Metroid II Now Available on Virtual Console

2011-12-17 11:05:17 pm

I (mis)read this in wikipedia a long time ago:

"Metroid II's designer, Nintendo R&D1, was also involved in developing the Game Boy Color, a device similar to the Game Boy but with a color screen. Nintendo's Dan Owsen acknowledged in an interview that the company planned to release a color version of Metroid II. He believed that Nintendo R&D1 included a special "Metroid palette" in the Game Boy Color's hardware, which "makes Metroid II look really, really nice on Game Boy Color", and remarked that the release should have graphics comparable to the original Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, the project was eventually canceled."

I misread it totally. I thought it said that they made GBC's software play M2 in color, so there was no need to release a DX version.

Tahngarthor

2011-12-18 12:28:58 pm

Bangaa Bishop

yeah. There were actually several games for which they included special color palletes to make specific games look nicer. The Super Game Boy also did this, though the results are not exactly the same.

On the game boy color, if I recall correctly, you can choose different color palletes by holding the buttons a certain way while you turn it on.

sabata2

2011-12-18 04:15:27 pm

ANKOKU

Quote from Tahngarthor:

On the game boy color, if I recall correctly, you can choose different color palletes by holding the buttons a certain way while you turn it on.

Yup.

God did I love changing around the color Link was in Link's Awakening.
"I think I want to play as a Brown Link today."

UchihaSasuke

Edit history:

UchihaSasuke: 2011-12-19 09:19:05 pm

2011-12-19 01:18:55 am

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

i only had like 3 games that used that function since i was late to the party and most of my early portable games were GBC already.

Tahngarthor

Edit history:

Tahngarthor: 2011-12-19 06:44:21 pm

2011-12-19 06:43:46 pm

Bangaa Bishop

Quote from UchihaSasuke:

i only had like 3 games that used that function since i was late to the party and most of my early protable games were GBC already.

The palette switch works with all regular Game Boy games. Also, this works on the game boy advance as well.

Secretkey

2011-12-22 07:47:02 pm

I also downloaded this game for my 3DS - I used to play Metroid II at my friend's house as a kid, but the only thing I remember is that I constantly got lost in the very first area in the game ;)

Now, I've just beaten the game and it was a very enjoyable experience. Having no map at all really makes you feel lost and it is one of the Metroid titles which teaches you what people mean by saying 'metroid feeling/atmosphere'. It wasn't even as hard as I expected the game to be, though it had some annoying moments like running out of missiles and looking for refills and save stations. The controls are much better than in the original NES-Metroid and I didn't get lost as much as on the NES, because the areas were filled with quite a few more characterstics (though I have to admit, the last areas were confusing as heck and I used a map for one Metroid I just coudn't find in the middle of the game).
I loved fighting against the different Metroids, since the missile firing itself is awesome, but also because you really feel rewarded after having searched for them. Spiderball is cool and the last bossfight kind of tough, if you only vaguely know what to do.
My final time: 5: 48 h - I had 5 ETs and about 170 missile containers.

I am really glad, I have purchased this game :)

I also downloaded this game for my 3DS - I used to play Metroid II at my friend's house as a kid, but the only thing I remember is that I constantly got lost in the very first area in the game ;)

Now, I've just beaten the game and it was a very enjoyable experience. Having no map at all really makes you feel lost and it is one of the Metroid titles which teaches you what people mean by saying 'metroid feeling/atmosphere'. It wasn't even as hard as I expected the game to be, though it had some annoying moments like running out of missiles and looking for refills and save stations. The controls are much better than in the original NES-Metroid and I didn't get lost as much as on the NES, because the areas were filled with quite a few more characterstics (though I have to admit, the last areas were confusing as heck and I used a map for one Metroid I just coudn't find in the middle of the game). 
I loved fighting against the different Metroids, since the missile firing itself is awesome, but also because you really feel rewarded after having searched for them. Spiderball is cool and the last bossfight kind of tough, if you only vaguely know what to do. 
My final time: 5: 48 h - I had 5 ETs and about 170 missile containers.

I am really glad, I have purchased this game :)

Behemoth

2012-01-16 01:23:52 pm

I downloaded this to my new 3ds and I'm pretty happy with a couple of things.

I like how the mono picture is actually the replica of the original Gameboy screen, as in having that green tint. I like this color and the game indeed has more atmospheric texture than the horrible ROM version on the emulator, which is just that crisp black and white image. I find it quite soothing to look at on the 3ds especially because of the much brighter screen than the ancient Gameboy.

Secondly it's a downright lifesaver they put missile switch button to one of the four face buttons. If they hadn't changed this and kept it to select, with it's current awkward position on the 3DS, it would have made the game far less playable. So thumbs up for this download indeed !

Opium

2012-01-16 03:09:27 pm

There's patches out there to colorize your ROM if you ever want to play the game in color. There's also a justin bailey version, but it's pretty goofy looking.

UchihaSasuke

2012-01-18 03:22:04 pm

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

i found the green tint very hard to get into. i prefer the black and white tone myself.
but then, i never owned a brick GB. my first GB was a pocket one in 1998.

playerman1230

2012-02-09 12:13:28 am

Hated by all

Quote from Opium:

There's patches out there to colorize your ROM if you ever want to play the game in color. There's also a justin bailey version, but it's pretty goofy looking.

Yeah, I tried those. There was a Blue-based color patch and a Gold-based color patch. The blue one didn't make the lava right. (Alright, one way to differentiate water and lava: if it's solid, it's water, if it looks peppery, it's lava.)

When I played this on emu (and I use a controller nowadays, not a keyboard) sans color patches, I only set it to two settings: red (think Terminator-infrared, since IIRC the manual said that Samus used an IR function on her visor or something) and dark thermal (custom red-blue-green-black foreground/background, and red-blue-green-yellow sprites).

The only Metroids that pissed me off were the Gammas, mainly because the playing fields were so unfair to you.

With Omegas, if you can chain shots in their backs, you pretty much use up around 15 missiles instead of 40. This is handy if all you can do is kill the three bad guys near the two Omegas if you're low on Missile ammo.

[quote="Opium"]There's patches out there to colorize your ROM if you ever want to play the game in color.  There's also a justin bailey version, but it's pretty goofy looking.[/quote]

Yeah, I tried those. There was a Blue-based color patch and a Gold-based color patch. The blue one didn't make the lava right. (Alright, one way to differentiate water and lava: if it's solid, it's water, if it looks peppery, it's lava.)

When I played this on emu (and I use a controller nowadays, not a keyboard) sans color patches, I only set it to two settings: red (think Terminator-infrared, since IIRC the manual said that Samus used an IR function on her visor or something) and dark thermal (custom red-blue-green-black foreground/background, and red-blue-green-yellow sprites).

The only Metroids that pissed me off were the Gammas, mainly because the playing fields were so unfair to you.

[hidden]With Omegas, if you can chain shots in their backs, you pretty much use up around 15 missiles instead of 40. This is handy if all you can do is kill the three bad guys near the two Omegas if you're low on Missile ammo.[/hidden]

J_SNAKE

2012-02-17 08:40:50 pm

Does it at least have color? It's a shame if they don't refine their stuff to make it some justice.

sabata2

2012-02-18 07:16:00 pm

ANKOKU

No it doesn't snake.

ryu

2012-03-31 12:22:29 pm

which is kinda pathetic considering the game was in color if you played it on the snes

Tahngarthor

2012-04-04 04:01:33 am

Bangaa Bishop

Quote from ryu:

which is kinda pathetic considering the game was in color if you played it on the snes

That's because the super game boy had a special color palette programmed into it, which we spent half the thread talking about. It's not because the game was ever actually in color. The 3DS is emulating the game boy, not the super nintendo (Which the super nintendo was not powerful enough to emulate the game boy hardware- The super gameboy consisted of the game boy hardware inside the cartridge, which sent its video to the SNES, which applied the colorization on its own based on the title. A few specially designed super game boy games sent special instructions to the super game boy to colorize the games more than normally possible)

GB Donkey Kong is in grayscale on 3DS even though it has full color on Super Game Boy, because the 3DS is emulating a game boy, not the SGB on the SNES.

Behemoth

2012-05-21 03:16:13 pm

Just started playing this again (yes I will do that speed run d'oh!

), and I find it ironic that after testing out that palette switch to change it to the bright green to mimic the game boy screen, I actually find that hideous. When I referenced the green tint before I meant the black and white palette because it still to me has a very faint green-ness to it. and is much more easier on the eye.