Last weekend, I had some free time after everyone had gone to bed and I had poured a couple of hours into a presentation for Historical Linguistics class, so I decided to pop Super Metroid into my family's Retro Duo console. Up to the point where I had saved my game, I had been using a walkthrough that was posted on IGN. It has been a good walkthrough, but more written from the perspective of a speed player who is trying to beat Super Metroid under 90 minutes. However, I have found that following a walkthrough word-for-word can be tedious, sapping the fun and adventure out of Super Metroid. So, I decided to just wing it and play without the walkthrough...For the most part, I did well enough. Because I had saved my game in Maridia after defeating Draygon, I still had to find a reserve tank and a missile tank. I found these items easily enough after navigating for 30 minutes using Samus' map screen. It was after that when things got tough as I worked my way to Norfair, where I spent five minutes trying to get a missile tank located on the other side of some crumble blocks, got into a nasty fight with an evil Torizo, and then acquired the Screw Attack. After that, I tried to screw attack/space jump my way up a massive room, only to have the Space Jump (I loathe Space Jump) work half of the time, while I would fall or crash into nigh-invincible Metal Pirates the other half of the time. After 25 more minutes, Samus drowned in rising acid as she failed to complete her space jumps. Sheesh.
Because I didn't (or couldn't) save after beating that Torizo, all of my progress after acquiring the reserve tank was lost. Thankfully, I at least saved when I did, but I realized how hard Super Metroid is without a walkthrough. I'd like to blame the Retro Duo's controller, though; I mean, why can't I string together successive Space Jumps?!
