Trinity MUGEN

Intro: Despite a few odds and ends here, between Double's old work and my 3 reviews we've pretty much discussed every MegaMan game and MegaMan styled game worth discussing (and several that aren't). So, for something completely different, I shall review some Metroid this time.

Gameplay: Metroid was one of the earliest nonlinear platform adventure type games and it does show. Your basic objective is to kill two bosses, acquire the Ice Beam use it to kill the Metroids and then kill the Mother Brain. Despite this the exact order you do it in is kind of up to you depending how skilled you are, i.e. learning how to do bomb jumps lets you bypass the Hi-jump Boots. Unlike many of its recent incarnations the original Metroid strongly supports exploration as you A: Have no map, and B: Due to NES limitations many of the block structures throughout the game are reused in various areas (this is especially noticeable in Kraid's area). It's quite basic though so I'd only recommend to diehard NES fans as more recent games are likely to become bored.
17 out 20

Music: Yes the original Metroid has the Kraid theme (Brinstar's Depths) that everyone and their mom seems to love and the Brinstar theme, but both the Norfair themes and Tourain are a bit lacking. Despite being a bit repetitive though for the time it was fairly good.
13 out of 15

Translation: There are only a few lines in the game, but they still managed to fuck up. I'm talking about Planet "Zebeth" in the intro.
9 out of 10

Length: Up until now the length scale was based on the number stages because they were all MegaMan games, obviously Metroid needs a different scale. The game can be beaten (and is expected to as it's an ending requirement) in under three hours. However your first run obviously won't be that fast as you will A: Be lost & B: Will be looking for items, Missile Expansions and Energy tanks (no not those Energy Tanks). Because of this Metroid is a game with a short play time but decent replay value.
13 out of 15

Rehash Factor: Despite being the first game in the series it should be noted that this game uses the same engine that Kid Icarus does, hence the reason for the games being fairly similar despite one being a much more traditional platformer. I can't really blame Nintendo for reusing a game engine though, so this is really just trivia.
Not Applicable.

Plot: The Metroids have been kidnapped! Are you a bad enough dude/robot to go to the Evil Space Pirate base/planet/homeworld(thanks Metroid Prime 3) to kill them? Oh wait you're a woman? At the time that was quite the plot twist, of course Samus being a woman now is not only common knowledge and Nintendo enjoys spamming it (see Brawl). Given this was the NES era this isn't really that bad.
7 out of 10

Difficulty: Much like Double enjoyed making new gamers play MegaMan 1's Yellow Devil, I enjoy making new gamers play this. The lack of map (the NES Instruction book actually did have a general map of Zebes) or any sort of hint system. Despite this if you know what you're doing this game isn't really that hard.
14 out 15

Total:
73/85 = 85.88 %

While it was quite good for its time it does show a bit of its age. Being compared to Super Metroid doesn't exactly help either.

Positive: Justin Bailey? That bastard ain't got anything on this password:
NARPAS SWORD0
0000000 000000

Negative: How the hell does Kraid ending up being a harder boss than Ridley?