I have started about 5 playthrough topics that have purged over the years, and every time I come back with a new resolve, but I swear this one will be different! (<___<) But really, I think my weakness has been trying to get so detailed with the playthrough topic that I lose interest because posting becomes a chore. So this time I'm keeping it short and sweet, and hopefully I'll finish!
Background:
I've played several Metroid games, but I've never finished one. I've beaten 2 bosses (I think) of Metroid Prime, and I'm about 70% through Hunters, but that's about the limit of my Metroid experience/knowledge. I bought Super Metroid years ago on Ebay and never played it much more than an hour or so, but it's obviously really highly praised and whatnot. So...here we go!
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
The introduction is short and sweet. From what I can gather it's a summary of the previous two Metroid games. Basically Samus says she defeated Mother Brain on Zebes, then had another victory on planet SR388 or something like that, and all the metroids are dead except for one larva, which she personally delivered to a research lab. Just when it seems like the scientists can use the metroid's energy to help society, Samus leaves the space station, only to receive a distress signal, so she immediately returns.
The place is dead, and so are the scientists. I run through several empty rooms while familiarizing myself with the controls, when I come upon the metroid larva. I go to recover it, but suddenly Ridley appears quite literally from out of thin air and attacks me. His fireballs are easy to dodge, but my lack of competency with the timing of moving and jumping causes me to get hit several times simply from his body moving into me.
When I'm at 26 health he mysteriously flies away (you'd think killing Samus when he had such a prime opportunity and she was basically unequipped would be the smart play, but whatever) and the station tells me it will self destruct in 1 minute. I escape easily as none of the obstacles (steam and falling stuff) do damage, they only slow you down.
With that, Samus flies her ship to Zebes with zero explanation as to why. Alright, time to do some bounty hunting! (Except I have no bounty...but that's ok!)
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
I decided to change the default controls, because I suddenly realized that they didn't make any sense whatsoever. I set them to more of a classic style:
Jump: B Shoot: A Dash: Y
That's all that matters, really.
My gut sends me to the left first, and right away this game hammers home the fact that it's going to involve lots of backtracking. It seems like I pass 3 or 4 places where I need missiles or the morph ball to be able to advance before I finally find something I can tackle with just a normal shot and no powerups.
A little unsettled by the fact that there's no enemies to be seen, I finally find an elevator that takes me down to a small area where I find the morph ball, my first powerup. (That spotlight thing freaks me out...what's the point? My best guess is that they stuck it there for me to figure out it turns off when I go into the morph ball because there will be a similar thing later in the game.)
To my dismay, on my way back out one of the doors I came through requires missiles to open, so looks like I'm not quite finished down here. I wandered around lost for a few minutes before I realized I could crouch and angle my shot downward at the same time, which allowed me to blast away some blocks on the ground in order to access a new area where I found the missiles. Looks like my initial capacity is 5, oh joy.
Oh, lookie there! Suddenly the planet is swarming with monsters. How utterly expected!
There are a couple different avenues for me to explore, but I'd already seen so many different doors I could go through on the way down here that I decided the best way to not get lost would be to do all the morph ball ways first, then all the missile doors. This might not be realistically possible, but for now I'm keeping my mind organized.
I was disappointed to find out that the red doors take 5 missiles to open, but that made me figure you probably get missiles from killing stuff somewhat frequently, so it's not that bad. One pathway led me to a room where I found the morph ball bombs, which I remember from 5-6 years ago are really fun to mess around with. But gasp! The statue comes to life and attacks! But he's easy and gives you tons of health every 2-3 attacks so I escape the room with nothing more than a scratch.
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
I found the room where I get the map information, which is pretty helpful. It makes things much simpler to be able to look at a map and remember what's where. I suddenly felt like I was much more on track to getting stuff done once I found that.
I've now pretty thoroughly explored the left portion of Crateria (the first "area" where you land your ship on Zebes). I accidentally stumbled upon a hidden energy tank on the ceiling when I was trying to shoot down one of those swoopy things, but try as I might I wasn't able to reach it. I toyed around with the morph ball bombs for a minute or two, but couldn't do the jumping trick I'd heard about, so I gave up under the assumption that I'll get some means of obtaining it later on, since that's like the main theme of Metroid games.
Random aside: does anybody else think the enemies that climb on the walls and shoot the little zig-zag lasers sound like birds from DKC when they jump?
Satisfied with what I have done here, I decided to take the top left exit from Crateria into Brinstar. On my way out, I got a freebie, an energy tank sitting right there in plain sight, just before the door to Brinstar. Don't know what I'll think of Brinstar, but that's a pretty promising welcome mat.
Wow. I love the music here. This was without a doubt the first time in this game where I got fully immersed in it. For some reason the change of atmosphere just really sat well with me and I got super pumped. The music and scenery, coupled with new enemies, and, yeah. I'm pretty much sold on this place being cool.
I tried and failed a few times to make it through a room where you apparently need lightning speed to beat these pillars that slam down from the ceiling once you enter the room. My attempts were poor enough that I determined once again that I couldn't possibly get through it with my current powerups, so I gave up and went another way. I found the map for Brinstar, which I was very pumped about. I hope that most of the areas have their maps in such easily located areas.
(edit) Oh yeah, I found this room that just has 4 golden statues of really bizarre-looking, um, creatures. They're totally lifeless, except their eyes each glow a different color. They are sitting in a little pool of water; the room has a totally creepy vibe to it. I recognize Ridley, so I assume these are all bosses, but yeah. I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that I was thoroughly spooked by this room, especially with it's really long empty hallway that leads up to it.
Once I got the map I went straight to the Save Point and made this post.
Also, I recommend just posting what you feel after you stop playing each time instead of a detailed write-up of every room the minute you enter it. You'll like the game more that way.
-- GameFAQs isn't going to be merged in with GameSpot or any other site. We're not going to strip out the soul of the site. -CJayC
The Real Truth posted... Also, I recommend just posting what you feel after you stop playing each time instead of a detailed write-up of every room the minute you enter it. You'll like the game more that way.
That's what I'm doing! I'm just putting what was going through my head at the time in the write-ups.
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
Wow. I feel like I just did a lot in that session compared to my first couple updates.
I explored Brinstar a lot more thoroughly, although I ran into several dead ends due to lack of powerups. I've noticed the rooms in general are starting to get bigger, with more levels and more exits in each one. This can only mean one thing: even more backtracking and getting lost. Wahoo!
I came across a door that had a Save Point and one of those tubes with infinite enemies coming out of it right next to it. I instinctively expected a fight ahead, so I loaded up on health and missiles, saved, and proceeded through.
My instinct was right.
It was this bizarre plant thing. It looked like a venus fly trap had mutated out of control. The main body of the thing swoops around the room in a little figure 8 pattern while it drops spores down from the ceiling which hurt you if they hit you but can easily be blown up for health and/or missiles. It took me about 10 seconds to figure out the winning strategy here. Morph ball in corner. Wait for giant mouth to open. Fire missile. Repeat.
I can't remember what my reward was at the moment. Anyway, moving on.
I found one hidden passage that needed super missiles, but alas, I was out. So I had to scour the area for what seemed like forever before an enemy dropped one. I immediately went back and blew it open, only to find that it led to a door which I couldn't access because it was out of my reach. How swell. Screw you, Super Metroid.
After a bit more wandering...
In one larger room in particular I found the Hi-Jump Boots! Score! I totally called that, but I didn't expect it to be quite so straightforward, lol. Oh well, at least I can go back and get that energy tank now. Except I can't because for some reason that I can't remember right now I went through some point where I wasn't able to backtrack...I think it was a switch to open a door that you can only hit from one side. Looks like the energy tank will have to wait. My only choice is to go back to that previously inaccessible ledge.
It takes me to Norfair, which doesn't greet me friendly, to say the least. In the main chamber I'm fine, but as soon as I stepped out into a branching hallway my health started draining extremely rapidly. Ugh. Another powerup that I need that I don't have. At this point, the game is building up the number of places I need to backtrack to much faster than I can keep them all straight in my head.
Met my first "real" boss. I only call it a "real" boss because it was marked on the map and was much, much more difficult than the plant thing from earlier. I actually recognize this thing from general familiarity with nintendo things, I think it was Kraid? He's a giant green monster with a fat gut which he shoots claws from.
(continued...so much for keeping it short and sweet I guess)
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
My immediate reaction was "holy crap this is bad" and I flailed around for about 30 seconds taking ridiculous amounts of damage from getting knocked down onto spikes. You only have two little raised platforms to stand on, and he shoots different kinds of projectiles at you to knock you down, with a spiked floor underneath.
The fight started out terribly. I got down to about 120 health (oh yeah, I got another energy tank along the way) before I hit him twice. I finally snapped myself out of panic mode and got down to business, though. Once I set my focus to dodging the claws it was much easier, and the only real nuisance I had was his hand that would occasionally block a poorly timed shot from hitting him in the mouth. It was a long and tedious battle, as I was too trigger happy at first and wasted lots of missiles. But in the end I persevered and defeated him with about 60 health remaining. It was by no means an impressive fight, but given my little Metroid experience, especially having zero experience in the 2-D games, I wasn't disappointed.
Killing him opened my way to the suit that I'm assuming I need to protect myself from the heat on Norfair. Now we're getting places!
Oh yeah, and as I was on my way back out of his room, I found a hidden area that fills up your health and missiles. <___< Oh well!
Status:
Missiles: 30 Energy Tanks found: 2 Powerups: Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Charge Shot, Hi Jump Boots, Varia Suit
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
I've spent about half an hour in Norfair. It's definitely the least friendly place I've encountered so far. There's lava and weird lizard things that spit at me. The little guys that latch onto you and suck health terrified me at first because I immediately panicked and didn't know WTF to do about it. Luckily I wasn't completely terrible and realized I needed to go morph ball to get them off.
In a decent sized room with lots of hidden morph ball tunnels (that aren't really hidden very well) I picked up another missile expansion. The Save Point was also connected to that room, so that was just convenient. I haven't discovered the map for Norfair yet, but I'm really not worried about it much right now because the pink areas on the map (the ones that fill in automatically because you've been there) keep ending up really solid after I explore in one direction. I'm not finding very many dead ends or areas that are in obvious sight and just out of my reach like I did in Brinstar.
I found the room with the Speed Booster, which was oddly simple to obtain. Oh well, I'm not complaining. I finally know what to do with all these arrow blocks I've been seeing all over the place. Now if only I could remember where all I'd seen them...
Nothing too major in this update, just wanted to stop playing and post before I forgot everything I'd done.
A few random comments:
I like the new and improved "fill up your energy and missiles" tubes that spit out fleets of harmless enemies at you rather than the old-fashioned one at a time.
I'm getting a lot better at hitting things that come at me from above while I'm running without breaking stride. It took me a while to get the feel down for the upward angle shot.
I'm still anxiously awaiting a chance to go back to the beginning (which is ironic, considering how I've moaned about the backtracking this whole time, and now I'm sad that I can't do it) so I can collect all the stuff I've missed due to not having the proper equipment.
Oh yeah, and I found another energy tank.
Status:
Missiles: 35 Energy Tanks found: 3 Powerups: Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Charge Shot, Hi Jump Boots, Varia Suit, Speed Booster
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
I ended up playing until 4:00am last night. But that's a great thing, because it means I'm really enjoying the game which means I might actually finish one of these ("these" applying both to playthrough topics and all metroid games in general).
So yeah, as I implied, I found the ice beam, which is just beautiful in every sense of the word. It freezes things, AND it let me do a little backtracking for a change. Literally for the next solid hour and a half after I found it I just felt as though I was making solid progress the entire time.
I went back as far as I could in all directions, and I've picked up a few things. I got the power bombs as well as a couple expansions, the Spazer, Grapple Beam, and Wave Beam as well. I'm starting to feel more and more like a badass, which makes the game more fun. These sorts of adventure type games like Metroid and Zelda where you gather more items and just become more competent as a fighter as you progress are always way more awesome toward the end.
Speaking of Zelda, I've started looking at this game as more of a giant Zelda dungeon rather than a big planet with lots of doors. It keeps me more involved and it makes it easier to remember what's where and where all I need to look next.
I suffered my first few deaths. Twice I died in that room where basically the whole floor is spikes and you need the Grapple Beam to get across. I kind of assumed I needed more than just the Ice Beam to get through it, but I was like "ehhh, what the hell" and I made a couple runs for it just to see what I'd find. Now that I mention it, I still need to go back there, actually...
The mini-boss thing was weird as hell. The first time I went in there unexpectedly and had 3 missiles. I know you can shoot his little pellets to get more, but it was slow and my timing was bad so I kept missing and I got pushed back into the spikes, and ultimately my death, quite easily. But round two was a complete 180, I basically destroyed him without getting scratched. Jump, shoot, jump, shoot, jump, shoot, wait....jump, shoot, jump, shoot. Yeah, there really isn't much to it. I will say, however, that the part after he dies where he comes at you from the left side of the room scared the hell out of me. Kudos to the developers for that.
Oh yeah, I finally got the Norfair map, too! The size of it kinda blew my mind when I realized how much there was left for me to explore, but with all my new gadgets I got through it all pretty quickly. Right now all I really have left is to figure out how to access this boss room...
Status:
Missiles: 55 Super Missiles: 5 Power Bombs: 15 Energy Tanks found: 4 Powerups: Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Charge Shot, Hi Jump Boots, Varia Suit, Speed Booster, Ice Beam, Wave Beam, Spazer, Grapple Beam
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
In my last session I'd say I made a lot of progress as far as exploring and collecting things, but accomplished nothing toward advancing in the game. I made the conscious decision to go back and explore the hell out of everywhere I'd been before, since I finally realized how I could get back to the very beginning. I took the Grapple Beam back to that dark room with the spikes where I died before and got the X-Ray Scope. I was super pumped for a second, before I realized that it's kind of useless, and only serves as a fine tooth comb for finding all the secrets.
But anyway, I worked my way all the way back to my ship in Crateria, collecting all the stuff along that way that was either inaccessible before, or stuff that I had no idea was there the first time and I just stumbled upon it. Most noteworthy was the room where I found the Reserve Tank, AND a missile expansion...AND another missile expansion. I felt pretty pro for tackling the double secret thing on my first time by.
Speaking of which, I'm having a hard time distinguishing this reserve tank from other energy tanks...is the only difference that you can use the tank whenever you want? I see that it can be set to Auto or Manual, but to me it seems like you have the same amount of max health anyway. Could somebody explain the specifics of it to me so I don't have to resort to trial and error to figure it out?
On the topic of energy tanks, I now have 7, plus the reserve. I pretty much feel like a balla.
I got stuck for a long while somewhere in Brinstar. It's the part where there's a hole hidden in the floor right in front of an energy tank. You fall down and there's a Save Point and a long room with spikes and the little jumpy things that cling on to you, and at the end of that a really tall room that's built like an elevator shaft. There's three little animals in there (they're not enemies, I think they're just there as scenery or to guide you or something...as if there is any way to go but up). I don't know if I'm missing a powerup or just plain stupid or what, but it took me the better part of half an hour to get out of that god forsaken pit. I can't be sure what the proper way to get out is, but I had to resort to going back out the door and entering the room with just enough of a running start to be able to leap up to the lowest ledge and morph ball out the side of the room. I don't know what else was up beyond that, because I was so sick of being stuck down there I didn't want to risk falling down again. I did, however, go back and safely collect the energy tank and super missile expansion, which I was starting to fear didn't exist. I can have 15 now.
I went onto the Wrecked Ship and looked around for a while. I just hit dead ends because I couldn't open any of the doors. Hmmm...I don't remember if I had the X-Ray Scope at that point or not...can't be sure if it would help any, but I think Pokemon has ingrained it deep in my mind that things with the word scope should be linked to ghosts whenever possible. <__<
So this is where I stand. I've got energy and missiles and gadgets for days, but I'm still stumped about this room full of lava that presumably leads to the Norfair boss.
Status:
Missiles: 70 Super Missiles: 15 Power Bombs: 20 Energy Tanks found: 7 Powerups: Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Charge Shot, Hi Jump Boots, Varia Suit, Speed Booster, Ice Beam, Wave Beam, Spazer, Grapple Beam, X-Ray Scope, Reserve Tank
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
Feel free to give feedback if you think I should use a different style or change anything to make it a more enjoyable read. Right now I'm kind of paranoid that anybody who has read it was bored to tears.
<__<
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
Reserve tanks on auto just fill up your life when you die of the amount you have, so you can do that and basically forget they ever exist. Or if you set them to manual, you can use them to fill back up life from the menu at any time. That can be useful for certain things. But you'll probably just want them on auto.
Those three creatures in the shaft you got stuck in were teaching you how to wall jump. The mechanics for it can be really awkward until you understand how they work. Basically, you jump so you are spinning and go towards the wall. Then, when along the wall, push in the other direction, and for a split moment, Samus will put her arm on the wall to push off. If you press jump again at this moment, she'll jump upward instead of just falling. If you don't realize you have to push the direction just before hitting jump, then it can be annoying trying to get out of there.
--
ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER. Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...
You know, I figured they were trying to show me how to wall jump. I actually dedicated like 25 minutes to trying it, and just couldn't ever get it to work. I think I did it one time, and so in the back of my mind the whole time I knew that was the right way, but I got so frustrated I just lucked into finding out you can jump up to the lowest ledge normally if you run in from the previous room.
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
I actually had a friend who restarted the game because he didn't figure out how to get out of the walljump area. On his second playthrough he fell down the hole again, and saved there again... only to restart a third a time >_>
Ultimaphazon posted... I actually had a friend who restarted the game because he didn't figure out how to get out of the walljump area. On his second playthrough he fell down the hole again, and saved there again... only to restart a third a time >_>
Yeah, the way you do it isn't very intuitive I don't feel like, especially compared to other wall jumps in different games.
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
Well, I spent forever playing yesterday, I just never ended up making it back home to do an update.
I've finally started making some progress! I was stuck for what seemed like ages in Norfair (and, to be fair, technically I still am stuck there) but I eventually went back to the wrecked ship again and found the Gravity Suit.
Best. Suit. Ever.
I was SO pumped when I found it, I ran straight back to Norfair to that room with the giant pit of lava, only to find that the Gravity Suit didn't give me a stinkin' bit of help. I'm still stumped as to what to do in that room. So I decided to say screw it and go explore in the other direction for a while.
The boss on the wrecked ship freaked me out. It's a crazy demon ghost eye brain monster, and it spits blue fire. I took quite a bit of damage, but I still took it out on the first try relatively easily. Once I figured out how simple it was to just stand in place and shoot the fire that came near me I stopped getting hit for the most part. He does move pretty freakin' fast once you put some damage on him, though, and with the missiles it can be easy to miss his eye sometimes. It was the best feeling ever when I found him, because it was the first moment in about 1.5-2 hours of gameplay where I felt like I had advanced forward in the game at all.
I searched around the ship as best I could, and got a couple secrets outside in the Crateria area, and then headed on toward Maridia. It's an interesting place. There's lots of...quicksand. I haven't gotten the chance to explore it very thoroughly, yet. I've found the map, but the first time I passed through I accidentally went through a gate to Brinstar that I couldn't come back through, so I had to run a lap around the world again to get back, and by that point my motivation was shot.
So, this is where I stand in Norfair. I have 95% of the map explored. I just have the tiny little bit down in the corner where the boss is, and the room with the big lava pit and that huge mouth that serves as a door which I can't get to, and this one other hallway. I found it by going through a hidden morph ball tunnel at the top of a shaft-type room, but it just leads to a dead end where I can't go any farther. There are blocks in the way and the only way through them is to stand on them and let them disappear from underneath, but you can only get on top of them from the other side of the wall. So I spent probably a good half hour trying to find out how to reach the other end of that hallway, but couldn't find any leads anywhere.
I'm starting to doubt whether or not I'm supposed to find the Norfair boss yet (don't tell me).
Oh, and another random comment. I'm surprised at how many missiles you can carry. I was fully expecting that to cap out at 100, but it just kept right on going.
Status:
Missiles: 115 Super Missiles: 25 Power Bombs: 30 Energy Tanks found: 8 Powerups: Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bomb, Charge Shot, Hi Jump Boots, Varia Suit, Speed Booster, Ice Beam, Wave Beam, Spazer, Grapple Beam, X-Ray Scope, Reserve Tank (x2), Gravity Suit
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep
You should definitely try to figure out the rhythm to wall jumping. Even if you're not looking to sequence break with it, it really helps mobility in the game, and helps a lot in Zero Mission, too (which you should definitely play after this).
Oh I got wall jumping down pat now. As soon as somebody mentioned it I went back to that room and did it. It's easy to do, it's just not easy to figure out how to do it from nothing is what I meant. It's just awkward in that you have to hit the opposite direction slightly before you jump, rather than not at all or at the same time like you would expect it to be.
-- I hate all ugly people, regardless of gender. ~ thundersheep