talking about. Donuts, meanwhile, kill you in one hit. You've probably also noticed they instantly
hit you no matter what when entering the very first doorway, because Metroid for the Nintendo
Entertainment System had several critical game design flaws. After all, the genre was in its infancy and
the developers were testing the limits of new technology while experimenting with a
lot of interesting ideas. Such as programming on duct tape. To get through that doorway safely, you'll
need to roll off the upper ledge and head through midbounce. This puts you at exactly the right positioning
to just barely slide past and survive. The most dangerous part of this trek will
be in the next vertical room, where donuts constantly respawn and have absolutely no
qualms about literally spawning on top of you. Thankfully, while donuts die in one hit, they
can still be frozen, which does not deal damage. Only three donuts are allowed on-screen at
a time, so freezing them temporarily prevents any more donuts from appearing. Keep careful track of every potential donut
spawn point and weave past them while morphed to keep your hitbox as small as possible. Once you reach the final door, gather your
thoughts and get ready for the hardest challenge in the entire game. You will immediately die because Metroid for
the Nintendo Entertainment System deserves to burn like duct tape. It is theoretically possible to sometimes
randomly go through the door without getting hit, but there's a much more reliable option. Slowly lure the three Metroids nearest the
door as close as possible. Once they're next to the door, roll into a
ball and enter. As long as these Metroids are on-screen, they'll
prevent the donuts from spawning, giving you just enough extra time to safely enter the
room. Now that you're in here, you'll need to carefully
manage the donuts and look for your opportunity to destroy the Zebetite doors. These regenerate if not shot fast enough,
so you'll need enough time to fire 8 missiles in a row. Immediately after you will probably die. Not to worry, though! Turns out, Zebetite doors are remembered as
open when you continue, same as the missile doors, so as long as you destroy the door
with exactly 8 missiles you've made permanent progress. Keep grinding through this hallway and be
extremely careful when shooting the donuts: I haven't mentioned it until now, but there's
a very, very dangerous glitch that makes the pacifist run incredibly infuriating. If the fire button is pressed and then basically
anything about Samus' movement changes, for example you either start or stop moving, then
Samus will immediately fire her gun again. Yeah, that's right. In Metroid for the Nintendo Entertainment
System, movement is a glitch. DUCT TAPE! Since donuts die in one hit, any instance
of this glitch has the capability of instantaneously invalidating our attempt, since, as we all
know, donuts are legally people. So, yeah, basically, avoid moving while shooting
as much as possible. And since there's no way to restock missiles,
you'll also have to reload your save if you ever waste more than 2, which basically means
if ever you die after starting to shoot Mother Brain. Real talk, on the day I was heading into Tourian,
we had one donut left in the house which I was saving as my reward for finishing the
run. 16 hours of Metroid later, I had yet to eat
a donut. No... no... Ahahaha... AHAHAHAAAA! Ohh, there we go, there we go, there it is,
there it is! Haaaa, AHHHHA HA! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! Oh my god, I'm going to eat a donut! With exactly 1 unforgivable murder under our
belt, 1 donut legally edible, and I think like twenty something items but I honestly
didn't care to add up the number you do it, the Metroid Minimalist Pacifist Run is Mission
Complete. And I am never playing Metroid for the Nintendo
Entertainment System ever again in my entire life. Before heading out, special shoutout to Metroid
speedrunner TerrifyingBridge, whose Pacifist speedrun randomly showed up on google and
I frequently checked for reference. And finally, special thanks to all Patreon
backers, including: All the bugs Yugi has killed
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I'm going to drag Roraan to Brazil (He knows what he did)
Zo Multicore
Aaron Bailey The Green Scorpion
Game Champ says Trans rights are Human rights! Xander Kozak
Celestial Cookie 8-Bit Misdreavus
BoomBoxxy Jon Miller
KirbsD50 Jorb
Damien R. YopAlonso
Wavet World's slowest game of chess, white waiting
for black. While we play, would you like to have the
world's slowest conversation Star Captain Eli Shaba of Clan Ghost Bear
Chronosanthium dwro_25
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wispy-syrup Ryley Anderson
rcombs NeptunianBaby
Slowest Game of Chess, Black. Hmm, Let's try to crack open the board with
c5! Officer Slard
Whats that noise Greg Campbell
NickyWicky34 Have you ever considered not being bad at
video games, Miss Champ Nova
Siniikwe says #LandBack Sulfuric Boss
Fae B. ZythAgol
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Shadowfire638 Silktoid
ibmackey DrawnByAJ 2 - The Return of the Haha Funny
Meme Name. Amphyzen
Admiral Ampersand Literal cat Sylvi 'wingedcatgirl' is gay and
doesn't go to bed on time. Reblog if you too are gay and or don't go
to bed on time Eve Weaver Cable
I think it's time we blow this scene, get everybody and their stuff together. Okay, 3, 2, 1, let's jam! Flip-Chicken
Sound0fRain Ryan Garvey
Milk Succubus GrandeNero
If you download the video then it will be an offline Internet TV show
Zebras Anta baka, Gamechamp-san, you're not playing
Metroid on NES, you're playing Metoroido for the Famiri Konpyuta Disuku Shisutemu! Fireblade974
LiterallyJudas NowIOnlyWantATriumph
Norahana AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, aaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Beem Animates The Jelly Bean Warlock
TheInsaneOne Nathan Riddle
Quetzalcoatlus was the biggest flying animal with a 33 to 36 foot wingspan. Eleven
Sorio99 Jack Silverson
Dakota Riggs InfamousPeace
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aertide Makii Bee
dreeze Lily_Sap
Colin Monsma darknitte
Attempted Wholesomeness ChampDoesntLikeToSayFunsieRunsie
Iydak (pronounced eye-dack) Gamechamp says EA Games is the greatest game
developer ever. Carlo Calcaterra
brizgee DrFeed
Margaret Josephine madrox07
Friendly reminder that it's NOT normal to sneeze, I have never sneezed. F Amadon
Release Eidola LP 4 TBrenelly200
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leverage LemonPlanter
Corporal Hi HighPrincessErinys
Goddamn it Gamechamp, you said my name wrong! It's (Nitsa-Gamer) not NitsuaGamer
Fluff System Feduje
Rekindled in the Dying Flames of Capitalism Gracchus
Ethan Frillylilly
Dirjel Alex S. Warrior
No, Gamechamp-kun, this video does NOT suck. Stop being self deperecating, b-b-baka! (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
character limit aaaaaaaaa Supporting Gamechamp until Jax And Daxter
4 is released CutieMonica
My D&D character whose name only Gamechamp can seem to pronounce, Nemeia
No one Oh no I seem to have dropped my five dollar
bill Has anyone seen where it went My cat requires it for my rent
Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So lets get to taking out their command, one
by on mmnmnmnmnnmmnnmmnmmnmmnmn
ThatHippieGamer BJMashPotato is making Gamechamp read more
and is very sorry Do not go gentle into that good night Old
age should burn and rave at close of day Rage rage against the dying of the light
Cody Merchen Perri Taylor-Finn
Dantastic Evie Patamon
Biggus Dickus We're not sure how but Gamechamp3000 used
video game challenge runs to get meaningful gun control legislation passed Let me know how much this video sucks and
how to improve in the comments below. You're legally allowed to eat a donut for
watching, and get out of my house.
not only was this video hilarious, that mother brain battle at the end was pure fucking skill. that was just badass
The duct tape running gag was hilarious. I always enjoy her challenge runs
LOL this shit was hilarious XD