Metroid NES Review [The Road To Metroid Dread, Ep 1]

My own Road To Metroid Dread begins, right at the very beginning with this Metroid NES review. The Nintendo Entertainment System was the birthplace of many a pivotal gaming franchise, and the Famicom Disk System gave us this epic sci-fi adventure.
In the Metroid NES review, find out of this seminal game hold up, and is this title worth playing today?
This video is part of Pug Hoof Gaming's Road to Metroid Dread - A series where I'll be playing through and reviewing every single official game in the series. And I mean ALL of them.
#Metroid #Samus #NES
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All gameplay footage captured in glorious 1440p60 using an original system, connected to an OSSC upscaling unit and captured through an Elgato Cam Link unit.
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[@needleman0824]

The legend returns with one hell of a series!

[@PugHoofGaming]

I hope it will be!

[@NerdyTransformed]

Its hard to return to the OG Metroid, but so much the next several decades of game design was started here. I'd even argue its on par with Zelda in influence in design.

[@PugHoofGaming]

Absolutely - You can’t be too hard on games from this era, as there’s so much experimentation and forward-thinking going on here. The rules of good game design hadn’t been written yet, but in 1986 alone there is so many games that start to nail down what makes a game fun to play!

[@starlacUK]

Not having a NES until much later, my first experience with the original Metroid was when I unlocked it on Prime when I... fused my copy of Fusion through the link cable. Probably needless to say, going from Fusion and Prime to the original was definitely an experience. As you note, It's hard to go back to the first title given the gap in accessibility (I did find a map online to get myself through the game after getting hopelessly lost the first try). Though, few people go into a building for its foundations.
Also good to see you making videos, Lee. Off to watch Metroid II.

[@PugHoofGaming]

Oh yeah - Metroid NES is a hard jump to go back to for those games!

[@mrwii5741]

Good Job on this Review! Metroid Was a really good game! I feel Super Metroid offered much more but Metroid is still a classic NES Game!

[@PugHoofGaming]

Thank you! I’ll save my thoughts on Super Metroid for two weeks time, but the original is absolutely a classic, even if it’s a bit unfriendly today.

[@MattyStoked]

Lee this was brilliant. Great to see you covering this one. As someone who is also slowly cracking through a classic franchise which started on the Famicom, I've got to respect this. High effort and very thorough. Top job dude.

[@PugHoofGaming]

Cheees buddy, much appreciated! I figured I was gonna play through all of these anyway, might as well bring you all along for the ride!

[@Darkkfated]

This is such a tough game to critique. On the one hand, it undoubtedly hasn't aged well and Zero Mission basically renders it obsolete and nearly unplayable in comparison.
On the other hand, this game was just as innovative as the original Zelda (in my opinion) and featured a huge game world, multi-directional scrolling, and power-ups that didn't disappear after 12 seconds... all things that just weren't DONE in 1986 (aside from the aforementioned Zelda). A lot of the gripes people have with the game stem from the fact that the cartridge-enhancing chips that would power late-gen NES games HADN'T BEEN INVENTED YET and thus there are MANY things that later NES titles did that were literally impossible for a game like Metroid to do.
If, like me, you enjoyed the game when it was brand new and you were a kid, you'll probably still like it today (despite it's faults) because you'll have fond memories of drawing your own maps and bombing EVERYTHING to find secrets and hidden paths - something which was novel and amazing and again, virtually unheard of at the time, save perhaps for Zelda's overworld... but is now considered outdated or obtuse trial-and-error game design by today's standards.
It really is a product of its era and is a standout title... if you only consider games up to 1987. If you try to hold it up against 35 years of improvements to its own genre, then yes of COURSE it starts to fall apart.

[@PugHoofGaming]

You’re absolutely spot on, and I hope I conveyed in the video that I absolutely don’t think Metroid is a bad game. As both of us say, it’s just aged poorly - A casualty of a very formative era of video games. It’s seminal and medium-defining, and there’s a great deal of value to going back to this game at least once - But probably only once you’ve devoured the later games.
When I go back to games like this, I try and separate any nostalgic feelings I have and try to look at what value it has to someone playing today (maybe someone younger) who sees Metroid Dread, or Samus in Smash and wants to go back and see what the fuss was about). It’s a tough balance, for sure.
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!

[@jonathan2950]

Great video to watch, thank you. This is the only 2D Metroid game I haven’t played and to be honest, I don’t think I ever will. I’ve played and completed Zero Mission and have no desire to go through this with all the other (and better) games I still need to play.
Looking forward to your coverage of Metroid II. I have played and completed that (on the 3DS VC I think) and I do recall enjoying it, so I’m interested to hear your thoughts on it. I’ve also played the 3DS remake but never completed it. I really didn’t enjoy using the analogue stick to control a 2D platformer and the counter mechanic they forced into it. Nothing felt right about it and I just got bored. Hoping Metroid Dread fares better!
Side note: I hope you used your Super Game Boy 2 and SGB Commander controller to play through Metroid II 😀

[@PugHoofGaming]

Thank you! Yeah, there isn't too many reasons to go back these days (unless you maybe go to a hacked version with a map!).
My thoughts on Metroid II turned out very different to what I was expecting - But you'll find out later, as well as what I used to play the game :)

[@FarmerSlideJoeBob]

A nice short Video Lee😃 Greetings to your cuto Dogo😆

[@PugHoofGaming]

Thank you :)