Metroid was so cool. It was unique and fun, and it brought a new genre to the table that would be replicated for the next couple of decades to follow. It's hard to imagine these days, but back then in 1986, there wasn't a myriad of different game genres and adventures to get into. The NES hadn't even been out for a year yet, and most of the games that had been released were either arcade ports of classic arcade games, or platformers and shooters. Then Metroid came along. So exciting and fresh - a stand out in the NES library for sure. It spawned a franchise that would have many beloved games in the future. Some Metroid installments stand among the best video games ever made! Metroid Prime is considered to be one of the greatest first person shooters ever to be released, Metroid Fusion is critically acclaimed for being one of the best that the Game Boy Advance had to offer, and Super Metroid is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time. Before all of that though, there were two: the first Metroid, and it's sequel, Metroid 2: The Return of Samus.

Metroid 2 was released on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991, five years after critics had worshiped the original for being an atmospheric adventure game. It received mixed reviews. Some said it was the better of the two that had come out at that time, but others said it paled in comparison to the original with inferior sound, visuals and gameplay. To me, Metroid 2 is superior. By adding several features that would eventually become staples of the Metroid franchise, Metroid 2 offers an innovative experience that soars above the original in almost every way possible. This title in the franchise certainly has a mixed reception, but I think that many good design choices make it even better than what the first had to offer.

(A little note: remember that my experience of this game was on the Super Game Boy - not an actual handheld. The Super Game Boy was released in 1994, and it was a way to play Game Boy games on a Super Nintendo. It made enhancements to particular games in the sound department, as well as visuals. It can play all games on the Game Boy, but none on the Game Boy Color. I'm saying this because it may have affected my experience of this game in a positive way - perhaps I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much if I was playing on a Game Boy because I prefer playing video games on a TV over a handheld or a PC.)

Many don't like how this game is a little more linear than the average Metroid exploration platformer, but I like this slightly more linear approach. It gives the player a sense of direction and makes it so that the objective of the game is clear - destroy every Metroid. I don't think this game would have worked as well if there were more non linear sections. Since it's a Game Boy game, the screen is obviously quite small. If there were more non linear sections, navigating them all would be impossible. Big, huge areas don't often work in a Game Boy game, which is why there aren't a whole lot of them in Metroid 2. In the few instances where I did come across a giant area, I always inspected the whole place from corner to corner using the new Spider Ball and Space Jump. If I had to do that for the whole game, it would get really tedious towards the end. Separating this game into different sections by blocking off passages with deadly acid makes this game more streamline, but I don't mind it because of the way this game is designed. It's also not even true. Sure, this game has some linear parts, but certain areas split off into multiple different pathways. I can remember several times in my first playthrough of the game where I had to go back and check each part of Zebes because I wasn't sure if I had missed a path or a Metroid. Maybe my Metroid mindset is conditioning me to revisit every area and bomb every wall, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that if I were playing a fully linear game. Metroid 2 is partially linear, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Perhaps I don't want to use the Spider Ball and Space Jump to examine every single solitary tile in the whole game for secrets on a system where the screen is smaller than Mini Me.

Speaking of the Spider Ball and Space Jump, the new power ups in this game are extremely creative - a few of which would become icons of the series. I can't count how many times I used the Spring Ball and the Spider Ball, and the others are just as good. The High Jump allows Samus to reach ledges that were at first too high, and the Space Jump allows for infinite jumping. The Varia Suit makes Samus even more powerful than she once was, and allows her to endure harsh conditions. There are also some cool blaster upgrades. On top of the returning Freeze Beam and Wave Beam, this game features the Spazer, which shoots three lasers at once, and the Plasma Beam, which shoots one longer, more powerful laser. All of these new power ups are fantastic, and they all add a new dimension to exploring, which is what the series is known for.





More importantly, the game's atmosphere is just better. The complex ecosystem of SR3-88 makes for some unique enemies to fight and the visuals are great - especially on the Super Game Boy. If you were to ask me which one I'd associate with Metroid more between the original and it's sequel, I'd go with Metroid 2. It's scarier and more suspenseful. Never before had a Game Boy game actually made me jump out of my seat, but Metroid 2 managed to do that. Near the end of the game, when there are only six Metroids on the counter, you come across the first evolution of the Metroid species, the Alpha Metroid. Having 200 missiles in my arsenal, I dispatched him in no time, thinking to myself, "that's it?". I heard the shaking of the ground and I thought the acid that blocks you from certain parts of the game had gone further back, so I went back down from where I was, only to find that the deadly acid had moved up instead and I was trapped. I decided to go for a circle around the area I'd just gone through, checking every tile for secrets and pathways, but found nothing. Then I approached the room that the Metroid was in. Silence. I stepped further. Silence. I thought I was safe, so I continued on. Bad idea. Right out of nowhere, the boss theme started playing, and an Omega Metroid, the fourth evolution of the Metroid species started chasing me faster than I could react. I immediately launched out of my seat in shock and stared in awe for about 10 seconds. A Game Boy game had just made me jump out of my seat. The Omega Metroid looks like this:

Omega Metroid Battle

One of the best improvements made to this game is the inclusion of full health and missile refill stations. In the original, when you were low on health you'd have to grind on enemies because dying resulted in the player respawning with only 30 health points. This slowed the game down to a halt and utterly killed the pace. In the sequel, there are certain areas where the player can fully replenish all health instantly. This is amazing. You could argue that they were spread far apart, but at least they're there, and it's certainly better than grinding for twenty minutes. The missile refills are also really helpful because of how many missiles you'll have to unload on Metroids throughout the game. It's nice to have this convenience, and it makes the game a whole lot more playable than the first. Probably the best of this game's new features.





Super Metroid introduced a new idea to the franchise when it was released: having more than one weapon. It was a cool idea that allowed for some neat combinations, like having a Spazer that freezes enemies. While Metroid 2 didn't have this, it still handled weapons much better than the first game did. In the original, where the Space Jump and the Spider Ball didn't exist, getting really high often involved freezing multiple enemies and jumping on top of them to new areas. The problem is that after the Wave Beam is obtained, you can no longer freeze enemies. This meant that if you wanted to go back to those really high areas, you'd have to backtrack to a whole different zone just to find the Freeze Beam again. It resulted in me having to do a lot of 'back and forth' between the place that had the Freeze Beam and the place that had the Wave Beam, and because the areas are so confusing in Metroid, that simple task is still absurdly difficult to do. The level design in the first installment didn't have a whole lot of intentionality to it. Some of the rooms had no purpose, and so many of them repeated multiple times. I can remember specific rooms in the game that were used up to five times! It made the relatively simple task of going from point A to B very boring, so getting the Freeze Beam again normally took an insanely long time. This was better in the sequel for multiple reasons: 1. There weren't really any areas that required a specific weapon except for a part at the end of the game. 2. Exploring areas and getting to higher platforms didn't involve having the Freeze Beam. 3. More importantly, there's a room near the end of the game that has all the main weapons (the Freeze Beam, Wave Beam, Spazer, and Plasma Beam). That's is so much better than the flawed design of the first game. This, as well as the save feature and multiple other neat aspects, make Metroid 2 a better game than the original to me.

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