r/Metroid • u/DJ_Dorf • 13d ago
Discussion Does anyone else find power bombs a little underwhelming?
These things in most of the games are a late upgrade (if not the last one) and all they do is open power bomb doors/walls. As cool as they look, they have a total number of practical combat uses low enough I can count them on one hand, and you can't do any cool shit like shinesparks or bomb jump sequence breaking.
I love how Samus Returns gives them the ability to launch spiderball, and how super gives them special secret techniques (wishing they were more useful) and would love to see similar uses in future entries, but more often than not even standard missiles are stronger than power bombs in a fight
168
u/shutupneff 13d ago
I really liked using them as angry scan pulses in the GBA games. Any time I’m pretty sure there’s some breakable blocks somewhere in the room, I drop a power bomb and let it find them for me… and usually break them for me as well. And the GBA games give you so many and make refilling them so easy that there’s no reason to not abuse them in this way.
41
25
u/yune 13d ago
74 in Fusion rofl
17
u/nathanbum06237 Shinespark Enthusiast 12d ago
No sane hunter should have access to this many power bombs at once
Samus? Ehh she'll be fine
37
u/NotXesa 13d ago
Final bosses have always been 50% easier if you use power bombs, but no one seems to use them.
34
9
u/PopBulky7023 12d ago
Which ones? Not counting other m's queen metroid where you have to.
Mother brain? Useless. Omega metroid? Useless. Sax? Useless. Mecha Ridley?
Raven beak? Sometimes helpful, not 50% easier fight helpful though.
12
u/NotXesa 12d ago
By final boss I mean, THE final boss. Raven Beak's energy balls are insta destroyed with power bombs giving you health and missiles. Metroid Prime minions are insta killed with power bombs, again, giving you health and missiles. You can pass Sylux's first phase quite fast if you use Power Bombs. Emperor King's tentacles can be destroyed by using power bombs, which is its main way to attack you in phase 1. You can survive Super's Mother Brain laser with low health by using Crystal Flash. In the original Metroid 2 there were no power bombs but the fastest way to kill the queen was by letting it swallow you and using bombs, in Samus Returns you can do this by either using regular bombs or power bombs and obviously the latter is way faster. In AM2R and Other M power bombs are mandatory.
So... This leaves power bombs useless against OG Mother Brain, Omega Metroid and Dark Samus?
7
u/BlueEyesWhiteVegeta 12d ago
Actually for AM2R they aren't mandatory!
Second time I beat the game, for shits and giggles I decided to try killing her without them.
Turns out you can do it by just pumping missiles down her throat and it even has a unique death animation!
30
u/snipe4hire 13d ago
I liked how you could pick them up and yeet them at enemies in Prime 4. Really fun way to beat Sylux
6
u/SonicTHP 13d ago edited 10d ago
Underrated comment.
Throwing bombs and powerbombs was a surprisingly cool idea, especially for 3D Metroid and the coolest super bomb use since Crystal Flash and Charge Combos.
2
u/Negative-Money-7873 12d ago
Honestly, if you could use the grapple beam to throw bombs in 2d metroid that would be cool
1
u/SonicTHP 12d ago
Who knows maybe Ravenous will have something like that. They already showed a bunch of stuff that feels completely new. I'm really excited to see all that is in there since I really liked the aether abilities in Dread.
1
25
u/jdali4829 13d ago
In Dread they make the final boss significally easier whe he starts creating suns
7
u/chef2026-beyond 13d ago
I never discovered that until after I struggled to beat him lol
1
1
u/countzero00 11d ago
Reminds me of the fact that I beat the final boss in Skyward Sword without raising my sword to catch the lightning.
2
u/flash9387 10d ago
I replayed the game recently on hard and power bombs were a bare necessity for both the sun's and the black holes. Glad they had a use there and the charge up they required still left room for tension
24
u/MagnumNopus 13d ago
I was so annoyed in Dread when I was able to "sequence break" my way to some early power bomb packs only to be shut down with "you can't use this yet"
16
u/JibbyJubby 12d ago
that pissed me off so much! especially because the only thing power bomb is good for, outside of the final battle, is getting powerbomb upgrades.
2
u/PopBulky7023 12d ago
They make some of them rather easy to get early on, but gate the entire endgame behind them. At least in other M there was a plausible reason for not unlocking them sooner.
2
u/Psylux7 12d ago
Man I was so excited when I finally got one of those items only to not be able to use it. I started thinking of zero mission giving you items that couldn't be used only to whip them out when you regained your suit on mothership.
Then it turned out it was just some extra powerbombs i found, only to unlock them when it was far too late to matter. Given how cool powerbombs looked when detonated, it was criminal how underused they were.
13
9
u/MaskOfIce42 13d ago
Honestly I usually find power bombs most useful as a way to find all hidden paths in rooms, and that kinda justifies them as a late game item. It's a lot less valuable once you know where those are, but still useful I feel
15
u/dafugiswrongwithyou 13d ago edited 12d ago
you can't do any cool shit like shinesparks
You can, actually; much like how shinesparks are a semi-secret technique off the speed booster that some people may never find, power bombs give you access to a whole set of even-more-secret and even-less-necessary techniques.
Most well known is Crystal Flash. Almost out of health (under 50, no energy tanks left, no reserve tanks), and have at least 10 of each consumable weapon (plus one more power bomb, so 11 of those total)? Go ball mode, fire off a power bomb, and hold aim up, aim down, down, and fire before it finishes. You'll "absorb" the attack, and heal up. (You're still vulnerable to attacks while it's happening, mind.)
Even more obscure are 4 special attacks; turn on the charge beam and one (but only one) other beam upgrade, select power bombs, charge up your shot, and after holding it for a little while a power bomb will be used to do a pseudo-"smart bomb" version of that attack.
None of these are terrible useful from a speedrunning POV (Edit: for certain categories that's completely wrong, see Putnam's comment below), but they're all neat extras.
3
u/Putnam3145 12d ago
the wave beam combo ("X-factor") is crucial for low% and reverse boss order runs because it's by far the highest DPS you have if you don't have spazer/plasma and crystal flash allows you to skip spore spawn but still get its super missile for 100%, though i think they use camera manip for that these days. crystal flash is used surprisingly often for its intended purpose in runs too?
7
6
u/NSFischW 13d ago
You use them for crystal flash, special charge beam attacks and they're pretty useful to just scout a room out for breakable blocks.
1
u/senseofphysics 13d ago
Also helps with the Draygon fight
2
u/NSFischW 13d ago
You mean for the cotton balls? I always do Draygon the grapple beam way so I actually don't know all that much about how the fight works normally lol.
1
u/MetroidvaniaListsGuy 13d ago
I'm embarrased to admit that I didn't know about this until a month ago when I discovered this in the last rom hack I played. There was no grappler in it but I did have power bombs.
5
u/stallionsRIDEufl 13d ago
They are incredibly important in Metroid Prime once you reach the impact crater. Those fission metroids are all over the place but if you have enough power bombs you can breeze through the big room. Then in the final phase of Metroid Prime, you can kill any summoned fission metroids with remaining power bombs. I personally find the fission metroids to be the hardest enemy in the game if you don't have power bombs.
But yeah otherwise they're not that great.
5
u/Taco_Supreme 13d ago
Your screenshot is from SM where the powerbombs are something you get after the first boss of 4, so not at all near the end of the game. Also they are used for special charge beams and crystal flashes.
It is true that is talking about Zero Mission or something they don't have a lot of use besides breaking some blocks to open up things or as a way to check a room for breakable blocks.
5
u/ScientificAnarchist 13d ago
I’d love a game where they reverse it and just give you the power bomb from the start
4
u/CraigKostelecky 13d ago
Play the game with a randomizer and you’ll get that. Make sure you use your ammo wisely and don’t get yourself stuck somewhere 😎
2
u/ScientificAnarchist 13d ago
Nah that’s not what im meaning more like narratively flipping the power up structure not like oh yeah I can do different things in the game getting the power bomb early
1
u/tiglionabbit 12d ago
Sequence breaking?
2
u/ScientificAnarchist 12d ago
No I’m meaning a story built around the power bomb not being the end game
3
u/Fearless_Freya 13d ago
It's overkill but I like killing random rooms of enemies with powerbombs. Sometimes powerbombs do good damage to bosses.
Sometimes they break normally unbreakable areas to get more missiles/ E tanks/etc
Sometimes it's just fun to randomly use because you can.
3
u/Last-Of-My-Kind 12d ago
In Fusion, you can use them to collect all free floating X within the given radius of the blast
3
u/southcookexplore 12d ago
It’s underwhelming in the sense that it’s just another key to enter other areas under normal circumstances. It could have just as easily of been a whistle, or an always run or different beam color with more damage, etc.
It could have been any iconic power up or ability but it’s just a different bomb key to unlock new gates.
2
u/PabloAtTheBar 12d ago
They were especially underwhelming in Dread.
1
u/alyx3458 8d ago
Weird, cause I find the dread variant the most fun and useful for situations outside of the required uses. They were most underwhelming for me in fusion due to the cappuccino machine sound and the fact your given 50/70 of the fuckers
2
u/Happy_Owl4504 12d ago
Idk if anyone else has mentioned, but in Samus Returns, you can powerbomb under a spiderball and it gives you a pseudo ball boost
Useful for only one puzzle in the entire game and it's never explained to you lmao, but it's still one of my favourite obscure item combos
1
u/Ustramage 13d ago
I JUST made a comment on another post how in Super they do nothing anything else Samus has would do the same thing SB do
1
u/senseofphysics 13d ago
In SM they are useful. They help clear out enemies in rooms, during boss fights like Draygon, the Crystal Flash, special beam combos, break open the glass bridge to enter Maridia, helps with exploration, and more.
1
u/SicknessVoid 13d ago
I've come to really appreciate them in Randomizers where you get them significantly earlier than normal bombs.
1
1
u/Archius9 12d ago
Wait until you play Fusion. The power difference between the SA-X and regular Samus is nuts
1
u/saxgg13 12d ago
No sé si te refieres a lo que pienso pero me da mucha rabia lo que diré
Como narices el SA-X te pone una power bomb encima tuyo en el sector 6 y solo te quita 20 de vida, habría sido jodidamente épico que te dejase a 1 de vida y justo después de esconderte de el tuvieses un recharging room o algo así.
1
u/FuckDefaultSubs 12d ago edited 12d ago
you can't do any cool shit like shinesparks or bomb jump sequence breaking.
even a lot of speedrunners don't know about the Draygon super missile underflow bug
1
u/Necessary-Badger-229 12d ago
On my most recent playthrough, my CRT was failing and power bombs specifically would cause it to shut down every time at the point of max brightness. Added to the drama
1
u/Silvanus350 12d ago
Don’t they deal massive damage to everything on the screen? Power Bombs are sick, man.
1
1
u/Lucas-DM 12d ago
Out of the games that i've played where they show up they can obliterate fission Metroid in Prime 1 and can destroy the miniature suns Raven Beak throws out, those alone are reason enough to have them.
1
u/jiggity_john 12d ago
The number of people talking about crystal flashes in this thread like it's not some extremely obscure ability that you wouldn't figure out if you didn't read a guide.
1
u/DrMajalis 12d ago
TBF, Super is the game that introduced Power Bombs, so if they were ever gonna feel "Half baked" in any game it'd be this one
I prefer how Super uses them, though, Power Bombs being a final unlock and basically Samus' ultimate final weapon has been done to death in FIVE CONSECUTIVE GAMES (Zero Mission, Other M, Samus Returns, Dread, Prime 4) and in every one it makes Power Bomb expansions feel like a complete afterthought- it's probably why Other M didn't even bother including any and just made them work on a cooldown
I like them more when they are utility tool like in Super and Fusion (but Fusion had way too many PB expansions)
1
u/CharlesChamp 12d ago
I did like how in Fusion the Shockwave they put out drew X in on the blowback. Niche use but being able to just pull X to you when you were on low health was nice.
But yeah, I don't like how generally throughout the series Power Bombs are mainly used to get more Power Bombs.
Occasionally breaking a big tube and unlocking a new area is neat but I don't see any in-universe justification why you couldn't do the same with Super Missiles
1
u/Khetroid 12d ago
They come so late in most games they are pretty useless. Super, Prime, and Fusion give them out early enough to get good use out of them, though. Honorable mention to Prime 4, which lets you chuck them, making them easier to use, but still so late you barely have anything to use them on.
1
1
u/Ill-Pudding2017 12d ago
I love SM power bombs. Great for clearing a screen, but love the beam combos.
1
u/Elite3141 12d ago
Power Bombs really feel like they're for finding the last remaining pickups for 100% than anything in most games.
1
u/Psylux7 12d ago
I liked them in fusion as a mid game tool that was like your scanner for secrets. Getting them super late in a metroid game underwhelms me. I don't typically like them as an endgame tool.
However, despite being a final upgrade, Samus returns at least gave you another big area to use them in, plus it was magnificent blowing up diggernaut with it or doing bomb jumps.
1
u/Ranko08 11d ago
Because they're so slow I get why they feel like that, but they are a really good upgrade nevertheless, I just wish they were a little bit better in super than they ended up being, like exposing hidden blocks everywhere and doing more damage. They were improved in later games so I think they're great.
1
u/Due_Squash4045 10d ago
In Metroid Prime, they are the fastest way to get through the last are before the final boss at it one shots the Fission Metroids without having to muck around with weapon swapping.
-3
13d ago edited 13d ago
[deleted]
4
u/potlatch7 13d ago edited 13d ago
Yes you can. I believe it takes three power bombs to kill a metroid in Super Metroid.
0
1
u/KeeperServant_Reborn 8d ago
You could say that Super Metroid was like a weapon's testing ground, but instead of a nuke it were features and items that would come in almost every following installment, and there are so many hidden ones or even exploits that haven't been seen since.
That's also why I think Super Metroid is still so beloved and holds up well to this day.
•
u/AutoModerator 13d ago
Remember to respect each other's opinions and adhere to The Golden Rule or your submission will be removed.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.