Metroid II: Return of Samus Playthrough (Game Boy Player Capture) - Part 1

This is part 1 of my 100% playthrough of Metroid II: Return of Samus for the Game Boy. This is not an emulator. This footage was captured directly from my GameCube using my Game Boy Player with progressive scan mode enabled (you'll need the GameCube's component cables to do this and your model of GameCube must support component out as well).

When I was a kid my brother was a fan of the Metroid games, although I don't think he ever beat any of them (he didn't play games all that much and typically didn't care about beating them). However, he did own this game, and I played it occasionally. But I never really got into it. Like I said in my Metroid playthrough, I wasn't really into the Metroid series as a kid. It wasn't until Metroid Prime came out that I gave the series a real shot and started acquiring all the titles. By that time though, my brother had already sold his Game Boy and all of his games (including this one). So I had to purchase my own complete copy off eBay in 2012. I then played through the entire game for the first time in 2013 and uploaded the footage.

Metroid II turned out to be a lot of fun. The atmosphere was really eerie, and I loved battling all the Metroids and collecting upgrades. The Spider Ball in particular was really cool.

Nintendo Power originally posted a limited feature on this game in Volume 31 (December 1991 issue), but it only covered the first two phases of the game. The magazine then quickly revisited the game in Volume 37 (June 1992 issue) and provided a complete guide with hand-drawn maps. So I'm using both issues to guide me in this playthrough.

You'll probably notice that the Game Boy Player is adding a really bright color palette to this game, beyond what you'd see applied in other Game Boy games (for instance, the first Wario Land). That's because the Game Boy Color has a specific default color palette that it applies to this game, as well as some others. This feature was built directly into the hardware and was also included in the Game Boy Advance due its backwards compatibility. Since the Game Boy Player is technically Game Boy Advance hardware, the built-in color palette is included. So Samus appears in her normal colors and instead of green or something weird like that.

Once again, I'll be keeping track of the items I collect in this game, as well as the Metroids I defeat.

In this first part I completed Phases 1 and 2 (the phases refer to the sections you open up as you progress). After that I headed to the save point in the Phase 3 area.

Items collected:

Morph Ball Bomb - 7:07
Missile Expansion # 1 - 7:23
Energy Tank # 1 - 7:55
Ice Beam - 8:30
Missile Expansion # 2 - 9:05
Missile Expansion # 3 - 9:17
Spider Ball - 10:03
Missile Expansion # 4 - 12:00
Missile Expansion # 5 - 12:54
Missile Expansion # 6 - 13:18

Metroids defeated:

Alpha Metroid # 1 - 2:15
Alpha Metroid # 2 - 11:07
Alpha Metroid # 3 - 15:45
Alpha Metroid # 4 - 16:42
Alpha Metroid # 5 - 17:25
Alpha Metroid # 6 - 22:06

Recorded with the Hauppauge HD PVR and the GameCube's component cables at 60 frames per second. I'm using an original model Game Boy Advance as a controller via a GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable.