Metroid, first screen, by cubeybooby.

[Josh says: a few fun First Screens in the queue so far, kicking it off with this adorably minimalist Metroid.  Hell yeah.  Keep ‘em coming!]

Metroid, Zebes, by katakis1.

Back when I was a child I played Metroid all the time. I’ve probably beaten that game over 30 times by now. I used to kind of frown upon the password system and always just restart the game, see how far I can get without dying.

The last time I played Metroid was probably 3 months ago… I think I’ll give it another run tonight.

Metroid, Zebes, by chocolatemarshmallowmateys.

I played through this once or twice the correct way, then I’d breeze through it with the NARPASSWORD password (which gives you all items, removing any previously existing Metroid-like elements of the game) to relax. I was amused at how closely the degree and placement of detail was affected by this, so I decided also to draw my usual route.

I originally sought this game out as a fan of Super Metroid, and never treated it as more than a strange precursor to the real thing. Between this fact and the fact that I rarely played it in anything like the fashion it was designed to be played in, I thought that a thoroughly misused Metroid would make a map all the more interesting for what are doubtless gross inaccuracies as well as large lacunae in content.

Metroid, Zebes, by John Harris.

This scan is of a handmade Metroid map made from memory.  Unlike my Zelda map, I don’t remember Metroid’s areas so well outside of Brinstar and Tourian.  A lot of guessed-at passages here, but I think I got the general locations of the major items right.  Kraid and Ridley’s hideouts, however, I’m pretty bad at remembering.  Ridley’s place in particular is mostly just a mass of question marks here.

[Josh says: another map of Johns that I’m trying not to look at to avoid spoiling my own doomed effort.]

Metroid, excerpts, by MJ.

I remember two areas of Metroid very distinctly - the beginning and the end, as they were the places I was most likely to die.

The metroids weren’t quite that cute.