Miiverse: Super Metroid - Too Taxing For Today's Gamers?

Is that guy seriously stuck in the save room?

I saw one post from someone saying Other M was their first Metroid game and Super Metroid disappoints them. While several other gamers were bashing the gamer for it, I was simply telling him "Dig a little deeper." I know it's important to not make fun of other gamers, but sometimes I wonder...

I only ask for help if I really am completely stumped with a puzzle,and that's rarely.

Kids have it too easy these days. If they get stuck for more then 5 minutes they ask for help instead of exploring and getting the satisfaction of passing the part you were stuck at for an hour.

Being too connected to the internet isn't the problem, game design nowadays is. I do agree that gamers these days don't explore as much as we do during the NES / SNES days because everything today is already set in stone. The achievements, the shiny objective marker, the tutorials, etc.

The more game designers try to streamline their games, making them fool-proof, appealing and accessible to all kinds of people, gender and age, the less they become interesting. But we really can't blame them can't we? These days, games have become more accessible with smartphone, tablets and phablets.

So in the end, it all depends on the era and the trend gamers grow up in IMO

Can you imagine these people with the original Metroid? I don't know where to go!!!!

Wow....One, there is a digital manual in the home menu ...I wish it was also in the VC menu but whatever because...Two, while you're there click the internet icon and look up a guide. The game will pop up as a search automatically.

Damo beat me to it. Come on kids, use your noggin like we did back in the 90's. No Gamefaqs back then! It's not your fault, tough. I blame society and even the industry in particular with all this "casual" hand holding nonsense. You are ruining the whole "discovering for yourselves" experience. But don't give up! I hope you do get to the end of the game and appreciate such a masterpiece.

"How do u roll? Didn't read the begining control thing. any help?"

That's the worst of all. I won't comment the article because I've got nothing nice to say.

I'm trying to imagine these kids with anything from Ultima to The Goonies II to the first Dragon Warrior in trying to figure out a difficult game on your own. Speaking of Goonies, I believe it was Ma Fratelli who said "kids suck".

Us old timers are made of different stuff than contemporary gamers, the art & science of steadfastness & trial and error are gone it seems.

jk

We see the exact same thing with Toki Tori 2... If people get stuck, they tend to post it on Miiverse instead of letting their grey matter take care of the problem.

I think the attention span is just a lot shorter these days. I remember being stuck on Maniac Mansion or Monkey Island or similar games for days. And when I finally found the solution, I could dance for days

I have been helping many people out on miiverse already. Some of them are just plain dumb. Here is one example: There is a section where you need to run over a crumbling bridge. The poor guy wasn't able to get past it. So I told him. 'Press and hold B'. He responded with: There is no B button! Me: O.o

This is what you get when you take manuals out of game boxes, making kids think that they only exist in-game as tutorials and hint screens. I guess none of them ventured to check the virtual manual for the game?

I'll be honest, it's too hard for my liking, I'm rilly not into the retro games at all. Give me modern AAA titles with a sprinkling of indie, that's my luv honestly.

Like Fire Emblem on hard/casual is right at the very very limit of my hardness liking haaa.

I actually brought the version on the SNES that came with the guide. Oh the shame I've felt all these years finally shared thanks social mediums I couldn't have imagined back then!

These days it is all about the cinematic experience. If a kid feels stuck with no reward, the game doesn't flow like a movie and the player becomes less interested. So going back to a game like Super Metroid, they carry over those general expectations..

I get this with some of the younger people who work for me. I try to teach them how to do the job, but they're more interested in simply getting the answer to their immediate problem.

the only one i can understand is the one stuck in the part that requires you to use the super dash.
for the others, well I never beat the original metroid, so i can kiinda relate (the problem there is either i don't know where to go, or i get killed before i can get where i want to, or i give up and play something else)
in general though the solution is always the same: TRY EVERYTHING
unfortunately asking is included in that everything, and often comes up before trying the right thing. sometimes you just don't know if you have what it takes to do it.
then again, JUST SHOOT THE DOOR WITH EVERYTHING AND SEE IF THAT WORKS BEFORE ASKING

@nik1470 I also had the gigantic boxed PAL edition that was sold in Portugal. But since the guide was in German (which I hadn't learned back in 1994), ended up digging pretty much the entire game by myself and some friends.

Kids these days; they just want everything handed on a platter... now get off my lawn!

Give a man a fish, feed him for a....uh....um....somebody tell me how that goes!

@Burning_Spear Ha, obviously you can't use Gen Patton's advice then...no one's going to surprise you.

I'm ashamed to be a part of this generation.

@3DS Images of the movie "Idiocracy" just flooded my brain.

I'm the same age or younger than most of these guys, and i beat it with no help when I was like 10. Le epic facepalm.

WTF?

@3DS I know what you mean! I'm FOURTEEN and I'm not having any problems. I'm pretty proud that my brain is even able to process Super Metroid. One of them is even stuck at the first room.

Fathers and mothers of gamers... SHAME ON YOU for not teaching your children how to play games! You made them grow used to tutorials, and look what has happened!

Society is falling apart, and this is another prime example. My child will learn how to play old school games the right way - by learning the controls from me, and figuring it out himself!

OK, kind of playing around. These posts are hilarous. Kids today are dumb.

Yeah, well a lot of gamers in the 80's and 90's never actually 'finished' those games. NES and SNES games were notorious for their difficulty, and I hate to be the heathen in the house.... but for a fair degree of the time, the difficulty was due to poor game design rather than some 'imagined' hardcore sensibility that pervaded those titles..

Sure, I think a lot of AAA game design nowdays has gone 'too' far in streamlining games...but a lot of those people who post on miiverse are young kids, and I mean, I think most adult gamers would struggle to complete those SNES games today..

Guys, I think I'll state the obvious here to defend my generation... OF COURSE YOU KNOW HOW TO BEAT THE GAME, YOU PLAYED IT WHEN YOU WERE KIDS!! Don't mistake your knowledge for problem solving. Also I personally find the Prime series MUCH harder than Super Metroid, the 2D environment and 'bomb until you break something'puzzles are easy if not at least simple. Oh I'm 16 btw, never played SM 'till now.

I see a bunch of them are stuck on the "n00b bridge", that took me forever to figure out as a kid.

There are two kinds of people: Gamers, and... People who really never should have picked up a controller (see above Miiverse screenshots).

pathetic...
luckily im not a completely modern gamer like those miiverse posts shown above... even though this is the first time i played super metroid

Jeeze - I didn't realise Nintendo Life could sound so patronising. For shame. Widening the "Us and Them" mentality.

I'm with the kids - we have the technology, time is of the essence and there are a lot of games to get through. If you're stuck and it's no longer fun, hit the boards.

This game is nowhere NEAR as hard as the original Metroid. This was the first metroid game I've played to beat, and it's AMAZING if you take the time to explore. I've made it through the game with only a simple map that I've printed off the internet.

Since on WiiU VC the youngsters can save Super Metroid anytime they want, rather than only at Save Stations which you had to find, its already Easier than ever.
Maybe Nintendo needs to patch it so that an ai controlled Samus completes sections when ppl get stuck, like in NSMBU ai luigi... should kees the kids happy.

Most of my games are modern, but I'm pretty sure most of the people who played Super Metroid on the SNES got stuck at one point or another, the only difference here is we have plenty of helpful, friendly people willing to lend a hand.

I'm 35 & reading this made my day, I LOLed so hard! Game these days come with a "I WIN" button, gotta love the old school games

@PvtOttobot Wrong. I first played Super Metroid when I was 26, and that was two years ago. I was never stuck and I've not used any online FAQ or walkthrough. It's just that modern gamers expect games to show them everything they have to do with big, flashing arrows, and reward them for making a step with a pointless achievement.

@Conzo The problem here is that they are stuck on the very beginning of the game, which means that they probably won't be able to advance anywhere further without being led by the hand. I don't believe Super Metroid offers anything to gamers trying to play it that way.

Also as NinjaWaddleDee said - SM is leagues behind first Metroid in terms of difficulty, so... Yea.

And if I see one more post calling Samus a "Metroid", and a "he", I swear I'm gonna frag somebody through standard TCP/IP. Just saying... ;/

When I was a young gamer you got 3 lives and no continues dag nabbit!
Plus you made your own maps with pencil and paper and some games had passwords that were pages long.

There was no Miiverse when I played the original Metroid, so I just found a piece of paper and some different colored pens and made a map. I'm sure I could have found one on the Internet, but doing it myself was much of the fun of that game. Sometimes even the smartest of people have brain locks and need a hint, but Metroid is a game that, by its nature, requires you to think and solve problems. If you remove that by having someone do the thinking for you, you may as well simply let them play the game for you too.

Hear that kids? Don't try it!

@Shiryu ha it was actually the size of the box and the cover art that sucked me in and made me hand over my birthday cash. Good effort on figuring out the game its no mean feat.

Or DO try it. But if you need help with something that's unintuitive to you then we will all laugh at you.

Have people lost the ability to try stuff out?

I'm having trouble with the wall jump, spending time trying to perfect it. I had to ask on miiverse how to perform it, knew how but for the life of me couldn't get it to work... didn't occur to me to youtube it as it's something I would ask a mate or school friend about back in the day before Gore created the world wide web. But apart from that fiddly bit, it's a simple game.

@Kifa I'll join you, I hamy my CAPS LOCK READY!

People had to "figure it out" back in the day? Don't kid yourself.

http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Metroid_Nintendo_Player%27s_Guide

I hope you guys didn't forget the existence of player's guides in that time and age. The only difference is that this is a more noticeable problem with the widespread use of the internet. So stop stroking your egos.

Well, no best ending for them then. ;P

@ThomasBW84 that's what I loved about Toki Tori 2. Who would have ever thought I'd be comparing that game to Super Metroid.

@Ernest_The_Crab Well, I never used a guide for Super Metroid. I got stuck a couple of times, but figured it out after a while. I think half the fun is trying out different things and figuring out the rules of the game.

I agree though that this problem may seem bigger now that we have the internet.

Somehow this is nothing new. The only difference is that people around the world knows the clueless gamer rather then people around them.

The Internet is the best way to gather our flaws and victories.

I wish I had a WiiU. I'd be on Miiverse trying to help each and every one of these people, whether they appear stupid or not. Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time and I want everyone to appreciate it as much as I do.

Oh man, I can't stop laughing at all those posts!

I do see ONE positive from this though: At least they are still playing the game and want to get further into it!

I would have killed to have some kind of community back in the day to ask for help with this game.... all I had was the school yard, nintendo power, strategy guides, nintendo tip line... oh nevermind...

The kids don't stand a chance.

I think it's a mix of all these things. There are genuinely strange parts if you've never played a 2D Metroid (the run button is one) and yeah, the game's not spelled out for you and requires experimentation and time. I can even understand the shoot 5 missiles to open a red door if you've never played Metroid.

At the same time it is silly how people get stuck on relatively easy parts that require just a little bit of experimentation and logic. Maybe I'm just exposed to this stuff but this is my first time going through SM and I haven't had too many hiccups, just tiles that you have to bomb.

Also I'm like 99% the save room one is a parody because holy crackers.

Wii U browser is awesome i can flip quickly to a walkthrough and quickly back again!

On my first playthough of Super Metroid, I figured out Wall Jumping all on my own. I've never used Walkthroughs unless I can't use my noggin to figure it out first, most of the time if there's a problem I'll spend at least 1/2 an hour trying everything, If there isn't anything that isn't blatantly obvious, then THAT is when I'll use one. Fortunately, most of the time I figure whatever it is out and therefore no walkthrough or hand-holding required.

Now the problem I see here is, is that todays kids are stupid and lazy. They've never been challenged because all they play is Halo and Call of Duty, I've never played those games, if at all no great amount of mind-numbing time, so the difference? I'm a better player because I play games that allow thinking it over instead of just tapping and shooting. The people who make games like COD or Halo generally don't want you to think, everything has to be violent to be fun and I'm ashamed to be near people who call themselves gamers who dislike games just because the graphics suck or the level is to hard (or whatever lame excuse that is just full of plain laziness).

OK so TL:DR, long story short, I know I wasn't born in the 80s or grew up along the NES/SNES, but even a guy like me can sit down and figure it out and show some initiative. I'm not a teenager any more, but even when I was that age I could figure puzzles and s**t out, so I guess kids are a bit thick, if only there was a way....

So much negativity in the comments. Don't you think you guys are being too hard on these guys. Not to mention this is only a select group, not all children have trouble with this genre.

They've never played this genre. The closest thing they might've played is Mario. You guys are acting like "DAY SUD NO GAMERING LOGIC BY NOW, DOSE NUMBSKULLS". Really? "Kid's these days sure are dumb"

Gaming Elitism.

These players are not you, they were not born during your time, they do not have your logic, and they haven't played this genre.

just blame it on glitches and poor level design like the rest of the internet. But the true retro enthusiasts just love Metroid to death.

It is easier to find help today because of the internet and media like Mii verse .On the other hand I remember buying video game magazines all the way back to the 1980's and 90's. Back then you would have to wait a month for the next magazine to come out. Those mags. had cheat codes and walkthrough. Today those mags are really dead. I have game informer but it's old news when it arrives.

This game isn't even that hard

@RetroGBHippie92 THESE KIDS ARE INFERIOR COMPARED TO MY CHILDHOOD! THOSE LAZY GOOD-FOR-NOTHING IDIOTS. WHEN I WAS A BOY, I FIGURED OUT MOST OF THE GAME MAHSELF. I ONLY USED DEM WALKTHROUGHS, AND GUIDES WHEN I NEEDED TO, NOT ALL THE TIME! STUPID KIDS, JUST USE LOGIC.

@Rawk_Hawk Yeah I'm with you, I just Loooooooove my Metroid!! I bet that game without a walkthrough first time, it wasn't that hard, now If I played Contra, I'm sure with a bit of practice i could beat it without the Konami Code.
@younglink1990 You're right, it ain't hard.
@HeatBombastic Wow jokes on you dude, sounds like you use walkthroughs, at least more often than I do, don't deny it. No really, my 15 year old brother is part of the same generation that everyone here is complaining about, I know what I'm talking about. Also get back under your bridge, troll.

I'm not gonna say that kids these days need to learn how to do things for themselves but they do need a game that will put them in their place when they think that they are real gamers.

Aw come on now. You might forget how it was, but a lot of people, this is their first time playing it (more than you would think). I can think of several places I got stuck in that game (like the so called 'noob bridge' .

This just seems like a lot of old school gamers being all 'WE'RE SUPERIOR DOHOHOHO'. Really? You never got stuck in the game even one time back when you were first playing it?

Haven't got this yet but I have beaten the first metroid and just released the metroids in fusion. Toki Tori 2 is hard but I am making it my goal not to search up the answers, been successful so far. I am a experienced newish gamer at 14 but I do figure answers out by myself so you can be glad there are quite a lot of 'noobs' who still try to do stuff on their own.

VC games are where Miiverse is truly going to shine.

I suppose it isn't really their fault. We grew up in an era where we were rarely told where to go, just dropped in some fantastical place with an unclear goal. We usually figured out the controls on our own (unless we took the time to read an instruction manual) because most games didn't have a built in tutorial. Going off topic a bit, but I think that the fact that we didn't know what to do forced us to explore much more, and then when we did figure out what to do, we were incredibly excited. Also, the exploring allowed the game to last longer and contributed to that feeling of wonder you got when playing (finding new sections and freaking out, even if it wasn't where you were supposed to go, et cetera).

Well, back to the matter at hand, these kids never had an opportunity to get dropped into a game with little to no knowledge of what to do or how to do it. Tutorials are in abundance, and the game usually gently (or sometimes forcefully) leads you by the hand from area to area, leaving little time to explore before you reach the next place you have to go. I suppose this might be because developers have the technology to add these things into the games (unlike in the 80's and early 90's) and they want to make their experience more enjoyable than frustrating. We have a beef with it because we remember a simpler time, but I'm sure that if we went back in time and offered a full tutorial and hint system to a young version of ourselves, we would snatch it up. We can't blame these kids for not knowing any better. Super Metroid is by no stretch of the imagination an easy game, and we like it better that way. But maybe they don't, and (I'll reiterate) it really isn't their fault that they feel that way. It's simply a matter of circumstances.

My point is, don't hate on them because they don't have as much experience with older games that some of us have. Nobody is to blame, and if anything, they are the victims here, not us.

@Yellowgerbil That's great You're figuring out stuff out on your own, I like that you should be a role model to gamers your age, I know I tried to be when I was a teenager. At least now I can't say that ALL noobs are stupid, I know I said kids but I didn't mean teenaged gamers.

Got this game two days ago on the Wii U. I am not having a single problem with the difficulty. I've never played this on the original console, however it's very exciting to finally play a game recently that actually challenges me to explore the level to find a path to victory. I do have to throw in that it is indeed a sad day when you have people who can't even figure out how to roll, or to even get past the first save station.

Gamers these days need to be spoonfed everything. Whether its NSMBU's superguide or the straightline paths and arrows pointing where to go next in games like Halo and Tomb Raider, i fear gaming has lost a good amount of its challenge in trying to cater to a generation that wants everything now (make that yesterday).

Anyway, i'm having a blast replaying Super Metroid. I played almost an hour last night. Beat crocomire and got to grappling beam. I can't wait to fight phantoon and ridley again probably tonight!

Thanks for a laugh.

Miiverse is awesome!!! This sort of entertainment is priceless.

Damn kids!

jk. I'd be lying if I said I made it through Super Metroid w/o using a guide.

Gamers today are NOT what they were back in the 80's. I've been a hardcore gamer my entire life. I'm 33 years old now, and have owned pretty much every home console since the the ColecoVision. I have two kids (13 and 7) and I can't count the amount of times I get asked "Dad, how do I....Dad, can you help me with....Dad, can you look up?" I'm constantly yelling at my kids to just "PLAY THE GAME" and "FIGURE IT OUT ON YOUR OWN" (of all the stupid things to have to yell at kids over lol). If you couldn't get past a level in the SNES days, you kept trying, and trying and if you failed, you went outside, rode your bike and came back to try later. I personally haven't played a challenging game in some time. Infinite continues, health regen, and all of the other implementations into today's games have really changed gaming.

Aside from the above 'rant', I do think Miiverse is an awesome community. It is nice to have a place to go and ask for help or discuss the games directly from a console, but if today's gamers are running to ask for help after being stuck for 10-60 minutes, they should try for another day or two before asking for help lol.

^^^ It's almost as though the objective is not how to beat the game but to figure out where the help is.

I haven't played Super Metroid, but there has to be SOME part that's easy for new players to get suck on. People probably reacted the same way when the game was first released.

@Smitherenez
I think I commented on that one as well XD
I'm 21 and my very first console game was Metroid II on the gameboy when I was 6, although If I were to replay it I could probably do it in a day, it took me until I was 12 to actually complete that game but I now no so many of the hidden short cuts.
So yesterday I started playing Super Metroid for the first time, and I am loving the experience. I have actually reached a point where I was wondering around in circles unable to work out how to progress (after aquiring Spazer and high jump boots). I don't want to ask for help but I can't begrudge those that do seeing as it's as simple as addressing someone across the room thanks to miiverse.
@RetroGBHippie92 OMG THAT MUST BE IT!

I'm one of them, sadly.
Time to play more NES Games without using GameFAQs I guess.

That's part of the charm of these games... I remember being stuck as a kid playing this with friends but we all banded together and pressed on.. no walkthroughs.. no miiverse.. and no whining!

c'mon guys, don't stress the kids and help them as if they are our little brothers and sisters...
I've a 6 years nephew and she's quit good even in Donkey Kong Country Returns!

@mr_moobs THATS FUNNY

I BET SUPER METROID 8 TIME IN THE PAST LETS IT BE ONE MORE TIME THEN OK

That's the best part of Metroid too! Figuring out what to do! lol

Are you kidding? I played Super Metroid for the first time two days ago. I got all the way up to Kraid without a map. Not to mention, I absolutely loved exploring in the original Zelda... minus the fact that I died every two seconds.
There's room for old games in this society, even for younger ones like me.

two word cod generation LOOOOOL

@RetroGBHippie92 It was a joke. The internet always assumes since I'm using satire I'm suddenly a troll.

So what if I use walkthroughs (I don't. Seriously, I don't, I'm speaking hypothetically)? Am I inferior to the race of humans that don't use walkthroughs, or the ones that were born in the 80's?

I was just commenting on the inconsiderate, and frankly ignorant comment that you made. Kids these days are not lazy, and kids these days are not stupid. You're not better than them. Just because they play less video games, and never played retro games like these does not make them inferior "gamers"

I guess this explains why so many people were impressed when I finished game 100% on Wednesday. Post a screenshot, people are all like "no way!" and I'm like "way!"

Really though, to a very real extent, I have no room to talk. I grew up using NPower and player's guides while gaming...still do, often. And I admit...I did for this run of Super Metroid also. That said, I feel that some of the complaints on Miiverse are ridiculous, like the people who get stuck just after that one-way gate in Brinstar. I use the guide to help find the obscurely hidden items, not to tell me how to get past obvious barriers. I also wall-jump like a boss, so that's fun.

An awful lot of pomposity in this thread. I would imagine "kids these days" are actually cleverer/more savvy than we were at the same age. And I'm not sure about all the "back in my day there was no help/walkthroughs". Er, there was: Nintendo Power, Player's Guides, Nintendo Hotline, real offline friends, etc.

Im a gamer since about 1991, looking back gaming in general then was far harder. There was actually a point to having and reading an instruction manual, save points for the most part didnt exist and if they did it was usualy a password you had to use. However I must admit as a person in my late 20's I find I have less time to game so I do appreciate things that save time like tutorials and save states, but I can still throw down when need be

I can't help but smirk. C'mon people, it's not Dark Souls. This game was made for figuring stuff out on your own.

It's interesting to see articles like this, rubbing a thumb on modern games which coddle gamers too much, and how games of old just dropped you with nothing to fall back... yet, a modern gem like Toki Tori 2 does this and everyone complains.

:/

"Y can't Metroid crawl?" haha that's great.
@Jayden My thoughts exactly. I wish more modern games would stop holding our hands but the majority wouldn't like that.
I do think this is exactly what Miiverse was made for though.

The only thing I needed help with was getting into morph ball mode. Yeah, I felt pretty stupid; I was stuck in that room for a good five minutes. For some reason pressing down twice just did not click as a possible command in my head.

I recently decided to play all the classic NES and SNES titles I missed out on. I just beat LttP and SMW, and I am currently working on Super Metroid. For all of this I vowed to not look anything up, and I am glad I did. Instead of having a walkthrough tell me where to go I wander around looking for stuff until I find something. Mind you sometimes I end up wandering for a couple of hours but the satisfaction is worth it! It is because of this wandering that I love these games enough to all be in my top ten. I have had Super Metroid for two days and I have already put in ten wonderful hours.

I'm actually a little shocked by how much things have changed in this way. However, side-scrolling platformers just aren't the norm that they used to be. The entire paradigm was rolled out to older gamers over years, so many of these players just don't have the experience.

On the other hand, my kids LOVE this stuff and they are 4 and 7 right now. It just takes exposure and experience.

I actually love that the MiiVerse is there to help out, though. Really shows some of the value of having this on the Wii U for many people. Plus, I've got to hope that many will have a similar (if less hardcore) experience as @Mickamott's there above me.

Adopting a sense of superiority over a video game is a weird thing to do, people.

I started playing this game and when I saw that it didn't gave me a clue of what to do, I remembered that it isn't a game from today.
I also started playing this week for the first time God of war, and my impression from the first 2 chapters is that it is a really nice looking interactive movie.

Mega is not amused...

Judging from some of these Mii's they look like adults, which is kind of pathetic if you know what I mean... Not saying they should have already played this game, or any video games before, but some of those questions just need experimentation or common sense.

Heh...irony here is that games today mostly telll you in-game basics. Heck even the manual now, in Nintendo'[s case anyway,is moved onto the cartridge I'll be honest though, this game does take a lot of figuring out. There's areas I haven't even touched just for trying to find weapons or energy upgrade/addition or whatever it was mainly because I have no idea how to get there because the placements just don't make any sense.. Then of course there's that glow energy restore thing or something and I think a sort of air dash, I still have no idea completely how either of those work, but they show it in like either 2nd or 3rd demo screen after the title. (it just takes a long time to wait and see it) The only other thing I can think of is how for a time I've stayed stuck in that 1 places with the leaves or whatever because I either couldn't get to 1 of the doors or was missing a weapon, I forget, until I reset, restarted, and don't even remember how I even got passed it. The lava area and underwater areas are confusing as hell, too. But these days, guides just don't do it anymore; If i'm ever really stuck I check around for videos instead, it's just easier to see it done right or how hard it is and that sort.

"Metroid crawl" LOL!!!

Super Metroid is the type of game where you are supposed to actually have to think to progress in the game. I think that is part of the charm this series has and I hope that they don't change that for future games.

@nik1470 It was the same for me, It was also my birthday money on the stakes. But I did played Game Boy's "Metroid II Return of Samus" a few years before, so it was just impossible to resist. The game does get very easy half way into it if you disregard the 3 hour "I wanna see Samus in a bikini" time limit and go after every item, you become a walking colossus in no time.

This game holds up incredibly well. I couldn't put it down.

I remember the long road to beating the original Metroid back in the day and we always figured things out the hard way. Using our brains!!!!!,

silly noobs

There was one Miiverse post that said "I just got the power bomb, how do I use it"?
I seriously wanted to slap that person through the screen. COME ON!!!! Try poop out!!!!

There is a TON of hand-holding in this generation of games and it does ruin some of the exploratory facets of them but let's not be too hard on this generation of gamers when it comes to Super Metroid. Born in 1980, I grew up with all of the ol' school as well as this. Very few of us honestly made it through Super Metroid without some help. Instead of Mii verse or online walkthroughs we had Nintendo Power with pages and pages devoted to maps for Super Metroid. If you did not have access to that guide they sold Super Metroid guides separately and on top of that, if you were stuck you could make an expensive 1-900 number to call Nintendo Power and speak with people who had the walkthrough in front of them. Even replaying it, I had to look up how to get through Brinstar. Sure, there are places where you can notice a cracked block to bomb, but there are a couple of locations you are supposed to shoot the Super Missle or bomb ball a spot that has no indication whatsoever that it is any different from the rest of the environment. Cut the young gamers some slack on this one, old gamers.... Oh, and Dragon Warrior I. I got my rear end handed to me over and over by the Knight in Hauksness guarding Erdrick's armor until I learned from a guide that you put him to sleep.

OK, I know I need a guide of sorts to get through a Metroid game, since I'm new to it, and I usually get lost, but even I know that if you find a small passage, you need the Morph Ball to get through. Half of the stuff is asking how to use a beam or something - read the darn manual!

Just wait 'til EarthBound gets its re-release. hahah

I think all of you older (older than them, not me) people are missing the point.

The people who are asking for help probably don't even really want to be playing the game in the first place, they are only doing it b/c they've heard all their lives how great it is and now it's cheap and easily accessible. They didn't - like you - save up their birthday money for 6 months and lock themselves in their room planning only on playing this. For them it's a whim, for you it was your entire reason for existing. So of course you sweated it out and worked it out, no matter how long it took; for them it's "eh", why bother. They aren't committed, they want to get back to porn and Netflix and whatever big blockbuster AAA title just came out. They don't care, they have nothing to prove to you or themselves and they just want to finish and move onto something else.

Also - probably a LOT more people got stuck on these games than didn't - and right now they are hard at work doing manual labor, not sitting in a cubicle - and they probably don't even ever play video games any more. You are the lucky chosen ones for whom video games are easy and thus a delight, but you are a small fraction of the general population.

New players are not so used to punishing games... I wish new games had the deep exploration of these old tittles, like Super Metroid and Zelda.

proof that worldwide intelligence is dropping

It's not a problem with "kids these days" it's a problem with "games these days". If we had all these features available as kids we'd do the same thing. Get stuck for 1 minute then cry for help. Modern games teach players that they don't have to work that hard for solutions, so obviously when a game asks them to, they don't understand the logic. They don't understand "shoot doors with everything", and other aspects of game logic that we had to deal with.

Many modern games are designed to be played. And to be played to completion. Older games were designed to be beaten or overcome.

Also, how do we know for sure that these people are kids/much younger? The facial hair on some of those Miis would indicate that they could very well be roughly the same age and brought up from the same totally hardcore and super-tough macho background (where guides and walkthroughs didn't exist even though they totally did)?

I started playing last night. I have to say that I'm progressing very smoothly. Finding secrets almost like I still remember where to look when I played thru back when it came out on my SNES. I 5 year old loves watching as much as I love playing.

It is a bit sad. Graphics have in many cases been put in place of exploration. The point of games when I grew up was that you died a million times trying to find something. You fell down holes repeatedly until you aced a jump. You got lost for hours until something clicked and you found your way out of a situation. Now there's a little blinking arrow you follow the whole time. Or a camera pans to show you what you need to do. Figure it out. You'll get more than enjoyment. You'll get satisfaction. I think that's why we retro gamers cling to these dusty old games. Satisfaction is something that can be used as a growing experience. Happiness is fleeting. Happiness can be gained from satisfaction. Satisfaction can not be gained from happiness.

I know I just sounded like "Grandpa Shworange" there for a minute, but I'm fine with that. Oh yea, and "You dang kids! Get off my lawn!!!"

I had someone saying they couldn't find the Morph Ball. I told them you can find it within 5 minutes. He posted back wanting directions. I told him to quit the game. If he can't find the Morph Ball, the game would be too hard.

@TreesenHauser Hahaha, I can't wait to see Miiverse with all the crying and help seeking.

L O L

Oh, one more thing, the number of people calling Samus "Metroid" pissed me off so much I made this: http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/990/samusz.png

I also pointed out that Samus being a woman is not a spoiler. You see her when she dies and we have known Samus is a woman from the very first game.

Ahhhhh Miiverse...

Holy crap! I can't believe they have one of my screenshots. I am the Grey Nemo guy

Guys, I wasn't really stuck in the Save Room, It was a joke about how other kids are being stuck. I hope none of ya'll think I am THAT stupid.

Sometimes people get stuck, so what. I have Metroid NES and I have played all sorts of hard retro NES/SNES games. Megaman you name it. Metroid NES is fricking ridiculous, no map? I'm 18 by the way, my gaming diet is 50/50 on classic and modern.

While most of these people on Miiverse crying for help are belligerent n00bs, I must admit Super Metroid is flat out CRPTIC at times. I do sequence break btw. Most of their problems can be solved by looking at the map, revisiting areas, or experimenting. I had gotten the Wii U version of this game simply to use the analog control pad (makes all the difference for side scrollers) and I like it much better than the Wii VC. I don't even bother with the first Metroid because 1. it feels heartless and you never get a feeling of accomplishment, 2. LOTS OF THINGS LOOK THE SAME, 3. feels a little cheap, 4. same problem I have with the first two Zelda's, you shouldn't have to subscribe to Nintendo power to beat the game, that's cripticness at its greediest. Although I did enjoy Zelda 1 much more. 5. IT HAS A REPLACEMENT: Zero Mission. Original Metroid rendered obsolete.

Blame western games. They'll end up causing the videogame crash of 201X...again.

sometimes i cheat, this can be with a game genie, invincibility, walkthroughs on retro games whenever i feel the need
if im tired of being stuck on a part in a game i will do this, ive got a lot of games to beat and i dont have time to be stuck on one for 8 months anymore. i dont do it all the time but if i feel like it i will, ive beat my fair share of games the hard way, and ill continue to beat some of them the hard way still if i choose so

@Ernest_The_Crab

Back when I got Super Metroid (when it launched) I was just out of high school and it was either buy the game or the guide, couldn't really afford both. Having a walk through to play a game totally ruins it. I won't act like there weren't times I didn't get stuck or frustrated but I did manage to figure it all out. That in itself is the reward for beating the game. Games like this were also fun to play with a friend. Play for a while and get stuck, bring in the fresh pair of eyes to keep things moving. Nintendo seems to be the only company nowadays that cares to provide that type of experience. With everyone else it's about online passes etc...

@GreyNemo LOL

i hate this new generation, not only because of nooby crap like this, but it's a portion of why. i have a million reasons, which are all off topic, so i won't say, but this is one of those reasons. nooby kids these days turn to the internet and cheat whenever they're stuck. in my day, kids had what was called a "brain." yes, i know, shocking.

I don't know which is more amusing to me; the Miiverse posts or the strong sense of "hardcore gamer" elitism I'm seeing in the comments...

@Emaan
Ha! Exactly.

I remember back in the day NES and SNES games were hard. very hard. to the point of me going through probably 7 or 8 controllers because I would get so frustrated I couldn't beat a part or get past a boss. But let's face it, back then we turned to our gaming magazines like gamepro or EGM (if any of you remember that lol) to try and find the best suitable way to beat a boss or get past a part, we still needed help we just went that extra mile (or hour) to find/figure it out. It's just easier to find help now a days then it was back then.....but I would say that you don't get the same satisfaction of being metroid now a days as you would have 15 years ago

Yeah. How dare people who have never played the game before not know how to do it, while I've had 20 years to think about these things. I've never gotten stuck on a game before and anybody who gets stuck on a game sucks and doesn't know what it's like to be a real gamer!/sarcasm.

Grow up you guys. This game is tough, people are going to get stuck. Heck, odds are that when you first played it YOU got stuck. Don't be an elitist jerk.

@Tsukun There is a big difference between stuck and stupid. Someone asking me to guide them to the morph ball is just stupid. If you can't find that, you have no chance with this game. So many people are stuck at the part where the ground falls away when you step on it and don't know that you can hold down the B button to run. Instead of trying to figure that out they turn to Miiverse and cry. I had someone asking me what to do at the first red door. They had the five missiles but instead of experimenting, turned to Miiverse.

Metroid is a game series that can only be completed through exploration. Asking for help every two seconds is not how to play the game.

i hellped about 7 or 8 ppl then gave up hellping unles thay actuly asced.. the amunt of ppl who didn't know haw to go in to morphball... + alot of ppl get confused by the boss statue blocking off the way to Mother Brain lol. i just sed to them "wate and see 8)" i do like haw on Miiverce your politeness is not shoved back in you're face (moste of the time eniway)

This issue is not limited to games or how gamers depend on guides, faqs or cheat codes to actually complete a rather easy game (most games these days are really easy - and I never use faqs, cheats, guides, etc ...). This issue reflects society on a whole on how people expect things to be handed to them like an instant answer to getting stuck, wherever they may be in life or in the game on a silver platter. I purchased Super Metroid for the SNES when it reached my local game shop and beat it in around 40 hours with no help at all. It actually felt good to complete it and I enjoyed being "stuck" for hours then finally figuring it out "on my own".

It used to mean something to go to school to declare you beat a game and when asked "how" you just smiled. If you think you've beaten a game and had to ask for help, read a faq, used a guide book, etc ... you simply cheated. Grow a pair!

@Ernest_The_Crab

I knew of Player's Guides, yet, why waste money on something that already cost way too much (I was poor) and ruin the gaming experience? I didn't need no stinkin' players guides.

I agree with the amount of silly comments for help on Miiverse. People are too afraid to do anything, or don't know how to do it altogether. Here's a thought: Instead of turning to Miiverse every minute and waiting for a response when they get stuck, why don't they just use a walkthrough? They may not learn how to play it on their own, but at least we are spared reading their ridiculous comments. Super Metroid is bad enough, but then you remember that these people are the same kind of people that can't even figure out DuckTales.

Miiverse is full of stupid kids. There are a lot of asking stupidities. Im tired of Miiverse in VC section.

Walkthroughs on the internet are too mainstream.

This article makes me so sad. This game was the first "epic" adventure I had played. I think I was 12 when I beat it. That was back when there was Gamefaqs (very early stages) and Cheat Code Central. I played through the game and only used the guides later to get better at speed runs and collect 100%.

Kids are babied these days so much with the instant gratification of Google and never-ending tutorials (or "helpers" that tell you what to do. I'm looking at you Skyward Sword!!!) that it's rare to see a kid try anymore. "Dang, there's this door, and I don't know whether to shoot it or approach it and press X... I need the internet."

a bridge... windows .... what if i shoot'em... mmmm.. nothing happened... but i want to detstroy the glass... mmm what about a bomb... WOOOOOOW! , to be fair, those kids never play this kind of games

Also, this game has tutorials if you look hard enough. Three little monsters show you how to wall jump and a bird shows you how to space jump. It just doesn't have a big flashing "Tutorial" banner when they are on the screen.

Finding help to discover the secret weapon functions such as the charge beam/morph ball bomb drop, that is something people can share and is easy to miss. Figuring out that pushing B makes Samus run or pushing select to change to missiles shouldn't need a Miiverse post.

The problem isn't stupidity, too much help available, or even that games today are too easy, the problem is that kids these days give up way to easily. I understand not wanting to be stuck for hours on one small part but the moment they get stuck they give up.

I don't expect anyone to pull the solution out of thin air but if I can teach myself to cook surely they can solve some basic puzzels in a video game.

Wow.... Uhhhh.... Press Home, tap Manual, learn to read?

Hmm, I'm not sure I ever figured out how tow all jumkp, but i recall the 3 little creatures and what ticked me off is I ended up having to time bombs to get up that stupid shaft or where ever it was. the bird I don't really remember...I'd have to see videos of them both to be sure. But yeah, again, i stayed stuck in that leaf foliage part for like weeks and hadn't touched the game for maybe 2-3 months, maybe more, until deciding to just restart it. Also, I don't think kids calling Samus Metroid is very uncommon, I'm sure wee all did it back then. Heck, there are still tons of them today calling Link Zelda!

Hopefully they'll get unstuck from their current locations and progress forward enough to get stuck in the wall jump pit. That'll be a hoot!

And so it begins. The age that many movies/TV series predicted, in which people are so accustomed to being hand-held by technology that when it eventually rises against its masters, they'll be absolutely helpless to fight back.

OHMEGEE, I've been stuck like 30secs. I, too, think the problem isn't asking for help/using walkthroughts but not having patience to look. I haven't plaed this one, but Prime I have and it was first I've played and it made me mad already.
It's the same thing when you see product reviews of the games, and someone has given 1 star just because it had some stupid 5min video and they were bored already or they didn't know how to use controls.

I was stuck in OoT for TWO MONTHS IN THAT FRIGGIN' WATER TEMPLE.. until one night, while I was trying to start to sleep, I realised where the door was.... oh the blonde me! Yes, I use walkthroughs nowadays sometimes, when I've tried and tried and I just don't get it. And because of bad experience and my incredible hate towards Water Temples, I searched walkthrough for it when I enterted the watertemple in Zelda TP...

I think my husband still has childhood issues, since his eye gets twitchy every time Battletoads is mentioned somewhere...

I played through this a couple months ago, just the Wii version. I can't remember when, but I had to use GameFaq once... I then realized it was a lot more simple than I had made it out to be "I thought I had shot 5 missiles, but I guess it was only 4". I thought the "How do you roll?" comment was hilarious!

Shame on you NL for not hiding those people's names and Miis. I haven't played it yet so it's not that I appear there.

Well as someone who once sucked hard myself I can only say:

These kids are so incredibly lucky to have Miiverse. It doesn't cost nearly as much per minute as the Nintendo help line.

There's nothing wrong with someone asking a game-solution on miiverse! However, if so many people are asking for help on miiverse hopefully Nintendo won't get the idea of downgrading future metroids!! But we'll see!

I'm just glad a younger audience is reaching out to some SNES games!

I get annoyed when people seem to forget that games are meant to be entertainment, and in the end it makes little difference if you can beat Metroid. These people aren't inferior or dumb because they can't play some game. I always thought that old games took forever to realize that once they got out of arcades, they could just be...fun. They weren't getting a quarter every time the player lost anymore. Some of these old games...man, almost anything before the mid-nineties is a no-go for me. Like the original NES Metroid. How the heck did anyone EVER win that game?!

Anyways, I guess I was just getting ticked by some people sounding kinda like hipsters to me...

@SilentHunter382 At least this is a general way for people to experience that...more or less.

Super Metroid (and more importantly the original NES Metroid) were the first console games I remember breaking out the graph paper and mapping out the progress as I went. Taping new sheets to the sides, bottoms, etc of the previous sheets to realistically represent the Metroid universe. Such an amazing feeling that when all was said and done, I had a physical, tangible representation of my accomplishments.

I don't get angry at today's gamers. in actuality, I feel bad for them. To never truly know what it's like to discover some hidden secret, pathway or to tell yourself you found that hidden missile all by yourself, well that to me, is just sad.

It's all generational I suppose. I am just happy that I was of the game community when exploration and self discovery was the norm.

@Ernest_The_Crab @Conzo

Sure, there were players guides from time to time. But at least in my experience, players guides fit into one of all of the criteria below:

1. Too expensive
2. Released long after the game was being played by everyone. But also...
3. Rushed to meet with game's street date, therefore making many sections...
4. ...Incorrect.
5. Pride

Haha, That last one was my undoing. I've purchased my share of game guides, but these instances were based on hardcover collectibles, etc. I've also asked my share of questions when finding myself stuck on a particular game, but the reality is this: While game guides were in existence back "then", the need, or want from the overall game community collective (again, at least in my experience and circles) was to rely on your gaming knowledge or just plain stubbornness to figure something out without immediately resorting to the "crutch".

And for all those people standing behind the "I'm too busy and have too many games to get through, not enough time, etc." battle cry: Maybe you should rethink WHY you began playing games in the first place. Age or generation has nothing to do with that. If you're blazing through a game for achievements, or so you can say you finished first, or to be able to post on twitter, or whatever other social website about it before anyone else, just to remain "in the know", then you should really reevaluate your gaming lifestyle.

Games should be fun, imaginative, and take us to places our everyday lives do not offer. What's the rush?

@ThomasBW84 Period needed.

Stop insulting them. It is a confusing game to those who haven't played it before.

i'm one of those without enough time to get through all my games. But I still only like to use online guides once I've beaten the core game myself, in order to go back and unlock all the stuff that's worth unlocking. For example, I will beat Mario 3D World, go back and get as many green stars as I can, and only then, when the game ceases to be fun and becomes frustrating, do I resort to the Internet.

I will also resort to the Internet during the course of a first playthrough if 1) I am hopelessly lost or continue failing for a period of days that causes me to not want to play anymore (there are certain levels or bosses that are cheap or obtuse, and being stuck just makes me want to play something else and wastes the rest of the game); or 2) The thing I am looking up is a general explanation/concept of the game. For example, in trying to get into Monster Hunter, I really needed to spend a lot of time reading general strategies and understanding the game's myriad little systems, items, areas, etc. It softens the learning curve, and lets me get more into the core of the game. Similar situation for Assassin's Creed 3. Getting into a series late can be daunting, because the developers often assume a lot of knowledge about the game's story or mechanics. The Internet helps with that.

Point is, as an old school gamer I try to strike a balance between efficiency and exploration. You gotta have a code.

I got stuck on SM several times, but it was more of a "now what/where do I do/go? (a question of the objective, not how to accomplish it)" then "how do I do this"

lol Very interesting thesis my good m8 but i can't help but feel sorry for current and (god forbid) future youths.
not long back i was playing duke nuke'm 64 (not sure if that was big in UK) and after i let my young brother try it and he immediately asked how to change the look sensitivity and where to find auto-aim.

I nearly wept.