Before this third Metroid game was released, what we had seen from the series was the formation of a great idea, but something that was not quite completely realized. The original Metroid began the idea of free-roaming gameplay that Metroid has come to now, but it suffered from lack of a map, intense difficulty, and some glitchy gameplay. Metroid II gave Samus better definition and a little better story (along with cartridge save, thankfully), but again, the game had no map, bland backgrounds, and it was very easy to get lost. However, the pieces were coming into focus. More abilities, more beams, more enemies, more story. Super Metroid is a direct sequel to Metroid II and has a fantastic cutscene in the beginning explaining the entire series from the start. From there, the game builds off every fundamental part of the series and improves upon it. Finally, there is a map. Finally, definitive, recognizable, detailed backgrounds. Finally, a very detailed Samus model and larger, more detailed enemies. And while the gameplay is essentially the same, it is knocked up several notches.

From the beginning, you can access almost nothing. But as you play and receive abilities, you logically begin to open up areas and see the scope of Zebes. In some ways, this is an expansion/remake of the original game, because you fight many of the same bosses and revisit some familiar areas from the first game. This is similar to many other franchises from the NES (Super Mario World, Super Castlevania, Super Ghouls n Ghosts, etc.) that pay tribute to their original games and improve upon them. The extent that this game improves upon its original idea is phenomenal, and, in fact, started a whole new idea for side-scrolling game play, away from the level-based crawl that so many recycled, that has been evolved from since this was released. Castlevania took this this game’s formula (though some can argue that it had partially come up with it before Metroid) and released arguably one of the best games of all time, Symphony of the Night.

And one of the best things about this game is that for beginners, it provides a logical learning curve. At first, a boss may seem too difficult, but play it more than once and you know what to do. One time through the game could take 8-15 hours. However, a second time through may only take you 2 hours. Any game that can offer both a long term, in depth experience and at the same time, an enjoyable one sitting experience is genius game design.

The control of Samus has not changed much in feel, but now there is much more to do. Speed boosts, screw attacks, plasma/spazer/ice beams, power bombs, super missiles, jump balls, every thing from the previous games (save the spider ball) is here and all are used for some useful purpose to further your exploration of the map.

The graphics, as I mentioned, are excellent. the smaller enemies look very nice with each area having its own inhabitants, and bigger enemies and bosses looking simply excellent. Kraid is huge and imposing, Ridley is large and agile, Space Pirates are pesky and require certain strategies to kill, and so on. Samus looks so much better than in I or II, and her death animation shows her female form in one of the better death scenes for a 16-bit game.

The music is excellent, in true Metroid fashion. Some songs are reminiscent of the original game, while others are largely new and serve as both ambience and atmosphere. Maridia is full of uneasiness, Ridley’s lair is a dynamic epic song, while the overworld theme is a bright, triumphant tune. It all works really well and helps to further separate areas from one another.

It is hard to make complaints about this game simply because it is so well made, but I have a few anyway. One issue was that sometimes essential items were just too well hidden or illogically placed. I’m all for hidden items and the exploration aspects, but there were times when the game just left me high and dry wondering where the next item was supposed to be. Also, in some areas, I found myself getting stuck in walls or ceilings. While it wasn’t game ending and it didn’t kill me, that was a little sloppy. And finally, I thought the end boss was a bit too easy, but considering the effort it took to get there, I guess I can forgive that. Other than that, I can honestly say that I can’t think of any real flaws with the game.

The most important thing is that this Metroid is just really fun. It provides a nice-sized quest, a good story, and some very memorable scenes. I recommend it to any fan of the Metroid series or side-scrolling games in general. It is one of the SNES’ best, and it’s worth the price it takes to get it.

I’ll be upfront in this review, it’s been awhile since I played this. I had a overwhelmingly flattering (and poorly written) review of it way back before Good-Evil existed, but I need to re-review it simply because this is a complex, wonderful game, and playing Chrono Trigger recently has sparked good memories of Xenogears.

Xenogears is made from the same creators of SNES hits like Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger, and their legacy shows in what might be their longest and most ambitious game. This game easily can take 70-80 hours to finish, and those not looking for a serious commitment should look elsewhere. The game has one of the best stories told in a video game, dealing with a lot of issues most games would not touch. There is a lot of God and questioning his motives, a lot of philosophy, and much more that I will not go into. You play as Fei, a similar character to Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud, a man who does not remember his past, but is nevertheless haunted by it. He is also split, his mind a mess, and it turns into an issue that will come to be a problem in the long run. Soon he meets Elly and begins to realize that their connection is a lot closer than either of them could have imagined.

Enough story though. The gameplay is pretty solid, and still has one of my favorite fighting systems today. It holds a unique combo system that Xenosaga sort of adopted, but seemed to give you many more options and allowed for Deathblows and other hidden secrets later on. The addition of Gears was also a great change of pace in battle and were also used a lot more here than in Xenosaga. They themselves continue to evolve through the game until you have these all-powerful machines at the end.

The game controls pretty well too with the exception of some occasional platforming parts that become annoying. Yes, Xenogears thankfully allows your character to jump, but with that comes some issues jumping across platforms that will really test your patience. You are also allowed to control the camera in any direction, but this is an issue too because it is often a pain to make jumps when you aren’t facing exactly the right way and fall down to a lower level of a dungeon due to the camera perspective. The 3D free look camera is often times very helpful however, and I can’t complain too much about it.

The graphics….are not so hot. I love the game and came to like the style of the graphics, but some of the 3D environments, character sprites, and so on, are just kinda ugly. Lots of pixelization and muddy, ugly colors plague an otherwise excellent game. The game also has a few moments of CG rendered scenes which are brief but excellent. It also splits that with some well animated anime that I only wish there was a bit more of.

The music is truly excellent, with some well orchestrated scores with some occasional guitar rock (see the end theme over the credits). It fits the mood perfectly, and has some of the best town themes I have heard.

The game also has some really fun mini-games, such as the fighting arena where the game changes pace and turns the mechs into a free-roaming 3D fighting game which is surprisingly well thought out. There is also a pretty fun card game that you can play throughout the game. Though it’s not amazingly fun or anything, it is addictive and much better than the one in Final Fantasy VIII.

Now I won’t lie, the game is not perfect. The text moves too slowly sometimes(that is an understatement, it’s a fucking snail at some points), there are a lot more random battles than I would like, there are still some subplots that I really don’t get (and take up a significant amount of in-game cinemas), and the second disc seems abbreviated possibly due to the creators running out of time and money. There is also a very rough difficulty level that the game imposes on some bosses that require a lot of thought to defeat. But regardless, the game really left an impact on me. The characters are all memorable and well rounded. Billy, for example was for all intents a minor character. But yet he has an intriguing story which also fit into the main story. The same goes for Citan, Rico, Esmerelda, and the rest of the cast. Even minor players were particularly memorable such as Dan, Sigurd, Ramsus, and many others. The love story is believable in this game and handled about as maturely as it could be. Compared to Xenosaga where characters seemed very underdeveloped, and the story seemed to go nowhere (not to mention the boring fighting, but that is another issue), this is where the Xenogears really succeeds.

The feel and emotion of the game overwhelms its weaker points, and makes this a classic, the likes of which almost every other role-playing game will be judged for me.

You know, I try to play this every so often because I usually remember it with fondness, but in reality, it’s just not all that fun. The basic premise is simple here: you are an ice climber, and you need to get to the top of 30-some mountains…just look out for angry ice block carrying Yetis, red nosed bears (in red speedos, no less), and annoying birds. Luckily, you have a hammer and you aren’t taking any crap from these pesky animals.

But why is it not that fun you ask? The controls and difficulty of the game make this game a lot less fun than it could be. This game is very arcade-like, with it’s black background and it’s ascent upwards. It is also 2-player which is a welcome addition. However, let me go over the issues this game has.

First of all, your Ice Climber moves like he is in molasses. He is very sluggish, and it is very difficult to hit small ledges with the poor collision detection. Also, the end bonus levels are very difficult and often times maddeningly hard to do completely. In addition, the game is quite unrewarding, since all the levels are available from the start and the difficultly for any given level is seemingly random. I have no trouble beating some of the higher levels, but some of the early ones are way too hard.

Finally, while 2-player is a good reason to keep this game in the NES, often times you unintentially screw your friend. While amusing, there is no cooperative play here, and you are essentially playing by yourself with another person. That, and often times when you get the slightest bit ahead of your partner, the screen moves up and can accidentally kill your partner from the scrolling screen of death. This makes this whole feature a little less fun.

The music is okay, but very repetitive and nothing particularly memorable. The graphics are very basic and are indicative of early NES games.

While it is not a bad game, it suffers from a lot of issues that could have been fixed to make the game better and a lot more fun. Here’s hoping for an update of the franchise in the future, but until then, don’t be in a rush to buy unless you find it cheap or just love early style arcade/NES games.

Alien Hominid harkens back to the loose run-n-gun game play found in games such as Contra or Metal Slug. Sure, it’s derivative, but the cheap thrills it provides are something almost lost in the modern era of gaming. What started as a simple flash game found at newgrounds.com is now a full scale console action game.

The main draw of Alien Hominid is its wild and cartoony style. The graphics are in no way supposed to look realistic. In fact, the graphics do a pretty good job of looking just like an animated cartoon thanks to crisp sprites, fluid animation, and cel-shading.

The game play is fairly simple, but varied, keeping the action always exciting. The game is divided into three chapters involving the FBI, the Russians, and Area-51. Within these chapters are levels ranging from standard left-to-right kill anything that moves, to riding snowmobiles and trains, to piloting your spaceship. The bosses are huge and fairly difficult, but pattern based, providing an easy method of success. Power ups are spread all over the levels, and don’t worry about wasting the ammo, you’ll probably get another equally cool one before you run out. Grab a friend for some amazing 2-player excitement as well.

The controls aren’t innovative, but they work well. You can duck, jump, dig underground, roll, throw grenades, it even allows you to land on enemies’ heads and control them. There are still more abilities to use beyond these basics.

The music and sound are good, creating just the right mood for this style.

The game has it’s problems though. I often found myself getting frustrated over repeated deaths because the enemy bullets are hard to detect at times. And even though there is a short amount of invincibility after each death, the enemies are sometimes lined up just right so that it’s near impossible to avoid death. But, the game balances this out by it’s continue/save system. The game saves after every level you beat, and you can load any level you’ve unlocked. It also renews all continues when you load a level, so if you make it through three tough levels and get a game over, you can just load the last level you got to and have all of your continues back.

There are plenty of bonuses as well. There are tons of hats to collect and wear, and there are PDA minigames that provide decent challenge and fun.

It’s a simple and fun game that can provide tons of entertainment, and best of all, it’s a budget $30 title.