Ranked among the best Super Nintendo games that was ever engineered, Super Metroid is by many the #1 Super Nintendo game. I have seen many games myself, and this is one of the best by far. The graphics are excellent and the game is surprisingly long, compared to other Super Nintendo games. This game is an all-time classic and is personally one of my favorites for eternity. Super Metroid is #3 (after Metroid on NES, and Metroid II on Game Boy) in the Metroid saga. After Super Metroid, there is Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance), Metroid Prime I, II, and III. I haven’t yet had the pleasure to play the original “Metroid” or “Metroid II”, but I am currently trying to master “Metroid Fusion” and “Metroid Prime I.”
At its time, Super Metroid was revolutionary. It was the first game to be more than 16bits. At 24bits, the game was a powerhouse and was also the first super Nintendo game to feature audible speech. Many fans (especially old school ones) say that Super Metroid still maintains the rank as the best Metroid in the entire series and I have to agree (but my experience with the Prime series is limited).
My fastest time to beat Super Metroid with 100% items is 1 hour, 14 minutes. It used to be slower, but thanks to Mitch Wilson in summer 2007 we got together and raced on who could beat the game faster. We went to my place, put two TV’s and Super Ninteno’s together, and played at the same time. We ended up beating the game with 100% of the items collected, with the same completion time of 1 hour, 21 minutes. After a few days I got my time down to 1 hour, 14 minutes. You can see my speedrun path here. If you wish to see a map for Super Metroid, then click here.
Have you ever beaten Super Metroid? If so, email me your record and I’ll post it.
| # | Name | Time | Percent of Items |
| 1 | Brent Morgan (me) | 1 hr 14 mins | 100% |
| 2 | Mitch Wilson | 1 hr 17 mins | 100% |
| 3 | Justin Acree | 1 hr 39 mins | 100% |
| 4 | Bob Setlock | 2 hrs 13 mins | 100% |
| 5 | Jordan McViar | 2 hrs 12 mins | 77% |
| 6 |
Jared Pickens | 3 hrs 4 mins | 80% |
| 7 | Robert Smith | 10 hours |
80% |
| 8 | …… | …… | …… |
Below are techniques and strategies to destroy the bosses of the game, as well as descriptions of the bosses of the Super Metroid game.
Location: Ceres Space Colony
Weakness: Blaster
Special Attacks: Fire projectiles, Tail lash
Ridley will come out of no where all of a sudden. He will start attacking you with his tail and fire blasts, but if you dodge all of his attacks and keep firing at him, he can be beaten. When he is beaten, all he does is fly away, so no big deal. Or you can just let him hurt you enough to where you are in the ‘Danger’ mode (when the siren starts) and Ridley will leave. For a speedrun, it is advised to be hit by his tail (even by jumping into his tail) because that will take the most damage from Samus, and getting to the ‘Danger’ mode quickly will enable you to leave the room more quickly, and hence beat the game more quickly…
Location: Brinstar
Weakness: Blaster, Missiles
Special Attacks: Swing attack, Mini spores
The Spore Spawn is not very difficult to beat. When he opens his mouth, just throw a missile or two into his mouth. When he moves around everywhere, and with all the little green things coming down on you, I stay as a ball and keep on top of one of the ledges to the left and right sides of the screen, then nothing can get to you. If you are clever, it isn’t even necessary to fight this mini-boss. The super missiles can be obtained earlier such that you don’t need to enter this room to get your first super missiles. In the room where you first enter Brinstar (after the elevator), enter the room where you are supposedly need the “speed boots” where the collapsing platform is. It is possible to cross that collapsing platform without the speed boots and you can get your first super missiles just when you enter Brinstar. To enter the room, you need to enter by jumping in the air, and upon falling and landing on the collapsing platform you very quickly turn into a ball (then by holding down) and do a speed roll (by also holding forward) as you land. This enables you to speed up while you are rolling and cross the collapsing platform correctly. This is how your first super missile can be obtained. To get the super missle that is supposed to be awarded to you after the death of Spore Spawn, you need to do a power bomb energy boost where you would normally exit if you battled the Spore Spawn. This will bug/trick/strategy will enable you to ignore Spore Spawn completely.
Location: Brinstar
Weakness: Blaster, Missiles, Super Missiles
Special Attacks: Thorn projectiles, Fireball spheres
He will come up out of spikes and appear to be quite large. Shoot him in the mouth when it opens, and he will rise up even further revealing himself to extremely large. He throws spiked objects at you and shoots fire out of his mouth. Try to dodge the flying objects and continue shooting him in the mouth with rather a Super Missile or charge beam (4 Super Missiles should do it). The more you defeat him, he will become darker in color (like most enemies), which indicates their low energy. Or, if you are clever… The first time he opens his mouth upon arising from the spikes (just when you enter the room) you can very smoothly and swiftly fire 3 super missiles into his mouth, and he will automatically fall. This technique is used in speedruns, as Kraid can spend a few minutes to kill once he stands up to his extremely large height and starts firing thorn projectiles at you. By firing 3 super missiles into his mouth for the first time he opens his mouth will enable you to defeat Kraid very quickly.
Location: Norfair
Weakness: Charged Beam, Missiles, Super Missile
Special Attacks: Charge, Plasma balls
If you don’t keep up your pace of shooting him into the mouth with missiles, super missiles, or your charged beam, then he will keep advancing on you and toss you in the spikes behind you. He won’t die from your weapons… Keep shooting him and he will eventually fall into lava behind him. The coolest part is, when he’s defeated, he STILL tries to kill you, even though is a walking skeleton, but he just falls to dust… Or, a very efficient want in killing Crocomire is by shotting him with the plasma beam. One shot of the charged plasma beam and he will back up all the way automatically into the lava and your effort required to destroy this mini-boss is minimized. Depending on the path of your run or speedrun, you can use different weapons which has different effects.
Location: Wrecked Ship
Weakness: Super Missile
Special Attacks: Blue plasma projectiles
When Phantoon appears, you cannot shoot at him. He will shoot out a bunch of ‘raindrop’ shaped energy balls (or blue plasma) at you. Only when Phantoon opens his eye and becomes solid, shoot him with a super missile in his eye. After a few shots (4 super missiles should do it) he will be destroyed. However, when you successfully hit him with a super missile, he fires blue plasma in such a way it is hard to dodge. I sometimes just shoot many missiles to avoid his blue plasma projectiles.
Location: Maridia
Weakness: Missiles, Super Missiles
Special Attacks: Charge, Green fireballs
Encountered in Maridia, this serpent is not hard to beat. It flies around the screen trying to hit you and shooting out small green projectiles. It hides in the four holes in the screen and emerges from them randomly. Just shoot the head with missiles or super missiles and it will explode when destroyed. I recommend super missiles, and fire them immediately after he first shows himself. To defeat this mini-boss it only takes a minute or two.
Location: Norfair
Weakness: Charged Beam, Missiles, Super Missile
Special Attacks: Gun Turrets, Sting
This enemy seems to be very complicated to defeat, but not at all. When you first enter the room, destroy all of the shooters on the wall. Then, when Draygon comes, let him capture you, and when he is crushing you in the air, shoot your Grappling Beam in one of the destroyed shooters, and after about 4-8 seconds, he should be destroyed. (Shooting at the shooters hurts Samus only a little). I used to just shoot him every time he passed by, and dodged his grabs, but can be pretty difficult. Or, a clever little trick, is to use a power bomb to blow up all the little white sticky things that latch onto you right before he grabs you, and then shoot them with the super missiles when he’s trying to grab you. This is a much more efficient way to shoot him (if you are going to shoot him).
Location: Norfair
Weakness: Charged Beam, Missiles, Super Missile
Special Attacks: Fire projectiles, Tail lash, Grab attack
Ridley is much stronger than the previous encounter. He lashes at you with his tail, and does some crazy stuff that deal some serious damage. To defeat him, fire anything you got at him. He’s probably one of the hardest bosses in the game. At this point you should have the plasma beam, so shooting super missiles and charging your beam should be enough.
Location: Tourian
Weakness: Charged Beam, Missiles, Super Missile
Special Attacks: Gun Turrets
This is the final boss, the Mother Brain. It does nothing to attack you, but there are many defense turrets around it which fire at you. To destroy this stage of Mother Brain, fire missiles or super missiles at the glass until it breaks, and then keep firing at the Mother Brain itself. Cake.
Location: Tourian
Weakness: Charged beam, Missiles, Super Missiles
Special Attacks: Various laser projectiles, Bomb, energy-sapping beam
Once you defeat the Mother Brain in the glass case, it will become a huge dinosaur-type creature. This puppy can deal some serious damage to you, having numerous mega-attacks. Just shoot him in the head with the most damaging weapons you have, as fast as you possibly can. Keep firing until Mother Brain starts blowing his energy blasts at you. A clever thing I consider, to decrease the amount of time spent on this boss, I run into his legs to decrease my energy as fast as possible. Because when he shoots his first energy-sapping beam, and you survive with a enery tank left, then the metroid comes out and attacks Mother Brain. So hurting yourself to the point where you deal enough damage to yourself allows for the game to go by quicker, since Mother Brain doesn’t have to deal that damage to you.
There really isn’t any ‘codes’ for this game unless you have a Game Genie. There are, however, tricks to help you survive throughout the game.
Special Weapon trick:
1. Use charge beam and only one beam
2. Highlight power bombs
3. Charge your beam
Depending on the one beam you chose, your ’special’ weapon will be different. Below are the possible combinations.
ICE: A rotating ice shield.
WAVE: Four small purple orbs that orbit around Samus and fly off in all directions, all over the screen.
SPAZER: Several small vertical Spazers encircle Samus then fly off virtically.
PLASMA: Four large green orbs rotate around Samus, and the circle gets larger, then smaller, then larger until they fly off screen.
Power Bomb Energy Boost:
1. Select your Super Bombs
2. HOLD down, L button, and R button all at once
3. Press and hold the X button to set off a Super Bomb
Result: Samus will be engulfed in a glowing orb and her missiles will be converted into energy units, HOWEVER, in order to do this little trick you need to have eleven (11) of: Missiles, Super Missiles, and Super Bombs.
Saving your “friends” trick:
After Mother Brain, on your way out (as the planet self-destructs), go into the room where you first received “Bombs” earlier in the game. In this room, there will be the bird that taught you to use the Super Charge Jump in Brinstar and the three Etecoons who taught you do do the Wall Jump in Brinstar. Just shoot the opposite wall, and they will escape. Then, when you get back to your ship, it shows Planet Zebes exploding. Keep your eye on the right side of the screen, and you will see a tiny Space Craft of the friends you saved escaping from the planet.
My fastest time of beating the game and obtaining 100% items is 1 hour, 14 minutes, without dying at all and covering 100% of the map. I heard that some have gotten 100% under 1 hour. If you beat the game in a certain time, you get a different ending. Though this various ending may be around 30 seconds long, it’s still cool.
Beat the game in more than 10 hours: You see Samus, in her suite, while she gives you a thumbs up.
Beat the game between 3 and 10 hours: You see Samus without her helmet on, while she gives you a thumbs up.
Beat the game under 3 hours: You see Samus without her entire suit, while she gives you a thumbs up.
Click on the images below to see them full size. Most images are from The Metroid Database.
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August 22nd, 2009 at 4:36 AM
Thanks for the information, bookmarked your page for updates
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:15 PM
I suggest putting the murder beam, space/time beam, and other tips such as mock-balling on you’re review here… very nice review BTW.