My favourite Metroid game has got to be Zero Mission on the GBA.
A weird choice maybe but it was my first metroid when I played the GBA, I thought the music and atmosphere was kick ass and enjoyed the simple enough controls.
For a 3D Metroid it would be the trilogy on Wii at the time.
What about you?
I wish I could love super metroid. I really do. The game holds up. The graphics are great, the sound design is bafflingly superb for a 16 bit game. Controls are tight. Map size is big but not daunting.
And then you get to the part where you fall down a pitt. And the game teaches you to wall jump.
…everytime I play the game, thats where the game ends. It’s been 30+ years, and I still can’t wall jump in that game.
FWIW, that room is completely optional, only reward is a Power Bomb Tank. If you fall down there you do gotta get out, but if you can at least make your way up to the first platform you can bomb it to reveal a tunnel that lets you bail.
You want to press jump a little bit after you press the D-pad in the direction away from the wall. The time you have to do varies but you have between two and ten frames to do this. Don’t try and press them at the same time or it will always fail.
Are you a visual person? This image might help. You want to press jump when Samus is in this position, almost sitting against the wall.
Here’s a video of someone wall jumping with a controller overlay so you can see their inputs and compare it to what’s on screen.
It might take a bit to get the timing down but once it’s in your muscle memory it is very consistent. If I can do this then anyone can do this.