Metroid’s Mother Brain And The Rewind Dilemma

Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, Nile deliberates whether or not the time has come to push the (rewind) button…

Last month, Nintendo announced it was adding Metroid: Zero Mission to the Nintendo Switch Online service. For me, that was the impetus for crossing off a major to-do on my backlog: completing all the 2D Metroid games. With Zero Mission, a 2004 Game Boy Advance remake of the 1986 original, being the canonical first entry in the series, it’s a perfect starting point.

I’ve long had access to the game on original hardware, but I’ve been holding out for an NSO version for features like save states and rewinds. Having now completed my playthrough, I’ve come away with a key takeaway that using the Rewind feature judiciously will ultimately make you a better gamer – or at least a more satisfied one.

I’ll preface this by acknowledging my skills as a gamer are rather modest. No other Nintendo series consistently manages to humble me in the way Metroid does. That said, it’s also done more to raise my skill ceiling than anything else. When recently facing down one of the series’ most iconic adversaries, I was left with two options: cheese the rewind button or get good.

I’m of course referring to Mother Brain, the cycloptic super-computer and the original Metroid’s final boss encounter. Because Zero Mission includes a brilliant epilogue section that takes place after this fight, the big brain serves as the remake’s penultimate boss but is still the game’s most difficult encounter by far. Some even argue that it’s an unfair fight.

part of me felt I really didn’t have the right to continue the game knowing just how much I had cheesed that climatic battle

Set in the depths of Tourian, the battle takes place on two tiny platforms suspended above a boiling pool of lava, with Samus constantly bombarded by turrets, circular projectiles, and Mother Brain herself emitting an energy rush from her single eye. The single-screen playfield is claustrophobic and virtually any hit will knock you into the health-depleting lava below.

Up until this point, the game had served up some relatively tough boss fights that I was able to beat within a small handful of tries or even on my first attempt. But Mother Brain turns things up to 11 and is genuinely frustrating, with the onslaught of incoming fire making it difficult to even position yourself to attack with Samus ceaselessly tossed around like a ragdoll.

As I looked up strategies for the battle, I peered into a YouTube comments section and saw I wasn’t alone in feeling stuck and demoralized. “I literally just get ping-ponged around until I’m dead,” wrote one. “The design of this boss is horrible… It’s not fun, it’s frustrating,” chimed another. “This fight is my only complaint in this game.”

I had hitherto not used the Rewind function very much in my playthrough, save for a bungled platforming input here or there. I’m no purist and generally have no qualms with save states or gameplay rewinds, particularly if it makes a historically significant game more accessible. So, I opted to hit rewind fairly often during Mother Boss to undo my mistakes and even the odds.

When I eventually felled her and progressed the story, though, part of me felt I really didn’t have the right to continue the game knowing just how much I had cheesed that climatic battle. As curious as I was about the epilogue, which leans hard into stealth gameplay as Samus dons her ‘Zero Suit’, I felt compelled to go back and overcome Mother Brain through skill alone.

So, I loaded up my save state and went backtracking through Zebes, collecting any power-ups and energy tanks I had missed. Even then, reattempting the fight yielded defeat after defeat. But as I pushed on, I noticed I was getting closer to my goal by staying in the fight longer. After a coffee break (I always play better when caffeinated) I managed to finally take her down.

(If you’re interested, to defeat Mother Brain you’ll need to crouch down and lob super missiles and regular missiles into her eye. Use the ice bream and screw attack against the circular projectiles as you hop between the two platforms. If you get knocked off, try gripping the side of the platform to avoid falling in the lava. Pressing up while jumping makes it easier to get out of the lava pool.)

For me, this was no longer a hollow victory, but one that felt earned. I continued my playthrough with a sense of satisfaction and shortly thereafter finished the game. Though I consider Zero Mission to be among Nintendo’s finest remakes, it’s nonetheless worth asking: Is the Mother Brain fight a frustrating blight on an otherwise masterful reimagining? So let’s do that:

It is clear that the original designers needed to get creative with this fight given your enemy is a stationary brain in a jar without appendages, hence, being fired on in all directions. While the controls are leagues more fluid in Zero Mission than in the NES original, the latter’s playfield is more constrained and the action is significantly faster.

Another difference is that Mother Brain directly attacks Samus, which she doesn’t do on the NES. While Zero Mission is broadly a more accessible experience than the brilliant but dated original, Mother Brain is actually harder in the remake. NES players have been able to defeat Mother Brain without taking damage, a feat I simply don’t think is possible in Zero Mission.

But alas, if the fight were a cakewalk I wouldn’t be opining on it here. As we all know, there’s something to be said of arduously difficult boss battles that force you to prove your mettle and validate your competence. As relentlessly frustrating as Mother Brain is, it just manages to remain surmountable without ever letting you forget its punishing trial.

From that perspective, it’s wildly successful game design. As for the modern convenience of the Rewind feature, I think it should function as a lifeline for undoing clumsy inputs, but never to the point where it actively detracts from your sense of achievement earned from mastering difficult gameplay through persistence and honed skill – what many of us play games for.

Zero Mission takes a groundbreaking title and elevates it across the board with new areas and bosses, updated visuals and gameplay mechanics, and far more narrative depth. It is a definitive remake that surpasses the original and has proven to be one of the best entries in the series. So, if you’re looking to get into Metroid, don’t be put off by a tough fight.