Super Metroid was released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The third game in the Metroid series, Super Metroid followed the events of the first two Metroid games; in which Samus Aran, a galactic bounty hunter, is hired to save the Galactic Federation. In Metroid I, Samus foils the space pirate leader ‘Mother Brain’s’ plans to use the Metroid (parasitic lifeforms) to attack galactic civilization. In Metroid 2: Return of Samus, Samus is sent to the Metroid’s home planet to eradicate the species, save for a larvae that imprints onto Samus.
In Super Metroid it is revealed that Samus brought the larvae to the Galactic Research Station, where they discover that the Metroid can be used to harness energy. Ridley, the new leader of the Space Pirates, attacks the station and kidnaps the larvae. Samus travels to planet Zebes where, through open exploration and collection mechanics, she accumulates improved gear and unlocks new depths of the planet in the search for the last living Metroid.
Over the course of the game, Samus fights four bosses, including Ridley, and explores seven major areas before finding and defeating a reconstructed Mother Brain. Samus also faces Metroids who have grown and replicated at a rapid pace. She is saved by the imprinted Metroid who heals Samus and dies in the battle against Mother Brain, leaving a hyper beam weapon to finish the battle.
While there is a lot to be said about Super Metroid the game is best understood as a lens through which to view the emerging global fascination with space exploration and imperialism of the time.
The Space Race
The Metroid series is a science-fiction reflection of the Space Race.
The Space-Race which took place from the 1950s to the 1970s between The US and Russia was highly covered in global media, and overshadowed other countries space exploration programs such as Japan’s (where Metroid was originally developed) at the University of Tokyo. This new age of space exploration prompted an increase in consumption and creation of science-fiction space exploration games like Space Invaders, Star Wars, Half-Life, etc.
Exploration and The New Frontier
The mechanics and structure of Super Metroid are based in the public fascination with space exploration and consolidation of power. Super Metroid has no clear directions nor objectives other than the “Find the Metroid Larvae” game over screen. The game provides no direction after you land on planet Zebes, where you spend most of the game wandering the map in search of equipment and the path forward. Likewise the way forward is not always clear, many of the games necessary pathways are hidden from view or only accessed through some sort of unlock mechanism (bombs, special ammunition, parkour, and puzzle mechanics). Others require the player to backtrack through the map with new equipment.
While you might expect the game to be centered on combat or shooter ‘clear the room’ type goals, combat takes a back seat to exploration and is mainly a means to an end. You beat the boss to unlock a new area, or you freeze enemies with an ice beam to make stairs. This focus on semi-open exploration mechanics is reflective of the new frontier mindset of space exploration propaganda prominent at the time. The goal is to explore and discover each area to the highest extend of play capability or interest, which is where the pursuit of power takes effect.
Collecting Power-Ups
A key motivation for exploration in Super Metroid is the pursuit of additional power-ups, weapons, and ammunition for Samus. Bombs, the morphing ball ability, the super dash ability, and the grappling hook make exploration easier by allowing the player to move through blocks and gaps in the chambers to advance or find hidden secrets. Some upgrades like missiles and super missiles, allow the player to move through colored doors between chambers opening up the full map.
While collecting power-ups helps the player defeat bosses and combatants easier, it is also mandatory in most cases. You have to acquire the super bomb to open the door between map regions; You have to use the speed boost to clear a room before the chambers close. This forced collection of items as opposed to optional or encouraged collection, to defeat a boss easier for example, is a direct reflection of the Space Race era fears of lacking or rather, having less power than the ‘enemy’.
The Space Race was primarily jump started in the US and accelerated World Wide after the development of ballistic missiles and the launch of Sputnik I caused fears of powerlessness and inadequacy to grow between nations. This pursuit of militaristic power is reflected in the advancement of Samus into a sort of super-solidier, which is the only way Samus can progress in the game, and the only way a country can progress in the race between super-powers.
Genocide and Morality
It is hard to analyze the militarism and space-exploration aspects of the Metroid Series without discussing the ethical implications. Samus actively and repeatedly attempts genocide at the command of a human Galactic Federation. The human species discovers, captures, and destroys the life forms of other planets. While this is vaguely masked as ‘for the greater good’ of Galactic Civilization, it is interesting to consider whether the Metroid series means to merely capitalize on the idea of imperialism and militaristic colonization, or if it perhaps is criticizing it.
The Metroid larvae that imprints onto Samus after she refuses to kill it is perhaps the most telling in this case. It is a humanization of the ‘evil’ creatures as innocent and their violent actions product of a larger system, such as the Space Pirates and Mother Brain. In this case the Metroid can be considered a tragic figure, or a pawn in a larger game.
The fact that this creature imprints on to Samus can be considered the embodiment of a guilty conscience haunting Samus throughout the third game. Samus must revisit the site of her carnage in Metroid I, and reckon with the attempted genocide of the Metroid in Metroid II.
Super Metroid forces players of the series to look back upon their actions during the first two games and come to terms with the dissonance of collateral damage Samus has caused. The Galactic Federation ( a space Super-Power), made Samus an instrument of destruction, caring little for the sanctity of other lifeforms. The player can resolve this dissonance in a number of ways: blame the system for the directive, blame Samus for her actions, decide to dehumanize or dissociate from the Metroid, or completely ignore the moral implications be trigger happy (although as said earlier, the amount of exploration and repetition within the game make a full shoot out difficult).
Regardless, Metroid can be considered a fantastical representation of the Space Race that deals with the combined issues of ambition, power, and morality as exercised by a larger government. Through the lens of Samus, the player experiences what it is like to be both an agent of space imperialism, and an instrument of a larger imperialistic entity. Even if the player does not take away the imperialistic motivations of the plot, the affective experience of Samus’s relationship with the last Metroid leaves the player morally confounded with the actions that brought the last Metroid to its doom.
Sources:
Super Metroid on the SNES
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Super-Nintendo/Super-Metroid-279613.html
A Brief History of the Space Race
https://aerospace.org/article/brief-history-space-exploration
Metroid Wiki
