S1E128 - 128 - Super Metroid

Hey, Loggers. Welcome back to the backlog breakdown. I'm glad you joined us. Now go grab your skinny jeans. Go. If you have an ascot, grab that. I'm not going to judge if you have some blemishes, maybe grab some makeup, because today we're going super metro. I'm Josh, your host, and with me today, I've got my co host Nate. And I was super surprised. Nate, when you said you wanted to do an episode on this. I didn't even know that you wore skinny jeans.

My skinny jeans wearing days are long gone, okay?

Do you have a white belt? Studded white belt?

I never had the white metro. I did have the black studded belt. Okay, yeah, but dude, you need to learn how to read. What do you mean it's not super metro?

All right, it's super metroid. Metroid, the metro android, right? That's actually what it's taken from. That's where that word comes from. Little known fact. I believe Miyamoto said it himself. I think it was Miyamoto. Could be wrong. Anyways, they took the words metro, but they meant metro like metropolitan. Not metrosexual metropolitan sexual metropolis. Anyways. Yes, exactly. That is a weird movie. I've never actually seen it, but like I said, welcome to this episode of The Backlog Breakdown. Before we jump into super Metroid, before we give our thoughts, our impressions on this brand spanking new game, before we get there, it's been a fortnight since we've oh, you mean things that we've.

No, you mean two weeks since talked to you.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Not whatever you said. You meant two weeks since I talked to you again.

I love it. I love it. At the same time, at this point.

In time, I'm a couple of days into paternity leave. Yeah, we're sort of laying low. Yeah, bonding leave. Whatever it is. It's been cool the last couple of weeks at work I shared with you. Just a little stressful. Kind of like things at work are kind of getting a bit whatever right now. But we'll get through it. We'll figure it out. My mom and my aunt Linda came in last week and were watching the boy for us while Megan was at work and I was at work, and that was really cool. My aunt Linda is like, I'm fairly certain that none of my family listens to this podcast. We have them all. I want a not so private joke, but Linda is, like, my favorite aunt.

Okay.

It started out as her youngest son is like, a year older than me. So growing up, you do the family thing. We are kind of like buddies. Yeah. We're still pretty friendly to this day. And then at one point in time, I rented a room from her for, like, a year, year and a half at one point. Okay, got you. And she was the oldest. I'm the oldest. And so there's just a lot of sort of camaraderie there. She's good people. It was really good having them both out here. And yeah, they sort of like, you know, enjoying their time with the boy. But, yeah, we we we just kind kind of of been laying low. Tomorrow is like, well, later today is actually the last sort of, like, low key day for me. And then there's some stuff tomorrow that I'm going to try and be a little more productive, still spend time with him, clearly, but I'm going to try to sort of maybe get some reading done, get some writing done, maybe get some stuff around the house done, kind of stuff like that. But yeah. How about you, man?

I feel like we've been busy, but with good things. With good things, if that makes sense. I can't remember if I brought it up last time, but Penny hadn't been feeling well for a few days. It was just kind of like cold sniffles kind of thing. But it lasted much longer than we had expected, and it turned into an ear infection. So it went from kind of a cold to an ear infection. The way that we found out is because her ear was leaking some fluid, and it turns out that her eardrum had burst, which sounds much worse than it actually is. It heals up when I heard that, because when her ear was leaking, we're like, okay, it's about time to go see someone. And we took her in and, yeah, they said, yeah, this is what happened. She had an ear infection in her eardrum burst. So she's been on some antibiotics. But it's funny because probably a day after taking the antibiotics and I guess you need to know, my daughter, she perked up. It was almost a night and day difference of just, like, being smiles and energetic and getting into absolutely everything, because that's just how she is. It was good to see that because it wasn't like she was terribly out of commission. It just had been holding on for quite a while. I don't know why, I just always assume, hey, if you're sick, usually in a day or two, you'll be back to normal. And so when it takes four days and it just seems to be something else, it's just like, man, what is going on?

Come on.

But as I get older, that's kind of becoming more of the norm, at least in my own body. I'm frail.

It only gets worse, friend.

Yay. So much to look forward to. But no, outside of that, it's been good. So we're recording on a Tuesday two days ago in service, I was able to do another baptism during our Sunday worship service. So that was really cool to be able to do those and to be able to sit down with someone beforehand and discuss it and talk about their testimony and what God's been doing in their life as well. It's just really exciting. So that was kind of a highlight of the past week as well, having these other duties. It's pretty cool. Those are kind of the highlight and low light, I guess, of the past couple of weeks. But we've been doing good. We've been doing good. Just staying busy, for sure. That's what we're doing, staying busy. And we've been busy with lots of things. In fact, I have an entire report of things to report on a backlog. Reporting on a backlog. And actually, I say that I don't have much in this report. It looks huge, but there's really only a few things on here. So this should be like short and sweet.

You say that and then it never goes. The minute we say I'm not Superstitious, but I am a little Stacious.

Littlesticious. Yeah. Why are you calling me out? Why didn't you just wait till later?

I'm just saying in front of everyone, it's our tendencies. Listen, we know about our propensities and it's true, probably so does our audience at this point.

Hello? Yeah, that's a good point. Okay. But anyways, again, not too much to report on. Played a little bit of Halo with my son. We're like at the end of the game, which is super cool. So we'll finish that by the next episode. I'm almost absolutely certain about that. They've just been super into minecraft and just dance lately. So not quite so much Halo time. But then the game that I've been playing outside of Super Metroid that we'll talk about later is really just more Majora's Mask. And certainly I'm using the Nintendo Switch online service in order to play that. And so I have done some save stating with a few bits of the game, especially some of the challenges, I would say, in getting some of the heart pieces that are a little more that ask a little bit more of you. I've been kind of getting around that with some save states. But outside of that, the more that I play it, the more that I enjoy it. Here's a concise way, I think Majora's Mask is an experimental Zelda game. And I think the bits that are Zelda are really good. I enjoy the Zelda parts, the experimental parts. I mean, at least they're trying something. They're trying to change it up. And I would say those bits are more hit or miss. And of course this is through my 2023 eyes, so I wasn't back then. I wasn't playing it back then. But there are some frustrations with the way that the game is structured that make it so that I am very glad that I am following a guide because I would not have done a lot of this stuff. A lot of the stuff that it requires you to do. Yeah, it would take a lot in order to intuit some of the stuff in the game, but like the Zelda feeling dungeons feel good. I enjoy those parts.

The part that you're talking about. And we won't hang out here too long. Is that it's that three day cycle. And there's this sort of rhythm that the game goes through and the game in the three DS version, you get the Bombers notebook or whatever, which actually sort of logs all of that for you as you see an event happen. And so you'll have a total timeline sort of like eventually okay, the 64 version does not do that. A lot of it is just like you kind of like learning the rhythms of this three days. Was it termina, I think, yes. And the sort of the surrounding area. And it's a lot it's very dense. There's a lot of really weird stuff that is the most cumbersome part of all of it.

And it starts you off with that kind of stuff. And so you get a taste for it early. But it's just like, man, I would not put up with this if I wasn't following a guide.

Yeah, I think it's one of those things that I really liked it back then because it did something interesting, it did something different. And I thought I really felt at the time I was like, yeah, this is different. But it's also kind of I like the deviation and now I don't like any deviation from the things like just do the thing that I want you to do and nothing else but just.

Make another shadow of the classes. Come on, give me a dang hook shot.

Everything needs hook shots. Hook shots make everything better. Except for maybe Super Metroid. That will be shadowing. We might talk about that.

I like it.

Anyways.

Keep going. Yeah. Well, that's all that I've been playing, really. I haven't really delved into anything else. Although I do want to try and try something. But we'll get there eventually because I haven't I won't bring it up. We're good. We're good with games. So reading and watching have been there's a through line here because of something that I wanted to at the start of the year. There are a few things that I wanted to research a bit more delve into, find my own theological positions on and really kind of search out the scriptures and other teachers to figure some stuff out for my own, if that makes sense. If you recall, I had purchased actually a few different systematic theologies because they were on sale. Not that that necessarily has anything to do with this, but there were a few things in particular that I wanted to search out. One of those things has to do with some of the stuff that I've been reading and watching lately. And that has to do not necessarily with men and women's roles, but particularly within the church and within ministry and what that looks like. Because I've been taught certain things. I just don't know where when you dig down into kind of the details of where certain limitations are, it's much more difficult. I didn't know, I didn't have my convictions fully and I'm still not quite there yet. So anyways, I've been researching that in particular lately for the past couple of months and it'll continue on. One of the books that I read on the subject is called Men and Women in the Church by Kevin De Young. I think it came out within the past couple of years and I had actually listened to it before, but now listening to it after kind of looking into some of these issues myself, I appreciate it even more because it is pretty concise and it simplifies things. I don't agree with everything 100% within the book, but I think it's a really good overview of a lot of kind of the key issues when it comes to that what I've been looking into lately when I was thinking about stuff that I've been watching, I really haven't been watching TV. I've just been watching a bunch of YouTube. And one of the things that I've been using because he delves into these issues and again, I don't agree with everything that this guy says, but his name is Mike Winger. He has a YouTube channel and he's generally pretty solid. He is not a Calvinist and he's gone on record, he's talked about why he's not. And I actually haven't watched those videos in particular, but I appreciate his honesty and the way that he shows his work on the stuff that he gets into. Yeah, I just really appreciate the way that he does that. And so he actually has the series that's ongoing, it's not done yet, but he'll spend like 3 hours on a stream talking about specific verses and different interpretations and he will go to the sources of these other types of interpretations and the series is just on women in ministry in particular. So his is more like a narrow subject of like where where do these but similar to kind of what I'm trying to do for myself is is just to figure out like what, you know, what what is that, what does that look like? So cards on the table, I think you get from a plain reading of scripture and I understand that has baggage saying that, that women are not to be pastors within the church. I think that is pretty straightforward. You have to do some hermeneutical. So the way that you interpret the Bible hermeneutical gymnastics in order to deny.

That the qualifications for elder are pretty straightforward.

Right? And I think by implication there are lots of other the way that scripture speaks about the way that the church is to be run and even headship within marriage roles, the head of the house being the man has implications for that too because one of the qualifications for eldership is to lead within your home. Well, anyways, that part is clear. But then kind of digging into man, it's led me into other things of like okay, why do we do things the way that we do in modern church. Okay? If a woman cannot be a pastor, then does that have any other implications within the broader church context? And so, anyways, those are the things that I've been seeking out. And so in terms of watching and reading, watching and re watching a lot of these videos that are again, hours long by Mike Winger, if you're interested, he has a whole playlist on his YouTube of these videos and they've been great resources. Again, I don't agree with all of his conclusions, but I really appreciate the way that he explains things, the way that he shows his work on the sources that he's even getting things from and lays out issues that he sees with different interpretations. So that's been good. And then again, I would recommend the book men and Women in the Church by Kevin de Young. Anyways, that's what I've been into over the past couple of weeks. What about you, Nate?

Well, let me pull up my so as far as books go, really the only like so you and I talked about it a little bit on the brohang, josh Porter's Death to Deconstruction, which it's like my sort of analysis is for discerning readers only, but also not required reading in any capacity. It's a book that I like 70% to 80% of it. And then there's other parts where I'm just like, I just kind of make fart noises at insert fart noise here. Insert fart noise here. I like that one. And then there's a run. And of course, I'm sort of like reading comic books. I want to say let me pull up kindle it's called Superman Space Age. The art is done by a guy named Mike Allred who he did a book called Madman.

Okay.

Which so if anybody looks up this stuff, like, Madman is kind of bizarre and dare I say it, absurd. And we all know how I feel about absurdity. I'm kind of drawn to it. Madman is a lot of fun. He's got like a very pulpy kind of style. His art is just very striking. When you see it, you're like, oh, okay, yeah. I just love his work. Anyways, I think he does the pencils and the inks on that. He's great. I love his and when I saw that, I was like, oh, okay. So it's kind of an interesting exploration of the DC Universe kind of thing. So I've been reading that a little bit based on the recommendation a friend of the show, because I'm working on that little bit of a side project. There's a book called Of Games and God by Kevin. I want to say shoot. Patrick Miller. And I sent him a text just like because it had been a minute since I had talked to him, heard from him. So I just ripped off a text real quick and I was just like, hey, how are you doing? I just said, hey, if you get a minute, kind of on my sort of, like, my little side project thing that I'm trying to someday maybe do on recreation and Vocation and games and stuff like that. What would you recommend? Any reading? And he gave me a few recommendations, but that one was it's free through my Kindle Unlimited or whatever. So I was like, well, instead of buying, like, a $20 paperback, I'll just check it out. So I picked that up, and I've kind of gotten I haven't really done much more than sort of, like, look through the forward, but yeah, doing that. As far as shows well, actually one more book. So also a comic book graphic novel. But it's tied to something I watched. So I am not terribly fond of a lot of the Disney Marvel properties. However, I do like cartoons, and there's one that came out that it's like, the the entire premise is a little bit absurd. It's based on a Marvel property that I actually got introduced to through Marvel Snap. It's Moon Girl and Devil Dino.

Okay.

I kind of love it. I watched all of the episodes that were on Disney Plus. What I will say, it's a little, like, rah rah girl powery. But the main protagonist is Moon Girl and her sidekick best friend Pet, Devil Dino. It is ridiculous and charming and because I like the cartoon so much and I'm sort of like devil Dino is like one of my go to Marvel Snap cards. I love him. I was like, I want to actually read these books. So there's a series of collections, and I got the first volume in sort of, like I looked at the reading order and I got the first volume. And so I have cracked that open only to just sort of look at it and kind of giggle to myself because I don't know.

Yeah.

It'S very silly, but I'm a very silly man. Nice. That leads into like I've been watching. I watched Devil Dino, our Moon Girl and Devil Dino.

Yeah.

But I also started I get these shows where I'm like I kind of put one piece on hold even though I was really enjoying my time with it because Byron kind of at a point where it's over.

Well, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm sorry.

I should no, basically, I don't want to do dubs on that.

Okay.

But it's also kind of hard to feed a baby and read at the same time. So I kind of put that down. But there's a Netflix, I think it's called Kodaro Lives Alone. Okay, I just want to check. I'm on, like, the second or third episode, and it's like these little yeah. Codearo lives alone. It's on Netflix. It's got a very unique visual style, and it's about a little boy who has an apartment and I don't know, there's something about it. It's a little melancholy, but also very sweet. It's sort of almost like Nate bait. It's like, hey, make it a little sad, make it a little sweet, and Nate will just watch the whole thing. But anyways, like I said, it's been pretty cute. I'm like, two episodes in and really kind of two or three episodes in, and it's been pretty endearing as far as games go. I played a little bit of Destiny Two, nothing major. I want to get through the Witch Queen campaign, and I want to sort of get back into, like I want to do some level grinding, but, yeah, I want to get back into this stuff that we've got. So got that obviously been playing a bunch of Snap. It's Snap. I think the game is starting to even out a little bit. Well, anyways, if you want to hear my thoughts on that, it's Snapchatter, et cetera, just go listen to that. There are new episodes every week. Do it. Do it. It's a good thing to do. But the only other thing I really played and I went at this hard within the last week, and by last week, I mean, like, last four or five days. Super Metroid. I rolled credits today probably about an hour or two before we started recording, and then I went back through, and on the Nintendo Switch Online stuff, they have the SP version. And so I did the boss fight with that, and it was much easier as well. What I will say is I use the guide, and I also sort of, like, ripped through this game. I'll save my thoughts, but I didn't roll credits on it. But also this week, I guess that just sort of leads into that does give me a negative one, right? Because I beat again, roll credit, right? However, that would have normally put me at negative two, but over the last couple of weeks, I found out that Legend of Dragoon was recently released for the PS Plus service or whatever, and I have the version that gives me access to the retro games. So technically, I could have gotten it for free, but I like to own things that I actually want to own, even if it's digitally. And so normally, you can buy Ala carte for $10. Then I saw an article or something that said, hey, you can actually go buy this through the PS Three or PSB and Vita store for $6, and it will unlock, like, that version will unlock this new PS Four rerelease or PS Four. PS five rerelease. I was like, well, $6 is better than $10, so let's go do that. I had some PlayStation credit, and I fired up my Vita, and I went and pulled the trigger on it. So I took a plus one. So I'm back at negative three.

Okay.

Yeah, so I took a plus one. I was at positive three, not negative three. Yes. Okay. Words are hard. Anyways, I was at positive three. I bought legend of Dragoon for $6 put me at positive four. And then I rolled credits on Super Metroid. Super Metroid is the first game I've beaten this year, and, oh boy, howdy it did a number on me. It's not the hardest game I've ever played, but it's the first time I've ever played it. And even using a guide, I was like and I'm not exactly but you know what, we'll save that. But anyways, backlog score, I'm at positive three, which haven't really moved the needle. I guess I moved it back down one. But speaking of the backlog beat down, as usual, the Backlog Beat Down, the official app of the Backlog Beat down is the GG app, right?

Right.

It's a letterbox style app for your video game collection. You can create custom lists, you can rate review, you can see what your friends are playing. You can wish list stuff. You can sort of keep track of all the different sort of categories, whether you've beaten things or abandoned it, or if it's on a sort of a get around to it, whether you've shelved it, whatever. There's all sorts of categories, all sorts of tools. We really like that app. We really like Charles. He's our friend. He developed it. And we think you ought to check that app out. There's a free version, obviously, but for $5 a month or $50 a year, you can actually access the Elite tier. And what that does is it gives you access to early builds, it gives you a little more access to Charles. You get a special role in his Discord server and you help fund what's a really cool little project. So check that out, because we like it and we think it's worthwhile other things that are worthwhile that you might want to throw money at it's us. It's this podcast, right? We have a patreon, obviously. We plug it every show. But if you've sort of done the sharing and the caring, you've rated and reviewed. And if you haven't done those things, please do, please give us a rating, please give us a review. It helps in the algorithm, I guess. Apparently. Not that we're a very niche thing, but still, it's always fun to include more people. And as you know, per the growth in the Discord, it's been kind of fun lately. We've had a bunch of people sort of be more active in that community as well. But we have a patreon, right? And we'd like to maybe ask you guys to consider as a tip jar with benefits, right? So as a patron, you get early and uncut access to every one of our episodes. You also get a video feed. And so you'll hear sometimes us being very silly, sometimes us being a little ranty, sometimes us getting a little salty. It tends to be, again, early and uncut. There's also an exclusive patron podcast called The Brohang, and there it's even more uncut and a little more unfiltered. There can be some really spicy conversations. Of course, they can be very silly sometimes too. So a little bit of column, a little bit of column B. In addition to all of those things, our patrons have access to us through the Patreon app and they get a special role in our discord server as well. And one last thing that they get to do is every year our patrons, at pretty much any level right now, the way it stands, get to nominate a game or topic for us to either play through or discuss on the show and they can come on that show and join us for that episode. So that being said, lastly but not leastly, we are proud members of the Playwell Network alongside our friends Wesley the Henschen, dad himself, Ray, and Paul, the artist currently known as the techno funk boy Lidl. We've known these guys for a number of years, very early on just sort of kind of partnered with them. I know that Josh and I both count them as good personal friends, dear friends, and we are so glad to sort of work alongside them in the podcast sphere or whatever. And they both have several projects sort of in the mix. Wes obviously has the Hench and dad podcast and Retro NIM podcast and then Paul has several actual Play podcasts, some of which are not poemcasts and then some of his older stuff like the Retro Station and the Retro Zoo Super Show. They're just sort of like nostalgia driven kind of stuff. These are great dudes, we love their stuff. Go check them out. That being said, here's a word from one of them. I am to understand that you have summoned me. I did, the voice said excitedly.

I can't believe it worked.

It has worked and I have come. Will you invite me in? The smile on Fortosio's lips was wide then and if wasson had been paying attention he might have noticed the unusual length of Fortosio's eye teeth but wasson was too excited to notice. I would like to invite you on an adventure through my Perilous Realms on Paul Lidl's Perilous Realms I am serializing my audiobooks with an episode every week. We will go one book at a time through fantastic worlds and dangerous quests all from the relative safety of your podcast app. To take up one of these journeys, check out Paul Lidl's Perilous Realms on your podcast app. That's paul lidl L-Y-T-L-E or search for perilous realms. And we're back. We're going to be talking about Super Metroid and just to give a little bit of context, here one. This is a game that's on our top 100 list but it's March and normally there's like March Madness with basketball or whatever. I thought what would kind of be fun is that what if in March instead of us caring about basketball because obviously we are not those kind of. Guys, but we do like what are.

You talking about, Nate? I super care about that.

Oh, you're a Hooper. I did not know that. I apologize then, josh, me and my.

Five, six and three quarter self, dude.

We'Ve already talked about it. For all we know that you could have spud web legs.

Oh, that's true. That's true.

We did have that. You could have like an eight foot vertical.

But I am not the sportsy type.

You're not the sports video games. All right. So instead of March Madness, we're doing Metro Madness, which we're going endeavoring this month to go through not one but two Metroidvanias.

Metroidvania, if you may say.

Don't know.

I don't like that.

Really hate that.

That was especially bad.

That was very terrible. You should feel very bad about yourself. Coming from you, I expect very little, but that was just way to just completely bottom out, man. All kidding aside. And we thought I've been kind of wanting to do this for a minute because Metroidvanias are something that Josh and I I think both throughout the course of the show, we've developed a bit of an affection for. I mean, one of our favorite games, mutual favorite games of all time is like Peak Metroidvania, hollow Knight. Right. This episode we're going to be talking about Super Metroid. Next episode we're going to be talking about Castlevania Symphony of the Night. But what's been interesting is that and sort of we'll talk a little bit more about this is Super Metroid is like one of those games. It shows up on the greatest games of all time list all over the place. And it was a game I had never played. And I think the same goes for you as well, Josh. Right.

I have certainly played it multiple times. I've never beaten beaten it. Okay.

Is a game that I think prior to this run through, I had maybe cursorly, maybe sort of like started up or whatever or went over to our friends and fooled around on their file. There's that. Let's take a few minutes and on these episodes we'd like to take a few minutes and sort of just look at the back of the baseball card. And so that's what we'll do here. And this is just information ripped off of Wikipedia because I'm the worst. It was developed by Nintendo R and D One and Intelligent Systems. I think R and D one became intelligent systems. I don't remember. There was some confusion. But it was published by Nintendo. Obviously. It's one of Nintendo's first party titles, although out of the big three. So this is kind of usually considered up there with when you talk about premium sort of Nintendo franchises, it was historically Mario, Legend of Zelda and Metroid.

Right.

This is probably like the bottom of that pile and by a lot, but it's not wildly successful. I think even Metroid recently, even as well as it did, doesn't come close to the numbers that Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey hits. It's more of a cult classic kind of thing, but it was directed by Yoshio Sakamoto. The producer was Makoto Kano, or Kano. I'm not going to go through all that, but it's part of the Metroid series. I'll be nice and I'll just sort of just rip through all of it. Chief artists or the artists mentioned here are hirofumi Matsuoka Masahiko Mashimo Or Mashimo hiroyuki Kamura. You know what I don't like about this is that I am pretty sure I'm just butchering all their names and I feel terrible about it unless they're really kind of easy. The music was composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Manako Jimano. Obviously, it's part of the Metroid series. This is actually the third entry in the Metroid game. So the first one was the original Metroid for NES Metroid Two, which later got the remake. Metroid Samus returns here for the three DS not too long ago. That's a remake of Metroid Two, which was a Game Boy game and then super Metroid. This was originally on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, but there's also a version available, which I think is just more or less a straight port on Nintendo three DS. And by proxy, I think the wii u. And then obviously it's included in the Nintendo Switch Online Super Nintendo catalog, which is where I played it. I do have it for the three DS, which is why I took the point, because I own anyways, all that being said, so as far as release dates, it actually rolled out in three different sort of like time things. So March 19, 1994, it was released in Japan, april 18, 1994 in North America, and then in the Power regions, July 2894. And as far as genres here on Wikipedia, it has action and adventure, but we all know what it really is. It is the metroid in Metroidvania. This is the game that sort of helped coin that phrase. So it's one of those things that this game did receive a lot of critical claim back in the day. And it's got absolutely gorgeous pixel art, gorgeous sound design. It's just like it is peak Super Nintendo 16 bit era. This is like cream of the crop, this. Absolutely top shelf, beautiful game. So, that being said, is there anything else that I should touch on before we sort of move on to personal context baggage?

No, I don't think so. We will touch on later just how it certainly is a product of its time. But I think just emphasizing how beloved this game has been, I mean, for as long as I can remember, this has been one of the best Super Nintendo games it shows up on.

Like I said, a lot. Like I was doing a little bit of googling around. That's a weird way to say it. Google, I was googling around.

I was chat Gbt and they said, super magic. No, I'm just kidding.

But when I was sort of poking around on the interwebs, as one does, this showed up on a lot of Greatest Games of All Times list. And it's usually pretty solidly up there, too. Josh, you said my context is pretty. Like, I think prior to this playthrough, it's like one of those games that always to be honest, I wasn't even super into this genre until a few years ago. And then Hollow Knight kind of got me by the short and curlies and dragged me not really kicking or screaming, but actually just like, oh, this is I mean, I played some of this stuff before. I played like, Sympathy and Sympathy of the Night, because who didn't? But Super Metroid, I didn't have a Super Nintendo. And when I was, for shame, emulating, I was emulating weird, like Japanese RPGs that hadn't come over to the States. Like, psycho dense, two, three nice stuff like that. So I just never really got into this as a genre. Well, it was actually Metroid Zero Mission.

But yeah, anyways okay, nice. So I do have a lot of experience with the game. I feel like I've pretty much always been cognizant of it because I did grow up with a Super Nintendo and obviously grow up. There was a time when I didn't have it. But I mean, probably middle school or something. We had a Super Nintendo. I don't even remember where it came from. But regardless, this one showed up at all the shops that we would go to to purchase games because, again, never bought new games. We would see this one often, but it would often be one of the more expensive ones. And we didn't spend a lot of money on video games. Like, if we bought one, it would have to be one of the cheaper ones. Like, $50 was impossibly expensive. Like, you're not going to get a $50 video game. Like, that's just crazy. $10. Okay, 15. Okay, 20. Now you're pushing it. Like, how bad do you really want this thing? So anyways, all that said, we rented it multiple times from the video store. All right, kitties, gather around. We used to have this thing before Netflix, before streaming, where you would rent video games from the same place that you rented videos from. It's sort of like GameFly. Anyways, we had rented Super Metroid multiple times growing up, and I remember enjoying it. However, we would always get stuck. So because the rental was three days, five days at the most, we would always end up getting stuck. And it would be really frustrating. And on top of that, here's a little factoid, a little trivia about my history is that we even had an issue of Nintendo Power that had, like, maps for this game and told you where to go. And so we were following the official Nintendo Power Walkthrough of this game, and we would get stuck, we would hit a point where we just didn't know what we were supposed to do next, or we couldn't do what the thing was telling us to do and it would be really frustrating. So this game, again, I recognized how good it was and how much I enjoyed the game up until a certain point where it would just get really frustrating because I couldn't do what the walkthrough is telling me to do. So that was my experience. Like high school. I remember our cousins gave us a modded Xbox, probably towards the tail end of high school, something like that, and it had tons and tons of emulators and games on it. And I remember playing a decent amount of Super Metroid on that, but not getting too far, I've never owned a cartridge of Super Metroid, but I do own the Super Nintendo Mini, which has Super Metroid on it, but I haven't played it on there. So that's the extent of my experience with the game is I've played probably the first third of it multiple times, but there's a good portion that I haven't played. And at this point, I've played fusion. I've played Zero Mission, which is a remake of the first one. And I've played Samus Returns, which is a remake of the second one. So I've played one, two, and four different versions of them, but not three all the way through. And frankly, some more baggage just for the series itself. I never really touched two. I might have played a few minutes of it, but it was a little awkward on the old Game Boy. I don't really like the original Metroid very much.

It's real tough, it's real rough.

It's so easy to get lost in that game because all of the corridors look the same and the enemies do damage. So you have to sit and grind for health and you get lost super easy. So I don't like it much.

NES Metroid, it's good, but it's hard.

I can respect it. I just don't enjoy it. Yeah, I can respect that. It was pushing boundaries. It was a new thing. Well, and it's just it has something that atmosphere.

But I just think, like it's like we've said before, and I'll repeat it as often as I need to, instead of going back to Metroid NES, just go play Zero Mission. Zero Mission is the superior version of that game, in my opinion.

Yeah, well, that's my baggage.

Yeah. How about this? Play through, though. And I guess this is sort of getting into the meat of it, I'm going to be honest and sort of we were talking about this a little bit. I think if I had come at this a few weeks ago, but I looked at the price, or not the price, but the time to beat, and I was like, they're saying like, six, seven, 8 hours. So I was like, I'll wait. And especially right now, sort of like time is at a premium. I probably play like an hour of Marvel snap a day. But that's 510 minutes bursts, right? Which this game doesn't necessarily sort of give you that, but anyways, so within the last week, I basically sat down and I was mainlining this, playing the mess out of it, okay? And I really enjoyed it. And I was using a walkthrough, I was using the IGN Guide, and then I was using a video walkthrough too, sometimes because you can watch something and actually oh, that's what they mean. Jump here, do this. You can sort of see the thing. Anyways. And I would say for the first half to two thirds of this game, I was like, this is great. It's a little floaty, not as tight as I'd like, but it feels good. And again, just that the pixels, the sprites, the world design, the enemy design. I love everything about that. I got to this point and it's basically sort of towards the end of the game, like I said, that last third, and it's the water level. And even though I have the suit that lets you move through water without too many problems, there was something about the design of that particular segment that just I was like, you know what? I'm not having fun anymore. Everything in the game was really kind of good. So I ended up beating the game abusing save states, sort of like all of that stuff. I think part of the problem, though is and especially towards the end, I was like, this is not fun. And I'll have comments on the very because the last 15 minutes of the game are especially onerous or onerous or they're not great. It was just very frustrating in my opinion. Yeah, but I was also coming at it pretty bare bones. It was rough, it was very taxing. Again, not like hollow night taxing, but it was pretty intense. So then I also went back through and I was like, well, what would it have been like if I had just done a little bit more digging around and gotten more energy tanks and missile upgrades and everything else? Sure, it was significantly easier, but it was still fairly challenging. Yeah, because the game is tough and so it's not bad at all. But like I said, I basically hit that water level. And at that point, because it was like a lot of it, it was like I would just play around and I would natively find stuff and then I hit that part after the wrecked ship from basically the wrecked ship on was just an absolute struggle for me. It was like where I could not deviate at all from the walk through because if I did, I'd get lost. Had no idea what I was doing. That was the part where I was just like, no, I'm not having fun with this anymore. I feel like when I didn't have to rely on the walk through, and I could just sort of use the walk through to help sort of, like, squeak me through some of the rough parts. But that was the point where it's like and I think, again, if I had given myself a little bit more time, it wouldn't have been as aggravating, but honestly, it's towards the end of the game. The level design for that particular section is not I'm not a fan.

I'm just not you.

From that point onward, the game just kind of became a bit tedious. But that's I mean, like I said, the the first half to two thirds of the game, I was like, yeah, this is great. This is like, yeah. I was like, Is Samus, like, a little slow, little floaty? Like, the jumps aren't awesome, in my opinion. I'm also playing it on, like, a new TV with I've heard that Input Lag was probably doing some of that. I've heard that that can affect some of that, but I think the Nintendo Switch Online might take into account some of that stuff. I was using the Pro Controller, which I'm not used to using the Dpad on that. So that was also kind of, like, a bit I don't use Dpads that much anymore. I default to sticks, which actually makes that game harder in some capacities.

Yeah, I wouldn't do that for a 2D, also.

And what I would say is the last little bit, I love me some grappling hooks. That's kind of like my thing. Like, hashtag, give me that hook shot. The grapple beam in this is not my favorite. In fact, it's probably the farthest thing from my favorite.

I actually hated it.

It's my least favorite part of this game. Out of all, I was like, oh, cool hook shot. And it's like, you stick to nothing, and then you're like, oh, I snagged that block. No, you didn't. No, you did not know. What you did is you fell.

Yeah.

Okay. It was frustrating, that part, because it's like, dude, what do you expect out of a 16 bit sprite game? Awesome physics.

No, right.

No, sir. That's on me. That's on me. Overall, very enjoyable up until that last little bit. And I think, honestly, the reason I did sort of come off on it so cold in the end was because of basically sort of the self imposed crunch.

Yeah, that totally could be the case for me. I still have yet to finish this game, which I know is pretty lame considering we're doing this episode right now. So you'd think that I would have actually finished it, but I didn't. So my take on it so far is colored by that perception. And so I'm kind of in this odd position because from what you're saying, I have not yet hit meridia, and so I'm enjoying pretty much everything about this game, and so maybe that will turn later.

I hit meridia yesterday, and worked on it for a couple of hours. I tried to do it for like two or 3 hours on my own and just got frustrated. Then went back through and sort of looked at the walkthrough guide because I was like, I know, I'm close to the end again. Sort of like the back half, sort of last third of the game. And just some of the level design in that is just like poop soup, the sand waterfalls or whatever's going on under there. I just it was like it's got like the the sticky bits where, like you're falling in the sand, you can't jump out. I was like, I hate it. Obviously there's skill and there's gear that can sort of mitigate some of that, but until you get that stuff, I was just like, I hate it.

Got you.

No thank you. Like hard pass.

Got you.

Not interested.

Okay, just so everyone knows, I have watched a playthrough of this game years ago. I think it was actually game Informers playthrough where they where they started doing that with some classic games and they have their banter while they're playing, which is really the reason why I watch those. So I'm familiar with the entirety of the game. I just personally have never beaten it before. So perhaps next episode I might have to give kind of an addendum. But in terms what strikes me in this play through of the game, again, having not played this particular entry in years, but being but still being familiar with the game as a whole, I think I texted you like an hour into the game and I said that I was amazed at how even though I've played through the beginning of this.

Game, probably at least oh, that opening sequence.

Yeah. So good. Okay, I already mentioned it. This game is a product of its time. But I'll just say up front, this is my thesis is that I think this game is an example of how limitations actually create a better game. And I'll go into that more and I'll build my thesis from there. Okay? That the limitations of the Super Nintendo in general, the limitations of this game make it so much better than if they had unlimited resources. Because I think a key element of this game, like game design aside, which I think game design is huge, a huge part of this game because it spawned a whole freaking genre. And I say that I guess it just perfected what the original Metroid did. But the key thing that I think of when I play this game that still holds up so well is atmosphere. The way that this game creates the feeling of being isolated on an alien planet while still having powers yourself. It's still a bit of a power fantasy, but you don't know. There are so many secrets in this game which is done so well because you're stranded on an alien planet. Maybe I'm getting a little bit before that because that opening sequence, man, with the short little story the story does not go into detail. It's very not necessarily vague, but very simple. It recaps the first two games and it says So the humans were studying Metroids and then something bad happened and your ship so you went back to check on them and your ship had a problem and crash landed on this other planet. It's that simple. You're trying to get off the planet. Well, actually, you crash land after you go back, you fight Ridley. And that whole sequence is awesome as well. And even something about that sequence and something about this game in general is it is a bit I said this about Scott Pilgrim before that you start off slow in that game and you have to buy upgrades in this game. It is a little slow, but to me it feels deliberate. You're going through corridors. You're exploring an alien planet. The pace that is a bit slower than I typically like to be at in video games helps to appreciate the detail that they put into this game and helps build the atmosphere of what this game is trying to do. It actually evokes more emotion, whether that's just an unsettling tone because if you were faster, if you were more nimble, if you could get around it would fall more to that side of power fantasy of oh, yeah, I can just do whatever I want here. And instead you're going slow. And there might be a secret that you might notice because you're walking slow because you're having to travel back and forth between these corridors. I think the things that sometimes would be flawed, the limitations actually help to create help to bolster the atmosphere of the game. And I see that in a number of ways.

I think you're right there. This game does a great job of throwing off vibe just like just throwing off mood. And it is reinforced by sort of almost the cumbersome nature of Samus.

It's funny too, because later on it would spawn this genre of castle or excuse me, of metroidvania together with castlevania. But even the nature of your movement in this reminds me of something. It's nowhere near as restrictive but something like the original castlevania where it's also kind of slow and cumbersome. The traversal is although I say that it's deliberate, is what it is. You have to decide on your actions. And so you're nailed down to certain things. So, okay, you're talking about the floaty jump as well. And I agree. The jump in this game is very floaty. You jump really high and it's floaty. I think that gives me the feeling of being on an alien planet of having this extra gravity or less gravity. Yeah, that's true.

That's fair. I think, coming at it so because I'm coming at it from well, let's see, it's 2013, almost 20 years after its release. I'm not a fan of platforming in general. And so when you do make me do any sort of platforming, I want tighter control there. And the game is like, no. And I think that's just sort of that's part of the game kind of showing its age, so to speak. If I had to.

Yes, it's showing its age by because it's a product of its time, and because you're the way that yeah, the.

Way that I've got 20 years of context that this game this game was.

34 years old because it was 94. That was 30 years ago. Or, you know, Holy smokes, man, my.

Brains are yeah, well, 94. I thought we were in 2014. I'm losing my mind. No, my math is bad.

Congratulations, you have a child. That's what happens.

Yay. I've got 30 years of context that have actually been informed by this game. And I said something to you. It's like, honestly, I'd love to see them remake this game with maybe tighter controls, because that's part of it, too, is there is like a clunkiness there. And while you're right, I think now that we have the tech where you can still create that same mood and give a much tighter gameplay experience, I think that's what they did with Dread. Okay, now, I know that Dread is kind of a different beast altogether, but I'm just saying yeah, I think you.

Have to balance it because with Metroid or with Samus Returns, it's more nimble. It doesn't feel as restrictive to me. But that game, while I think it's a really good game, again, I think the limitations of this one actually does something really special. Because another area in which I think that shines through is the length of this game. It's a relatively short game. And for this style of game in Metroidvania, if we want to say that where you're backtracking a lot, that backtracking can get very tedious in some games.

Oh, boy. Howdy.

I think if this game were bigger and again, unfortunately, because I haven't finished it, it's bigger than I have experienced. But if it were to from my experience with the game, because I'm in smaller areas while there is a lot of backtracking or when I look at my map and I see, oh, that's where I should go next, or I should check this out again because I haven't yet been to those rooms. I haven't done these different things. Then the backtracking does not feel it doesn't take me 20 minutes to run across the map. Guys. It's not like some of the modern games. So even though, again, it's at a slower pace and you have a dash which helps it's at a slower pace, it's not too big to where I get annoyed with having to backtrack. And again, that's from my limited experience, I haven't finished the game. So maybe it does end up getting that far. But I think there's something that they were able to balance really well with the short length of the game. That something like Metroid Prime towards the end of the game, where you have to go through a number of things to backtrack, it feels more tedious. And again, I think I mentioned using the map to kind of figure out where you're supposed to go. This was something that dumb high school Josh didn't understand when I tried to play it then, is that while I do think it pushes you in certain directions, it kind of hints at some of the secrets that it has. One of the biggest ways is just through the map that you have, going to the areas that look as though there are secrets hidden. You can see just from the map whether it doesn't have a defined end to the areas that you've been to or whether it says that you haven't yet been to that room, I think that that's helpful. And so a key element of this game, which is backtracking, I don't think feels but it could be so much more tedious. If this game were unlimited and they were able to make it three times as large, that backtracking could really get annoying instead of being a part of the game that you really enjoy.

Okay, dude, I was looking up, like, power ups and stuff like that. For some reason, I'm really mad at myself now. I might actually change my mind. So apparently you can do these beam charge combos.

Okay.

Do you know about these?

No, I mean, I could charge my.

Okay, so you can charge it after you get the charge beam. You can actually so listen to this. Ice beam charge combo.

Equip.

Only the charge and the ice beams select the power bombs and charge the beam. Four ice bolts will surround Samus and freeze the first enemy that comes into contact with it, dealing damage from each of the bolts.

Okay. Yeah, I know. You could combine things.

I had different no idea. I'm stupid, actually.

More things at your disposal.

More more tools at my disposal. Oh, man. That is.

And like you said, I think that's when you're trying to plow through a game, sometimes you miss some of those things. Especially and this is just my nostalgia glasses coming on is that especially in this time period when I was playing Super Nintendo games, they were games that you really kind of dug into when you were able to you continually played things over and over again. You messed around with different combinations. You tried things because you weren't sure what to do. Back then. At least I did. And so again, I think the length kind of helps with this game.

Yeah, I definitely shorter. I changed my mind. I might revisit this.

Okay.

I might just go back and sort of load one of my because like I said, I abused save states. Just load a save state, go through and maybe do some. Digging around. Yeah, maybe try. I can't remember what percentage I finished at. I wasn't it was like one of those things because after I did the SP ending, it says you finished it 100%. I was like, no, I didn't. Not even close. But that's a separate file kind of thing. Anyway.

Yeah, got you.

Now I kind of want to go back and be like, I at least want to play around with it a little bit more because, dude, aside from the Croco Meyer fight, the one where you just shoot him in the mouth until he falls, which yeah, I like that fight. I was like, oh, this is interesting. But at the same time, I was like, this is like the least climactic boss fight in the world. Shoot him mouth. And he steps back a little bit.

Scratching it.

Yeah, and it's got just some really cool segments. Even the fights, just like most of the boss fights are pretty cool.

They're spectacles. Yeah, the way that it was showing off the tech at the time, but but even even the designs, there are very few enemies in this, but they all feel very alien. They don't feel the ones that are closest to something that you would probably see somewhere else are the space pirates. But the space pirates are if you know anything about Metroid, there are other I was going to say sentient beings, but that's not the right term for it. But they actually communicate with each other. They're not like animals. A lot of the other creatures that you come upon are they're just like another race of beings. Anyways, all that being said, there's a very distinct art style for this game in particular and the bosses within it. And.

The highs are really high in this. And it is one of those things, though, that where I just keep coming back to. It's very much a Super Nintendo game.

Yes.

With all of the pros and cons that sort of accompany that.

And I love Super Nintendo, so I'm biased.

But I like Super Nintendo too. But it's also just like I don't know. Like I said, it's hard for me to go back to a lot of that stuff, especially the more action, heavy kind of games, because I don't get the sort of the responsiveness that I want.

Yeah, that makes sense. Get yourself a Super Nintendo mini, then you can have it on one of those controllers and really feel how it feels.

No, those controllers, I would break my fingers. That's true.

My 30 year old hands are probably very difficult.

This is a question I had to ask. Did you change the controls?

Yes. So at the beginning, when he gives you the option of doing the controls.

We can do the control.

I accidentally changed one. Yeah. And then I hit the default and nothing changed. And then it got all mixed up and weird and so I'm like, I don't know what even the default controls were, but I changed it to where Y is. I basically changed it to Mega Man X controls, where Y is is shooting, B is jumping, A is dashing, and X I haven't used X, actually not sure what X is for.

I think what I did and I don't know the Nintendo layout, but I wanted to say B was shoot, A was jump. Y was like, sort of what? Let me do the weapon select thing. And then X was jump or dash. So it's like if I was dashing, I could just sort of rock on to A.

Okay. Yeah.

Is that right?

Basically, everything for you was shifted to the right of where it was for me, shifted clockwise. Because for me, if you took all those buttons and went counterclockwise A turn.

The A in Nintendo controllers is always jump. For me, it's just like, there's something about it that has to be jump.

Then how did you play Mega Man X? Do you need? Controls in Mega. Man x.

That's what we've done. I played very little of Mega Man X. Okay. B is always like, it's Mario controls. For me, B is like fire or shoot and A is jump. And honestly, with the dash, I'm just like, just let me hold B. I don't need these other buttons.

Yeah, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. It would just take some getting some.

Getting used to anymore, too. I use the bumpers and the triggers so much anymore.

Oh, yes.

That if I could just map everything to that, I would have been fine. I don't know, but it's a game from a different era too. That was the biggest thing is my brain hasn't worked in that capacity that way for a long time. And so it's like, probably the first couple of hours, I was like, oh. And then I went back and I saved my game and I restarted it so I could change all the controls because the default control scheme is kind of like doodoo. I did not appreciate it. Yeah, but I mean, again, sort of like, overall, I love that we went back and I actually played through it. Yeah, like I said, I'm kind of coming around now because I knew there was stuff I didn't know. But at the same time, I'm like, well, what if I go back? And maybe it'll be sort of like there'll be like a bit of a post mortem for me too, where it's like, next episode. I'll be like, hey, I went back. I kind of screwed around with it a little bit more. I'm changing my tune on the back half of that. Yeah, but I think Meridia is just like, dude, I did not have fun with that section. I had fun with every other section, like the rec ship, all of it. Even as sort of, like sort of obtuse as that game can be because that's the thing. This is very much in the area where your hand does not get held.

Right.

You figure it out.

Right. I do think the game hints it gives you hints at different things. And again, because of how relatively small it is, it's not too bad to bomb a bunch of walls and shoot at things.

Oh, no, dude, the game teaches you to do that. It's like blow up everything, shoot everything.

Yeah, that sounds in theory, like it would be really annoying and difficult. But in practice, I think because it limits what it can do, there's only so many rooms that the game has. I think it's easier to find because this is one of those games. As a kid, I never would have considered trying to get 100% on like, no, I don't, I don't want to have to do that. And now as an adult, it's like, okay, no, this is actually manageable. This is not a 60 hours experience.

I think for somebody who does come into this, you expect your first run through to be bulky. Average game time is like five to 8 hours or something like that. It can be beaten in under three.

I think to get the best end or the best ending, the secret ending.

I think to get the secret ending or whatever, it's under two or two and a half or something.

Gosh, how do you do that? Well, I'm sure.

Yeah, you're a machine. That's how you do that. You're not human.

Yeah.

So we mentioned this before. This is actually on the list. You, before we started recording, took a look at the list. Where do we have this placed?

It is at number 47 on our top hundred games of all time. So it's a decent position. It is not up there with a lot of top 100 lists where it is towards the very top. But it makes it on the top half of the list for sure. Yeah, on my personal list, I would probably put it higher, although I say that I have not yet sketched out all of my personal lists. So maybe there are 46 games that I like more than this one. When you put it that way, there probably are. So I'm kind of of two minds about it because I do really like this game, but again, I've never beaten it for myself, so I'm not going to make an argument either way.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely something maybe when we hit sort of our mid year sort of review and reevaluation of the list, maybe sort of talk about it. I'll be honest, where I'm at right now, top half, like even sort of towards the bottom of the top half of the list feels okay. This is not a must play to me. I think this is a really cool game. I think it's really good. But unless you like these types of games, super Metroid is like, I'm going to just be like, you're fine.

Let me ask, are there better games in the Metroid series, do you think?

I mean, I haven't finished do Fusion. I just default. I go to Fusion and Zero mission.

Okay.

I think they're phenomenal.

I think there's an argument for Zero Mission. I don't know if I agree with you on Fusion, though.

I like fusion. I know fusion is like an outline.

Yeah.

Zero mission, though. Zero Mission is the one that I'm just like zero Mission. Just play zero mission. I think dread and Samus returns. I haven't beaten either one of those. I've played like a few hours of each. It's like things that Nate needs to do at some point in time.

Hey, you have a backlog.

I have a backlog surprise. But yeah, to me it's like.

If.

There'S a Metroid that I'm going to recommend, it's going to be Fusion over this.

Interesting.

I think Fusion sort of hits the same sort of mood. It throws off the same sort of vibes, but it does it with better controls, better quality of life stuff. It's just overall, Metroid Fusion is just a better game in my opinion.

It does have some really good bosses too. It's been quite a while since I played through it, but I do remember enjoying it more than some of the takes online.

Yeah, I think Fusion is maybe a little more accessible and I think sometimes yeah, sure. Sometimes. Okay. It's the Dark Souls kind of like fandom stuff where Super Metroid is really pretty solid, but I think it's also kind of tough and it's not like it's not on the same levels like Dark Souls, but there's that I beat super Metroid kind of thing like vibe where I'm just like, I beat it, it's fine. I don't know, just to me, I'd rather play Zero Mission, and maybe that just means I'm not a super. Like I'm not a super metroid fan. I hate that I said that, but I'm just not a huge fan of Metroid in general, which the case could be made for that because I have sort of bounced off of Samus Returns in Dread. But I did love prime, even though.

I didn't beat that. Well, yeah, but extenuating circumstances. I get it. Your memory card was effectively erased.

My memory of that game was effectively erased and I was like, I'm not playing it. But I would say I think where these games really excel is the atmosphere.

Yes, 100%.

The thing that Metroid does better than any other game, sort of in class is like, I mean, prior to Hollow Night is just the atmosphere, it's the environment, it's the mood, it's everything, just like while you're in the game.

Okay, so before we sign off, I do want to make that comparison with Hollow Knight, because we both agree, I mean, that's absolutely fantastic game. It's in our top ten and it perfects. A lot of the things that were started here with Super Metroid. Is that okay? Hollow Knight is one of those games that is much bigger than this one, but you are much more nimble, and and so that helps to alleviate the tedium of backtracking in that game. So I think that's how they solve that problem. However, I would say with Hollow Knight, it does not feel the only time that I felt unsettled was at the I don't remember what you call it at the bottom of Hollow Nest, where all the bugs were were scampering around.

And it was like that part, I would say that and the area that directly precedes that where it's like spikes everywhere.

Yeah. Okay.

That whole bottom part of the map, I was, like, on edge the entire time I was playing, more so than any other. But all of the environments are kind of like just like, dude, there's like the acid pools, the crystal mines are pretty.

I don't know. It didn't have the same unsettling feeling that I think Super Metroid has of being in it's a more Sci-Fi aesthetic. So an alien world as opposed to a world of of bugs, they're different, but I don't think that it created the same feeling, at least in me, but also with with Hollow Knight, I didn't fear dying as much as I did in Super Metroid.

Yeah, I think, though, too, what I would say is just like, Super Metroid does the sort of alone isolation yes. Like stranger and a strange, that kind of thing. Hollow Knight is more about the mystery, and there's almost more of, like a melancholy tone the whole way through it.

Yeah.

So they are sort of gunning for two different things, but I think they're both in the same sort of class as far as, like I think they hold the same sort of water in being evocative.

Yes, totally agree. Awesome. I think that is a great kind of little encapsulation. And we didn't say everything that there is to say about this game. I'm sure there are tons of other podcasts, YouTube videos that you can watch to get some more information, some more trivia and things like that, but I think this has been a fun time just to see how this game holds up. 30 years later, 29 years later, I.

Do want to go back and watch the game informer play throughs.

Oh, it's fun. I think it was Dan what's his face who's with giant bomb now? Okay, not Barker, but something anyways, I don't remember. Anyways, yeah, it was fun. It was a fun time watching that. Yeah, maybe I'll watch it too. But I do also want to play the game for myself. So not until after I play it through. I don't want to do the walk through thing, at least not unless it's needed. But we'll see.

I guess I did want to take a beat and sort of like and this is obviously we never threw in a spoiler warning and we didn't really talk about story, but I did love so mild, very mild spoiler. I'm not actually going to give any details, but I did love how the opening of the game and the ending of the game kind of mirrored each other. You've seen the ending, right?

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about. I thought there was a symmetry in that that I really liked, even though I hated that sequence.

Yeah.

I appreciated the move or I appreciated the technique there, hated actually executing it.

The execution.

Yeah.

There you go. And with that, I think we have T minus two minutes before this podcast. No, I'm just kidding. No, because there is something actually we have to do before ending the podcast. But did you have any other kind of final thoughts?

Like I said, I think my ending is this is a really solid game and if you're interested in it and you've never gotten around to it, check it out. But be prepared to sort of struggle with basically the limitations of the fact that this is a game sort of a different era.

Yeah.

That being said, like I said, it doesn't make it onto this is more of like, I have my must play, should play pass, hard pass, soft pass, kind of list. Right? This is a should play. But it's like but like I said, normally that's a bit of a caveat.

Play it.

If you're interested in these games and you've been meaning to do it, it's worth a romp. And there's a lot of cool stuff sort of hidden in there. I personally really struggled with, like I said, that sort of last third, where I just was frustrated and just irritated. And that could just be like, I'm older and sort of even what we were talking about last episode, where it's like my time is kind of at a premium. And even though this game doesn't demand a whole lot, like the fact that I was sort of, like, cruising along and then I just sort of hit a really.

Frustrating area. Yeah.

So I just kind of like makes sense. Yeah.

Cool. I would rate it a bit higher. I think this game is a classic, and so I would say that it is a must play. Well, this is how I feel, is that that doesn't mean that you have to finish it, but at least dip your toes in because the opening is great to see. What this series because again, this thing spawned so many it spawned a genre. So I think it would behoove you. Yes. And I think those are good caveats that it is a game of its time. But I do think it's a top tier Super Nintendo game because there are a lot the Super Nintendo games that control a lot worse than this.

Oh, yeah.

So this is kind of the cream of the crop. And so I would say give it a solid 60.

Yeah, I would say give it a shot, but I guess maybe I categorize it as a strong should play. It's worth a shot. And especially if you're interested, then I don't know. Like I said, I just kind of like I fall more on like it's not I mean, are you missing something? Yeah, but you're always missing something, right?

Yes, I agree. Even the conversation that we had about kind of the best metroid game in the series, I think that's a difficult conversation to have because this one is clearly the most influential of them all. And it depends what you want out of the different games because this is a short experience. Is it the best? Maybe you're a fan of Dark Souls and so Dread is your favorite. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's hard to say, but I give it a recommendation to anyone. Play the classics, check it out. It's a good time. There's tons of ways that you could actually access it. So it's readily available nowadays.

Well, I guess it's sort of like sort of rounding out here. We've got a couple of things, like a couple of forms to be observed and then we'll that's right, signing off. But we're sort of entering into shout out territory. And my shout out is going to be a little unconventional because I'm not going to name the individual, but they.

Will defeats the point of a shout out.

Well, I want them to know more than anything. Got you how much I appreciate it. So within the last couple of weeks, somebody reached out to me and just basically said, like, hey, shouted out you. Nate, I've noticed that some of your sort of, like your diatribe surrounding Marvel Snap has been pretty heated and at times you've gotten pretty antagonistic, maybe even slightly Cussy from time to time, depending on which avenue. Again, not trying to give out details or whatever because I'm not sure the individual would want me sort of like mentioning their name.

Okay.

But what I will say is to that person who reached out to me to talk to me about that, I value that so much, the fact that it was a very courageous act of care for me. Because you saw sort of and again, I don't think you knew everything that was sort of going on, but you saw some of the symptoms, and you reach out and you say, hey, if this is bothering you that much, take a step back. Because you cared for me and for the state of my psyche. And so I just wanted to say to that person, and I think you know who you are, but thank you. And you may or may not know this about me, but the people who do that for me in my life, I hold a special affection for, because not everybody will do that. Some people will just let me sort of be an idiot and not check it. And the way that you confronted me lovingly. And I think I did tell you in our exchange that I really appreciated that. But I did just want to say to that individual, and I want to sort of as a bit of not really a challenge, but I want to encourage our listeners to be the kind of friends and people who care enough about other people to really just take a beat and say, hey, this is not helping you. It doesn't seem like this is. Maybe it's time to put some of that down, or whatever. And again, it was really appreciated. Everything about that. That's my shout out. The first ever and maybe the only ever secret shout out.

Right to everyone but the person they know.

Everybody else is like, who are you talking about? I'm like, well, it's none of your business. If you don't think it was you, it probably wasn't you.

Yeah, it didn't come from a Tweet, a subtweet.

It was a direct no, it was nobody subtweeting me.

Yeah. Well, that's awesome. I think that's great. My shout out is not quite as affectionate, although I appreciated over the past couple of weeks and I'm throwing myself under the bus here, I especially liked everyone who has been going through the book of First Peter in our discord. I know I have been inconsistent dropping in and dropping out at times, but I think it's cool that we have a group of people who want to.

I've been inconsistently posting this 30 section.

I think it's fine. The rhythm of the discord, I think is fine, that it's not, like consistent daily, but it is like every time you post something, other people are replying, like, people are reading it and reading what other people have to say. Like, I really appreciate having half a dozen guys in there giving their different takes and the different things that they see in these chunks of script.

Most of these guys will hear when they hear this, and I haven't said it in the discord, but interact with each other's thoughts a little bit more too. Feel free to bounce off of other people's thoughts. I've tried to do some of that, but yeah.

So shout out to all you all.

Studying those guys are some cool stuff. Yeah, I like that. We're sort of doing that.

Yeah. Yes. We're not exactly the most consistent, but it's more consistent than it has been in the past. So I really appreciate that. And actually that rolls into our next form, which is kind of an update on our challenges. And I'm going to put the cart before the horse here and say that my next challenge is to be consistent in that First Peter group that we have there.

Well, we're moving on second. Peter now.

That's right. Yes. But in that study group that we have in discord is to be more consistent with that and so everyone listening. You guys could keep me accountable to that too. Tag me. Everyone like, hey, you were challenging yourself. So that's going to be my challenge in terms of memorization. Again, I haven't made it a priority and I'm kicking myself, but I don't want to say that I'm going to do it again. I want to. So I will work on it over however long it takes. But that's not going to be my challenge this time because I feel like because I'm already procrastinated so much on, I don't want to just keep saying the same thing over and over again. So discord group, that's what I've got on my plate. How about you?

So I have done a little bit of journaling over the last couple of weeks, but a very tiny bit, and I want to work more on that. But what I will sort of throw in there, in here as well. And sometimes as soon as it comes out of my mouth and 30 seconds after we turn off the recording, my brain just goes, forgets all the things. It's just like, no, but I have a bunch of so I have those esv journaling books of the Bible thing, and I bought one to go through deuteronomy, and I have sermon notes from a few sermons in there. But then I started taking the sermon notes on a separate piece of paper with the intent to transcribe, like to basically condense them, because I don't always have you listen to the show. You know that we're really bad at brevity. You know that I'm a Chatty Cathy and you should see when I'm writing. And sometimes I just follow weird ideas and tangents. Anyways, my notes are a mess. Notetaking has never been one of my strong points, but what I'd like to do is condense some of those notes into more abbreviated and sort of actually put them in alongside the reading and the passages. Like I said, he's like halfway we're good ways through Deuteronomy, and I'm pretty behind. So I'd like to maybe here in the next couple of weeks get maybe not caught up, but not so far behind.

Yeah, there you go.

That would be good.

Nice. Well, that's awesome. Well, like I said earlier this episode, I've had a lot of fun on this episode, kind of revisiting an old game. And we didn't say everything there is to say about this game, but we would love to hear from you guys. If you guys have thoughts or other experiences about this game, whether it's from 29 years ago or whether it's from just last week, you picked it up, and there's tons of ways that you can reach out to us and we can have that conversation. And maybe when we do talk about this game, when we come back next time, maybe we'll have a little addendum there and you can share your thoughts. We can share your thoughts on the air. Maybe interact with it a little bit. But there's tons of ways you can reach us on the Internet. Our email address is [email protected] our Twitter handle is at bbdowncast. Our Instagram is just the backlog breakdown on Facebook. Our group is the hashtag backlog book Club. Link for a discord is in the show notes of this episode. And then if you want to get personal for some weird reason, you weirdo. Don't be weird. I generally on the Internet, go by Broccolope and Nate goes by Nate underscore McKeever. Boom. There you go. Don't be weird.

Yeah, don't make it weird.

Don't make it weird.

But I think, Josh, that being said, we have observed all the forms. We have concluded our discussion. I think that only really leaves one thing, and that's you and I are going to sort of part ways here very shortly. But until next time, what should they do, guys?

Keep beating down your backlogs and we'll keep breaking down the benefits. Yeah, just don't make it don't make it weird. Don't be weird. Don't do it. Don't make it weird.

Too late, Josh. Too late.

Did I make it weird?

You made it weird.

You made it weird.