 In my review for Super Castlevania IV, I talked about how the mood and atmosphere surpassed the gameplay to the point that you just wanted to hang out and soak it all in. Unfortunately, as a linear platformer, you couldn't really do that in that game, you had to keep going. But in Super Metroid, the whole point of the game is to explore and discover so the atmosphere is everything. If Nintendo didn't nail that aspect of this game, then it would've been dismal. But thankfully, Nintendo hit it out of the freaking park, the music, the darker color palette, the enemies, the bosses, the backgrounds, and... did I mention the music? The soundtrack is the most important part of Super Metroid, especially toward the beginning of the game when you first arrive at Zebus. You're just wandering around completely by yourself on the seemingly desolate planet, and you really do feel totally isolated. Oh god, what is this? But then you backtrack a bit into Mother Brain's lair and suddenly... Oh shit. There's monsters everywhere and the music kicks in. Oh shit. That's ultimately what separates Super Metroid from every other game, those moments in the game that make you say, oh shit, out loud. There are at least five or six of these moments and they just never get old. There's a famous one at the very end of the game, when Mother Brain materializes a body from nothing, oh shit. Those moments are just so good that I don't want to spoil any more of them, you just got to experience them for yourself. I'll just say there's one that happens after you beat a certain boss. It was so unexpected and so freaking cool. Another thing that separates Super Metroid from any other game is that it rewards your curiosity and attention to detail. You ever play an old school RPG where you feel compelled to check everything just in case you'll find a hidden item or something? Only it seems like you hardly find anything and you're just wasting your time. Well in Super Metroid, you're almost never wasting your time being that thorough. I mean, that's the whole idea of the game, it invites you to find out all the hidden areas and items and upgrades and secret entrances or tunnels and there's tons of them. And the game isn't too cryptic about where to go, but it's not too easy either. It even introduces a tool that helps you to spot secret areas if you're diligent enough. From a visual standpoint, the best part of the Super Metroid universe is that it comes across as lived in. I love the wrecked ship, both the area itself and the idea that it's simply called wrecked ship, which of course implies that other people have tried to explore this planet and they couldn't even freaking land. They wrecked their ship. Not only does Super Metroid reward your diligence through the gameplay itself, but it caps it off by featuring what I think is the best ending to any Super Nintendo game. I won't spoil it, but I can tell you it is brilliant. And again, the music and the sound design were the most important aspects of what make it as good as it is. Now, I do have a couple nitpicky flaws that bother me. First and foremost is the wall jump. It sucks. Okay, maybe it's just me and I suck at it, which is very possible, but I don't think it was done very well. There are a few instances, particularly in Norfair, where I got so friggin' tired of trying to do these ridiculous jumps. It's just tough to do it right consistently. Again, maybe it's just me. I also think Samus gets a little too overpowered towards the end of the game. The Ridley Boss battle seems way too easy and the Mother Brain battle is pretty easy as well. Again, this is total nitpicking, nothing major. But yeah, there's a reason Super Metroid is talked about as being one of the best Super Nintendo games ever. Every aspect of the game complements itself brilliantly. The nature of the gameplay, the soundtrack, and the darker graphics all fit together. There's a saying, the hole is greater than the mere sum of its parts. No game fits that saying like Super Metroid.