First of all, I have to give a lifetime's worth of thanks to super_etecoon for giving me this game, making me play it, and teaching me how to use the space jump.  I got stuck towards the bottom of Norfair because I thought it was just a double jump and didn't realise I could triple jump and more with it.  Super_etecoon showed me the light and I was able to finish my adventure.  So thanks a million etecoon.  I owe you big time for opening my eyes to this glorious gem.

...

Wow that ending was epic.  I had no idea.  My wife watched me play maybe the first half hour of this game and just now watched the last half hour, and got really into it, and thought it was beautiful.  She'll play some 2 player games with me, and we're even playing FF6 together when we have time, and I'll watch her play Twilight Princess, but it's very rare for her to actually be interested in watching me play anything by myself.  But she got way into this ending.  And of course, so did I.  It blew our minds.

I don't want to describe the awesome details, in case anybody else here is dumb enough to have not finished this game in the last 15 years.  I've already beat the first Metroid a cuple times, but this was my first time with Super Metroid.  Now I just need to play Metroid II: The Return of Samus.  Luckily I already have it.  This game just upgraded me from casual Metroid fan to a super Metroid fan, or even a Metroid super fan.

My game completion time was between 13 and 14 hours.  I forgot the minute count.  My item collection score was 70%.  Is that good for a first time?  Or horrible?  I have no idea.  All I know was this game has some of the best art/atmosphere/music, and having them all in one game at the same time is a rare treat.  I feel like a tool for missing this game this long, considering Yokoi is one of my favorite game makers of all time, and after this game he might be my #1 again.

Wow.

And I just found these:

And I just found my new wallpaper:

EDIT: Rehosted the last pic.  Should work now.

If you beat the game under 3 hours you get to see Samus in a bikini. Forget the bikini (though its' true), completing the game really fast makes you see how glorious its' structure is.

It says your new wallpaper is costing someone named Kethinov gigabytes of bandwidth every month! :D

I finished Super Metroid for the first time a few months ago and it's definitely one of my all time favorites now. Couldn't tell you how you did though, since my item collection and completion time were pretty substandard. Isn't it awesome when you find old gems like this that you've somehow over looked for so many years? *cough* Earthbound *cough*

Best 2D game ever IMO.

if you're over 17, you have no excuse for not having played this sooner...

Truly one of the best games ever.

It truly is a fantastic game, and its incredibly hard as well. I really want to go back and play it through again (got stuck several times!).

They *have* to bring this out on the DS - we still haven't had a single 2D Metroid on either the Wii, GC or DS :P

I got to the point where i beat Ridley, but never got back to it. Ridley was a real bastard, too.

(sighs) someday...

I just beat the game again for probably the 12th time. I can still remember enough of it to beat it in less than three hours, even though I get lost in Maridia ever time.

I played this game for the first time three years ago. I had the same feeling you're having right now. Last year I played Metroid Prime for the first time and I beat Metroid Prime 2 last week. It's impressive how nintendo can keep this quality up.

Next step, Metroid Prime 3 (but only after Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn).