Metroid 2: Return of Samus - a wrongly overlooked classic

Metroid 2

Basically, Nintendo does not treat Metroid as negligently as one perceives it as a series fan. Sure, you can't compare the output with the abundance of games in a Mario or Zelda. But with Metroid Prime 1, Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid Prime 3, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid: Other, M, spin-offs like Metroid Prime Pinball and unfortunately also Metroid Prime: Federation Force and last but not least Metroid Prime 4 on the horizon there have been a few crackers and crackers in the past 20 years. Most recently, however, the series made a name for itself with Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS (which, by the way, we finally want to have it on the Switch, Nintendo!), A really great remake of the second part of the series, Metroid 2: Return of Samus for the Great Game Boy.

Table of Contents

1 This is how Samus must be! 2 The beginning of something big 3 More important than you think And even if the remake, which is actually a reinterpretation, is without any question the better game, its origin must by no means be forgotten. Because what Nintendo conjured up onto the gray 8-bit block here a full 30 years ago is still impressive and paved the way for a small, unknown title called Super Metroid.

Also interesting: The unofficial Metroid- 2-Remake AM2R for PC in the test

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That's how Samus has to be!

Samus Aran lands with her spaceship on an unknown planet and from then on has to assert himself against flora and fauna - that's how people know and love Metroid. Source: Nintendo As far as the protagonist's badass potential is concerned, Return of Samus is at the forefront, because the story is as simple as it is brutal: Samus Aran is supposed to visit the planet SR288, the home of the parasitic life form of the Metroids, and every single one there Send a copy to the afterlife. The heroine has never come so close to her actual calling as a bounty hunter - disdainful plumbers can go packing up! And even if there is a little emotional twist at the end and Samus shows mercy in the face of a baby Metroid, the way there is as merciless as one imagines: Samus runs across the planet and kills, kills, kills. Even if the story is by no means complicated - basically after these few lines you will know everything there is to know - it was unique in its dark design for Nintendo standards and shaped much more than the extremely simple NES debut what one imagines today as a Metroid narrative and the atmosphere that goes with it. By the way: Samus' iconic Varia suit design with the huge balls on the shoulders has its origin here.

The beginning of something big

The counter in the lower right corner shows how many of the Metroids have yet to be conquered. This task remains Samus' main motivation throughout the game. Source: Nintendo As far as the gameplay is concerned, Metroid 2: Return of Samus took a significant step in the direction of player guidance, unlike its predecessor, in which you mostly had no idea what to do and where to go next. Sure, you can't compare it with Super Metroid or the newer parts. A map does not exist, and therefore no mission marker. But first, the coherent world is much more meaningful and less uniform than before, where it basically consisted of all sorts of huge vertical shafts with corridors in between. Now the areas are smaller and more coherently connected. Second, we always have one goal in mind: to wipe out all Metroids. A counter at the bottom of the screen always shows how many of the opponents still have to be dealt with, and that runs through the entire game. If you have done a set number of Metroids, the lava level in the cave systems of the planet sinks and Samus can penetrate further down - this also serves to guide the player. One might think that it degenerates into monotony, but far from it.

Tiny small format, display in shades of green or gray, economical 8-bit graphics - and yet the Metroid feeling comes across perfectly. Source: Nintendo First of all, the battles against the three different evolutionary stages of the parasitic troublemakers are always dealt with very quickly, and in between there is the well-known Metroid gameplay, as we love it today, as it was only emerging back then. So you explore the surroundings, fight bravely against bosses (apart from the Metroid battles), unlock all sorts of helpers such as the Space Jump for infinite jumps, the Spider Ball, with which you can roll along the wall and new beam weapons and get there with their help to previously inaccessible places. As simple as it is ingenious, and even when Super Metroid perfected the formula and then the subgenre Metroidvania was formed in a combination of Metroid and the similarly designed Castlevania, all the ingredients for it are already present in Metroid 2; and that much more so than in the NES Metroid, which in this respect was still a rough blueprint for what was to come in the future.

More important, than you think

Metroid 2 was released before the much loved Super Metroid for the SNES and has been a bit forgotten - completely wrong, we think! Source: Nintendo Even apart from the actual content, Metroid 2 surprised, for example with a memory function instead of a password system, which was by no means standard at the time. Nevertheless, and despite good sales figures, the adventure only got off to a limited extent with the trade press at the time. So don't get it wrong, the game was in no way torn but its meaning downplayed and many of the things that made it new were not recognized. Among other things, the graphics were criticized, which with today's view, thanks to their large figures and clear structure, has definitely withstood the test of time.

In addition, the trade press once complained about monotony and too much backtracking - something that Metroidvanias generally calls can certainly reproach, which is also a fundamental characteristic of the genre. Nowadays we thankfully know better, and lists of the best Game Boy or even Nintendo games almost always have a place for Samus' second ride in the world of interstellar bounty hunting. Rightly! Because butter for the fish: Without Metroid 2 there would be no Super Metroid, no Metroid Prime, and even series like Zelda, which used a certain Metroidvania structure in later parts, might look different than we know them. Not a bad performance for the little gray-brown 8-bit space excursion.