Super Metroid Tiled - Flip-Card Metroidvania

game development python pygame metroid on November 26, 2025

A tile-flipping metroidvania game with boss battles and item collection inspired by Super Metroid.

The source code can be found on GitHub.

Overview

Navigate a 10x10 grid of face-down tiles representing different areas from Super Metroid. Reveal tiles adjacent to already-revealed tiles to collect items, defeat enemies, and ultimately destroy Mother Brain to win!

Game Mechanics

Movement

  • Click on tiles adjacent to already-revealed tiles to flip them over
  • The first tile can be clicked anywhere on the board
  • Face-down tiles are color-coded by area type
  • You can only move to adjacent tiles (no diagonals)

Areas

The game features 7 themed areas from Super Metroid:

  • Crateria (Light Blue) - Starting area with Samus' ship and Bomb Torizo
  • Brinstar (Green) - Home of Kraid and Spore Spawn
  • Norfair (Red) - Ridley and Crocomire territory (requires Varia Suit to avoid heat damage)
  • Maridia (Blue) - Draygon and Botwoon domain (requires Gravity Suit to enter)
  • Tourian (Yellow) - Mother Brain's lair
  • Wrecked Ship (Purple) - Phantoon's domain
  • Ceres (Gray) - Ceres Station

Area Restrictions

  • Norfair: Without Varia Suit, you take 25 damage when entering
  • Maridia: Cannot enter without Gravity Suit

Combat System

Energy

  • Start with 99 energy
  • Energy Tanks add 100 max energy and fully heal you
  • Game over if energy reaches 0

Combat Order

Combat proceeds in turns every second:

  1. Default: Enemies attack → Bosses attack → Player attacks
  2. With Movement Items: Chance to attack first before enemies/bosses!

Attack First Mechanics

Certain items increase your chance to attack before enemies and bosses:

  • Morph Ball: +25% chance to attack first
  • High Jump Boots: +25% chance to attack first
  • Spring Ball: +25% chance to attack first
  • Space Jump: +25% chance to attack first
  • Speed Booster: +50% chance to attack first

Stack these items to guarantee first strikes! (caps at 100%)

Items & Abilities

Consumables

  • Missiles: +10 damage per missile
  • Super Missiles: +20 damage per super missile
  • Power Bombs: +30 damage per power bomb
  • Energy Tanks: +100 max energy, fully heals

Beams & Weapons

  • Charge Beam: +20 damage
  • Ice Beam: +20 damage, 10% chance to freeze enemies (they skip a turn)
  • Spazer: +30 damage
  • Wave Beam: +20 damage
  • Plasma Beam: +25 damage

Movement Items

  • Morph Ball: +25% attack first chance
  • Bombs: +50 attack damage
  • High Jump Boots: +25% attack first chance
  • Speed Booster: +20 damage, +50% attack first chance
  • Spring Ball: +25% attack first chance
  • Space Jump: +25% attack first chance
  • Screw Attack: +50 damage

Utility Items

  • X-ray Scope (Brinstar): Automatically reveals and collects diagonal item tiles (forming an "X" pattern) when you collect any item!
  • Grapple Beam (Norfair): 3x damage multiplier against Draygon

Suits

  • Varia Suit: +25% damage boost, prevents Norfair heat damage
  • Gravity Suit: +50% damage boost, allows entry to Maridia

Bosses

Each area contains unique bosses with varying health and damage:

Minor Bosses

  • Bomb Torizo (Crateria) - 800 HP, 5 damage - 500 points
  • Spore Spawn (Brinstar) - 1200 HP, 8 damage - 800 points
  • Crocomire (Norfair) - 2000 HP, 10 damage - 1200 points
  • Botwoon (Maridia) - 2500 HP, 6 damage - 1000 points

Major Bosses

  • Kraid (Brinstar) - 3000 HP, 15 damage - 2000 points
  • Phantoon (Wrecked Ship) - 3500 HP, 12 damage - 1500 points
  • Draygon (Maridia) - 4000 HP, 20 damage - 1800 points
  • Gold Torizo (Tourian) - 3000 HP, 18 damage - 1600 points
  • Ridley (Norfair) - 6000 HP, 25 damage - 2500 points

Final Boss

  • Mother Brain (Tourian) - 8000 HP, 30 damage - 5000 points
    • Defeat Mother Brain to win the game!

Special Boss

  • Ceres Station (Ceres) - 1000 HP, 4 damage - 600 points
    • Defeating Ceres Station reduces Ridley's health by 1000!

Controls

  • Mouse Click: Reveal tiles
  • R Key: Reset game (new random map)
  • Close Window: Exit game

Technical Details

  • Built with Python and Pygame
  • 10x10 grid (100 tiles)
  • Item spawn rate: 20% consumables, 20% enemies, 60% empty (plus unique items per area)
  • Combat runs at 60 FPS with turn-based intervals
  • Boss turn interval: 60 frames (1 second)
  • Player attack interval: 30 frames (0.5 seconds)
  • X-ray Scope checks 4 diagonal tiles (forming an "X")

Installation

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run the game
python super_metroid_tiled.py

Requirements

  • Python 3.x
  • Pygame 2.6.1+

Inspired by Super Metroid (Nintendo/Intelligent Systems). Created as a unique twist on memory and roguelike games.


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