Metroid - NES

[targetrasp]

I've loved and hated Metroid since I first played it. Great game play, cool theme, sick music and 0 hand holding. I've probably picked it up and put it down a dozen times since I was in grade school, never to beat it. I've tried it with friends, with Nintendo Power, with a game genie, and with all the help I stayed lost. Game FAQs got me close to finishing it in college but that stupid password system and having to start over eventually caused me to put it down.

Its been at least 20 years since I've touched the game but I'm trying again. The save state feature is making things much easier. I'm not stopping and restarting when something goes wrong so the frustration of getting knocked in the lava or getting ganged up on by a bunch of enemies is still there but being able to continue without having to kill myself and starting back at the beginning of the region will keep me from shelving the game until it's an antique.

Great game, easily top 5 NES games, top 3 if you could switch between ice beam and wave beam without having to go back and pick the other up. My only grip so far and honestly a rapid-fire controller really negates the need for the wave beam. 

[Grindspine]

Nah, the wave beam is pretty important, but Super Metroid really fixed those issues.

I remember back in 1989, getting Metroid and trying to draw my own maps of Brinstar. It is epic how the game basically tells you to find and defeat the "mechanical life brain" and gives you no other instruction. Anyone who played Mario intrinsically starts going to the right, only to hit a dead end and have to go left to get the maru mari (round ball).

That game came from an era of Nintendo-hard arcade-style games when starting over is easier than dying and continuing. By the time GameBoy Advance had the NES Classics series, I picked up Metroid and would play from start to finish in one life, about one hour per session. The game was never easy, but definitely gets more manageable with practice and patience.

Also, you don't need every energy tank or every missile to beat the game. The wave beam, though helpful, and ice beam, though nearly necessary in the final areas, are not actually needed as a condition to beat the mother brain either.

Learning the bomb jump trick and getting the Varia suit early is a major boon to Samus before getting to Norfair as well.

If you haven't played Metroid: Zero Mission, the early 2000s remake of Metroid, it is worth checking out for the extra abilities and extra chapter!

[targetrasp]

maybe it's my sense of direction but I stayed lost without a detailed map

[Grindspine]

If you keep playing and exploring, you find the dead ends and impasses. Drawing a simple map can help early in the game. The map added in Super Metroid or Metroid: Zero Mission did make things easier. There is a reason that the entire genre of Metroidvanias is based on Super Metroid.

Also, since Metroid takes place on planet Zebes (same as Super Metroid) there are some passages that get familiar between the two games.

[targetrasp]

Simple... Games like Faxanadu can be completed with a simple map, Metroid gets pretty insane. You've either got a great memory and sense of direction or you really put in some time, either way very admirable.

Still haven't finished it, I actually forgot to go back to it. I got wrapped up in a big change at work.