Stumbling through Super Metroid - Part 6

[davidn]

If my Super Metroid playthrough were a video compression algorithm... then it would make no sense. But it would also be the best one in the world - I thought I would have to split last night's play into two episodes, but over two hours of play have boiled down to just over fifteen minutes of active content!

It's content in which I hoover up a load of items and generally make some significant progress, though - in this part, I fight the second big boss and gain a new ability, which will no doubt get me into some intriguing new areas as soon as I remember where they are.

There's an interesting point in this video where I think I did something wrongly but managed to advance anyway... I can't imagine what I did being the actual solution, but I spent a while trying every other avenue I could think of and this was the only thing I did that resulted in any success at all. Judge for yourself!

http://youtu.be/3Ww9oGW1jtQ
I'm actually trying to think of other places to promote playthroughs, because I think this is one that many people will be interested in just now for the same reason I started it! Any ideas?

Comments

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

I have no comment on how you got the grapple beam.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

11:52

[kjorteo]

I'm honestly more impressed that you got the Grappling Beam that way and that it worked and everything (excellent wall jump!) than I would have been if you had figured out how you're supposed to do it.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Actually, y'know....now that I think about it, last time I played this game, I got to that point without the Speed Booster...or Power Bombs for that matter. (It's a bit of a work-around and requires some trickiness on the player's part...as well as getting the Wave Beam before the Grappling Beam, I believe... but it can be done.)

Now I'm wondering if it's actually possible to get through the whole game without the SB. That experiment will have to wait, though...I'm currently going through Zero Mission myself.

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

As somebody who's into speedruns, apparently low percent runs require either the speed booster or the ice beam, but not both.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

Yes, that is definitely not the way you're supposed to get the grappling beam, but you did a marvelous job of it.
The big clue was the huge running space you would have had if you'd blown up all the power bombable debris! You know, with the power bombs the enemies were insistently dropping with great big winks. But your way was much more impressive.

That wave beam! It doesn't just expand the height of your shot! And you were so close to finding out what it does aaaaargh. Maybe with some experimentation you'll -penetrate- the mystery. Ho ho ho.

Stone hedgehogs? I dunno, I always thought of them more as iron echidnas.

The grapple is perhaps the most "Where to now???"-causing upgrade. Most of the others either have more limited use or else you're gradually introduced to most of the areas after you find it, but you've already explored large chunks of the game and encountered who-knows how many grappling tethers. At least you shouldn't be stuck, per se, for a while, especially with your new, mysterious beam!

Crocomire! That big, eight-eyed red lizard thing you fought in Norfair! That was my favourite boss - and probably not because it's reptilian - because of the whole dire, tug-of-war nature of the battle (if you can imagine being bad at the game and not killing it almost instantly) and the.. sheer, part-terrifying, part-saddening fuss it made about dying, only to come back as a skeleton to try to kill you. It's like The Terminator! Right when you're in the depths of Norfair, about as far as you can be from the safety of your ship, down a few long shafts and fearing that it might get up and attack you again...
And quite an interesting, alien design, too.

(Edit: Pssst, your save stating is revealed by the lack of map coverage when you finally get the E tank next to that evil trap-pit. And you need to get your mysterious pipe missiles again!)

[davidn]

Yes, I really messed up on this video, contributing to the fantastic compression rate - I hit Load instead of Save and had to replicate a lot of progress again.

It's an odd feeling to be so free after being stuck in a small section of the game for a very long time - you start to forget how big the game is until you get the Ice Beam. And a few shortcuts are provided, but I think it would definitely benefit from a couple of teleporters here and there to transport you quickly from one remote place to another. Without those, I'm going to be doing a lot of retracing my steps remembering where those grapple-beam hooks were... you can sort of be stuck by openness as well as by being physically stuck.

I'm beginning to understand more of the game's language, but not... how to interpret it, sadly - I had the pieces of the puzzle (the destroyable blocks to create a runway, the abundance of super bombs to do so, and the space in which to run and the ramp to launch from) but failed to put them all together and got creative instead.

And penetrate... with the wave beam... intriguing! I will attempt to apply that cryptic hint somewhere when I record the next video.

[kjorteo]

http://brawlinthefamily.keenspot.com/2009/02/26/143-crocomire/

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

I can only agree with this; melting red guy was... really quite sad, given how pathetic it was as a boss. (Really, it barely moves, has a range of next to nothing, and just sits there flapping its arm around. Okay, it vomits energy balls, but you attacked it first.)

D.F.

[davidn]

I had wondered if it was meant to... do more and that I had just been lucky enough to be prepared with Super Missiles and worked out how to damage it instantly, preventing it from really attacking (it got more dangerous at the end when I ran out of them and had to waste time switching to normal missiles)... but yes, apparently it's universally regarded as an anticlimax boss.

[kjorteo]

It does advance on you very slowly if you don't drive it back, and can suddenly charge and ram you against the wall if you led it drive you back to a certain point. You ... pretty much have to do let it do that on purpose, though. It's like a shoving match against an anemic toddler when you're actually trying. It's a neat concept for a boss, but in practice they just forgot to make it difficult in any way whatsoever. Though they did make up for it by giving it the most memorably grisly death of the first-party SNES era, just to make you feel extra guilty about having picked on such a harmless creature. You murderer.

Edit: Oh, or as xaq mentioned, using a Power Bomb makes it counter by activating its more aggressive charge, too. I completely forgot about that because it's not something I've ever done.

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

Edit: Oh, or as xaq mentioned, using a Power Bomb makes it counter by activating its more aggressive charge, too. I completely forgot about that because it's not something I've ever done.
Oh, that rings a bell... so that's why I remember the battle actually being difficult!

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

Am I the only person in the world who actually found it a climactic and compelling fight? I mean, I think I might have even beaten it on the first try, but I was pretty stupid and/or bad at the game so I didn't do it as easily nor as instantly as I do now. My panic was probably also fueled by memories of those damn wall bosses in Secret of Mana - also easy, for the prepared, but dangerous.
I think it's a fantastic set-piece battle, but it just suffers - if the player is fairly competent - from being far too easy. But there are always players, even in the minority, who will actually have trouble. I remember the similarly-themed boss battles from Super Mario World (knock the boss into the lava by jumping on him when the platform tilts the right way) being difficult once upon a time, too.
Maybe Crocomire needs some more immediate hazards; pits of lava along the path toward the spikes, or more attacks on his part.
I also, for some reason, got the impression that this was only a baby of its species. I'm not sure why - I don't think that's mentioned anywhere - but entertaining the thought certainly raises one's guilt-level!

EDIT: In fact...
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081013194130/metroid/images/e/e0/Crocomire_Artwork.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090411031127/metroid/images/a/a9/Crocomire_roar.gif

Look at the proportions and tell me that's not a little baby crocomire.

[davidn]

Oh. Well, now I feel bad - thanks a lot!

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Just be thankful you didn't try using a Power Bomb against it. :b

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

Your 'Bee P' joke has been noted, and you will be punished accordingly. That is all.

:P

D.F.