I’m not entirely convinced I actually finished this game as a kid as I have distinct memories of Mother Brain, but could not remember the ending after defeating her. So when #VideoGameClub chose any Metroid game for #VGCMay2025, I decided to give it a go and definitively check this classic off my list.
As someone who listens to video game music regularly, the initial track as you start the game in Brinstar got me wrapped right up immediately. I’ve listened to the Metroid soundtrack quite a bit, but it’s different when you’re blasting enemies away and hopping over lava pits trying to stay alive in tihs foreign world. That being said, the soundtrack does have some really poor choices, especially as you venture through Ridley’s Hideout and there were times where I had to just pull my headphones off because it was too much. While this distraction does take away from the game in that regard, playing through the original Metroid was equal parts incredible and frustrating.
I’m no longer the gamer I used to be back in the day, and I’m clearly not an expert platformer, so it took quite some time for me to get in the groove. I especially feel like the buttons were backwards compared to what my expectations are playing on the Steam Deck but I can chock that up to the Nintendo layout. All that being said, I struggled mightily in the beginning of the game frequently finding myself in a constant state of beeping as my energy got extremely low and I would run back and forth on the same screens blasting enemies in a desperate attempt to get my energy levels back up. Once I finally got some energy tanks and the ice beam, things got a bit better, but I definitely found myself taking way too much damage. Even after I got the spin attack, I just couldn’t get the hang of how it worked fully and found myself doing more regular jumps than I probably should have.
But I ultimately persevered and finally got into a good groove through the game and that’s where Metroid really ramps up the frustration. The game is designed to be deliberately deceptive, often hiding things behind bombable walls, false floors, and even false lava. There’s no way I would have been able to figure all of this out without using a world map without devoting a tremendous amount of time just running back and forth until I stumbled across some of these secrets. Without the map, I probably never would have finished when you combined my penchants for getting hit and the vast distance between two points.
In the end, the game is still a classic, and I’m glad to have checked it off my list, but it’s one that I don’t foresee myself coming back to and revisiting in the near future. I do, however, want to play some of the other entries in the franchise as I’ve played bits and bobs of Super Metroid as well as the Prime series and never finished any of them.
