Welcome to Retro Nerd Design Boot Camp, maggot! So you’re just a retro-gaming-console hipster who got a hold of an original copy of Super Mario Bros. and now you think you know everything there is to think to know about Nintendo.
Wrong! Grab your lunchboxes script kiddies, because today we’re marching out of the playground.
Nowadays, you’d be hard pressed to find a gamer unaware of Nintendo’s flagship titles like the Super Mario, Donkey Kong or Legend of Zelda games. But way back in 1986, when all these titles were experiments in an industry just beginning to blossom, a game called Metroid for the NES was released amongst them.
To give you the executive summary, Metroid is quite a decent game in and of itself for the inquisitive and patient gamer. Less patient civilians, on the other hand, will quickly find themselves lost and unaware of what is expected of them when their patrol hits the first T-intersection tunnel of a hostile planet without a morph ball, without a clue, and a bad case of jock itch.
But that will be because, unlike you rookie, those noobs will never be trained to realize that getting lost and exploring are the name of the game in Metroid.
Metroid works as a great case study in the history of the development of modern console gaming, computer gaming and the RPG genre. If you brought your thinkin’ cap and big boy pants; now’s the time.
Due to the limited digital resources available in early gaming console systems, very many early games were quaint, side-scrolling novelties à la Super Mario Bros. that simply encouraged a player to run from left to right through various obstacles to invariably drop a boss and pick up a bad case of Italian blue balls. On the most fundamental level, this is what Metroid is.
Then there is Shigeru Miyamoto. Learn the name. In this boot camp, he is God.
As a child, he grew up in a rural Japanese town called Sonobe. There he would spend his days exploring the countryside and spelunking through caves before running home to momma. Remember, this was before gaming consoles were around, so people had a reason to be outside at the time. Weird, right?
While he did not contribute directly to the development of Metroid, his work on the first Legend of Zelda game dared primitive 8-bit cartridge game designers to offer an open, free-roaming world where the gamer was encouraged to explore and create their own, unique journey to the game’s conclusion.
This is where Metroid diverges from simple, side-scrolling shooters like Mega Man. With a few special items needed to access the progressively more difficult dungeon bosses secluded in their respective corners of the massive, 8-bit tunnel complex, the player is free to wander around and figure things out for themselves with no pesky tutorial dialogue or boot camp training levels.
As such, Metroid has both the linear aspect of modern Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) as well as the open-world feature of modern Western, or computer role playing games (CRPGs).
Additionally, compared to the similarly open Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy NES games, Metroid tends to be more playable to the modern gamer. In contrast to Legend of Zelda, the sprawling complex of Metroid is more compartmentalized, meaning you can’t stumble into the last dungeon first. In contrast to Final Fantasy, Metroid can be played through in one (likely long) sitting without the anxiety of a waiting for the sudden crash or memory wipe you get from playing that dusty NES you found in Nanna’s garage in Fresno. Never. Again.
That said, unless you’re dying to live in the footsteps of our lord and savior Shigeru Miyamoto (peace be unto him), you’re going to need a little guidance. It will take you days, maybe months, to memorize the caverns of the game. To honor the Miyamoto and break down that fourth wall to make Metroid a little more kinesthetic, I suggest at the very least drawing out your own map with notes as you go spelunking.
But with the myriad challenges you’ll face in the game regardless, even your drill sergeant wouldn’t blame you for simply looking up the many maps offered online, printing one out, and strategically charting a course to your eventual victory before setting out. Work smart, not hard.
You can see an example of the map I used to thoroughly enjoy and beat the game below.
On a final note, it should be noted that Metroid also works wonderfully as a case study into the duality of empowered yet objectified female protagonists. However, I enjoy not getting death threats or being DDoS’d, so that’s a debate for another time. When I bother. Which I won’t. So never.
Conclusion:
Metroid for the NES might not be a plebe gamer must, but certainly a retrogaming nerd must.
Dismissed!