"Not only the greatest SNES game ever, but one of the best games of all time. Period."
The game sucks you right in with its intriguing prologue and beautiful spriting. Planet Zebes has never looked better, even with the advent of Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance. Samus herself is animated incredibly well, even by today's standards. The detail is so fine in every aspect, you can actually see small flows of water and breaks in the rock in the background. The game's graphics are THAT good.
Sound-wise, this is truly the best of the sixteen-bit era. The atmospheric soundtrack will immerse you, and the sound effects are top-notch, for an SNES game. Still, there are problems with the slight staticky noise that accompanies each shot. Aforementioned issues aside, there isn't really any problem with the audio.
As for gameplay, there are no problems. I mean, none. The controls are mapped out perfectly, and the setup is easy to use. I do, however, recommend you use the Classic Controller for this one. I've been using the GameCube controller and, while I have grown accustomed to it, it's still particularly hard to do certain things (Control Stick + Walljump =/= Easy).
For value, you can't really beat the price. Skilled gamers (with the exception of insanely fast speedrunners) can probably get through this in about four or five hours (5:11 completion time. Hell yeah!), but, the rest will be hunting down items well into our ninth or tenth hour. You certainly do get a lot of bang for your eight bucks.
This is one of the top-tier Virtual Console releases to date, and I highly recommend getting it. The game's complicated, expansive worlds and multiple enemies will keep you occupied for a good, long time.