Collection essentials #156: Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)

Metroid was a revolutionary game on the NES. It is perhaps surprising that it took Nintendo several years to make a sequel, and for that sequel to be on the Game Boy rather than a console.

I’m not gonna have a deep analysis of Metroid II as I haven’t played it a whole lot in my life. Metroid would go on to become a great series, but this is still part of the phase where it was “getting there” and hadn’t arrived yet. 

The gameplay of Metroid II is certainly similar to the first game, but it plays out slightly differently. Metroids are dangerous creatures, and Samus is on a mission to exterminate them. The goal of Metroid II is to find and destroy all the Metroids in the area. The game literally indicates the number of Metroids remaining at the bottom of the screen (there are 47) to remind the player of their mission. It’s neat that they mixed things up that way, although in practice it doesn’t really make for the most fun Metroid game because there’s not much variety at all in those 47 fights, and a feeling of repetition may start to set in.

Metroid II features power-ups from the first game, and also adds new ones that would be used by future games in the series, such as a “Spider Ball” that lets Samus stick to and climb walls and ceilings while in ball form and the “Space Jump” which lets Samus jump in midair with no limit, basically making her able to fly.

This is certainly one of those old-school games that’s a little hard to go back to. A pretty significant problem is that it still lacks an in-game map, so navigation can be a real pain. 

Metroid II has received two remakes, one by Nintendo themselves over 20 years later, and another one made by fans for computers completely without Nintendo’s consent or involvement. Either of those are more advisable than trying to revisit this Game Boy original. Nevertheless, it’s a significant entry in a highly significant series by Nintendo, so I’ll still mark it as essential for my collection.