Metroid (video game)

Metroid
Metroid
	Box art of Metroid
Developer(s)	Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Designer(s)	Gunpei Yokoi (producer); Yoshio Sakamoto (director)
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Advance
Release	1986, 1987
Genre(s)	Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player

This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see Metroid series.

Metroid is the first game in the Metroid series of video games, and was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. The game was produced by Gunpei Yokoi, one of Nintendo's most famous game and hardware designers, and directed by Yoshio Sakamoto. The game is also very notable for its music, which was composed by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka.

Story

In the year 2000 of the evolution of the Cosmos the leaders of various planets united in order to form a congress that became known as the Galactic Federation in an attempt to construct a fair and structured universe that would enable society to grow and prosper. Under the guidance of this new federation, the individuals of the planets began to associate with each other and a new civilization began to develop. High-tech forms of transportation began to develop, such as interstellar spaceships, and society flourished through the use of such technology.

It was in this time that Earth came in contact with individuals from these other worlds and the advanced technology that these people possessed was shared with the humans of Earth.

All seemed well in this new society. However...Devious groups known as "Space Pirates" began to attack the spaceships in the hopes of looting valuable goods from them and to strike fear in the hearts of the people. In order to counter these attacks the Federal Bureau set up a new combat force known as the Federal Police.

Yet, the pirates were extremely difficult to battle as it was tough to pursue them in the depths of space, even with the advanced weapons of the Federation. Thus, they began to recruit a group of courageous individuals who became known as "Space Hunters" who were essentially bounty hunters who would go after the pirates with the most elite weapons available. The Federation provided huge financial bonuses to the Hunters in reward for hunting down and destroying the pirates...

It is now the year 20X5, and the universe has continued to develop while battles still rage throughout space. Recently, reports have indicated that a spaceship was traveling with a capsule containing an unknown life-force from the deserted planet of SR388 which was attacked and seized by the Space Pirates. While research about this life-form, which was in hibernation, was incomplete, it is known that exposure to beta rays for 24-hours while awake will cause it to multiply. Some scientists believe that this life-form may have been the cause of destruction of life on SR388. Scientists decide to call this being a "Metroid" and the mere thought of it being in the hands of pirates is utterly disturbing. If the pirates learn how to multiply it and use it as a weapon, the cost of lives could be overwhelming. The Federation launched search teams to find the pirates and were fortunate to discover that their base was located deep within the planet Zebes. However, none of the forces were strong enough to take the pirates down.

File:Mettitle.png

Metroid title screen

During this outside battle, operations to multiply the Metroid within the space pirate's headquarters was soon becoming a reality. Desperate for a solution, the federation decided that the only option left was to attempt to infiltrate the vicinity and destroy the leader of the space pirates known as the "Mother Brain." To make matters worse, the structure of the planet Zebes is a natural fortress that consists of a large maze constructed with a special form of stone material and scattered throughout the maze are various traps and allies of the space pirates. This mission clearly requires a special individual to complete this objective and so the federation has selected the most dominating space hunter of the entire organization to partake in this critical mission. This space bounty hunter is known as "Samus Aran".

Samus, though human, has a cybernetic suit that is connected with her body (in some places surgically), thus providing her with an uncanny amount of power. She has of this date completed many missions considered impossible and her suit has the power to withstand many lethal attacks while providing many lethal attacks itself.

Thus, Samus makes her way through the fortress-planet Zebes, collecting weapon and health upgrades, advancing to new areas, defeating Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain, and in the end, capturing the Metroid from the hands of the Space Pirates...

Notes

This game provided one of the first highly nonlinear game experiences on a home console, and the series continues to provide nonlinear gameplay with the ability to sequence break. This game, along with the rest of the series, is also notable for its blending of various genres superimposed onto a persistent world model of play.

In addition, it has been noted as one of the first games to use a password system - the original game was released for Famicom Disk System which allowed saving state on disk, but the American release was in NES cartridge form, and battery back-up didn't exist yet. When Samus Aran ran out of energy, the player was presented with a 24-character password. At the title screen, two options were available: Start and Continue. "Start" began a new game, while "Continue" led to a screen where players could enter the password they received at the end of the last game. After doing so, they could continue playing starting from the location from which they ended the game with the same powerups and progress they had obtained. However, many gamers did not enjoy this particular feature. The sequel, Metroid 2: Return Of Samus, instead used a save system reminiscent in some ways to Legend Of Zelda.

The game is present as an unlockable bonus in Metroid Prime. In 2004, Nintendo released Metroid: Zero Mission for the Game Boy Advance. That game also includes the original Metroid as an unlockable bonus. In addition, in the same year Nintendo re-released the original Metroid for Game Boy Advance, as part of the Classic NES Series.

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JUSTIN BAILEY

File:Metronosu-2.png

Game completion time: 1 hour or less.

JUSTIN BAILEY refers to a famous Metroid password that gives the player all the power-ups needed to win the game in a short amount of time. Since in the game there are four lines of six characters each for entering in a code, the top two lines should be filled in with JUSTIN and BAILEY and the last two lines should be filled in with entirely spaces.

Metroid has four different endings that vary depending on how much time the player took to finish. They show Samus Aran in various stages of undress. The "best ending" features Samus in a bikini.

A great deal of speculation surrounded the password. For instance, "Justin Bailey" was originally thought to be one of the creators of the game, but no such name appears in the game credits. It is also often said that the Justin Bailey code was a reference to an English or Australian term for a bathing suit. Allegedly, bathing suits are referred to as "bailey," so "Justin Bailey" literally means "Just In Bailey" or "Just In Casual Swimwear," which is what Samus wears when the code is used.

It was also rumored that the password violated Metroid's normal checksum verification, which would suggest that JUSTIN BAILEY was deliberately coded into the game. A website called The Metroid Database debunked this myth using password generators.

"If you play around with Metroid's password system, ...you can come up with other names and words that work as passwords. The 'Justin Bailey' code is one which was found early on and happened to work pretty well, so it became widely reported." (The Metroid Database - General Metroid FAQ. Retrieved Jan. 24, 2005.)

The password is now regarded as a total fluke, with no special meaning. Due to the algorithmic nature of the password, 1 in 256 possible passwords are valid [1]

Furthermore, the JUSTIN BAILEY code starts the game with some power-ups. To play the game with armorless Samus, no power-ups, and starting from Brinstar, use the code "000000 000020 000000 000020"

However, at least one code that was recently uncovered is known that is built-in to the game and will not check with password generators - namely, NARPAS SWORD0 000000 000000. This code gives Samus infinite health and missiles, making the task of clearing the game much easier; since one code is defined in the game as such, it is possible (though not probable) that more exist that are not known about to this day. There were small debates on what the password stood for. Some thought it referred to a "Narpas" sword. Others feel the password is properly read as "NAR PASSWORD", with "NAR" as an abbreviation for the name of the person who handled the conversion from the FDS and designed the password system, Tohru Narihiro, or, as an acronym of "North American Release". Another speculation is that it speaks of "Narpas's Word", believing the designers wished to steer you wrong with a misplaced space.

See also: Password (video games)

External links