Metroid NES is the First Step Towards Greatness (Retrospective)

This series of videos were heavily inspired by The Geek Critique's 2D Metroid Critique series. Please check out his channel if you haven't already! / @geekcritique
Metroid Dread is finally coming out, after 19 years of waiting! To celebrate, I'll be looking back on every 2D Metroid game, starting with Metroid for the NES. Let's look at the game that started it all, and see if it still holds up 35 years later!
Griffin • / griffingalactic
Game Maker's Toolkit • / markbrowngmt
Twitter • / basedsamtv
#Metroid #Nintendo #NES

[@allthelonely4287]

Good video but I have to correct one thing. The Japanese version didn’t have a battery backup; it was made for the Famicom Disk System which allowed for save data to be written to the disk as well as some different music because of the extra music channel the add on included.

[@The_Cakeminator]

As someone who was born in the early 80s, I've played this game A LOT. I even held the local record of beating the game in 42 minutes, not at all because of the rumor that Samus would get naked if you beat the game in under one hour. (She doesn't, btw.) And because there were no clues in the game you had to either explore everything yourself or compare notes with friends, as well as keeping a mental map of the whole game instead of boring school stuff. Good times. About Ridley: he has two patterns to his shots, high or low. He used the high one in the video and that lets you stand right in front of him and he can't hit you. You can also freeze the shots and kill him with screw attack, which might be the quickest way. As for the whole back tracking after killing a boss, you can just pause the game and hit UP+A on the second controller (or take a death) to get back to the beginning. I always saved the E tank in the ceiling of the first corridor because of this, to get full health before going for Tourian.

[@basedsamtv]

I didn't know that you could reset with the second controller, that's interesting! I love hearing the perspectives from people that played these older games when they were new, it gives me a new sense of appreciation for them as someone born in the late 90s that didn't get the chance to appreciate them in the same way originally.

[@rezterralico4369]

​@BasedSamTV I swear in that purple corridor where you bombed the floor that the blocks look a slightly different colour when I played it on a stock NES on a CRT. I know it looks the same on this screen but on that NES I swear it was an ever so slightly different shade of colour when I beat it in like 1999 or 2000.

[@jarlwhiterun7478]

This game was atmospheric as fuck back then. Fully black background, eerie music in certain areas, and the overwhelming sense of isolation. It was Alien Isolation for us in the 80s and 90s!

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@basedsamtv Don't quote me on this, but I believe all of the games that were ported from the Famicom Disk System have this option. It works for Zelda and Zelda 2 also.

[@luism8130]

I remember going to school and everyone trying to figure out how to be Metroid and Zelda together. Every day was a new rumor or cheat. Fun times! The crazy part is that even without the internet or social media everyone I run into had a similar experience in childhood and we all spread the same stories.

[@capitalistpigsa1]

I know I'm 2 years late to the party but I loved this video! As someone who played this game when it was new, let me tell you, it was magical. I found a 20 on the ground in 1987 and begged my parents to take me to toys r us to get a Nintendo game. This was the game i picked, my parents happily paying the difference because it was a way for them to get a discounted game for me due to me having found the money. At the time this came out it was unlike anything else I had played. I sat there with my pad of paper maps and taking notes and exploring for hours on end. It sucked me in like no other game had at that point, later i would get just as sucked into games like Zelda 1 and Castlevania 2 but Metroid was really the first game that truly captivated me in that way.

[@Rockstago]

Great review! I totally agree with your takes- if I hadn't played this game when it came out in 1986, I don't think I would have liked it. It's difficult, nebulous & unclear about what the goal or the direction , especially without the game manual. In 1986, ANY game where you don't die in a single hit, where the player can even aim upwards was a new level of freedom. Games then were so limited- my generation was blown away with the freedom of something like this. Then add the Sci-Fi theme- we thought it was the best thing ever to come to a video game at that time. In 2023 I would be bored & frustrated with this game, but in the infantacy of games, this was THE pinnical of gaming freedom & innovation -

[@charlykoparabola7940]

18:51 for the love of god freeze the spaghettios!

[@Gabriel_Cook]

Bravo! Someone who knows they're spaghetti-os and not cheerios.

[@KertaDrake]

Mmm... Radioactive donuts...

[@natiprot69]

did you by chance ever watch nintendocaprisun? Just rewathed his lp of this and he calls them this lol

[@spacepope8495]

Bout to watch this whole series start to finish

[@Davian2073]

Also NARPASSWORD gives you a unique beam: Ice Wave Beam, as much damage as the Wave Beam, same sprite as the Wave Beam, but it's blue like the Ice Beam and it can freeze enemies like the Ice Beam

[@katielynne]

Just to add, checking the bottoms of the corridors for paths just made sense to me. Like, can open path here (entrance to Kraid’s area), therefore check all places.

[@esmooth919]

13:28 I am highly upset, because until the super gaming brothers play through, I never knew that that hole in the floor existed! I actually wasted a shitload of time trying to freeze enemies with my ice beam so that I could bomb jump my way up to that tiny gap at the ceiling! Knowing that shortcut at the time would have added so many more years to my life!

[@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist]

20:02 Great!! You fulfiled your mission and prooved the justice of our culture.

[@basedsamtv]

now go and rest our heroes

[@antgrantrant]

Absolute best part of the first game is that intro music. No nes game sets expectations before even hitting the start button like og Metroid.

[@looe9195]

The Funny Room, also known as Getting Over It With Samus Aran

[@mageofchaos]

Why are there so many underrated gems on KZbin and yet all I get recommended are “popular” KZbinrs? Why can’t I get recommended channels like this more often?

[@tonyrichards254]

You can freeze the rings in Tourian. There'll only ever be three on screen at once, so freeze all 3 and fire away until they thaw, then repeat. You can get up to 255 missiles, too- should be more than enough.

[@basedsamtv]

And to be totally fair to the game, even though I still find the item grinding to be extremely tedious, I probably had enough missiles to finish the fight without having to grind in the first place

[@StormsparkPegasus]

The original Metroid was a groundbreaking, ambitious game in its time. Unfortunately, extreme ambition tends to not age well. I certainly won't call it a bad game, not by any means...it laid the groundwork for the rest of the series, and we might not even have metroidvania as a genre today if not for it. But it's very hard to play today, it's really janky, and the NES just wasn't quite capable of fully realizing the concept. It's absolutely worth a look for anyone interested in the history of the series. It was made before a lot of the later enhancement chips extended the NES's capabilities. These days, if you want to play through the events that this game covers, I recommend just playing Zero Mission. Also, the best metroidvania on the NES is actually Blaster Master (Metafight in Japan). That game was incredible for its time. It took Super Metroid to beat it.

[@Davian2073]

They were novice, I don't think the "Funny Room" was intended (I went through that room without Hi-Jump, I'm traumatized and now I only dream with blocks and Kraid's Lair Music, help)

[@SaanMigwell]

There are two ice beams. (it reappears when upgrade to the wave beam) You're supposed to downgrade on your way to tourian.

[@esmooth919]

Not only that, but the beams are interchangeable, so you can go pick up the wave beam again if you want to

[@Davian2073]

The Japanese version fixed Mother Brain (making the whole crystal breakable like in other games) and the music (making it with one extra channel, this music was also used for Zero Mission and its "Original Metroid" mode)

[@AngryCalvin]

I got a Famicom Mini over the Nintendo Classic a couple of years ago. You could still buy a new one for much cheaper. The Famicom Disk versions are far superior. Metroid is no exception.

[@rezterralico4369]

I swear that part with the purple shaft had a slightly different colour when I played the game on a NES back in like 1999 or 2000 (beat super metroid first around that time with a used super nes around that time and played a used copy of metroid II on my gameboy colour) where you bombed the floor. Either that or I was bombing randomly. I swear they turned up a slightly different colour or somethin on a CRT TV. Check it out.

[@platinumuschannel]

Think of how interesting it would be someone modded the game to reflect more on the series changes, focusing of course on ZM. Save files, starting with what you had, easier farming if needed, less map redundancy, beams stacked, super missiles, better aiming, crouching, add a map, redo the bosses, and maybe add in a Justin Bailey second part (instead of the ZS of course), and to throw the dog a bone, have the option to restart the game with ALL of your powerups, plus plasma beam and space jump. Obvious I don't imagine something like a power bomb working too well due to limitations- maybe the colors flash a few times and the enemies on screen take damage? Modders have done amazing things with Super Mario Bros. 3, after all... If this was done, that would be the definitive way of playing the original Metroid on the NES.

[@rbraunbeck96]

At that point you may as well just play Zero Mission

[@yuvi3000]

Check out Metroid HD for the Mesen emulator. It's an emulator-specific upgrade which still runs over the original NES rom.

[@SaanMigwell]

I got this bad boy when I was 7. I didn't beat or appreciate until I was about 9, that was when me and billy beat it in one night. I beat 1943 that year too.

[@esmooth919]

11:45 You're technically not wrong about that, but back in the days when the hotlines weren't available, or easily accessible, kids got together on the playground to discuss these games, and how to beat them. This is especially true for this game, and the OG Legend of Zelda. Other than that, yeah, they kind of are guide games. But for someone like me who loved exploring in video games in general, I didn't need a guide for most of the things I found... Except for grumble grumble Goriyah.

[@charlykoparabola7940]

This game game out the same year I was born... me and a cousin used to play the hell out of this, we were like 5 or 6 years old at the time. How did we deal with this difficult game while being so young you ask? Game Genie. With infinite health and missiles (we didn't know about the NARPAS SWORD0 password back then), we were free to explore the world to our hearts' content, and I also had an older brother of 11 years to ask for help. We even managed to softlock ourselves a few times when we fell into the inescapable lava pits in green bubble norfair... with infinite health, the only escape is the reset button.

[@esmooth919]

19:51 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 As many times as I beat this game, I never noticed that spelling error before, until you pointed it out! I'm sitting here like, "Why the hell did he pronounce it like that?" And then i saw it. 💡🤣

[@ChatarraCrow]

When I was a kid, we drew our own maps and had password logs for this game. I remember (after getting the NES to finally run) just wandering around for hours making no progress.

[@MORJDK]

I used to complete Metroid just to listen, to the end game credits. Such an amazing game.

[@pinkmell0w]

Yea I agree with the introduction of the video, Dread was the first Metroid game I fully experienced (but not the first I played, that technically was Metroid, and the first I fully immersed myself into was Super Metroid but still did not finish) from start to finish, and that motivated me to play every single game in chronological order. Yes, *every single one*. I am glad to say I am finally up to Dread again, but this time I am playing in Dread mode, *and I'm doing it*

[@AngryCalvin]

Metroid is a huge deal for me. It’s easily a top 10 all time favorite for the NES. I prefer the Famicom Disk version which I have since I passed the Nintendo Classic for the Famicom Mini. Glad I did! Metroid is timeless. I didn’t own it back in the day but it for whatever reason but borrowed it and beat it as a teenager. Axiom Verge was also a great game and perfect tribute to Metroid.

[@Mark-fc7tu]

The content is solid, the commentary less so. For Metroid NES, it was the original Metroid. Basic shots to the side and up, no manual saves so there was a password system for game states, and no map system. Fun to look at, not so fun to play for an extended period of time. It was the era of gaming where you had to draw your own maps by hand because there were no guides or walkthroughs or a Metroid online community at the time. I really like the classic retro aesthetic, so I really enjoyed the updated animations, map system and automatic saves and checkpoints of Metroid Planets.

[@mechaspyder179]

When the game said “Other Metroid”, I thought it could be talking about the Metroid Prime

[@timmiller1435]

Metroid 1 was out standing. And the title screen music rules the world.

[@Joep813]

I’m old as fuck. This took me weeks to finish but god damn it was good.

[@Joep813]

Super made me flip out. To this day I still listen to super randos when I go to sleep

[@PastaMaster115]

The "authentic experience" for Metroid 1 can totally include using a map. If you had this game when it came out you probably also had an issue of Nintendo Power with a map of this game in it. Looking up a map online is no different, even if it may be a little more detailed.

[@virpoja271]

Great video series, you certainly deserve way more subs.

[@narutomanga461]

I enjoyed your video from the very beginning to the end ! Many thanks, I look forward to watch the next one 🙂

[@Davian2073]

About the massive room in the first hallway in Ridley, there's more than one bombable tile, and there's one in the beginning of the room, after the lava, it also is in Zero Mission. It was hilarious seeing you searching something that was right in front of you

[@mrwii5741]

Great Job on this review of Metroid! Keep up the good work with your videos! Metroid is a classic NES Game!

[@swanofnutella4734]

I guess it was just another time and a different set of expectations. I wouldn't opt to change a majority of the things being complained about here. They simply added to the sense of isolation alien-ness and/or challenge at the time. I'm even glad there was no map, as it made it feel more vast. As much as I love Super Metroid, OG Metroid is still my fave. The vibe. There was just nothing like it in 1986. Metroid's peers were Duck Hunt and Gyromite. Appreciate that.

[@TempoTronica]

I'd say that the original metroid is a bit of an acquired taste. I spent most of my life just kinda thinking this game was meh. There were things I loved about it. However I think it's lack of a real save system, along with respawning with only 30e, really impacted the gameplay. But having beaten it twice now, I finally understand it. It is an amazing game once you start to understand the appeal.

[@ryanpajaable]

that other m joke definitely a sgb reference

[@basedsamtv]

you know i felt like someone already made that joke before and i just wasn't remembering it, but that makes perfect sense, i loved johnny's old metroid videos back in the day. must have been baked into my subconscious.

[@agenerichuman]

You're supposed to use bombs for all the enemies that are low to the ground. In this game bomb was actually useful in combat.

[@StiffAftermath]

Metroid Planets - return to greatness!

[@Davian2073]

The first time I went through the first door I saw, and then I was in a maze, and then I died. You avoided it... WITH A MAP

[@AaronJLong]

You made the OTHER METROID Other M joke before I could. The extended part of the escape music was not present in the FDS original, it was added in the North American cartridge release (I'm on the team that thinks NARPAS SWORD means North American Release Password) which explains why it isn't in Zero Mission, even though I wish it was. Even though Super was my introduction to the series at around age 6, and I got my hands on 2 a few years after, when I got really into NES games at around age 10 this game was at the top of my most wanted. At the time, we were pretty broke, having finally gotten a Playstation only for burglars to take it and a bunch of our games while we were away, so we would go to yard sales every weekend and pick up NES and SNES games and consoles for super cheap (once got a NES + SNES for $8. Times were different). I started to love these old NES games, and I had to have the first game in my favorite series. Then, when I was 11 or 12, I found Metroid at a yard sale for $1. I stayed up all night playing and just having a blast. I quickly adjusted to the more limited moveset. I realized that bombs were actually meant to be a weapon to attack shorter enemies in this game, while in later games the ability to crouch and shoot down relegated them to destroying bomb blocks and doing bomb jumps. It was difficult at first, but it was nice to turn the tables when I found the Screw Attack (I had to look up the location of the Varia Suit and also learned of the energy tank in Kraid's room online but otherwise was able to persevere through determination and being a kid on summer vacation). When I go back to restock for Mother Brain after destroying the Zeebetite barriers, I scroll the previous room so that 2 metroids spawn and figured out a maneuver to where I can get them to overlap and take both out with only 5 missiles for quicker and more reliable restocking. This is quite the game. You can only play Metroid for the first time once, barring romhacks (I've played so many), and your first run will be a struggle as you get lost, don't know where the good stuff is, are still learning enemy patterns, and sometimes struggle to find the critical path (that floor in Norfair isn't well telegraphed, but considering that most of Norfair is beneath it one can deduce that bombing floors in vertically scrolling rooms might be the way to go. I figured it out as a kid no problem, but I already had 2 Metroid games under my belt including Return of Samus with those bombable cavern ceilings). After you finish it, though, you're tossed into New Game + where you can tear through the game powerful enough to defeat the last boss, and maybe explore for secrets that you missed. But that's the first playthrough. Now, the name of the game is speed. The manual encourages it. The game rewards it. I think early Varia is intentional. That hidden ice beam is just too conveniently placed, and it can be done in Zero Mission too if you're on your bomb jumping game. That cuts down on a lot of backtracking. Energy tanks are spaced out so that an experienced player never has to grind, except for maybe topping up after breaking the Zeebetite barriers. There's one near the start of each boss hideout, and one in Kraid's room and behind Ridley's. Each one fully restores your health right when you're likely to want it. Since there's more in the game than you need, I save the one in the ceiling in Brinstar for after Kraid to max me out before I head into Tourian. You go from being lost and dying constantly to knowing Zebes like the back of your hand and breezing through like a total badass. To this day I still love running through this classic if I have an hour or so to kill.

[@gary12from108]

Now do the primes 👀

[@Davian2073]

About the sequence break of the Varia Suit, you can also do it in Zero Mission, and it's easier because the enemies are 10x slower

[@jamesusher-jones5556]

“Once a week, every week”

[@steelgreyed]

Nintendo Power..... Having a third party map was "part" of the experience. Cause knowing stuff is there is one thing. Getting the stuff, is another thing.

[@basedsamtv]

I've seen this game and the first Zelda likened to following an ancient treasure map, and I think that's a fun way to look at it that could add to the experience

[@steelgreyed]

@@basedsamtv The "panic" of not having the second Zelda world map and knowing you are going to have to bomb every rock and burn every tree in the game...... Some later players of the Second Zelda game was like, "why would you even look for a village here by chopping down trees?" (those who beat the second Map on the first Zelda.) Carpet bombing is part of zone exploration. Today on infinite save game land we are bombing the left side of the path followed by chopping down the entire dark forest.

[@spiderfreak1011]

I actually didn't know you could glitch an enemy into the area before the Varia Suit to get to it easier. I just learned Johnny's trick of glitching into the blocks right below the door to the Varia Suit so you could jump up them and get to the door early, so thanks for teaching me something new! Really solid review of Metroid NES and I agree with all your points. I also had the misfortune of running out of missiles to kill Mother Brain, and I nearly gave up playing the game there. Luckily, Nintendo were kind enough to release a special save file version of Metroid NES on NSO that gives you full health and missile upgrades (most of which I'd already collected beforehand, I just ran out of resources at the end due to killing all the Metroids along the way), so I felt no guilt in playing that, freezing all the metroids so I wouldn't have to kill them, then finally beating Mother Brain for real. Also, I'm not sure what version of the game you played, but the NSO version I played had so much lag during the Mother Brain and Ridley fights that it wasn't even funny, made those fights more unfun than they had to be.

[@basedsamtv]

Yeah the lag is pretty grueling during the Mother Brain fight, but that's just the NES biting off more than it can chew with how many projectiles the game's throwing at you lol. Lots of games had issues with lag and sprite flickering back then.

[@spiderfreak1011]

@@basedsamtv That makes a lot of sense. I plan to replay Metroid NES one more time for fun once Metroid Zero Mission comes to the GBA NSO in the coming years. It sounds like the GBA port of the game you can play after beating ZM once might fix the lag issue, which by itself would make the game more fun for me, very much looking forward to it.

[@PastaMaster115]

Metroid games aren't "few and far between" THESE DAYS. They've always been that way. There has always been a huge gap between Metroid titles.

[@anderswallin3883]

The OST for Super Metroid is the best ever

[@esmooth919]

7:13 someone hasn't played Metroid Fusion

[@TaylorTCarlson]

Awesome vid, thanks for all this! Just subscribed to your channel. I even covered Metroid on my channel a while back.

[@nerdonofriendo]

i got 7 minutes. then i decided you just suck at metroid. haha.... This game is the best on its platform... best of its time. my brother and I played it until we understood every corner we knew every obtuse detail, all knowledge gained from the recess yard and cryptic nintendo fun club news letters. This game is the GOAT. as someone born in 1979 this game is the reason I game and understand the tech of today. Metroid is the root of everything. not just metroid.

[@Gabriel_Cook]

A like-minded individual. I was born in 78 but late November.

[@Lucifronz]

These graphics are *rough.* I could never go back to the original two games when we have Zero Mission and AM2R as options. Even going back to Super Metroid is a bit of an adjustment for me, though I am still enjoying it. It just goes to show how far the series has come not just graphically, but also functionally, as being able to crouch or shoot diagonally are significant improvements to gameplay. 8:28 I assume the reason was to save space when loading those chunks in or something. 11:08 Super Metroid isn't too different. Honestly, the whole series isn't that different. You're expected to experiment with bombs, blaster fire and missiles to try and find secrets and while many times in future games the blocks are a bit cracked or something, there are *tons* of cracked blocks that look similar that aren't that important, so it all kind of blends together and the only way you can even know to check is either because you're aware of how Metroid works or you're so desperate to find the way forward that you just kind of managed to get lucky. Which seems to be the whole design of the series, since there are so many hidden upgrades like missile storage, health, etc. that you'll run into while trying to figure out the correct way forward. 12:58 Yeah, that's headache-inducing. There's clearly skill involved in playing that kind of tune, it's four notes to start with and then it goes up a bit with new keys, but the end result is still terrible and on the surface sounds like a child playing with a synth keyboard. 13:46 There's one exactly like that in Super Metroid, too, so the bastards did it twice. I noticed it immediately because I remembered that it still exists in Zero Mission. 13:49 I'm just thinking of the RetroAchievements for Zero Mission and how there is a "take no damage" achievement for every boss. If there are achievements for the original Metroid, which I'm sure at this point there are, I hope there's one for taking no damage from Ridley in this one too. Just because of how hilariously easy it is. 17:17 And that's why the "no damage" achievement for Mother Brain sucks even in Zero Mission. It's pretty much exactly the same. You're basically playing a bullet hell level in Metroid. It's not really a fun fight. 18:47 Agreed. Even in Zero Mission, which *is* an improvement. "Pray for a true peace in space."

[@KertaDrake]

The original was amazing in its era, but very, very, jank by modern standards. Still very playable, and well-made, but it really shows that they hadn't figured everything out yet. Super Metroid was where it really struck timeless gold.

[@AnonimanPiotr]

Jesus you need more subs.

[@Davian2073]

You used the wrong password, it's with zeros, not with dashes, dashes give some extra things, and the correct password is with all 0s and 2s

[@thegreattreon0177]

People say this game is hard but I don't think it's hard, it's ridiculously long so write down the codes and passwords they give you

[@RealMoosterchef]

August 12 2037 the heat death of the universe

[@basedsamtv]

repeating this meaningless phrase over and over again in hopes that it will mean something someday

[@Davian2073]

Another game review channel that doesn't play the game as they should, don't reasesrch, and just cry to the creators (who didn't know much about making a game)

[@breezypbreezy]

How do you recommend playing the original metroid “as you should”?

[@Davian2073]

Yeah, I know how this will be if the guy tells he had never completed the game, don't you get so much fun from killing Zoomers already? That's literally what you do in ZM as well.

[@Punmaster9001]

I think the type of game should be referred to as Metroid-like, as in, castlevania would eventually become Metroid-like. Because it set the precedent for the style of game play. I am old enough to remember them selling this game in stores when I was a kid, and wanting to get the first one after being lucky enough to play through 2, though I'd say I got lucky that I didn't because of the vast differences between the two. Specfically the difficulty difference.

[@bennyballs22]

I loved this game as a kid and I love it to this day, flaws and all. I know graphics have gotten better over the years (obviously) but for me this game always looked the best. The tile sets, the sprites, the black background, all of it put together made for an oppressive and scary atmosphere that hasn’t been replicated since. Maybe it’s nostalgia but I’ve always thought that. Every game in the franchise since then has had a cartoonish look imo. Can’t forget the music either! I just love this game and I wish the series had taken a more creepy approach with the future games. That said, I love Super Metroid too, it’s just that I preferred the vibe the original had. Thanks for the video. Good stuff. Cool to see others impressions even if they don’t completely align with my own. I wish you and all the others that are newer to the franchise could see what I see when playing the original tho.