Welcome to a new edition of Horror Gaming and I found yet again another interesting story of a Metroid II ROM. I have come across several Metroid Creepypastas and most of the time they are usually solid. Anyway, the story's theme is about those glitches found in Metroid II called the Secret Worlds. These areas are actually data that is often used by the game several times to load levels throughout the overworld. Nintendo even used this idea for storing data in the Original Metroid which got used to go around the limitations. However, this also allowed gamers to use a cheat device to get access to these areas they weren't meant to do at all. It's about a guy recalling a discussion he had with a 17-year kid about glitching Metroid II by reaching the Secret Worlds. Will this man recall something interesting from the past or a creepy situation he wanted to forget? Let's find out... The story was really quite the long read and in all honestly, this was the best CP on gaming I have reviewed. So far, this has been the best opening to a CP I have read as no spirit or evil stalker was coming after the main character. It simply starts with a man packing his stuff up because of moving out of his old place when the guy discovers a box full of CDs. That's when this man comes across a CD labeled "Conversation with Pahn" inside the box. Suddenly, memories from an incident he experienced 10 years ago comes right back in his mind. For the sake of the review, we will call the guy by his old forum name of Pesmerga. The man recalls back to his teen years in 2004 where he was a moderator on a forum. Its usual for CPs to start in this manner and I give props to the author for not using typical tropes. How many times had we encountered a tale about a guy wanting to relive his childhood only to lead to a terrible experience. It's a breath of fresh air to get a CP starting out like a ordinary day as the guy recalls a weird experience. The first thing I notice in this part is there are no creepy people or phantom eBay sellers Pesmerga runs into but a normal kid named Pahn. I also love how it wasn't about the guy, but instead it was Pahn as Pesmerga observes from the third person. Most of the time it's always about some gamer's terrible experience that either happened by their stupidity or retelling a creepy tale from their first person view. The plot is actually breaking away from the usual tropes of what we find in these stories. Yuber Neclord did a great job explaining the Secret Worlds programming when Pesmerga bought up Metroid games to Pahn. I have heard of sequence breaking in the early titles with using specifics techniques needed to bypass later areas early. I'll admit that out of all the times of playing through the first three games of Metroid, this is something new for me to discover. That brings me to another feature which in turn gives legitimacy to these stories, and it's the mock-up images and sound files. I always find these important as this creates the imagery for the plot in more ways than one. It's not needed to make a story come to life since its not hard for one to us their imagination. However, this is like the icing on the cake and that truly adds so much depth to the plot. The next part only proves this as the image was a room of seven save points that were saying different words each. It said to the kid to stop stealing his legacy and the text then showed a new image in black from the game saying the boy had one last chance to walk away. Once again, the imagery made the story feel believable and provided a strange moment from a glitch. It tells me not every glitch needs a disfigured sprite like the demonic Dugtrio from Glitchlett to look creepy. Yuber Neclord didn't stop there as he or she made two sound clips for this scene. The video below is the fast version of the original as the Pesmerga mentioned discovering something. The guy explained what his friend experienced when entering a room in the Secret Worlds. When Pahn entered another screen, the original sound file truly felt eerie in many ways. I always found this part rather disturbing just when he explained how Pahn set him the sound clip right after disappearing. The way it said in the sped up video "I am Gunpei Yokoi." and that he was here truly felt scary to think. I probably freak out too after hearing the sound clip and finding out later he disappeared from a malevolent force. The climax wasn't the usual guy, or a girl has horrible experience who vows to never again pick up the creepy game. Instead, the peak of the story creates a mystery about what became of Pahn. The mystery element continues adding more questions than answers as seen when Pesmerga looks up a possible disappearance. He does find an article posted in London about a teen boy missing, but it makes you wonder if this is or is not Pahn. Yuber Neclord is a genius for writing the climax this way as you don't know whether Pahn planned it or the spirit of a late developer got him. The part where a forum member PMs him gave that theory some legitimacy. The member named User12345's message told Pesmerga to look up Gunpei Yokoi. Here's the brilliant twist and he finds out that the late developer died on October 4th, 1997. That is the same day Pahn's last message came to Pesmerga which left the guy in confusion about what happened. He ends the story with trying to convince himself that Pahn played a prank on him. For once we didn't get an ending with the protagonist dying and somehow being able to tell his story. That is a mistake that so many writers make for their plots as that shouldn't make any sense. Pesmerga simply states it as a terrifying experience from a third point of view. I can't get enough of how Yuber Neclord added this to the story. Its imagery like this that can add so much depth to a story especially a creepy sound file. I love how the author made the story come off believable by using some of the best mock-up imagery. It made you think this was either a supernatural phenomenon or some ROM hacker playing a prank. Even though there were many questions unanswered, the built had great pacing as it lined up nicely to the climax. Just like in other gaming CPs like Ben Drowned, I love the way the author put fake images which added to the creepiness. It's even better when the author created images of the forum and PMs between Pahn and Pesmerga. Probably the most frightening part about this is the audio file the author created of something trying to speak through the ROM's sound files. The fact its speaking clearly through a sped up file of the recording came off downright scary. It's amazing how some authors would go out of their way to tell a CP. That is what adds to the horror of this story with it making you think a spirit could in fact possess something like a software file. Another thing I like about the story was making you guess if Pahn did in fact put the thing together just to mess with a mod. I mean there is a site out on the net where someone could create a ROM hack of Metroid II easily. It's common to find ROM hacks on the internet of popular games from Nintendo as many gamers always come up with ways to put these together. As far as clichés go, they nearly absent once again which shows the author didn't want to put stupid parts in. No tropes of possessed people, gore, a character wanting to relive their childhood or someone being forced into a dire situation. Instead, the writer used a random ROM of Metroid II that an internet user discovered by accident. Compared to the other Metroid CPs, this is best one written so far out of all them. The way the story was also set up didn't annoy me in any way as it came together. Maybe the only thing I didn't like was the implication that Gunpei Yokoi killed the kid. The reason that bothers me a little is he was a humble person and family man who loved his wife and kids. So I ask myself a question, why is this implied he would do this beyond the grave all because someone was performing a glitch? I'm not saying the author was showing any disrespect to the late developer as this is fictional. The author should have used a made-up character in his place like another writer did for Ben Drowned. Regardless, this was a well written tale and the images as well as the audio files made the story creepy. Rating: 9.0/10 Impressive Sources Story and Images: creepypasta.com. (November 6, 2014). Metroid 2: Secret Worlds. Yuber Neclord. http://www.creepypasta.com/metroid-2-secret-worlds Audio File: youtube.com.(August 6, 2014) Metroid 2 Sped Up. Yuber Neclord. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_eeXKqmQlU
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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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