Prerelease:Metroid
This page details prerelease information and/or media for Metroid.
To do: There's a lot more out there. |
Contents
Manual Screenshots
Menu Screens
Prerelease | Final |
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This shot of the title screen shows that the start game prompt originally wasn't centered properly.
Prerelease | Final |
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This shot of the continue screen shows a different, slightly sloppier sprite of Samus crouching. Also seen here, in the name selection screen, is an earlier iteration of the game's font. Namely, the kana Ha (ハ) is the more noticeably different, whereas the equal, period, interrogation/exclamation mark, and slash symbols are all missing.
Prerelease | Final |
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This shot of the Mission Objective text featured in Famimaga Issue 18 shows that Samus was originally present there. Meanwhile, in the final game, she only appears in the ending.
Samus Sprites
Scan | Mock-Up | Final |
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This early front facing sprite is pretty much identical to final, aside from the plastron and some of the detailing on the ankles and feet.
Scan | Mock-Up | Final (Unused) |
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The sideways Samus sprite shows her less hunched over, and features extra plastron details as well as straps for her ankle pads. This sprite is worth noting due to it being a unique left facing one, whereas the final game simply mirrors the right-facing one to save on memory. However, unused unique right-facing Samus sprites still exist in the final game, though go unused. This sprite can also be seen in early promotional material, showing that the devs did originally consider using those. Moreover, this particular sprite also seems to have served as the basis for the "enhanced" Samus sprite seen in the game's US boxart.
Scan | Mock-Up | Final |
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The frame of Samus curling up into her Morph Ball form was redrawn, namely making her taller and shifting the helmet's sheen the other way around.
Enemy Sprites
The game's manual is kind enough to not only include a bestiary, but one which also features early sprites for a handful of enemies. Worth noting is the Multiviola, which takes on the form of a fireball instead of an orb, making it look closer to its larval counterpart, the Viola. This is actually reflected in its promotional art, which was made prior to the game's release. Moreover, this early sprite actually remains in the final game's data, though there it goes completely unused.
Another mention goes to the yellow Zoomer enemy, whose early sprite also seems to have been used as the basis for its "enhanced" depiction in the game's US boxart. This can most notably be seen by its rather goofier eyes, as well as the extra shading present on its spikes.
Name | Scan | Mock-Up | Final |
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Zeb | |||
Zoomer | |||
Rio | |||
Side-Hopper | |||
Dessgeega | |||
Waver | |||
Nova | |||
Multiviola | |||
Rinka |
Scan | Mock-Up | Final |
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The sprite for the energy orbs dropped by enemies is also slightly different. Namely, its inner portion is white instead of being black.
Early Room Layouts
A few earlier layouts of rooms can be seen in magazine coverage, commercials, and even the back of the international NES box. These go from changes to the actual layouts, to the way enemies are arranged in said rooms.
Brinstar
Prerelease | Final |
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Seen at the back of the NES box. The room is mostly the same layout-wise, but features two yellow Rippers instead of a singular red one.
Prerelease | Final |
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Seen in the Japanese commercial. The room lacks a row of breakable blocks, and features changes to the enemy variety, namely having a Skree on the ceiling.
Prerelease | Final |
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Another room seen in the Japanese commercial. A minor layout difference can be seen on the far left, with the gray platform being made taller in the final game.
Prerelease | Final |
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Also seen in the Japanese commercial. It features a couple of changes, with the metal bars being closer to each other, requiring the Morph Ball to navigate through.
Prerelease | Final |
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There's a part in the Japanese commercial where Samus is falling down through this repeating room type. This build features both differences to the placement of the platforms, as well as differences in the enemy variety. Most notable is the presence of the Skree, an enemy only ever seen on ceilings in the final game.
Prerelease | Final |
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The same layout as the previous room shows up once again in a screenshot from a late 1988 Nintendo Buyer's Guide. This is however a lot closer to the final layout, the biggest difference being the color variant of the Zoomers.
Prerelease | Final |
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This room can be seen in Famimaga Issue 19. Most notably, it features a completely different palette, suggesting that this room layout was either featured in the west part of Brinstar at one point in development, or that the palette change seen in zones such as Brinstar (West and Eastern) and Norfair (North and South) hadn't yet been fully implemented.
Unused | Used |
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Another notable difference is that the Waver featured in the screenshot is using its unused sprite from the Kraid's Hideout enemy sprite set.
Prerelease | Final |
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This room can be seen in a screenshot featured in a 1986 Famimaga Metroid map poster. The tile layout matches the final game, but notably there's a red Rio instead of a yellow one as well as a Skree not found there in the final game.
Norfair
Prerelease | Final |
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Seen at the back of the NES box, as well as in Famitsu Issue 9 and Famimaga Issue 18. Mostly the same as final, aside from enemy variety.
Prerelease | Final |
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A room layout that can be seen at the back of the NES box, and shows that the enemies where shuffled around slightly.
Prerelease | Final |
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This room, featured in Famimaga Issue 18 as well as the manual, had its Ripper II replaced by three Novas, and the leftmost platform went from one block tall to three.
Prerelease | Final |
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This room is featured in Famimaga Issue 18, and features some notable differences to both platform and enemy placement. Most notably, it lacks the pipes which spawn red Gamets.
Prerelease | Final |
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This room can be seen in the Japanese commercial, and features a red Geruda not seen anywhere in the final game, as well as a red Dragon instead of a purple one. The palette used here is also that of purple Norfair (North Area), instead of green Norfair (South Area).
Tourian
Prerelease | Final |
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Found in the manual is a small screenshot of Tourian, which shows the rightmost lower platform with a red palette instead of a grey one.