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Having discovered the fiery caverns of Norfair, and obtained the vital high jump boots, it is time for Samus Aran to have her first climactic battle. Before we get there however, players still have to climb out of Norfair to reach the strange lair we found last week. Such backtracking isn't usually noteworthy, but having to climb back up the area's shaft gives players a perfect taste of the power of the high jump boots. Before, shafts had to be taken slowly, and jumps had to be precise, as all the ledges were placed almost exact jumping distance from each other. However, with your radically extended new high jump, it's possible to breeze through these vertical climbing segments without any fear of missing or falling. It is an incredibly freeing experience, and is one that really shows how useful your new ability is.
It's funny in fact, just how big of an impact this tiny change makes. You would think that in a game all about gaining epic power, the most important upgrades would be the most outrageous ones, the ones that turn you into an unstoppable powerhouse. Yet instead, the high jump boots feel like one of the most freeing advancements in the game. Looking at it analytically, we can see that the high jump really only serves two purposes:
- It lets the player jump up to ledges they previously couldn't reach
- It gives the player a boost to their general mobility
One of these enhancements is an example of artificial growth while the other is an example natural growth. Sorry for making up my own terms right there, but they seemed fitting and I really wanted an excuse to put things in bold. By "artificial growth" I mean that the upgrade exists solely to overcome artificial barriers that the developers put in place specifically for that upgrade. Consider the first purpose of the high jump boots, and pretend it is the only one that exists for a second. The high jump would only exist to let you jump up to high ledges, and those ledges only exist to halt your progress until you can jump high enough. Take away those gate-keeping ledges and suddenly the boots have no purpose at all. In essence, all the platforms that you couldn't jump up to before functioned as locked doors, and the high jump is the key to those doors. Think of HMs in Pokemon. When you gain the move cut, the only thing it lets you do is chop down specific trees that block your path. Outside of those trees, the move is entirely useless; that is a very artificial enhancement, and the trees are like locks and cut is the key for those locks. When a player grows artificially, it means all they really obtain is a key for an artificial lock.
Contrast this to the "natural growth" that occurs now that the player has heightened mobility. Natural growth gives players an inherent enhancement to their character as a whole. Samus' base move-set is better due to the enhanced jump height. It is easier to move around, and the act of moving feels more fluid. This natural growth doesn't overcome any fake barriers that the developers put into place, it just makes your character better and gives you more options.
But it probably feels really silly to break the boots up into two functions like that. I mean after all, those "purposes" I described both really just mean you can jump higher. There is no way to separate the two, yet they are two slightly different purposes. Let's use something that's a bit more obvious as a better example. Take your missiles. They too can be broken up into two, much more discrete purposes.
- They give increased firepower against foes
- They can be used to open red doors
Looking at this, it should be able to very easily discern which one of these provides natural growth while the other provides artificial. Having extra fire power is great, it gives you more options in combat all the time, meaning your character's abilities are enhanced from this, making it natural growth. Yet the red doors offer no expansion to your character's abilities or move-set. They don't do anything besides lock out players that don't have missiles. They are an artificial barrier, and the missiles' ability to open them is an example of artificial growth. That should be a much clearer example than the high jump boots could ever be.
Don't be fooled by how superior natural growth seems to artificial at first. Even though giving the player new tools to use and play with is more fun and interesting than giving them keys, there is still a need for both. Metroidvanias, in fact, need forms of artificial growth most of all. Their worlds exist as labyrinths that slowly expand as the player progresses. In order to do that, they need locks and keys to keep players out of certain areas. The problem only comes when an item or upgrade is solely artificial. In Metroid Prime 2, for instance, one of the upgrades you can collect are language databases. These let you open different alien doors. And that is it. When the player collects one of those, it is only useful for a couple doors, and outside of those the upgrade might as well not exist. That is a boring upgrade, and the kind one would want to avoid in a Metroidvania game.
That was a whole lot of words for literally no gameplay progression, but that is the way of game analysis. There's no point in talking about the action if you don't talk about why that action exists and what decisions went into it. At this point, we can now enter the strange blue area, which turns out to be the lair of the game's first boss, Kraid.
Kraid's lair is a mechanical base full of tight metal corridors. Fittingly, it serves as somewhat of a test over the pathfinding skills you have learned so far. There are a lot of hidden passageways and destroy-able blocks that must be revealed using your bombs in order to progress. All of the rooms appear to dead end at first, and you'll have to use your sleuthing skills to figure out what part of the environment to blow up. It really works well to make the area feel like some kind of maze, as you always have to figure out the path forward for yourself. It also feels very different from the areas you've explored before, because this is your first real dungeon area. A "dungeon" is an area in a game that serves as a self-contained challenge with and end goal. It's an area where once you enter, your goal is to beat that area, and you don't go anywhere else until you do. Kraid's lair exists as a series of challenges leading up to the boss. It is an area where the focus is on progression, and not exploration.
Near the end of the area, you'll come across this strange green room full of space pirates. The pirates in here are the very same kind you found earlier in the game, but they will seem like so much less of a threat now that you are way more powerful. It is a moment that shows really how much you've grown already. But as you progress down the long hallway, suddenly spikes from offscreen begin to fly at you. Having to defeat the pirates while dodging these spikes becomes a lot trickier, making sure that this room isn't just a cakewalk. Once you make it a bit further in, you find the source of all these spikes:
It's none other than the boss Kraid, looking quite upgraded from his original appearance on the NES. Surprisingly, however, he only takes a few missile hits to go down, really strange for the area's boss. When you pass through the door behind the beast, the one that you assume will lead to a reward, there isn't one there.
Instead there is just another room. This one offers one of those infinite enemy pipes that lets you refill on health and ammo, which is probably much needed by now. However, should you notice the strange gap in the ceiling above you and try to shoot it, you'll find a path that leads to a station to fully refill your health and ammo. It's a balanced way to reward the player. Either way you can get yourself up to full health, but by noticing a secret, you can get there much faster. The presence of a refill station here does a lot to clue the player in on what's really about to go down. Most players could have assumed the "Kraid" they just fought was a decoy after it went down in a couple hits, but the fact that the game is prepping you now is like a guarantee that the real fight is still to come.
The game throws in a dead soldier here to foreshadow just for good measure, and then you can tell things are really about to go down when the ground and wall textures change to this lifeless and foreboding gray thorny one. There is also the strange eye covering the door, which is a kind of mini-boss. You have to shoot the eye with missiles a few times to destroy the creature and get the door to open. It can often fire back with projectiles of its own however, making it a bit of a challenge to defeat. Once you do however, you can step through the door and enter the real fight of the area.
The real Kraid is much larger than his doppleganger, and way larger than he was in the original game. Despite this, his weakness stays the same, which is his gaping mouth whenever he opens it. You have to jump to reach his mouth with your missiles, meaning there is an element of timing in the fight. Not only do you have to time your shots for when his mouth is open, but you have to time them mid-jump so they are at the right height to actually reach the mouth. Hit him enough times and Kraid will reveal that this isn't even his final form.
He expands the room, and grows to be twice as large. Now in order to hit him you have to stand on these narrow platforms, which is quite difficult considering the new barrage of projectiles he throws at you. Overall, this phase ends up being much more frustrating than the first due to how many objects in the room threaten to collide with either you or your missiles. He's not terrible, and if you can aim well and use good timing, it only takes 4 super missiles total to end the entire fight. Unfortunately, due to the whole nature of the fight, getting those hits in can be hard, especially for a first timer. The platforms you stand on are above a spike sea. If you get knocked off by a projectile, you'll have to hit the spikes first before being able to climb your way back up. Kraid also moves back and forth, making it a very risky venture to try standing on the closer platform since at any given moment he could move closer and into you. It's unfortunate that such a colossal behemoth ends up being a bit of a cheapskate.
However, once he does go down, the spikes on the floor will disappear and you'll be able to claim your prize. The Varia Suit will be very helpful back in the area of Norfair, which is where we will be heading next week as we start to wrap up our escapades in the depths of Brinstar.
Key Takeaways:
- Artificial growth is growth that lets players circumvent developer placed obstacles and nothing else
- Natural growth is growth that upgrades the player's character, giving them more options or increasing their power or moveset.
- It is often important to use both, but upgrades that are strictly artificial will end up feeling empty
- Upgrades that give the player more mobility will often be the ones that they value the most
- A dungeon area is one that exists as a self-contained challenge with an end goal. The player's goal is just to reach the end goal, and the area just exists as a set of different rooms to be progressed through.
- Knockback and narrow platforms are not two things that go well together, and they should be used sparingly because they often lead to frustration.
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