Super Metroid Part 8 - Exploring the Depths

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        Last time, we took a look at Super Metroid's great descent. A very purposeful moment in the game's structure where the player takes a fall down a deep pit, and reaches a point of no return. This is really important to Super Metroid, because as we've discussed, it's a game that wants you to feel lost. Zebes is supposed to be a hostile, impenetrable planet, and suddenly dropping the player into the depths of that planet with no way back is an effective way of making them feel isolated and trapped. But that's only half of the story, because Super Metroid is also about the power of overcoming such obstacles, and that's something we are going to start seeing today.

         The first thing the player will run into after their short excursion through Maridia is an elevator room. This room is noteworthy for the message it sends the player. The presence of an elevator here means that you're about to travelling to a new, unfamiliar area, even further down from the strange one you're already trapped in. It really furthers the sense that you're departing from where you've been up until now. Progression up until this point has rarely been straightforward; it has usually involved backtracking through previous areas to reach a new path. That kind of travelling helps make things feel neat and cozy, you get familiar with key rooms and the whole world feels connected. The continued travel in one direction here works to achieve the exact opposite effect. You're continually heading further away from everything you've known so far, and there isn't even anything to come back to. The elevator here further supports that as you're taken to a brand new area.

           Observant players, however, won't be so quick to head down the elevator. They'll notice that the map shows that there is more to the right of the elevator room. A quick bomb of the right wall will reveal that the tiles there are destructible, and you'll find this strange room on the other side. Its blues and weird alien goop are a stark contrast to the metallic elevator room you just left, and this change is further emphasize by the weird alien head thing just barely out of view at the far edge. Try as you might though, you won't be able to reach that doorway with your current jump, meaning this room is something you'll have to come back to later. Odds are, with its strange design and the hint of things lying beyond, this is something that will be easy to remember later.

          Going down, you'll find yourself in the harsh caverns of Norfair. Luckily, despite being a new area, we see now a similar structure with the area's central shaft. There is quite a large collection of doors here so let's look at what is behind each one.

         The room in the top right features a trippy heat wave background that drains your health incredibly fast. It only takes a second to realize that your health is depleting rapidly, and that's about all the time you have to make it out before you find yourself at a game-over. This room doesn't give you much time to process what's going on, and it does a good job of setting up Norfair. As one of the first rooms the player will probably see here, it shows that Norfair is such an oppressive place that even some of the rooms themselves are deadly.

          The door on the top left leads to a room you can actually survive in, but progress is just as much halted here as it was in the other room. A series of mechanical gates will begin to close the moment you enter this room, and even with your handy-dandy run button you won't have enough speed to make it through them all before they close. Once again you run into another dead-end, which doesn't bode well for your progress here.


          Falling further down the shaft, you'll pass a yellow door you just can't open yet, and then find two more doors on either side at the bottom. The one on the right leads to a save station, one that is sorely needed. The save point really hammers in the progress that you've made to this point, and it also cements it. It also lets you take a breath, as you haven't had a chance to save your progress for this entire harrowing descent, making things more tense the further you go. The save point and familiar structure here also give this area a kind of home-y feeling. Now that things are familiar, and death no longer a looming threat, this new place won't seem so intimidating anymore, which is a great relief to all the tension that had been building up. Further right past the save station, you'll find a long hallway blocked by a large pile of debris that you can't break yet. Also a new kind of enemy that will latch onto you and drain your hp very quickly if you can't blast them off with bombs in time. Lucky there's a save station nearby.

          In an effort to trump how great the save station felt, the last door left in this shaft leads to a great surprise. The energy tank here greatly increases your current health, along with giving a free energy refill which is almost certainly needed at this point (since save stations do nothing to replenish health). The enemy skirting along the bottom of the room here suggests that there'e more going on however. It very quickly works its way off-screen, showing you very blatantly that there is more to be seen in this room. This is reinforced by the fact that the door literally locks shut behind you so even if you somehow missed the enemy, you'd be forced to investigate this room more. The ground to the left of the energy tank breaks when you step on it, allowing you to morph ball roll through the tunnel the enemy just escaped through.

          As you roll down the tunnel, you'll get the briefest glimpse of a missile tank up above before falling down a steep drop. This tank is dangled before you, but you're very quickly shown that it's not meant to be, at least not yet.

         The path that leads to where the tank should be is just barely inaccessible by your current jump. It means you have no choice but head further left through a nearby door, but it sure is upsetting to leave a missile tank that was lying right there in the open. What we see here is a common trick employed by Metroidvanias to make new upgrades feel more powerful. The developers threw this inaccessible missile tank in here just to remind you of how limited your current jump is. Reminding players the scope of their current move-set before giving them a new ability really lets them appreciate what that new ability adds. And I bet you can guess what kind of new ability we are about to see here.

          If there were ever any doubts, the very next room offers the High Jump Boots. True to their name, they increase your jump height significantly. In a clever but simple way to showcase this, you're only able to exit the hole that holds the jump boots with their extra jump height. Now with this useful tool under your belt, it's time to get that sweet missile expansion. With these boots in hand (or, I should say, in foot), it's easy to grab the missile expansion, and then find a path that loops back to the exit door for this whole chamber. Leaving, however, doesn't fill you with the excitement you usually have when you get a new upgrade. After all, none of the barriers you found in this shaft can be cleared by jumping. Now since we found it earlier, you may be thinking of a certain blue, goopy room with a ledge that was just out of reach, but pretend for a second you're one of the many players that didn't find that area immediately. First, we should try heading back to the shaft.

         This area, does in fact, hold a secret of its own. The ground at the center here seems suspicious, and the map even indicates that the shaft doesn't end here. In a clever mimicry of the secret at the bottom of Brinstar's shaft, bombing the ground here reveals that you can actually go further down. Doing so leads to one final door, offering perhaps a glimmer of hope.

         Instead, however, we find another health-draining room with an impassible wall. This means that it's back to the drawing board for lost players.

       
        Players that didn't find the room I pointed out at the beginning of this article will now have to spend some time searching for the path forward. Luckily, the secret entrance to that room isn't obtusely hidden, so it isn't terrible to find. It just requires that players think to backtrack out of Norfair to use the item they found in it. It is like a small-scale test of one of the crucial skills of Metroid: checking old areas for new potential paths. This makes for a perfect breaking point where next week we'll meet up at the blue alien face and see what lies beyond.

Key Takeaways:

• Structures of areas can do a lot to set tone. One that is interconnected builds familiarity and feels neat, while a long, straight path can feel like you're travelling to an isolated area.
• Giving players some kind of safe space in an otherwise hostile environment does a lot to give them breathing room that they may need.
• It's good for Metroidvanias to take time to remind players of the scope and limitations of their current move-set. This makes it feel incredibly satisfying to expand that move-set and make previously impassable obstacles irrelevant

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Super Metroid Part 7 - Going Down

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          Last week, we discovered the fatal flaw of Super Metroid's run button, the one mechanic that's never really explained or shown. The lack of in-game information on it led to the most needlessly frustrating room in the game. What's coming up now, though, is much larger in the scheme of the game than just one single room.

          And it starts with a big red room. As soon as you enter, the game's music cuts out, a sure sign this room is something different. The fact that this room is red is actually worth noting, as nothing in the game before has used this color scheme, tileset or background. This room needs to fully stick out for a lot of reasons, and making it look very different from what you were just in is the first step. The only way you have to go in this room is down, and pretty soon some more down.

         You'll get to a point where it looks like you're done going down. The map says you're at the bottom and there seems to be nothing but a lot of solid ground beneath you. There are no suspicious markings on the ground anywhere giving away secrets, but last week we saw that the developers are starting to hide them more seriously now. Instead of looking for things that give away secrets, we know have to start looking for suspicious things in the world that we think might have a secret. The first hint is the yellow door that is right here. We can't open yellow doors yet, but it's sealed off  all by itself, meaning there must be some way to access it. The obvious answer is the wall to the left, but bombing it only reveals blocks we can't break yet. However, should you think that the unbreakable blocks means there is nothing else you can do here, you'll quickly find there isn't anywhere else you can go. This is probably the first big moment where players will miss where they are supposed to go and try heading somewhere else. Luckily the developers anticipated this, and there is still that one way door from last week not far behind us, so once again, they are keeping the player trapped in the area they are supposed to be in.

       Honestly, the solution here is a little obscure, and things like it are the reason games like this have the reputation of being about "hit every single tile until something happens." There is a random, completely unmarked spot on this floor that you can bomb that will break and reveal a path farther down. Really, there is no way to find this out without bombing every single tile in this room until something happens. If you try this as soon as you find this dead end, you won't mind it much, and you may feel a little accomplished for bypassing this obstacle so quickly. But if you had just dismissed this room, as the unbreakable red herring blocks suggested you should, it's a different story. Players could end up spending forever analyzing every possible path, stuck between an impassable gate and a dead end. A player like this could be on the verge of giving up, assuming that they must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Bombing every possible tile would be their last hope, and when they find the path forward, tucked away here with no rhyme or reason, there won't be a big, clever feeling "Aha!" moment, just a quiet inner rage that all the time they just spent was because of this obtuse block.

       It does beg the question, however, of why the developers thought something like this needed to be implemented. Why put such a hidden and frustrating barrier in front of the player? One could chalk it up to outdated design philosophies and concepts of difficulty. Perhaps the developers just thought an obtuse puzzle would be a worthy challenge, or maybe it was purposefully put in as an obtuse puzzle to promote the purchase of strategy guides. It is also possible that the developer saw this as a trial by fire that would harden the player. The only way to let the player know that sometimes they may have to bomb blocks that are completely inconspicuous without straight-up telling them is to have them do it. Since they already had the player confined to such a small area, maybe they thought now would be the perfect time to get them to learn that. The player would have to be stuck for a short bit, but without many places to go, it wouldn't be too bad, right? While it's true this was probably the best place to put a thing like this, it still really isn't a very good thing to be putting. Puzzles that rely on trial and error, and secrets that rely on just blowing every individual tile up are really no fun, and I think are something that should be avoided as much as possible. Super Metroid has a lot of puzzles and secrets that have no markings, which some might say is part of the charm, and while the game does a great job of not spoon-feeding you, I think sometimes it leans too heavily towards some impossible to find secrets. It's a matter of preference a lot of the time, meaning you can decide whether or not these things are good, because by now we've spent way too much time in this tiny room.

        Opening up this passage leads you to, surprise, more falling down. Except the big difference this time is the fact that there is no jumping up from this fall. In fact, the fall down this chasm lasts for multiple screens, so there is really no getting back up. You end up very very stuck at the bottom, and it is quite intentional.

        There's a handy health restoration station available to the left, but you'll be forced to press on to the right. Adding to the feeling of being in a strange new area, you're instantly introduced to a new mechanic, being water. Water physics are generally disliked in most games, and the ones here are super annoying, although there is nothing wrong with them. Water in Super Metroid is a hazard. You don't take damage from it, but it messes with all of your momentum so you move like a snail and can hardly jump. Like many things on Zebes, it's supposed to feel oppressive at first. It's something you'll have to learn to overcome. In these rooms that have it, all you have to do is make the jumps and try to avoid it, but if you fall in, then you have to slog to get back out. It's a clever introduction of water because it doesn't pose any threat to you, but falling in is still a kind of punishment, and it teaches you how water physics work all at the same time.

         The same can't be said for the bit of water past the very next platform. Here there are some stakes, and some pretty costly ones at that. You need to jump onto this next platform in the water, but doing so will trigger these bats above the platform and make them dive down. It's a tricky situation that uses mechanics that you're already familiar with, but in a new way. You already knew how these diving bats function, so when you see them here, the challenge is instantly apparent. What's more interesting, however, is the cost of failure. Miss the jump, or get knockback from hitting one of these bats, and you'll be sent into the spikes. Spikes by themselves aren't that bad, but these ones are under water, meaning getting out is a lot harder. Falling into one of the spike pits is a very painful experience, and it teaches you just how dangerous water can be. Just a second ago it was just a minor annoyance, but now you can clearly see how its reduced movement can be a serious threat when coupled with other hazards.

        In the next room we see this concept escalated even further. There are now three narrow platforms to jump between, although spikes are only between two of them. It seems more lenient than the last area, especially without any bats to contend with. However, there is the strange grabby-looking creature in the middle of the spike pit. True to his grabby-looking nature, when you jump near him he'll extend, trying to grab you. Should he succeed, the thing will pull you right into the spike pit. Dealing with the damage hitboxes of both the worm's body and the spikes in such a tight area can put Samus in some kind of knock-back purgatory where she'll get battered back and forth, taking damage and unable to escape. It is possible to escape, and sometimes it can happen quite easily, but it entirely depends on the luck you get with knockback and invincibility frames while you're in the pit. Although a little cheap of a trick, this pit certainly shows how dangerous a water and spike combo can be.

        After making it past that hazard, there is an interesting gap in the ceiling some players might spot. It's just within your jump height, and heading up there will reveal a tiny alcove above the room's ceiling. The camera won't let you see all of it, but you'll be able to recognize an upgrade room above you. This may give players some false hope, thinking they can somehow access it from here, but a quick bombing of everything will reveal nothing. This little alcove is instead a teaser, one that gives players a slight hope before taking it away, and a bit of foreshadowing too. With nothing to do up here though, all you can do is press on, hoping for some kind of new upgrade soon.

           Very soon there's something really peculiar. There is this random glass tube connecting two rooms, a structure we've never seen before. You could think it's just a neat little setpiece, but by now I think we both know Super Metroid isn't a game that places things for no reason. Try as you might though, there's nothing you can do to get any reaction out of this tube. To further add to the mystery, if you check out the map in this room, you'll see that you're in an entirely new area, called "Maridia". Yet if you move a couple more rooms to the right, you'll return back to Brinstar. Why does this new area contain only three rooms, and what does it mean? Well, it doesn't mean anything right now, but it will be very important much later on. That makes it a a good case study on all the various tricks the developers use to make a room seem important.

          First of all, the room never does anything to explicitly give away that there is something hidden here. The map never shows that there is more to this room or that it connects to anywhere else at all, and that's a big deal. It means that when the player finally does crack the case and discovers the big secret, it feels like it was entirely their idea. They had a hunch, and then acted on it, and it turned out to be right, which is one of those moments that really makes them feel like they're uncovering the mysteries of this planet. But of course there are plenty of things that work to make sure the player gets that hunch in the first place, which we're gonna look at now. The first thing is how this room is framed.  You can see one platform with flowers above you, although that could just be scenery. But if you look at the very bottom of the screen, you can see just the heads of another batch of flowers growing off something right offscreen. Which means there has to be a platform down there that you can't see, and why would there be a platform there if you can never go there? Besides that, you can also see a hint of a ledge peeking out in the top right corner, further showing that there is more to this room than what can be seen on screen right now. In this room, it's the things that you can't see that give the secret away.

          A bit more subtly, if we take a look at teaser we saw a few rooms ago, there is also a nice hint for smart players.

         You can see, peeking out at the very top right corner, there is a super missile door leading further to the right. This means the door that leads to this upgrade room must be on the level above you, and to the right. Well, the only room to the right is the ones connected to the tube in Maridia, and if has to be above the tube, that means there has to be a way to get above it, and that there is more in Maridia than we see right now. It's not something most players will pick up on, but it is a clever hint to give because only players that use spatial reasoning skills and think of the world as a real place would figure this out.

        The last, and most obvious thing that makes all of this stick out is how different it is. Maridia is considered an entirely separate area on the map, first of all. That should send off a lot of alarm bells from the start, and then the unique sprites, and the entire bridge object are unique which makes them memorable. And the entire anticlimax of the area serves to make it stick out too. If you spent a respectable time in a new area before moving on, then you might not suspect much even with a suspicious room. Here you enter Maridia, and then a few rooms later, are gone. You're left surprised and confused and you're much more likely to remember the area because of how suspicious its length is.


        We'll be coming back to Maridia later on, but that's all we can say about it right now, and about all we can say in this episode right now too. One last thing to note about all this is how different this Maridia secret is from the one we discussed at the beginning of the post. This one is full of clever ingenuity; it is completely fair, yet takes careful observation and thinking to notice. The previous one required none of that and took senseless bombing instead. The obtuse puzzle frustrates players, but when they finally solve the long-awaited secret of Maridia, I guarantee you, they'll feel like geniuses.

        That's everything for this week, and now here's a list of a few applicable points from everything we came across this time. If you liked what I had to say, or didn't, or have something you'd like to add or point out, feel free to do so in the comment section.

Key Takeaways:

• A developer would be very hard-pressed to find a situation where an obtuse puzzle would actually be beneficial. Players don't want to do tedious trial and error to solve something, and there is no satisfaction in that. Secrets should be well hidden, but there are ways to cleverly hide them without making them impossible.
• Framing is very important in games. The things the camera shows, and doesn't show can point the player to areas of interest or let them know that there are secrets hiding somewhere.
• Another interesting way to get players to notice secrets and explore is to have them think about the world as a real space. If the world is laid out in a way that physically makes sense, players can use spatial reasoning to deduce things about.

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Super Metroid Part 6 - The Run Button

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         Last week, we discovered the importance of bombs in Super Metroid before destroying the midboss Spore Spawn, ironically with no bombs involved. Now, after what was surely seven straight days of nail-biting anticipation, it's time to figure out what you get after Spore Spawn.

        At first, it seems like nothing. You're currently off the map right now, which gives a feeling of excitement since it feels like you're really exploring right now, finding hidden secrets that aren't on any map. But it also means you don't know where the path will end, and if it will branch into a bunch of rooms or dead end with a new upgrade. Before you have to worry about going anywhere, however, there is one of those enemy spawning pipes that we saw last article. Just like before, the one here gives you a chance to refill any health or ammo you may be low on after the last boss fight.

        Continuing on through the room, we get introduced to what may actually be a somewhat tricky secret. Looking at this part of the room at first, it seems like just a dead end. Unlike every other secret we've uncovered thus far, nothing here is clearly marked as off. However, the map gives away the truth, as it shows that the room here connects somewhere on the bottom. You may then notice that this pipe here hasn't been spawning any enemies. If you aren't sure what to do at this point, this is where your previously learned bomb skills can come into play. Bombing the pipe will reveal that it's made of the crumbling blocks we were introduced to earlier. Bombing isn't necessary however as just jumping on the pipe in classic Mario fashion will break it open and let you fall right through.

        This room is set up really well as an introduction to future puzzles because the solution isn't immediately shown to you, and the room doesn't feel like one that exists solely as a puzzle. First, when you enter, you see an enemy pipe that clearly has a function. This makes it so that when you see the broken one, it doesn't instantly stick out as suspicious because you've already seen a pipe in this room, this is just another one. There is also nothing visual on the pipe that marks it as special. In all of the puzzles we've seen before the breakable portions had different sprites, or were in a position, where you could tell they were off. This pipe is somewhat, with being in a corner with the map letting you know there is more below, but it requires you to think. Previous puzzles were more of a reactionary task, you'd see something suspicious and then know to do something to it. This time you have to figure out what it is you need to act on in the first place, which is a skill that will play a part in all the future puzzles and secrets.

         After taking a pretty lengthy fall down the pipe, you're introduced to the long-awaited prize for beating the previous boss. These are the Super Missiles, a more powerful version of the missiles you already have. They are much more limited in ammo, but have a greater firepower. It seems a little strange to be getting a new type of missile so soon after getting the original missiles, and it begs the question of why. Super Missiles fill a very similar design space to the standard missiles. They let you open green doors, which means you want to hold on to some for opening doors, but they also are the most powerful weapon you have available meaning you have to balance between using them on tough foes and saving them for doors. However, the existence of Super Missiles lets you use use normal missiles a little more liberally. You don't have to worry about saving your missiles for a big bad when you now have super missiles that can handle it better.


         The next room gives you a green door to show you what your new missiles work on, but when you shoot it with one, there's a surprise in store.        

        When you fire your missile at the door, a shock wave will occur, causing some unsuspecting enemies to fall from the ceiling. This is a teaching moment that lets you know super missiles can do some things normal ones cannot. Normal missiles never made big shock waves, and there will be a few times in the future where the shock waves of super missiles can be used, but not many. It's also worth noting that the door here is on a slope so the player will probably just walk up to it in order to shoot it, which puts them out of the way of the falling enemies. Just a little, subtle touch that helps players avoid taking cheap damage here.

        The next room takes an opportunity to teach you about a new kind of block. When you arrive in this area, all you see is this tunnel with a normal block obviously blocking it. When you bomb it, as should be instinctual by now, it doesn't break, but instead reveals that it's meant to be destroyed by super missiles. It's not a huge revelation, but before now you've never come across blocks that can only be destroyed by missiles, so it's important to know. Finish rolling through this tunnel to find the path has cleverly looped back to the big room we explored last week. Finally out of this super missile path, it's time to see what all we can do.

        Odds are, the first place players are gonna check out is the super missile door at the bottom of this giant room. The developers want that, and so they helped encourage that by having the super missile path leading you right back into this room. As I've said, they don't want you getting too lost... yet.

        Following that path, you'll shortly find a new kind of object. This gate will rise up when you shoot the blue button, letting you pass through (notice how the button you're supposed to shoot with your blaster is blue, just like all the doors you open with your blaster). It seems like a simple, meaningless gate, until you try to go through the room backwards and find that the gate is closed. And because the button to open the gate is on the other side, you won't be able to open it again. These one-way gates will see a couple of uses before becoming obsolete, which we will find in the future, but there is good reason for there to be one here.

          I've been waiting to talk about this room for a long time. It's perhaps the biggest misstep the game makes, although it's a complicated issue and one the developers tried to resolve. So here's the problem: Those strange blocks in front of the player are crumbling blocks that will disappear under the player. They crumble too quickly for the player to be able to walk over them, and the spikes on the ceiling means you can't jump over them. It will seem like this room is impossible. You need to cross these crumbling blocks to get to the end, and no matter what you try, there's no getting over them. Considering everything we've seen before, the player should respond to an impassable obstacle by going somewhere else until they find an upgrade that lets them pass it. Except, if you remember, there is a one way gate behind us, so we can't go back. That gate is put in place there to keep you from going elsewhere, because this room is where you are supposed to be. The developers predicted that players would try to do this, and the one way gate is in place to force them to stay in this room until they figure it out. It's good thinking, except many players, faced with seemingly impassable obstacles on both sides, assume that they're stuck and wandered somewhere they aren't supposed to be. Those players will then have to reload  their last save, and then once they can't find another path, perhaps give up entirely.

          Here's the thing. Super Metroid has a run button. Hold that down and Samus will run at a speed much faster than her normal walk speed. Using the run, you can make it over these spikes with no problem. The reason such a simple obstacle is such a major roadblock for most players is because the game never tells you this button exists. Only if you read the manual or check out the controls on the main menu will you see that the game has a run button. There certainly are players that will have checked these things, but even still, having an important piece of game information hidden outside of the game itself isn't something you want. This issue is compounded by how far into the game it is. Right now you've probably been playing for an hour or two, and so you have no reason to expect that there's a new button on the controller to use. Unfortunately, the players that haven't figured out how to run by now aren't likely to figure it out now. The result is an infamous room where Super Metroid's insistence on not telling the player things hurts it instead of helping.

       But nowadays, a quick google search of frustration is all it takes to get past this critical room. Running lets you cross these blocks with ease and all the frustration will hopefully melt away. What's after is something we'll look at next week.

Key Takeaways:

• Secrets in games need a means of activation. In Super Metroid, it's usually bombing things. Before a game can start hiding secrets, it needs to have introduced the player to all possible ways they can uncover them. If the player doesn't know the rules of how secrets work, there is no way they can hope to find or use them.
• In order to keep the player from getting lost, games will often loop paths back into the main path. Some games have optional side paths that drop you off in the same room you started, while Super Metroid has you go on a detour to get the Super Missiles before ending up back in the room you need to use them in.
• Players should know all of the controls before they leave the tutorial. It's okay to introduce new mechanics with new controls later, but the player should be aware from the start of all abilities they have access to at the start. In the modern era, a player can't be expected to read menus or manuals

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Super Metroid Part 5 - Basically Bomberman

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           Last week, we took a look at approximately half of a shaft. Now, believe it or not, it's time to look at the other half of that same shaft. As a refresher, here's what the thing looks like:

          To pick up from where we left off, you'd probably think that the next door to go through would be the bottom right one. However, that's the door that actually contains the way forward and we probably want to take a look at all the dead-ends before moving on. So that leaves us with the top right door, which, trust me, won't take long.

         Unlike all the other rooms we've seen in this shaft so far, this room doesn't dead end with a straight-up wall. Instead, it ends with a barrier you can't pass yet. If you try walking across the pathway, the ground will start crumbling beneath you, and the gate ahead of you will close faster than you can reach it. No matter what you do, you're going to end up getting dropped down below, where you can get a missile tank as a consolation prize.

         Now unfortunately, it seems like you are now trapped in this small box with the missile expansion. The blocks that you fell through have regenerated, except now they are gray tiles with a weird symbol. At this point, the player should be getting acquainted with some of Super Metroid's deeper systems. We figured out last week that some blocks can be bombed, revealing gray tiles that have icons referring to how they're destroyed. Now that the player has seen these crumbling blocks, they can start piecing together how things work. Basically, some blocks in the map have some kind of hidden identity. While the blocks may look like perfectly normal textures in the map, they function slightly differently, and bombing, or activating, these blocks will reveal their identity to you.

         As mentioned last week, part of the reason this system exists is to keep secrets hidden without having the player have to try every single weapon on them until they find the one that works. But another reason these exist is to keep the world feeling cohesive. Consider two scenarios. One, in every area, the special functioning blocks are visible from the start, and always look the same. This would stick out like a sore thumb, as the gray blocks that are used to mark special functioning blocks don't match with any area theme in the game. Two, every area with a unique set of tile sprites also has a variation of these special tiles that matches the theme. This looks better than the previous situation, but now the player has to learn what each of these blocks looks like in each area and the developers would have to make different sprites for each form of these blocks. The system in-game combines the upsides of both situations I just laid out. First, all the environments can still look cohesive since they won't initially contain any gray blocks that don't fit. But since all the blocks will turn into the gray ones once they've been activated or bombed, they are still universally recognizable to the player so there is no ambiguity. And the gray blocks won't feel like they stick out as much here because it feels like the player is discovering the blocks themselves, so seeing the gray icon tile feels like something you uncovered and so it's okay for it to not match. It's like a Scooby Doo villain you ripped the mask off of, so it is perfectly fine that it's not wearing the disguise anymore.

         With so much time spent on that tangent, you probably forgot that we're still stuck in this small pit. It is really easy to escape however, you just have to bomb the outer wall. This moment serves to reinforce a lot of what we have already learned about bombs. As we've already seen, the bombs are a crucial tool in Super Metroid, and kind of unexpectedly so. Super Metroid wants you to get into the mindset of bombing almost everything, but teaching the player that is a little tricky when you can't just have a text prompt pop up saying "Try bombing everything." What Super Metroid does is a lot less immersion-breaking and feels a lot better to the player. Through experiences I have already pointed out, you're taught that bombs can work on seemingly inconspicuous blocks, and that they can reveal the inner-workings of some tiles. In this situation, you're taught that if your stuck, you can always try bombing everything. It should be an easy putting 2 and 2 together situation to realize that bombs will probably break the walls, but it reinforces the idea of using bombs so you're more likely to use them later on.

         Speaking of bombs, once we head down to the last door left in this shaft (yes, we're finally exiting this one area), there's a hallway waiting to remind us of not one, but two uses for our bombs. First, you'll be faced with a suspicious wall that can only be broken by bombs. Once past it though, there will be a suspicious portion of the ground that you'll once again think to bomb. Doing so will only reveal a new kind of unbreakable tile, but it's just another thing placed in your way to get you to start bombing. I understand all this may sound like child's play when I'm describing it, but back when this game came out and not many people were used to its style of gameplay, it was crucial for the developers to have this long string of learning experiences to subtly teach players how to play the game.

          There's a concept in game design known as "intended play." Just as you would expect, it refers to the way developers intended the game to played. At first it may sound like a kind of useless idea because, after all, aren't all games designed to be played a certain way? The answer of course, is yes, but due to the interactive nature of games and the diversity of people in general, games won't always be played the way they're meant to be played. The reason most games have an "intended play" in the first place is because developers will often realize a certain play-style is inherently more fun than others. Consider a game like Bloodborne. In it you experience all kinds of epic and exciting battles with very tough foes. These fights are at they're most exciting when they're the most tense, when you're acting aggressively and occasionally taking risks. Not everyone would instinctively play the game this way, so the developer put in the Rally system where you can regain lost health by quickly retaliating and hitting enemies after they hit you. This rewards the player for being aggressive with the opportunity to get some health back, so it pushes everyone to play the game the way the developers want you to play it.

         These experiences we're taking so long to talk about here are examples of Super Metroid doing a similar thing. The developers are trying to condition the player to bomb everything that's suspicious, in hopes that later on they'll continue this trend and end up finding all sorts of cool secrets. Super Metroid is a game where you're supposed to explore and uncover secrets; the game is just more fun when you do that. So in the early parts of the game, that idea is drilled into your head so that you'll hopefully continue playing this way for the rest of the experience.

        Now, coming into the room after this hallway, we'll see a kind of design we haven't seen before. Now that the game is beginning to transition out of tutorial mode, more complex room layouts can be introduced. This room, despite being vertically oriented is definitely not a shaft design, because it's more than just a connection between rooms. It has its fair share of exits, but it's really just a jumbo-sized normal room. This is also the first room in the game that really takes advantage of the fact that the SNES can could scroll the screen horizontally and vertically at the same time (something the original Metroid could not do). There's a lot going on in this room, but luckily we don't have the tools to do most of it right now, so only a bit of it is really relevant.

         Ironically, the fact that there's not much we can do is something actually worth discussing right now. If you notice, back in Crateria while the training wheels were still on, the only ever locked doors you encountered were ones that you'd be able to open with whatever ability you got next. That simplicity made it really easy to not get lost and made the environments feel much less overwhelming. Ever since the game started easing off the training wheels in the past two episodes however, we've been seeing all sorts of gates we won't be able to pass anytime soon. This room is kind of the pinnacle of that, having doors for power bombs, blocks for the grapple beam, and a door for a super missile, only one of which we'll be able to open anytime soon. All the new things in here, combined with the rooms large size in both dimensions can make it feel really intimidating. In the end, however, there is still only one way out of this room so you can't really get lost. Regardless, this room and its overwhelming size and complexity helps make the planet Zebes feel like such a formidable foe.

         Luckily, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, as there is a free missile tank just waiting for you at the bottom of this room. But that isn't all to find down here. You can probably already see the two suspicious blocks in the rock face to the right. All the player's training should pay off right now because they should now instantly know to bomb those two strange blocks. Bombing them reveals a hidden path that goes behind the rocks and leads to a lucrative secret.

         This is the Charge Beam, your first beam upgrade in the game. It is an entirely optional upgrade, one of only a few, but unlike the rest of them, almost every player will pick it up. It seems strange for such a large upgrade to be hidden in such plain sight, but once again it is for the purpose of teaching the player. The developers had to sacrifice a missile tank and the charge beam in order to teach the player that sometimes there may be secrets hidden in secrets. Now the missile tank here obviously isn't a secret, it's in plain sight, but it manages to convey a similar concept. You think that the once you've found the missile tank you've found what you were supposed to find and then that's it. However, the blindingly obvious breakable rocks in the room contradict that compelling you to at least try bombing them. This whole secret exists in an exaggerated fashion, the blocks are very obvious and easy, yet the reward is huge and extremely helpful. This is because in most games, there's never anything hidden inside of an area that's already hidden. In order to get you to realize that Super Metroid will be different, the game needs to do something obvious enough to make you notice in the first place.

         Heading up to the top of the big room, there's another bomb-able spot, although this time less obvious than the last one. The rewards aren't near as generous as last time though, with only a save point to be found behind. It's strange to see a save point here though, because there was one just in the previous shaft. If that sounds familiar, it's probably because you heard it before back when there were two save stations close together in Crateria. So you probably already know what this means, but I'd like to touch on another aspect of save stations while we're already here. There are two distinct purposes different save rooms have in this game. Some of them exist for the future, and others exist for the present. There are really only two main reasons to ever need a save point in a game like this. One is when you're about to encounter something that might force a game over on you. Obviously if you're gonna be hit with a death out of the blue, you don't want to lose a ton of progress, so it's pretty natural to leave a save point before a boss or tricky section. The other main reason would be when you just want to quit and need to find a save point. This isn't an issue with most modern games and their save anywhere systems, but for games with physical save locations, it sure can be a pain to have to hike somewhere when you need to turn the game off. This is why we keep seeing two types of save points: the centralized ones inside of shafts or other key areas, and the tucked away ones that come before bosses.

        There's something else by this save point that further makes it a point of convenience, and it would be the little green pipe on the ground. This isn't the first one of these we've encountered, but it's the best one to use as an example for its function. They continually spawn enemies out of them, which seems like an annoyance at first, but you will soon come to love these little green pipes. The enemies that come out of them almost always drop some kind of pickup, either health or ammo. And since enemies continually spawn out of them, it means they're a nonstop source of health and ammo. When you're in a pinch these enemy spawning pipes act as full heals, but only for those patient enough to farm them. It seems like a kind of weird thing to implement, because why would you want to force your player to spam their gun at a pipe for a couple minutes? While it's true it isn't the most engaging solution, these pipes make for a really intuitive way to give the player optional recharge points and let them set the difficulty in some places. You never have to stop at any of these pipes, which makes them unobtrusive, and they make good use of the game's already existing pick-up system so they are really intuitive as a concept. Besides that, they also let you chose sometimes whether to play things safe or not. If you're low on health, you can spend some time grinding these pipes to be healthy, or you could take a big risk and just go for it because who has time for all that waiting?

        Speaking of waiting, let's cut to the chase and finally make it out of this room. Continuing to the right takes you to an exit you can actually open. Inside, you're forced to square off with three new, tough enemies before you can exit, but they aren't the big threat. Head up to the next room and then it's waiting for you, the big plant Spore Spawn.

       Spore Spawn is... not a very exciting boss. It moves in a predictable pattern that can be entirely dodges just by staying in morph ball form in the lower level of the arena. Its only other method of attack is spawning spores that float down to the bottom of the arena. These two are pretty easy to dodge, and can even be destroyed by your blaster for free pickups. Doing so means you have to leave morph ball and put yourself at risk though, which is a nice element of risk vs. reward, but it's about as interesting as the fight gets. Randomly in its movement, Spore Spawn will stop and open up revealing its core which you can hammer with missiles. Do this over and over as it speeds up and then that's the fight.

        Defeat Spore Spawn however, and then there's a big, exciting surprise waiting for you. But you'll have to wait until next week to figure out what it is. The suspense is killing you already, isn't it? it truly is a devious trick and it's certainly not like you can just find out online in a matter of seconds. To distract you from that, take some free key takeaways, they're on me.

Key Takeaways:

• Developers often create games with a certain playstyle in mind. It is up to the game to teach the player to play this way, often using in-game systems and rewards to make it the most viable playstyle.
• Games that end up complex can't start that way or else they'll scare off many players. It's best to slowly ease into that complexity as smoothly as possible. Ideally the player won't even notice that they are handling more and more complicated challenges.
• Save points can have many functions in games. Most ditch save points for a more convenient "save anywhere" system, but games that still use save points need to consider what they'll be used for when determining where they are placed.

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