The greatest side-scroller of all time, this Super NES masterpiece belongs in any Wii owner's library.
Super Metroid's story is fairly basic - Samus Aran, space-faring femme fatale, delivers a captured baby Metroid to a scientific space station for studies on how it might be used to produce energy, collects her payday, and heads out, only to be called back to the station when the dragon-like space pirate Ridley attacks the space station and steals the baby Metroid, taking it back to the space pirates' homeworld, Zebes (which Samus wasted at the end of the original Metroid.) Samus sets off after the Space Pirates to retrieve the Metroid before they figure out how to breed it and use it as a biological weapon. And so the adventure begins...
Super Metroid was a wonder of game design when originally released, and holds up just as well today. It has perhaps the largest world of any Metroid game, with six huge, distinct areas, including Brinstar, the classic jungle world, and Norfair, the subterranean magma world, as well as a rugged surface world, a wrecked and haunted spacecraft, and a vast ocean called Maridia. One of the marvels of Super Metroid is how well everything is put together - it's a fully integrated world. There's no separate stages, no cheesy "hub world", no pointless cliched "missions"; there's a totally natural flow to the gameplay. What makes this world such a joy to explore is the fact that Nintendo dangles tantalizing secrets in front of you. Those power-ups and new areas are visible, but getting to them takes a lot of work, as well as powers which you may not have at the time you see these new areas. Is there a gateway shaped like a dragon's mouth under that boiling lava? Come back to it when you have a powered-up suit that can withstand lava! Exploring Zebes is truly rewarding because there seem to be an endless array of hidden areas and Easter eggs. Three years later, Konami would use many of these same design concepts to formulate Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the PlayStation, as well as subsequent Castlevania games on the GBA and DS, giving rise to the term "Metroidvania" - but Super Metroid did it first, and did it best.
Your reward for all this exploration - as well as the things that will enable you to explore even more - are an impressive array of power-ups. Super Metroid has far and away the best power-ups of any Metroid game. The classic power-ups, such as the Morphing Ball, Ice Beam, Wave Beam, and Screw Attack , are still here, but SM added the Space Jump, which allows Samus to jump repeatedly in midair, and the Grappling Beam, which allows you to latch onto certain blocks and rope-swing across chasms, as well as several new beams (the beams can be used in combination for different effects as well). Samus also has a number of handy moves which can be executed with simple controller motions, including the ability to shoot in every compass direction, a wall kick that will let you climb up shafts, and a power-boost run that can be used to launch a super-powerful jump. The controls are as precise and tight as you should expect from Nintendo, although you may want to experiment with mapping button functions if you're using the GameCube controller, since the default button placement is a bit awkward. The game's graphics are 2-D at its finest. Samus is very fluidly animated. The enemies, especially the bosses, are lovingly drawn and menacing. Some of them are downright massive - the giant lizard, Kraid, who was rather squat and toad-like in the original game, is now two screens tall. Super Metroid even features some mildly gory scenes, which were a rarity in a pre-MKII Super NES game. There are also a number of well-done 2-D cinematic scenes (there are two scenes in this game which involve Samus making a hasty escape before everything around her goes up in smoke - another nod to the Alien movies). Even better is the sound. Super Metroid has the best soundtrack in the series, and one of the best video-game soundtracks of all time. Especially in the deeper caverns and seas of Zebes, the music is mournful and haunting,, and helps to create a sense of true tension in many areas before a giant enemy suddenly appears from nowhere. Nintendo's games, from Donkey Kong onward, have been famous for their sound effects, and Super Metroid is some of Nintendo's finest work in this department. The anguished screams of the multi-eyed Crocomire when it gets boiled to death in a lava pool are especially effective. Super Metroid is not a long game. If you know how to do it, it can be beaten in less than an hour; it is one of the most popular games for "speed runs". The gamers who did these speed runs, however, exhaustively explored every secret in the game multiple times before attempting them. The first time through, you can expect several hours of game play in this vast game environment. As with most Metroid games, the faster the time frame in which you beat the game, the more Samus reveals herself to you - the best ending shows her in a thong bikini. It's short, but it's definitely sweet; this is some of the meatiest gameplay you'll find.
Super Metroid really delivers on the Virtual Console's promise of the best in classic gaming - it was my second favorite SNES game, after A Link to the Past, and it's still one of my all-time favorites; time has not diminished my love for this masterpiece. If you own a Wii, this is a must-download.