Metroid Dread (2021)

Currently trying to beat Kraid. I found out there's a handful more bosses waiting, which has me quite excited! I'm taking my time with this game and so far the scope and pacing have been wonderful.

I googled my way out of being stuck for two times so far. No shame. I really love it when games are cryptic and have you running around figuring out secrets in order to progress.

I've started playing this a few days ago. Absolutely in love with it.

I'm only a few hours in but everything from the visual style, to the combat, the boss fights, the atmosphere, it's all so darn good.

This title reminds me of Luigi's Mansion 3, it has a similar amount of dense atmosphere, there's a richness in the flow of the game, the gameplay and the world built around it. I'm really surprised by it. It's also done by a third-party studio, like Luigi's Mansion 3.

To me, Metroid Dread is Nintendo's version of RE2Remake. It's a modern take on a classic formula. And I like it. The pacing is perfect too. Curious to see where it ends up, I also love those EMMI's, tense!

Honestly, I'm happy I ignored the game and the hype surrounding its release. To indulge in it, after all the fuss and opinions and reviews, feels great. On that note, happy to limit or neglect my time spent with social media and gaming forums/news.

Absolutely DREADful for now. This is a game from 2005 with 2017 graphics, with little to none effort in innovation and game design. It's like the development team refused to acknowledge the existence of any other metroidvania title and built everything from scratch, nothing that was fun (Hollow Knight), engaging (Iconoclasts) or challenging (Momodora) for me in other titles can be found here. Here's everything I have a problem with:

• Every map is always abruptly cut in two by some bullshit closed thermal door, forcing you to go all around the map or don't go there at all (castrating the feeling of exploration), just to make fun of you a couple hours later with a shortcut opened with a new powerup that save you 20 seconds and nothing else (e.g. some grapple beam blocks)
• Combat design is really unbalanced, with the possibility to gain so much maximum health that after some hours of gameplay you just ignore enemies and damage boost through the map and half the bosses getting nullified by simply pressing A to dash over their heads.
• The powerups are so boring I could get asleep after two full cups of coffee, the dash was the only really good one. Everything is just a recycled movement upgrade from past titles or a simple firepower upgrade: "Uh wow now the lasers I shoot are green, what a fantastic game". Also, there's very little incentive to explore, since the ONLY reward you'll ever get for finding a secret is a missile tank upgrade.
• Lastly, probably the most irritating part: the so-called "Metroid Moments". After 35 fucking years, nobody has told Sakamoto that breakable blocks not distinguishable in-game or in the map from every other tile is the worst idea for a 2D game, especially if it's vital for story progression. I got stuck so many times and had to seek help because "Oh look, this single block below the missile tank can be broken with a morph bomb with absolutely no clue other than the proximity with another piece of map, which happens half the fucking time with no breakable blocks whatsoever because we needed to stretch the game to more than 10 hours so you have to go around 2 areas to make 10 meters."

Other that that, movement is really smooth and two bossfight were really neat, even if the design is always a bit uninspired. Only a very good ending/endgame can save this game and push it to a 3/5, otherwise it's a 2/5.

Very good, but in context of all the hype and massive unquestioned praise this game has been getting, I more-so just want to say: good. Like it's not groundbreaking in any regard. It's a very by-the-books Metroid game (which makes it naturally very good). I would argue that time has made that both a good thing and an underwhelming thing. It's good because it's been so long to the point where we've felt like this day would never come -- a new 2D Metroid game that is comparable to its predecessors??? But since it's been like 20 years since we've seen this, I'd argue we've been "spoiled" with so many great indie games that have more-or-less found perfection with this type of game. There's been so many good "Metroid" games, that the only BIG appeal that this game has for me is if I pretend I'm playing this as a 10yo on my Gamecube (which I did pretend, and that greatly helps).

But even if I compare it to its predecessors, there's still a couple glaring issues I have with it:

• uninspired music
• unmemorable map/art/graphical style
• the outer shell of this game is casualized, while the game still holds a philosophy of precision and intention (i.e. doing shinespark on an analog stick; the 3d can obscure grid-information)
• there's little weight to dying, considering there's a common auto-save before and after big events (this removes any tension of getting to save rooms, meaning I don't think I ever went out of my way to intentionally save, encouraging a more mindless experience)

It's weird actually. I feel like 2D Metroid was made for limitations -- a small resolution, only a few buttons, a crusty soundchip (so the main focus for the composer would have to be to make something memorable to outweigh the crustiness)

I feel like there's nothing that should've stopped Nintendo from making a new pixelart Metroid game, with faux-limitations. I think that would've helped make this actually feel like a real sequel, rather than just a ... idk what to call what this felt like. But I don't hold it in the same part of my mind where I hold Metroid, Metroid 2, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid Zero Mission.
Maybe that's inevitable with how much time has passed, and how much older I am. idk. But all of that time naturally raises overall expectations, even though I went into this with low expectations (because of my experiences with modern Nintendo). Yeah, it was a romp -- a rollercoaster. But now that it's over, there's not much I have to say about it other than it was good. Maybe that's all that Metroid needs to be, and I should stop making it sound like I want it to be more. :p

TL;DR: A game's soundtrack can heavily influence my overall feelings of it.