My one criticism of this video is the lack of context that Zero Mission is given. ZM was released on the game boy advance. So the game was made more linear to better suit shorter game sessions like that of a 10-20 min transit ride to work or school. players were given a goal but not a route. this maintained the puzzle exploration gameplay of a metroid while making sure players were not wandering aimlessly and wasting short play sessions. ZM is not an over correction NES Metroid but rather a happy medium between Super and Fusion. Looking forward to next few videos.

I think it might be worth considering that as Zero Mission and Fusion are both relatively linear takes on the Metroid formula, Nintendo might have been intentionally trying to craft something more suitable to the handheld nature of the Game Boy Advance. Metroid 2 on the original Game Boy was also much more linear than its predecessor. Perhaps they designed Zero Mission and Fusion with short-burst gameplay in mind, as the gamer might be playing on the commute to work, for example. With this in mind, they may have wanted to guide the player more, so they would be more likely to progress in a quick 15-30 minute session, rather than wander around a labyrinth for a while, maybe get nowhere at all, and then turn it off when they get to their stop. If this is the case, then I think it's pertinent to consider a game not only in the context of it's series, but also with regards to the situation that the designer expects the game to be played in. So in this situation, designing with gameplay taking place in short and frequent sessions may well have been the intention. This may not be the case too, but I thought it was definitely an idea worth presenting.

I feel like it was a bit of a mistake just comparing Zero Mission to Metroid 1 without any of the context of how Metroid's design evolved from 2 to Super to Fusion. While Zero Mission is a remake of Metroid 1, it's very much also a Metroid 5 and when you take into account Super and Fusion you see how we got to Zero Mission and how it lines up with the games made between 1987 and 2004. A lot of the Zero Mission portion of this video was focused on the chozo statues, but the chozo statues are actually a really clever take on how Fusion worked where you'd get a specific mission laid out for you and you then acted out what you were told. Then in Zero Mission instead of having very specific directions, the chozo statues would direct you to a point on the map without any actual information about what was there, of which only one actually points you to a point of the map you have recorded. They keep you on track with a very general "yeah, the next big upgrade is over there somwhere" but you have to actually find how to get there which give plenty of room for finding cool stuff along the way. And they're all frontloaded and you don't have any past the halfway point of the game so they do a good job of gradually having you think for yourself more and more. Another thing I think that you kind of wrongly dismiss is multiple playthroughs. Since every 2D Metroid game incentivizes you to try again by showing your completion time and giving you a different ending based on it. Heck, Zero Mission even has an extra difficulty mode with new ending pictures and special ones for getting less than 15% items collected. I think it's safe to say that many first time players would be encouraged to become second, third, and etc. time players since there's a lot of things in the game pushing you to play again and find those extra items and little shortcuts. Just because the first hour of a first playthrough may be vaguely handhold-y doesn't mean that the game isn't packed to the brim with new things to find. Also, finding the sequence breaks in Zero Mission during a first playthrough is significantly more common than you think. I've heard many stories of people skipping Imago or getting Varia Suit early because they realize that bomb jumping is a thing and just kind of try it everywhere. Oh geeze this turned into a pretty huge nerd post about Metroid and I was supposed to be getting ready for work. Uh, excited to see more Boss Keys!

Moreso than any other Metroid game, I feel that taking sequence breaking into consideration when analyzing the level design of ZM is a must since the devs actively put in secret paths throughout the game solely for the sake of speedrunning. Disregarding that really deemphasizes a lot of the effort that went into this game.

Mark, I feel like you left out one important detail about the Chozo statues. Metroid: Zero Mission is a mobile title, and the extra direction is really useful for a game medium that can be picked up and put down so easily. IIRC, Metroid Zero Mission (and Fusion) actually had a sleep mode in the pause sub menu, so that's a big reason they added the feature. Definitely undercuts the design philosophy of Metroidvania games, sure, but there's a good reason for it.

Metroid 1’s biggest innovation: a platformer where you move LEFT

the thumbnail for this video is so pretty. you got a source on that artwork?? also your video was super good too love u bye

Zero Mission is masterfully designed, it's the only Metroid game with 100% intentional sequence breaking and low% routes, it takes it all into account. The hand-holding is optional if you know the game inside-out. First thing I do in a Zero Mission playthrough is get the Varia Suit and head straight to Ridley, in the first minutes of the game, that's how good it is.

THE GRAPHS ARE BACK, BOYS

11:48 Man it's so important to make the distinction between implicit and explicit goals. Amazing how a task that you decide to do loses all of its charm when you are *told* to do so. I think this is why we all so desperately want open world and non linear games. Glad Boss Keys is back!!

Heh, i was just binging the Zelda series last week, a real pleasure to see this pop up today! As someone who grew up with Metroid 1, I know firsthand what it feels like to get wholly lost in that game. I think we all had more time on our hands as kids, and so wandering through a world for 4-5 hours was no big deal back then. Especially for those who grew up in a world without internet and social media. But despite having all the extra free time, even I almost didn't make it through M1, in no small part due to the fact that I kept running into the "fake" Kraid in Hideout 1 (as they called it at the time) and beating it over and over, convinced I surely must have been doing it the wrong way. It wasn't until much later that I stumbled onto Hideout 2. I told my best friend about it, and he wrote out a handwritten note for me with directions on how to get to Ridley. I wonder how often anyone gets to share info that way nowadays.

“There are only a few optional items in the game” Low% runners: wanna bet

I'll be honest, I'll take a guided tour with subtle deviations and shortcuts over blindly groping through areas I don't remember if I've been in before any day...

Great video! Though I do think you forgot a very important aspect to the "linearity" of Zero Mission and the reason Nintendo gave you all of these beacons and restrictions: Zero Mission is a handheld title. A vast Metroidvania-style game requires a great amount of focus and memory to really get through and are often played in prolonged stretches of time. Then it's easy to remember where to go all the time, as you are so focused and invested - and possibly even making notes. But a handheld title is very restricted in this. These titles are made to be played in bursts, during a car ride, or on the bus or the like. They need to be able to quickly get in and out of. As such, why Zero Mission hold your hands is because it knows it's limitations of it's own medium. On a handheld we can't simply make notes and our stretches of playtime are often condensed, so to keep the memory focused can be hard. Zero Mission therefore restricts us in it's exploration and always gives us a beacon to not get lost where we are. We can play it for a few minutes, then pick it up later during the day and know where we are. We always have a pointer where to go, so that if our headspace has been "emptied" due to not playing we can easily get our bearings. It keeps what we open up with new power ups simple so that we can easily remember our backtracking between our bursts of play. While I do agree that it is restricting, I also greatly appreciated it when I played the game back in 2004. It was limiting, sure, but it was also a limitation that made sure that every time I picked up my Zero Mission whenever I had a chance for a few minutes, I had fun. I never went into the game with confusion: just a simple look at the map screen reminded me of what I was doing earlier - and the few secrets I had to keep in mind meant that I managed to properly remember and get excited when I got the item to unlock them, as it could have been a day or so earlier when I encountered it. Much of this design aspect is lost today for people playing the game on emulators or stationary consoles, where we now enjoy it in the comfort of prolonged and focused sittings, not in the back of a bus on our way to school with a small 20 minute window which we had to play.

13:39 which is kinda the point, zero mission is the most replayable one, and sequence breaking was always meant to be done after you'd already beaten the game. And besides, it still has those sequence breaks. Bosses can be beaten in reverse order just like in super, and you don't need to use any crazy obscure techniques or glitches to do so. Plus, it feels a lot less handholdy coming from fusion, which released 2 years prior, since that game directed you much more... directly. And coming from a new fan, it will seem just as bombastic as it would for super metroid. Coming from a prime fan though they'll think it's to short. Besides, chozo indicators become much rarer later in the story, and you can literally navigate norfair 2 different ways. It may be more straightforward then super, but it's the exact right amount of straightforward. And then the part of the game after you get shot down just completely goes off the rails

When I played through Zero mission for the first time, I never paid attention to the waypoints. I legitimately just ignored them. I also had a much harder time, because I never learned how to read the map, and I got to Mother Brain with only 4 health upgrades. I couldn’t get past it without advice from a friend on how to read the map. I guess not everyone had the same experience!

I think Metroid is a pretty cool guy. Eh kills aliens and doesn't afraid of anything.

What I noticed some time ago, is that if you strip out all the thematic and stylistic stuff, arguably metroid and Zelda are very close to being the same core concept. The main distinguishing points appear to be the perspective (in older titles at least - 3 quarters top down for zelda and side-on for Metroid), and that a Zelda title tends to be broken up into an overworld and a bunch of smaller self-contained sections (eg. Dungeons), where in a Metroid title there may be identifiable sub-regions, but it's effectively just an overworld, and the whole thing plays out like one giant continuous dungeon instead... I'm sure there's a lot more subtleties to it than that, but when you look at it they really are surprisingly similar concepts...

I think "90% of players will get a guided tour on their first playthrough" isn't a good argument because the secrets in the original metroid are hardly part of the initial experience either. In fact, 90% of people playing the first metroid would probably go "I'm stuck, this game sucks" and then stop playing.

I like this video and love the Boss Keys series in general, but this was far too critical of Zero Mission. That is my favorite game in the series, no contest. To me, Zero Mission is a near-perfect distillation of the Metroid series' best concepts in one package. ZM is nowhere near as linear or as guilty of hand holding as Fusion. And being linear is not necessarily bad, even for a Metroid game. Sorry GMTK, but I've got some serious disagreements with you here.

I'd call Zero Mission's first playthrough a tutorial: It encourages replaying with different difficulties & mission clear screen and timer and so on. You have a point about the more guiding nature of the game, but I'm not completely buying the "99% of players will leave it at this" -point. That said, ZM is basically a hug-pillow of mine so it's refreshing to see some on-point criticism about it once in a while too!

I think you should really include sequence breaking when discussing these games, since (at least for MZM) they are an intended part of the game and for those who replay the games, a great part of the fun. I'd argue that searching for ways to break the game and complete it without the "required" items is actually an important part of exploration in these games.

I don't really see how it's a problem that Zero Mission puts a waypoint on the map to help players know where they need to head next. It can be really handy if you're not able to pick up the game for a few days and can prevent you from just running around aimlessly without an idea of where to go.

So here's something Zero did that the original didn't; the corrupted powerups. There were some upgrades that you got that didn't activate the moment you collected them, and you even got a strange musical cue when you picked them up. It was a fresh idea that did add a little mystery to what you just picked up, even if you might recognize the icons themselves. Trying to find these things and hoping that eventually you'll be able to crack open their secrets and get the shiny inside was actually legitimately intriguing and was something fresh the original didn't have.

I’ll be honest, I’d prefer something a little too guided than something as obscure and frustrating as Metroid 1. Zero Mission stops giving you statues 1/3 through anyway. And, even though it is more “guided” I was still able to find myself lost.

I'm pretty sure Zero Mission is designed with repeated playthroughs and sequence breaking in mind considering how there are so many skips that are intentional and/or don't rely on bugs, and I'm a little disappointed at how you didn't cover it more. A graph with all the skips taken into account would definitely look like a hybrid between the OG Metroid and Zero Mission graphs, or at least remove some of the dependencies. While Zero Mission definitely feels more linear on a first playthrough (it's pretty much idiot-proofed), I wouldn't call it an overcorrection by a long shot, as on repeated playthroughs (or if you want to go off the beaten path), there's far more exploration and experimentation to enjoy.

About the unfair bomb blocks and lava in Metroid 1: Yes, they are unfair, but they do have an obscure logic behind them. You can discover it by clever observation, though slightly more explicit hints or tutorial rooms would have been better. For example, in the bubble areas, the large bubbles are always solid, never breakable with bombs, never used as a hidden path, or whatever. So, if you look at a horizontal or vertical line in the walls or floors/ceilings, and if you spot a row/column without any big bubble blocks in them, chances are you can bomb your way through that line. In addition to that, the "same-y" look of the game helps out. Most of the hidden bomb paths are put into quite similar rooms, so if room A1 had a bomb path, chances are that room A2 also has a bomb path at about the same spot. Not so much room B, however. And about the lava: The developers hoped for you to ask yourself why the fuck they'd put an unreachable enemy inside a cave with only walls and lava. In a way, every enemy carries a big "shoot me" sign on its back, so... how do you kill that thing below you? There must be a way to reach it.

What I like about these obscure "super secrets" in Metroid and The Legend of Zelda is that you're not meant to figure out all of them on your own. You had friends talking about the game, and if one of them found a regular block you can destroy to get a game-changing power-up, it was the coolest thing ever, and he shared it with the others. It gave the games so much more mystery and wonder, that there could be ANYTHING hidden within their worlds. That's something that's completely absent today. (Even Celeste's pretty awesome gem hunt could have been more hidden, but it's all ruined anyway because the combined forces of the online community will find everything within a couple of days regardless.)

Certainly an interesting take on the changes that Zero Mission brings to the table. I'm glad to see that Metroid is going to be getting the Boss Keys treatment.

I find it very liberating in a way to play through the once-limiting Zero Mission with a more experienced pair of hands. Intentionally avoiding as many items as possible, using clever tricks and careful observation to break the game apart, to discover what new paths you can forge. Super Metroid does this legendarily well, but a lot of it is broken apart by glitches, not just clever techniques. Zero Mission, however, was clearly built from the beginning to house additional playthroughs and knowledge of the Wall Jump, Bomb Jump, Shinespark, and the secret paths, could be considered upgrades the same way that knowing the way things interact in Toki Tori 2 can change the way you play the game. I think it'd be interesting to see how the graphs of yours would change if you factored in those abilities one by one The New Game Plus of sorts of a good metroidvania game, then, would simply be the foreknowledge to cast aside whatever chains the game uses to bind you to the intended path, and making your own instead,.

I actually disagree on the handholding of Zero Mission. Maybe it helps that it was the first Metroid game that I played, but I feel like it gets handholding right. At the start of the game, as seen in 10:30, it shows you your destination clear with a map, but once you get to 12:35 where your goal point is n the middle of freaking nowhere and the game is basically telling you "Have fun trying to figure out how to get over THERE!" It's actively teasing you at that point, rather than providing straightforward answers. And by the final chapter, you no longer get any hints to proceed. The game starts with a firm hand on your shoulder, but as you progress, the hand slowly lifts away and disappears, leaving you to fend for yourself. My sessions with Zero Missions tended to involve trying to figure out how to get to the next portion of the game which, as you adeptly pointed out in 10:47, the path forward isn't always obvious or involves heading straight for that room; you have to figure out navigation to that point on your own. Metroid Fusion, for all of its complaints of linearity, is the same way: You know where to go, but you don't know how to get there. That is sort of the essence of Metroid, it's just that earlier games don't really detail the first part, either. Don't get me wrong, Super Metroid is still the Apotheosis of the Metroidvania, but Zero Mission cleared out the clutter, sharpened the controls, and offered what I think is still one of the best examples of the Genre. I recently replayed a couple of the games that put the "Vania" in Metroidvania (Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance, in a handy little double-cart) and found out how lacking their game design is. You are expected to kill every enemy and grind and level up and find all the weapons and things, but in my recent play of both games, I tackled them in a Metroid fashion; avoiding fights and simply finding the way forward without hunting down all the optional content. There is so much wasted space in those games (Even the exploration rewards: A missile tank is always useful, a sword with 20 less atk than your current one is not) and so many enemies that you can literally run past or jump over since the game expects you to fight and kill everything you encounter, versus Metroid Fusion which teaches that discretion can be the better part of valor, doesn't waste any space, and uses enemies that obstruct your way rather than just be floating exp bags that you can casually stroll past. I mean, Aria was fun when I was younger and I was a huge fan of grinding to get all the souls, but take that away (See also: Julius Mode) and the game is remarkably spacious and empty.

I feel like having an overly constrained initial experience further inspires the desire to break the game on subsequent playthroughs, which leads to the discovery of just how much freedom is possible as you grow familiar with the full scope of Samus' abilities

Super excited to finally see the Metroid series getting put under the Boss Keys microscope!

The Chozo gods have answered my prayers.

Zero mission's level design is genius imo. *MOST of the sequence breaking in it was intended.* Effectively making the game different and much harder and different in the way you explore. And I think this is incredible. I can't imagine what a confusing chaos that was to create for the game designers. *You even get rewarded at the end if you complete the game with a low item %.* An item % seemingly impossible to achieve if you follow the bread crumbs without question. I'm a Metroid fanatic, but I think it's obvious that it's never been a game for everyone. So making it this way (apparently very linear, but secretly very opened) was an intelligent way to please both: new people not much into metroivanias & metroid veterans.

Hey man, I'm really excited about this series but I feel that talking about the original Metroid and ZM at the same time was a mistake. ZM is not simply a remake of the first, it's also directed by Yoshio Sakamoto (the man behind Super and Fusion) and he applies a ton of the things he learned by designing those in ZM. I think that coming back to ZM after studying his previous work would be valuable. Other than that, great work, keep it up!

Also I get that people enjoy non-linearity but: 1. Calling the game a "guided tour" is a bit of a hyperbole. Can't remember the last time I had to fight a space pterodactyl on a guided tour. Linearity is not a dirty word and it's not very hard to figure out the sequence breaks, unless you've never heard a thing about Metroid and Zero Mission is your first Metroid game. Zero Mission's linearity is perhaps a good thing, as you don't want to stuff about on your first run wondering which obscure block to blow up or why there's a sudden difficulty spike. Because yes, non-linearity compromises a smooth difficulty curve. 2. Esoteric design and Non-linearity need to stop being conflated. If I have a case of "where the fuck do I go?", it's esoteric design. If I say "I wanna go there" and can go there, it's non-linear. 3. Unless playing the excellent MDBtroid or mOther hack, Metroid 1 isn't much worth revisiting outside of academic or fanatic purposes. It's esoteric and clunky with NES quality music and sound, and TBH, it's just not a very good looking game. 4. Don't get too caught up in the semantics of the naming of the Metroidvania genre. Super Metroid and Symphony Of The Night are the grandpappies (although I personally much prefer Symphony) so the naming is apt enough.

When Ridley is considered only a "mini-boss"... ;~;

I actually love Zero mission specifically for the reason that it "holds hands". Maybe that's because I know that the directional markers are just an indication of where I'll find the next thing to progress and I can explore as much as I want, return to pursue markers and I'll NEVER be stuck. Can't say the same for NES Metroid. There's no way I'll ever manage to finish it blind. Ain't got that much time at hand!

I believe a good metroidvania game is one that has good replay value. This game has 8 different endings depending your item completion, how fast you beat it and difficulty. Through multiple playthroughs one can find hidden paths and items and just multiple ways to solve a puzzle. For example you can either use the path the game gives you to get the screw attack after fighting ridley or simply use 3 missles and bomb jumping before fighting him to make his lair much more easier

I tried playing through the original Metroid and I got lost and died a lot, so I gave up but when I was playing Zero Mission I we excited to explore all the little things I could in the limited space, sequence breaking where it seemed obvious, I even accidentally fought Ridley before Kraid!

I was able to go all over the map on my first try. This game makes bomb jumping so easy. Along with wall jumping, I found super missles early. It was fun, and it didn't feel wrong.

Another great idea for a game analysis series. I'm so glad you found a new topic to keep Boss Keys going, as they were some of my favorite videos you made, though I do like almost all of them.

First of all - appreciate the effort that went into this (and your other videos). They're always engaging. This is one of the rare occasions I'm going to disagree with you though I'm afraid, firstly because I don't think Zero Mission ever felt forced in the way you describe, and secondly because the intention with these games was always that they were played multiple times - hence the different endings based on speed and completion. I get that this video is primarily about how games in this genre guide the player first and foremost, but certainly my first experience with the game involved a fair amount of sequence breaking from the critical path, and the three other people I know that played it had similar experiences. I recognise the (lack of) value in anecdotal evidence, but given the audience for this genre and the fact the gamestend to be contained to the niche (Metroid games have never really sold that well, in spite of how well-regarded the series seems to be), I find it hard to swallow that the vast majority of players will do as they're told just because they're told so. When the techniques required to go off the beaten track are so much easier to pull off (infinite bomb jumps being mashable, much more lenient walljumping) and especially when the developers went to so much effort to let the player go their own way, I'm not sure I can agree with you about Zero Mission. Compare and contrast with Metroid Fusion for example, which rigidly forces you down the critical path, although it allows for limited exploration within each segment of it. I'll look forward to your video on that, assuming there will be one of course. All that being said, I 100% agree with your comments on the original Metroid, it's beautiful for its time and incredibly significant but very difficult to love nowadays for a number of reasons (not least the fact that you get reset back to 30 health on death).

Think you missed an important bit of context on this one. Metroid Fusion preceded Zero Mission, and it felt far, far more restrictive. That game has 6 sectors (plus main station), and most missions lock Samus in the mission sector until she completes the objective (collecting the key item/items). It’s been a while since I played Zero Mission, but I remember it feeling more open because of this. Still more restrictive than Metroid 1 or Super, but that could partially be attributed to the handheld start/stop nature (which also affected Fusion).

I'm honestly fine with the fairly structured approach to the main path in Zero Mission simply because it's a handheld game. Handheld games are often designed to be played in quick bursts, and the Chozo Statues & more linear approach allow for that. The beauty of Zero Mission comes from it being able to cater to a more casual playstyle without compromising the heart & soul of the original game due to the insane amount of secret paths intentionally laid out for more advanced players to find.

Just got hip to this channel and I have to say I am very impressed by the content that you are creating. I love seeing how you break things down. Keep it up . :D

I'm SO excited about this series! I loved your previous season a lot and this new one is everything I've been wanting from a sequel. Not only am I really digging your application of your approach to Zelda Dungeon design to Metroid games, but also I'm excited to hear your commentary about metroidvania games in general and to be introduced to new ones through your series. You're awesome, Mark, keep up the good work.

Love the AM2R music in the background

What a perfect and obvious (now that i see it) candidate for season two of BK. Very excite!

One thing I'd like to say about Zero Mission, is that because the first playthrough is effectively a guided tour, that's what makes sequence breaking the later playthroughs so much more fun. Knowing that, in reality, it's very easy to completely ignore the path the game has set out for you. I remember what made me sequence break it for fun was the realisation there was a path to easily get screw attack early, and all I would really need was the varia suit and bombs, for bomb jumping. (Be aware that it's been rather a while since I actually did this, so there might be one or two other things needed) Plus a few other items that were easy to get on the way, like the ice beam and missiles. This made it possible to play almost the entire game with the most powerful item in the game, and it was amazing. The sequence breaking is easily the best part of Zero Mission, so in a way, it still has touches to satisfy long term fans. But for a first playthrough, I'll agree that it's not the ideal approach to a Metroid game.

I love a lot of details in your videos. That's incredible work.

STAND USER : MARK BROWN STAND NAME: BOSS KEYS

I cannot wait for the Hollow Knight episode. It is *LITERALLY MY FAVORITE GAME!*

Thank you for this video. Thanks for your time and your work, I so looooong to see the rest of this season :D

Favorite game of all time, always wanted you to do an episode on zero mission , thanks for the upload!

zero mission is a master piece i loved it so much and have played it 4 times def the best way to play the first game

Every time he said "varia" my eye twitched.

Hey Mark, thank you for making this EXTREMELY awesome videos. Not only you are a great game design teacher and make it fun to learn, but also you inspire to make good, decent original content on KZfaq. You are the best.

I cannot explain how stoked I am that you're doing this series. Easily one of my favorite channels. Keep up the good work!

I accidentally fought Ridley before Kraid when I played through

I replayed Zero Mission recently. I find the original NES game hard to go back to and I grew up with that one. I'll take the changes in ZM any day over the original. One of the rare cases where the remake actually replaces the original in my opinion.

im so hyped for this new series of BOSS KEYS! really great video!

Great video! The timing for me is perfect as I am working on a project in this vein. Really looking forward to the next episode and when we get a little more of the "Vania" portions.

A strong start to season 2 of Boss Keys. While I'm excited to hear you discuss many Metroid games, I'm so happy to know games inspired by Metroid will also be mentioned. Here's hoping Axiom Verge and Hollow Knight get the Boss Keys treatment.

Damn that was such a great video :) !! Metroidvanias are epic, hopefully you'll be talking about Ori and the blind forest and Hollow Knight during this season of boss keys, those two creations are masterpieces :) !

This is solid!! Seriously well done, mate 👍🏻👍🏻

great video as always on one of my favorite series! looking forward to future episodes!

A sort of weak defense for Zero Mission being that handholdy is that it was meant as an easy entry point into the series for newcomers on a more casual platform AND it also included the entire Metroid 1 if you want the more "hardcore" experience.

This video makes me very happy!

I started Bing watching your videos a few days ago. I'm so happy you uploaded a new video!

This is an amazing topic for season 2 of Boss Keys. I can't wait for more of your analyses and thoughts about one of my favorite genres.

I'm so excited for this new season!

shoulda renamed Boss Keys to Chozo Artifacts, buddy

Zero Mission is my favorite Metroid game! I'm here after beating AM2R in fusion mode for the first time. The way you break down maps of our favorite games is so eloquent. Great stuff!

Great video, looking forward to the next episodes in this season of Boss Keys!

I've never really got on board with the _"vania"_ part of the Metroidvania portmanteaux. Most Metroidvania games are much more like Metroid than they are Castlevania. I'm glad you call it "Metroid-styled adventure titles" - much more fitting.

“It’s not what 99% of players will be experiencing on their first go through.” I really doubt that. I bought the game at launch and got stuck. I was forced to explore and ended up fighting Ridley first. Upon completing it 100% I played through again on Hard Mode or whatever and swore I would take the normal path. Once again, I stumbled on Ridley first with no way to go back and look for the correct path. 12 years later I played again and it happened again. I swear: I’m not trying to do this! I genuinely don’t know where else to go when I end up facing Ridley and I’m usually extremely under-powered. Luckily, the game scales down boss health according to your collection rate/percentage, but it’s still nearly impossible if you were low on health at the save point before Ridley (can’t go back to farm health).

So excited for this series and for learning about Metronid! Your videos are always an instant watch for mem

Top content as ever. Highlighting the prominence of Metroid as a genre-namer makes me realise just how few Metroid games there are.

I was expecting (and looking forward to) the Super Metroid episode, but I'm surprised by, and even more excited for the Hollow Knight episode. It's fantastic to see Boss Keys return and I can't wait to see how the rest of the episodes turn out. Great stuff as always.

So what you are saying is that Metroid 1 is the Demon Souls of Metroid? :P

This was a delightful analysis of the design of the two games and the properties of Metroidvanias in general. I discovered this video completely by chance, and I have been thinking of starting on my own painstaking analysis of Super Metroid's successes and flaws because I think it contains some incredibly useful lessons about game design. Now I'm waiting excitedly to see the next installment of this series!

WOW!!!! That's a monumental video Liked and subscribed. Awesome work .

Just played through Super again, and you'd be surprised how quietly linear that game can be if you pretend to be oblivious to all the well-known tricks and shortcuts. It rarely tells you exactly where to go, but it very often ushers you in a particular direction with restricted backtracking, until you get the power bombs, but even then the game still nudges you towards exploring the east wing of Crateria, discovering you need the grapple beam, and then the only place left to explore is Norfair, which has a pretty clear power bomb path right by the entrance that leads to the grapple beam. You have to really know what you're doing in order to go off the path, so I'm interested in what you have to say about that, given what you said about sequence breaking in this video. Super is great, but it's not nearly as non-linear as everyone says it is. For that we'll have to see what you have to say about Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge, if you plan on talking about that game again.

Nothing is “needed” to get through zero mission besides long beam, bombs, morph ball, and missiles. You can finish the whole thing with just those items. I wouldn’t say a chozo statue slapping a dot in the middle of an empty map is exactly holding your hand. Some will show on paths you’ve already seen, if you took the time to explore them, but most of the time it will just stick it in the middle of nowhere, and you will have to contextualize the map marker yourself.

so glad you're doing a series on metroid for boss keys, cant think of any other series more deserving of it.

YES! More of this please! Metroid is my favourite franchise of all time and I’ve recently been going through loads of Metroidvanias. Thanks.

It's kinda funny to hear you say "what if they remade Metroid 1 for a modern audience?" in 2021. Metroid 1 came out 18 years before they remade it as Zero Mission, and we are now 17 years past Zero Mission 😬

I feel like ignoring sequence breaking as a pro/con of the series is a mistake and that new players wouldn't discover any given one is a poor faith assumption. If a player is in fact bombing walls or experimenting with their tools like they were taught to while playing the game, they're pretty likely to find a few of them, especially in Zero Mission where doing so is actually super easy and explicitly doesn't require super-advanced movement tricks like bomb jumping or the wall jump.

Okay, I haven't finished the video yet, but I wanted to say I love what you did where as you say "the very first... Metroid." the music finishes. That really had an impact on me. Metroid is my favorite series and I am _very much_ looking forward to the rest of this video and any other videos concerning Metroid that you may make in the future.

Great video, Mark! :) Looking forward to see your next one!

I hope La Mulana is part of this series.

Ok, so I am onl at 8:49 but I hope you know you can beat the whole game without picking up long beam, Edit: 9:44 itis mot really sequencing breaking when the game gives you all the tools to do it any order, all you have to do is know how to do it, 10:18 technically speaking you can skip the variation suit if you are good enough, and hi jump if you place bombs and wall jumps correctly, and a couple others too 10:29 aside from one or two, these are entirely skippable, and unnecessary 11:27 again, most of these are skippable, so it’s more like an option to get help, if you skip them you get more of that exploritave feel 11:38 right here you if you freeze the flyer (don’t feel like getting the proper name) and then shoot the wall, you can go to Ridley early 13:26 ok doesn’t change that the Chozo are completely optional casual or not, saying that the game is boring if you take the hints is just kinda like duh, I liked the part for Metroid nes, but I feel like you pushed too hard on the guided idea in Zero mission, the chozo are kinda out of the way sometimes, hell I even skipped most after the first two on accident in my first playthrough, the chozo are more like a system to help not get lost then to make you go where they want you to

I just noticed that youtube has added kind of a synced led around the videos, i like it. Great video by the way, like always ;)

oh man! I was waiting for your metroid analysis for years! THANKS YOU!

Great video, though I really hate the continued trend of using a zoomed in picture instead of black bars for 4:3 videos. It looks hideous and it's so distracting. What's wrong with black bars?

OH MAN, super metroid will be next??? WHY U DO DIS

I remember surprising people on the N-sider forums about "Hey, I just beat mother brain without this, this, this this this" and having to explain how. And then being told I had too many items for the goal I was shooting for. I love Zero Mission so much.

The graphs are my favorite thing from Mark Brown. Proof of his rigor and the time and thinking invested. Props.