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.
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.
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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