Topic: Metroid II: Return of Samus Impressions thread.

[reads the metroid wiki] Oh wait, yeah there's only the varia suit. Well I guess I only skipped the ball jump then... It's not like I needed it at all but, being able to jump as a ball is better than waiting for the bomb to explode...

I'll try to find it next time.

I could do neat tricks with it combined with the Spiderball.

I loved this game as a child, but I was never able to complete it. I always reached a dead end, and couldn't figure out how to progress any further. I believe I'd always get stuck near that first large room where you could wall climb up to ceiling which had those hidden walkways. This will definitely be one of my very first GB VC downloads, as soon as my 3DS arrives. Anybody remember which area I'm referring to?

There are several large areas with hidden walkways

Metroid II is the only 2D Metroid game I've ever owned and I loved it. If you haven't done so already, download it. I know the old black and white graphics are pretty dull but the game is an absolute classic. There are three endings depending on how fast you beat it, so there is incentive to play through it a second time.

@Morpheel, I was referring to the very first large cavern, after you've discovered the morph ball, bombs and the spider ball.

I couldn't 100% under 3 hours...

It's fairly large for a Gameboy game, huh?

The first time I beat the game I got the worst ending. I don't remember how long it took me. After a few more playthroughs, I finished the game in 1:28 and I thought that was good, but I've seen some crazy speed runs that are WAY faster. For whatever reason, if you jump while in ball form, then turn on the spider ball and press left on the D-pad, you move insanely fast toward the left. I exploited that glitch like crazy, but it only works when moving left. So strange.

I found out that you can reach "secret worlds" (actually random worlds generated by being in some place not known by the game) by using a harmless gitch in this game, look it up it's quite interesting.

Turns out this thing I did could be considered a "secret world", too. _{Not an interesting one, though...}

@Morpheel, you can do almost the same thing in Metroid (NES). It's called the wall climb glitch. The original Metroid was never actually completely mapped. The programmers knew about it too, but they never decided to release this information.

Oh here it is weirder, it has nothing to do with jumping through walls.
It seems that pressing select fast while moving or falling large distances messes up how the game renders the world, leaving platforms where there should be nothing and even holes where there used to be solid wall, sometimes these holes go all the way to the end of the screen, which leads to a secret world.

There's even a site dedicated exclusively to this

I downloaded this from Club Nintendo and played it over Christmas. I did not have too much trouble without the map; only got stuck one time for an extended period. The game really gives you a sense of isolation on this planet world, sort of a proto-survival horror type game. However, the black and white graphics do not help navigation and the music is a disappointment. It took me about 8-10 hours to beat the game. I hope you enjoy it!

This is quite true, the first time I saw an Alpha Metroid evolve into a Beta Metroid and start chasing me, I fully freaked out and then laughed at myself for getting spooked by a black and white, 8-bit game

There's a section where you see half a dozen Metroid shells lying around, which clues you into the fact that there's going to be a serious fight again. For an old game, I always found myself admiring how effectively it created tone and atmosphere.

You could, you know, skip the extra E-Tanks if you think the game is too easy for you.

I'm not saying the game is too easy - but even if it were then its bad design couldn't be resolved by the logic of 'You just don't get the powerups', because that's what the exploration aspect of the game is about, and it shouldn't need to be sacrificed just to get the desired difficulty.

I'm not saying you should stop exploring, I said you could "skip" the the power ups, as in, not touching them, I never said anything about not trying to find them.

It's like skipping heart containers in Zelda or using only sucky pokemon in any pokemon game, it makes the game harder for people who want the challange. It's being creative with your games.

The game is not very long. You can restart your game or start another file without guilt if you feel that the gameplay has become too easy.

Nintendo's portable policy has always been making easier, more accessible experiences to fit the portability of the console. That's why this game has save points and "easy" objetives, it doesn't need to be brutal because it's not intended to be played during long periods of time.

Much of the dificulty would come because most players would eventually forget the layout of the map between play sessions.

Yeah, nintendo really made some bare bones emulators for the GB games... If only every VC game had all the awesome options that Sega included with the Game Gear games... Oh well.

I hope they add more VC games soon anyway D:

7 hours, wow! I thought I had taken a lot of time to beat the game (took me 4:44 hours to beat it)
I guess you're really exploring every nook and cranny of the planet then!

All you need to know about Metroid II is it's not as good as Metroid or Super Metroid....but vastly better than Other M.