Originally Posted by Turo602
Metroid Fusion was probably the first major single player game that I owned and played through all by myself and I just absolutely loved it. There was something about it that was just so satisfying and different to me about it from the games I had played up until that point. It was definitely a lot harder and more confusing my first time, but that's kind of the joy of it too. It's why I love the classic Resident Evil games so much. You can spend quite a lot of time on your first run exploring everything, but your 2nd run becomes easier and so much shorter because you as a player has gotten better at navigating and memorizing solutions and routes. It's really just a giant puzzle if you strip away all the combat and fun, which is why it's such a rewarding design and I didn't really fully appreciate it until I was older and could deconstruct why I find it so engaging and fun. It's why both Resident Evil and Metroid are known for their speed running communities because they're honestly not really long games once you become familiar with them.
I didn't play Super Metroid until about 2014 though, and I've only just beat it for the third time on my 3DS a couple months ago and I honestly don't remember the order of things too well, but if I were to guess, I think the wrecked ship is just about halfway through the game and while 9 hours does seem like too long for just halfway, I at least hope you've been finding everything or almost everything up until this point because progressing towards the end shouldn't be too bad now and definitely shouldn't take you another 9 hours.
I think Super Metroid is a little more on the cryptic side and can become confusing when it comes to progressing. For instance, my last playthrough felt like I was breaking the natural sequence of events and I could never really tell what order I was meant to do things, because I was becoming more adventurous due to having played it before, but it actually got me a little lost on a few occasions. Super Metroid is still a great game and a personal favorite of mine, but Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and Metroid Fusion were definitely a lot better in terms of giving you a clear destination.
Still, in terms of 2D games, I think they're some of the most ambitious ones with how it takes whole genres and combines them. It's an adventure game like Zelda, a platformer like Mario, and a shooter like Contra. If that weren't enough, it's got some serious horror undertones, Allen being the most obvious inspiration, but also in terms of its story telling, music, and atmosphere and it turns it around by turning you into an empowering tank who can just decimate your enemies. There's a lot going on here and it's a shame it's often overlooked despite how successful the formula is elsewhere.
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