Super Metroid is an impeccably designed game. It's remarkable to see how many staples of not only Metroid, but search-action games generally, were born in this game and persist to this day in action games and modern Metroid games, both 2D and 3D! You could release this game today with a modern graphical coat of paint, and it would be among the most buzzed-about games of the year.
It's amazing to see where this dev team landed in Super Metroid with just the original and Metroid II under their belt. Very similar to the arc for the Zelda series from the 8 to 16-bit era. Super Metroid has a cinematic presentation you just didn't see in this time. A huge part of this is Super Metroid's creepy and pervasive soundtrack which partners with the environment design to unsettle you in almost every region in the game on your first play.
The one thing that knocks a whole star off for me though is how clunky Super Metroid feels to play in 2026. In 1994 this would have been easier to cope with, but even the improvements to the moment-to-moment feel made in Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission make Super Metroid seem antiquated by comparison (to say nothing of Dread!). Much of this comes down to the selection of your alternate weapons. The devs unwisely elected to use both shoulder buttons to control diagonal aiming, so selecting one of your (eventually) five alternate fire modes exists on a linear bar that either needs to be fully cycled through or reset to get back to your standard arm cannon.
Besides this, performing some of the platforming maneuvers can be very hit-or-miss; the wall jump in particular. There are just too many moments where you feel like you're fighting the game to do what you want it to do. Different genre, but compare this to how smooth the action is in Donkey Kong Country, which released the same year.
This doesn't stop Super Metroid from being an all-timer though. This is the game that defined the "Metroid" in "Metroidvania" and deservedly so. The blueprint may have been drawn with the original Metroid but Super Metroid is where the genre was truly established. I would never recommend anyone play this as their first Metroid game, but any fan of the 2D Metroids should take some time to experience Super Metroid. As long as you don't mind dealing with a stiff movement system, it's a remarkable game whose design and atmosphere still hold up.