Super Metroid (1994) for the SNES revolves around the acquisition of technology for use while navigating a hostile environment. It details a science fiction world of humans and aliens fighting with, for, and against technology, highlighting the struggle through one central mechanical feature. In summary, the player controls Samus, a spacefaring bounty hunter who fights to stop Space Pirates, a group which seeks to abuse the power of an enigmatic alien known as a Metroid. Gameplay involves traversing a nonlinear 2D-platforming environment while shooting at various alien enemies. The key is that the player is initially unable to access all parts of the world. They must find upgrades to the robotic armor Samus wears that enable her to bypass obstacles and reach previously inaccessible areas. Technology is a boon. It is the means by which Samus and the player by proxy engage with an unfriendly universe.
Despite being useful and necessary, technology has a dual destructive role. Hostile agents have equal access to it. Just as Samus utilizes technology to her benefit, her enemies utilize it against her. At the same time, Super Metroid references dangers presented by even the most benevolent users. For instance, the player is forced to engage in copious amounts of violence, not only to fight enemies, but also as the very means of interacting with the physical environment. These consequences lie hidden beneath the robust reward system for discovering new technologies and exploring new areas which are coded as good for the player. Hence, while Super Metroid’s upgrade mechanic is an effective means of reinforcing technology as useful for the player, it also belies innate harm induced by the same technology the player is also guilty of.
Super Metroid’s concern with the purpose of technology for betterment and violence is established from the opening exposition. Samus describes how the current situation with the Space Pirates comes about. She has already defeated the group in the past. Back then, they were already harnessing the power of the Metroid alien for destruction. In the present, after Samus returns a Metroid to scientists for study, she receives a distress signal from the scientists’ base and returns to investigate.
The Metroid is simultaneously an agent of creation and destruction explicitly linked to scientific advance. It is explicitly noted for miraculous powers, later revealed to be energy based, that could be a possible boon for civilization if it is properly harnessed. At the same time, it is equally noteworthy for being abused by the civilization-threatening Space Pirates. The game opens with the assertion: “The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace…” The captivity or harnessing of the Metroid or technology, at least by those who do right, can be positive or even necessary for peace and some form of societal progress.
As an agent of the player, Samus would presumably be in line with these do-gooders. As narrator of the exposition, she seeks to protect civilization from threats. She defeats the Space Pirates. She donates the Metroid for research. She responds to the distress signal immediately, only to find that a draconic alien (Ridley) has stolen away the Metroid again for the Space Pirates.
Hence, the player is forced upon a journey where Samus’ power suit of armor embodies the necessity of technology. At the base level, Samus needs her suit to fight or do anything at all. Game over occurs when her suit is destroyed and she is left in her underwear, indicating a gendered vulnerability for her role as a woman within a traditionally male action hero space, possibly only present historically in games due to her armor.
Upgrades to her armor support the utility of technological advancement. After reaching Zebes and beginning the main portion of the game, the player has the option of going either to the left or the right. If the player goes to the right as is traditional, they find that Samus’ path is blocked by what appears to be destructible blocks. However, at this moment there is no way to destroy them. The only recourse is to go to the left and into a labyrinth of caves. Again, the path is blocked by various different obstacles, whether it is an unopenable door, a too-narrow passage, or an overly high ledge. However, eventually, in a glowing orb the player finds an upgrade known as the morphing ball, that enables Samus to roll into a tight ball that can navigate narrow passages. If the player returns to such locations, they find that the obstacles are no longer insurmountable. The same holds true, eventually, for the initial rightward foray, and the game features more and more of these examples.
These advances are necessary to advance but are also part of a system of accomplishment for the player, a stamp of approval on their advancement of technology. The difference between Samus’ initial loadout and her final high jumping, missile launching, ball of death is tangible for the player sense of control and freedom of exploration. If the player pauses the game, they see both a map that steadily turns from blue to pink as areas are visited and a full inventory of upgrades collected thus far. These are all means through which the player can track and be rewarded for their progress.
Such progress minimizes the violent ways in which Samus operates due to the technology. The player uses her weaponry to navigate the world when they shoot doors and blow up walls. While many of the creatures are hostile, others are less so, yet Samus is rarely incentivized not to kill them. One exception is a dark level filled with fireflies that illuminate the area, but given the player’s conditioning towards shooting anything that moves, they initially remain targets. Upgrades are useful, but not some arbitrary force for peaceful good and heroism.
The dual depiction of Samus as a violent hero is there from the introductory exposition. She indicates that she is a mercenary when she awaits the next bounty, a questionable career choice morally. However, even more egregiously, she claims the genocidal eradication of nearly the entire Metroid species (despite the larva still viewing her as arguably a mother figure!). A visual contrast between these two contradictory parts is indicated by having half of Samus’ human face revealed, with the other half obscured by her helmet. Samus is no shining beacon of light, but the player is directed more towards the system of advancement than any moral questions.
This is not to say Samus is a villain, or that Super Metroid is particularly concerned with video game violence like some modern games like Undertale (2015) or Braid (2008) proclaim themselves to be. Samus still seeks to save civilization and a childlike entity in the Metroid. She is fighting a comically evil organization called the Space Pirates, shooting and platforming in classic video game excitement. However, questions can still abound, about her character, the players’ actions, and the role of the technology they use. The upgrade system takes focus away from them as it acts as a reward system and proponent of this technology.