#5: Give and Test
Whenever you get a power-up you are also treated to some music and text.
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| Do you hear the song? I do |
Yay, you got something new. The awesome part is what happens next.
I call it: Give and Test.
Give and Test is pretty awesome, but there's a problem - now a days it's commonplace. You see it all the time in Zelda games. It's something you can count on. You get the Mirror Shield, and then there is a bunch of Light-bouncing puzzles. Get a hookshot and then zip around the dungeon. Whenever you get a new item, you know that it will solve the next 10 puzzles and probably defeat the boss. Give and Test has become like kitsch.
But there's a key difference between how newer games use Give and Test then how Super Metroid does.
In newer games - the Test is the path forward.
In Super Metroid - the Test is the path back.
To make the contrast clearer, i'm gonna illustrate my point. (Graph time!)
In Zelda you go the farthest off the beaten path when you fight the boss. The boss might be guarding some important item but it's not a new ability. The new ability (bombs, grappling hook, or whatever) is on the path towards the boss. The test after takes you deeper into the dungeon.
Now compare it to my awesome made-up chart for Super Metroid:
The new item is the farthest point off the beaten path; not the boss. (Excluding Ridley but he's atypical.) Then the Item Test Zone is how you get back to where you were.
The key here is the direction of gameplay. With Super Metroid the focus is the new item, not being off the beaten path. The Test Zone is more like an instruction manual then it is a hurdle.
So yeah, the difference between the two is small. But it changes how Give and Test feels. Instead of an Action/Adventure stereotype, it feels like you're Indiana Jones. You want to get the Golden Speed Boost Idol. So you struggle through the jungle and deep into a Temple. Only to discover that getting in was the easy part.
Awesome.
#4: The Dead Guy Again
One of my favorite things is the Dead Guy right before Super Kraid. He's sitting there all covered in bugs. There's spikes all around. Then you meet the Boss Door for the first time. He was so close to the varia suit but it just didn't work out for him. Maybe he forgot to save.
Ok there are three reasons this guy is awesome.
First is Implicit Narrative. I've already talked a bit about implicit communication in #7 Symmetry and Asymmetry. But what I love about this is it's open ended. The guy is sitting there dead. What was he doing? Why was he here? Was he another bounty hunter that failed on the mission? Was he some sort of tomb raider? You don't get to know. All you know is that this guy's dead, and he's surrounded by spikes. It probably means shit is about to happen. I love stories that don't quite fit.
That was a quick.
The next one is about Boss fights. It's better to think about bosses not as huge enemies or big challenges, but as book ends. They signal the end of a section (Cadences); they are freakin big and scary. But to make that intense moment even more intense it helps if you build Anticipation. Just like Scary Movies. First you hear the footsteps of the killer. Then you catch a glimpse of his bloody axe. Your gonna get chopped to bits. You hear him breathing and go away. The coast is clear so you leave your hiding spot. Then BAM close up of a Velociraptor with an Axe.
The trick here is that the killer is not as scary as your imagination makes it. This is a big lesson from Stephen King's writing or Hitchcock's Movies. You can imagine the fire hose chasing you down and catching you. But when you look back there's nothing. It's just a thing on the wall. It's a similar thing with the dead guy. It's suspense that kills.
The first time you see the dead guy he's more of mood device. His corpse serves as a warning.
So you pass over him. Open the door. Fight Kraid (probably lose the first couple times). Beat his big ol green face in. Collect the Varia Suit. Then feel super awesome about yourself. Yay you did it! So you head back. That's when the best part happens. You see the dead guy again.
The First Time he's creepy. The Second time he's laughable. That may seems kind of dumb, but it's why people don't like Final Fantasy 8.
The biggest gripe with FF8 is that enemies level with you. Personally, I think it's a cool idea. It keeps the battles interesting. It makes traveling around the world scarier. You can't just waltz around anywhere. But I understand the gripe - which my friend Jacques said the best. "When I'm level 80, a baby rat should be easy."
With FF8's Level-up System you lose that point comparison. Without baby rats, the game is less fun.
You miss out on the ego-power trip. It's fun to travel through early areas and just obliterate your enemies. You feel powerful. You feel like you've gotten better. (Side Note: Even though that might be a lie. Your numbers might be bigger that doesn't mean you as a player have improved.)
That's why I love the Dead Guy. It's neat that he speaks implicitly. It's cool that he builds suspense. But he's so awesome because he sucks.
#3: The Brinstar Bridge
The Brinstar Bridge is the last green room in brinstar. The room just before you get the brown brinstar rooms. It's got that group of disappearing blocks with spikes above 'em.
Here's a picture:
The Brinstar Bridge is awesome. But as a kid, it caused me much frustration - I couldn't get across.
I tried walking over it. But it's made up of those stupid disappearing blocks, so I fell through. I tried sneaking underneath the bridge, but none of the walls are breakable. I tried jumping quick and low. But that's really really hard. And when I went back, I found that the path is blocked. I had to cross the stupid bridge.
It wasn't until I started hitting my controller that I found the solution - I happened to slam on the run button. My frustration made samus run.
The Brinstar Bridge forces the player to run. It does the same thing as Give and Test. The player must prove they can do something.
But that's not what makes the bridge #3. The bridge is awesome because of it's pacing and context.
It happens...
At first running is optional. You can run under those stupid bug guys. You can run over some breakable blocks. Then it's required - the bridge makes sure you can run. Which makes sense cause you need to know how run with the Speed Booster.
The Brinstar Bridge highlights something Super Metroid does amazingly well. Pacing. To emphasize this point here's another Pacing Highlight:
Each one is a little tougher than the last. Hm.. I'm going to do another. How about with breakable blocks?
That's enough examples.
The pacing in Super Metroid is done really really well. What get's me - it's not just the difficulty rate. Nope, it's also the rate and amount of information. It gives you easy or optional bits before it gives you the hard bits. It's also super detailed awesome and all over this game.
There's a lot I want to say about Super Metroid's pacing. (Peaks and Valleys, Two for Ones, and Parallel Lessons) But I'd rather move on to #2. We'll leave the Brinstar Bridge as it is.
#2: Ceres Station
Yay #2. So close to the end. And it's one my favorites.
Ah yeah!
Ceres Station is the prologue to Super Metroid. The pre-cursor to action. Before I get to why it's cool I want to compare it to two other introductions - Lufia and the Fortress of Doom and Metroid Prime.
Ceres Station function the is mostly the same as the other two. It sets the timbre or mood of the game. It gives you a little taste of what's to come. The difference is in the content - Lufia and Metroid Prime show you what's cool about the game.
It's really a neat trick. You start with all this awesome powerful stuff. Get to feel powerful for awhile. Then they take it all away - You get a new party in Lufia and your power suit fails in Metroid Prime. It let's the player know some of what's in store. It's like a guy in a van handing out candy. "Come here little kiddies." He says. "Have a little candy. But if you want some more you'll have to take a ride in my van."
Ok that analogy was a little messed up. But still, that's kind of what's going on.
Yeah. Super Metroid doesn't do that crap. I think it's better for it. Why? Because it does what I think a prologue should be doing: encapsulate the game.
Super Metroid doesn't just give you stuff for free. You gotta earn it. It ain't no pussy facebook book game with their free invitations and their stupid achievements. The ones they give out whenever you do anything, ever, at all.
Ceres Station really gives you a taste for the game. There's a little bit of shooting a giant space-pirate-dinosaur. (Wtf is ridley btw?) There's a lot of running around looking for stuff. There's a trademark escape sequence. And there's a whole lot of frustration.
There are more awesome tid-bits in Ceres station. I'm gonna ignore those and go straight to my favorite part about Ceres Station. It's also probably my flimsiest argument so far, but screw that i'm going for it.
Ceres Station sets you up for a surprise. It's the same surprise as in Metroid 1. And no, It's not that Samus is a girl. It's the surprise they pulled on the player's expectations - You go left first.
If you listen to your gaming roots when playing Metroid 1. You will go right. Mario and Megaman would go right. If you try to do that, you'll fail. You'll come across a giant wall with a small hole at the bottom.
This ain't a Mario.
It's a small surprise. Probably not that amazing for people who didn't grow up on games with which you could only go right. But it still is awesome. That wall is there to shatter your expectations. The designers put that wall there on purpose. They knew you'd go right first.
Ceres Station sets you up for the same feeling. That same surprise. It makes you go right.
When you land on Zebes you have the same symmetrical Samus. What direction did you go? I went to the right.
When you first get to Brinstar. After the dead mother brain room. Which direction did you go? To the right? Did you remember Metroid 1? You're supposed to go left first.
Ceres Station sets you up for that. It's there to remind the player of Metroid 1. It's sets you up for the same surprise as Metroid 1.
That's awesome. Ceres Station brings you back to Metroid 1. It shows you what Metroid is all about.
Well that's it for #5-2. Number one is next. I'm super excited =D.
