metroid 1 obviously deserves a lot of credit just for how foundational it was, but even putting that aside i think there's a specific appeal it captures that i haven't truly seen replicated since, one that i didn't fully appreciate until this most recent playthrough
no map, no save points, the pitiful amount of health you're left with after a death with no easy way to recharge. all qualities i've seen levied against the game as criticisms, including from myself in the past, but now instead i'd argue that the game's unwillingness to accommodate the player only helps sell the idea of single-handedly surviving on a hostile alien planet
metroid 1 is so engaging for me from start to finish because there's always multiple things you have to keep in mind. your low health for example, you start on 30 which even at the very beginning can be increased to 99, enouraging defeating enemies. simple enough when it's just some little guys that crawl along the walls, but what about when you encounter bigger guys that swoop down from the ceiling and try to home in on you, or endlessly spawning flies that rise to your current position and soar across the screen at you, or better yet, both of these at the same time. your hard work recovering health can just as easily be undone if you don't recognise your limits and know when going after some foes will result in a net loss. this is something that will vary depending on your skill level, which will naturally improve as you play, you will learn to be cautious, you will learn to keep your distance and observe enemy behaviours, and you'll learn that sometimes you'll just have to make a break for it
even the most basic room layouts (and they mostly are quite basic to be fair) are invigorated just from the enemies within them, the game kept me on my toes more or less for its entire duration which was really fun, and it felt great to get better at too. this is to say nothing of the upgrades, which i still think are some of the best executed in the whole series
later metroid games, and a lot of metroidvanias in general, use a lock and key approach to upgrades; to use a basic example, power bombs in super metroid can be a useful tool, but you'll need at least one to be able to unlock yellow doors to progress. a fine approach that's satisfying in its own right, but what i like about metroid 1 is that you rarely actually need any of the upgrades in order to progress. from my research (a quick look on the low percent run wikitroid page) aside from the morph ball at the very start of the game, nothing's stopping you from just going straight to all the bosses and beating the game, the 'lock' in this case is that the act of doing so will be incredibly difficult, and the 'key' the upgrades provide is more leniency
this looser approach to progression has become retroactively refreshing, what ended up happening was that i was turned away from some rooms not because i was physically unable to get past them, but because i died many times, got frustrated, and decided for myself that it would be more sensible to search elsewhere and return later. on this playthrough i was this close to beating ridley without even getting the varia suit, and if i hadn't panicked so much i probably would've done it, but coming back later and trouncing him with it in tow was also great.
the satisfaction from actually getting an upgrade is just out of this world. they feel like such a tangible, practical, personal growth in strength, especially due to the game's high difficulty. the extra control afforded from the high-jump boots, the security from the varia suit's 50% damage reduction, the sheer POWER of the screw attack, one-shotting previously troublesome enemies with merely a jump, even just a simple energy tank, with its full heal alongside the permanent health increase provides such a high that you'll want to hold onto. this perfect marriage of both player growth and avatar growth is just good, i don't know how else to describe it it speaks for itself like just how EARNED every little bit of success feels it's just good! it's so good! i love this game idk if you could tell
i'm getting quite sleepy from writing now so i'm just gonna gush about a few things like straight from the heart yk. i think it's cool that the game doesn't have a map, actually. keeping where i have and haven't been yet in my head while trying to stay alive was really satisfying to me and made me feel all smart, the game is just the right size where it feels vast and unknowable, but just small enough where i could just about keep track of it all as i explored. when i get lost i'm not just looking for blue tiles on my map and going to them, i have to think back through the journey i'd just taken and ascertain where i might've missed something, which felt great when i'd figure it out
there's a lot of repeated room layouts in this game which can get a little tiresome, but in a way even this has an upside, i would doubt myself sometimes because i thought i'd come back to a room i'd already been to, but i'd swear i hadn't gone down that path before so i'd press on even though the room would be like dangerous and potentially a waste of time but my confidence would be rewarded with like a room at the end with like green and black bubbles or something i'd never seen before and i'd be like ooooo this is new i'm glad i trusted myself
the only checkpoints in the game are at the very start of each major area of the map, which might sound awful but again the game isn't tooooo big, and any upgrades you collected along the way are saved, so it's not like hours of progress are suddenly going to be undone. i never felt devasted by a death that i'd want to stop playing, but the fear of dying did create a lot of tension when i'd venture deep into an area with a good chunk of progress on the line which just made me all giddy. i use to think the bosses in this game were a bit lame and, yeah in isolation they kinda are but without the security blanket of save states i would always use previously, as a frantic tug of war at the end of a gauntlet they suddenly made a lot more sense
this game gets a lot of flack for the bombable walls being esoteric but i think it's quite well done, if you reach the end of a room and there's just like a wall or something or a room that's really small and empty you should go 'nahhhhh that can't be it' and start bombing/shooting around there and like 95% of the time there'll be a hole to go through, problem solved! speaking of which going through walls and stuff does wonders for the game's atmosphere in a way i don't quite know how to describe, like even though it's something intentionally put there the fact that there aren't any obvious telegraphs like cracks in the walls or something feels almost like you're breaking it and going somewhere no one is actually supposed to go. i feel similarly about those blocks you can break that reappear after a little bit and you kinda do wonky platforming like up them by landing on top of them just after they come back like it's so wonky and weird but it's really endearing to me
honestly there is no other game that makes me feel quite like the way metroid 1 does, on top of everything i've already talked about i just love the visuals of the game; dark, abstract, alien. qualities that are enhanced by the inherently interpretive nature of 8-bit graphics. it's hard to put into words properly i just know nothing else gives me the specific feelings this game does and that's very valuable to me. also Hip Tanaka's OST is just pitch perfect, according to the audio section on metroid's wikipedia page he's said that he wanted to make a score that made players feel like they were encountering a "living creature" and had no distinction between music and sound effects, and yeah i can't think of a better way to describe it myself, what a cool guy
so that's metroid 1 then, and then i write a conclusion and go like something something it's craaazyyyy how something so oldddd and feel so newwww or something, maybe, idk, sorry, i love this game
