How do I get in there

All the others before this one weren't or didn't feel that hard, even on hard mode. Im playing dread mode.

With Ravenous coming in just a few more months, we've had a lot of people playing Metroid games for the first time! But while Metroid games are amazing to play for the first time, I think they're even better to replay.

This may be a sentiment you've heard before - that Metroid games are meant to be replayed - and that may not be an idea you're used to, since most games are only designed to be played once. This post won't be a specific guide on how to do specific tricks or routes (much smarter people than me have already made those guides, and they're just a Google search away) but hopefully it can give you some ideas for what games you might like to re-explore, and what challenges you can set for yourself!

Also, this post is mainly about 2D Metroid. While 3D Metroid games ARE fun to replay and have lots of replay value, I'm just not as familiar with how to break them.

Here are some well-known runs:

1. 100% runs

The most basic and simple beginner run. Any Metroid game can be 100%ed, and it's pretty fun to do so! Feel free to pull up a map if you're not interested in searching for every hidden corridor, and see how much more powerful you feel walking up to Ridley with twice the normal number of Super Missiles! More importantly, though, the puzzles are often very fun to do! Zero Mission, Fusion, and Dread all have fiendishly difficult Shinespark puzzles, for example, which are a blast to get through.

2. Sequence Broken runs

Sequence Breaks are some of the most interesting and unique features of the Metroid series, and the Metroidvania genre as a whole!

Metroid games are often called nonlinear, but if you've played one of the 2D games, you may have noticed that the game certainly funnels you down a critical path. For example, Zero Mission wants you to get the Long Beam, then Missiles, then Charge Beam, then Bombs, then Power Grip, and so on. However, with some skill, you can get those items completely out of order. Doing so is called a Sequence Break.

The easiest games to sequence break (IMO) are Zero Mission and Dread. Both of those games can be broken in remarkable ways - most of them developer-intended - and doing so makes the game play in completely different ways!

• Both games feature the Infinite Bomb Jump (IBJ), where placing bombs in the right rhythm can get you as high as you want. You can even do it diagonally, to travel across gaps!
• Both games feature Shinesparks, which also give you infinite height or let you shoot across gaps.
• Zero Mission features the One-Wall Wall Jump, where Samus can quickly climb up any wall, just by doing a wall jump (which is done by touching a wall, moving away from it, then pressing the jump button), and then immediately moving back towards the wall you jumped off of. Dread also features the Wall Jump, but doing so against just a single wall is pretty hard.
• Dread features the Coyote Jump, which lets you slide off a ledge, and then jump in midair a few moments after you leave the ledge.
• Dread features the Pseudo-Wave glitch, which lets you break some blocks through walls. The methods vary in setup and difficulty, so I can't explain more here, but there are tons of guides for every place you can do it. This is a trick which is pretty clearly not dev-intended, but it's extremely powerful!
• Dread features the Water Bomb glitch, which gives you just a bit of extra height underwater. It's only useful in a couple places, but those places save a LOT of time, like letting you get Ice Missiles before Spin Boost!

With those few tricks, you can find plenty of different routes through the games, each more ridiculous than the last. Some of these routes may be much more difficult than normal, but they're extremely fun! As a starting place, try a couple of these routes and see how they feel:

• In Zero Mission, get Varia Suit before leaving Brinstar for the first time.
• In Zero Mission, Norfair's rightmost shaft has a secret path which you can access from the top right corner (the part of the shaft you can only access after the Ice Beam). If you take this path, you can access Ridley early! Then, with an IBJ in the room to the right of the elevator, you can go through that area backward, get some Supers, and kill Ridley without ever stepping foot in Kraid's Lair.
• In Zero Mission, you actually don't need to wait until after Ridley to get the Screw Attack. As soon as you're walking underneath its entrance, there's a Missile block in the ceiling you can break, letting you just jump up and grab it.
• In Zero Mission, try going through Kraid without the Power Grip or Ice Beam. It's difficult, but you can get through the entire area without ever going to Norfair!
• In Dread, try fighting Kraid with Bombs. For extra dominance, get early Super Missiles before fighting him. Note that failing to get Diffusion Beam will softlock the game later on. Additionally, you won't be able to fight Kraid after entering Elun!He'll disappear if you haven't already killed him, so make sure to go back for him before that point if you want the fight.
• In Dread, immediately after getting Ice Missiles, use a Shinespark to access the Green Teleportal early, then do the nearby Shinespark challenge to get Gravity Suit early. This will also let you get Screw Attack early, which breaks the world wide open.

Once you've gotten used to Zero Mission and Dread, you may want to try out some Super Metroid sequence breaks! In my opinion, these tend to be much more difficult and less natural, but experts can go through that game in effectively any order. There's even a run called Reverse Boss Order, which fights Ridley first and Kraid last!

3. Speedruns

These go hand-in-hand with sequence breaks. I'm no master of the routes, but they feature tons of cool tricks, are beginner-friendly, and are SUPER fun to try! Check out some of these beginner-friendly guides:

Super Metroid: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/69192497

Zero Mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1nQKpzxkA0&list=PL2_QxV_GAy-ouu3p_airoWftyTGdAre1J&index=1

Dread: https://www.speedrun.com/mdread/guides/wx9cs

4. Low% Runs

Through sequence breaks and player skill, you can skip a HUGE chunk of the upgrades for each 2D game. A Low% run involves getting as few items as possible.

You can do a 0% run of Dread, for example, by simply choosing to skip every Missile Tank, Energy Tank, and Power Bomb tank (major upgrades, like the Morph Ball, don't count towards item completion). Fusion features something similar, but there's one missile tank which is mostly unavoidable, so people tend to do 1% runs. A true Low% run of either game would also skip optional items, like Spin Boost, but just skipping minor items is a hard enough challenge.

Zero Mission is special, because it actually has a special ending for beating the game with under 15% of items (which includes major items). This is VERY hard, but an excellent challenge for anyone who wants to try it out!

Super Metroid has a Low% run, but it's rather advanced, and I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner. If you're interested, the Low% RBO run is easier to learn, but still pretty difficult.

Any game's Low% Run will be insanely difficult, as it means going through the game with minimal health and ammo. I'd say that Dread's Low% run is probably even harder than Dread Mode, though others may disagree.

5. Randomizer Runs

Finally, what might be my favorite way to replay the 2D games: Randomizers. These runs swap around the locations of every item, meaning you could get the Screw Attack first - opening up TONS of new paths - but then be unable to get through any passages which require the Morph Ball. It's a delightfully confusing way to play! IMO, they work best once you've learned a few sequence break techniques, but every randomizer comes with settings to let you decide what tricks you'll be expected to know.

Every randomizer requires a ROM of the game you want to randomize. The only way to legally obtain this ROM is to dump your own copy of the game. You'll also need an emulator to run the randomized ROM in.

Some notable randomizers include:

• For the easiest possible setup, AM2R's community updates add a randomizer directly into the game!
• Randovania, which supports several games, including Dread, Fusion, Samus Returns, AM2R, Prime 1, and Prime 2.
• VARIA.run supports Super Metroid. It is ridiculously powerful, but somewhat hard to use for your first time. As a starting point, go to the Randomizer tab, set the "Skills Preset" to Newbie or Casual, and keep everything else default.
• The MZM Randomizer is for Zero Mission
• SMZ3 is a famous randomizer which has you playing Super Metroid and A Link to the Past at the same time, with items shared across games.
• Archipelago is a randomizer system, which supports numerous Metroid games, and lets you do multiworld runs - essentially letting you randomize across many games, optionally including simultaneous multiplayer. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but it's well worth it if you can figure it out!

As you can see, there are a ton of different ways to play any given Metroid game, each of which comes with its own consideration and quirks. No matter how good or bad you are at the games, there's a new route you can try out, which feels completely different from your first run! Give them a shot, and see what strange situations you get into!

I got HARDLOCKED. Just using simple wall jumps to try and see just where in the world i can make progress but no you fall into the water here and it's game over for my entire save file! If they wanted the player to be able to get out they should have made it impossible to get past here. I saved somewhere i wasn't supposed to be and how should I know as everything else seemed like a complete dead end. Absolutely no way to leave respawning blocks and Grapple underwater. I hate this game and my patience is completely gone.

Edit after getting out by a miracle it's still a backwards shutter switch and higher up there is two yellow pirates and another backwards switch. This game is actually horrible

I have no idea where to go.

Hi guys, maybe I'm the only one who has this opinion on Metroid Prime, but anyway:

The thing I love most about Metroid Prime, is it being like Super Metroid

at the same time, the thing I hate most about Metroid Prime is it being like Super Metroid.

I suppose this is for anyone in the UK who haven’t bought MP4 for the switch 2… currently £22 at Curry’s… pretty great deal!

https://www.currys.co.uk/products/nintendo-switch-metroid-prime-4-beyond-nintendo-switch-2-edition-10292357.html?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=259955&awc=1599_1792254605_5ecd6f7dd42f350d400e2cb6da35e943&srcid=369&xtor=AL-1&cmpid=aff\~Genie%20Shopping%20CSS\~Comparison%20Shopping%20Service%20%28CSS%29\~259955\~Genie+Shopping

Both from around the time I was first beginning to learn digital art, I need to pick it back up again

When i played the triligy version with a real wiimote i did get the impression that metroid prime 2 was significantly harder than metroid prime 1. Still i did managed to beat most of metroid prime 2 on hypermode difficulty without resorting to aim assist (i didn't use lock-on for aiming).

I recently started playing the PC port of the original gamecube version and it was a significantly harder than expected. Part of the difficulty was finding a good control scheme and getting used to it but i also got the impression that the game itself was harder.

I did reduce aim assist further by taking away the crosshair to compensate for the added accuracy provided by mouse aiming.

My design for what Samus might look like beneath the Metroid Suit once her DNA mutates. I figured it suited October. Blonde alt included.

Randomly found this magazine in my stuff. I for sure remember using the prime one for the artifacts back them.

Here is the top of this Metroid sub as a whole, based on the previous posts of the past weeks.

I like numbers, so I simply took notes of practically every single post related to this trend (I think I got the most of it) for a total of 56 "about me" posts. I recorded the score on each category to give us an idea of the general consensus on the topic.

Disclaimer : This isn’t an invitation to do this trend over again or for you to vote to change the results, this only makes sense because it wasn’t supposed to be a vote (I won't be doing another one of these). This is just fun trivia for the curious.

-

Favorite 2D game :

Dread barely takes it by one vote next to Super. I actually expected more diversity from this category.

1. Dread = 22pts
2. Super = 21pts
3. Fusion = 9pts
4. Zero Mission = 2pts
5. AM2R / Samus Returns / Metroid NES = 1pt

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Favorite Power Suit :

I have to confess, when I did my own entry for this trend I thought the Power Suit only refered to the early-game suits.

1. Power Suit - Dread = 11pts
2. Phazon Suit = 5pts
3. Gravity Suit - Dread // Power Suit - Fusion // Varia Suit - Prime = 4pts
4. Power Suit - Zero Mission // PED Suit // Gravity Suit - Samus Returns // Varia Suit - Super = 3pts
5. Power Suit - Samus Returns // Varia Suit - Dread = 2pts
6. Dark Suit // Varia Suit - Fusion // Power Suit - Super // Varia Suit - Other M // Varia Suit - Ravenous // Metroid Suit - Dread // Sylux (don't ask) // Power Suit - Prime // Light Suit // Gravity Suit - Metroid NES // Varia Suit - Samus Returns // Gravity Suit - Prime = 1pt

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Favorite Zero Suit :

For this category I separated the votes based on the renders/artworks people used. Meaning that, despite them looking very similar I distinguished the likes of Zero Mission Samus and Other M Samus or Smash Ultimate Samus and Smash Brawl Samus. I feel like there is enough distinctions to make them separate entries (not that it would really change the outcome anyway).

1. Zero Mission = 14pts
2. Fusion = 12pts
3. Super = 5pts
4. Samus Returns // Other M // Smash Ultimate // Metroid NES = 3pts
5. Smash Brawl // Hunters = 2pts
6. Orange outfit - Zero Mission // Orange outfit - Smash Ultimate // Dark Suit (don't ask) // Dread // Green jacket - Other M // Fan-design by apple_cork // Fan-design by MaxIsDrawing = 1pt

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Favorite Prime/3D game :

Happy to see Echoes getting this much love (we need Prime 2 Remastered ASAP).

1. Prime = 26pts
2. Echoes = 21pts
3. Corruption = 5pts
4. Hunters = 2pts
5. Beyond = 1pt

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Most Underrated game :

“Respect your elders !”

1. Metroid 2 = 10pts
2. Metroid NES = 9pts
3. Samus Returns = 8pts
4. Beyond = 6pts
5. Corruption // Echoes = 5pts
6. Other M // Hunters = 3pts
7. Pinball // Federation Force = 2pts
8. Fusion = 1pt

-

Favorite OST :

As it should be.

1. Prime = 15pts
2. Super = 13pts
3. Zero = 8pts
4. Fusion = 7pts
5. Echoes = 6pts
6. Beyond = 3pts
7. AM2R = 2pts
8. Samus Returns // Dread // Corruption // Hunters = 1pt

-

Favorite Story :

One of the most one-sided categories. Surprised of Dread placement on this one.

1. Fusion = 25pts
2. Dread = 11pts
3. Echoes = 6pts
4. Metroid 2 = 5pts
5. Zero // Prime = 2pts
6. Other M // Corruption // Beyond // Samus Returns // Hunters // Super = 1pt

-

Most Overrated game :

We have our first tie ! Super and Prime, probably the most praised titles of the franchise win the most overrated category. This isn't that surprising, older beloved titles tend to get this treatment with time, this is just the gaming cycle, cycle of life typesh*t. Dread and Fusion aren’t far behind either.

1. Super // Prime = 8pts
2. Dread // Fusion = 6pts
3. Corruption // Samus Returns = 4pts
4. Other M // Zero Mission = 3pts
5. Metroid NES // Metroid 2 = 2pts
6. Echoes // Hunters // Beyond = 1pt

-

Favorite Upgrade :

Didn’t expect this category to be this one-sided, but I guess we can all agree that Shinespark is awesome.

1. Speed Booster = 17pts
2. Plasma Beam // Gravity Suit = 6pts
3. Screw attack = 5pts
4. Flashshift = 4pts
5. Morph ball // Ice Beam // Varia Suit // Wavebuster = 2pts
6. Bomb // Dark Suit // Charge shot // Omega Cannon // Nova Beam // Grapple Beam // Affinity Weapon // Power Bomb // Spazer Beam // Power Grip = 1pt

-

Favorite Fangame :

By far the least close category. Obviously AM2R is a lot more well-known than any other Metroid fangames, but still impressive to see.

1. AM2R = 30pts
2. Super Metroid X-Fusion = 3pts
3. Hyper Metroid // Metroid Planets // Samus Goes to the Fridge to Get a Glass of Milk (yes it's real) = 2pts
4. Super Junkoid // Metroid Prime Origins // Metroid Rogue Dawn // Super Metroid Subversion //Super Duper Metroid = 1pt

-

Favorite Boss :

For this category, since most people seemed to go in the specifics of which fights they enjoyed the most, I separated the entries based on the fights chosen rather than the character itself, meaning that recurring bosses like Kraid or Ridley get multiple entries.

If you disagree with this choice, just know that it doesn’t change the outcome, (Raven Beak wins by a large margin regardless) but it does change the top 3, with Ridley coming second right before Quadraxis.

1. Raven Beak = 18pts
2. Quadraxis = 7pts
3. Nightmare - Fusion // Meta Ridley // Proteus Ridley = 3pts
4. Dark Samus - Echoes = 2pts
5. Ridley - Other M // Omega Metroid - Samus Returns // Z-57 // Queen Metroid - Metroid 2 // Mother Brain - Super // Phantoon - Other M // Kraid - Super // Queen Metroid - Samus Returns // Sylux - Beyond // Diggernaut // Omega Pirate // Ridley-X // Gandrayda // Slench // Kraid - Dread // Chozo Robot // Ridely - Metroid NES // Dark Samus - Corruption // Draygon // Crocomire = 1pt

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Favorite Music Track :

And here comes our second tie. As you’d expect, it’s the category with the most different entries, but there are still some standouts.

1. Red Soil - Super // Volt Forge - Beyond = 4pts
2. Magmoor Caverns - Prime // Title Screen - Prime // Phendrana Drifts - Prime = 3pts
3. Torvus Bog - Echoes // Sanctuary Fortress - Echoes // Kraid’s Lair - Zero Mission // Final Assault - Zero Mission // Kraid's Lair - Metroid NES // Green Brinstar - Super // Credits - Prime = 2pts
4. Artaria - Dread // Quiet Robe - Dread // MD – Theme of Samus Aran - Dread // Chykka Larva - Echoes // Menu Select - Echoes // Title screen - Echoes // Credits - Super // Tourian - Super // Crateria - Super // Norfair - Zero Mission // Title Screen - Zero Mission // Fury Green - Beyond // Sylux - Beyond // Rundas - Corruption // Norion - Corruption // Metroid Prime - Prime // Tallon Depths - Prime // Ridley - Other M // Brinstar - Smash Melee // Arcterra 1 - Hunters // Hydro Station - AM2R // Area 7 - Samus Returns // Nightmare - Fusion = 1pt

Corruption…..something we say thats done by those with ill will and intentions, when power overtakes us….when we lose sight of our own selves and others.
A plague that can be influenced by many even though, some do not intend for it.
We say we’re lost by this corruptive haze we never see past….our own dispare.

When confronted with our own internal evil, facing our own corruption we can push past it, and not let it over take us.
The corruptive plague of dispare, we can push past and help others stand up from it.
It can feel like it’s intoxicating force can override who we are, but that’s only if we give in……only if we allow ourselves to carry this weight alone.
Sometimes we must do things alone….yet in truth we’re never alone, even those we’ve lost to its own force they still give us strength, to push past this powerful illness.
To get back up even in when it feels lost……their strength they give even when they succumbed to a dark force, that plagues us helps us to push past this horrible torment we’re always fighting against.

Corruption…..can come from many forms even when unintentional…..which is why we must try to help others when despair plagues us, so we may not be corrupted by its influence.

This is what I feel the message is….or perhaps it’s something else?…..either way it feels like both ways……it will help others not let dispare consume us….for it may be like a disease…..but it’s one we can recover from, and help others overcome….it’s not easy alone but, that’s why we must remember we’re never alone.

Even those lost, give us strength in passing that we carry with us……so many years past when they’re gone….

I love this game.

Models by me

I finally beat this beautiful game, I can't believe I didn't play this game in its moment because I was poor

Both featuring the Metroid suit, I got myself one of each. Only available for 24hrs

I mean how else would you refill all of your resources?

It's really hard for me to rush through Prime, because I just really enjoy exploring its world. Tallon IV is such a magnificent world to take in, and I can't help but be drawn to the random little points of interest that I see along the way. Still probably the fastest I've cleared this game though. I've beaten it at least 10 times by now (3 of those on the Remastered version) so you would think I would just naturally be faster, but no. I also don't do any routing or anything, because again, I just like to let the world take me where it wants. All in all still my favorite game in the series, even with some of the minor annoyances it carries. It truly is an achievement of a game. And the good news is that next week I'll be experiencing it all over again in a new way, with a freshly acquired copy of Prime Pinball.

I'm curious on thoughts of this are

What does Kraid eat? Is his species originally from Zebes? How would they be involved in Zebes' ecosystem? Can Kraid talk? Is Kraid his name, or the name of his species? What's Kraid's relation to Fake/Mini Kraid?

Kraid feels like one of the more mysterious characters. We know so little about him.