Occasionally a game will come along that sets the tone for many future games to come.
Some even take it a step further and become so ubiquotous that they define a genre.
Let's examine a title that cemented in franchise in the gaming history, and helped to spark
the speedrunning community at large.
This is the super metroid iceberg.
Not an update A common misconception about Super Metroid that exists in people who are
not familiar with the franchise is that 'Super Metroid' is an update of a previous installment.
This is because of the fact that words like 'Super' and 'Ultimate' were added to the titles
of games around that time to signify that this is an improved version of a game, such
as with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.
The real reason behind the 'Super' in the game's name is because it was released on
the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which is similar to what Nintendo did to games by
adding 64 or Advance to their names.
And in reality, it's the third game in the series.
Metroidvania Super Metroid is the game that, alongside Castlevania: Symphony of the Night,
is responsible for the 'Metroidvania' genre.
The reason that Super Metroid is the game that is credited for establishing this genre
instead of the first game in the series is because Super Metroid added a lot more in
terms of content and strengthened the blueprint that was originally set in motion by the first
two games.
Thus, Super Metroid is considered one of the best games in the series, to the point it
defined a genre itself.
And that, of course, means that it inspired a generation of game developers and continues
be a part of the core of the games that are released under this genre even today.
Secret moves Super Metroid is known for harboring many secret moves that are not explained to
the player.
As a result, many players have beaten the game without knowing about their existence
at all and those who did learn about them consider several of them difficult to pull
off.
However, once you master these special moves - the game almost feels different when played.
Examples of these movies are the Wall Jump, Bomb Jump, Multi-bomb spread, and even the
ability to restore your health on-the-go if you have certain items that are required.
Alien 3 parallels Several aspects of Super Metroid are similar to Alien 3, which is a
parallel that is often talked about.
For example, both of the stories depict a bond between the female protagonist and the
main antagonist, and both of the stories end with a sacrifice that gets rid of the enemy
species for once and for all.
Ironically enough, Alien 3 was critically panned yet Super Metroid is considered one
of the best games of all time.
Troubled development If you were surprised by the hiatus that the franchise went through
before Metroid Dread came out, you were probably too young at the time of Super Metroid's release.
The game came out almost a decade after the first Metroid game (although the second game
exists in-between, it was a handheld-only game) and it took over half a year for Nintendo
to approve the project because they were intimidated by how ambitious it was.
But that's not all, the game was nearly cancelled three times because of how many times it was
delayed and the fact that Nintendo did not originally believe in the game's potential
success.
Fortunately, the company loved the game once it was completed and it went on to sell over
a million units too.
Rumored behind-the-scene drama Through believable hearsay, it is believed that Super Metroid
was meant to be the last game in the series and that's why there was such a wait between
that and the next game in the series.
However, once Metroid Prime was put into development, it is believed that this became the reason
for Yoshio Sakamoto to start developing Metroid Fusion because he wanted to make sure that
he's still involved in the series.
One thing in particular that supports this claim is that the Metroid Prime games take
place before Super Metroid in the storyline.
And with all said and done, Yoshio Sakamoto came back with Metroid Dread this year, whereas
Metroid Prime 4 is currently in development hell - so it's clear who got the last laugh.
Godzilla sounds Super Metroid bosses use sound effects from Godzilla movies.
The developers decided that the sound effects that they are making are not good enough and
then they sampled sounds directly from a number of different Godzilla movies - and it's pretty
noticeable once you listen to both of them closely.
This technique was pretty rare for its time, so that's another reason as to what makes
it special and unusual.
Naked Samus The early Metroid games have been criticized in recent times for its sexualization
of Samus, although thousands defend it too saying that it was an alright way of establishing
the badass heroine's gender.
One way or another, it's no secret today that you can unlock the endings in the original
game where Samus is wearing short clothing, and the death animation in Super Metroid has
her armor break, which leaves her in nothing but a bikini before you recontinue the game.
However - Super Metroid was originally meant to take things to the next level because Samus
was meant to be temporarily naked and she also screamed in a voice-over recorded by
Minako Hamano.
It was eventually scrapped because Nintendo knew that American censorship would be against
the idea and the voice recording unintentionally sounded sexual too.
And of course, in the recent games, she has the blue suit that is scene in the Prime games
intact when she dies and her armor explodes - replacing the previous tradition of showing
her bikini.
The birth of speedrunning Super Metroid is often credited as THE game that kicked off
the trend of speedrunning games, which is one of the most well-known concepts of playing
a game today - especially on live streams and in physical events that usually contribute
massively to charities.
The reason behind that is the fact that the game rewards players with different endings
based on how quickly the player finishes it.
Although other games had this trend too sometimes, Super Metroid made this concept feel more
intense because of how non-linear the game is and how it has so many hidden abilities
that change how the game is played.
This led to players partaking in an early version of speedrunning and it turned into
a habit that is now a major part of the gaming community.
The third eye Super Metroid is filled with cut content and secrets of all kind, but one
secret in the game deserves a separate mention of its own - which is the hidden third camera
in the game's levels.
If you've played the game before, you'll remember the two cameras in the game that stare at
Samus and track her movement with a harmless yellow light on the surface of Planet Zebes.
The player can find two of these cameras and they disappear after you collect mandatory
upgrades and Samus is attacked by the Space Pirates.
However, there is a third hidden eye that cannot be found in a normal playthrough and
is only discoverable if the player uses exploits.
Although this secret was not undiscovered, it's not something that was known widely and
a YouTuber called GoldenChorizoCode eventually brought it into public attention this year.
By using the exploits, he managed to enter an early room and made the game believe that
the player only has the Morph Ball as an upgrade and not anything else.
By doing this, the player can enter a room that normally cannot be entered without certain
conditions being met and inside a Chozo Statue that generally has an extra missile tank becomes
a third eye camera.
By further breaking the game through graphical exploits, the statue eventually disappears
and you can see only the camera itself too by returning to the area in that state.
It is believed that this is simply a leftover item from early development stages of the
game and it was simply not removed because the player was never meant to find it.
And some fans also believe that it was supposed to be a main part of the game and was simply
scrapped because it was either considered unnecessary later on or would have taken too
much time to be relevant.
One way or another, it's fun to see what's left of a game after you completely break
it.
General secrets and glitches We've covered the stuff that deserved separate mentions,
now let's go over the general secrets and glitches that remain.
One interesting and notable thing about the game's glitches is that unlike some other
games that get fixed on its re-releases, Super Metroid's gltiches and exploirs were left
inside the game on purpose because the developers and Nintendo both know how much the fans like
them and that it defines the game in a way, since it contributes heavily to speedrunning.
There is a 'Special Setting Mode' in the game's options and you can turn on the ability to
'Moon Walk' from there, which lets you walk backwards while you shoot an enemy.
There is a glitch in the game that you can trigger by doing the VAR Beam glitch and shooting
the Door first - and then shooting it again.
After that, you have to turn the beam off, save and turn the game off.
When you turn it back on and reload your file, certain things in the game will be broken
such as the missiles being missing but S. Missiles appearing, Old Tourian being misty
from the beginning of the game, and so on.
Lastly, there is a hidden message in the game too which says 'Special thanks 2 Genji Kubota
& all debut staff' which can be found in the game's files.
A specific attack glitch in the game is called the 'Murder Beam' which is often used by speedrunners
and experts of the game in general.
If you charge the beam and go to the weapon selection menu and equip Charge/Ice/Wave/Spazer
and move to Hi-Jump Boots, you have to press left and A at the same time to equip the Plasma
Beam.
This gives you all five beams equipped at the same time and then once you return to
the game, face left and let go off the button - and this will unleash an extremely destructive
murder beam.
What makes this even more interesting is that the game crashes if you fire an uncharged
beam, firing with a power bomb equipped, or face any direction not the left.
And ironically, this attack is most useful on the Mother Brain - which is much later
on in the game and if you accidentally crash it, you'll lose hours of your time.
Other notable glitches include the ability to stop Zebetites from spawning, standing
up in the Mother Brain fight when you're supposed to be on your knees, creating Samus clones,
jumping higher than usual, retaining the running speed while in the morphball state, disabling
the detection of valid hits in various green gates across Zebes, and letting go off a charged
shot during the final Zebes countdown right after you exit the last door, which unleashes
a giant beam shot.
Secret demo It's not everyday that we sit down and look at idle demoes of a game - but
that's a trend that used to be very popular back in the days and the demoes that played
when you did not press anything while the game ran were also called 'Attracts' since
they are meant to make the player want to give the game a shot.
Super Metroid has 3 demoes and most players have seen those at some point.
However, something that people don't often realize is that there is a fourth idle demo
that plays if you beat the game at least once, and it shows off hidden game mechanics that
players have to figure out on their own.
Secret addition to ending Aside from the general ability to get different endings based on
how fast you beat the game, there is one detail that even some hardcore fans of the Metroid
series sometimes miss out on.
When you're escaping in the end and there is a countdown in place, if you don't go to
your ship and go to the room where you first got Morph ball bombs - you can find some critters
that helped you escape earlier in the game.
If you help them leave the room, you can leave again and this adds a small addition to the
ending where you can see that you saved them too.
Golden Torizo Room Like most 2D games of that era, the game has a debug code that the player
can enter which was interestingly not widely discovered until 2010.
In the lower Norfair area, before you enter the room with the golden Torizo boss fight
- open the door and roll into a ball while holding down the four main buttons (A, X,
B, and Y).
When you enter the room with this method, you will instantly have every item in the
game aside from the Screw Attack, such as 700 Energy, 300 Reserve Energy, 100 Missiles,
20 Super Missiles, and 20 Power Bombs too.
You get Screw Attack quite soon afterwards anyway, so that's probably the reason as to
why you don't get it right away.
The game does have a normal debug mode too that can be activated through external tools
such as the Pro Action Replay, and it allows players to spawn wherever they want and to
use certain items and random sprites.
Cut content There are three unused enemies in the game.
One of them is called Bang and it grows bigger based on how much damage it takes.
Eventually, it explodes and deals all of the damage that the player dealt back to them.
It's a very dangerous enemy and that might be why it was taken out of the game.
The second enemy is called Reflec and similar to Bang, this enemy reflects the player's
shots back at them.
What makes it fun though, is that if you shoot at it from certain angles, it reflects the
player's shots in different directions, which was used as an element for solving puzzles
in the fan-made romhack Super Metroid Redesign.
It's obvious why Reflec was scrapped, since it's not useful in any part of the original
game.
The third unused enemy is Stoke and it looks like a miniature Crocomire.
It has collision detectio and basic movement, but doesn't always function properly.
The enemy was meant to be found in the Crateria room where you tunnel through as a Morph Ball
- but it's unknown as to why the enemy was scrapped.
Additionally, there is a weird creature with only a mouth that was meant to spawn next
to Mother Brain, but its purpose is unknown and it has no programming.
And lastly, there is a Shaktool Attack that is disabled in the game but can be renabled
by using the Game Genie.
Aside from the unused enemies and sprites, there are two color pallettes in the game
that are unused, which are the Red Crateria and Black Brinstar color schemes Then we have
unused tiles, an unused title card and a couple of unused rooms such as the Lower Norfair
Edge, a debug testing room with a bunch of tiles surrounding the player, an unused recharge
room, a debug Game Over screen, an unused Shaktool room, an older version of the Golden
Chozo Room, and a few regional content that was scrapped, such as the aforementioned sexual
voice and some other unknown voices.
Theories One of the most notable fan theories is related to Phantoon.
It is believed that Phantoon is an Aurora Unit because we have seen ghosts exist in
the Metroid universe and they are often corrupted.
The reason behind this claim is that it looks like a mutated Mother Brain and haunts a crashed
ship.
Not only that, but Phantoon has control over the power grid too.
And this is further elaborated upon by the fact that Phantoon is much bigger in Other
M and you only fight him after the ending since he needs to absorb energy to grow stronger.
Another commonly debated theory is aimed at the Galactic Federation's motives.
Fans theorize that the Space Pirates are not truly pirates and instead they are simply
people who don't agree with the Federation and tried to use the Metroids as just an energy
source.
Meanwhile the Galactic Federation could potentially be terrorists who try to use Metroids to create
weapons for themselves and just try to keep them away from others, which is typical military
power-move stuff.
This theory is further strengthened by Other M - although how canon that game will always
remain a divisive topic.
Debunked theory Straying away from plausible theories that might be entirely true, here's
one that lived on for some time and was debunked officially later on.
In the remake of the original Metroid, called 'Zero Mission', players saw a massive HQ called
the Space Pirate Mother Ship which is destroyed by Samus in the end.
A majority of fans thought this ship is the same 'Wrecked Ship' from Super Metroid.
However, in an official interview on the Metroid: Zero Mission website, the director of the
game confirmed that the two ships are different from each other.
It was a bummer for a lot of people - but at the same time, it's always good to know
the facts over fiction.
Even though the franchise has evolved and changed throughout the years, its notoriety
never waned, and world-renowned super heroine continues to excite fans around the world.
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