To be honest I was expecting only a graphical update to a 100% identical NES game layout, but it clearly is a little bit beyond of that. Everything what made the original Metroid is there of course, but there are some things that shouldn’t be there. I guess the intro can’t be removed at all, which looks a bit odd by just scrolling the zoomed in ground. I’ve also expected the full title music just to listen to it again after all those years but there is only a short part of it repeating (the beginning only) and no “intro” with no “Zebeth” anywhere. :) After getting into the game, the first thing which let me feel uncomfortable was the size of Samus and the enemies. They looked too big, like zoomed in, the environment was narrow but yet the objects, tiles pattern were same size. I took screenshots just to compare the sprites and tiles to check if my eye was right and it really was. The tiles are just the same size like on the NES original, but the sprites are much bigger. Samus sprite is a whopping 27% bigger than the original NES sprite and this is the same for the enemy sprites. Some would say does it matter? Well, let me explain a bit: the original NES resolution is 256×240 whereas the SuperNES has a resolution of 256×224. 16 pixels are missing in height right away. Add another 31 pixels for the upper space reserved for energy, ammo and map and you got only 193 pixels in height visible for the playable area. This is 20% less than on the NES (which is a big amount if you ask me). So a 27% bigger Samus on a 20% narrower playfield (this also means 20% narrower visible playfiled on vertical areas) didn’t feel right for me. The Samus sprite on the NES takes up only 14% space in height (1 to 7) but the Samus on SuperNES takes up 22% space in height (1 to 4) and compared as taking up space in the playfield this means a 58% bigger Samus. I know this was always like this and also never felt strange while playing the original Super Metroid, but I played Metroid on the NES so many times, so many hours, I burned everything Metroid related into my mind and inevitably expected to see a screen like the original NES version. It felt restricted and cramped. Bigger enemies left less space to evade, jumping onto higher platforms on vertical areas was a pain in the ass because of this. Shooting in 8 directions is a great feature of course, but this also has consequences on the gameplay, you can get stuck very easily in the game and have to reset the game. After finding out I can shoot in 8 directions, I went straight ahead into the deep pit where the Rippers are without taking any power-ups. Shooting the floor and falling into to pit will lock you down there if no Ice Beam or bomb is taken before. But, isn’t this hack good at all? Of course it is. Players who didn’t play the original Metroid on the NES will be pleased. All the NES Metroid fun is in there.

But for hardcore fans of the original Metroid it’s a german “jein”, a yes and a no.