Coffee Beans
Super Metroid originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1994. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console service on August 20, 2007, and is available to download for 800 Wii Points, which is $8.
Nintendo just released Super Metroid for the Wii U's Virtual Console service, and you can currently purchase the Wii U version for only 30 cents until June 13th, and then the game should be available for $7.99. Both the Wii and Wii U versions received an ESRB rating of "EVERYONE" with "Mild Violence" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.
The software description for the game on the Wii U eShop says, "The Space Pirates, merciless agents of the evil Mother Brain, have stolen the last Metroid from a research station, and once again Mother Brain threatens the safety of the galaxy! Samus Aran must don her awesome array of high-tech weaponry to retrieve the deadly Metroid hidden deep within the cave-riddled planet Zebes. Super Metroid features excellent graphics, with a huge variety of enemies and worlds to explore. The side-view action will be familiar to many players, only now there are new weapons and items, including the Grappling Beam, which allows Samus to swing across large chasms, and the X-Ray Scope, which reveals secret passages."
If you own a Wii or Wii U, how many hours can you expect from Super Metroid? Also, how many U.S. Wii owners have game-play data reported for the game through the Nintendo Channel, since it released in 2007? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look at the official U.S. Nintendo Channel data for Super Metroid!
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How quickly have you beaten it? |
Super Metroid now has approximately 125,793 U.S. Wii owners with game-play data reported, with about 2,093 days possibly reported. This is an increase of about 23,000 more players with game-play data reported, than when we first looked at the game a few years back.
The game now has 1,329,906 Total Hours of game-play reported, an increase of 381,538 Total Hours since its August 2010 data report. Its average reported now of 10 Hours 34 Minutes "Per person", seen in the image above, is a 1 Hour 20 Minutes increase from its August 2010 average. Wii owners are spending a little over an hour each time they play the game, according to this reported data.
For some comparison to other Wii Metroid games, Super Metroid's reported average "Per person" is about 6 hours lower than Metroid: Other M's and almost 12 hours lower than the reported average for Metroid Prime 3.
Super Metroid has a "professional" critic review score average of 95.50%, based on 11 reviews on GameRankings.com. Its Amazon.com customer review score average is a 90.00%, based on just 6 reviews of the Virtual Console version. BUT, the reviews average for the Super Metroid SNES cartridge Amazon page is at a 97.05%, based on 95 customer reviews.
How much has Super Metroid's Wii Virtual Console release in the United States made for Nintendo? The game has made Nintendo just over $1,000,000, at least according to the approximate number of players with data reported and the game's $8 price point.
Caffeinated Thoughts
I played the SNES version many years ago, but I never purchased it on the Wii's Virtual Console service. I have already purchased Super Metroid from the Wii U's eShop though, for the awesome price of only 30 cents. If you own a Wii U or a Wii and haven't seen anything on the game, here's a trailer for the Wii U version:
It's probably been 15+ years since I last played Super Metroid, and while I haven't given the Wii U version a try just yet, I am looking forward at seeing how it has held up over the years. I know in the last Super Metroid post, there was one person that thought the Wii Virtual Console version was not very good at all, but they had never played it on the SNES. While I think I remember watching my brother play the last boss battle multiple times in the game, I'm not sure if I ever played through and beat the game completely by myself. I hope the game lives up to what I remember about it, at the very least.
While I mentioned in "The Brew" section that Super Metroid's reported average "Per person" is lower than Metroid: Other M's and Metroid Prime 3's, I think it should be noted that those two games were full retail releases, not available through (just) the Wii's Shop Channel. But, I think it shows how lower priced digital titles, even if older in this case, can really be a great value.
Questions
Have any of you already downloaded and played the Wii U version? If so, what do you think about it if you had never played it before?
If you played and beat the Wii Virtual Console version of Super Metroid, do you know how many hours you have played the game? Also, if you were a fan of the game back on the SNES, do you think it has held up well over the years?
You can buy (or, look at) a few Metroid related items from Amazon.com below: