"Super Metroid" (Haunted Gaming)
Kinda lengthy, I wrote it a while back.
Story[]
I used to love playing all the old SNES games, however as I've moved out of my parents' house and into my own place, some of the cartridges ended up lost. I decided, for curiosity’s sake, to run by and see if I could find them. At their house, my mom stood at the attic entrance joking that girls shouldn't love games so much. I shrugged off her comments as I continued searching through boxes. I spotted a box with my name lazily written on in black marker. As I searched through it, rummaging past old dolls and notebooks, I saw the familiar bold letters, “Super Metroid.” I grabbed it and pulled it out of the box and grinned at one of my old favorites. I came across Punch-Out and Super Mario World and a Final Fantasy or two and took them home with me as well. After I set up my SNES again, I grabbed the Super Metroid cartridge and blew it out thoroughly before putting it in and starting it up. It started normally, Nintendo 1994, Nintendo presents Metroid 3, the zoom out to the metroid in the tank with the scientist corpses and the title 'Super Metroid' coming up on the screen all accompanied by the title music and metroid screeches. I hit start and started to load up my old profile. Then I remembered, my brother deleted all the files on the cartridge when we were younger as a revenge plot and I just never got near the end of the game again. So, as a custom of mine, I selected Samus B and started with the memorable intoduction, “The last metroid is in captivity, the galaxy is at peace...” I watched through Samus's speech of how she foiled Mother Brain's plans and fighting the metroids and how she met the larva. I continued through as the game started at Ceres Station.
I walked Samus through the blue-tinted station and through the doors to have the first encounter with Ridley. I shuddered a bit as I walked through the room with the dead scientists, something always seemed weird to me about that room. I then arrived at the room with the metroid capsule in it. The metroid's colors were distorted. The red was purple and the green was yellow. I assumed, since the cartridge had gone through quite a bit of fighting between me and my brother, it might've gotten the colors a bit mixed with the dying metroid at the final boss. I walked over to it and shot around for a bit then walked back to the door to start the battle. Ridley's orange-yellow eye glowed, then his entire form appeared, letting out a roar as he grabbed the metroid and flew up. I hopped around, shooting him until he turned red and dropped the metroid capsule, then swooped down to retrieve it. I shot him a few more times until he flew up, then at the screen and disappearing. “Emergency: Self destruct sequence activated. Evacuate colony immediately.” came up, including the 60 second timer.
I rushed Samus through the station, got to the exit, and she blasted off in her ship before the colony exploded. After arriving on Planet Zebes, I took Samus inside and went down to get the morphing ball, went around for a bit to get some missles, saved at a save station, and went to get the bombs and fight the Chozo statue. I grabbed the bombs and waited for the statue to come to life. It shakily stood up and screeched as it started to attack. I jumped back and forth over it, shooting missles at it until it's stomach burst and it's head fell off and it collapsed. I collected the health and missles and left. I went back to the saver and, after saving, turned into morphing ball and dropped some bombs on the wall. It crumbled and I rolled through to go from Crateria to Brinstar.
After going through for a while, I came to Spore Spawn. Instead of spores falling from the ceiling, little fireballs fell. I guess it mixed Ridley's fireballs with his spores. As he pops out, it seems he's already taken damage. His green is faded to a brown as it is when you're about to kill him. He swings around for a bit then opens his mouth, his core swollen and red as well. I hopped on a ledge and shot a missle at his core and he turned a light brown and died. Health and energy littered the room. I grabbed it all and hopped up to get the super missles. I went through more of the game grabbing powerups and eventually got to the next boss, Kraid. He also seemed to have taken much damage recently and his eyes were lit up yellow as if he was getting ready to roar. I shot him and questionably started the battle. The game was simply getting boring with the cartridge issues. Kraid let out a loud roar as he fell through the ground and died. I continued through the game, the bosses always having major damage before the battle and their colors and attacks altered. Crocomire's colors were chilled blue instead of burning red and one missle sent him back almost as far as two super missles.
Phantoon's eye looked bloodshot and his body was already darkened from damage. His fire was large and blazing red rather than small and light blue. When I got to Maridia, the swimming enemies weren't there and the water had been somewhat drained. Botwoon seemed to be stuck in a hole and one missle killed him. I couldn't electrocute Draygon for some reason so I ended up having to attack him with super missles. He was foaming purple at the mouth similar to Mother Brain and he was already rather damaged. The golden Chozo moved extremely slow and wouldn't attack. I finally got to Ridley again. As I made my way through Norfair to attack him, his loud roar rang out randomly. I got to his lair and stood on the platform, waiting for battle. Ridley appeared, a darker purple-black than usual. He roared loudly, but the roar was distorted. It was much deeper and much louder. The sound of it made hairs stand up on the back of my neck. I continued through the battle and cheered as I killed the wretched thing. I continued to Tourain to fight Mother Brain. None of the turrets shot at Samus, which I found weird.
I hopped over to the tank with Mother Brain, yet it was already busted. I shrugged and shot a missle into her and the floor fell away to the room. Her screech was slowed down and the foam from her mouth was a dark red. Her pulsing brain was bright, signaling damage, as was her body. Mother Brain immediately started charging up the unmissable beam. The rainbow-flashing beam shot at Samus and drained much more energy than I remembered. She started charging the next one and, of course, the Metroid with the same color issues flew in and sucked the energy out of her. Mother Brain fell into a fetal position as the metroid flew to Samus and started to give her energy. Mother Brain drooled more deep red. She came back to life and shot the metroid, killing it instantly. This didn't phase me, it's what happens. But the metroid dying so suddenly rather than fighting did. Not only were bosses extremely weak, the metroid was too.
Samus stood up with the hyper beam and started to kill Mother Brain. 10 seconds and she was dead. Instead of the countdown to evacuate the planet, nothing happened. A text box came up, but instead of evacuate it said, “Are you happy?” I pressed a few buttons and another one came up. “All of them are gone. Are you happy?” and it came up with a yes or no option. I thought about the gameplay. It was rather boring. No, I most certainly was not happy. I selected no. The room slowly filled with lava. I jumped with screwball and continued space jumping in the air to stay out of it.
After a few moments it filled the entire room Samus sunk to the bottom. I panicked, trying to find an exit but the room had none. Samus's health tanks drained rapidly until it froze. It then went to the white death screen with Samus's armored sprite. Instead of bursting open normally with the Final Cry sound, small red pixels dripped from the seams of the suit.
Afterwards, the suit burst open and Zero Suit Samus fell to the ground in a pose like the dead scientists, but the animation of the sprite showed she still was alive. Ridley's distorted roar was heard. He swooped down and grabbed Samus. She was posed like the suit burst pose as Ridley crushed her in his claws. He dropped her down on the white screen again.
animated
I waited, pressing buttons and wondering if it froze. I heard Samus's Final Cry ring out repeatedly, high pitched and loud. It made me drop the controller and clutch my ears. It went to the game over screen, yet the text was changed.
“You failed. Continue? [Yes] (Continue) [No] (Back to Main Menu) I wasn't done with this game yet, I can't believe I acted like this game was a person I hated but I did. It started my last save before Mother Brain. I repeated what happened and when the box came up again, I selected yes. It took about 30 seconds off of my time to escape, so I had to power run through the planet frantically. I got to the ship with about 10 seconds to spare and tried to enter. It wouldn't let me in until the very last second. I boarded and it blasted off. I watched the credits of the game stared blankly at the screen. I had finished the game, but what the hell was up with the cartridge? Aft er the credits, the Samus sprite with red dripping from the seams came up at the end with a thumbs up. “SEE YOU NEXT MISSION.” came up, and the screen went to black.
The roar of Ridley, the screech of the Chozos, Spore Spawn's wheeze, Kraid's growl, Crocomire's scream, Phantoon's hiss, Botwoon's groan, Draygon's gurgling, Mother Brain's squeal, and Samus's Final Cry all rang out in a cycle, growing rapidly louder. The jump I got from it knocked my heavy, metal chair to the side, basically snapping the cartridge in half as it fell over top of it. I let out an irritated groan and ripped the SNES out of the wall, tossing it to the side. I sat in the floor and held my head in my hands, going over the events of the game. The sound of Samus's Final Cry still sends chills down my spine, making memories of the cartridge flow back.
Written by Roxie-Curtis
Screenshot recreations by Urkel
