The 1994 action-adventure Super Metroid is arguably the best entry in the mainline Metroid series and as a result, it's inspired many other games over the years.
One game that you may not have realised took a little bit of inspiration is Valve's 2011 puzzle-platform game is Portal 2. Speaking to YouTube channel Kiwi Talkz, the game's project lead, Joshua Weier, mentioned how the game's opening was directly inspired by Super Metroid and was used to overcome a small problem.
Here's the full story:
"We had this problem in the game which was, if you just played portal we didn't want to make you learn portals all again but at the same time if you've never played portal we had to teach you so it's like okay how do we do this in a way that's good for both and I was really inspired personally by Super Metroid. I always loved the way Super Metroid started out where it's like you're coming down to the planet and you're going through, you're kind of going through it backwards right, you're like going through where mother brain is and doing all that stuff and you turn it on and everything comes back to life and that was really where i was like hey let's do this. Let's have you so you're going back through the chambers but now they're all derelict and they're beat up and they're not quite working and everything's broken and so that gave us a way if you played the original game you're like oh this is cool yeah um i know how to do this I'll breeze right through it but i'm getting to see the the cool new setting and if you'd never play portal then you're getting trained as well along the way."
If this has got you in the mood for Portal, the good news is Valve recently announced the Portal: Companion Collection would be arriving on the Nintendo Switch at some point later this year. It will contain both Portal and Portal 2.
And if you'd like to relive Super Metroid on Switch, you can do this by signing up to the Switch Online service to access Nintendo's retro SNES library.
Have you played Portal 2? Will you be picking it up on the Nintendo Switch? Leave a comment down below.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 17
That actually makes complete sense now that I think about it. An intro with a bit more story focus followed immediately by a quick, impressive set-piece before you start the game proper in which you then backtrack to the destroyed final area of the original game, before finally entering the first real area of the game.
When I played Super Metroid, I was sorta getting the same vibe. Nice to know those feeling made sense.
Portal 2 was really fun but I still prefer the original as the puzzles were more challenging since they didn't have to adhere to any forward moving narrative.
I was just playing Portal 2 for the first time on my old PS3 - what a great game! Excited to be able to pick it up on Switch and also catch up on what I missed in Portal 1.
I own both games on Steam, don't think i'll buy them again right now. Had fun with Portal 1 but didn't finish it.
"And if you'd like to relive Super Metroid, you can do this by signing up to the Switch Online service"... Or by using one of several other ways of actually owning the game.
@Moistnado Whoops! Add "on Switch" to that.
I have both games on my PS3, but it has finally died so will definately get this, but will hold off, just in case of a physical. (Hopefully a special edition which comes with a fluffy companion cube - I wish)
Played both a million times on my PS3 but definitely getting this as well. Just praying a physical release happens.
Never played portal. As a Metroid fan, this article makes me want to.
I really hope there is a physical release for this collection.
Super Metroid is the GOAT
The game to which all other games are measured against and the very definition of gaming perfection so no surprise here
That actually makes a ton of sense when you compare them. Very cool
@EriXz Super Metroid does really stand at an important moment in gaming history, on consoles especially. You can see many trends that have built off of it: intentional focus on tone and mood, storytelling while remaining interactive, a mix of explicit and implicit instruction, quality of life considerations (auto mapping — you can't get stuck), balancing exploration with highly designed progression. All stuff that was found emerging in many games separately, but came together and became proof that future games really needed to pay attention to all these things at once.
Now, games are expected to be better partly because of Super Metroid's influence.
I wouldn't expect everyone to keep it enshrined as the GOAT. I've certainly had as much and probably more fun with later games... maybe not too many, though.
@aaronsullivan yeah, me neither, it is the GOAT to me and i understand taste is subjective, i was just stating my opinion 🙂
I asked both of my teenage sons to get Portal 2 for me for Christmas. Just wanted a used 360 disk. They didn't get me squat! But, super okay with that as soon as I watched the Direct and saw the Portal Collection was coming. I am very excited about this release.
Removed - unconstructive feedback
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