Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner Reviews and we take a look at the sequel of the original Metroid. The sequel is about Samus returning to her bounty hunter adventure as she is tasked by the Galactic Federation to exterminate all the Metroid on the planet SR388. Like any second game in its series, Metroid II added new features to the gameplay that fixed some of the problems the original had. The second game is the least favorite one in the franchise which might have to do with it being on the Game Boy. If this was developed with at least the NES in mind, then many probably wouldn't hold such a thought. However, similar to Zelda: A Link to the Past, the series wouldn't get a true refinement until Super Metroid released in 1994 for the Super NES. As you can tell the series’ early titles didn’t have much of a story beyond the theme. Nintendo was never known at the time to produce interesting stories since they focused on gameplay with compelling visuals. It was the reason they struggled to give their roster of characters meaningful characteristics. That created a divide among people who assumed Samus was straight up a stone cold assassin while thinking Link would act like Disney’s Aladdin if he spoke. Of course, these were absolute misconceptions based on exaggerated fantasies created by overzealous armchair analysts. Gameplay As I have said, the sequel has fixed some of the issues that plagued the original such as the progression. For starters, the player is tasked with killing the Metroid species as the game's sole challenge and there is even a counter for how many you take out. Meaning each area doesn't have a boss to fight but instead these creatures evolve by getting bigger and stronger. Even though this was different, that made up for the lack of bosses and was a great concept for the enemies to change the more you progressed. The level design saw an improvement as many of the areas don't have a repeated appearance—It helped make the designs accessible for players to easily distinguish from the other locations. The sense of progression was a little clearer here and even though I still got lost, at least each area having a different form helped. Like in the series fashion; you start without the upgrades Samus is known to have and must find them in a Chozo statue room along the way. The usual Morph Ball, High Jump Boots, Ice Beam, Varia Suit, bombs and the Screw Attack make a return but now there are a few new additions. We come to the Spider Ball which allows the player to attach Samus in ball form against the wall to move up or down. Not one of my favorite upgrades in the franchise (even when the mechanic returned in the first Prime title) but it did help explore high up areas. An interesting ability that was added is the Spider Ball which allows Samus to climb walls and ceilings. You also get this early without sequence breaking — then again that isn’t possible here — when navigating other parts of the map. It also helped explore other areas such as the ceiling to find a hidden cove where a missile upgrade or refuel station was. Surprisingly, there are mid bosses stationed around the overworld as seen by the image on the right. Here Samus battles one to earn the Spring Ball ability which allows her to jump in ball mode. That type of level design was a tweaked improvement and includes small boss fights while letting the players earn a hidden feature. Now the best new upgrade is the Space Jump and Plasma beam because of how useful they really were. The Space Jump allows Samus to constantly somersault repeatedly in the air so she can reach higher places. While the plasma beam can shoot through other enemies. The last new upgrade is the Spring Jump which lets Samus jump in ball form. Even though the new mechanic wasn't needed for me to get by, but it still provided convenience, so you don't have to use the bombs. Another big improvement is the use of save stations and no longer is the dreaded 16 letter password needed. It was even better for these to have proper placements around the world of SR388. Despite the save feature, it's a little disappointing without the password system as the Original allowed for unique ones to play the game differently. Another addition that was great is using the refueling stations that despite being far apart still helped a lot. The second entry might have some flaws from the Original left in, but the tweaks as seen in the first caption are what takes it further. The save station is used by simply standing on it and pressing start to record your adventure. You no longer have to die on purpose to record a game’s progress. It was even better to offer three save files, so you can jump to the last part of facing the Queen Metroid after killing all the lower tier ones. Another fine example of tweaking is the refueling stations placed around the world map. The second caption shows an energy refueling item that restores Samus’ Health and there is also a missile one too. You don’t have to kill several enemies to restore health, and missiles like in the Original. That was always an annoying thing to do especially for 8-bit gaming. The only issues with these are the player had to work their way to them in some cases like being too far apart. It was great for the Game Boy to receive a Metroid title but at the same time this type of game doesn't belong on a handheld system. The reason is a game like this is needed on a console as it requires many hours to complete. The developers should have produced the sequel on either the NES or the Super NES—A game like this would have thrived on those systems by using stronger tech to expand on the gameplay. It also doesn't help that the game is in black and white which sucked to play even on the green screen Game Boys. It's a good thing Nintendo released the Super Game Boy years later to make this enjoyable to play. Despite the level design being an improvement with no repeated corridors, there is no map system to inform the player where they are. You can still get lost in this game even with the Space Jump and Spider Ball. The boss battle with the Queen was a little too hard as you are required to shoot 150 missiles in her mouth to defeat the behemoth. While it is true Mother Brain had a similar design, but she was by no means difficult to deal with. There is another way to kill this boss and its by getting into the thing's stomach through the mouth and using five morph ball bombs. However, not many people knew of this tip unless you had Nintendo Power and even then, it was still tricky to perform. Rating: 8.0/10 Graphics/Presentation At the time Metroid II was among the better looking Game Boy games in the early 90's that nearly resembled the original. Despite the lack of color, the environments showcased an alien world that was similar but different to Zebes. There is more detail on the textures as you can tell the difference between a rock pattern and the crevices. The animation was solid as it managed to have additional frames to the sprites, especially Samus. She now moves more fluently with her running and somersaults when performing the Space Jump with the Screw Attack. Samus' sprite also had more detail on her suit after receiving the Varia Suit. They added the bulky shoulder parts — that had a better design then the slender built armor concept — then simply giving her a different color. I also love how the infamous parasite would evolve into bigger forms to provide a variety of challenges. In the original, it wasn't a problem considering they only appeared in Tourian, but Nintendo went the extra mile with their appearance especially for the Queen. The environment of SR388 has a similar cavern design to those of Zebes. There are a few differences however, for this planet felt more isolated then in the previous adventure. The first image shows Samus exploring a submerged Chozo Temple that has long been abandoned by their species. Even though there is a lacking plot, these shrines still provide us a mystery as to why the Chozo colonized the planet. The next image has Samus exploring the lengths of a large and tall cavern by using the Spider Ball to reach impossible heights. The cavern design had better rendering compared to the first game as nearly everything has a little detail. It truly felt like SR388 was an alien world, despite there being a resemblance of a once abandoned society. That was the biggest improvement in environmental design which allows us to capture our imagination better. The presentation on the other hand wasn't as strong as its predecessor and was underwhelming. A great example is the weak soundtrack with most of the songs consisting of loud beeps and bops on a loop. The only tracks that sounded solid were the surface theme, Metroid's Nest, the Queen Metroid battle and the Credits theme. When there was a song it would make sounds that repeated or came off dull in its tone. That is mostly seen with the Cavern areas and even the intro didn't feel epic or iconic compared to the first game's own. Speaking of the intro, this was also missing as the Original gave a short description of the theme. Another unique feature missing is having an interesting soundtrack to also match the tone. That made the environments feel dull and almost created no atmosphere, something the first entry got right. It is the reason a game of this caliber should never see development on a weak system compared to the consoles. The visuals for the series are more benefitted for a console and would allow Nintendo to make the soundtrack and graphics atmospheric. It also doesn't help that you had to experience this through a green screened Game Boy. However, in the end, the game is still among the better looking Game Boy titles compared to the system's first two years. If some are wondering what the default colors were on SGB for Metroid II, well this is it. In fact, a couple of the images were taken from the Game Boy Player on GameCube. Even then you could even get these colors on GB Color and GBA before booting the game. It’s possible these colors weren’t the default style the development team was trying to design for SGB if the sequel was designed around the adapter. Instead, the palate would’ve been closer to the Original game rather than being thrown together after the fact. It still delivers by giving us the vibe the series is known for, especially when the monochrome screen handheld didn’t do this any service. The next caption is getting the Varia Suit which not only changes the look of her suit but offers extra defense. The R&D1 team picked this design originally to get around the lack of color the Varia Suit had in the first game. It is here where her Aeon Suit received the bulky shoulder parts concept from and has stayed that way ever since. If only the Super Game Boy released earlier in that generation could have given it much needed color. Nintendo would have tasked the company Hori to make a custom border around the series theme like they did with the later SGB games. Even though there weren’t any SGB features, it was still nice of Hori to give the default colors an alien world vibe. You have some orange mixed in with yellow for Samus and a green texture for the backgrounds. Even if this swatch of colors doesn’t do it for you then switching to an orange like shade would still fit the visuals. That was the only option we had if this meant playing in clarity without the lightless green screen getting in the way. As you can tell the plot is nearly non-existence since R&D1 never gave the Galactic Bounty Hunter a true personality. The vocal minority can scream “action speaks louder than words” all they want but that doesn’t matter when there literally is no personality traits being shown of her. Samus in the first three games was literally a moving statue that acted without showcasing any characteristics. The sequel gives more questions than answer like why the Chozo made SR388 a colonized planet. Why did they colonize this planet at one point? None of these are ever answered and not even Super Metroid ever explains the Chozo history. Rating: 7.5/10 Features/Content Unlike the Original's content, there isn't much here aside from killing the number of Metroids and collecting missile expansions. The game is also as long as the first title with making the player explore the world of SR388 to kill all of the Metroids. Despite the save function being more convenient, a password system would have given more options to play the game again. Nintendo should have developed cheat codes to replace the unique passwords. They could’ve done something along the lines of beating the game in a certain timeframe to get these cheat codes on The End screen. Even inputting a combination of buttons on the title screen should've been brought into the discussion. Basically, without these features, this makes the content come off lackluster especially when other games on the same system have those extra additions. There isn't much content outside doing speed runs to get a better running time in beating the game. It definitely is the weakest compared to the rest of the Nintendo only lineup on the Game Boy. Rating: 7.5/10 Final Rating Metroid II had its share of improvements that progressed the series, but some faults stopped the sequel from being unique. The level design and progression saw an improvement as each area didn't feel the same. Even the infamous parasite would evolve through the course of the game offering different challenges to the previous ones. The new abilities also added new ways to find other areas and secrets like never before with the Space Jump and Spider Ball. The graphics were definitely good for the Handheld’s standards as they were above most games on the system. From the sprites detail to the animation, everything flowed properly and a little better than in the Original. The gameplay still had its problems as there was no map system to go by. Even the Queen Metroid was a little too challenging that needed 150 missiles shot at her mouth to defeat the behemoth. Of course that isn't factoring a tricky way of beating the thing easily that many didn't realize was there. The presentation was lackluster as the soundtrack was weak and the intro wasn't even designed. The weakest part of this game comes from its content and aside the long quest that was all they programmed. Then we have a lacking password system where its unique coding could’ve possibly created cheats. That makes the lasting value come off bare bones with no other ways aside from speed running through the game. Gameplay: 8.0/10 Graphics/Presentation: 7.5/10 Features/Content: 7.5/10 Final Rating: 7.8/10 Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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