Top 50 Video Games: Number 23

#23: Super Metroid
System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: 1994
Players: 1


This filthy bastard is stealing the last metroid larva. And you know what that means: Ridley has cashed his check.


Super Metroid does it all. It uses largely the same formula as the original NES Metroid and improves upon it in every way. The original NES game featured our hero - intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran - in his cool space suit with a gun for an arm roaming the planet Zebes looking to destroy the Metroids before the evil space pirates can unleash them on the rest of the universe. It was the qunitessential NES action adventure game. It also had one of the biggest surpirse endings we'd ever gotten in a video game at the time - Samus is a woman! If you input the code JUSTIN BAILEY at the beginning you'll be able to play through the game as Samus without her space suit.

The SNES sequel sees Samus return to the planet Zebes, again after the space pirates. They've stolen the last metroid larva in the galaxy and it's up to you to stop them. Samus begins with only a basic gun weapon and must make her way through the twisting labryinth that is Zebes. Along the way you'll find powerups which will allow access to new areas which will in turn have new powerups and so on. Each new weapon or powerup gives you a true sense of becoming stronger, much like gaining an experience level in D&D. The atmosphere has been masterfully created. The look and sound really give the feeling of the vastness and melancholy of being alone on an alien planet. Again the makers of Metroid decided against having individual levels in the game and made Zebes a huge, open world to play in. Thankfully there's an in-game map unlike in the original game.


Most respectable games have an area where you have to shoot giant bugs. Super Metroid is no exception.


When I first got Super Metroid, Tom and I spent the entire weekend playing the game, passing the controller back and forth until we finished it. There's a part of the game where you run through a glass tube. We were stuck and Tom suggested that we try to blow up the glass tube like in the movie Jaws. And it worked. It was nuts. Ka-BOOM! I simply cannot say enough good things about the Metroid series. Now that I've gotten a bit more acquainted with first person style games, it might be time to finally pick up the universally loved Metroid Prime for the Nintendo Gamecube. The Metroid series has seen releases on every Nintendo console including 2 on the Gamecube and 3 for the Gameboy. This really is one of my alltime favorites, and I'm thinking about emailing myself and calling me an asshole for not ranking it higher.