#15: The First Battle
For your first fight on the planet Zebes your greeted by these guys.
The space pirates.
The first fight is such a cool moment. Your alone on this barren planet. Everything is still quiet. Maybe a little too quiet.
But why should you to suspect anything? You've seen the room before. Even if there was something about to kill you there'd be a warning. Ridley had those glowing eyes and all. Then when you walk through the door - things get real.
Your first fight isn't a single goomba strolling across the screen. Instead of just one stupid guy there's two of them. And they aren't approaching you morosely. They start right in your face.
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| Oh **** |
Action/Thriller movies use the 'in your face' surprise in the exact the same way. Something funny is going on -so the protagonist hides behind a tree. They glance over the side and see that the coast is clear. They catch their breath, peek over again and bam - close up of a velociraptor.
What makes this room so well designed is not just the surprise but how easy it is. These space pirates are like the red coats. They are made to die.
The one on the left has no room to move (not that he's very fast anyways). He's lined up nicely to die. If you spaz and start jamming the attack button he will blow up before he ever attacks. The dead Zebetite is the perfect height to do nothing.
The one above you crawls on walls and jumps around. It might be hard to hit. But no. This poor guy has no room to move. It's like he's trapped and waiting to be shot. Not to mention they only take 1 shot to kill.
The first battle is as scary as it is easy.
#14: Color Codes
Most games use color to set mood and theme. Super Metroid uses color beyond just aesthetic. Its colors inform and individualize.
Items and doors are color coded. If you don't have an instruction manual (or just didn't read it,) you should still be able to figure out how to open each door. Their colors match a specific weapon.
What if the doors were all the same color? You would have to guess and check which item works for each door. That would suck.
What if the doors colors didn't match the weapon color? It might piss you off. Why make the orange superbomb unlock the green door? That little incongruity would drive me nuts.
What color coding does is relay information quickly. It's like a road sign - A stop sign is a red octagon and a yield sign is a red and white triangle. The colors allows you to drive without having to stop and read each one.
The second thing that color coding does is individualize. If you remember the layout of Metroid 1, there's a lot of rows and columns - rooms which are primarily horizontal or vertical. It's easy to get lost.
Metroid 2 simplified this by having one main verticle area (the trunk,) with many horitzontal areas coming off it (the branches.) The problem is that everything looks the same in Metroid 2. The gameboy only has 4 colors.
Super Metroid leveraged the SNES's 15-bit color to it's advantage. (Yes it only has 15 bit color depth.) They made similar areas have different colors. You might miss the importance of that last sentence. So I'll repeat it for emphasis.
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| Similar areas |
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| have |
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| different colors |
I enjoyed finding all the goodies in Super Metroid. In the hand-held Castlevanias I hated it. How do I know if this wall can be broken or not? Is that the warp point to the sewers or the clock tower? How can I tell where I am if everything looks the damn same?
What Super Metroid does right is color code the levels and the weapons. It let's the player know where they are, where they've been, and what to do next.
#13: The Evil Energy Tank
The first time I fell into the wall jump pit, I saved in it. I couldn't figure out what the stupid hyena guys were telling me. I got stuck and couldn't get out. So I had to restart the whole damn game.
While I hated the wall jump pit then, I appreciate it now. What makes it great is how the much effort the designers put into the pit trap. They set you up for it, by using an evil energy tank.
This is the evilest of energy tanks. If you don't remember the wall jump pit, you enter it by falling through the floor. This happens because there's an energy tank at the end of the hall. You walk to get it and you fall.
If new games try to get you to play will all sort of achievements and rewards, Super Metroid does the opposite. The carrot on a stick is a trap.
Now if you do remember the trap, you might notice that the energy tank in the picture is not the one I'm talking about. This energy tank is one which fills your mind with lies. This is the first energy tank.
After you get the bombs and go down the first diagonal room, you get a free energy tank. It's nearly impossible to avoid. Why would the game do that? If most upgrades are difficult to acquire, why make this one so gosh darn easy? Because it's evil, that's why. The first energy tank makes you believe that some energy tanks are easy to get. All you have to do is keep walking, you'll come across them.
That is a lie.
There's a second layer to the trick. The room before the trap makes you believe an energy tank is coming. It is a sign which says 'easy energy tank ahead.' You believe the sign because you've been in a room just like it. It's the locked room in Kraid's layer.
Here's both of the rooms side by side:
While the first (left) room has an energy tank, the second doesn't. When you enter the second room an alarm should go off in your brain. You should feel like their's an energy tank somewhere. If game designer's are Ivan Pavlov and the players are his dogs, your mouth should be watering. There's a treat and it's about to come.
But it doesn't. You fall into a pit and you get pissed off. That's the reason I think people hate the wall jump pit. It's not because they don't like wall jumping or learning to wall jump is hard. It's not even the save point that traps you in there. It's because they didn't get their doggie treat.
Check out this lecture by Jonah Lehrer. He talks about dopamine and decisions making.
Now it might piss you off if you got stuck in the pit. Especially if you saved and had to restart the game. Yet consider how much effort went into the trap. That maybe the designer's put the save point there on purpose. That they might have wanted you to quit.
The evil energy tank and the wall jump pit is there to teach you how to game the game.
#12: Instructional Videos.
Here's a trailer for LA Noir. The game looks pretty sweet, but did that trailer teach you anything? Do you learn anything about how to play the game? Not at all.
Yes it's a trailer and that's not it's purpose. It's just an example of how games will play a video sequence and teach you nothing. They're there just to look cool.
Super Metroid doesn't waste your time. (If duke nukem is the father of speed runs, super metroid is mother.) It's videos aren't just to look cool but to teach you about the game. If you pay attention you will get better at the game.
Let's take a look at the intro video and what you can learn from it. (This is the video which plays at the start of the game.)
What I love about that video is that you might not realize it's an instruction video. If you don't pay attention in class, your notes will suck.
I remember reading an EGM which had some information on Super Metroid. In the reader mail (literally pen and paper mail, not the fancy electronic stuff we have now) there was a letter asking about the wall jump pit and how to escape. The EGM explained that some enemies aren't in the game to kill you. They are there to help you. Maybe the designers could have made the last lesson in the video a bit more explicit.
Regardless, the intro video can teach you about the game. But it's not the only video in the game. There's also the features video. (It plays when you do nothing at the title screen.) It teaches you some basic lessons and neat tricks: Like how to open blue and red doors. How to open gates. The different uses of the charge beam. The angled shine spark.
There's also a secret bonus video. Once you've beaten the game it unlocks. In it you learn about the Horizontal Shine Spark, that you can bomb jumping, and even how to do the elusive Crystal Flash.
Before I finish with #12 I gotta show you one last video sequence.
So awesome.
Was that a metroid in there?
#11: The Glass tube
I'm pretty sure most people hate the glass tube. It's not hard to argue that the glass tube is the worst designed puzzle in super metroid. It's a hard lock, you have to break it to finish the game. There's no also obstacle like it. The player might quit in frustration - believing it can't be opened. Yet if you took it out, super metroid would be a worse game.
First the game tells you to break it. The empty space surrounding it is a big clue. The map station in Maridia tells you that you can go above and below it. My favorite video sequence is showing that there's some important stuff in Maridia. There's even a broken tube in maridia.
These hints tell you that it can be broken but they don't tell you how. The only way to break open the tube is to guess and check. Once you break it you have that moment of realization and triumph. It's the 'a-ha!' moment.
Does the 'a-ha' moment justify the frustration of guess and checking? Why not have the X-ray scope tell you how to open it? It would ruin the 'a-ha.' It goes beyond simply "hurray for me. I solved the puzzle." What justifies the frustration is the set-up and location of the glass tube.
That stupid tube is the most traveled area in Zebes. If you follow the game in sequence you wil walk across it 5 times. 1) Going to kraid 2) Getting power bombs 3) Getting the grapple beam 4) Getting the gravity suit and 5) the first trip through maridia dumps you here.
This means is that once you break the tube, you realize you could have broken it all along. The only thing holding you back was you. This 'a-ha' moment is invites you to replay the game. It asks what does the game look like when I can break the tube earlier. I'll tell you: It looks wet.
The first time I tried to get into Maridia without the gravity suit I got pissed off. I couldn't sequence break because of the water. Now I know you can.
It's just tedious.
I would not take the glass tube away from Super Metroid. Despite that it is a frustrating hard lock, it still invites you to sequence break. Once you try breaking in early, you find there's a soft lock around it. What makes the glass tube great is that it's like a cheesy gordita crunch. It's a hard taco wrapped around a soft taco.
Delicious.
Alright that's it for #15-#11. Join me next week for #10-#6.
The first time I fell into the wall jump pit, I saved in it. I couldn't figure out what the stupid hyena guys were telling me. I got stuck and couldn't get out. So I had to restart the whole damn game.
While I hated the wall jump pit then, I appreciate it now. What makes it great is how the much effort the designers put into the pit trap. They set you up for it, by using an evil energy tank.
If new games try to get you to play will all sort of achievements and rewards, Super Metroid does the opposite. The carrot on a stick is a trap.
Now if you do remember the trap, you might notice that the energy tank in the picture is not the one I'm talking about. This energy tank is one which fills your mind with lies. This is the first energy tank.
After you get the bombs and go down the first diagonal room, you get a free energy tank. It's nearly impossible to avoid. Why would the game do that? If most upgrades are difficult to acquire, why make this one so gosh darn easy? Because it's evil, that's why. The first energy tank makes you believe that some energy tanks are easy to get. All you have to do is keep walking, you'll come across them.
That is a lie.
There's a second layer to the trick. The room before the trap makes you believe an energy tank is coming. It is a sign which says 'easy energy tank ahead.' You believe the sign because you've been in a room just like it. It's the locked room in Kraid's layer.
Here's both of the rooms side by side:
 |
| They seems similar |
While the first (left) room has an energy tank, the second doesn't. When you enter the second room an alarm should go off in your brain. You should feel like their's an energy tank somewhere. If game designer's are Ivan Pavlov and the players are his dogs, your mouth should be watering. There's a treat and it's about to come.
But it doesn't. You fall into a pit and you get pissed off. That's the reason I think people hate the wall jump pit. It's not because they don't like wall jumping or learning to wall jump is hard. It's not even the save point that traps you in there. It's because they didn't get their doggie treat.
Check out this lecture by Jonah Lehrer. He talks about dopamine and decisions making.
Now it might piss you off if you got stuck in the pit. Especially if you saved and had to restart the game. Yet consider how much effort went into the trap. That maybe the designer's put the save point there on purpose. That they might have wanted you to quit.
The evil energy tank and the wall jump pit is there to teach you how to game the game.
#12: Instructional Videos.
Here's a trailer for LA Noir. The game looks pretty sweet, but did that trailer teach you anything? Do you learn anything about how to play the game? Not at all.
Yes it's a trailer and that's not it's purpose. It's just an example of how games will play a video sequence and teach you nothing. They're there just to look cool.
Super Metroid doesn't waste your time. (If duke nukem is the father of speed runs, super metroid is mother.) It's videos aren't just to look cool but to teach you about the game. If you pay attention you will get better at the game.
Let's take a look at the intro video and what you can learn from it. (This is the video which plays at the start of the game.)
What I love about that video is that you might not realize it's an instruction video. If you don't pay attention in class, your notes will suck.
I remember reading an EGM which had some information on Super Metroid. In the reader mail (literally pen and paper mail, not the fancy electronic stuff we have now) there was a letter asking about the wall jump pit and how to escape. The EGM explained that some enemies aren't in the game to kill you. They are there to help you. Maybe the designers could have made the last lesson in the video a bit more explicit.
Regardless, the intro video can teach you about the game. But it's not the only video in the game. There's also the features video. (It plays when you do nothing at the title screen.) It teaches you some basic lessons and neat tricks: Like how to open blue and red doors. How to open gates. The different uses of the charge beam. The angled shine spark.
There's also a secret bonus video. Once you've beaten the game it unlocks. In it you learn about the Horizontal Shine Spark, that you can bomb jumping, and even how to do the elusive Crystal Flash.
Before I finish with #12 I gotta show you one last video sequence.
So awesome.
Was that a metroid in there?
#11: The Glass tube
I'm pretty sure most people hate the glass tube. It's not hard to argue that the glass tube is the worst designed puzzle in super metroid. It's a hard lock, you have to break it to finish the game. There's no also obstacle like it. The player might quit in frustration - believing it can't be opened. Yet if you took it out, super metroid would be a worse game.
First the game tells you to break it. The empty space surrounding it is a big clue. The map station in Maridia tells you that you can go above and below it. My favorite video sequence is showing that there's some important stuff in Maridia. There's even a broken tube in maridia.
These hints tell you that it can be broken but they don't tell you how. The only way to break open the tube is to guess and check. Once you break it you have that moment of realization and triumph. It's the 'a-ha!' moment.
Does the 'a-ha' moment justify the frustration of guess and checking? Why not have the X-ray scope tell you how to open it? It would ruin the 'a-ha.' It goes beyond simply "hurray for me. I solved the puzzle." What justifies the frustration is the set-up and location of the glass tube.
That stupid tube is the most traveled area in Zebes. If you follow the game in sequence you wil walk across it 5 times. 1) Going to kraid 2) Getting power bombs 3) Getting the grapple beam 4) Getting the gravity suit and 5) the first trip through maridia dumps you here.
This means is that once you break the tube, you realize you could have broken it all along. The only thing holding you back was you. This 'a-ha' moment is invites you to replay the game. It asks what does the game look like when I can break the tube earlier. I'll tell you: It looks wet.
The first time I tried to get into Maridia without the gravity suit I got pissed off. I couldn't sequence break because of the water. Now I know you can.
It's just tedious.
I would not take the glass tube away from Super Metroid. Despite that it is a frustrating hard lock, it still invites you to sequence break. Once you try breaking in early, you find there's a soft lock around it. What makes the glass tube great is that it's like a cheesy gordita crunch. It's a hard taco wrapped around a soft taco.
Delicious.
Alright that's it for #15-#11. Join me next week for #10-#6.
The save station in the wall jump pit was there for the opposite reason - Imagine you've made a lot of progress, found some items, maybe even a major item or beaten or a boss, then you get stuck in that place and can't get out. They don't want you to lose your progress when you haven't even died, you just don't know how to get out and save.
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