Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy) review "Metroid had become a cult favorite, and an instant classic for the NES. Millions of gamers wanted a sequel for it, and the gameboy seemed the perfect place. They took the same strategy used to make the first one, and made Metroid II: The Return of Samus. However, like the first one, in my eyes it was a very overated game, not worth the money to buy it. "

Metroid had become a cult favorite, and an instant classic for the NES. Millions of gamers wanted a sequel for it, and the gameboy seemed the perfect place. They took the same strategy used to make the first one, and made Metroid II: The Return of Samus. However, like the first one, in my eyes it was a very overated game, not worth the money to buy it.

STORY (3/5): Well, truth be told, I never paid to much attention to the story, for I never really got into Metroid II. You take Samus Aran on another mission to beat Space Pirates and to kill the Metroid eggs. Same ol' story really, although supposebly it continues on from where the first left off.

GRAPHICS (13/15): This is really the first sidescroller for the Gameboy that looked good. Samus Aran is a good sized character, and she looks the same with the suit except not colorized. The backgrounds are not that good, but this is located in an underground lair, so you really can't justify high quality graphics, when in truth it is just rolling land of dirt. The enemies also look nice. Only problem is most of the rooms look exactly the same.

SOUND (4/10): It is one song played throughout the entire game. Even though that one song is classic Metroid music, there could've been alot more variety in the music deparment.

The sound affects are not bad at all however. The different type of bullets have their own sound. Also when you shoot doors you cannot open, it will still give off that metalic ring that it did in the original game. Not to bad in the sound effect department.

GAMEPLAY (22/55): This game takes the exact gameplay that made Metroid famous. Too bad I didn't like the original Metroid's gameplay, and well the sequel isn't even innovative anymore. It's the exploring game, where you will be forced to backtrack through the whole Metroid world. This is very annoying, for you have to memorize every ruote you can't reach, and more. Of course it would've been nice if there was a map. Then maybe you could figure out what ruotes you have not travelled, and will easily be able to backtrack without getting lost.

Now the reasoning of Metroid is you will search through the huge lair to kill Space Pirates, and gain powerups to get farther within the lair. These powerups are like a freeze ray or the ability to roll into a ball. These powerups are cool, and some are not needed to beat the game. This is really the only place that the game stands strong in the gameplay department.

Fighting is fairly boring. Jump and shoot, is how the game works. It is basically like Contra, except with less villains about. There are really basically no masters, and the space pirates are a cinch as you shoot them up with missiles. The difficulty of this game is that all the screens look the same, and you will quickly be travelling in big circles. This will drive you insane, until you quit playing the game, or you make a map by hand or something. It is so annoying, that it hurts this gameplay badly.

REPLAYABILITY (3/10): First of all, I would like to give a round of applause to whoever beat this game. I do not have the attention span to actually play this game through, for it pisses me off rather rapidly. Really this game is not worth playing through once, let alone more than once. I guess if you beat it once you will know where all the secrets and ruotes are, but then why play it again?

DIFFICULTY (2/5): INSANELY Difficult. You will get lost a million times in the circular annoying pathways. This is a game that is confusing, and where you will not know where to travel next. The only good thing about the game is that the enemies are easy, and will not hold you up. That is almost a weakness however, cause you can walk through the stages practically. It is a two edged sword.

OVERALL (44/100): If you enjoyed the first Metroid, you should actually pick this game up. However I did not enjoy the first Metroid at all, and this game took those problems and made them more severe. I was dissapointed in this game, for I thought it would improve upon what was done right in the original Metroid, but instead it just made more of what was wrong. Point being, if you are a fan of Metroid buy this game. Otherwise be wary of what you purchase.

Community review by ratking (August 03, 2002) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.