Metroid is the first game in the Metroid series of video games. It was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1986, and later for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. The game was produced by one of Nintendo's most prolific game and hardware designers, Gunpei Yokoi, and was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto. The game's music was composed by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.

Gameplay

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Metroid provided one of the first highly nonlinear game experiences on a home console. The basic gameplay is a mix of action adventure and platform shooter. The player begins with a very limited amount of power-ups, but must always use their ingenuity to achieve the next "locked" or unreachable area. Due to the fact that the game world is presented in one, multi-screened "level", there are often areas which can be reached before they were meant to be by creative players. In later games in the Metroid series, this would lead to out-of-sequence speed runs.

Metroid has five different endings that vary depending on how much time the player takes to finish the game. The two fastest endings feature Samus Aran in various stages of undress, with the fastest ending featuring Samus in a bikini.

Story

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In the year 2003 C.C. (Cosmic Calendar) the leaders of various planets united in order to form a congress that became known as the Galactic Federation in an attempt to construct a fair and structured universe that would enable society to grow and prosper. Under the guidance of this new federation, the individuals of the planets began to associate with each other and a new civilization began to develop. Various leaps in technology for transportation were created, such as interstellar spaceships and society flourished through the use of such expansion.

At this time, Earth came into contact with individuals from these other worlds and the advanced technology that these people possessed was shared with the humans of Earth. All seemed well in this new society. However, devious groups known as "Space Pirates" began to attack the spaceships in the hopes of looting valuable goods from them and to strike fear in the hearts of the people. In order to counter these attacks, the Federal Bureau set up a new combat force known as the Federal Police. Yet the pirates were extremely difficult to battle in the depths of space, even with the advanced technology of the Federation. Thus, they recruited a group of courageous individuals who became known as "Space Hunters", equipped with the best weapons available. The Federation provided huge financial bonuses to the Hunters in reward for hunting down and destroying the pirates.

It is now the year 20X5 C.C., and the universe has continued to develop while battles still rage throughout space. Recently, reports have indicated that a spaceship is traveling with a capsule containing an unknown life-force from the deserted planet of SR388. This planet has been attacked and seized by the Space Pirates. While research about this life-form, currently in hibernation, is incomplete, it is known that exposure to beta rays for 24-hours will cause it to multiply. Some scientists believe that this life-form may have been the cause of destruction of life on SR388. Scientists decide to call this being a "Metroid" and the mere thought of it being in the hands of pirates is utterly disturbing. If the pirates learn how to multiply it and use it as a weapon, the cost of lives could be overwhelming. The Federation launched search teams to find the pirates and were fortunate to discover that their base was located deep within the planet Zebes. However, none of the forces are strong enough to take the pirates down.

During this outside battle, operations to multiply the Metroid within the Space Pirates' headquarters were soon becoming a reality. Desperate for a solution, the federation decided that the only option left was to attempt to infiltrate Zebes and destroy the leader of the Space Pirates, "Mother Brain." To make matters difficult, the structure of the planet Zebes is a natural fortress that consists of a large maze. Scattered throughout the maze are various traps and allies of the Space Pirates. This mission clearly requires a special individual to complete, and so the federation has selected the most dominating Space Hunter of the entire organization. This space bounty hunter is known as "Samus Aran".

Samus, though human, has a cybernetic suit that is connected with her body (in some places surgically, but she seems to be able to remove it at will), thus providing her with an uncanny amount of power. She has, to this date, completed many missions considered impossible, and her suit has the power to withstand lethal attacks, while providing many itself. Samus makes her way through the fortress-planet Zebes, collecting weapon and health upgrades, advancing to new areas, defeating Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain, and, in the end, destroys all Metroids on Zebes.

Development

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Metroid is notable for featuring a female main character during a time when the vast majority of games relegated female characters to variations on the "damsel in distress" role. However, the fact that Samus was in truth a woman was not revealed until the end of the game, and then only if the game was completed within a certain total amount of time. The original instruction manual simply described Samus as a "space hunter" (now "bounty hunter" in Metroid canon) and specifically stated that Samus's identity was shrouded in mystery. (At some points the English manual used masculine pronouns in relation to Samus, either in error or as a deliberate misdirection.) Further, the on-screen character was rendered more or less androgynous, so the game gave no clues to its hero's identity until the ending credits.

The player's manual included with the game presents the term "Metroid" as both singular and plural, but this was changed in later Metroid titles.

The original Metroid is present as an unlockable bonus in the GameCube game Metroid Prime. In 2004, Nintendo released Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance, which in addition to being a modern "re-imagining" of the original Metroid also includes the emulated NES game as an unlockable bonus. Also in 2004, Nintendo re-released the original Metroid for Game Boy Advance as part of the Classic NES Series.

Password system

Metroid was one of the first games to use a password system for saving game information between play sessions. The original game released for the Famicom/Famicom Disk System allowed saving state on disk, but the American release was in NES cartridge form (the Disk System, though originally planned for the American market, was never released there), and didn't implement battery backed memory (as The Legend of Zelda, also ported from the Disk System, would do).

Metroid presents the player with passwords when Samus Aran runs out of energy. Passwords are normally entered via the title screen, where the options "Start" and "Continue" are given. Continue leads to a screen where players can enter the password they received at the end of the last game. After doing so, they may continue playing, starting from the location at which they ended the game with the same powerups and progress they had obtained. Metroid was the first and last game in the series to use a password system as its primary saving function.

JUSTIN BAILEY

JUSTIN BAILEY refers to a famous Metroid password that gives the player (nearly) all the power-ups needed to win the game, and allows the player to use Samus in a purple leotard rather than her armored suit. (The difference is purely visual; Samus takes the same amount of damage from enemies that she would if she were wearing her suit.) The password is entered thus:

JUSTIN BAILEY

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The password starts the player in Norfair with five Energy Canisters, 255 missiles (see below), the Varia Suit, the Hi-Jump Boots, the Screw Attack, and the Wave Beam. Both mini-Bosses have been defeated and the path to the game's final area, Tourian, has been opened. The player must find the Ice Beam (this is the only weapon that can damage the Metroids in Tourian) and a final Energy Canister before attempting to defeat Mother Brain.

A great deal of speculation surrounded the password. For instance, Justin Bailey was originally thought to be one of the creators of the game, but no such name appears in the game credits. It is also often said that the Justin Bailey code was a reference to an English or Australian term for a bathing suit. Allegedly, bathing suits are referred to as "bailies," so "Justin Bailey" would more accurately be rendered as "Just In (a) Bailey" or "Just In a Swimsuit," which is what Samus appears to wear when the code is used. However, no such slang for bathing suit actually exists (and Samus's outfit with this code is a leotard, not a bathing suit).

It was also rumored that the password violated Metroid's normal checksum verification, which would suggest that JUSTIN BAILEY was deliberately coded into the game. A website called The Metroid Database debunked this myth using password generators:

"...the JUSTIN BAILEY password is a total fluke. If you play around with Metroid's password system (something you can do with the Metroid Password Generator program, found in Fan Apps), you can come up with other names and words that work as passwords. The "Justin Bailey" code is one which was found early on and happened to work pretty well, so it became widely reported." (The Metroid Database - General Metroid FAQ. Retrieved Jan. 24, 2005.)

Many players previously thought this code was the only way to play as an armorless Samus, but every password actually contains a flag indicating whether the player will be using armorless Samus or not. Armorless Samus is also a bonus that is normally available when you clear the game under three hours. (This applies only to the NES version; see the Famicom section below).

One glitch with this code relates to the number of missiles Samus has at the start. Although the counter shows 255, it is actually 205; collecting a missile left behind by an enemy or collecting an upgrade will reduce the counter to the correct number.

NARPAS SWORD

This recently discovered code was purposefully built-in to the game and will not check with password generators:

NARPAS SWORD0

000000 000000

(All "0"s are "zero," except for the one "oh" in "SWORD.")

This code gives Samus infinite health and missiles, the Ice Beam, and every power-up in the game with the exception of Energy Canisters and Missile Expansions (and the Wave Beam, as Samus cannot carry both weapons). The player must still find and defeat both mini-Bosses.

There have been small debates on what the password stood for. Some thought it referred to a "Narpas" sword or Narpa's Sword. Others feel the password is properly read as "NAR Password," with "NAR" as an abbreviation for the name of the person who handled the conversion from the FDS and designed the password system (Tohru Narihiro), or as an acronym for "North American Release." Another speculation is that it speaks of "Narpas's Word", believing the designers wished to steer you wrong with a misplaced space.

Famicom Disk System

Prior to the NES release, the game was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System. Unlike the NES versions, this version uses a 3-slot save system rather than lengthy passwords. In addition, armorless Samus was a feature added for the NES port. Therefore, armorless Samus is not in the FDS version, not even as a bonus for beating the game. The only "reward" for finishing the game is a money bag image in the save slot to indicate a cleared game.

The FDS version utilizes the system's wavetable sound channel for several sound effects, such as doors and larger monsters being hit. Five themes in the game also use the wavetable channel, adding an extra instrument to the music. In the NES version, this instrument was removed completely. The character initialization and item collection themes in Super Metroid and most future Metroid titles were based on the same themes from the FDS version of Metroid.

Hidden Worlds

The hidden worlds of Metroid (also called secret worlds or hidden zones) are a feature of the game that arose unintentionally from the way the game uses level data. The hidden worlds are defined as sections of an area that exist beyond the normal confines of that area. Understanding this requires some understanding of how Metroid level data works. The map of Zebes is a single map, there are not different maps for each area, they fit together into a whole. When an elevator shaft is used, the graphics and room data are changed to match that of the new area. Normally elevators are the only way to travel between certain areas of the map, but it is possible to use glitches or certain Game Genie codes to move through a ceiling or floor and enter another area of the map. This area will have a layout that exactly matches another normal area of the game (as it is the same part of the map), but the graphics and music will match the area Samus entered from, and the rooms themselves will be quite different.

Accessing hidden worlds

A common way to access a hidden world is using the wall-jump glitch. To do this, Samus must open a blue door, and walk into it so that the door closes around her (but not so much as to walk through the door). Once Samus is in the door, the player must repeatedly alternate between pressing down and up, which will cause Samus to move upward through the ceiling slowly. The player must be careful not to press down very long, or else Samus will morph into a ball and get stuck. Once Samus reaches the top of the screen, the player must repeatedly hit the jump button, which if done in the right place, will cause the screen to scroll up until Samus is at the center. Obviously, this must be done in an area with vertical scrolling, or else no scroll will occur. The player must repeat these two steps until one of two things happens. Either another room will eventually appear at the top of the screen, or the scrolling will eventually stop. The new room may be part of a hidden world, if done at the right place, but it could also be part of the normal area.

There are also many Game Genie codes that players use to access and explore the hidden worlds. Many allow the player to do such things as travel through walls and floors, which can be necessary as the wall-jump glitch only allows Samus to travel up, and only at places where there's a door.

The hidden worlds must be entered at certain points, not just at any doorway. Any place on the map where one area meets another is a potential entry point, as long as the side they meet on matches the scrolling direction. There are also certain points where the player can return to the normal area from a hidden world, which may or may not also be entry points.

Properties of hidden worlds

The hidden worlds work in different ways than the normal worlds. This is mainly due to the fact that the room data of the normal worlds was carefully laid out so as to work properly, while the hidden worlds were an accident and thus their room data is essentially random. This causes the hidden worlds to have certain strange properties.

One of these properties is directionality. In the normal game, every single door can be used both ways. In the hidden worlds, this is not always the case. There are many doors that lead directly into a wall and thus can only be accessed from one side (unless certain codes are used).

The hidden worlds also contain many scrolling errors. In the normal worlds, every door changes the scrolling from vertical to horizontal or vice-versa, and the same is true in the hidden worlds. However, the normal worlds are arranged so that every door also changes between a horizontally oriented area and a vertically oriented area. In the hidden worlds this is not the case, and a horizontal hallway may connect to another horizonal hallway with a door, causing a change to vertical scrolling which can stop further exploration or even prevent the player from returning where they came from. However, because the hidden worlds do not always have scroll stops in the right places (as the normal worlds stop scrolling at every doorway), some of these doors can be bypassed using cheat codes so that scrolling continues normally.

The hidden worlds also contain numerous "trap doors." These are doors that do not lead to any actual room on the map, and thus when Samus walks through them, no scrolling occurs and Samus is stuck. Some trap doors can be escaped but this is rare.

Size of hidden worlds

One of the most surprising aspects of the hidden worlds is their immense size. The normal area of the game is 511 rooms. The total area of the hidden worlds is 1720 rooms, making a grand total of 2231 rooms. This means that in the normal course of the game the player will explore approximately 23% of the total area of the game. Despite this, the hidden worlds take up exactly 0 bytes of memory, as their map layout and room structure is already defined by the game's level data.

Legacy

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Comic books

Samus Aran appeared as a character in the The Game Master and Nintendo Comics System comic book series published by Valiant in 1990. (She appeared in place of Simon Belmont, who was seen in the animated series the comic was based upon.) Samus was Nintendo Power later ran a 6-part Super Metroid comic. More recently, a short Metroid Prime comic (varying greatly from the actual events of the game) was printed in Nintendo Power. This miniseries was done by Dreamwave.

mechadrake.com has recently been featuring translated versions of metroid e-manga that chronicles all the events leading up to Metroid. Tokyopop, at one point, listed a Metroid comic amongst the list of upcoming comics but it has since quietly disappeared. Although unofficial releases, several Metroid doujinshi also exist.

See also

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• Gunpei Yokoi
• Kid Icarus (commonly referred to as a sister game to the original Metroid)
• Metroidvania
• Metroid Metal
• Zero Mission

References

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External links

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• Official Metroid series website
• Metroid wiki guide at StrategyWiki (previously hosted by Wikibooks)
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• N-Retro (Metroid and Retro Studios)
• Metroid at MobyGames
• The History of Metroid
• The Metroid Database
• Endings for Metroid
• Video Game Password Generators Password generators for various video games, including Metroid
• Metroid Password Generator Password generator program and complete information on the password system and how it works.
• Metroid Manga translated
• Metroid Classic
• Metroid Webcomic
• Metroid Walkthrough
• Metroid Cubed (Isometric Metroid remake)

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