Prerelease:Super Metroid

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Super Metroid.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: Two screenshots from the Nintendo E3 1997 press kit CD.

Nintendo Power

Various issues contain early screenshots of the game.

Issue 56

Issue 56 seems to show off the same build as the German advertisement for the game.

Samus's gunship has an elevator that is missing from the final.

The Kihunter room before the Spore Spawn fight appears to be in its final state, but the minimap depicts a vertical room instead.

An unknown room in Norfair that doesn't appear in the final game. The minimap is different as well.

While Kagos do appear in Norfair in the final game, they never make an appearance in an area like this. It also appears to be floating.

Issue 58

Appears to be closer to the final game, with some differences.

An earlier pause screen. The final game replaces Long Beam's slot with the Charge Beam, and the Maru Mari had its name changed to Morphing Ball.

German Advert

A German commercial (seen at 2:31 in the video) includes a number of clips from earlier builds of the game.

Samus is shown fighting Ridley in Ceres using the Charge Beam, which is an upgrade that's unobtainable until after the fight in the final game. One of the Charge Beam shots is additionally shown vanishing before it can hit Ridley, possibly hinting that the Long Beam from the original Metroid still exists in the game's code at this point in development.

The lava appears to have different graphics than in the final game.

Metroids in an area with Maridia tiles. It might be a test room, as steep downward slopes do not exist in the final. The Metroids seem to have different mechanics as well.

Spore Spawn's room looks identical to the final with the exception of the Ripper, which isn't present in the final version. It appears to be using Spore Spawn's palette as well.

The map in the top-right has Spore Spawn's room as part of a vertical shaft. In the final, its room is accessed via a long horizontal corridor below.

The Fake Kraid area has a lower ceiling, more spikes, possibly filler tiles, and some "eye" tiles in the fences.