100%Game Boy

What a lovely game. Played on Super Game Boy (SNES). But must have been amazing on Game Boy! Not too difficult. Just the right amount.

70%Game Boy

Like it's predecessor, this one doesn't have a map. I went the retro route and used the one from Nintendo Power (Issue #37). Without the map, this game would be extremely confusing. The NES Metroid at least had some color variations; everything looks exactly the same here. Luckily, this one has a lot less traveling across the entire map. It's a lot more linear.

The primary way this one sets itself apart from the others in the series, is that it's one of the few games where you primarily fight Metroids and they have multiple evolution stages. These start out as little mini-bosses and by the end each one can be a huge drain on your resources. There is a max of 5 energy tanks (although there is a 6th in the game), and a maximum of 250 missiles, although I could only find 210 with the map.

If you're going to skip a game in the series, it would probably be this one, but that's mostly because the visuals aren't very good. The idea of killing 39 Metroids can still be very inticing. It's still a pretty good Game Boy game, just hard to recommend for everyone.

85%Game Boy

I played this about a year after Metroid: Samus Returns. Thought it would be fun going backwards to it. I was right, it was. They're both really fun games. This is of course an old school Gameboy game, with limited save points and some frustration points. Play it with a map, or best of all the video guide U Can Beat Video Games provided on YouTube. It makes it really fun and takes away any tedium of getting lost. I beat it in 4:55, which is not a great time, but maybe not bad for a beginner.

80%Game Boy

Simple Rating for now, I may comeback to make a full review.

5 = I want to play it again and I’m planning to do so. If I won’t play it again, the single experience was worth it!
4 = I would play it again, but I’m not planning on it
3 = I was happy I played it, but I do not want to come back to it
2 = I was not happy with it, but it was not a total waste of time
1 = This was a total waste of time and I will warn others to avoid it

Key take away: This was my first Metroid and playing it in the 90’s was a great experience, but compared to the Metroids of today, it is hard to come back to….outside of nostalgia.

95%Game Boy

i remeber that the trick of queen metroid in wii with metroid other m is simikar in this game is so cool beat like 3 waits time like mario bosses

65%Game Boy

I really like how the game uses its own technical limitations to create something even more oppresive than the original Metroid. This atmosphere ('atmosfear'?) is clearly the best part of Metroid II. Gameplay-wise, it's a little too action-based. You will explore (and by explore I mean : be lost), but the overall goal is to fight super strongs mobs by just running into them and shoot, hoping they will die before you. It is as awfuly hard as it sounds, especially if you play it on a true Game Boy.

70%Game Boy

Its odd to have the direct sequel to a console game transfer to a handheld device. The hardware differences pose different challenges that need to be solved in creative ways, making for a similar, yet radically divergent game. Metroid 2 works within the system's limitations to attempt to elevate itself above its predecessor. And in this sense it is largely successful. This is what Metroid 2 is. The 'Aliens' to Metroid's 'Alien', Samus is sent to exterminate a hive of Metroids.

Much of the frustration of Metroid is gone with the introduction of energy and missile refill stations to prevent the tedium of grinding, but they're littered sparsely so not to reduce the tension of fights. Samus' controls have also been adjusted to allow aiming down and from a crouching position to prevent the exasperation of dying to enemies that you cant hit. The smaller screen size of the Gameboy has been mitigated by enemies which follow set paths and are far less aggressive to Samus' presence. Getting lost in the labyrinthine map has been eliminated, the area now sporting a linear, progression gated series of cave complexes. The concept is simple, exterminate all the Metroids, but creativity is not stifled by these accessibility changes as players still have choice when hunting down Metroids and powerups. The problem comes as you carry out your hunt into the bowels of the planet, this task quickly becoming repetitive and inane.

The hunt acts as a good narrative tool to drive the exploration, but it comes packaged with its own immense difficulty that is the repetitiveness of the combat. Each of the Metroid mutation has the same strategy, make a beeline for Samus, which means for each of the five types your strategy remains kite and hammer the missile button. Each mutation makes them faster, stronger, and tougher, but nothing about the dynamic of the fight changes. As they grow in speed and strength they take a sizeable chunk out of your health and missile count, and your reliance on these as the one dimensional combat means that backtracking to the health and ammo stations designed to reduce tedium in fights creates a vicious cycle it sought to circumvent. By the 9th fight (of 40-odd), the frantic tension wares thin and the passive nature of other enemies never deliver the same thrill.

This monotony of combat and reliance on missiles and health as the pillars of progression hamper the bounty of interesting upgrades and hangs over a game whereby one of the fundamentals of Metroid, combat, is by far the weakest. In Metroid 2 you can only hold one of the four beam upgrades at any one time. Ice freezes enemies allowing you to breathe or use them as a platform. Wave goes through walls, spazer fires three wide beams and plasma fires a single high powered shot. Each beam tends to different gameplay styles for the player, but loses all of its impact when every Metroid you fight cant be damaged by beams, and regular enemies aren't a threat and can easily be avoided.

Metroid 2 also offers a weird reflection on what is lost as time progresses. Each game played and each experience felt is relative to that individual, that time, and that place (I promise this is going somewhere). So much of the atmosphere of Metroid 2 is grounded in 80s sci-fi/horror. It uses the Gameboy sound chip to create beeps and guttural chirps to try and create that atmosphere before launching into a barrage of sound as you stumble into a Metroid that lunges for you. For any child playing this after saying goodnight and retrieving their Gameboy from under the pillow must have been terrified. Right there in that moment, this video game was capable of educing such raw emotions. When I hear the soundtrack I wonder who had a seizure on the midi keyboard in order to produce such tinnitus inducing squeals.

Despite it's enormous limitations, I enjoyed Metroid 2 slightly more than the first. It makes you reflect on much of what was wrong with it. Metroid for the NES really was just endless corridors, with exploration as meaningless as the bleak colour palettes that adorn it as you travel to the next boss. In this sense Metroid 2 is far more memorable. Upgrades like the multi jumping 'space jump' and wall climbing 'spider ball' recontextualise a linear map into one far more open and interesting to comb through for upgrades than its predecessor. Upon reflection, it is remarkable how Metroid 2 manages to still feel like playing a Metroid game while tweaking so much of its core mechanics. The core appeal of the progression of strength and freedom to explore remains. By the end there is a weird sense of metatextuality. After slaughtering your way past the queen, sick of the grind of genocide, you and Samus wearily head back to the ship. However, you stumble upon one last Metroid. A hatchling. And in a moment of perfect alignment between player and character, you take pity and in tranquil rejection of the game's objective, lead it back to your ship to end the game.

100%Game Boy

MASTERPIECE! ★

70%Game Boy

Very smooth GB game.

Good
- shooting down in mid air helps a lot. Crouch shooting is nice.
- enemies are less frustrating to deal with. Much easier than nes game.
- enemy movement isn't overly sporadic, spawning randomly and following Samus through rooms

Bad
- the mission in the game is not very exciting. Very straightforward
- some enemies are too thin. Really hard to hit with some beams (plasma)
- no map. The place is a huge maze and if u miss a Metroid or upgrade it can be an annoying trek back. At least maps in Metroid were color coded, which helped with backtracking. It's extra hard in this one cause no color.

85%Game Boy

The follow-up to the venerable Metroid, Return of Samus is the bounty hunter's first hand-held outing. Though a little sparse feeling due to the palette limitations of the Game Boy, Metroid II is still a full-fledged adventure, and offers much of the same type of exploration that the original Metroid provided.

80%Nintendo Switch

Metroid II: Return of Samus is a fantastic but short game for the gameboy that improves upon the original formula of Metroid is nearly every way.

Honestly i don't really know what much else to say but that, the gameplay was simple yet fun, the difficulty was pretty good and collecting all items was quick and easy.

60%Nintendo Switch

I was not expecting to like this more than I thought. I figured it would be simply just like the 1st game but in GB, and hearing that you cannot shoot downwards in any direction was concerning. Suffice to say, it was an alright experience and certainly better than the previous game.

I'll get this out of the way, once again I did use a map for this game, which I would say offered a much easier experience for me. Like the previous game, it is easy to get lost without one because most of the areas look the same with colors and texture. However, there is one big improvement they did and that is making the areas much more linear. This time, you're objective is to hunt down every Metroids in each area before you can progress as most of them are locked out, though, you might not tell which area is locked out, hence why I still recommend a map.

The items are quite decent to use like the plasma, spazer, and wave beams, but I liked using the spazer for taking out multiple enemies are areas covered in webs. The Space Jump feels unresponsive even when you time the jumping. Sometimes when you get it right in the middle of jumping and suddenly Samus starts to fall down which is annoying to deal with. One thing I appreciated what they added were tank and missile refills which is better than grinding out enemies to refill when you're low. Though some are difficult to find based on where they're placed, I must warn you.

Onto the Metroids, the Alpha's were manageable, but the rest I felt were too much for me to deal with. Gamma Metroid always kept hitting you with its electric attack that feel difficult to move out of the way so depending on what area you're at, you'd have to find a spot underneath where it can't hit you and blast away. Zeta and Omega move fast for Samus that you're bound to get hit so many times, and because they're hard ones, they take up a LOT of missiles.

Overall, I don't know if I could recommend this. If you played Metroid 1 and want to know what this game is like? Then sure I suppose, but again, try it with a map or else you'll be lost despite the linear approach. Perhaps A2MR or the Samus Returns might be your better options despite me never playing those games before.

60%Nintendo Switch

This game is just, eh. The controls and feel of the game are great, a large improvement on the first game. I don't love the core gameplay though. The idea of having to hunt down 39 Metroids on this planet is really cool, it gives the player the sense that Samus is bounty hunting which isn't present in many other Metroid games. What I don't love is all of those fights with the Metroids, it gets very repetitive and sometimes is just annoying. To finish it off, there's the final boss, it's hard to get a hang of the first few attempts, but all things considered it was a decently well-designed fight. One thing I don't love about it is that it's an extremely difficult fight, until you find the meta. Then the fight is over in seconds which wasn't a great progression. Overall, this game on release was a fine milk, the problem today is that it really does taste like 30-year-old aged milk.

70%Nintendo Switch

With the caveat of me using a map, I had a really good time with this game. I haven't played any of the remakes yet but there's definitely more than enough here to mine a rock solid structure for a remake. You can tell there were technical limitations making the game for the Game Boy but playing this on a Super Game Boy or the Switch produces a very solid presentation that soars above its limitations. It's a unique Metroid adventure that I think is totally worth checking out still (with a map handy).

80%Nintendo Switch

A good handeld Metroid. Second game in the series.

70%Nintendo Switch

Pretty good. Very hard. I had to grind a lot of health and missiles to survive the ending.

70%Emulated

Pretty good if you can overlook the lack of an in-game map, aged controls and reduced vision

70%Game Boy

Need a map

80%Game Boy

Such a massive step up from the abomination that is Metroid (NES), the linearity provides an actual introduction to the series, and the fact that this was a GAME BOY game is just astounding! I really enjoyed this one felt like a breath of fresh air.

100%Game Boy

Excellent!

90%Game Boy

Absolute delight of a game. Even though there's no map, it's drastically easier to navigate than the OG Metroid and has a great time finding new ways to surprise players.

70%Game Boy

This is a pretty great Metroid game considering it's age and the console it was developed for. The horror aspect is very interesting compared to other Metroid games. Issues are that there isn't a map and the fights against the Metroids isn't very good, because you are mostly just mashing missiles up close to them. The final boss is kind of annoying, but once you discover it's weakness, it becomes a lot easier. Overall, a pretty solid game for the time, just has a few issues and hasn't aged the best compared to the other games in the series.

70%Game Boy

With the way the NES library's contribution to gaming history is inflated and the Game Boy is ignored, the significant improvement Metroid II brings over the original has been obscured. You can resume from the point you saved from and refill all your health in one go instead of farming bees. Samus can also shoot while crouching which was a frustrating omission previously. The graphics are also more detailed despite the hardware disadvantage.

I can't help but compare to Kid Icarus II, the other Game Boy sequel to an "adventure series" NES game. Both fix their predecessors' most obvious flaws, but Metroid II has the ambition to add new elements like the space jump and spider ball. The map structure is more linear, probably annoying speedrunners but not hurting the enjoyment for anyone else. And the final escape sequence from Metroid 1 has been completely reversed with a calming passage to the surface with no danger, accompanied by the infamous baby. (Don't get attached.)

80%Nintendo 3DS

Great game, just a bit short and linear in comparison to other metroids but this is obviously due to the Gameboy's limitations at the time, still a very enjoyable game!

70%Nintendo 3DS

Metroid II ended up being what I expected the original Metroid to be. I prefer it over the NES original by a bit, though it is still not as great as many later titles would be. The game solves one of the original Metroid’s issues by including energy recharge and missile stations, which improves the progression pace significantly. The lack of a map feature remains a problem, made somewhat worse with the larger environments combined with the smaller screen size. Further, the game is bigger and yet slower than the original, which makes the experience feel somewhat bloated and overcomplicated. Still, Metroid II feels better to play more consistently than NES Metroid, which makes the game seem more fun overall. It is also quite atmospheric for a Game Boy game, though unfortunately not sonically, as the music is perhaps the worst in the series. I got a decent amount of enjoyment from this title as a Metroid and metroidvania fan, and I think anyone with a similar background would enjoy it as well. A decent game with some signs of true greatness to come.

40%Emulated

not bad

70%Game Boy

It was..okay. When compared to it's original it's significantly more forgiving as everytime you boot it up it doesn't start you with practically no health. The cramped screen and generally bland environments make this game a very solid ''eh''. Inoffensive but practically nothing to write home about. I haven't played the 3DS remake but I'll just go ahead and assume it's significantly better. 7/10.

60%Game Boy

It was aight. I can see why a lot of metroid fans don't like it though. It is definitely linear, and the fact that the linear map is also non-euclidean (you pretty much need a pre-made map with this game, drawing this game as it is on paper is literally impossible) makes this not really much of a metroid game in all honestly. If you instead choose to see it like some sort of weird 2D collectathon or something then maybe that might be a better experience. I give a rec since its still pretty badass for an original game boy game, but still a cautious rec if you are a fan of the series or somethin.

70%Game Boy Color

Just like the first Metroid, the music and atmosphere is amazing but it still didn't age very well

50%Game Boy Advance

It has this really weird, horrifying vibe to it that I really dig; it almost feels like you're playing (and listening to) the death rattle of a sentient alien species. Even more so now I can see how bizarrely off the mark Samus Returns was when it comes to faithfully adapting this game, because for some reason they made that version fun

90%Game Boy Color

100% 8h53 (in-game : 6h59)
This time you are the hunter and the game feels more open with the bigger maps and the vast number of different enemies.
This is just Metroid on NES but with way better movement and more upgrades.. and this refreshes the gameplay.
They also added hidden spots where you can get back all your energy or rockets (like inside the ship).
Also, they took advantage of the small screen size of the gameboy to create an anxious atmosphere with just the good amount of music.
My only complaint is that this is not a Gameboy Color game and there is no in-game map.. so you may get lost once or twice.

60%Game Boy

Pretty strong offering for the game boy and does a lot to differentiate itself from its prequel, but it suffers extensively from gameboy screen crunch, especially on the later bosses.

70%Game Boy

Metroid -> Super Metroid is a commonly discussed evolution of the series and one that is absolutely true, with the start of Super Metroid all but spelling it out for the player. But how about this: Metroid II -> Metroid Fusion is a completely parallel yet similar evolution of taking an older title's unique ideas and modifying them. Both of them offer more linear experiences than the game they preceded (Metroid/Super Metroid) that offer a more "horror" vibe to them and revolve around the idea of hunting, with Fusion having you take the role of the hunted and Metroid II taking the role of the hunter. This dual track of Metroid development is very interesting to consider, but how about the quality of it as a game? Well, I'd call it a game that succeeds in spite of itself.

This game runs a LOT on the general atmosphere and "vibes" of the game, this light horror tension as you're walking through stark white (or puke green if you're playing the original original Game Boy) stone enviroments while waiting to see where you're going to run into the tough boss you're going to be hunting down, seeing their discarded shells or floating awaiting your approach and THIS part of the game is pretty effective. There were multiple times where when I came across a long corridor and would move forward in little bursts so I wouldn't trigger a boss if I wasn't ready health-wise and that kind of feel is exactly what the game feels like it is going for. The final Area is particularly strong at this, nearly empty save for the final enemies and a few secrets. It really gives the feeling of traveling through a ruined and desecrated facility, continuing the Metroid trend of strong enviromental finishes to Metroid games which is what kept the game in the 7 star range for me. The strong music helps in this regard, spooky bit tunes and screeches and lowkey enviromental noises that really et the tone. The title theme is a particularly strong one, the transition from the little "scree....scree..." noises to a more relaxing tone is basically how the game goes, the kinda frantic stomping anger of the final boss theme, the general surface theme. This game really doesn't have a LOT of music but it takes full advantage of the primitive Game Boy sound options to make a pretty memorable OST.

I was also impressed by this game's use of visual langauge and how it made a game without a ton of tile variety quite legible, in addition to servicing the background story. For example, you come to the same tiered tile set of platforms in pretty much every area, which is a visual indicator of being that area's "hub" from which you'll be exploring the other areas for their designated Metroids, which gives an effective way to know when you're in a new area when combined with each area having either a unique flying enemy OR a unique hazard at the bottom of it. Simply by looking to see "oh, is this the one with spikes?" was enough to give me a good idea of where I was via mental map, helping with the total lack of an in-game map. Blast doors you need to use missiles on pretty much always lead to something good, while if they lack the missile doors you're in league for a boss fight. That sort of thing permiates the game and is very helpful.

This is great and all but all runs into some pretty serious flaws in the game. I actually didn't find the boss fights too repetitive, there's enough exploration that it turned into more of my brain tinkering how best to exterminate the next boss which given the hunting / "genocide ALL metroids" theme feels intended, but instead the problem I had is how often the fights just felt like a health/missile check. You simply do not have the mobility with Samus' stiffer Game Boy controls and the chunky sprites vs. the screen size to effectively dodge your opponents, let alone easily hit weak points, meaning that a lot of fights felt to me like spamming missiles while tanking hits and hoping my chunky dodging was enough. The Ai exploitability (which I don't blame them for it's an OG Game Boy game for god's sake) adds to this. It DOES mean some of the fights were quite intense, but it adds a pretty hollow element to a bunch of them. There's also a few of them that just do NOT work right, usually involving long vertical drops, the one with fake blocks was a specific low point as 80% of the fight was just trying to even jump to fight it. The fact that the boss only moves when on screen and the way the music/sound effects work also makes it feel incredibly artificial, just not good.

This dovetails nicely into another issue I had: For some reason this game HATES recharge stations, but it doesn't fully commit as something like Super Metroid would later do by locking you OUT from them until you finish a specific area. Instead it just puts them in horribly awkward locations, like on the ceiling or random crevices, making them really easy to forget location-wise or just take a long time to get to. Some even have enemies that circle them you n

70%Wii U

It's better than you might think and surprisingly playable these days for a Game Boy Metroidvania, but certainly not the series at its peak.

70%Game Boy Color

Used a map and EJRTQ Colorization hack.

80%Emulated

It is very good. I was skeptic after playing the NES Metroid, which I disliked, but fortunately this one is closer in quality to the succeeding games than its predecessor. I used a colorization romhack (EJRTQ Colorization) which makes the game much prettier than the basic palettes of the GBC or SGB are able to.

This game introduced save stations which are a welcomed addition. No more respawning with 30 hp after dying like in the original. Now you continue from your last save, and thus the player has control over how much HP and ammo he has when he saves the game. Difficulty wise, the game is well balanced. It's somewhat challenging but not frustrating. In a couple areas (Area 3 and the penultimate one) I ran into ammo problems, because there wasn't a refill station nearby (another new addition), so I had to backtrack. That was the most troubling thing I came across in my playthrough. That and the number 4 looking like a 9 due to the game's font.

A "problem" this game and its remakes share is that killing the Metroids can get old, although personally I think they are few enough to not overstay its welcome.

If you are looking to play Metroid II for the first time tho, I wouldn't recommend playing the original. While it is good, AM2R is a straight upgrade and the best fan game I have played. There is also Nintendo's own remake, Samus Returns, which I have heard good things about but I havent played it myself.

On the other hand if you are a Metroid veteran and are wondering if the original games are worth playing, in my opinion, this one is and the NES one isn't.

90%Game Boy

Started: 2021-05-21

80%Game Boy

I hate that it took me this long to play it, but I'm elated I finally did. I can see why everyone wanted to remake this one...the fundamentals are rock solid, but it sure does show its age. Excited to play the remake!

100%Emulated

An undeniably clever classic, done dirty by history. I'll never get over how that happened. The original Metroid II is a phenomenal game, and yet it gets maligned for a bad first impression that melts away within 30 minutes, tops. Real shame, because I think more people would love it if they stuck by just a LITTLE longer. Please consider doing so, maybe using the colorizer I used, which preserves the moodiness while still making it colorful.

You can find the cosmetic hacks used here:

Colorizer hack: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4388/
Canon Samus hack: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/4579/

80%Nintendo 3DS

Definitely a good Metroid game, even though it seems like the forgotten one. I'm glad this came out on the 3DS virtual console so I could replay it again.

70%Game Boy

A "good" Metroid game, but not the best. Can't hold a candle to Super Metroid, but still a really fun portable playthrough.

70%Nintendo 3DS

Was a great game but there was a glitch where the last metroid is literally un obtainable. A certain passage is un passable but otherwise it was a great game. Ill probably just play AM2R or Samus Returns on 3ds.

40%Game Boy

Yeah not a huge fan of this game sorry. A few quality of life improvements like a map in the pause screen and having every other room/area look so similar and it might jump up to a 6 or 7. As is though I just can't do it. A good game for the OG GB that's for sure. Just doesn't really do it for me. I even got a colour patch for it which really cleaned up the look. I guess the claustrophobic nature of the game just didn't do it for me. I don't know. Maybe I'm being harsh?

60%Game Boy

Very linear. Final boss was nearly impossible

80%Game Boy

At first glance, Metroid II can look (and at times be) overwhelming, and it comes with quite a few problems but it also manages to give a satisfying playthrough and challenge.

Starting from the beginning, your mission is to hunt down 39 Metroids scattered through all the planet, pretty simple and straight forward. At first, you'll find weaker Metroid forms but when you progress you'll find harder ones that ads a lot of challenge. The map is open and up to you to go wherever you like or at least on the surface it goes that way, in order to get to new areas, you need to hunt "X" quantity of Metroids, once you hunt them down, a new area will be unveiled (pro tip, whenever an earthquake happens, it means that you have a new area to go), this progression stays with you through all your playthrough. The bad thing about the exploration is that you don't have a map and the areas are massive and pretty vertical (you need to do a lot of jumping), also, you have to relay a lot on your memory to map every zone in your head, this at first is way too frustrating but as you navigate through the map, you'll find yourself familiar with your surroundings so it depends on how you view this limitation. Another issue is the double jump, halfway you'll find an ability that gives you the power to maintain Samus in air when done it right, the problem is that it needs rhythm and it can be tricky and a lot of the final areas require that you navigate through them doing this jumping, so it can be very frustrating when you go to the top of area and then you fall, it can happen too much and can be very dishearting at times. Lastly, the music is the biggest offender, excluding the final area and the title screen, the soundtrack feels more like random uncanny sounds collection, which is pretty disappointing since the original game had great music.

Although it may seem that I have a bad time playing this game (and at times it was true), I enjoyed quite a lot the challenge and the atmosphere within it, the fact that you feel lost in this uncanny and hostile planet simply added more to the feeling of loneliness and hardship, also it was so rewarding after you discover a secret area and find a Metroid wandering around. One thing is for sure, this game can be tough at times, HP and missiles are way too scarce and sometimes you'll be farming them, so keep that in mind. Maybe the thing that I liked the most was its narrative, there's no single line of text but you see the story through your gameplay, and some brilliant musical cues and animation in the ending, it may have my favorite ending in all the Metroid Series.

It is hard to recommend this game since it has a lot of rough edges, but if you're a Metroid fan I'm sure that you'll find the shine in this raw diamond.

70%Game Boy

I played Super Metroid a lot as a kid. Never could beat it, nor had I ever beaten any Metroid game until this last week with the first two on NES and Game Boy.

The original Metroid is dated as hell, full of more frustrating gameplay and level design than anything, but this one, the apparent black sheep in the series, was a solid addition to the genre. Still dated, though, as is just about any Game Boy game from 1991: The level design is repetitive, areas are void of enemies and challenges, and the exploration you expect from the Metroidvania genre is basically replaced with a linear hallway. Still, this is impressive as hell for a Game Boy game.

I wish I played this one as a kid instead of all those garbage Game Gear games.

60%Game Boy Color

Has not aged well

70%Game Boy

Metroid II - the only Metroid game for the Game Boy and often considered the black sheep of the series. Thematically and gameplay wise, the game is very similar to the first game for the NES; an expansive hostile world that you must traverse through in a partially non-linear fashion, secrets and equipment to find and build yourself up with, and no map whatsoever. This no map business makes it tediously difficult to get your bearings on where you are. It is highly suggested that you look up a map for reference otherwise you will be playing for a long time - and not in a good way.

Your main goal is to destroy all the Metroid lifeforms, who have now evolved from their base pupal form seen in the original game and into something arguably weaker - at least at first, anyway. Metroid II is a bit more linear than the previous game, as areas are now sectioned off by lava. The way forward will be cleared once you've eliminated all the Metroids in that particular area. This can give the player slightly less freedom of the game world in exchange for a clear concise way to go. The areas themselves are still open for you to explore and find hidden walls to go through so you can get more energy tanks or more missiles. The music in this game can best be described as creeping ambiance, often utilising minimal beeps and blips to create an unnerving scene. Nothing here is too memorable, but it does fit the mise-en-sc�ne.

All in all, it's an acceptable Metroid game that does get a bit repetitive near the end, but still keeps all the familiar Metroid tropes.

80%Nintendo 3DS

A worthy sequel. Made some great mechanical and design improvements to the original Metroid. The game's structure of smaller areas interconnected by linear tunnels made the lack of map more palatable than it was in the original Metroid. Additionally, the new items such as the space jump and the spider ball introduced a new level of movement and verticality to the gameplay. Unfortunately, the space jump could be somewhat finicky, sometimes making it hard to move the way you want and/or causing you to plummet back to the ground when it doesn't feel like you made a mistake. Also, the final stretch of the game felt a little empty and overly linear, with no real larger areas or collectables to search for, and little else to do besides move through samey looking tunnels.

70%Game Boy

I'd like to give more to this game, if it was in color it should have known a bigger success (i know there is a remake AM2R which is the rom hack with colors). The musics did not convince me, save the few lasts. The animations are really fluid for the game boy, and the several gameplay mechanics it introduced are really interesting.
Given these elements, I can eventually say that I liked this episode, but not as much as the first Metroid on NES.
(The Final Boss is also quite impressive and worth seeing it )