Review: Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)
Game Boy, released 26 August 1991.
What is it?
Return of Samus is the second game in the Metroid franchise. It’s set chronologically after the soon-to-be-completed Metroid Prime trilogy, landing right between those and Metroid 3. Samus travels to the planet SR-388 on a mission to kill every metroid there, with the goal of eliminating the threat that these dangerous creatures cause. Intentional destruction of a species is a pretty unsettling theme for a game, but it helped me a little to think of metroids as a kind of virus or parasite that doesn’t hold an important section of the ecosystem under control. Of course, we found out in Metroid 4 that the metroids are critical in controlling another threat, but that’s another review.
How does it play?
The controls in the game are similar to those in the original NES Metroid. Jump is A, shoot is B, select turns on and off missiles. Some of the later additions to the series, like the ability to fire diagonally, are sorely missed in retrospect, and so are stacking beams: you can only have one beam type at a time in this game, and if you want to change you have to hunt down one of two or three rooms throughout the game that hold the powerup, which can be troublesome, though to be fair the only beam you need at one point in the game is available nearby. Most of the base Metroid abilities are available from the beginning of the game, like the morph ball and missiles, but they get upgrades through the game.
Motion has been smoothed out a bit from the NES episode, but jumping still feels unnaturally slow. Mid-air control is certainly satisfactory though, making it feel as if Samus’ suit must have a solid handle on the atmosphere. Navigation in the game is directed by pools of toxic liquid. After you kill all the metroids in an area, there’s an earthquake and the level of the liquid changes (usually dropping), letting you access new areas. As a result, paying close attention to where you’ve been can be very helpful in determining where to go. You’ll need to, because there’s no in-game map. A counter tracks the number of Metroids left to kill, and as you progress the metroids are reaching later and later stages in their lifecycle, becoming uglier, meaner, harder to hit, and more durable.
How does it look and sound?
You’d think the game would fall down here but the visuals are actually better than its predecessor. Despite the lack of color, the sprites are better designed, particularly the player’s sprite, which is tall and well-defined. Animation is lacking however, which is pretty dramatic compared to Metroid 3, for example. I played the game on a front-lit GBA SP (that is to say it’s not the newer “brighter screen” version that’s actually backlit) and it colorized the game in a very simple way, making everything either red or blue. This made enemies easy to see, but in fairness, I don’t think anyone would be playing the game on an original Game Boy nowadays anyway. I periodically turned off the light in the system to see the difference in visuals, and it wasn’t dramatic. The light-on-dark design in the game, which is the opposite of what most games on the platform had, makes for easy viewing even without the light on. The final battle in the game throws a curveball to the GBA’s colorizing system, throwing a distracting effect onto a wall in the room that changes as the final boss moves, but that’s not something the developers could have been considering when they made the game for the original Game Boy.
The audio in the game is a bit more spotty than the visuals. We all know how the Game Boy’s audio is very limited, and this game sounds good considering, but free of conditionals, it’s pretty unpleasant. The music is kept simple, much as in the original, and it does a great job of conveying the mood and reacting to in-game events.
How is the replay value?
Reasonably good. The faster you finish the game, the better your ending. I finished it in under six hours, but from what I’m seeing online you need to finish it in under three to get the best ending. The only reason I was able to finish the game that quickly is through use of a map online. Without that map, and with no in-game map, I could see running around lost for some time being a problem. The game doesn’t hold your hand at all, aside from the simple guidance that inaccessible areas provide. Additionally, without the map some of the energy tanks and missile expansions are going to be very tough to find.
If you haven’t picked up everything, replay value might be pretty good because you can spend time looking for it all. Even if you have, you might enjoy running through the game as fast as possible, trying to get the best ending.
Is it worth it?
The bar to access to this game might be a little high today. First, you need a device that will run the cartridge. That means either a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance or SP, or Game Boy Player on a Gamecube. The DS and the Micro are both incompatible with Game Boy games. Then you need to get the cartridge, which is long out of print. I found mine on eBay, and managed to pick it up, with a plastic clamshell and the manual, under $7 including shipping. Then you need to be the kind of person who’ll enjoy a game that is clearly very old. It’s quite a list of conditions, but if you’re a fan of the franchise and you have the hardware to do so, I’d give it a play. It serves as a great setup for Metroid 3, which is likely to show up on the Virtual Console at some point, and now I feel ready for it. Metroid 3 actually tells how Metroid II ended in its introduction, so it’s pretty critical to the storyline.
I give Metroid II: Return of Samus four out of five.
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Confusing, just confusing. This is the game that follows the not-yet released finish to the trilogy.
So how can it be a trilogy if there is a fourth installment? And how can you get the fourth game before the third?
A trilogy is a beginning, middle and end. That simple. Anything more and it’s no longer a trilogy.
Quit milking it people!
Brent Kailbourn:
Metroid is the Series. Within the series there exists a trilogy called Metroid PRIME.
To make things clear:
-Metroid
-The Metroid Prime Trilogy (Prime, Echoes, Corruption)
-Metroid 2: Return of Samus.
The Prime Trilogy originates on the GameCube. Metroid 2 on the original Gameboy. Therefore, the Prime Trilogy isn’t finished yet, while the 4th chronological game has been out for over 10 years.
Well done, melgo.
There has been a great deal of retconning in metroid.
It used to be metroid, metroid 2, metroid 3, metroid 4.
But then they made metroid prime, which takes place between metroid 1 and mretoid 2. So then they remade metroid 1 but renamed it metroid zero.
So now metroid one is metroid zero, metroid prime is metroid one, and so on.
Not exactly, Uberdave. The remake of Metroid is called Metroid: Zero Mission. If you think of “Zero” in the same sense as “patient zero,” the meaning being “origin” rather than “before one,” I think you’re getting the idea. This is different from things like Resident Evil 0, so it makes it a little weird. During the M:ZM introduction, Samus’ journal entry says something like “finally the story can be told of my zero mission.” It’s the first mission that Samus undertook as a bounty hunter, if I were to guess. It’s unclear if her military experience (mentioned in Metroid 4) takes place before she becomes a bounty hunter, but I would imagine so. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be something if they made a “tactics” game in the franchise taking place before she became a bounty hunter?
You might also consider zero the way it appears on mathematical axes: it is the origin.
I started playing this, but those monochrome games just can’t hold my attention. The lack of any real direction like you find in the GBA Metroids make me even less likely to complete the game. Sure, you have to do more exploration when you don’t know where to go, but an original game boy game isn’t exactly the kind of game I prefer to explore in.
Guess I’m spoiled.
I found the controls for Metroid II more similar to Super Metroid than to the NES Metroid. The difference, IMO, is quite a leap ahead.
What is this “Metroid 3″ you speak of? There was _never_ a Metroid game released with that title.
Brinstar, “Super Metroid” is Metroid 3. Watch the opening sequence.
Here is the text, in red on black:
1994; NINTENDO PRESENTS; METROID 3
Then the camera pans out, showing the lab with the hatchling in its jar on the title screen, which says “Super Metroid” at the top.
They did the thing in Metroid 4, or Metroid Fusion.
True, it’s in the opening sequence, however the popularly accepted title, and the title which is in most games databases (whether it is fan or official), for Super Metroid is Super Metroid. If you Google “Metroid 3″, hoping to find out about Super Metroid, you’ll be disappointed as the vast majority of items found are for Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
I am all for being technically correct, but I think you’re just muddying the waters by using a more obscure title rather than the one that’s more historically accepted.
OK Brinstar, I can respect your thoughts on that. My so casually calling it “Metroid 3″ might have something to do with how little experience I have with the game. I’ve played only a couple of emulated minutes of the game, compared to some who actually played it when it came out on the SNES and have that deep connection. I’m waiting for it to come out on the VC so I can play it.
http://www.aeropause.com/archives/2006/12/my_virtual_cons/
I also have a kind of wariness over so many games on the platform starting with “Super”. How lame was that. Kind of like how everything on N64 ended with 64. Please.
I dunno, every hardcore Metroid fan I know refers to Super as “Metroid 3″. Prime is considered a side series, so they can go right ahead and make a prime 3, 300, or 3,000, but we’ll still call the real Metroid 3 Metroid 3, thank you very much.
I’m happy that some people are not such victims of the hype machine that they can go back and appreciate Metroid 2, as it’s got a nice vibe to it, the whole bleak descent into the abyss thing, the extremely minimal music (bashed by some, but praised as very effective by others) and of course a certain section leading up to the end which is beyond creepy.
M2 is the most “airborne” of the Metroids… you are in the air, or rolling on a ceiling through 90% of the game, very unusual.
Von Richter, you’re right about the airborne thing. I had a couple of somewhat dizzy moments in the game where I bopped into something unfriendly while spider-balling across the ceiling of a huge cavern, and got to experience the joy of plummeting helplessly downward and trying to estimate where I’d land on the floor below. Plenty of time to plan the return to the ceiling.
hey Melgo…
metroid 4 is not out for over 10 years it’s stange that nobody tell you about that. It was out on 2002 on game boy advance. I don’t know where you live but i don’t even think that you could have a earlier version before it was out 5 years early.
paradoxreal8, Melgo wasn’t talking about Metroid Fusion, that’s not the 4th chronological game. Chronologically, as of right now, the 4th game in the franchise maps out as Metroid Prime 2, but Melgo meant Metroid II: Return of Samus. He was probably excluding Hunters from his timeline.
Ohhh yeeaaahhh
the game is so cool even in this days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. i own 3 copies of them just because is a very good game and provide hours of fun, but cold you tellme where do you find the online map??? i was doing one by myself, but is not very accurate thus i don