Pros: it's a great game with a good maze
Cons: it can be confusing if you don't know the objective of the game
The bottom line: Metroid 2 is a great sequel to a mediocre NES game.
I got Metroid 2 return of Samus at my local gamestop last week when I noticed it on sale on there used game rack. Seeing how I didn’t own a gameboy when it first came out (hey it’s hard to earn a 100 dollars on a 9 year old’s allowance),and I also thought the first one was overrated. I was a bit hesitant but I have liked every Metroid title I have played since Super Metroid (with the exception of maybe Fusion) I decided to give this one a try. I actually liked this one more then I thought.

Story.
SR-388 is not exactly a good place for tourism, not since a lethal parasite named Metroids whipped out the entire planets population. When the evil space pirates got there hands on a few of them and took them to there hide out on planet Zebees to breed the little monsters so they could use them has weapons. However a bounty hunter named Samus Aron went into there underground layer and whipped out the pirates and the metroids. Since then the federation has sent bounty hunters to whipe out the metroid plague on planet SR-388, none of them have return alive. So the federation has decided once again to send in Samus to whipe out the metroids once in for all.

Graphics.
Ok I have heard that Nintendo has programmed the GBC to recognize there first party black and white GB games. Metroid 2 is one of them so it is given a bit of a limited color palette. While it appears to be just the regular blue color there are more shades of blue and the red colors fit Samus armor just fine. Has for sprites are concern Samus is fairly large for old GB standards and is animated fairly well. In fact in a lot of ways she’s bigger and more detailed on the GB then she was on the original NES.

The enemies are a mixed bag while the metroids are pretty big the regular enemies are really just pretty small most of the time and only have two or 3 frames of animation. The backgrounds are the same has the NES though, just black with the exception of an outdoor scene. But since this is GB technology it’s forgivable.

Sound.
Since you can’t change colors on the black and white Gameboy to signal a new local, and there are no backgrounds the game uses music instead. Whenever the area changes the music changes. The music varies there are some simple but creepy metroid music. The main hallway has some upbeat music. And there are a few tunes that I am pretty sure where reused for the Zelda Gameboy adventures.

Gameplay.
The way to win the game in Metroid 2 is to kill all Metroids in the game. There are 38 Metroids that have to be destroyed in order to win the game, and pressing pause will let you know how many Metroids there are remaining in the area. But these aren’t your usual Metroids that you find in the other games. On SR-388 the Metroids come out of there shells and evolve into different types of Metroids. The first one is the Alpha Metroid these things are small and weaker then they are in there first forms. 5 missile will kill these runts. The Gamma are a little bigger and are able to send short range lighting bolts at there enemies, keeping distance and firing a few missiles there way will get them out of Samus hair has well. Zeta are more of a nuisance has there fast and can throw fire balls a good distance and take a couple of missile packs in order to kill. And finally the O Mega Metroids which are huge beasts that fire giant fire balls that spread out over the floor, they take an entire missile silo straight in the chest in order to kill. You know when these guys are around because they leave there regular Metroid shell around.

The maze in Metroid 2 is more of a progressive maze rather then the usual labyrinth that is encounter in the Metroid games. There is a main hall way that at the beginning that is covered with acid. When Samus kills all metroids in the area an earthquake occurs and the acid is lowered a level and a new area opens up for her to explore and collect new items, has well has kill more metroids. While it does make the game fairly more linear the maze does become a lot more complicated the further down it goes. On top of that it avoids my main complain about the original, and that is the same corridors that look the same.

Of course there are items that Samus picks up there are the usual missile packs and energy tanks that she picks up to power herself up. But there are more items to gain in the original. The famous space jump makes the first appearance in this game, along with the powerful plasma beam, and the spider ball enhancement that lets Samus climb walls in her morph ball mode.

Final Recommendation.
While I only got Metroid 2 recently it is indeed an old school GB classic, so put the back word compatibility of your GBA SP to good use kiddies and check this game out.