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I have never played a Metroid game(i never had a nintendo console except a gameboy with just a pair of games) but yesterday i finished Super Metroid and honestly i think that despite the age it's still the superior metroid(vania) among the ones i played(castlevania SOTN, guacamelee, axiom verge, unepic and others) the only one that beats it for me it's knitt underground but that's a completely different and original game and that's one of the biggest reasons.

To be honest i didn't enjoy SM all the time, overall i have probably enjoyed SOTN and unepic more(knitt undergrounds is implied), i have always hated with all my self things like swinging, freezing enemies to use them as platforms and other things and maybe that's why those things aren't present in many modern games but at the same time they feel lacking because of the absence of similar features, SM has lots of things going on, maybe even too many for its own good, for example i probably used the wall jump only in the room where it was needed, was it really necessary?

Also in SM there are events like the explosion sequences, creatures showing skills, the metroid that saves you and other events that make the game more alive, a kind of things that are completely absent in the other games i played.

It's not perfect obviously, imo sometimes it required too long paths to return in some places, some rooms were really annoying, the final boss was extremely lame design and difficulty wise etc, but even if i probably enjoyed a little less than other games i can't value it less than the others.

What's gaf opinion?

But more importantly

Spoiler

y can't metroid crawl?

 

[Opa-Pa]

Honestly I've always considered actual Metroid games and Metroidvanias different kinds of games. Metroid games tend to feel far more tightly designed and focused, while Metroidvanias to me are more like a series of challenge rooms that happen to be interconnected. I do love both tho.

I mean, Aria of Sorrow is one of my favorite games ever, but so is Super Metroid and I believe SM is far more well designed. Even in SOTN sometimes it feels like there's too much "unrelated" content, whereas in Metroid games every room feels like it has a purpose, there's some kind if synergy to the entire map... but they are set to accomplish different things anyway. It's part of the reason I dislike the notion that we shouldn't mourn the lack of Metroid lately because "there's so many indie Metroidvania out there anyway".

By the way, is Unepic good, then? I was kinda interested but the premise (and name) sounded kinda cringey lol. I'd love to try it if it has merits.

 

[Mr Swine]

I prefer Metroid games to Metroidvanua tbh. Not that Metroidvanias aren't good, they don't reach the awesomeness of Super Metroid (or Fusion)

 

[Morfeo]

I guess enjoyment is subjective, but I disagree with you. The wall jump, the ice missiles and the swinging are great part of what might be the best game ever.

 

[jacob armitage]

It's not perfect obviously...

Honestly i think its as close to perfect as a video game can get, especially for its era.

 

[Acerac]

I'm partial to classic Metroids myself. Granted, that may be because I view Metroidvanias as Metroid games that have grinding added and little else.

 

[Opa-Pa]

Honestly i think its as close to perfect as a video game can get, especially for its era.

Yeah, I found that comment funny because SM is one of the few games I consider almost perfect (along with stuff like Prime 1). It's brilliant (no problem with others disagreeing, obviously).

 

[eXistor]

It's as close to gaming perfection as we're gonna get (outside of puzzle games like Tetris) imo. I agree that its contemporaries aren't even close to the level of SM. The controls in all Castlevania's SotN and onwards is spot-on, but the level-design is always their major downfall. It's just connected copy/paste hallways. I love those games btw, but their level-design is not great. SM has nailed pretty much every aspect and I wouldn't change a thing.

By the way, is Unepic good, then? I was kinda interested but the premise (and name) sounded kinda cringey lol. I'd love to try it if it has merits.

It's alright imo. I don't really see anything special about it, but it's got decent controls and somewhat addicting gameplay, but that didn't stop me from dropping the game after 5-ish hours. It gets really repetitive quick. Try it if it's a couple of bucks, but it's really nothing noteworthy.

 

[EloquentM]

OP go play metroid prime and prime 2. DO IT

 

[Hispanic! At the Disco]

Wall jumping is never required except for the room that you're taught it in. Its just a fun extra ability just because.

 

[MoonFrog]

I like SotN but a lot of my soul cries for the death of soft RPG systems and gameplay in these labyrinthine, pathfinding games. I prefer Metroid's Zelda-like approach so much more. Give me a select suite of gadgets and have them interact with the environment in unique ways rather than giving me a wide range of exploration/environment equivalent weapons and only a few true key power ups. Give me heart pieces and quivers rather than having a level up system. And so on. It just makes me all the more in the maze to do it the Metroid way.

Metroid just is its own thing. I think most Metroidvanias are really Igavanias, which take cues from Metroid naturally but there's more connecting them all than connecting them to Metroid in my experience.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

I've always felt the metroid games (well, 3, Fusion & Zero Mission) have better controls and far better level design - especially super metroid, which is a perfect game.

I like the gba/ds/psx metroidlike vania games though. Especially Symphony and Ecclesia, and the two megaman metroidlikes on the DS (ZX games)

A lot of the others are pretty hit and miss - Guacamelee for example I'm of not a fan of because of the movement. Just feels off to me, and if that happens I just don't feel like playing them.

 

[linko9]

As time goes by I think more and more that it's the best game ever made. Enjoyable on a very casual level all the way up the most serious levels of dedication. The movement in the game is so much more impressive and rewarding to master than in any other Metroid game, and the level design hasn't ever been surpassed. Audio and visuals are by far better than any other game in the series for me. Considering that Zero Mission is also one of my favorite games, the fact that SM surpasses it in every way is pretty amazing. Like SSBM, it's one of those games that was masterfully designed, but also benefited from accidental techniques that weren't necessarily intended, like the quick charge and maybe even machball.

 

[jacob armitage]

There are so many things to love about its design, I think my favourite is how well it pulls off its atmosphere though.

 

[jimboton]

Yeah, Super Metroid is still the best of them all. Though for my money Axiom Verge is not that far behind, certainly a lot better than any other 2d Metroid that's not Super Metroid.

I would also consider La-Mulana, Castlevania SOTN and Toki Tori 2+ to be almost as good as SM, each of them in its own vastly different approach to the metroidvania genre.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

I feel like metroidvanias are like the watered down version of Metroid. Like yea our game design is nearly as tight or creative as Nintendo, so we're gonna uses XP/RPG elements/crazy out balanced weapons and powers to entiice the player instead.

Like I love SotN, but its had a crazy influence on an entire genre without any of SotN's incredible top to bottom presentation values that make it compelling.

Axiom Verge is the real exception, in that its an real-deal Metroid, no vania.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Honestly i think its as close to perfect as a video game can get, especially for its era.

Super Metroid will never be perfect because of the X-ray Visor. Also, Fusion and Zero Mission improved the control scheme.

But it's pretty fucking close.

 

[nkarafo]

I still think Super Metroid is the best of it's kind, with Metroid Prime 1 being a close second.

I do love SOTN, it's my favorite PS1 game, but it's also a very grinding friendly game. It allows you to make it as easy as you want. Super Metroid has much tighter design and difficulty curve.

 

[BigEmil]

Super Metroid is the best game of all time and still remains my top Metroid game it's perfection
I dont get the complaints of controls i thought it was great loved it

 

[Toadthemushroom]

I didn't play Super Metroid until 2007 but I still think it's the daddy even today. Unlike other games held in high regard like SOTN (which is still great!), Super Metroid feels "designed" in nearly every single corridor and level.

It's also compelling enough to not need to resort to experience systems and levelling - in SOTN many enemies are trivial to your progression yet you find yourself battling them for experience, for instance.

I also loved how much depth there is to utilising Super Metroid's mechanics. Stuff like wall jumping needs to be mastered and your new abilities give you more flexibility than you would have initially thought.

OP, definitely check out Metroid Prime next if you want to experience the genre in first person. I skipped it at launch, stupidly, but played it for the first time in 2010 and again in 2015, and it's still yet another timeless piece of game - and audiovisual - design.