Stumbling through Super Metroid - Part 5

[davidn]

Insomniacs' special!

Thanks to everyone for providing the clues that I needed to get out of my situation in the last part (or rather, shouldn't have needed because all it took was going down an incredibly obvious passage) - in this episode, we have a lecture on observation, a lot of progress without a lot of big events (but some big explosions), and a strange obsession with toasters (I missed a dose of thyroid medication today). It's incredible even to me that I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to say in these before I do them.

The episode ends with me stuck in completely the opposite way from how I started it, free and wandering all over the cave system trying to remember where I've seen yellow doors or things that look like they might need to be cooled down a bit. I've made a couple of laps of the game, but haven't yet found the one that'll actually allow me to progress.

http://youtu.be/sHNcPwi3RTw

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

"An ice beam! That should help cool things down." Booooooo XD

"Should have this lava dealt with in no time and then we'll have a skating rink..." I love these videos. XD

omg, I will forever be imagining that in-universe, Samus is just stepping into ancient zebesian blowdryers just to freshen up a bit

AAAA DAVID STOP FINDING THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT
This is why I wanted to see someone else play it -- I've got such a muscle memory for the things I know, that I've stopped exploring for other things :)

Okay yeah -- you found the "freeze the turtles to climb back up" method, AND you found the wall jump ON YOUR OWN -- you are beyond needing our help :) Also, you can forget the warning I gave you about avoiding a save point -- that section just teaches you the wall jump, which is notoriously difficult to do, but if you've ALREADY got the hang of it then you don't have anything to worry about. USE SAVE POINTS WITH IMPUNITY!

omg, flippers.... I want to see Samus trying to equip Zelda equipment XD

well now the ship will forever be a toaster to me XD I'm getting all these new memes overlayed onto this game!

"that would explain why my toast's always so soggy", aaaaaa XD

Oh, David, the dark rooms.....! Daviiiiiid, I don't want to say too much, but you are making those rooms harder on yourself XD I didn't say anything the first time, but it's been twice now and you haven't caught on.... X3

99 factor suntan lotion XD

You've always been able to do the wall jump, for the record :) At least as far as I know. I generally avoid doing it XD

Also "with a pineapple" usually means because a pineapple would be a very abrasive object to be.... *ahem* never mind. :)

GEEZ YOU'RE GOOD AT THAT WALL JUMP!! I never realised how many places you can get with it!!

"I don't know how I would have worked that out except I did" XD Yes, Metroid is like that sometimes :) (But no, for the record, you're kind of sequence-breaking here ;) )

I love how thrilled you are every time a power bomb goes off XD

Anyway, I'll say this much -- the way forward isn't something terribly obscure or anything; you just have to keep wandering until you stumble back onto it. (I'll give you one slightly bigger hint, it isn't actually on the MAIN highways, it's off a room somewhere -- but it IS something you've previously noticed, you just have to remember it was there.) I'm willing to bet there's a map hint to it also, because I remember being stumped here too just recently, and then I remember seeking out the correct path somehow but I forget why, so, it's probably the map...... but anyway! Explore! You're SUPPOSED to be wandering lost in these games, that doesn't mean you're getting it wrong, that means you're playing Metroid :)

[kjorteo]

I TOLD YOU WALL JUMPING WAS USEFUL RAVEN

maybe not for the reason I actually said but STILL

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected X3

Though I maintain that it still isn't NECESSARY. ;P

[kjorteo]

No, but for optional stuff, it's more handy than Shinesparking. :P (Including the fact that, rather impressively, David just used a secret optional technique to get around having to use another secret optional technique, by wall jumping up a Shinesparkable shaft.)

[kjorteo]

Though at least we can all agree that, as far as optional moves and their relative usefulness go, the absolute bottom of the list, the "wow, we all just completely forgot about that one because no one cares and it's not used for anything at all ever" one, is still the Crystal Flash.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I am seriously wondering if they just put that in so that they could have something to hint at in the attract mode, without it being useful enough that it would be cruel to only hint at it in the attract mode.

Wait, how the hell were we supposed to figure out how to DO that move, anyway? Does it say in the manual, or is that just a "this should sell some subscriptions to Nintendo Power" thing?

[kjorteo]

"I know! Let's put in a move whose ammunition requirements are so absurdly specific and whose use is so narrow that no one will ever be in a situation in which it would come in handy, make the input more arcane and complicated than most actual cheat codes of that era, make it the one optional move (unless you count bomb jumping) that does not have any sort of demonstration from local critters, and then make it look really cool in attract mode and make it a key plot point in the Nintendo Power comic!"

It says something that, of all the techniques Super Metroid invented, Shinesparking became a series mainstay and was even enhanced (no more energy loss, the diagonal slope rule, Ballsparking), wall jumping came back but in a nerfed form because it was too useful otherwise (like how the Spider Ball became "*on applicable preordained Spider Ball Tracks only" when jumping to the Prime series--it just would have been too impossibly game-breaking if they hadn't done that), and the Crystal Flash never showed up again, in any other game, at all, ever, because ... eh, well, they can't all be winners.

[davidn]

Ballsparking

Now we're getting into abilities that I'd prefer to avoid!

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, DavidN, you've now turned that into a sexual thing for me, every time I will see that ability.

[davidn]

It was the least I could do after the Fox's Creams Incident of 2011.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I was ready to agree with that until I remembered the beams' weird secondary orbital thingies!

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Ummm...does David even know what a "Shinespark" is yet? o.O

[kjorteo]

Of course not, or else I wouldn't have discussed it so freely. Giving him too much useful, actionable information is counterproductive to a Stumbling Through.

[davidn]

Now I'm going to be looking through my weapons and comparing them to see which ones combined could produce a shine and/or spark.

[kjorteo]

Good luck with that.

[davidn]

This is like a foreign language to me.

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

After you've masted shinesparking we can move on to mockballing.

[davidn]

Ballsparking, mockballing... there is a worrying similarity between advanced Metroid techniques and what happens in the basement of gay bars in Germany.

[davidn]

Wow, a lot to reply to! I'm glad so many of my offhand comments stick in your mind - it's weird watching them again and listening to my stream of consciousness... (where did blowdriers and toasters come from? I never have any idea what's going to come up in the next video...) Speaking of which, I'm aware of the pineapple's, er, application - just that it didn't make any sense in the context of the stream of curses with which I had prefaced it!

Nice to know I'm free now - in fact, I'm a bit too free, as the game feels huge after spending a long time stuck down in Norfair! It's surprising just how many nooks and crannies there are to explore now, and editing the videos is very helpful for reminding me of places that I've bypassed or been unable to progress in (the yellow door I fell past is just one of three potential forward routes I've now noticed).

Out of interest, what did I discover here that you didn't know about? I love the idea that my own unique route is teaching even veterans things like this, just through my lack of... constantly aware direction of where I should go next.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

In this video, it was the "hang on my bullet went through the wall" that led to the super-missile-on-the-wrong-side gate... although the fact that it opens on the other side might mean I've exited from there and just forgot where the exit was... this game gets twisty!

[davidn]

Yes, I definitely get the feeling that I'll be coming at that from the other side... although whether that's also a secret (that I've just opened up a hint as to the existence of) or a necessary route through the game... we'll find out!