Metroid II: Return of Samus

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Metroid II: Return of Samus
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi (producer) Hirojii Kiyotake (director) Hiroyuki Kimura (co-director)
Release date(s)	August 26, 1991 January 2, 1992 May 21, 1992
Genre(s)	Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) (Player's Choice release)
Platform(s)	Game Boy
Media	2-megabit cartridge

Metroid II: Return of Samus (メトロイドII RETURN OF SAMUS, Metoroido Tsū Ritān ofu Samusu^?) is the second title released in the Metroid series, and the only one to appear on the Nintendo Game Boy. Samus Aran returns in this sequel to the NES classic on a mission to exterminate the Metroids, now venturing to their home planet, SR-388. Although it is the second release in the franchise, chronologically it takes place after Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and before Super Metroid.

Contents 1 Story 2 Gameplay 3 Items and abilities 4 Metroid lifecycles 5 Game endings 6 Reception 7 Color version 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Story

Some time has passed since the bounty hunter Samus Aran put a stop to the Space Pirates on Zebes and their plans to use the newly-discovered lifeform known as the Metroid for evil purposes. To ensure this will not happen a second time, the Galactic Federation sends a research ship to the Metroid homeworld, SR-388, to eradicate the species. When contact with the ship is lost, a rescue team and combat squad are sent, one after the other, to investigate. None survive.

Realizing the threat that the Metroids pose, the Federation appoints Samus Aran with the task of wiping them out, due to her previous experience with the creatures on planet Zebes. Promised a healthy bounty for her actions, Samus sets out for SR-388. After arriving, she lands her gunship at the base of an active volcano, near the only entrance where the Metroid lair can be found. She exits her ship and begins the difficult trek through the planet's dark network of caves and ruins.^[1]

One by one Samus hunts down and destroys each Metroid on the planet. As she does so, she takes note of the steady mutation that each goes through, mutations which cause them to grow from small jellyfish-like creatures into massive, hovering lizard-like beasts. As she traverses deeper and deeper, the volcano rumbles at intervals and the lava drains, revealing a massive complex of Chozo ruins and items. Finally, after several harrowing battles with massive Omega Metroids, she uncovers a small ruined royal palace with regular, hatched Metroids floating in the breeze. With their destruction, only one Metroid remains- the massive and deadly Metroid Queen. Samus fights a fierce final battle before finally defeating the slithering monster, and as it crumbles to dust the final volcanic eruption sputters out. As she returns to her gunship she happens upon a Metroid egg. The egg hatches and before her eyes a tiny little Metroid hatchling floats out of the broken shell and begins to chirp at her. The Metroid has now imprinted onto Samus as its mother, and the bounty hunter, in a brief period of humanity in this genocidal mission to eradicate a species, spares its life. The two continue exiting the tunnels, and the Metroid hatchling helps Samus escape the caverns. Samus and the young Metroid board the gunship and this ends the game, setting up the sequel.

Back aboard her gunship, Samus places the Metroid in a container so that it can't cause any harm to the ship. Noting the immense scientific opportunity that the captured hatchling poses, she departs the planet and heads to Ceres Space Station to deliver her groundbreaking find - a domesticated, infant Metroid.^[2]

[edit] Gameplay

The layout of the game is similar to other 2D Metroid installments. However, Metroid II is more straightforward in the sense that advancement through the levels is not strictly controlled by item acquisition as in the other games, but by killing a fixed number of Metroids in the area. Once they are destroyed, an earthquake occurs and SR-388's lava levels decrease, allowing Samus to travel deeper through its maze-like tunnels. Like the game's predecessor, Metroid II contains no in-game map. One aspect unique to the game is the Metroid detector, which displays the number of Metroids left on the planet. It is also the first in the series to utilize save modules, located in various points around the planet. Prior to Metroid II, saving was accomplished by dying: in the U.S. version, the player is given a password, and in the Famicom Disk System version, the player is given the option to continue or save. This is the only Metroid game not to have an escape sequence.

[edit] Items and abilities

Metroid II features all the items found in the original and introduces many new items and skills found in future games of the series.

Recurring Items from the Original

• Rather than being the first items she finds as in other games, Samus begins this mission with the Morph Ball, the Long Beam, and a small number of missiles. The Ice Beam and Wave Beam return as upgrades, as well as the Bombs, the Varia Suit (Barrier Suit^[3]), the High Jump Boots, and the Screw Attack.

New Items in the Series

• The game significantly expands Samus' arsenal, both in functionality and in power. The game features two new weapons: the tri-splitting Spazer Laser Beam (identified in-game as the "Spazer" and later changed to simply "Spazer Beam" in Super Metroid), and the powerful Plasma Beam that passes through walls. As in the original game, only one beam can be equipped at a time, but Samus can switch between them by going back to where they are originally found.

• Metroid II features a bevy of new suit enhancements as well. Making its debut in this game, the Space Jump allows Samus to spin-jump repeatedly in the air and can be used to access otherwise unreachable areas. When this is combined with the Screw Attack, Samus can shred almost any enemy by flying into it.

• When it comes to the Morph Ball, the game introduces a number of new features to the series as well. This game is the first in the series to feature the Spider Ball and the Spring Ball, which have become Metroid series staples. The Spring Ball gives Samus the ability to jump while in the Morph Ball form. Before its introduction, the only way to jump while in Morph Ball form was with bombs. The Spider Ball in this game allows Samus to climb any wall or ceiling, giving her immense freedom to explore. To date, Metroid II remains the only Metroid game in the series to feature the fully functional version of the Spider Ball, although it does appear (in a far more limited capacity) in both Metroid Prime games.

[edit] Metroid lifecycles

Main article: Metroid (species)

This is the only Metroid game that shows the assumed natural transformations of the Metroids in order: Metroid (the original type that appears in all the games except for Metroid Prime Hunters), Alpha Metroid, Gamma Metroid, Zeta Metroid, and Omega Metroid. As can be expected, the more powerful Metroids are found further into the game, with the Queen Metroid being last.

[edit] Game endings

After the credits are displayed at the end of the game, your total time needed to complete the game will be displayed. During the credits, Samus is shown running on the screen. At the end of the credits, she jumps up and lands next to your displayed completion time. Depending on your completion time, Samus will be shown in her suit, without her helmet, or in a bikini.

[edit] Reception

Metroid II is more linear than the first game, since most areas are blocked off until a certain number of Metroids are killed. It received good reviews upon its initial launch — Nintendo Power gave it a 4.5/5 and most gaming magazines and websites have a similar opinion. In spite of this, some critics and gamers, looking back after the release of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, consider it the weakest title of the series. In retrospect, it is often viewed merely as a connection between the first and third released titles and as an expansion on Metroid morphology. It was later repackaged in a gold colored box along with the official Player's Choice emblem.

[edit] Color version

There was also a color version titled Metroid II: Return of Samus DX announced in 1999 shortly after the release of the Game Boy Color. Dan Owsen of Nintendo claimed its color-palette needs were even taken into account in the design of the Game Boy Color hardware.^[4] Some pictures were shown but the game never saw daylight despite the release of the colorized version of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.

Since then, an unofficial pair has taken the time to "colorize" the game, and the IPS patch to add colorized graphics to the game is now available through the internet. This unofficial Metroid II DX completely revamps the graphics by adding full Game Boy Color palette color to the game. The colorization method used by Metroid II DX causes some distortion to occur during gameplay, noticeably when graphics "fadeout" and also during the final boss battle. The reason for this is that the aforementioned method inserts the GBC color palette into the empty space at the end of the original game data, and adds the colorization itself during each "V-blank cycle". Special effects that utilize this cycle, such as the Queen Metroid and the "fadeout", are replaced by random tile distortions. No other noticeable effects are present with the patch.

Like all original Game Boy games, the original monochrome Metroid II cartridge is also compatible with the Super Game Boy accessory for the Super NES (although it is not an enhanced title), allowing the player to manually remap the color scheme to a maximum of four different colors. Additionally, the Game Boy Player accessory for the Nintendo GameCube automatically colorizes the game, but not true full color, as it is still limited to the same colorization techniques of the GBC and GBA.

Interestingly, the lack of color in Metroid II had some long-term effects on Samus' appearance. In Metroid, the Varia Suit was a different color from the normal Power Suit, but the same shape. In Metroid II, the Varia Suit had to have a different shape because there was no color. Thus, the Varia Suit gained the extra armor plating and bulky, round shoulderpads that have become its most recognizable traits. In addition, rather than Samus' arm cannon and visor changing color to distinguish between "Beam Mode" and "Missile Mode," the end of the arm cannon tip moved outward and back to show that the "missile hatch" was open. These graphical changes have been used in all Metroid games since Metroid II rather than the color changes from Metroid.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• IGN page
• Metroid II at the Metroid Database
• GameFAQs entry for Metroid II: Return of Samus
• Metroid II: Return of Samus at the Internet Movie Database
• The Music of Metroid II
• Knowledge and Fear in Metroid II
• Metroid II Secret Worlds - Game glitches, also known as "secret worlds"
• Metroid II: Return of Samus at StrategyWiki

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