Rating: Oh Thank God/10 (9.5/10)

Seriously, thank God that a new Metroid has come out and it's actually awesome. If you go by what a lot of people say then it's been ten years since a good one came out. I thought Federation Force was okay for what it was and I liked Other M, but still, even so, if Other M was the last proper Metroid it has still been 7 years. And basically, yeeeeeeeeeah. This is an excellent remake.

I dropped it a little bit because it's slightly lesser then the best Metroids but is still awesome. Hunting down the Metroids is cool because it's nice to actually be a bounty hunter, but this also leads to a lot of repetitive boss battles. It comes across as a bit of padding. It gets more interesting later, but the bosses never reach the level of something like Super Metroid.

Aside from that, all hands on deck. I like the addition of the scanner that shows you parts of the map. I may prefer it over the old way, to be honest. They overload you with a lot of stuff at the beginning but I never felt like it hurt the pacing. There is still a fair bit of stuff to find after the original couple areas.

But yeah, this is the way Metroid should be. Clever level design, awesome music that can go from being empowering to creepy to beautiful, plenty of secrets, a badass main character, etc. Check it out, support Metroid. Buy it 3 times.

When Metroid: Samus Returns is operating at its peak, it stands among the best of the franchise, but unfortunately I found these peaks to be few and far between. I'm not ecstatic about the new things this entry brings to the series and I don't feel it really nails the returning features I enjoy in these games.

We'll start with the good stuff though.

At first I really wasn't into the art style. I love me some solid pixel art and it's sort of what I've come to expect in the 2D Metroid games. So the opening areas didn't help this by mostly being shades of really ugly yellow and brown. However, the game very quickly expands on this color palette and some of the mid to late game areas are truly gorgeous. There's a lot of detail here, especially in the background. You can see non-hostile critters moseying around back there, which is really cool. The game also foreshadows a couple bosses this way much like Metroid Fusion did, which is just as cool now as it was back then.

I'm a big fan of the 3DS's 3D effect (there are dozens of us!) and this game makes excellent use of it via these background environments, adding a sense of depth that wouldn't be nearly as impressive if it weren't for how well the 3D effect is implemented. Once I noticed how good it was I always kept it on while playing. It's probably among the best on the system, in this regard.

Samus feels good to control and I appreciate the 360 degree aiming mechanic, though the circle pad does hold it back a little bit as it's not as easy to aim with as a traditional controller joystick would be. The aiming helps add some leeway with positioning during boss fights and makes dealing with troublesome enemies much easier, especially once you get the "shoot through walls" upgrade.

The major bosses are pretty much all fun to fight and look impressive, especially for a 3DS game. There's one that happens close to the final stretch of the game against the Diggernaut that I really love. It elevates the typical "shoot weak point, jump around to avoid neon balls and contact damage" boss approach in a way I haven't really seen in this series often do before. I'm not even trying to trash talk that usual boss design, I just think this one stands out as something really special among most others.

But uh, there's not much else I really liked about this game.

Samus Returns introduces a new parry mechanic which I think is meant to add some extra flavor to the combat. Another option on top of your various ranged arm cannon attacks doesn't sound bad on paper, but I really dislike the implementation here. Most of the enemies have had their AI designed around this parry, which really just means when they see you they fuckin CHARGE at top speed right at you. You are intended to stop, wait for the moment before impact, then parry and follow up with some ranged shots to quickly kill them. The thing is, the game has like maybe 10 types of normal enemies and the majority of them do exactly this with minor variations. It makes backtracking super tedious because if you want to not take chip damage all the time from enemies rocketing at you left and right you need to progress really slow and deal with them one at a time, since the parry doesn't work all that well on multiple targets.

Speaking of backtracking, this game is a bit odd in respect to this. Some level of backtracking is inevitable and even welcome in a metroidvania. But the way this game segments the world into a series of areas connected by elevators means that once you clear an area there's really no reason to go back if you don't want to pick up the upgrades you missed using your new abilities. Since most of those upgrades are missile storage increases I really didn't find it worth my time to go back. Samus Returns doesn't really feel like a big interconnected world because the only spots where the areas link up (other than teleporters I guess) is at the entrance from the previous area and exit to the next. It's pretty lame, especially having just played through Metroid Prime which also uses elevators but at least has many different entrance and exit points all over each area. Metroid Prime also features better incentive to backtrack, even outside of the required amount.

Progression is mainly gated by requiring you to kill a certain number of Metroids before moving onto the next area. These Metroids make up all of the game's minibosses and there are roughly 40 of them to kill. There are only four primary forms of them though and it gets pretty tedious fighting the same miniboss over and over. This tedium is exacerbated by the way they sometimes run away mid-fight, forcing you to go searching in nearby rooms to track them down and continue the encounter. To a certain extent the dev's hands were tied with these minibosses-- this is a remake of Metroid II after all. But it feels like there was more they could have done to reduce how repetitive they felt.

This game also introduces four abilities that use a new resource called Aeion. The first of these is like a scanner that reveals breakable blocks around you and also reveals a portion of the map close to where you are. This is really handy and I'm sure was included to help alleviate frustrations of new players in searching for paths to find upgrades. I don't think it really "casualizes" the game or anything-- if anything, something like this is a welcome addition. But I do have a bone to pick with how it seems to have affected the way secret breakable blocks are incorporated into the level design. In past Metroid games, because we didn't have such an ability, secrets usually were pretty intuitive if you followed context clues and poked around a bit. A lot of the ones in this game felt very unintuitive, like they realized you could just use the ability so it didn't really matter if they placed blocks so you could figure it out naturally. The game also loves placing blocks that collapse when you step on them right at the end of puzzles, thereby forcing you to redo them from the beginning, which really got on my nerves by the end of the game.

I'll finish up with a bit of a nitpick. I cannot fathom why in the world the Chozo would design water draining locks such that they require Metroid DNA to be directly injected into them. Like what kind of sense does that make? You guys lived like this? Even if they somehow knew Samus would come here it makes no sense to gate off Metroids from her when they clearly seem to want her to exterminate them. But oh well.

So I found Samus Returns a tad disappointing in some regards, but it's nice to see an actual release from a franchise that seemed dead for quite a while, even if it's a remake of an older game. It's still a solid entry and I'd recommend it to any fan of the series, but maybe not to newcomers. There are better entries to experience first, imo. I'll have to check out Metroid Dread next so I can finally be all caught up!

Historically, Metroid is one of those series of games I love in spite of being terrible at playing them. It wasn't until Zero Mission that I actually beat one (which inspired me to go back and beat Fusion). Before that, I got the furthest in Prime, but otherwise these were games I tended to wade in, get a sense of the exploration and accumulated power-ups and atmosphere, then inevitably put aside when they stopped being fun for me.

By far the most disorienting entry I'd played was Metroid II. I had the original on Game Boy, and I loved its premise (seeing different kinds of metroids is still super neat), but the nondescript areas and lack of visibility were just too much for my meager skills.

So it's a real treat to experience that game remade to be my new favorite of the series.

Everything I found intriguing about the original is intact, but with all the game design lessons learned since 1991 incorporated. There's plenty of visibility, Samus controls amazingly well, and additional checkpoints kept me from getting stuck.

One of my favorite new additions is the ability to parry or counter an attack, momentarily stunning your enemy. You can still rely on precision in combat, but it allows those of us with better timing than aim a means of staying in the fight.

I'm also a big fan of the visuals. As a fan of Zero Mission and Fusion, I was sad when I saw the move away from sprite-based artwork. But these graphics work beautifully on the 3DS, almost like you're peering into a cross-section of the world or watching amiibos come to life.

In a year already dominated by classic sequels, reboots and follow-ups, it's incredible to see Nintendo do justice to another of their NES-era franchises. Now I'm even more excited to see how Metroid Prime 4 takes shape!

I'm continuing to work through the 2D Metroid games prior to getting Metroid Dread (which, let me tell you, has become all the more urgent now that Dread is out), and I'm discovering that I never gave this series the attention it deserved. And I feel a bit like a fool for it.

The first game, Metroid Zero Mission, was truly exceptional. Metroid Prime is almost certainly in my top 5 games of all time.

This game, while not quite as impressive as either of those, is deserving of a high, high level of praise. The gameplay is quite tight, the powerups feel strong and change the flow of the game and the accessibility of the map, and the bosses were consistently challenging. The only real short-comings are in the art style (I didn't quite love it in 2017 either), and the map feels a little bit too fragmented for its own good.

Thankfully, the story-telling, the bosses, the core gameplay of exploration, and the sense of vulnerability that slowly lifts until you discover a new version of a threatening Metroid evolution - and that overwhelming feeling of loneliness - never relinquishes on the quality. The sound design and music are strong too, with great homages to (what I'm learning are) series staples. The very final battle, while far from the most challenging in the game, really does make you feel like a powerful bounty hunter. I loved it!

I would highly recommend this. Count me in for my next adventure in Super Metroid in a few weeks time - and, one day, I can't wait to return to this exceptional game.

Samus Return, the reimagine of Metroid 2 from the Gameboy. This is the first game I beat for my 3ds so this is also a first impression of the handheld as well. First and foremost, playing on the 3ds can be painful! My hand start to cramp after a session and the 3D... I'm not sure if I'm doing it right because I cant see anything pop out the screen. At least for the Samus Return. I'll give my review on how the 3D is for the games.

Now for Samus Return... It's good, but it has some flaws. From it's core it is a Gameboy game and what I mean is that the metroid you fight get REALLY repetitive. It's not until the end of the game is where you fight some crazy bosses. I didn't really enjoy fighting the metroids like that, the variety doesn't make them THAT different.

What I really enjoyed is the atmosphere and sound design in the game like wow. The game really gave me a sense of true adventure where I'm going off a path and finding secrets. It just felt good to do that.

Overall, the game is good, but you have to be mindful that it comes from a Gameboy game meaning the core of the game is a little bare bones when it comes gameplay and story compare to Zero Mission (that's the only metroid I've played). Right now I have Zero Mission on top, the game is near perfect with its level design, atmosphere and story. I say play Samus Return because I know Metroid 2 on the gameboy is no good. I'm curious about AM2R though... For now I shall continue my journey and go back to my Switch to play Super Metroid on Nintendo Online.

Play the game.

I really am glad Samus is finally (officially) back, and in a 2D adventure no less. I know I will have lots more to say later, but for now I'll say this. I think AM2R on the whole was better, but this does offer a very different experience. I think currently the counter takes more away from the formula than it adds, and the aeon powers could have easily been replaced with normal power ups, but those are minor gripes. This is a solid entry in the series worthy of being called a Metroid game. Will it go down in history as one of the greatest games of all time? No. If I do a mainline Metroid playthrough will I likely play AM2R in it's place? Yes. Do I regret buying this game full price and the amiibo for it? Not a bit. While I think AM2R had more time for polish (and I'm a sucker for pixel art) Samus Returns shows signs of ingenuity and love put in as well. It's a good time to be a Metroid fan ^^

Edit: Took about 19 hours total playtime (including deaths/waiting around) about 10 in game around for finishing, and an additional hour and a half for 100%

(dat 100% ending teaser do...I wish it hadn't been spoiled for me)

SPOILERS AHEAD

I very nearly gave this game a 2 because of how frustrating it could be at times, but decided the overall experience warranted a 3. My main issue with this game is that it's entirely balanced around the new melee counter feature. This has some unsavory implications for the typical Metroid gameplay; fighting random enemies becomes a waiting game where you're trying to bait out the quick time event to counter. At its best, this slows down the pacing that one might be used to from a Metroid game, and at it's worst it can be very punishing as enemies in this game do comparatively more damage than other Metroid titles. However, it did make the boss encounters a lot more challenging and enjoyable in my opinion. I feel like if the melee counter was deemphasized against random mobs to make exploration more enjoyable and more emphasized for the boss fights, the game would have left a better impression on me.

I also have an issue with so many of the super/missile and bomb upgrades coming so late in the game as to feel like they don't even matter and some very literally can't be accessed until after the penultimate boss. Feels comparatively stamp collect-y when compared to other Metroid titles where I feel like exploring for every upgrade possible is rewarding not just for the discovery aspect, but because I can actually put everything to use and still have plenty of game left. This game feels like I could have linearly traveled the 8 areas and never backtracked for any upgrades and been just fine.

Still, I love Metroid, and I had fun with the game, I just can't see myself ever revisiting this one. Worth a play if you're a fan of Metroid or Metroidvania in general, but by no means a masterclass in the field.