Stumbling through Super Metroid - Part 3

[davidn]

Er, Part 2 is here and I sort of forgot to link it.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered information after watching my first night of Super Metroid, in which I think I made a surprising amount of progress for someone who didn't know all the controls (rather like Marble Madness before it, as much as marbles can "run"). Here's the second session of the journey, confusingly titled Part 3, which I hadn't realized would be so short - I aim for about twenty-minute episodes, but exploration-based games compress down amazingly when you edit them down to just the interesting or relevant bits (particularly with me at the controls).

This part involves... getting lost, mostly, and also a fair amount of screaming.

http://youtu.be/rShe2u67mPU

Comments

[kjorteo]

Well, you missed what I would have considered an obvious passage to a not-strictly-necessary-but-nevertheless-very-cool upgrade (one that's meant to require the High-Jump Boots, but I usually just finesse my way around it and get it without them) twice, but it took you about five seconds (after editing) to find the passage further down to reach that big giant boss, something which I myself was just completely unable to do at first. (I distinctly remember getting stuck at that portion about equally as badly and maddeningly as you did in part 2 before you figured out that you can dash.) So we're ... even...?

As always, though, I love your reactions to everything :)

Edit: Oh God, I just realized. Colors! It's a block that's visibly cracked and also the wrong color compared to its neighbors. To me, that makes it the most obvious http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConspicuouslyLightPatch in the game. To you, you literally did not see it, since you would have to know beforehand and specifically be looking for the cracked one!

I ... might just give that one away, then, because that goes beyond the bounds of regular Stumbling Through and is actually a bit unfair (though I'll spoiler it in case you disagree and want to try finding it yourself.) It's the ceiling in 4:12 through 4:22 or so in this video.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Colorblindness is a question of hue, not saturation. The block you're talking about is almost the exact same hue as its neighbours, it's just brighter, David can see it the same as we can. Now stop interfering with the experiment! :P The point of this isn't for David to play Super Metroid the way you do. We can all play Super Metroid the way we do, over and over. The point in this is to remember what it felt like to see Super Metroid WITHOUT someone's predecided path programmed into our brains! If you want to see someone getting the spazer when you get the spazer, go open an emulator. I would like to see someone discovering things.

[davidn]

It's hard to say how much is OK to talk about... I don't want to stifle conversation between other people about when they discovered things and what it's interesting that I've missed, but at the same time, any information at all will alter the way that I play the game.

[davidn]

Incidentally, thanks for disproving the only excuse I had for not seeing it ;)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

It's really almost unreasonably well-hidden, when you haven't trained yourself to look at it automatically :) It is optional, though. (But nice!) Maybe we can deal out a few big hints if you start struggling down the road. ;) (Though, really, if you do start struggling.... just start backtracking, and looking for blue spots on your map, and clearly walkable spaces in rooms that you can't see any way to walk in! Sometimes they're exits to unrelated puzzles, but sometimes they're hints to the existence of entrances! Stuff will usually leap out after a little backtracking.... maybe not even hidden stuff, just stuff that you didn't have the means to access before! Like that multitude of damn yellow doors. ;) )

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Teo!! :P

[davidn]

I'm surprised that I found that passage as well, actually - the only reason I even tried that wall was because there seemed to be a room abutting it on the map that had no other way in. I had no idea if I was in a secret area or if this was the right way to go for ages on that route - it (and its continuation in the next video) displays a worrying Hexen II-like tendency to hide things behind completely indistinguishable walls and have you just shoot everywhere until one eventually opens.

As to hinting as to where those are, I would say don't be tempted to tell me, particularly if they're not necessary for progress (and that spoilers don't get marked in the comment email notifications - that's handy, Livejournal) - if I get really stuck (as I suspect I am now after doing a third recording) I can always cut out the uninteresting standing around and ask for a clue. Thank you for considering my colour vision, though :)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, I was wondering if it was the map or just pure luck :D I remember being too dumb to notice the map's hint when I was a kid, my brother had to tell me the supermissileable tiles were there.... (I don't know how he found them!)

[kjorteo]

Also, I keep forgetting to mention this, but the upright laser-shooting lobster mantis things (1:55 in this video--I don't know if you consider their actual official names to diminish the Stumbling Through experience, but those are Space Pirates if you don't) are cute.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

ROFL, samus running in the door and then turning right around....!<3

"Not an elevator! A lift!" ONE OF US

Oh god, the "facing the camera" pose somehow looked so wonderfully tense on "I'm scared!" XD

OH MY GOD YOU GOT OUT OF THE HOT ROOM WITH LIKE FIVE HEALTH LEFT

LOL, I always thought it was weird that it keeps reminding you of the larva on the continue screen, like it's some kind of useful hint. "DIED AGAIN? TRY WINNING!"

"Let me just put my face up to the screen" -- does that work? Oh, shoot, like..... I guess you can see whether one or two LEDs are lit up? Holy cow, I never would have thought of that :D

What on earth were you saying before "assessing our situation"? XD (10:45) If you can tell anymore yourself ;)

Waaaah, you found the save point after the room full of explodamoths! Good metroid instincts! :D

And also, that thing you found immediately afterwards surprised me >_> I will have to investigate that later XD (No, I think I'll resist.... I want my current playthrough to be an accurate reflection of how much I remembered/found without looking at hints.... so congratulations, you found something I forgot! XD)

"Did you see who took your head" -- I only just identified that as a human (suit) on this playthrough! When I was a kid I thought it looked like some metallic snake, looking the other way... (rather glad I didn't in hindsight, I was creeped out enough already!)

"The cruelty of old games!" Hey, man -- YOU turned down that explodamoth save point ;) (Though, THEY hid it from less exploratory players.... so yes, cruel XD)

[davidn]

I was pretty surprised at my survival of the hot room as well! At least I still have quick reactions :)

So is the larva really the only objective of the game? Like I said in the video, I assumed that was just a "current mission" reminder and that it would change once I eventually found it.

I wasn't using my microscope-vision to detect which LEDs were turned on, although that would have worked if I really concentrated hard enough...! It's just that by increasing the apparent expanse of colour, it's much easier to tell what it is - I can tell whether the original DS is fine or running out of battery if I push it into my face so that the LED fills my entire eye. Though it must look weird to everyone else.

I think I was saying "Let's get rid of these crabs first before assessing our situation" - it sometimes annoys me how I speak so incomprehensibly, though it does only tend to come out during moments of high stress.

I think I turned down that save point due to you warning me about somewhere I'd fall down a pit and would find it very difficult to get back up ;) But then, the rest of the scenario didn't match your description.

[kjorteo]

I was absolutely sure that you walking into a hot room with 33 health left was a death--just in the time it would take you to figure out what was happening, alone..! Add me to the list of people completely amazed that you made it.

And as far as the "So is the larva really the only objective of the game?" question goes, you don't seriously expect us to spoil something like that, do you? :)

[davidn]

It was a case of... hearing the siren, checking my health, seeing it rapidly diminishing and then just holding left and fire largely reflexively :)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Argh, I hope I haven't instilled in you a fear of save points now XD That would make this game very difficult XD;; It's just that one! Where you fall through the floor with no warning, right before an energy tank. (And honestly, it wouldn't be the end of the world -- it might just take ten minutes of practice to get out, which is annoying for nothing... it's just very aggravating, especially given that this move is used nowhere else.... there's another point in the game where you're dropped into a similar "learn the move or you're stuck" scenario, but that move is actually IMPORTANT...! Er, at least as far as I can remember from my own route through the game...)

Your colour vision is fascinating! I guess having more light to draw from helps the 'colour differentiation via rods' thing? Wow...
Also, it might be worth rigging up a pair of.... I guess red/green glasses? Out of cellophane.... as an analog yellow detector if your phone isn't handy! I'm 99% sure it would work, I just need to double-check the pair of colours that should be used...

Ah! I hope it wasn't a spoiler that the larva sits on the continue screen all game long. (It's so easy to forget what's new to people...!) But, this isn't exactly Final Fantasy. ;)

[davidn]

It's definitely not a universal solution - I remember photos from when I went to Mexico of a very large green building, confidently labelled "mazatlan-orange.jpg" (or maybe it's orange and I called it green and then changed the filename? I don't know - that colour is in the rare perfect blind spot that I'd describe as "unidentifiable").

Perhaps it only works for things that are just on the edge of identifiability and flooding with more of the colour helps... it definitely doesn't become easy, it requires some concentration but it's possible to identify the DS LED and the doors. In fact I think I can see the door colours just normally now, I've got used to how they're... shaded or something, some subtle difference that I had to look for. Sometimes it's... still being able to see in colour, but having to make an effort to do it, like reading a foreign language? It's so hard to describe it, it's different with subtly different shades (which might be wildly different shades to other people)...

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

It's.... definitely a weird sort of lemony half-yellow-half-green. It's the color of an orange that isn't quite ready yet. It's the color of those disgusting artificial cheese puffs (not the good kind with the cute cheetah, the horrible pale kind that old ladies give you on halloween.) I would probably call it yellow if pressed, maybe lime green, absolutely not orange :)

Wow... I absolutely can't picture the experience of being able to identify a color better by applying.... effort! (Although maybe I just did in the previous paragraph?) Minds are fascinating things :)

[kjorteo]

LOL, I always thought it was weird that it keeps reminding you of the larva on the continue screen, like it's some kind of useful hint. "DIED AGAIN? TRY WINNING!"

PROTIP: To defeat the Cyberdemon, shoot at it until it dies.

[kjorteo]

Actually, I think I figured it out!

The title screen has the chirping Metroid larva in the Ceres station, and the continue screen has the "Find the Metroid larva!" message with more chirping, as a reminder. How long has David been playing, now? And with how nonexistent the story is anywhere else, the four or five times he's died have basically served as "oh, right, there's still that whole thing with the Metroid larva, isn't there?" points.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

While watching this, you've got to feel that: when people give you advice, they're actually playing a prank on you. . . :P


My reaction at 8:50: Have you not heard Dos's story about this room 800 times before??!?!?

[davidn]

I might have heard it! I would just have had no... context, or way to realize that this was the room that he was talking about.