Lokarin posted... Ya, Metroid 1 was more of a maze game... I mean, hell, Ridley is outright down a SECRET passage that you might never find.
Super Metroid deviated from the original design to become, well, the origin of the best genre
To be fair, leaving Lower Norfair in Super Metroid requires you to go through a secret passage that not even the X-Ray Scope will reveal. So either before Ridley or after him, necessary secret passages were apparently a tradition.
I guess since X-Ray is an optional item, you might not even have it at the time so it doesn't matter they don't reveal it. And the room has a fairly long path up to the secret passage, so most players will probably look for something at the end of the path. Unless you trust the X-Ray scope that there's nothing behind that wall.
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The only reason lightning never strikes in the same place twice, is that the same place isn't there the second time.