Super Metroid is a game beloved by generations, and a big part of that deals largely with how it tells its story. Despite having little actual text and no spoken pieces, the game evokes a sense of loneliness, mystery, and discovery of a sinister plot while also raising questions about the nature of the player’s actions over the course not just of the game itself, but of the past games within the Metroid series. Narrative exists within this game entirely in the architecture, which is what makes it so compelling and effective. When one sees what is within Super Metroid, there’s little need for exposition, and the player can come to draw their own conclusions. Without the superimposition of the spoken word, there is also a freedom to inhabit Samus, a character whom most players would likely not identify with. Indeed, who of us is a bounty hunter, and if we were, what would the nature of our actions be in relation to a hostile alien world?
In order for the player to begin to inhabit the character, Super Metroid does, at the beginning of the game, provide some textual background for the character’s initial flight and arrival upon a space colony, dedicated to scientific research. Effectively, the space colony is the first act of the game from a narrative perspective. It is providing the player with who the character is, the context under which they are arriving, and what the character’s overt goals are. The space colony is also where the challenge to the character is presented, where the player must begin to explore the larger world that Samus inhabits and begin to make judgments about who they determine Samus to be. Because Samus never speaks, we inhabit a character who we ourselves must fill, yet the values that we inhabit her with are both are own and our illusions as to who Samus might be.
The power of that curiosity, of who Samus is, is also compelling. Part of the reason any story progresses is to explain who the character is, and after the challenge is presented, we arrive on Zebes to build our empty vessel into a force that can ultimately meet the challenge. In doing so however, the environment is also explaining a great deal about who the character is. The fact that Samus casually runs by so many dead bodies in the space colony says a great deal not just about the player, but about Samus. There is clearly a mission here, a goal that is taking precedence over the lives of even innocent civilians that Samus must complete. None of this is ever spoken or even hinted at however, it is shown within the game and within our actions. The same can be said for much of the architecture of Zebes, which shows both Samus’s deadly aggression as well as her strange compassion.
As the player begins the second act, landing on Zebes in a rainy, dark world, the environment itself is telling us much about who the enemies are. The enemies are a group who clearly prefer an alien environment that they can technologically and biologically enrich to serve their purposes. Almost every alien has a strange disdain for Samus, clearly showing that something is rather amiss about either the nature of the planet or the nature of the alien group that Samus pursues. In either case however, what is also abundantly clear is that Samus will shoot her way through these enemies without a second thought. These are fodder, yet also a means of survival, providing energy and protection. The world is something that seeks to flush out the foreign, and in the case of Zebes, what is foreign is Samus. Clearly so as well, as Samus is a uniquely human creature in a land full of alien lifeforms, which each take on unique actions that Samus must overcome to progress.
As she progresses, Samus begins to encounter beings that provide for her new abilities. Yet encountering such creatures is equally strange. Why would such creature leave behind these things for a clearly foreign character, a body who is not wanted on this strange, unknown planet? Clearly these beings, known through third-party sources as Chozo, are interested in helping Samus, but how selflessly does that help come? One of the first boss battles within the game is a Chozo in a fit of rage, seemingly rejecting Samus’s very presence on the planet. Is it a rite of passage, a built up, ancient rage, or is there some corruption of the planet itself that is occurring? Many questions that the player could ask, yet despite so many questions, answers are few in coming, and Samus remains dedicated to a solemn, lonely mission.
Further exploration also reveals some truly benign creatures on the planet, and further questions are raised still when Samus is given the option to rescue these creatures. There is a big question of how such a character, how someone so at odds with so much alien life can display such kindness, yet it also remains a mystery, as are so many actions that Samus can take. The environment itself, as a hostile entity, contains a sense of mystery that begs exploring, that the player wants even the smallest answers for. Such anticipation of resolution is a deep ocean that the player is only ever floating over, looking down and seeing reflections in the waves.
Despite such longing for answers, each environment is varied, each with creatures of types displaying adaptation and morphology, and each boss fight lending the player a step closer to answering the call of the challenge. The player, or perhaps Samus, seeks to complete the mission put before them, to explore the depths of the cave that shoots long shadows, ones which, to this day, have never been fully resolved within the series itself. However, mystery and discovery are two things that architecture and narrative explore synonymously. When the player finds a certain upgrade, they find their ability to explore and soak in the atmosphere around them more richly. They find themselves going back to old spaces and making them new again. Each piece of the puzzle becomes an answer to previous mysteries.
The power of architecture guiding narrative is that the player can put pegs into different holes and continue to discover even in relatively known spaces. When Samus gains the ability to scan areas, even if they player finds something, oftentimes the player may not have the ability with which to explore that space fully. As a result, the space itself is full of notation, cues that help the player to know how to explore the space and to encourage them to continually explore spaces to unravel parts of the story previously unavailable. Such an exploration of space asks us to follow many paths, each of which is veiled by gameplay. The result is that the player can get lost even in a relatively small space.
Oftentimes games are criticized too much for allowing the player to get lost. Assuming that getting lost isn’t simply poor design, but a way to make players think about the space they are exploring in new ways, getting lost is the best way to encourage players to remove themselves from their comfort zone. In doing this, the designer can then begin to ask questions that the player might not otherwise consider, and Super Metroid is no exception. The game is often asking the player to relate their purpose to the architecture itself, and has many effective ways of showing the player’s positive and negative impact on the game world. Poetically, beating a boss causes a crystal to shatter, and when all of these crystals are shattered, the finale is opened to the player.
The shattering of these crystals is also the unveiling of a mystery though. The spaces the player explores are each unique spaces through which the player not only gains strength and skill, but also one in which the player becomes tied to the world, to what exists in the world and why. The finale is in many ways a question of the true goals of the player, whether it entailed destruction or salvation of life, whether it entailed what we wanted versus what we actually got. The game is intentionally antithetical, as through destruction comes some form of life, though many questions are raised as to its quality.
In the final act, though the player spends a great deal of time preparing for the final battle, there is a unique discovery that, in the face of an overwhelming force, the player is actually quite weak, and likely only through the aid of others is the character capable of much at all. Connections are also made in a very short span of those to a mother and child, and how as an adult, the child now defends the weaker, frailer mother. Despite the great strength exuded from the mother through the aid of the child, it is only through such a connection that such power can be provided. There is also a challenge issued to the traditional views of mothers and children as well, seeing as how in many ways the child is both adopted and alien, yet displays uniquely human qualities. Through the strength of the adopted child, the mother is able to survive, yet there is also a sacrifice made by the child to bring such salvation.
Despite the child’s attempts, the player must still ultimately will their survival as the alien Space Pirates perform a last, desperate attempt to destroy our heroine. Going back to the beginning of our journey, a timed escape from the world of Zebes begins. Despite the nature of time being short, it is in this moment where the player has the opportunity to make a unique decision about the lives of a few benign alien lifeforms, attempting to escape as the planet buckles and deteriorates. Saving them is no easy task given the amount of time the player has. Yet in this moment the character of Samus seems almost strangely human, given the amount of destruction wrought on alien life up until this point. This too is the player answering a question about the nature of who they are, and who Samus is, within even this dangerous context. The player is attempting to find answers that relate to who they are within the game world, and who Samus is.
Escaping, completing the mission, is the finale. Having fought hard, the ending itself is rather sparse and relates much of its quality to the individual’s efficiency at navigation. This too is a promotion of the mission above all else, and is a qualifier of Samus’s and ultimately, the designer’s interests. The game is purposefully giving the player a reason to move quickly through the environment, despite the player’s desire to fully explore the space. The designer is, in a sense, delineating a will towards a mission within the game. The designer reflects much of Samus’s personality through such goals, and compels the player not just to replay, but also to thinking differently about the game they’ve just played. Play has a quality that can be explored in many ways, both from a design perspective and a player perspective, and the design in Super Metroid, upon replays, becomes encouraged and sublime.