[Koji]

Started playing the original Metroid in my GBA, FDS version, last night, and I'm up to Kraid after beating Ridley. He's tough, but I think I have an idea on how to kill him now. Why the FDS version, though? Because I admire the sound design in Metroid and I prefer to listen to the original sound effects and what not. The music I still consider to be the best use of the NES sound chip.

There's something funny about the music in Metroid 2, though. In 1, you can listen to it and pretty much understand it as if you were playing the game, but for 2, you really need to be playing the game to grasp its brilliance. Out of the game (as a GBS file, or whatever sound format) it's annoying to listen to, with its short loops and cacophonic sound, but in the game it's masterfully used to enhance every relevant moment, highlighted by the silent sections in between. It's the only game where this has happened to me.

[Koji]

Yes, Famicom Mini version. Can save, it's exactly like the original FDS game, except that here you can also put the Game Boy to sleep, and that the graphics are slightly squashed horizontally. The difference with the NES Classics/Zero Mission version is that you have three save slots, and that by these saves you resume your game from Brinstar instead of the last elevator you took. And the sound thing, of course.

Broco, actually I ended up just killing him with my nearly limitless supply of acquired missiles at point-blank range. And after exploring every inch of the map that was left, I'm mostly certain that I have every missile and energy tank in the game before Tourian. Wait, I think I remember some place I couldn't reach in Norfair... Oh well, anyway, I headed for Tourian and got killed stupidly by a metroid mass-attack. I'll get that Mother Brain tomorrow for sure.

[Koji]

[Koji]

Enemies don't really go through doors, they just go into the inter-room chamber and attack you as you stand there defenseless; then they disappear. It's definitely an issue in the game, but it's only normal in all the rawness that Metroid exhudes, from the graphics to the map design, counting the thousands of bugs.

So I finished the game. It was great. I'll beat it again without collecting any missiles and try to do it as fast as possible, then hopefully I'll get a better ending.

[Koji]

[Koji]

I made maps for the whole game (except Tourian) so I can later do a speedrun of sorts. There was this part in Ridley's lair where you have to find a tiny bombable block in order to cross a wall, and I couldn't figure it out until I found it in a FAQ. So that part I couldn't just chart by myself, and in addition to that there were two energy containers hidden in regular places that I never found, either. In all I think that there were four items that I missed, probably five but no more. Then I beat the game and got a helmet-less Samus, woo. It was fun.

[Koji]