Topic: Metroid Discussion

[BLOOD MONKEY]

Discussion of Metroid, since the other topic seems to have gotten off-course. If Jorge would sticky this thread, that'd be nice since Metroid is (to me) as good a game, and in some instances, better, than Castlevania.

Topic starter-

What do you think they did right/wrong with Zero Mission?

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

Not sure if this topic should be Staked, to be honest.

Hmm... Zero Mission, huh?  Well, here are my $0.02:
1. Retconned Metroid 1 so that it matches up with the events of NES Metroid as well as Super Metroid, and has references to Metroid Prime as well.

By which I mean, they found a way to incorporate the "Justin Bailey" idea of Samus without her suit running around Planet Zebes.  They gave a reason for that to exist and gave you a way to play as Samus out of her suit in a way that made sense.
In addition, they found a way to match up the events of Metroid 1 with the events of Super Metroid.  In Super Metroid, which launched in 1993, Samus obviously returns to Planet Zebes.  The landscape of Planet Zebes, however, is quite different from what she remembers in NES Metroid, which includes a strange locale on the surface of the planet, in Crateria, called "The Wrecked Ship".  Back in 1993 there was no real connection between the Wrecked Ship and anything else prior.  It was just an area that Samus had to traverse.  However, once you play Zero Mission, you understand why the Wrecked Ship is there, and why it is wrecked in the first place.

(click to show/hide)

The Wrecked Ship is actually a Space Pirate frigate that has been positioned nearby.  Upon destroying the BioMechanical Computer,  Mother Brain, destroying Tourian (in Super Metroid, this area exists and is basically 'Old Tourian' and part of Crateria), and making your escape, you very quickly find out that the Space Pirates are in low planetary orbit and the frigate has been positioned nearby.  Unable to out-maneuver them, Samus's ship gets his, and falls back into the planet, crashes in the area which in Super Metroid would become the Crateria Lake that leads to Maridia.  This area is arid in Zero Mission, but has become a lake in Super Metroid.  It's possible that the massive explosion that MechaRidley causes at the end of ZeroMission opens up the underside of the Frigate into the Underground Aquifers of Planet Zebes, thus flooding the area nearby.  It is also possible that the massive explosion is what causes the massive cloud cover that forces Crateria to, in Super Metroid, be constantly battered by Acid Rainstorms.

You also see that the Space Pirates aren't just situated in Planet Zebes, waiting for Samus to wipe them out.  Instead, we learn that the Space Pirates are a nomadic civilization that can easily maneuver through space on its large frigates.  This idea seems to match up with what the Space Pirates can do in Metroid Prime, where they take over Frigate Orpheon.  Certain image screens in the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon show the frigate's shape.  This shape, shown in Metroid Prime 1, show that it has a similar, if not identical shape to the frigate Orpheon from those image screens.  They may be the same type of mothership.


2. Rearranged parts of Metroid 1's map so that the areas started to make some extra sense.


In the NES version, possibly due to memory constraints, rooms in Metroid have lots of similarities.  Having helped hack the game in the past, I know that certain room configurations are shared, whether between areas, or between area clusters.  In the NES game, they end up just being 'dead end' passages.  It's nice that in Zero Mission, they gave these extra passages more meaning, by either housing a cache of items, or giving the player a reason to traverse them.  For example, the room where Samus has to hook on top of a device on ceiling rails and traverse acid.  In the NES version this area could easily just be skipped, as it would house nothing too important and actually served to slow Samus down.  In Zero Mission, it's a necessary part of Samus's trip down and through Kraid's Lair to reach him.


It also did cool things like link the side of Norfair to part of Crateria.  Of course, after Zebes's surface destruction in the blast zone of the frigate, none of that would matter (hence why there isn't such a connection in Super Metroid; though there is a connection between Lower Norfair and Upper Norfair that shares a few spiritual similarities).


3. (arguable) Improved and expanded the music of the original game.


In the NES version, Norfair's music is... off-tune, and forgettable. In Zero Mission, it was improved such that it was a bit more lava-like and a bit more melodic.  It also added more religious-sounding music to the Chozo Chambers and the Chozo Guide statues, which ties up to the Metroid Prime versions of the Chozo.  You know, the Hippie Chozos of Tallon IV.


Man, I kinda wanna go play Metroid Prime now. :3

[theANdROId]

I wanna find and play Zero Mission now!

[X]

In Super Metroid, which launched in 1993, Samus obviously returns to Planet Zebes.  The landscape of Planet Zebes, however, is quite different from what she remembers in NES Metroid, which includes a strange locale on the surface of the planet, in Crateria, called "The Wrecked Ship".  Back in 1993 there was no real connection between the Wrecked Ship and anything else prior.  It was just an area that Samus had to traverse.  However, once you play Zero Mission, you understand why the Wrecked Ship is there, and why it is wrecked in the first place.

I thought this was the case too after playing MZM. However when I wanted to learn more I came across an interview from the maker of the game which stated that the Wrecked ship and the spacepirate frigate were in fact not the same ship at all. The Wrecked ship in Super Metroid's description is still recognized: "Long ago astronauts from an ancient civilization crash-landed on Zebes. This is all that remains of their ship." In-game they are both located in what appears to be the same spot however if you imagine the landing site of Samus' ship in terms of circumference then they wouldn't be in the same exact spot; just located in geographically similar locations around the landing site.

I loved playing Zero Mission and I had no idea that it was even made till I went to a store and saw it. The only thing that bothers me as did with Fusion is the obsession the designers had with using the speed booster to collect items and having you jump through hoops and the like in order to get them. Way too strenuous, and in some cases ridiculous, in my opinion. SM was good enough in terms of the Speed booster/items collection thing which I much preferred over MZM and MF. SM did not overplay it as the other two games have and that's just fine.

The music was good and definitely captured the essence of the latter Metroid titles while retaining the original themes really well. They sounded all good and were still recognizable. And since the game was increased in size they had more maps to add in some new tracks as well. It's a shame though that Crocomire never made it into the final product. I would have loved to kick his ass a second time.

I also liked the introduction of Samus receiving her Chozo suit from what looked like a Chozo warrior whom had used the same suit previously. It added more depth to the lore of Chozo tech and Samus' connection to it as well.

[PFG9000]

I thought this was the case too after playing MZM. However when I wanted to learn more I came across an interview from the maker of the game which stated that the Wrecked ship and the spacepirate frigate were in fact not the same ship at all. The Wrecked ship in Super Metroid's description is still recognized: "Long ago astronauts from an ancient civilization crash-landed on Zebes. This is all that remains of their ship." In-game they are both located in what appears to be the same spot however if you imagine the landing site of Samus' ship in terms of circumference then they wouldn't be in the same exact spot; just located in geographically similar locations around the landing site.

I was going to post this same idea.  When I played Zero Mission for the first time, I thought it was awesome how they came up with an explanation for why the ship was there in Super but not in the original.  It seemed like great level design and story development.  But then I came across the discussion about the wrecked ship (I think it was on the Shmups forums, but I'm not sure).  I really didn't want to believe that there were two different ships, but apparently that's what the designers intended.

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

That's so weird, though!
There are some areas of the Space Pirate Frigate which have the same color palette and even the same types of blocks as the Wrecked Ship.

It makes no sense from a story point of view; I mean, if the Frigate caused such a massive detonation as it is shown at the end of the game, it would obliterate anything in the vicinity.  There'd be nothing standing.

The only way that would work is, if the Wrecked Ship was buried within a tall mountain nearby or something, and the detonation shakes the mountain loose, and over the  time between the events of Zero Mission and Super Metroid (that's enough time for Samus's trips to SR-388, Tallon IV, Aether, and Bryyo, Norion, Elysia, the Valhalla and Olympus stations, Pirate Homeworld, and Phaaze), the acid rain deteriorates the rock formations enough that the ship becomes a locale that could be traversed.

This is plausable, as the detonation completely obliterates the Chozodia Religious Site from MZM.

[Dracula9]

That does seem reasonable, Jorge. I agree with X, the Crateria region just seems to generally be a decent LZ. If aforementioned ancient astronauts (don't let Girgio Tsukalos see this thread) were forced to make a crash-landing, picking the quickest and easiest spot to land at is a given, and given how many times Samus has parked in Crateria, it's a fair assumption it's a suitable location for an LZ.

Also why can't Metroid crawl? I'd like a genuine reason why crawling is so difficult for Samus to accomplish.

[X]

@Jorge:

That is weird I know! They both sport such similarity one can't help but make that assumption upon the first play-through. However there is also the other bits of evidence to consider as well. While the pirate frigate was situated right beside the Chozo ruins it was also directly above the original Brinstar map. The wrecked ship is not located there, but directly above Maridia. And Maridia wasn't introduced nor shown in MZM. This would indicate different locations on the surface area coinciding with those underground. Difficult to picture 2D maps in 3D space however I feel now that this is indeed the case. I'll have to bring up some maps for comparisons...





As for the frigate explosion, it would have destroyed Cozodia since the ship was parked right beside the ruins, however the wrecked ship in general was nowhere near the ruins or we would have seen them in Super Metroid as well. And in that case we would have to trek through the ruins before making it to the wrecked ship, but that was not the case.

[Inccubus]

As un-cool as it is, any similarity between the crashed ship and the frigate could be nothing more than the artists playing on nostalgia.
It is possible someone on the development team meant for the two ships to be the same, but obviously it didn't work out that way if so.

[theANdROId]

Also why can't Metroid crawl? I'd like a genuine reason why crawling is so difficult for Samus to accomplish.

I either read or heard somewhere (I can't recall for sure) that creating a crawling animation for Samus on the NES proved to be insanely difficult, so the Morph Ball was made to allow for traversing small areas.  I don't know how true that is (I mean, I can't even remember where I heard/read that), but I'd imagine that it just became a staple or a thing of nostalgia.  Surely they could make her a crawling animation now, but how can there NOT be a morph ball...right?

Unless you weren't really serious...in which case: :-P ;-D

[X]

I think I remember hearing about that too. It's interesting what people will come up with for ideas when working with severe limitations and lack of knowledge.

[knightmere]

I've been getting down on some MPT again. Picked up the digital version for $10 on release day.

[X]

I've been getting down on some MPT again. Picked up the digital version for $10 on release day.

I fired up Super Metroid last night 

[Jorge D. Fuentes]

It's kinda amazing that the Wii-U got Metroid Prime TRILOGY for so cheap.

[knightmere]

Zero Mission will be up on Wii U Eshop eventually. Counting down the days!