For this month’s symposium, new moderator Captain Quasar will lead our discussion on this classic. He writes:

Thank you for allowing me to lead this symposium, especially for a game I love so much.

Super Metroid is considered one of the best games ever made, establishing another smash hit in the Metroid series while also laying the groundwork (along with Symphony of The Night) for the much loved “Metroidvania” genre in later games. The most defining characteristic of the game to me is the map: a winding series of rooms, passageways, and alien terrors that, over the course of the game, the player memorizes.

1. Does allowing the player to traverse the map themselves with minimal handholding lead to a better game experience? How does it change the meaning of the game?
2. Is traversing the map in any way like Theseus in the Labyrinth?
3. If you played the game, what part (if any) did you get stuck on? How did you overcome it?
4. How does the design philosophy of NES Metroid change in Super Metroid? How does Zero Mission approach the original game, in the wake of Super Metroid?

We meet via Discord at 8:30 Eastern/5:30 Pacific on Thursday!