Stumbling through Super Metroid - Part 11

[davidn]

Thank you for making the last video about Super Metroid the most-discussed thing in the history of this journal (beating the previous record holder Symphony of the Night by some margin). I still have about a squillion comments to reply to, but for now, here is part 11!

I hesitate to say that things "heat up" in this part because as we all know that would be bloody stupid, but in the lower regions of Norfair, the action noticeably raises a tier - here, two very tough bosses get defeated and I acquire an extremely enjoyable new ability that I briefly thought I had in the last video. I know that I must be close to the end of the game now - will part 12 be the final one? We'll see...

http://youtu.be/wNqOyvnGEKQ

Comments

[davidn]

As you're no doubt aware, I picked up the Charge Beam and then forgot about it about four seconds later! It was only out of desperation at the end of this video that I remembered about it...

No doubt they're better than nothing, but does the large amount of time needed to charge a shot make them better than the Super Missile refilling strategy that I accidentally went with?

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

It doesn't take as long as you'd think, especially compared to the time it takes to fire TWO super missiles since he'll catch the first one.... and, you can charge it while you're hopping about dodging him anyway; most bosses don't let you just stand there and constantly unload... you get the hang of leaving your finger down on the charge beam, and so there's almost always one ready by the time you've got an opening!

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

I've found that it can be awkward to use against bosses that only have a limited window of vulnerability, such as Kraid or Crocomire, at least if you're lacking the skill to compensate for it, like me.
I mean, I thought I was skilled at the game, but I kept missing Kraid's mouth and hitting that damn hand he puts in front of it, and that was with missiles! Then - admittedly I tried the power bomb thing with Crocomire to see if it made it significantly more challenging, but I really did have difficulty with it! It's getting into a rhythm as much as anything, but he gained a lot of ground on me. It seems like, if he gets you past the door, he becomes more aggressive and harder to push back. Unless, again, that was just my incompetence!

[kjorteo]

Normally, no, a charged beam shot is roughly as powerful as a normal missile and is therefore mostly meant as a weapon of last resort so a boss isn't literally unwinnable if you run out of ammo. If all else fails, you at least still have that, is the basic idea.

However, against that boss, the charge beam is good because he catches super missiles, goes 3D to dodge regular missiles, and has no answer whatsoever to the charge beam except to just take it in the face.

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrNOrNyEWo8

A charged plasma beam shot however, is a lot stronger than a missile. I don't have damage numbers, but I know Spore Spawn takes multiple _super_ missiles to kill.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

I can give a good idea about it: On a full-blown cheat run, I just went up against Kraid.

Super Missiles: 4 hits.

Fully charged Plasma Beam: 3 hits

Fully charged Plasma+Ice+Wave Beam: 2 hits


So, at bare minimum, a charged shot of the Plasma Beam by itself is 33% stronger than a Super Missile, and a charged I/W/P shot is between 100 and 399% stronger.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Not just against that boss; the Charge Beam would have come in helpful on many an occasion. (As would the Spazer that we were all basically screaming at you to go back and get from time to time; I imagine the wider shots would have proven quite helpful to you early on, as well as the added damage.)

For example (this is hardly a spoiler since you now have the Screw Attack), if you do a spin-jump with a fully-charged shot ready, Samus basically goes into pseudo-Screw Attack mode (I believe the technical term is "Charge Attack" ) and can tear apart most minor enemies that she would run into.

(Of course, you'd have learned to hate the Charge Attack pretty quickly since it screws up a Wall Jump.)

Well, if nothing else, it might be interesting to see the results of a second playthrough and see just how much actually knowing some stuff about the game improves you from your cold start.


...OH. It might be a while before this becomes pertinent, but...when you finish the game? Be sure to watch the credits all the way through.

[crassadon.livejournal.com]

I was screaming at him not to find it. . :)

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

There's a whole bunch of interesting stuff you can do with the charge beam! Most of it is discoverable by accident, but still extremely easy to miss.

And then when David did find the Spazer I'm sure we were all screaming at him not to use it, given how completely obsolete it was by then!