Super Metroid was the third game produced in the Metroid series. Metroid producer Gunpei Yokoi oversaw the project, but owing to him being busy with designing the Game Boy Pocket and Virtual Boy, Super Metroid was produced by Makoto Kanoh, who had devised the original game’s storyline. The game’s early planning began in 1990 with Nintendo’s Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1) headed by Yoshio Sakamoto. [Info from Wikipedia] Looking through old screens from the game’s previews, we can notice some changes in the development.
The Samus sprite had some differences in the beta version (top image) as you can see from this comparison with the final version (below). In the early build the graphic for Samus was simple and later Nintendo decided to make her more detailed; even the ship seems to have a couple of differences, but it’s hard to tell for sure.
The beta Samus sprite from the side
Final:
The battle with Ridley looks almost the same (with beta Samus sprite)
Beta:
Final:
Beta Hud (Map & Energy in different position)
Final Hud
Beta
Final
Even this old screen of the Zebes map looks a bit strange (different colors / missing names), but i could be wrong and maybe it’s just like the final map at the start of the game. If you can confirm or deny this, please send us an email!
Beta Map?
Final Map
More random beta images:
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
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1 Response to Super Metroid [SNES - Beta]
GarnetJello
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:36 pm
I don’t think the “beta” map and the “final” maps are any different. It’s been a while since I’ve played this game, but I’m pretty certain that the names of the locations and colors don’t show up until you have actually visited those areas on Zebes.