Metroid II: Return of Samus Unblocked

Play Metroid II: Return of Samus free online — no download, no install, playable on any Chromebook or school laptop.

Genre: Action Adventure · Metroidvania
Release: 1991
Platforms: Game Boy (emulated in browser)

Instructions

Move with the arrow keys, jump with Z and shoot with X. Press V to toggle between your beam and missiles, and Enter to check your equipment. Holding a direction before jumping gives you the spin jump, which is what you need for distance and for the screw attack later on.

The Metroid counter is your objective marker. The planet is gated by lava that recedes only when you have killed every Metroid in the current area, so if you cannot find a way forward, the answer is always that one more Metroid is hiding somewhere behind you. Sweep the area again rather than hunting for a secret passage.

Save at the Chozo statue save points and refill at the recharge stations, and do it often. The Game Boy screen shows very little of the world at once, so getting lost is normal and backtracking is expensive - a save before exploring somewhere unfamiliar costs you seconds and can spare you twenty minutes.

Controls

Arrow keys — run, crouch, aim up and enter doors
Z — jump - hold a direction first to spin jump
X — fire beam or missile
Enter — START - pause and open the equipment screen
V — SELECT - switch between beam and missiles

Tips to Master Metroid II: Return of Samus

The original Metroid gave you a sprawling interconnected world; this one gives you a vertical descent through a series of gated regions and a number that ticks down. That is partly a hardware concession - there is no map screen and the viewport is tiny - but it turns the game into something more focused and more oppressive. You are not exploring so much as clearing, floor by floor.

Metroids that grow up

The species evolves in front of you. Larvae become Alpha, then Gamma, Zeta and finally Omega Metroids, each larger, tougher and more aggressive than the last, and each requiring more missiles and better positioning. Watching the enemy roster escalate as the counter falls is the clearest sense of progress the game offers, and it lands harder than a percentage complete ever would.

The upgrades that changed the series

Metroid II introduced the Spider Ball, which lets morph-ball Samus cling to and roll along walls and ceilings, the Space Jump for repeated mid-air jumps, and the Plasma Beam. It also debuted the Varia Suit's visible sprite change. Several of these became permanent series fixtures, so this handheld entry has more influence on later Metroid design than its reputation suggests.

Playing a Game Boy game on a screen

This runs as the original monochrome release, in the four-shade palette the artists actually worked in. The sprites are large relative to the screen, which was a deliberate choice for a display measuring a couple of inches and reads differently on a monitor - Samus is imposing here in a way she is not in the NES original. The emulator's save states are worth using alongside the in-game save points, since a browser tab closing will not preserve battery saves reliably.

Metroid II: Return of Samus Unblocked

Players Also Enjoy

More Free Unblocked Games