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Super Metroid

From Metroid Wiki
Position in Timeline
Metroid II: Return of Samus Release Date Metroid Fusion / Metroid Prime
Metroid II: Return of Samus Metroid Chronology Metroid: Other M


Super Metroid
Super Metroid

Super Metroid North American Cover Art

Publisher Nintendo
Developer(s) Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems
Platform(s) Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Released

North American release April 18, 1994
European release July 28, 1994

Japanese release March 19, 1994

Genre Action Adventure
Ratings ESRB: E
OFLC: G8+
PEGI: 7 (Virtual Console release)[1]
Modes Single-player
Media 24-megabit cartridge
Input SNES Controller
Theme Title theme
Logbook
Logbook

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Super Metroid is the third game in the Metroid series and is the successor to Metroid II: Return of Samus. In it, Samus answers a distress call at the Space Colony Ceres. She finds that the station is deserted, and the researchers are dead. When she locates the Metroid Hatchling, she finds that Ridley has taken it and gives chase. Super Metroid improved on the formula established in Metroid and Metroid II: Return of Samus.

History

After the release of the original Metroid, director Yoshio Sakamoto sat out on the development of its direct sequel, Metroid II: Return of Samus. Instead, after the release of the SNES, he culled members from Nintendo R&D1 and Intelligent Systems to begin work on the third game in the series, which would become Super Metroid.

Plot

Prologue

After Samus completed her mission and eradicated the entire Metroid population on SR388 as commanded by the Galactic Federation (sans the Metroid Hatchling, which she nicknamed "Baby"), she brought the Hatchling to the Ceres Space Colony for research. However, shortly after she left, she received a distress signal from the Station and returned to investigate. She approaches the Space Science Academy where the Baby was being studied and finds all the scientists slaughtered and the containment unit that held the Baby missing. Upon further exploration of the Station, she finds the Baby in a small capsule with it inside. As she approaches, Ridley appears and grabs the capsule. After a short battle, Samus repels Ridley, and he begins a countdown to destroy Ceres. After escaping the explosion, Ridley flees to Zebes, and Samus goes after him.

Ridley roars at Samus on the Ceres Space Colony


Zebes

As Samus lands on Zebes, she explores the surface of the planet, known as Crateria, and heads deeper into the planet. She finds that the old base of Tourian, which was destroyed after Samus defeated Mother Brain during her last visit, has been completely rebuilt, and Space Pirates have resurfaced their activities on Zebes. Samus heads deeper still back into Brinstar to explore, and upon returning, she finds Zebesians all over the rebuilt Tourian base. As Samus moves farther along, she unknowingly finds the entrance to the "new" Tourian, which is blocked by golden statues of Kraid, Ridley, Draygon, and Phantoon, all of which shine with gemstones that only vanish once Samus has defeated the respective bosses in their domains.

The Golden Statues that block the entrance to "new' Tourian


Samus sets out to find all her original upgrades from Metroid as well as some new ones that help her along her way. She encounters numerous enemies barring her way to find the four guardians. She finds Kraid, who was one of the guardians of "old" Tourian and has rebuilt his lair, which takes up a large part of Brinstar, and defeats him to claim the Varia Suit as her own. She then makes her way to the [{Wrecked Ship]] and finds Phantoon, who has shut off the power supply to the ship, making progress impossible until she defeats him. She then takes the Gravity Suit from a storage room in the Ship. After making her way through the Wrecked Ship and its mazes, she finds her way into the submerged Space Pirate research facility in Maridia. After moving through Maridia, Samus find many more upgrades and makes her way to Ridley's Lair in Norfair, where she also finds the Baby's broken capsule. Along the way, Samus find the Mochtroids, the products of the Pirates' failed experiment to clone Metroids for use as bioweapons. She annihilates them and continues her quest to make her way into "new" Tourian.

Tourian

After defeating all the guardians, Samus sets off to return to "new" Tourian's gateway. She enters the facility and finds real Metroids that attack her on sight.

Samus battling Metroids in Tourian
Samus battling Metroids in Tourian

After delving deep into Tourian, she kills all of the Metroids and gets close to the end of the facility before entering a room and encountering a massive Metroid, much larger than any Metroid she has ever encountered in any of her travels across the universe. After draining the energy of a few creatures in the room, the Metroid moves in Samus and begins draining her energy. By the time it recognizes Samus as its mother, Samus only has one unit of health left. The Baby feels disgraced for attacking its adopted mother and flies off shrieking. Samus, barely able to even stand, finds an energy recharge station and re-energizes herself.

The Baby after it nearly kills Samus


She continues on and confronts Mother Brain yet again. She destroys Mother Brain's control unit, and the machine appears to be defeated, but it is revealed to be housed in a separate room and attaches itself to a giant, bipedal mechanical body that it can control freely, offering many more offensive armaments than the previous phase of the fight. After dealing damage to it, Samus is overpowered by Mother Brain's Hyper Beam attack. As Samus in on the verge of death, Mother Brain rears back to deliver the death blow but is stopped by the Baby, who rushes in and absorbs its energy. After apparently depleting Mother Brain's energy, the Baby releases its hold on Mother Brain, and it falls to the floor, gray and lifeless, the same fate of the creatures it attacked earlier in Tourian. The Baby then attaches to Samus, who feared death from her own adopted child, but the Baby did not take the last of Samus' energy. It instead delivered the energy it stole from Mother Brain into Samus' body, completely recharging and energizing Samus like never before. During this time, Mother Brain miraculously recovers its energy and commences to attack the Baby. After releasing Samus, the Baby rears back for one final attack, intent on destroying Mother Brain, but Mother Brain delivers one final attack and killed the Baby, effectively making the Metroid race extinct.

Mother Brain in its control unit
Mother Brain in its bipedal form


Samus, who is now glowing and pulsating with the energy given to her by the Baby, knows she possesses the power to defeat Mother Brain. A fierce, final battle ensues, and Samus easily defeats Mother Brain using the Hyper Beam. Samus destroys Mother Brain once and for all.


After exploding, a countdown begins until "new" Tourian explodes. Racing for her life, Samus runs through hidden passages in Tourian and Crateria. Along the way, she rescues three Etecoons and a Dachora that she met in Brinstar as she makes her way back to her Gunship. As she leaves Zebes, home of the Chozo and the place where Samus was raised until she was mature enough to venture off on her own, the planet explodes with violent force and nothing is left behind.

In Metroid: Other M, which immediately follows the events of Super Metroid, Samus experiences a sense of longing for the Baby, and she is reminded of it often, particularly after receiving the "Baby's Cry" distress signal from the Bottle Ship. DNA from her Power Suit is used to clone Metroids (including a Queen Metroid) and Ridley.

Locations

Gameplay

Super Metroid is a sidescrolling action game containing elements of both platformers and shooters. The game takes place over a massive, interconnected world; in order to progress, Samus must explore and acquire new abilities that will grant her further access to new areas, such as her Morph Ball and High Jump Boots.

The controls are completely customizable, allowing the player to assign any function to any button he or she desires. These functions include jumping, firing, dashing, aiming diagonally up or down, and selecting among Missiles, Super Missiles, Power Bombs, the Grappling Beam, and the X-Ray Scope. Of these, aiming diagonally up or down can be disabled depending on the button configuration used.

Trivia

Later Releases

Super Metroid was released on the Wii Shop Channel downloadable for 800 Wii points as a Virtual Console game. The game has also been released on the Wii U eShop Virtual Console, as a part of the Wii U trial campaign, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on July 15, 2013, in which Nintendo release a Virtual Console title each month at a 30-day special reduced price of 30 cents, Super Metroid was launched and special reduced from Wednesday June 15 to Thursday July 13. After finishing the 30-day, the game now cost $7.99.

Gallery

Miscellaneous

Cover Artwork

External Links

Metroid Recon's Full Map of Super Metroid's Zebes.

References

  1. Super Metroid, Nintendo.co.uk
Ridley from Metroid: Zero Mission Metroid Games Samus from Super Metroid
2D Games
3D Games
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