My Favorite Metroid-Vania Games Part 1

It’s funny that Metroid pretty much started the backtracking, exploration, slowly acquiring power ups to enhance your combat, movement, and exploration abilities genre and then Castlevania evolved into being like that, but now has nearly equal billing in the title of the genre. That’s fine though, as I am in deep love with both series (Despite not really having played Symphony of the Night, I know, I know, I should be ashamed).

I’m going to write out for you my favorite Metroid-Vania games that I have played, and why I like them, why I replay them so often.

1. Super Metroid

This is basically where it all started. Metroid had 2 games before Super Metroid of course, but this is the one that really took its popularity mainstream in my seldom humble opinion. Ironically, it was almost a remake of the original, taking place on the same planet, with a very similar story and premise and outcome, but everything bigger, better, more graphically complex and with tighter gameplay and new styles of movement and weapons. Almost like it was the Metroid they wanted to make at the beginning and finally got to be realized.

And that’s totally fine, it’s awesome. It was one of the few SNES games I ever actually owned, especially after emulation became a thing and I was a poor kid. I loved it, I played it for countless hours and my daughter and I still play it today. The graphics are retro but they’re top notch for sprite graphics and hold up today easily. It still plays on the lonely, melancholy, and terrifying isolation despite being on a planet filled with monsters. Apart from the intro Samus doesn’t speak, and there’s pretty much nothing to interact with that’s friendly. Pretty much.

You unlock myriad of weapons and items she can use to enhance her ability to move, although why the Chozo (her bird-alien benefactors) would leave multiple identical power ups on the planet is beyond me. Maybe power-suits were more common and standardized amongst their species. I admittedly don’t know much at all about the lore outside the core titles.

I love this game for its re-playability, as in you can easily accidentally (or on purpose if you’re a skilled masochist) avoid getting all the items because many of them aren’t obvious or required to finish the game. This hunt alone gives it more challenge and replay value. I would love to go on at length about this game, but I’ve only got so much time and space and there are many others.

2. Metroid Fusion

I know it’s kind of cheap to put another Metroid game so close to the top of the list, but I couldn’t resist. If Super Metroid is a game as it would be made by James Cameron, which is what Nintendo was kind of going for, Metroid Fusion is a game that would be made by Alfred Hitchcock, suspenseful and with twists.

Fusion is the direct sequel to Super and takes place on a space station. It’s far more linear and less open-world than its predecessor, and this does hurt it a bit gameplay wise, but the increase in plot and interaction with your suit based AI commander gives it a more interactive story and RPG-esque sort of style that none of the traditional Metroid games really had before.

Some minor spoilers from the opening cinematic of the game are that Metroid creatures were the predators of a parasitic lifeform called X by the federation scientists who discovered them. X being the unknown quantity. They can possess and then take over and mimic other kinds of life, even gargantuanly powerful ones. With no Metroids around to keep their populations in check after Samus killed them all, they went on a rampage and took over the Metroid home planet SR388.

Continued in Part 2.