When it comes to playing video games, my Mom is the epitome of a casual player. She loves the kinds of games that she can just pick up and play for a few minutes in between the few thousand things that she has to do every day. So I was a little surprised when she spent just about as much time with my Game Boy as I did on the Christmas Morning that I got it. But I was even more surprised later on when she decided to play through my copy of Metroid II.
I don’t really remember why or when she decided that she wanted to play it, but it was shortly after I got the issue of Nintendo Power that featured maps to the whole game. I would sit with the magazine splayed open and take on the function of Navigator while she would play the actual game. We spent many afternoons that summer with this setup, and she would eventually make it through the whole game.
So, the game itself? Well, it picks up where the original Metroid game left off: You’re intergalactic bounty-hunter Samus Aran, who travels to planet SR-388 to rid the universe of the Metroids for good. You navigate the twisty passages, all alike, finding upgrades to your weapons and bounty-hunter suit, and killing the remaining Metroids, which are inexplicably mutating into various dangerous forms.
It’s a very good game, and totally Mom-approved.
[...] game. But that’s OK. Having a parent that would actually play video games with me on occasion was pretty awesome, it’s just too bad that so many parents these days can’t be [...]