I actually played them in a weird order. My first two were Fusion and Zero Mission, chronologically the last and first. I also played ZM’s included NES version of Metroid 1, with my own hand-drawn maps and everything! So while I’ve seen how low the series could go, it felt like I still had a glorious high to go through. To make a long story short: I prefer Zero Mission in a lot of ways.
I played the GBA ones a lot, and they have a distinct feel. I don’t have Fusion to go back and check, but I played ZM to confirm after finishing Super and it felt so right. In comparison Super feels slow and floaty, and the controls are much clunkier. ZM streamlines everything: no run button, no toggling between 5(!) different abilities, no need to deactivate or switch your powerups, no cumbersome X-ray scope. It’s also quicker and smoother, and with trickier puzzles and more impressive set pieces.
So my general impression is that I don’t quite see how Super is the be-all end-all that it’s made out to be. I’m just a dabbler in game design theory, so maybe a lot of the clever things went over my head. I think nostalgia must play a part too—in terms of growing up with it, ZM was my Super. However, Super has a lot of good stuff.
You can go anywhere to see why people think SM is great. It’s the subtle environmental storytelling. It’s the open-ended structure, where you choose what you do next, and many powerups are missable for a long time. The exploration, and the exciting combat.
There’s a dark side to open-ended exploration in a game with obvious goals, though. In Maridia especially I wandered around for ages, falling down holes and having to go the long way around. I don’t like that area. It brought to mind another comparison: the map, while immensely useful after my scribbled pencil scrawl for the first game, is simply not as helpful as its counterparts on the GBA. I relied on a separate map from the good folks at Metroid Recon, especially during the item collection phase.
Enough comparisons though. The endless secrets in this game were very rewarding: the animals who teach you new techniques (never could get the hang of the bloody walljump though), the beam combos, and of course all the missile tanks and so on. And sometimes it felt like you stumbled upon a boss, although most were well set-up. You get to know these areas you’re exploring, and then suddenly you find a hole in the wall that opens it up, that you never knew was there.
If you’ve played Metroid games before you know all the items you’ll get, although I had a few surprises such as the X-ray scope. Switching beams is also not something I’m used to outside of Prime, and I’m not sure I liked it. Sub Tanks are also unique to SM, taken straight out of Mega Man X, although given its open nature I wasn’t sure of the point. I also found so many things that I now recognise were being called back to in later games, especially Prime, ZM, and Other M. This really was an influential game for the series.
I dunno, I feel weird about this game. To me it’s not so special, just another Metroid game. It’s a good one though, probably better than Fusion if I really think about it. Fairly glitchy but full of ideas and atmosphere. Treating it as a game I didn’t like how it played compared to ZM, but it’s a well-crafted experience. My recommendation (if you somehow haven’t played any Metroid games) is to take this one fairly early. The bosses can be hard, but the puzzles are easier. Search thoroughly for items, it really helps. And find the Metroid larva!