I knew that there were real numbers out there on the internet--real numbers that could tell you how much damage the weapons in Metroid games do, in fact. And I wanted these numbers, so I searched for them, long and hard, and I found them.
http://tasvideos.org/PJBoy/Dump.htmlhttp://m2k.galaxy64.com/metroidprime.htmlI've seen a much better reference for Metroid Prime's statistics, but that was all I could find. And below, I'd like to point out a few interesting details.
Super MetroidThe beam chart has Plasma and Spazer both in some of them. How'd they figure that?
The ice spinning shield only does 90 damage whereas the other shields do 300.
Hyper Beam does half as much damage as a charged ice+wave+plasma.
Screw Attack does more than four times as much damage as Hyper Beam.
Pseudo-screw attack doesn't vary in damage depending on the beam you're using.
Metroid FusionThe weapons' damage output is not quite a smooth curve.
Even the gun flare does damage.
Bombs do much closer to missile damage than in the other 2D games.
Metroid Zero MissionIt doesn't matter what weapons you have; it only matters how many you have.
Missiles do more damage than any uncharged weapon. (Beams that go through enemies probably do that damage each frame, though.)
Metroid PrimeCharging a power beam makes it up to 25x as effective.
Charging a wave beam makes it up to about 6.5x as effective.
Charging an ice beam makes it up to 3x as effective.
Charging a plasma beam makes it up to about 8.3x as effective, but burning enemies take 15x uncharged plasma beams' worth of damage over the 6 seconds they burn.
The person who put all that info together is very sloppy.
I like pie.