Super Metroid high playthrough log part 5

just about at 6 hours of game time now... I tried Ridley again and beat him on one try while coming up on edibles. He's not that hard once you get into a good rhythm. I used up all my missiles first, usually only shooting 2 or 3 at a time... then I switched to super missiles, hoping to finish him off with these during his harder phases.. but ran out just when he was red... you really have to focus on making every super missile count... then I beat him with a few more charge beam shots after that. during his last phase, he gets really mad and mostly just stays near the bottom shooting and whacking you with his tail, not even trying to dodge you anymore...

Found an energy tank hiding in the empty room after Ridley... the path leading out of the Ridley part of Norfair, with another one of those fake walls you can't see with the Xray visor, followed by a bunch more xray visor puzzles.. the transition back to normal Norfair is very gradual... finally made it all the way back to the Brinstar elevator... that one blue area left in Brinstar where I needed the gravity suit, is the only other missing thing I can easily find before Tourian... there's another energy tank there...

I now have 12/14 energy tanks, 160 missiles, 40 super missiles, and 40 power bombs... the other stuff I'm missing, I have no idea where to look. I'd seriously have to use a guide or otherwise just literally scour the entire game looking for doors or xray paths I might've missed.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 4

Maridia part 2

The big middle sections of Maridia has some wall-jumpable skips... actually feels like these paths were intended by the developers...
holy shit that epic discovery... while wall jumping up some part (I'm a lot better at that now btw), I saw a crab enemy walk into an invisible morphball sized path that I wouldn't have even thought to look with the xray scope otherwise... they totally placed that enemy there on purpose. found super missile upgrade.

huh... there's a one-way shortcut back to Brinstar (the east Crateria exit) at an unmapped path at the northwest...

I'm actually really impressed with the design of this place... it just hits so many if my "amazing level design" things. The hidden paths are well hidden, but aren't unreasonable to find at all with all of the tools given to you at the point in the game that the developers expect you to be at...

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 3

Brinstar part 3

okay so I'm in norfair... everything is pinked out and I'm pretty sure there's nothing left to explore her for now... so back through the only elevator out of Norfair, leading back to Brinstar...

found the X-Ray scope at that one blue sidepath in Brinstar with the fireflies lighting up a dark room... spent a while trying to get across here by just using frozen enemies as platforms earlier... but now I can easily get across with the grapple beam... found the x-ray visor, which you needed to use right away to find the path leading out of here...

and yeah a lot of other stuff to get in Brinstar too, including a side path near that one missile in a pinked-out area that I needed the grapple beam for... it's entirely unmapped... since this game doesn't show any indication of doors in the map's room outlines either, this path was really well hidden... wouldn't have found it without the x-ray visor. it lead to a power bomb expansion.

and that path below where I think you got the first power bomb... a watery hallway that you need the gravity suit to get through.

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 2

Brinstar/Norfair part 2

So yeah... next I'm going back through Norfair, to Brinstar, while looking for unmapped sidepaths and stuff that I needed speed for.

well yeah there's that right path near the beginning for one... it leads to an unmapped place where you need the ice beam to platform over lava with the morph ball... and a side path with the ice beam. oh wow, and that whole room was to introduce enemies that you can't kill and can only freeze... some genius level design...

Back to the bottom right of Brinstar... oh wow, there's the Spazer beam in a small upper ceiling path that I could've gotten before. I can now easily get back up that east Brinstar shaft I fell down, and go further up to more blue map...about to go up through to the 3rd Crateria elevator, but first there's an unmapped path with the Power Bombs... now do I go up or go back down for all the extra Power Bomb stuff including the Maridia tunnel? obviously...

lol just noticed the door back down where you came is yellow, so it locks you on into new path until you get the power bombs, but they still are possible to miss... also wtf that side area just before the Brinstar elevator, just a trap room that locks you out with a grey door until you defeat all the killable enemies? if you power bomb the floor here there are spikes and unkillable plant monsters with serpent tongues that grab at you... like no reason to be here at all looks like...

Super Metroid high playthrough log part 1

Starting a highly detailed documented replay of Super Metroid. It's the first time I've played this game in over 10 years so I've forgotten a lot about it.

Samus retells the story of the first two games... she leaves the baby metroid behind with the scientists, then suddenly that space station gets attacked, and Ridley kidnaps the baby metroid... the space colony activates its self-destruct as a safety against this, but I guess it failed... then she flies away to Planet Zebes... starting off at Crateria.

Crateria part 1

right now there's only one path and it's... holy shit... it's literally Metroid 1 going backwards... I go down through a blue door on the ground below me... and that leads to the elevator that you ended the game at in Metroid 1, you go in through the busted Mother Brain tube and empty tourian (just a bunch of tiny lifeforms that dont do anything to Samus so far)

but then... at the end of the mother brain hall is just an elevator leading directly into brinstar...