First off, I want to explain that my computer is currently being operated on and could possibly be dead. A few weeks ago I spilt soda all over it, and it took a couple of weeks for my dad to finally give me the help I needed to clean up the motherboard. But then, as I was trying to take out the motherboard (you see, I have a MacBook, so taking it out was the most needlessly difficult procedure of my life), I broke the connectors for the fans, which I obviously need if I plan to play any game on my computer. However, now it's been a couple more weeks since that's always how it is with my dad. Today should be the day my dad and his friend fix the fan connectors, but I have some doubt seeing how the weather outside has been pretty bad.
So to ease my boredom (I'm on my Summer break), I've played a few Nintendo games to pass the time. I've been closely watching the news on E3 and Super Smash Bros. 4, which is driving me crazy and man can I not wait for that!
But also, I've returned to what I consider to be my first fandom: my fanwankery over the Metroid series. I'm not as fanwank as I was when I first fell in love with the series, but I still play the Metroid games every so often and my memories of my first experiences with each game hold fond places in my heart. So I decided to revisit some of the games to see if I can pull off all the speed runs and perfections (thank god there's no need to speed run the prime series). Of course, since it's been months since I last played these games, I try to use a guide for what I can't remember, which is annoying as hell having to pause the game every two seconds. I started with Prime 3, but for some reason I stopped at the Pirate Homeworld and haven't found the motivation to continue. I beat Prime Hunters completely, but there's really nothing you get for doing that. So then I wanted to play some classic style 2D Metroid, but I dared not touch Metroid II because, in my opinion, that is the most difficult Metroid game in the series. So I tried to speed run Metroid Fusion, only to fail by going over forty minutes.
So I was bored today, and I honestly don't want to play Super Metroid at all, even though it is a perfect game. I would've played Zero Mission if I still had the game (I have it on my computer though). So I looked at Metroid II, which I literally only played once, and decided I'd give it another go and try to speed run it. Beating the game in three hours is really not that hard, but when you have no idea what you're doing in that game, it is basically impossible.
So of course I used a guide to refresh my memory on how to advance through the game, because otherwise every room looks nearly the same and there are a few "dud" locations which I seriously believe were placed to waste your time. There were also a couple of shortcuts I didn't know of.
I worried about the metroid bosses, because what I remembered of them was simply frustration, but they surprisingly weren't a real problem this time around. Each encounter with a Zeta metroid however did feel like my game was going to end, and then when I faced Omega metroids, I started getting close to dying. Actually, on one Omega, I had little health left because it seemed the programmers either forgot to leave an energy recharge or sadistically did it to see how many Omega metroid fights you could take before breaking the game. I managed to get some energy back, fearing all the time that costed me, and defeat that Omega though. It was a pain because the damn thing would air juggle me and kill me. What? Air juggling in a Metroid game?! Yep, that was exactly what happened. Six times.
Still, I managed to get through it all. I was low on health again at the Queen, since all the normal metroids seemed impossible to avoid, so I had to get another energy recharge. Again, I feared I cost myself a ton of time, but I managed to take down the Queen easily (relative to the damn Zeta/Omega metroids). It was fun blowing her up from the inside with the morph ball, something I didn't think of doing on my first playthrough when I was twelve. The guide of course said to do it, but even without one I would've figured that out thanks to Other M. And this might sound weird, but the baby metroid was so cute! Even already knowing that it exists and that it follows Samus around like if she was her mother, I still found it a sweet touch to a game that has you freaking out every time you see those metroid shells.
I doubted I managed to speed run it successfully, even with the generously-given three hour time frame (as opposed to two in later games, [one in Metroid] plus having to collect every item in them), but as we can see in the picture above, I did it! ^^ Another successfully completed Metroid to add to the list.
Hopefully I'll get my computer back soon. I really want to give my take on E3. I'm already disappointed I can't write all about the ridiculous rumors I've been reading. I mean, I could, but this post alone was already a pain for me to write on my phone.
