Super Metroid: Upgrades and Non-Pirates

Sat down to play for quite a while today after a horrible day at work. Good news is I kicked a lot of butt on Super Metroid. To begin with I managed to immediately get stuck and after about 20 minutes of just goofing around and laying splatters of bombs everywhere until finally a hole in the floor opened up. As seen below.

So, long story short, this opened up limitless possibilities for me and I found many useful tools. Once I found the Power Bomb...

 I was able to open up an entirely new area of Norfair. Where I unlocked the full map and found many secret missile depots...

Down in those deeps I discovered a few upgrades to my weapon. The Spazer, which split my shots into three and dealing more damage...

...which was somewhat helpful when battling this big-n-ugly. Found out his name is...

 Crocomire.

He gave me a scare, had to pummel his mouth with missiles and super missiles until he backed up into the lava, Bowser-style. Also, he briefly attacked me through a spiky wall as a skeleton (also Bowser-like). But he just gave me loads of health.

After defeating big orange dude there, I FINALLY found the Grappling Beam. I was so relieved because now I was able to go anywhere in the game...

.... except in that thing's mouth... probably later.

 So then I made it back to the surface and could fully recharge my energy and my weapons in my ship, which rocked...

 ...then made my way due east to find a busted down ship....complete with space ghosts.

A note on my speculation of Space Pirates. During my googling to find out about Crocomire, I discovered that the little alien things that shoot lazers, sometimes fly, and crawl on walls (which I've been killing a lot of this whole time) are indeed the "Space Pirates"....kinda disappointed, but meh, I guess they can't all be the eye-patch wearing, rum drinking kind. *sigh*