Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

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.