Introduction
Welcome to the Metroid II: Return of Samus Let's Play; I'm your host, MeccaPrime. This game followed me around as a child (in fact, one could say it was the best babysitter I ever had), so I'm very knowledgeable about this one. What does that mean for you? It means that this is going to be a very informative and technical LP, but that doesn't mean that we can't have some fun in the process... Let's get into this shall we?
Release Date(s): November, 1991 (North America) - January, 1992 (Japan) - May, 1992 (Europe)
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Gameboy
Game Style: Adventure/Exploration
Metroid II: Return of Samus is the second game in the series, taking place some time after the events in Metroid (and, subsequently, the Prime series) and shortly before the events in Super Metroid. Although the game was not critically received as well as the original and subsequent games in the franchise, it did have a lot of features that laid the foundation for the rest of the series; I will cover these features as they show up in the game. Most of the criticisms of this game are in the graphics and music department. This limited graphics and music can be chalked up to the restrictions of programming on an 8-bit hand-held system, but I do agree that more could have been done. Regardless, this game's saving graces lie in its atmosphere, its exploratory gameplay, and its story.
Developed by Nintendo's R&D1, this game featured many improvements over the previous game, most notable is the ability to save your progress in the game using a battery backup in the cartridge. Another new feature is Samus's ability to shoot directly downward while in the air; this is extremely helpful when navigating those long descents into the unknown.
Samus's previous mission had her foiling a Space Pirate plot to use the life forms know as Metroids for their own devices. Some time after this, the Galactic Federation (the so-called "government" of the Metroid universe) declares that Metroids are too dangerous to exist and starts a mass-genocide of them on their home planet (SR388). Of course, as most government projects are prone to do, the mission fails; my guess is that the failure was due to massive spending cuts, funds redirection, and general piss-poor management.
The Galactic Federation decides that they need the help of an expert to help them dissolve the Metroids' existence; they enlist everybody's favorite bounty hunter, Samas Aran, to finish the job that they couldn't even start. Samus's mission is to travel to SR388 and extinguish the Metroid species (to include killing the Metroid Queen). Of course, for some unexplained reason, she has none of the powers that she previously had, so she will also have to spend her time searching for all of her suit and weapon upgrades in the process...
The aim of this LP is to collect 100% of the items, weapons, and suit upgrades as well as achieve the "good ending" for the game (beat it in less than 3 hours). I will be moving fairly quickly through this game (it might even seem like a speedrun at times), however nothing will be missed since I am going to collect everything. Now, Metroid II does not keep track of your items like other Metroid games do (limited hardware yadda, yadda...) so I will be keeping track of my percentage myself. I will do this mainly with the progress post that will immediately follow this OP as well as with several HUD pop-ups in the gameplay footage itself (which will be added manually).
Since things will be moving fairly quickly, most updates will be anywhere from ten to fifteen minutes in length (so as not to induce content overload by doing too much in a single update). I will also produce bonus videos including, but not limited to: an "impact of Metroid II on the remainder of the series" type of video, several videos showing off the "secret world" glitch areas of the game.
Main Series
Disclaimers1: For the first three videos, I was under the false assumption that there were 18 missile expansions when there were actually 22. I did collect all 22 I just miscounted when reviewing my gameplay. All videos after the third one will reflect the corrected percentage.
2: Some have been having trouble viewing these videos with certain graphics drivers; if you are experiencing difficulty watching the uploaded videos, try disabling hardware acceleration in your flash settings.
| Part 1 | Youtube |
| Part 2 | Youtube A Youtube B |
| Part 3 | Youtube |
| Part 4 | Youtube A Youtube B |
| Part 5 Featuring special guests: BrokenGameboys, LawofSine, and Metroixer | Youtube |
| Part 6 Featuring special guests: BrokenGameboys, LawofSine, and Metroixer (Part-Time) | Youtube A Youtube B |
| Part 7 | Youtube |
| Part 8 Featuring special guests: LawofSine and Metroixer | Youtube |
| Bonus 1 | Youtube |
| Bonus 2 | Youtube |
Other Content
Metroid II: Return of Samus vFAQ - My full run, from start to finish, without any commentary. I put this up as sort of a vFAQ for anyone who was having trouble finding all the items and/or wanted to complete the game fairly quickly.
Full Scan of the original Metroid II Manual - find courtesy of Mangler103
Original Japanese Commercial for Metroid II - find courtesy of ConanThe3rd
Fan Content
User Zellus re-invisions the impact of the Varia suit on Samus's appearance for the remainder of the series.
User Zellus spoils the 3DS release of Metroid II.