Entry tags:
Let's Play Metroid
It is time for an epic three-act LP saga.
It is called...

I will not actually be playing the game pictured above, nor will I be playing the entire series. This will be an LP in three parts:
Let's Play Metroid Zero Mission
Let's Play Super Metroid
Let's Play Metroid Fusion
I'm using Zero Mission instead of Metroid 1 because Zero Mission is one of my favorite games ever.
I'm skipping the Prime games because I like 2D and can't easily screencap from the Wii.
Let's say I'm skipping Other M for the same reason and leave it at that.
I'm skipping Metroid 2 because it sucks.
I'll be going Any% on each run, meaning I take whatever items I feel like taking, generally following the intended course of the game. There are times where I could break sequence and do everything out of order, ESPECIALLY in Zero Mission, but my goal is to present the intended narrative.
NOW WE BEGIN
EMERGENCY ORDER


EXTERMINATE ALL METROID ORGANISMS ON PLANET ZEBES...

AND DEFEAT THE MECHANICAL LIFE-FORM, MOTHER BRAIN.



Planet Zebes... I called this place my home once, in peaceful times, long before evil haunted the caverns below. Now, I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here... My so-called Zero Mission.


Okay! As our ultra-straightforward intro cutscenes summarized, I am Samus Aran, ultra-badass interplanetary mercenary and bounty hunter, here on planet Zebes on a mission. My objectives list is as follows:
1. Get in (Done!)
2. Kill all Metroids
3. Kill Mother Brain
4. Get out
Awesome! Nice and simple.
In addition, I will be, throughout the entire LP, keeping a list of Place Samus Has Visited. The reasons for this will become apparent later.
SAMUS TRAVELOGUE
Planet Zebes
Okay. Let's scope out my situation.

This is the map! The helmet is my location. I may consult this a lot.
In the top left, you can see what items are available in this area (currently Brinstar). We don't know what these are yet, but we will know what most of them are soon!
In the bottom left, my time spent in the game so far - 9 seconds as of this screenshot. Time spent on the map doesn't count.
In the bottom right, the larger world map, which I haven't seen any of yet.
Status!

I have a suit! And a beam!
Nothing else. Max energy (health): 99. I am extremely barebones.

This is my weapon! The un-upgraded power beam. It doesn't shoot very far, and it doesn't do much damage.

Time to start exploring!
To the left, there are a couple enemies, and this rock formation that I can easily jump up. My max jump height is about 4 blocks right now.

But wait! What is this mysterious item?

FIRST UPGRADE
Morph Ball
Required Item
Type: Exploration
Doubletap down to morph into a ball and gain access to narrow passageways.

Further left is a dead end! We'll have to use our new toy to turn back.

With the Morph Ball, I can reduce myself to 1 block tall, slipping into places like this! It is an insanely useful item, especially once I get some more upgrades for it.

To the right! I took 10 damage running into one of those ground critters.
Now I am faced with a door!

This being Metroid, doors are opened by shooting them.
I have completed the first room!

In this next room, the floor looks suspicious! However, I am not able to damage it. Off to the right I go.

Enemies dropping from the ceiling! Keep moving, Samus!

What's this? It's a mysterious statue embedded into the wall!
it seems to want something placed in that hand.

It's reacting to the Morph Ball!


It's a sign! And a full energy restore.
I now have a destination.

Up is the way to my destination!
But first, I'm going to go right, because of what I can see on the minimap (top right).

Save room! Does exactly what one might expect.
Now: We climb.

More of those yellow bugs are crawling around some of the platforms on the way up. Fortunately, weak as they are, a couple shots from my tiny power beam are enough to take them out.

These things are another matter! The move slowly back and forth through the air, and are completely impervious to my beam. For now, I must ignore them.

Sometimes when an enemy dies, it leaves one of these behind!
Small purple orbs restore 5 EN, large ones restore 20 EN. This is my main way of recovering lost health.

More suspicious formations!
I can't even reach that, though, let alone try to break it.

This is a problem with my current weapon! The range on it is so low, that I can't destroy all the destructible blocks from here to the door. I can't get in.
Fortunately, my destination point is still upwards.

Here we are!

Some morph ball passaging and enemy dodging later, I'm almost there!

Well, this looks important.

Long Beam
Optional Item
Type: Beam Upgrade
Fire long distance shots with this beam.

What the upgrade doesn't tell you is that long beam shots do twice as much damage as power beam shots.

Without the Long Beam, I wouldn't be able to get in here!

You may notice that, in the minimap, I'm in a green area now! This means that this is a hidden, uncharted area, beyond the edges of the normal Brinstar map.
There are a lot of these.

Before long, though, I'm back in the blue! Time to go back to exploring.

To the left, I encounter this mysterious room!
I cannot get past the statues.

Gotta watch out for that orange stuff down there - it's acid. If I fall in, I start taking constant damage.
Fortunately, it's shallow, and easily avoided.

Just morph through here, and...

CEILING MONSTER

This is sort of the first mini-miniboss, an enemy from a later zone who takes quite a few beam shots to kill!

A bit of energy and a lot of shooting later, though, it's defeated.
Grey hatches can't be opened until some condition is met, usually - in this case, killing the hopper unlocked it.

Another statue! GUIDE ME, O CHOZO SPIRITS



A new destination! Far off the map I know!

Now, if memory serves, there was somewhere halfway down here that I couldn't access without the Long Beam...

There it is! I have access.
Now, you may recall that I said the Long Beam was an optional item. If so, how would you get in here without it?

Secret passage!
Let's get going.

It's the passage connecting West Brinstar and East Brinstar!

It's a red hatch!
My beam can't open it. I'll have to find another way...

For now, I'll just hit up this blue hatch underneath it!

To be continued!
It is called...

LET'S PLAY METROID
I will not actually be playing the game pictured above, nor will I be playing the entire series. This will be an LP in three parts:
Let's Play Metroid Zero Mission
Let's Play Super Metroid
Let's Play Metroid Fusion
I'm using Zero Mission instead of Metroid 1 because Zero Mission is one of my favorite games ever.
I'm skipping the Prime games because I like 2D and can't easily screencap from the Wii.
Let's say I'm skipping Other M for the same reason and leave it at that.
I'm skipping Metroid 2 because it sucks.
I'll be going Any% on each run, meaning I take whatever items I feel like taking, generally following the intended course of the game. There are times where I could break sequence and do everything out of order, ESPECIALLY in Zero Mission, but my goal is to present the intended narrative.
NOW WE BEGIN





Let's Play Metroid

Planet Zebes... I called this place my home once, in peaceful times, long before evil haunted the caverns below. Now, I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here... My so-called Zero Mission.

Zero Mission, Chapter 1: Planetfall

Okay! As our ultra-straightforward intro cutscenes summarized, I am Samus Aran, ultra-badass interplanetary mercenary and bounty hunter, here on planet Zebes on a mission. My objectives list is as follows:
1. Get in (Done!)
2. Kill all Metroids
3. Kill Mother Brain
4. Get out
Awesome! Nice and simple.
In addition, I will be, throughout the entire LP, keeping a list of Place Samus Has Visited. The reasons for this will become apparent later.
SAMUS TRAVELOGUE
Planet Zebes
Okay. Let's scope out my situation.

This is the map! The helmet is my location. I may consult this a lot.
In the top left, you can see what items are available in this area (currently Brinstar). We don't know what these are yet, but we will know what most of them are soon!
In the bottom left, my time spent in the game so far - 9 seconds as of this screenshot. Time spent on the map doesn't count.
In the bottom right, the larger world map, which I haven't seen any of yet.
Status!

I have a suit! And a beam!
Nothing else. Max energy (health): 99. I am extremely barebones.

This is my weapon! The un-upgraded power beam. It doesn't shoot very far, and it doesn't do much damage.

Time to start exploring!
To the left, there are a couple enemies, and this rock formation that I can easily jump up. My max jump height is about 4 blocks right now.

But wait! What is this mysterious item?

FIRST UPGRADE
Morph Ball
Required Item
Type: Exploration
Doubletap down to morph into a ball and gain access to narrow passageways.

Further left is a dead end! We'll have to use our new toy to turn back.

With the Morph Ball, I can reduce myself to 1 block tall, slipping into places like this! It is an insanely useful item, especially once I get some more upgrades for it.

To the right! I took 10 damage running into one of those ground critters.
Now I am faced with a door!

This being Metroid, doors are opened by shooting them.
I have completed the first room!

In this next room, the floor looks suspicious! However, I am not able to damage it. Off to the right I go.

Enemies dropping from the ceiling! Keep moving, Samus!

What's this? It's a mysterious statue embedded into the wall!
it seems to want something placed in that hand.

It's reacting to the Morph Ball!


It's a sign! And a full energy restore.
I now have a destination.

Up is the way to my destination!
But first, I'm going to go right, because of what I can see on the minimap (top right).

Save room! Does exactly what one might expect.
Now: We climb.

More of those yellow bugs are crawling around some of the platforms on the way up. Fortunately, weak as they are, a couple shots from my tiny power beam are enough to take them out.

These things are another matter! The move slowly back and forth through the air, and are completely impervious to my beam. For now, I must ignore them.

Sometimes when an enemy dies, it leaves one of these behind!
Small purple orbs restore 5 EN, large ones restore 20 EN. This is my main way of recovering lost health.

More suspicious formations!
I can't even reach that, though, let alone try to break it.

This is a problem with my current weapon! The range on it is so low, that I can't destroy all the destructible blocks from here to the door. I can't get in.
Fortunately, my destination point is still upwards.

Here we are!

Some morph ball passaging and enemy dodging later, I'm almost there!

Well, this looks important.

Long Beam
Optional Item
Type: Beam Upgrade
Fire long distance shots with this beam.

What the upgrade doesn't tell you is that long beam shots do twice as much damage as power beam shots.

Without the Long Beam, I wouldn't be able to get in here!

You may notice that, in the minimap, I'm in a green area now! This means that this is a hidden, uncharted area, beyond the edges of the normal Brinstar map.
There are a lot of these.

Before long, though, I'm back in the blue! Time to go back to exploring.

To the left, I encounter this mysterious room!
I cannot get past the statues.

Gotta watch out for that orange stuff down there - it's acid. If I fall in, I start taking constant damage.
Fortunately, it's shallow, and easily avoided.

Just morph through here, and...

CEILING MONSTER

This is sort of the first mini-miniboss, an enemy from a later zone who takes quite a few beam shots to kill!

A bit of energy and a lot of shooting later, though, it's defeated.
Grey hatches can't be opened until some condition is met, usually - in this case, killing the hopper unlocked it.

Another statue! GUIDE ME, O CHOZO SPIRITS



A new destination! Far off the map I know!

Now, if memory serves, there was somewhere halfway down here that I couldn't access without the Long Beam...

There it is! I have access.
Now, you may recall that I said the Long Beam was an optional item. If so, how would you get in here without it?

Secret passage!
Let's get going.

It's the passage connecting West Brinstar and East Brinstar!

It's a red hatch!
My beam can't open it. I'll have to find another way...

For now, I'll just hit up this blue hatch underneath it!

To be continued!