Metroid II: Return of Samus - Development

Development

Metroid II marked a "new high point" for handheld game consoles, with graphics that were almost as good as the 8-bit graphics in games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game featured a battery backup to allow players to continue their games from a previously saved point. Metroid II was designed by Nintendo R&D1 and produced by Gunpei Yokoi; they both also worked on the previous Metroid game. The game features enhancements from its predecessor that include easier controls which allow Samus to crouch while firing at the same time, and jump while shooting straight down to attack anything below her.

The Game Boy's black and white graphics limited the detail in each area of the game, which led to changes to Samus's gear that eventually became permanent. In the original Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System, color was used to differentiate between Samus's Power Suit and her Varia Suit, an upgraded version. However, without color on the Game Boy, the two suits appeared similar, forcing the developers to develop a visual indicator for players to determine which suit Samus is wearing. They updated her Varia Suit, adding round metal shoulders that have been a part of the suit in every game in the series since then. The game allowed players to save their progress for the first time in the series outside Japan. To save the game, players entered special portals, which have appeared in every Metroid game since. Metroid II is the only game in the series to show every stage of the Metroid creature's development cycle; the evolution stages that they go through are: Original, Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, Omega, and Queen. The more developed the organism is, the stronger its attack. Because of the Game Boy's small screen, the developers made Samus's model bigger compared to her surroundings, to give more detail in her appearance using limited graphics capabilities. While improving Samus's design, the change also made the environments feel cramped.

Metroid II's designer, Nintendo R&D1, was also involved in developing the Game Boy Color, a device similar to the Game Boy but with a color screen. Nintendo's Dan Owsen acknowledged in an interview that the company planned to release a color version of Metroid II. He believed that Nintendo R&D1 included a special "Metroid palette" in the Game Boy Color's hardware, which "makes Metroid II look really, really nice on Game Boy Color", and remarked that the release should have graphics comparable to the original Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, the project was eventually canceled.

Due to the black and white color palette used in Metroid II, and because of the canceled Game Boy Color version, there have been attempts to create colored versions of Metroid II. A programmer using the pseudonym DoctorM64 created Project Another Metroid 2 Remake, also known as AM2R . The project aims to update the game's appearance by emulating, and in some cases trumping, the visual designs of Super Metroid (1994) and Metroid: Zero Mission (2004). The game is in working beta as of March 2008. Ars Technica claims that it features "incredible graphics" and they consider it a "painstaking recreation of the original level design". They observed, "The animations are incredibly smooth, colors vibrant, and backgrounds well-detailed." As of February 6, 2011, Project AM2R appears to be nearing its final stages of development. Because of this, DoctorM64 has put out a what would amount to a minigame, called Metroid: Confrontation, to test the game's engine and acquire feedback from his fanbase.