Why are there so few indie metroidvanias that are actually similar to Metroid? Most of them have melee combat with soulslike bullshit

S tier - Super Metroid, AM2R, La Mulana, Order of Ecclesia
A tier - Rabi-Ribi, The Messenger, Circle of the Moon
B tier - Aria of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Dawn of Sorrow, Bloodstained
C tier - Blasphemous, Ender Lilies, Guacamelee, Iji, Metroid II, Metroid Dread, Momodora RUTM, Salt & Sanctuary
D tier - Dust, Shantae, Metroid I, Metroid Fusion, Rogue Legacy II, Symphony of the Night, Sundered, They Bleed Pixels, Valdis Stories, Phantom 2040
F tier - Ufouria, Tails Adventure, Rogue Legacy
HOT FUCKING DOGSHIT tier - Harmony of Dissonance, Hollow Knight

30+ years later and still modern devs are unable to understand what made Super Metroid so great. Their "metroidvanias" are a bastardization and abomination of Super Metroid's design.

Now I know why they call it Super Fucking Overrated

It pioneered the moviegame genre.

A game so braindead easy and mindless that it almost plays itself while the entire appeal is just the artstyle, music, and spectacle.

You make one wrong turn or miss one tiny pixel and have to backtrack for ages, made worse by the absolutely worthless map that doesn't mark even the most basic of details.

Does anyone actually enjoy backtracking through the area they literally just fully fucking explored?

The main issue is the combat and platforming are both terrible, provide zero challenge or stakes whatsoever, and require absolutely zero thought or strategy.

So what you have is a game where you just endlessly roam and backtrack through long series of generic, samey rooms that all just blend together in your mind as one jumbled, forgettable mess, with enemies and platforming that is just a minor inconvenience rather than actually engaging or challenging in the slightest.

When you're exploring a new area it's like a 6/10
But when you're backtracking or hunting the one tiny destructible tile needed to progress it's like a 1.5/10

As an action game? It sucks

As a platformer? It still sucks

As an exploration game? It still fucking sucks

>corny story and pointless cinematic sequence at Ceres Station
>combat just feels like an afterthought and enemies are a total pushover
>run right past enemies or just lazily throw some bullets their way, doesn't really matter as they pose zero threat and the game absolutely showers you with health drops constantly
>slow, clunky, floaty jump where you have to hold jump down for 2+ seconds to reach max height and are constantly bonking your head on platforms/ceilings
>clumsy linear shuffling to cycle weapons
>entire world is just grids of colored tiles
>must methodically shoot and bomb every surface to pixel hunt for destructible tiles (which are just arbitrarily destructible with no rhyme or reason)
>checking a dead end or making a wrong turn can mean several minutes of tedious backtracking
>missing one tiny detail or destructible tile results in running around in circles for an hour checking every room to see what you missed

Anything I should know before starting this?

I beat Zero Mission and Fusion and found them both pretty mediocre as action games and wasn't a fan of shooting and bombing every surface to proceed

Been feeling getting into a Metroidvania so I just started playing Super Metroid last night. Never completed it.

Any tips?

(Wanted to try Castlevania SOTN but it's not on the eShop ffs)

Forever and always.

RATE THE SUPER METROID RACE