The miNEStry: An NES Podcast
The miNEStry founders, Archbishop Dracul and Father Avram, seek to inspire their 8-bit parishioners through methodical and ceremonial scrutiny of the library of games on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The miNEStry: An NES Podcast
"Metroid"
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Tonight’s game needs no introduction, but will get one anyway - “Metroid”. Released as one of two entries in Nintendo’s Adventure Series on the NES (with the other being Kid Icarus), Metroid was initially released on the Famicom Disk System in 1986, then in North America in August of 1987 and later in Europe in January of 1988.
Originally known in development as Space Hunter, Metroid - being a play on words of metro and android, was developed by both Nintendo’s R&D1 team and Intelligent Systems Inc.
The pair was responsible for creating such games as Gyromite, Stack Up, Duck Hunt, Hogan’s Alley and Wild Gunman.
The miNEStry founders, Archbishop Dracul and Father Avram, seek to inspire their 8-bit parishioners through methodical and ceremonial scrutiny of the library of games on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Free audio post production by alphonic dot com.
SPEAKER_05Good evening and welcome to the ministry. I am Archbishop Dracoul, and alongside me is Father Avram. Our creed is to inspire our parishioners with reflections on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Tonight's game needs no introduction, but we'll get one anyway. Metroid. Released as one of two entries in the Nintendo's adventure series on the NES, with the other being Kid Icarus, Metroid was initially released on the Famicom disc system in 1986, then in North America in August of 1987, and later in Europe in January of 1988. Originally known in development as Space Hunter, Metroid, being a play on words of Metro and Android, was developed by both Nintendo's RD1 team and Intelligence Systems Incorporated. The pair was responsible for creating such games as Gyromite, Zackup, Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, and Wild Gunman. Interesting how they were responsible for peripheral-based games for the most part. Anyway, tonight we are joined by Father Jeff Gabor.
SPEAKER_03Oh, the promotion.
SPEAKER_05Welcome and congrats on the promotion.
SPEAKER_03Thank you, thank you. I am happy to be back. And this is a good one to be back with. Metroid. I'm excited. When do I get my promotion?
SPEAKER_05You still have to pick turnips, Father Avram.
SPEAKER_04Son of a bitch.
SPEAKER_05I just want to put this out there that this is my all-time favorite NES game. So I'm gonna be completely biased, and it'll be up to you, gentlemen, to balance me out. Oh, that's no problem.
SPEAKER_03Challenge accepted.
SPEAKER_04A testament to the creators. Maseo Yamamoto was the director of Metroid. He uh was also the programmer, interestingly enough, for Super Mario Land in uh for the Game Boy in 1989, which happens to actually be one of the only Super Mario games that I got hooked on as a kid. I had that one and I played it all the time. Then he became the director of Yoshi's Cookie in 1992 for the NES. Great game. Yep, that's a great one as well. Yeah, for sure. Um Mario's Tennis. He was the director for that one, for the Virtual Boy in 1995. Do you remember the Virtual Boy? I remember the first time. Yeah, it's back. It's back with the Switch too. Go grab it. I I remember the first time I looked in there and saw it, it was some sort of flying game. I'm not sure what was in there, but I remember seeing that and I was like, this is the future. Little did I know that how true that actually was, but although it wasn't really VR. It wasn't. No, it was just a screen, which is funny.
SPEAKER_05You know, you're probably playing uh Waterworld. It's like what AVGN says, it's like puking on a pile of shit.
SPEAKER_04Oh man. No, I just remember seeing these like 3D grids, and you could like turn them and and like you were a ship flying around.
SPEAKER_05Um not sure what that what game that was.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was weird. I'd I'd uh I couldn't tell you.
SPEAKER_03But anyway, somebody's yelling at the podcast right now. They definitely know what it is.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, if you know what it is, please please comment. Okay, so we have I really hope I pronounced this correctly, Gunpai Yokoi. Yeah, that's good. He was the producer for Metroid, and he also produced some other games, including none other than Donkey Kong, the original arcade version, that is, in 1982. Iconic, of course. He was the producer for Mario Bros. The original arcade game in 1983, again, iconic. And then, uh, as I mentioned before, one of my favorites on the Game Boy, Super Mario Land, in 1989. Makoto Kano was the writer for Metroid. He was the designer for Urban Champion for the NES in 1984. He was also in the same year the designer for Wild Gunman for the NES. He was a designer for the uh NES Stack Up in 1985. And Wrecking Crew, he was in charge of art and graphics in 1985. So he's doing a lot of double duty there between in the same years. Uh pretty cool. And then he also finally, um not finally, I'm sure he did other things, but worth mentioning here, he did art and graphics uh for the NES 1986 Kid Icarus.
SPEAKER_05The graphics in Kid Icarus are fantastic.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_05I think I think I think we actually gave it the the talisman of absolution for graphics.
SPEAKER_04Yes, it's it's really good. It's really good. Nothing nothing really bad to say about it except for you know not to do with the art, but I hate falling through the platforms. But anyway, but you know, that's moving on. So I have a list of people here that were in charge of programming, and it looks like they must have been a tag team programming uh crew because they are on all of these games that I'm gonna mention, but first the names. Hiroyuki Yukami, Yase Sobojima, Toshio Senguku, N Shiotani, M Hudai, though that's the uh five team, five-person team there. And they also worked on Hogan's Alley in 1984 for the NES, Wrecking Crew in 1985 for the NES, Wario's Woods in 1994 for the NES, Doubledare, 1990 for the NES. Ugh that was a fail. Ivan Ironman Stewart's Super Off-Road. I don't remember why Oh, I do remember that game. That was in 1990 for the NES. Took me a minute to remember that one.
SPEAKER_05How good was Wario's Woods? Seriously. That game is so fun. Especially if you have two players. Highly recommend it. I think it was the last one.
SPEAKER_06Like the last game? Like the last NES release. Wow. Proceed, Father Aaron.
SPEAKER_04Alright, we have another three-person team for character design that uh also get accredited for this list. First, the names. Hiroshi Kiyotaki, Hirofumi Matsuoka, Yoshio Sakamoto. So they are accredited for uh Metroid 2, Return of Samus in 1991 for the Game Boy. That actually has some pretty damn impressive graphics if you haven't seen it. Um they were they were graphic designer for that.
SPEAKER_05I was saying I was telling somebody today they were playing the Kid Icarus, I was watching someone play the Kid Icarus uh Game Boy game. I was like amazed at how much they were able to do with the Game Boy when it during that time that it came out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it was surprising. It was surprising some of the games they were able to push out on that system for sure. This one's surprising to me because uh I mean this this game is nostalgically close to my heart, but they were also graphic designers for Mario Paint in 1992 for the SNES.
SPEAKER_05Mario Paint is so much fun. So good.
SPEAKER_04And another another banger here, Super Metroid. They were the Samus original designer and slash director in 1994 for the SNES. Super Metroid is another one that has fantastic graphics.
SPEAKER_06Yep. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Uh Metroid Fusion. There must be a typo here because it says chief director, but they couldn't have all been chief director. Not sure which one of them was, but one of them was chief director for Metroid Fusion in 2002 for the Game Boy Advance.
SPEAKER_05How I set up the list was, you know, here's the people, and these are the games they worked on collectively. I see.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So either way, you know, the the I mean, I've I've actually never played Metroid Fusion. I don't know if either one of you have.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I just did a playthrough of it a week ago. Like oh, nice. So good. So good. I think it was released uh basically around or almost identically at the same time as Metroid Prime was. It was like the backup, like, oh Metroid Prime doesn't go so well. This will, you know, at least we still got Samus in 2D. And man, it is so good. It's so good. It continues the storylines and everything. Man, the Game Boy Advance is like my number one system that I am like finding in like retrospect. Like, I did not play it at all, and just fighting it because of the you know, the Switch has all the games on there, and man, yeah, it's just great game after great game.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, there's so many good games on the Game Boy Advance. My my favorite being the Minish Cap.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, great game. Even the IP games weren't that bad. Like, I I played Nightmare Before Christmas, and it was actually really good.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right. It it at first you're like, is this a fan-made game that just shows a lot of love? It's like, no, this is an actual release. I had no, I did not know anything about it. Yeah, it's quite quite impressive.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. So uh I'm guessing that uh not only with the developers, but also whoever was in charge of reviewing the games that were being uh released for the GBA, that that's uh a win for them too. Because yeah, I haven't found a one that I can really say like this is just bad. Every single Game Boy Advance game I play is like oh, this is pretty good.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_04Okay, here we go. Hirokazu Tanaka was in charge of the music for Metroid. Legend. Legend indeed. But he was also credited for for many other games, including, but not limited to Balloon Fight in nineteen eighty-five for the NES. Uh, which is pretty wild. Uh he was in charge of Kid Igorus, we mentioned that earlier, uh, uh, in nineteen eighty-six for the NES. Again, uncredited sound composer here for the NES in nineteen eighty nine. Staff for Mario Paint uh for the SNES in nineteen ninety-two. And the music in Mario Paint, by the way, is like I will never forget it.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_04That is like ingrained in my brain for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right down to all the sound effects, too. Yeah. Fantastic, all around.
SPEAKER_04He was the sound director, a sound programmer, and in charge of music for Earthbound for the SNES in nineteen ninety-four. That's a win as well. Yes, seriously. These are these are actually in the credits of the game.
SPEAKER_05Oh, sp oh, you're totally right. In a twenty sixteen interview, Yoshio Sakamoto and Hiroji Kiyokake said that they credited these restaurants because they ordered food from them all the time during development.
SPEAKER_04So the the restaurants listed here that the staff has given special thanks to uh there's three restaurants.
SPEAKER_06They are Toryu, Mako, and Ben Kai. Yeah, unfortunately, I think they're all closed now too. I mean that's a long time.
SPEAKER_03It's forty years ago, right? So forty years. Yeah. This is its fortieth anniversary. Isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_05Let's discuss marketing. This game came out in 1986, and marketing was in its infancy for video games, specifically for the NES during that time. I remember the official Nintendo Players Guide having a big sprawling map of this game. A reading from the official Nintendo Players Guide. Your next mission destroy the mother brain. A terrible incident that takes place in the year 2005. Interesting. A cosmic warrior, Samus, must find ten different items. Then he will have to destroy the mother brain. Located in the center of the fortress planet ZBs. A reading from the official Nintendo players guide.
SPEAKER_04Praise be Nintendo.
SPEAKER_05There were a couple commercials.
SPEAKER_04Can I say something about the commercials? The commercials are fantastic. They are these composited videos that they like. Oh, they're full Power Ranger.
SPEAKER_05That's Power Ranger all the way. It is so amazing.
SPEAKER_04Uh the the American ones, I think that they're they're actually not as impressive as the uh as the Famicom one.
SPEAKER_01The challenge is Metroid, the power is Nintendo. Defend the planet's deepest against the evil mother brain. It's survival or destruction. Do battle or die. Metroid only from Nintendo.
SPEAKER_05Well, we can argue the same thing about that that happened with uh Dragon Spirit, remember?
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, Dragon Spirit had a fantastic commercial, and then the American release came out, and it was like, what the hell is this?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like the it's just just this kid in a white suit.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I will say though, the North American release of the Matroid commercial was much better than the Dragon Spirit North American commercial. Oh man, because that was that was just painful. Those we didn't it's like they just hired somebody to stand there and say positive things. Yeah. If you uh go back and listen, you'll find that we uh go into great detail about that. But this this one, at least they actually you can tell it's made for Metroid, I think.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and and well it was made for Metroid and Rad Racer, which came out around the same time. Along with Kid Icarus and Zelda, actually, in the in the North America. It's all around that same time these games came out. Man, what a what a juggernaut of games, huh? Yeah, seriously. Eating good. Let us now discuss the seven categories for which we execute judgment on Metroid. Category one is the narrative.
SPEAKER_04A reading from the manual. The Metroid Story. In the year 2000 of the history of the cosmos, representatives from the many different planets in the galaxy established a Congress called the Galactic Federation, and an age of prosperity began. A successful exchange of cultures and civilization resulted, and thousands of interstellar spaceships ferried back and forth between planets. But space pirates also appeared to attack the spaceships. The Federation Bureau created the Galactic Federation Police, but the pirates' attacks were powerful, and it was not easy to catch them in the vastness of space. The Federation Bureau and the Federation Police called together warriors, known for their great courage, and sent them to do battle with the pirates. These great warriors were called space hunters. They received large rewards when they captured pirates and made their living as space bounty hunters. It is now year 20x5 of the history of the cosmos, and something terrible has happened. Space pirates have attacked a deep space research spaceship and seized a capsule containing an unknown lifeform that had just been discovered on Planet SR388. This lifeform is in a state of suspended animation, but can be reactivated and will multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours. It is suspected that the entire civilization of Planet SR388 was destroyed by some unknown person or thing, and there is a strong possibility that the life form just discovered was the cause of the planet's destruction. To carelessly let it multiply would be extremely dangerous. The Federation researchers had named it Metroid and were bringing it back to Earth when it was stolen by the Space Pirates. If Metroid is multiplied by the Space Pirates and then used as a weapon, the entire galactic civilization will be destroyed. After a desperate search, the Federation Police have at last found the pirates' headquarters, the Fortress Planet Zebies, and launched a general attack. But the pirates' resistance is strong. And the police have been unable to take the planet. Meanwhile, in a room hidden deep within the center of the fortress, the preparations for multiplying the Metroid are progressing steadily. As a last resort, the Federation Police have decided on this strategy to send a space hunter to penetrate the center of the fortress and destroy the mother brain. The space hunter chosen for this mission is Samus Aron. He is the greatest of all the space hunters and has successfully completed numerous missions that everybody thought were absolutely impossible. He is a cyborg. His entire body has been surgically strengthened with robotics, giving him superpowers. Even the space pirates fear his spacesuit, which can absorb any enemy's power. But his true form is shrouded in mystery. The planet Zebies is a natural fortress. Its sides are covered with a special kind of stone, and its interior is a complicated maze. On top of that, the pirates have planted devices and booby traps in the maze, and the pirate's eerie followers lie in wait around every corner. Samus has now succeeded in penetrating ZBs. But time is running out. Will he be able to destroy the Metroid and save the galaxy? This is a reading from the manual.
SPEAKER_05Praise be Temple. The second reading is actually if you let the title screen roll, a urgent emergency order will show up on the screen. And I love it. A reading from the story screen. Emergency order. Defeat the Metroid of the planet Zebith. And destroy the mother brain with the mechanical life vein. Galaxy Federation Police M510. This is a reading from the story screen. I have never played a Nintendo game that had this much backstory, I would say. It's a lot. I mean Deadly Towers comes to mind. And Kid Icarus comes to mind as far as like really robust stories, but this one like is it they go they really go back into the lore of the history of the of this universe they're creating.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and a lot of times I feel like these games they end up having a lot of this story or backstory to basically fill out the game that can't really live up to that promise. But in in the case of Metroid, they actually deliver on this. Like this is the story, and then you jump into this world. Like it's it's impressive.
SPEAKER_04And uh I I definitely agree. I I think what always confused me about reading it when I was a kid, when I heard the words space pirates, my brain automatically came up with other visuals of what that means. And so in my mind, playing through Metroid, you never actually fight a damn space pirate. Although in it, you know, looking at it in hindsight, I realize that the bosses are, I think, are the space pirates.
SPEAKER_06Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um but it's just it's just an interesting thing because I because I always saw them as like creatures.
SPEAKER_03You're right. Like the idea that they feel more like creatures is like dead on. Like I don't see how they're like these thinking creatures or thinking animals that are actually going around and like stealing items and can be spoken with a high level of language and articulating spacecrafts and stuff. That part's a bit of a stretch. With it's just speaking of their designs.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean that's sort of what I'm getting at, is that they're trying to portray, you know, I think the bosses, and there's a there's a blurry line between what the space pirate is and what their, as the story quotes, their eerie followers are. But it's almost kind of like I I don't know. I always saw them as just these dangerous creatures that inhabited the planet Zebeth that you had to navigate your way through. But now, you know, when you try to pair the story up with it, they're they're space pirates. Okay, I guess. They didn't seem, like you said, they didn't seem very sentient to me. They didn't seem like they I mean, you know, you have Craid who's who's a walking turd, and um, you know, he can barely lift his hands. I don't know if he can steal anything really, but um, you know, and then the only person that seems to have any kind of uh mobility really would be uh would be Ridley.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's interesting. I you guys didn't play Zero Mission, right? Where it's that they they redid the game for the game by Game Boy Advance. I didn't know it was really cool because they they kind of addressed that sort of like space pirate thing and they put a cutscene showing Ridley literally navigating and flying a ship. Oh really cool, and you it's totally buyable. Uh they didn't do that with Craid. Craig's just a monster. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh trade is like uh job of the hut, you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but it definitely it was really cool seeing the cutscene there. It's like, alright, I buy it now. I I do see the pirate stuff. That's cool.
SPEAKER_05In that same interview I mentioned earlier with the restaurants, Hiroji Kiyotake was a huge football fan. Football in the sense of you know North American soccer, however you want to say it. Uh and he wanted to name the main character after Pele, the king of football. And uh he mistook Pele's real name for Samus Arantes Nascamentos. And Pele's real name is, however, Edson Arantes Doe Nascimento. So he got Arantes right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but basically he completely butchered it and then named his whole character after it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Whoops.
SPEAKER_05That brings up another interesting thing about Samus is that it's all common knowledge now. There's no spoiler alerts. You we all know Samus is a woman. And but back then nobody had any idea. I didn't have a fucking clue. I played for I played this game, it took me three months to beat it. And I got to the end, and I think I got the the ending where she's in a leotard and I was completely blown away. I was like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I've been playing as a woman this whole time. And I I wasn't mad or anything, it just surprised me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It was really like it was really like a twist, you know?
SPEAKER_03I know. I love talking about it because it it, you know, we were actually there, so we can actually do first hand account of what that was like. And I I do remember the kid down the street, like I still remember his name was Brian, and he he was came screaming down the street saying that he had just beaten Mother Brain and that Metroid is a girl, and it was like so cool. Like yeah, it was it was an experience, like it's just it's that playground stuff again that was that made the Nintendo so special, and that moment just like lives in infamy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and like there's no twists like that in games anymore because they're all spoiled.
SPEAKER_03It's a product of its time, like you know, a female protagonist isn't exactly like gonna make waves anymore, but back then it just it it's not like there were no female protagonists in movies or anything like that, but it was just this game was portrayed as you're this a manly man the whole time, so it became it it just was a twist.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean they did use the pronouns he and him when discussing Samus in the manual and the marketing stuff.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I tend to agree, like maybe it was a last-minute decision. Like they're like, okay, well, we have the ending, and then they're like, we can't just end like this.
SPEAKER_03Like how I agree. I don't I don't think this was planned very early on at all.
SPEAKER_05No, it wasn't. In that interview, they actually said that they had like a big discussion, and everybody's like, What could we do to like really shock everybody? And they're like, Oh, maybe we should make make same as a girl, and like, yeah, let's do that. Yeah, yeah. It was definitely not an early decision.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, though I I think that makes sense. That definitely makes sense. Although you look back at like some of like the run animations and stuff, and suddenly it kind of makes sense.
SPEAKER_03I know, right? It's I don't know how it does work though, like it does feel more feminine, yeah. Like knowing that's hindsight, but yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05I'm sure that's a happy accident, but yeah, it it could be like a Mandela effect sort of thing, too.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it could be also though, you have to think about it, like how hard would it have been to change, I don't know what the four frames of animation. Plus, it's true, they had to add a whole bunch of other stuff to it anyway, because you can play the whole game in the various suits. So it's definitely possible that they came up with this and then edited the mission suit.
SPEAKER_03No, that's a great point because yeah, because it's not just a palette swap, it's an entire sprite swap to be you know to show, you know, Samus. Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_05Let's proceed to category two, which is audio. What is there to be said that hasn't already been said about this game?
SPEAKER_03I don't I legitimately, as much as people talk about the soundtrack, I still think the Metroid soundtrack's underrated. It is so atmospheric and so simple uh and iconic. I can't get enough of it, and it just feels like people don't bring it up enough when because I I mean when yeah, when you compare it to how deep the the music is on like Mega Man or something, yeah, it doesn't it doesn't seem like it would stand up, but I it's so simple and beautiful, and man, I I seriously, seriously think it's one of the best soundtracks on the entire system.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And and each area has its own iconic theme. You know, there's like uh it's almost like like Mega Man, how you have like that iconic music that plays based on what level you're in. It's the same sort of thing. And like you said, it's it's very atmospheric for an NES game.
SPEAKER_04So I'd like to say a couple of things about the about the the soundtrack. So the first one is I I agree with what you guys are saying. I think it is underrated, especially in today's dialogue regarding soundtracks and stuff. I think it it's kind of looked over. It's like, oh yeah, well, we all know Metroid's great. Okay, moving on. But I don't think it's really analyzed properly. If you look at a lot of the inspiration of the fact that they made Samus into a woman, now she's a female protagonist, much like uh Ripley and in Alien. You know, there's also the idea here. I'm gonna touch on Alien a little bit because Alien's a horror uh movie, and a lot of people think of Aliens, but that's more of an action movie. But Alien, the original, is really a horror movie. And if you actually listen to this music through that lens, most of it is creepy as shit. It it really comes off that way right off the get-go, as soon as you hit the power button. Um, opening theme is really menacing. But you get this eerie vibe throughout the entire thing. Now I'm gonna say something against it. Some of the tracks are way too repetitive. Like when you're in you're in a in an area like it gets burned.
SPEAKER_05Are you talking about Norfair, the the purple bubbles area?
SPEAKER_04Yep, that's one of them. Crate is another one. Crate is crate is pretty repetitive. It's just it's just that that whole like that whole waltz that it plays around is very uh very interesting. But now I'm gonna say something for it now. Um huge, huge, huge proponent of the track that plays while you are escaping out of the mother brain, I don't know, hatch, I guess you could say.
SPEAKER_05You're going up the chute, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you're going up the chute. Even as a kid, I picked up on it. Where it's like, to me, when I hear that track, what I hear is like, oh my god, yes, we won. I gotta get the hell out of here, but we won. It's okay, even if I don't make it, we won. That's what comes across in in the track to me. Um, and and it hits hard when you actually listen to it uh with those with those glasses on, right? It's like, man, like they hit the notes here. You know, they hit the notes that are really like what possibly would be going through somebody's head in Samus position, right? And somebody who was as heroic as Samus. So, I don't know. I think it's I think it's a great track. I think it has a couple of flops. Um, not flops, but there's a couple of tracks that I feel like could have been could have been better. Purple, the the the purple bubbles area is definitely one of them. Sure, yeah. But all in all, fantastic track. If you haven't listened to it for the sake of listening to music as video game music, you need to. And just think about it. Just muse on it for a bit, because it is absolutely, I would say, uh, a masterpiece of uh of video game music. You want to listen to the whole soundtrack, really, but I mean it with with the with the idea of like uh of like listening to it for music's sake, but specifically the escape song at the end, yes, that's the one I was talking about where you know it just hit hits all the emotional notes, and it's it's very easy to hear all that in the composition.
SPEAKER_05What about the sound effects? What do we think about that?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I love the screw attack sound effect. Yeah. It's so good.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it's so wonderful.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, the little shooting. Just I like the missiles and like the I love the bombs.
SPEAKER_05That's my favorite.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, there's there's actually that not that many in this game to really like to list off, but they're all great.
SPEAKER_04So how about that low life sound effect?
SPEAKER_03Oh, well, that there's ding on that. That is terrible. This has got the same like Zelda 2 and all that, and Zelda, like just like, come on, alright, I get that my life's low. You don't need to uh do a truck backing up the entire time.
SPEAKER_04If it was a slower beep, it would have been better, actually. But you know, it still would have been annoying, but I feel like it would have been better. The fast beep, it just it it always put me into panic. That was probably by design. I mean, it probably was, and gr that's great that they did that. Uh if that was their intention, they pulled it off, and I guess the the miss becomes a hit, but you know, I don't know. I don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_03I'm glad that feature of video games has gone away of the dodo. Like it's super annoying. Yep. Yeah, there's just there's just more elegant ways to get that across.
SPEAKER_04Oh, also I found the wave beam sound to be really grating.
SPEAKER_05That one's a little off, isn't it? The wave beam in general, and we'll we'll we'll get to it, but the wave beam in general just seems like it doesn't belong.
SPEAKER_03Dude, it suffers from the two tower or two towers, the the deadly towers thing, where it's just like, is this an upgrade? This is not an upgrade.
SPEAKER_05The parallel shot.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Deadly towers, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's just like this is not an upgrade.
SPEAKER_05We we we we hearken back to that fucking power-up all the time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05That's how that's how terrible it was.
SPEAKER_03There's some games you don't expect to be so crucial in the language of explaining video games, but Deadly Towers is it is a Bible of a video game. You must you must you must play it to understand video games.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And also hate them.
SPEAKER_05Deadly Towers pierces every single episode of the ministry in some way. Seems to be. Anyway, I want to discuss the Famicom Disc system differences in audio between the NES releases here. I found there were four tracks that were different, like noticeably different, but the rest of them weren't. Uh, that would be the title screen. Samus' entry jingle. The item acquisition jingle, and the ending. Not the escape song that Father Avon was talking about, but the actual ending once you go up the elevator. Like, especially the title screen sounds so different compared to the compared to the NES version. Like, that's probably the most noticeable.
SPEAKER_04I mean, they're all pretty noticeably different. I I mean, the I'm gonna be honest, I don't know if it's nostalgia or what. I really tried to listen to it biasedly, or unbiased rather. But I just found the Nintendo soundtrack to be much more. Elegant and polished. Well, I never said these were better. No, no, no, I know. I'm just saying, I'm just stating.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I get, but the the implication is that you have you have access to more tools or more channels, and you would think it would be better.
SPEAKER_04There's certain things that they did that they couldn't do. It seems like they used maybe some of the extra audio channels for more like echoey stuff, but they didn't really necessarily use the chip in to its full capacity in regards to like uh synthesizing sounds. I think they they took it for the NES and really upgraded that portion of it, even if they had to sacrifice some of the extra audio channels and there for a couple of the echoes. But surprisingly, they were still able, they were still able to preserve a lot of that, even to the point where they do some trickery in a lot of the tracks to imply echo without actually having an echo track. They do a lot of audio track juggling to pull this off, and it's it's extremely impressive.
SPEAKER_05Father Abram, you're the musical genius, so I'm not gonna question your beliefs.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, with that, and then some turnips being pulled there, that promotion's coming.
SPEAKER_04Now we have a hunchback playing the organ. Well, he's been around for a while.
SPEAKER_01Somebody call me.
SPEAKER_04Get back to the bell tower, you stupid bastard. Sorry, sorry about that, Archbishop. Don't let him near me again.
SPEAKER_03I don't think I've ever seen him once in the entire time I've visited you guys. Where do you think the organ music comes from? I assumed a CD player or a Spotify or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05We don't have such things here.
SPEAKER_03You get a hunchback. That's impressive.
SPEAKER_05Let us proceed to category three, which is game design. A reading from the manual. Hunt out the power items and boost Samus' power. At the start of the game, Samus carries only a short beam. You have to boost Samus' power by finding the rooms that contain the power items and capture them. Boosting Samus' power gives him new ways to attack, such as wave beams, screw attacks, and bomb setting. There are ten power items in total. Collect as many as you can to fortify Samus. Three zones of the fortress ZBs. The three zones inside the fortress are called Brinstar, Rocky Zone, Norfair, Fire Zone, and Taurian, Central Base. You'll have to clear the first two zones before you can reach Taurian. Search out and destroy the mini bosses. The mini bosses have their hideouts in Brinstar and Norfair. Zap them to clear the area and move on. When they are both down, you can make a bridge that will take you to Taurian. This is a reading from the manual. I have equal pros and cons for the game design. The pros being innovative design for its time. There was nothing like it. There was nothing like it. It was it was it was like it was like a Super Mario Bros. or a Legend of Zelda. It was that level of impact that it had. And I will go so far as to say it mostly coined the genre Metroidvania. Because when you think of a Metroidvania in its core design, it's mostly Metroid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. I mean that's why that phrase kind of just sucks.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I agree.
SPEAKER_05And plenty of items to be collected that unlock other areas in the game in order to progress, which is just so fucking satisfying. Yep. Cons being it was a poor choice to start the game with only 30 health instead of a full 99. The wave beam was is extremely powerful but ultimately useless. Uh and in my experience, I found that if that you survive longer if you just keep moving rather than stopping to grind, which can seem counterintuitive. Once I kind of took off and just run and gun the whole time, I found I got much further than if I tried to stop and like collect energy by killing enemies. I don't know how you guys feel, but those are my pros and cons for this game.
SPEAKER_03This created my favorite genre in games. Like it's a formula that continues to just be worked on, but in its core essence, it's done here. And it's when we said we were gonna do this episode, you know, and look back at Metroid, I didn't know if I how much time I would have, and then all of a sudden I just got so addicted. You know, you move on. I moved on to Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission and then Metroid Dread, and I just can't get enough because that that core fundamental design that was set up here is so solid and so good, and it just is the foundation of every favorite game. I mean, whether it's Hollow Knight and Silk Song, like this is this is the mother like of all of it. Like I love it so much. And uh the you know, the only bad parts of it are just that it has growing pains. Like, since it is like creating a genre, it did some stuff that just kind of like uh should it's because it's the first, a lot of like hidden areas, which is super fun. Like, I get the idea of like blowing up a random tile. It feels a little bit like Zelda where you're burning every bush, you're instead in this one, you're like bombing every tile. And there's some pains with that because they they do some cheap stuff with that, which is like it there's fake shoots. Yeah, well, there's like tiles that are like almost hidden under doorways, and it's like you think you bombed everything, but it's like there's it's like why would they put it next to the door? Like, God, like that sucks. And then there's a lot of like you know, false paths where you're like, Oh, I I I found a path, I found a path, let me go through there, and it actually leads to nowhere, and you're like, that's not very satisfying feeling. Like it you're looking for that next place to go to. And then the only other thing that is like so improved upon in the follow-up um games is the map. Like it needed a map really badly, and it as fun as it is to get out the graph paper and make your own, which was which is definitely part of the the requirement, at least unless you had Nintendo Power or whatever. Yeah, it I wish it had a map. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I agree with everything that you guys said. However, man, it's a big however. I have to say that this game suffers from the same crap that we have mentioned in a lot of other games that we have reviewed here in this very cathedral.
SPEAKER_06Which cannot be overlooked.
SPEAKER_04It cannot be overstated that they hide mission critical path items in the most obscure places that require you to bomb every tile or to shoot every tile in order to find it. Now we have sent games to the depths on such premise. And unfortunately, it does exist here.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I have w I've wondered to myself, like, why is it I'm so willing to forgive Metroid and the original Zelda for these crimes? But I am, I don't know why. And I can't explain it, but like Zelda's super obscure, like why you gotta burn every bush. It takes forever to find, you know, every single heart piece and the next labyrinth. And then this one is super frustrating, but somehow I I find this version fun and other games I hate. Like Mylon Secret Castle can just burn in hell.
SPEAKER_04Amen. I think I have an answer for you on that. Why why why you're able to forgive this one and and Zelda? Because Zelda, well, Zelda's a little different because none of the stuff that is super hidden is is a critical path thing. This game, I think that you're correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that you're willing to forgive it because at the time, because of its massive popularity, it almost became a community puzzle. And that's something we don't really have an equivalence for today, I don't think. But there was a lot of chatter through, you know, Nintendo Power later, later on, because it was after the release of this game, but they still talked about this game in Nintendo Power. And school bus chatter and playground chatter, you know, it's there there was more of a community puzzle there that than than I think a lot of people give it credit for.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. My favorite being, and this one isn't for uh Metroid, but it's for Zelda. I remember distinctly somebody saying, Man, Bruce just found he bombed like this certain area in a cave, and and in the cave was an old man. He said, Dial this number to get a free copy of Zelda 2. So, like an idiot, I went around bombing everything, and of course that wasn't true.
SPEAKER_03But that stuff was believable back then. You're like, oh man, I gotta go get my copy. That's just waiting for me. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_05But you're right, Father Avram, you're right. I will say this though. Those were my words in Dead in the Deadly Towers episode. Where there are mission critical items that are on a critical path of gameplay. What you didn't mention was that how in Deadly Towers you can be in a situation to where they are not retrievable at all. Hence burning the tower before getting the item, then you can never get it again and you're soflocked.
SPEAKER_06That doesn't happen here. Uh well.
SPEAKER_04So I did run into one situation when I tried to I tried to play through my my hundred percent, and I was able to do my hundred percent, except for the damn freaking mother brain, which I will get to in a second. But uh actually I'm gonna get to it much later because it it more goes into another category. But uh the it's not really a soft lock, per se. But I was definitely soft locked out of a hundred percent. I couldn't get I couldn't get the wave beam. I forget exactly what I did in order for that to happen, but I couldn't get back to get the wave beam. And so I was like, well, I'm I'm not gonna get my 100%. I'm gonna have to go and get this other thing. But it it doesn't it doesn't matter. I understand what you're saying. Like you you should be able to navigate anywhere. You you're never you're never really, really soft-locked out of a place. And fortunately, you can swap between the freeze beam and the wave beam as many times as you want. You get the wave beam and the and the freeze beam comes back, and you get the freeze beam and the wave beam comes back, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_04So uh so you're right in that regard. You're never soft-locked. However, you still can't beat the freaking game without with if if you didn't have anybody to consult, if you didn't have any any map to to guide you, uh, you'd still have to shoot every tile and and blow up every tile in order to find the the critical path on stuff, and and you know, I'm thinking about uh bombing and falling through the lava in in the hallway there.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, there's there's a few areas that this happens in, and it's like, well, I shouldn't be expected to do this to be the game. It just seems like uh, you know, the same the same problem that we've taught that we've discussed before. Now, regarding the other the other stuff you guys said is spot on. I hate the freaking fact that you start start every life with 30 health. I've fallen into the trap of grinding health and and you know spending a long freaking time doing that, only to realize that it's better just to keep moving, but it takes some time to to reach that realization. It also takes some skill buildup to reach that point where you can actually do that. So for a casual player, you fall into that trap and you're like, well, I could play Metroid right now, but it's gonna take me 45 minutes to grind health before I can really play the game. Like, who really wants to have that mentality when they power on a game? And and the same goes for missiles. If you die, you're still gonna have the same number of missiles that you had when you died, so you need to grind missiles too. That's not as critical of an issue unless you're at the very end of the game, and you're trying to go and fight Mother Brain, you die a bunch of times. Guess what? You need more missiles. Guess what, you need to grind more missiles, or you need to find another missile tank. It's like required, essentially.
SPEAKER_05Well, I've been I've been speedrunning the game, and um I'm by no means any good. I I managed to get my time down to about 38 minutes. Grinding for missiles is the worst part, especially when you're speedrunning, because there's no RNG in Nintendo, right? So, like, it's tied to something, but I but there's nothing that you can figure it out so you know you will get a missile when you kill something. I haven't found any tricks or anything like that.
SPEAKER_04It's worth repeating. There's no RNG on the Nintendo. They were able to do some form of pseudo-random, but mostly it's just data tables, and then they come up with an algorithm that basically uses the state of the game to look up a value in a table. Um, and then that's how they that's how they generate the random numbers usually. Or they just have a straight progressive table, like I think Legend of Zelda does that, where it's like, oh, you kill so many enemies, and you know, this this kill, you're gonna get a heart, you know. Um, they did both ways. I think in Metroid here, they they did the the first way.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and I would love to figure that if somebody knows that, please let me know like how you can ensure you get a missile.
SPEAKER_03I would almost think it's on a global timer, like that kind of thing. And that makes it just it might as well, you might as well just say it's RNG, because if it's on a global timer, that means there's there's no way to actually stay on time.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you have you have no way of telling, really.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It might be. It might be a mod table on a on a or sorry, a mod function on a data table that's based on the global timer. Could totally be. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05And the other thing that I want to mention about like, you know, with the speedrunning thing is that there's two really difficult parts that I've found when speedrunning. It's not the bosses, which you would think it would be. It's actually one is returning from cr from defeating Craid and going up this chute with a bunch of disappearing blocks. Now, I have tried numerous times to figure out how long those blocks disappear for, but I have no idea how long it that also seems random because I always get clipped and I get thrown down and I have to go back up, and it totally messes with my time. It's this long shoot of just the single pile of bricks that you can destroy with your gun, and the they just come back. And I haven't figured it out. The other hard part that I that I mentioned earlier is the final mother brain room, which there are these zebotites, is what they're called. And apparently they only take eight missiles to destroy, however, you are getting bombarded with these three guns above each zebotite, and then these flying donut rings that come right at you, and they are relentless, and I have never destroyed a zebotite in eight missiles, it's always been like more like 15.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's it's basically like blocked doors, like that you gotta blast.
SPEAKER_05Well, anyway, so I make sure I destroy all four, get to the lava pit, retreat back to the sh to the hallway right before the mother brain room, and just grind metroids. And that again is another situation where I'm like, please, God, just give me missiles.
SPEAKER_04How do you grind Metroids with missiles and get a missile profit?
SPEAKER_05You have to make sure that you have enough missiles when you retreat. When I start getting below a hundred missiles, I start getting worried.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I mean, so this this kind of kind of brings me back to my original point about the whole grinding portion of this. I I think that it it really wasn't necessarily polished there very well.
SPEAKER_03I think that's the best summary of it. Is like this is definitely one of the like the growing issues of the of the game. Like it just doesn't, it doesn't feel like it's fun. Like that that part was fixed in the later editions of this in the series. Like they you still have limited missiles, but I I I never find myself grinding in Metroid Fusion or Metroid Zero mission. Like, is there's like if you if you're playing the game, you get the right amount, you generally have the ammo. Like grinding is not fun in any game, and they don't it just doesn't come up in any other part of the series.
SPEAKER_04There is one more thing I'd like to mention, and that I'm surprised nobody mentioned here. And that is the terminal vice grips of fire uh as I call them on your on your way to get the wave. I think it's the wave beam. No, it's not the wave. Either way, there is there is a few there's a few drops in the fire section where you can't get out. Oh, yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it happens randomly. It happens in a bunch of different spots, like it's happened to me in a bunch of different spots, it's just a random thing, and you get stuck and you can't get back out.
SPEAKER_03You're talking about like the some of the actual level design makes it so where you fall in between the tiles and it's like, well, now you gotta sit and just watch your life just go away. Yes, yeah, those specifically, that's what I'm talking about. Those are so annoying. I I can't stand it. Like, thank God for modern hardware where you can rewind.
SPEAKER_04If you fall in there with a full health tank, you're gonna be sitting there for 45 seconds waiting for your health to you. I mean, you might as well just hit the reset button. Like it's it's it's uh it's so infuriating. It's happened to me a couple of times on uh a couple of my 100% attempts, and because you have to go that way if you do 100%, you have to go that way because there's there's some missiles down there. It it ruins your whole run. It ruins your whole run. So it's like if you if you time those jumps in correctly, yeah, you're you're not getting out. You're dead.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I'll say like the actual execution of the mechanics of the game aren't tight enough to actually warrant that kind of like punishment because like you can you can be pretty darn good at the game and accidentally just like it's just the controls are not great to demand that. Yeah, it's a little brutal. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Solid, clear, interesting designs. Easy to read against the black background, good variety of enemies, and each enemy was designed with their respective environment in mind. Nothing fell out of place, and the level designs were fantastic.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I love the creepiness of like you know, some of the the tiles of the environment feel like little eggs with little like creatures in there is that I mean it all really works.
SPEAKER_04Remember I I said uh I think it was during one of our one of our last episodes most recent episodes I said I really love games that are on a black background and I don't exactly know why I realized playing this this is why like this game is why I love games that are on a black background um because all the graphics just pop so well and everything is easy to read yeah I think you mentioned on the Sword and Sorcery not Sword and Sorcery the the King Arthur one damn it Wizards and Warriors thank you Wizards and Warriors my goodness yes yes yes uh yeah that that's right that is when I mentioned it yeah uh the so this is this game is exactly why I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah it works so well everything's very clean uh it's great in that same interview you mentioned one of the artists was saying because they were on the the game for you know a year before all RD1 jumped on it and you know they had to like finish it up in three months that prior to that he had done a whole bunch of extra animations and moves and move sets for Samus and they had to all be cut because of like memory issues and that just to finesse the design. And I'm like I'm so hungry to know what those were and what they look like.
SPEAKER_04I know yeah I mean all the animation in this game is is really great for Nintendo I mean they crammed stuff in there in ways I don't even know how they did it. So much animation in here for for for the memory limitations that they had absolutely astounding how much movement they have.
SPEAKER_03Yeah I wonder if you know some of those initial design ideas or movement things were then realized in in later editions into the series because of like you know they added like slides and they added like the grapple type of hook and the you know running like doing power running became like a staple in the in the series and doing a charge gun you know all like Mega Man and that kind of stuff. So maybe maybe maybe there's clues into that that maybe that's where they were gonna already go with the first one if they just had the capabilities.
SPEAKER_05Yeah it's possible I remember reading somewhere that the the thing that makes you turn into a ball was a solution to them not being able to figure out how to make Samus crawl.
SPEAKER_03Man that's a happy mistake well it's a a brilliant adaptation and they were even able to get bounce physics in the ball and stuff it's amazing amazing seriously yeah yes planting extra bombs in the air to be able to bounce yourself around that's insane that that was in this game just when you really start to break down the mechanics of that and it's like wow just a couple years ago we didn't even have a platformer like there was no Mario yet you couldn't jump in a game and jump from one platform now this thing's got you turning into a ball and a morph ball and laying bombs and doing ricocheting off the those bombs it's crazy.
SPEAKER_05Yeah it's absolutely remarkable let us proceed to category five which is box art and presentation a reading from the back of the box.
SPEAKER_03Now this is the original box it's you against the evil mother brain in the thrilling battle of Metroid simple alright yellow box it's you against the evil mother brain in a thrilling battle more than a million courageous players have joined Samus Aaron in the desperate fight against the alien metroids. The demand for further adventures resulted in a hit Game Boy title now the original is back and so is the Metroid menace. And then they both go on to say you're inside the planet ZBs, a fortress of endlessly secret passageways where the Metroids are multiplying. Left alone, Metroids are merely dangerous. But in the wrong hands they could destroy the galaxy. Unfortunately the space pirates who control ZBs have set up the mother brain for just that purpose. It's up to you to thwart their plans but that won't be easy. You'll have to search out and gain use of the power items like Icebeam, wave beam, high jump boots, and Varya. If you survive it will be you and your acquired powers against the mother brain. This has been a reading from the back of the box.
SPEAKER_04Praise being I I want to mention right off the bat here that uh yeah the the the phrase where is it left alone metroids are merely dangerous. It's actually different on that phrase is different in each box. In the original box it says left alone the metroid are harmless the yellow box says left alone metroids are merely dangerous.
SPEAKER_05Yeah weird it's very strange I should probably say that the silver adventure series box that came out with alongside the other silver ones being Rad Racer and Kid Icarus. And then years later they came out with a classic series this is from the legend of NES dot com. In 1992 Nintendo re-released four of its best selling games as the classic series each of which produced a variant detailed below. This was a classic series announcement from Nintendo Power magazine volume 41 Nintendo's classic series games are four of the biggest NES hits of all time The Legend of Zelda Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link Punch Out and Metroid they are being reissued this fall repackaged and for players who are have never played these classics it's a great opportunity to see why millions of fans consider them some of the best games ever made for the NES or any system and the Metroid box is completely different. It's yellow and it has Samus kneeling and and then um the the Legend of Zelda's are the same. They're only gray cards this time inside and then Punch Out is an illustrated drawing of that's similar to Mike Tyson's Punch Out but rather than fighting Mike Tyson you're fighting Mr Dream in the end of it. That's where the yellow box comes from it was the called the classic series storytime with Archbishop Dracul gentlemen hold on let me sit on the floor I distinctly remember holding this game in my hands at at Woolworth in the North Dartmouth Mall and I had this game in my hands and I was reading it and I also had in my other hand Kid Icarus I I did have Chubby Cherub as one of them but luckily I had the the wherewithal to throw that thing in the fucking garbage. The point is I was looking at both covers both have very similar style like you know graphic design wise you know the the the screen captured so to speak nature of it and I ultimately went with Metroid because it was more sci-fi looking I mean honestly of the two you you you went the right way don't get me wrong kid Icarus is great but of the two you definitely went the right way.
SPEAKER_03I'm not even sure I would say kid Icarus is great.
SPEAKER_05It's debatable we did go kind of easy on it. It wasn't a a total clean sweep but it got it because the uh the talisman of absolution the only the only real clean sweep we've ever had on the ministry here was Rygar.
SPEAKER_04Which is astounding. But anyway Yeah so that's the cover art I really prefer the yellow box actually oh see I'm su I'm surprised I'm surprised because my I'm de I'm definitely a a silver box fan over the yellow box I feel like the yellow box is although it's it's it's it's pretty well I'm not a huge fan of yellow anyway but it's very it's very yellow I don't know it seems very contrived I think is the the the word I'm I'm looking for but okay.
SPEAKER_03I like them both I I that's why I got them both sitting on the shelf I the Metroid you know the silver one is just it it it feels hit you in the like all the nostalgia like it feels amazing in terms of just you know it's black box-esque and this yeah I I I like it for that reason but you know the graphics obviously leave a lot to the imagination where the yellow one fully fleshes out the suit and the actual design that we know today like it's insane. Like it's the same helmet and design there's you know there's some of the smaller details aren't consistent with today's design but the super large shoulder pads and the helmet and the gun uh it all just feels right and it's so cool to see that actually on the original Nintendo game still. So it just goes to show you just the power of their design and the character and it's so evocative. So I I really love it because it feels like a poster I would have had on my wall as a kid. Like I would have been just who is this character? This person's awesome like I I think you bringing up the movie Alien and Ripley and all that it all ties together to feel like this one like just super creepy world and that suit is iconic and I I love seeing it on the on the cover in the box art. When did they clarify Samus's design? Like that you know Metroid 2 must have come out by by this time and there must have been some further work on the marketing and uh what it looked like because the you know the the the suit that's illustrated in the manual looks nothing like the cover art that we see here on the classic series. So in between those two moments.
SPEAKER_04That's true. I mean it does say on uh on the yellow box it says the demand for further adventures resulted in a hit Game Boy title.
SPEAKER_03Right now the original is back so it was it was definitely at least after that right yeah so it's definitely some years later they've definitely clarified it and I would guess then by the time they're releasing this you know Super Metroid is probably in the hands of some of these illustrators and they know what's coming. Yep. Because then then Metroid 2 Samus's return didn't didn't actually make its way out into the Game Boy until 1991 in Japan. So there's something wrong I don't know what's going on uh they're referencing a game that didn't come out yet if this was 1990 I don't know man these weeds are getting thick yeah we said we were gonna do a deep dive so I I don't feel bad uh let us proceed to category six which is the fun factor I mean definitely we we've definitely talked to the game a lot about it in the game design like there's fun aspects of the game it definitely could have used the map it could have done away with the cheapness of hiding certain blocks necessary blocks or certain items behind absurd hidden pathways and uh so that that part it just didn't it doesn't age well at all and I will say also one thing that plagues the entire series is the boss fights suck. Like God they for how cool and innovative the whole series is uh I I don't know I don't like boss fights I I I'm I dig them a little bit more in uh Metroid dread and blast from blasphemy a bit here but I've never played Super Metroid. Uh so I don't I can't speak to those boss fights but the rest of the series they're all just kind of like not fun. So if we're talking fun factor I don't like the I don't like boss fights.
SPEAKER_05Hmm yeah the boss fights are kind of anticlimactic in this game.
SPEAKER_03Yeah it's like spam your spam your items and just take on just whatever damage boost your way through everything. Yeah I don't know there's not there it doesn't have that like I'm gonna outplay this boss or learn a strat or it just feels like you're you're you're cheating the system or something I don't you're just outliving the the bosses it doesn't feel good.
SPEAKER_05That's pretty much it you just sit there spamming your gun and running into them. Yeah you know pale of attrition yep exactly I will say the gunplay is satisfying yeah for the rest of the game definitely especially when using the missiles like that's uh when when you put on that missile it's like oh man this is this kick some fucking ass.
SPEAKER_03Yeah and I like I like the ice beam too that opens up the game and when you get the screw attack you feel like a god just running through everything like or jumping through everything I guess I should say like it's very very satisfying gameplay wise and it makes it very fun but uh yeah I got nothing bad to say about that I agree there's a there's a uh a term for this so they call it uh face tanking yeah and so like the I mean that is the only way really to defeat the bosses in Metroid is is to just face tank yeah yeah you're thinking about basically using your iframes after getting hit and just sitting inside the other person's sprite box and then just spamming your your weapons to destroy them. It's that's just a horrible design. That is bad design. Agreed. Like I was playing uh not Ripley Craid I was playing against Craid and I was trying to like do it like in a uh elegant way to beat him and there's just not there's not there's no elegant way to beat him. It's just like okay I give up I'm just gonna spam this damn thing and it it feels very unsatisfying.
SPEAKER_05And the fact that they give you like a an energy tank right in the same room as Craid like right before you pick up that energy tank you don't even grind to fight him you just pick up that energy tank and just attack them jump into them.
SPEAKER_04Yep to category seven which is controls and technical so can I jump right in with the controls and technical yes because I yes okay so this game is a technical feat I mean that this not nothing like this had ever been done before as we've mentioned several times they created a music engine for the NES that they then reused in other games I can't think of all the games off the top I can't think of any of them off the top of my head but I know they used them in a in a in a ton of other games uh they they pulled off the the the multiple directional uh scrolling uh which was a feat at the time the sprite flicker is is is there sometimes but it's the the way they it's handled well um I don't know how they do it but they but they they pull it off now where this this really turns on the player is you get frame rate drop and you get it bad every once in a while and when you get this frame rate drop so I mean you know it's a platformer so the controls are all based on reaction and timing and learned timing right but when the frame rate drops drop hits you can't rely on that timing anymore and so all the controls get effed up um and it takes a while and almost kind of like a mental reset in order to like readjust like I I would say probably like when you're in the when you're stuck in the lava is probably a good a good example of this because you almost always seem to get frame rate drops when you get stuck in the lava. Yeah and it's almost impossible to jump out and the only reason the only reason why you can jump out initi eventually is if you realize like hold on just rest for a second you rest in the lava for like two seconds which allows you to sink to the bottom and then you jump and you're still fighting frame rate drop and where it hits you the hardest is the mother freaking brain you get so much frame rate drop in the mother brain it's you're already getting bombarded by by cannons and by those those those blood cell looking things I mean you're you're already getting bombarded by them and then you have to you know blow up these things you know that regenerate that the walls we've already talked about but then you get hit with the frame rate drop and you know I I understand this was developed for the Famicom system first. I would love to play it there to see if it suffers from the same frame rate drop I don't know if it does if you know if if you know the answer to that question please comment let us know because I've never played through it but I know on the NES at least this is very debilitating. Takes away from the fr the fun factor and I know I'm touching on fun factor and rewinding to one category before it negatively affects the fun factor boosts the frustration factor majorly this is a major technical I it's not even an oversight it's it's it's it's I feel like it was a compromise that they wanted all this stuff they actually managed to pull it off but at the cost of of getting smacked with these frame rate drops.
SPEAKER_05It's a good point yeah I was gonna say the the size of the game was impressive for 1986 it was and the fact that it was on the first started on the Famicom disc system and they got it into a cartridge was very impressive.
SPEAKER_04Yeah the game's huge I love it let us proclaim the hints and cheats of our game a reading from the manual pitting Samus against the mother brain The interior of the planet Zebs is a winding complicated maze. Samus must attack the walls with beams and bombs while searching for the secret passageway through which he can advance use the map on the next page to work out where Samus is or better still make a map of your own to guide you.
SPEAKER_05A reading from the manual praise being so it was originally on the Famicom Disc system which we've mentioned many times already on that system it didn't have a password it saved directly to the disc. So rather than going to the battery like they did with Zelda they went to a password system which the password system was abhorrent. Garbage so bad it was so bad like the the font they used everything about it was terrible. Actually I'm surprised we didn't mention this previously but yes agreed there are a couple passwords that we can talk about so to simply start the beginning of Metroid as suitless Samus without any progress you type in all zeros in the first section four zeros then two zero six zeros again four zeros two zero you'll start as Samus with the Leotard and the green hair this code is allowed in all speedruns and then we'll talk about the other password that's infamous which is Justin Bailey the password is basically G J-U-S-T-I-N-B-A-I L-E-Y and then in the other sections you just put all dashes it starts Samus and Norfair I forgot about that you start where the purple bubbles are and you uh you have five energy tanks two hundred and fifty five missiles the various suit high jump boots screw attack and the wave beam crate and Ridley are already killed and the path to Taurian is opened so all you have to do is find the ice beam and and go fight the mother brain there are a lot of false theories regarding the path For example, Justin Bailey was originally thought to be one of the creators of the game, but no such thing appears in the game credits.
SPEAKER_04Well, wait a minute. I I heard I I heard that that Justin Bailey was one of the devs, but he was uncredited, and they murdered him. Murdered. But then I also heard that he was the bastard who was having an affair with one of the devs' wives. Yeah, uh that guy. Maybe maybe Justin Bailey is the name of the dude that just happened to be visiting the office that day that said, Why don't you just make service a woman?
SPEAKER_05So all this information comes from Metroid.fandom.com. There's a whole slew of stuff you can read about the Justin Bailey password. Nintendo has come out and said it was an anomaly. It wasn't planned. So Father Abram just kids.
SPEAKER_04If it is an anomaly, I know that they they detect the passwords and construct the passwords based on some kind of algorithm. So if it happens to be like an actual anomaly, this is fascinating.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it it really is. Apparently it's it's just a fluke. That's what Nintendo says anyway.
SPEAKER_04So interesting. And now, brethren, let us offer each other the body of price. Uh this is the uh section of the show where we discuss the game prices then and now. And uh this one pretty much falls into the same category as most of the other ones that we uh that we talk about, with one major exception, which we will get to. But Metroid was originally on the shelves for $34.99 when it was on the market in 1987. According to CPI inflation calculator, that is the equivalent of a whopping $101.98 today in 2026.
SPEAKER_05It's about what I paid for my completing box copies.
SPEAKER_04Now, what does the market look like for this game today in today dollars? You can get a loose copy for $25 and fifty cents. That's the cart only. And then you can get the box only for $119.69. Although this doesn't really specify which box, I'm sure there's a difference there. Uh, you can get the manual only for $16.69. Again, not specifying version. Um, actually, I should just say all of these prices aren't specifying version. However, I'm I'm I'm guessing that it's mostly based on the silver box here. So the complete inbox is now $154.50. And brand new, unopened, to the tune of $1,342.52. Wow. Good lord. I wish I could afford one of those. Yeah, that'd be cool, right? I love that. It would be cool to be able to afford it and then spend that money on something else.
SPEAKER_05Let us now execute judgment upon Metroid and decide which of the seven cardinal sins it has committed. Father Avram, in regards to narrative, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to narrative, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to narrative, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to narrative, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to narrative and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to audio, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to audio, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor. In regards to audio, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to audio, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to audio and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Father Abram, in regards to game design, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to game design, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to game design, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to game design, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to game design and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to graphics, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to graphics, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to graphics, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to graphics and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Father Avram, in regards to box art and presentation, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to box art and presentation, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to box art and presentation, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to box art and presentation, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to box art and presentation, and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Father Abram, in regards to Fun Factor, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to Fun Factor, Metroid has committed a most heinous cardinal sin.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to Fun Factor, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to Fun Factor, Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to Fun Factor and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared.
SPEAKER_01Ah! I invoke the Talisman of Damnation!
SPEAKER_02Yes, so everyone is aware the talisman of damnation is a form of protest against a categorical decision, but holds no credence in the presence of the assembly.
SPEAKER_01Get back into the bell tower, you stupid bastard!
SPEAKER_04Yes, okay, yes. I know it's just a protest, okay? But still my goodness! You have to grind health from 30 health every single time you you come back to life.
SPEAKER_05Father Abram, in regards to technical and controls, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_04In regards to technical and controls, Metroid has committed a most heinous cardinal sin.
SPEAKER_05Father Gabor, in regards to technical and controls, what is your final judgment?
SPEAKER_03In regards to technical and controls. Metroid has committed no fault.
SPEAKER_05In regards to technical and controls, and in the presence of this assembly, Metroid has been spared. Clean sweep. Eat it, Father Avram. Metroid, having committed no sin in design, execution, or intent, is found wholly without fault. By the authority vested in the sacred tribunal, we do not redeem you, for you require none. We hereby canonize you as a saint of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
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