Super Metroid Phazon - Thoughts

It is nearly impossible to re-capture what made the original Super Metroid so special. So much of the game is immersed in nostalgia, and what isn't is difficult to quantify and explain. There's a je ne sais quoi to its world and atmosphere—familiarity and alienation are masterfully blended together, forming a curious stew that you can never quite identify the ingredients of. And for the most part, a lot of Super Metroid rom hacks approach this untouchable recipe with strict reverence: weapon progression is similar, zones feel roughly the same, and your journey will always end with the player blasting Mother Brain to bits. But Super Metroid Phazon eschews with the formal, seeking to hone in on something that Metroid fans love but don't frequently emulate:

Weirdness.

Now, of course there's a lot of ugly, oddball hacks out there, but what those fail to understand is that Metroid has always had a sort of... dignified weirdness. The fauna is unnatural (if not a bit quirky) and the zones are colorful, but nothing is mismatched, nonsensical, or garish; a bright pink mossy almost makes sense coexisting next to a ruddy stone shaft. Metroid unnerves but never repels, and Super Metroid Phazon respectfully understands this concept. Not only does it shake up the typical Super Metroid item and boss progression, but it tugs at player expectations with its eerie alien ambition.

First, you'll awake as Dark Samus inside of a malfunctioning capsule, mere steps away from a free energy tank and an empty red door on the ceiling. Rather than run across the surface of an alien planet in search of the morph ball, you'll dive through underwater passageways, climb frozen cliffsides, and dart past a boss for your first missile pack. Soon you'll uncover a big room that displays a picture of all the areas in the game, your next destination indicated by a small flashing dot. You won't find maps to download, a ship to recharge at, or item hints on the minimap. And as you collect beam powerups, you'll find your arm cannon gets slower—rather than stronger—when the beams are stacked. While Super Metroid Phazon may look familiar, it doesn't feel familiar in the slightest.

What really helps differentiate it from a lot of other Metroid hacks is the visual presentation. Super Metroid Phazon brings with it a massive graphical overhaul, changing nearly every enemy, every zone, and even the UI itself. Caverns, phazon groves, and underwater trenches look realistic and beautiful at times, while the massive complexes of Tetrafuse are unsettling and inexplicable. The entire world of SR217 is infested with snakelike piping, protected by strange machinery that rarely resembles anything humanoid. The bosses themselves have really excellent sprites (Kraid in particular), their attack patterns the only indicator of what they once were. In fact, if there's one thing from Phazon I'm likely to remember, it's how bizarrely rectangular most of its enemies were.

Besides the new coat of paint, the most memorable aspect of Super Metroid Phazon is how massive the world is. My run-time clocked in at a total of 7:24 with only 77% of the items obtained, and (at least I thought) I was pretty thorough. A good chunk of time was spent hunting down the Prime-esque collectibles required to reach the final area (an interesting addition), as well as traversing the land since the screens themselves are also gargantuan. The Tetrafuse towers are mechanical mountains to explore, and the lower depths of the Sewers is one of the coolest journeys: it goes on forever and is mostly empty. "Vacancy" may not sound like much of a compliment, but plunging down to its dark, aquatic depths will make you feel insignificant and alone, eager to find signs of life (or missiles!) amidst the coral.

There's really not much criticism I have to offer for Super Metroid Phazon, as I really dug its aesthetic and direction. If anything, I feel the first half of the game where you're brilliantly strung along from powerup to powerup is the strongest, and sniffing out the Prime-collectibles in the second half not only lacks difficulty but is a bit too aimless (I accidentally missed the final beam powerup). I wouldn't say Phazon overstayed its welcome, but for as cool as the long trek through cavernous rooms are the first time, they're plainly exhausting on revisit. Warp points thankfully mitigate this issue, but you should still prepare your legs for a hefty workout.

If Super Metroid is one of your favorite games, I implore you to give Super Metroid Phazon a try. It's not a major overhaul that retools enemy AI or adds cool new items, but it deftly transcends the typical "second quest" trope a lot of hacks fall into. From the great new visuals to the completely new world, Phazon feels like an alternate dimension parallel to Super Metroid—or maybe more aptly, a third party stand alone sequel. It plays around with the Metroid formula and succeeds, creating a tantalizing soup to Super Metroid's special stew.