Information AboutMetroid |
This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see Metroid Series ''Metroid'' is the first game in the Metroid Series of Video Games , and was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986 in the 8-bit era. The game was produced by Gunpei Yokoi , one of Nintendo's most famous game and hardware designers, and directed by Yoshio Sakamoto . The game is also very notable for its music, which was composed by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka . STORY In the year 2000 C.C. (Cosmic Calendar) the leaders of various planets united in order to form a congress that became known as the Galactic Federation in an attempt to construct a fair and structured universe that would enable society to grow and prosper. Under the guidance of this new federation, the individuals of the planets began to associate with each other and a new civilization began to develop. High-tech forms of transportation were created, such as interstellar spaceships, and society flourished through the use of such technology. It was in this time that Earth came into contact with individuals from these other worlds and the advanced technology that these people possessed was shared with the humans of Earth. All seemed well in this new society. However, devious groups known as " Space Pirates " began to attack the spaceships in the hopes of looting valuable goods from them and to strike fear in the hearts of the people. In order to counter these attacks, the Federal Bureau set up a new combat force known as the Federal Police. Yet the pirates were extremely difficult to battle, as it was tough to pursue them in the depths of space, even with the advanced technology of the Federation. Thus, they began to recruit a group of courageous individuals who became known as "Space Hunters" who would go after the pirates with the most elite weapons available. The Federation provided huge financial bonuses to the Hunters in reward for hunting down and destroying the pirates... It is now the year 20X5 C.C., and the universe has continued to develop while battles still rage throughout space. Recently, reports have indicated that a spaceship is traveling with a capsule containing an unknown life-force from the deserted planet of SR388 . This planet has been attacked and seized by the Space Pirates. While research about this life-form, currently in hibernation, is incomplete, it is known that exposure to beta rays for 24-hours will cause it to multiply. Some scientists believe that this life-form may have been the cause of destruction of life on SR388. Scientists decide to call this being a " Metroid " and the mere thought of it being in the hands of pirates is utterly disturbing. If the pirates learn how to multiply it and use it as a weapon, the cost of lives could be overwhelming. The Federation launched search teams to find the pirates and were fortunate to discover that their base was located deep within the planet Zebes . However, none of the forces are strong enough to take the pirates down. During this outside battle, operations to multiply the Metroid within the Space Pirates' headquarters were soon becoming a reality. Desperate for a solution, the federation decided that the only option left was to attempt to infiltrate Zebes and destroy the leader of the Space Pirates, " Mother Brain ." To make matters difficult, the structure of the planet Zebes is a natural fortress that consists of a large maze. Scattered throughout the maze are various traps and allies of the Space Pirates. This mission clearly requires a special individual to complete, and so the federation has selected the most dominating Space Hunter of the entire organization. This space bounty hunter is known as " Samus Aran ". Samus, though human, has a cybernetic suit that is connected with her body (in some places surgically), thus providing her with an uncanny amount of power. She has, to this date, completed many missions considered impossible, and her suit has the power to withstand lethal attacks, while providing many itself. Thus, Samus makes her way through the fortress-planet Zebes, collecting weapon and health upgrades, advancing to new areas, defeating Kraid , Ridley , and Mother Brain , and, in the end, destroys all Metroids on Zebes. GAMEPLAY This game provided one of the first highly Nonlinear game experiences on a home console, and the series continues to provide nonlinear gameplay. This game, along with the rest of the series, is also notable for its blending of various genres superimposed onto a Persistent World model of play. The basic gameplay is a mix of Action Adventure and Platform Shooter . The player begins with a very limited amount of Power-up s, but must always use their ingenuity to achieve the next 'locked' or unreachable area. Due to the fact that the game world is presented in one, multi-screened 'level,' there are often areas which can be reached before they were meant to be by creative players. In later ''Metroids'', this would lead to out-of-sequence Speed Run s. NOTES The game was also notable for featuring a female main character in a time when the vast majority of games relegated female characters to variations on the "damsel in distress" role. The original instruction manual simply described Samus as a "bounty hunter" and specifically stated that nobody knew what Samus looked like out of "his" armor. Further, the on-screen character was rendered more or less androgynous, so the game gave no clues to its hero's identity until the ending credits (or until the player made use of the JUSTIN BAILEY cheat password). In addition, it has been noted as one of the first games to use a password system - the original game, released for Famicom / Famicom Disk System , allowed saving state on disk, but the American release was in NES cartridge form, and didn't implement battery backed memory. The decision to use a password system was not made because the then current NES games were incapable of battery backed memory; The Legend Of Zelda , released several months earlier in Japan , already included that feature. When '', instead used a battery backed save system. The game is present as an unlockable bonus in '''' for the Game Boy Advance . That game also includes the original ''Metroid'' as an unlockable bonus. In addition, in the same year Nintendo re-released the original ''Metroid'' for Game Boy Advance, as part of the Classic NES Series . A minor side note: in the player's manual for the game, it presents the term "Metroid" as both singular and plural, though this is changed in the following games of the series. Metroid was thought to be inspired by the alien films made by Ridley Scott which was what the boss Ridley was probably referring to. JUSTIN BAILEY JUSTIN BAILEY refers to a famous Metroid password that gives the player all the power-ups needed to win the game in a short amount of time, and also renders Samus in a purple leotard rather than her armored suit. Since in the game there are four lines of six characters each for entering in a code, the top two lines should be filled in with JUSTIN and BAILEY and the last two lines should be filled in entirely with Dashes .Metroid has five different endings that vary depending on how much time the player took to finish. The two best endings feature Samus Aran in various stages of undress, with the fastest ending featuring Samus in a Bikini . A great deal of speculation surrounded the password. For instance, Justin Hippo was originally thought to be one of the creators of the game, but no such name appears in the game credits. It is also often said that the Justin Bailey code was a reference to an English or Australian term for a bathing suit. Allegedly, bathing suits are referred to as "bailey," so "Justin Bailey" literally means "Just In Bailey" or "Just In Casual Swimwear," which is what Samus wears when the code is used. However, no such slang for bathing suit actually exists, so this was just another rumor. It was also rumored that the password violated Metroid's normal Checksum verification, which would suggest that JUSTIN BAILEY was deliberately coded into the game. A website called The Metroid Database debunked this myth using password generators. ''"If you play around with Metroid's password system, …you can come up with other names and words that work as passwords. The 'Justin Bailey' code is one which was found early on and happened to work pretty well, so it became widely reported."'' ( The Metroid Database - General Metroid FAQ . Retrieved Jan. 24, 2005.) The password is now regarded as a total fluke, with no special meaning. Due to the Algorithmic nature of the password, 1 in 256 possible passwords are valid {Link without Title} . Many players previously thought this code was the only way to play as an armorless Samus, but this is a bonus that is normally available when you clear the game under three hours. (Only in the NES version. See the Famicom section below). So basically, every password in the game contains a flag indicating whether the player will be using armorless Samus or not. Furthermore, the JUSTIN BAILEY code starts the game with some power-ups. To play the game with armorless Samus, no power-ups, and starting from Brinstar, use the code 000000 000020 000000 000020. However, at least one code that was recently uncovered is known that is built-in to the game and will not check with password generators - namely, NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000. This code gives Samus infinite health and missiles, the Ice Beam and every power-up in the game with the exceptions to energy tanks and missile expansions which are unnecessary making the task of clearing the game much easier; since one code is defined in the game as such, it is possible (though not probable) that more exist that are not known about to this day. There were small debates on what the password stood for. Some thought it referred to a "Narpas" sword or Narpa's Sword. Others feel the password is properly read as "NAR PASSWORD", with "NAR" as an abbreviation for the name of the person who handled the conversion from the FDS and designed the password system, Tohru Narihiro, or, as an acronym of "North American Release". Another speculation is that it speaks of "Narpas's Word", believing the designers wished to steer you wrong with a misplaced space. See Also: Password (video games) FAMICOM DISK SYSTEM Prior to the NES release, the game was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System . Unlike the NES versions, this version uses a 3-slot save system rather than lengthy passwords. In addition, armorless Samus was a feature added for the NES port. Therefore, armorless Samus is not in the FDS version, not even as a bonus for beating the game. The only "reward" for finishing the game is a money bag image in the save slot to indicate a cleared game. The FDS version also utilizes the system's wavetable sound channel for several sound effects, such as doors and larger monsters being hit. Five themes in the game also use the wavetable channel, adding an extra instrument to the music. In the NES version, this instrument was removed completely. The character initialization and item collection themes in Super Metroid and most future Metroid titles were based on the same themes from the FDS version of Metroid. COMIC BOOKS Samus Aran appeared as a character in the and Nintendo Comics System comic book series published by Valiant in 1990 . Nintendo Power later ran a 6-part Super Metroid comic. More recently, a short Metroid Prime comic (varying greatly from the actual events of the game) was printed in Nintendo Power. This miniseries was done by Dreamwave. mechadrake.com has recently been featuring translated versions of metroid e-manga that chronicles all the events leading up to Metroid. Tokyopop, at one point, listed a Metroid comic amongst the list of upcoming comics but it has since quietly disappeared. Although unofficial releases, several Metroid Doujinshi also exist. SEE ALSO
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