I have been on a bit of a Metroid binge so I thought I could discuss a little of what I have found and I guess I'm always wondering - what could they do for a Metroid 5? Is it even possible in a post-Prime world? So what happened was that my Switch went to Nintendo to be fixed and I was left with only one thing connected to my television: the SNES Mini. So I started up Super Metroid and played all the way through. Confession: I had never finished Super Metroid until this playthrough. So how does it hold up? Well...
SUPER METROID
Early on Super Metroid can be quite daunting because it really doesn't hold your hand. You have no idea where to go or how to get there. But this very quickly becomes something to its credit because, very early on, pretty much as soon as you get bombs, Super Metroid requires you to find a hidden passage by blowing up a wall in order to proceed. So at that point, the game tells you - this is a game where you will have to search for the hidden routes to get anywhere. From that point on, I (and I imagine most players) change how I make my way through the game and it becomes a game of discovery.
And that's the real genius behind Metroid. I'm sure it was there in the first (a tiny bit more on that below) but it is what Super Metroid is built around and it's fantastic.
In order to make this work and not frustrating, Super Metroid does a whole bunch of things exactly right. Firstly, it's almost never a chore to backtrack. Super Metroid can be challenging in places but, to me, it seems way easier to make it through areas than many games of its time. As you build up your power and get new pickups, you can race through places at a great speed and it's pretty fun. Another thing it gets spot-on is that it always rewards exploration and never punishes it. There are so many hidden upgrades to find that even exploring the wrong place will usually get you a reward. And they signal that with a lovely fanfare too.
And one of the main things they get right, and I'm honestly not sure how this works, is that without almost any signposting they manage to keep you generally on the right track. And that has to be some miracle of game design. It has a flow that feels remarkably natural in the design and that's an amazing thing.
Like going through areas, the bosses are pretty easy too in that you can figure them out in a couple of goes. The only real challenge I think is Ridley and you can just brute force him if you have enough energy tanks.
In terms of negatives, what doesn't hold up now, some of the control is awkward. Having to cycle through the select button gets tedious and the grapple beam is very janky as is the super jump thing, which is bizarrely tricky to time sometimes.
But the game looks amazing, sounds amazing and, for a large part, holds up today in a way that most games from its time just can't.
METROID FUSION
I went from Super Metroid to its GBA sequel: Fusion. Now this game is a mixed bag to say the least. It looks pretty good. Some lovely pixel art but the locations are often dull. It is set on a space station and the game doesn't hugely sell that. It doesn't feel like a real place. Samus' sprites are great. They're actually my favourite of the series. I love the colours of those suits but I especially love how bulky they are. That's something that was lost in the Prime era. They feel heavy and I love that.
Fusion has a pretty good idea behind it with the X parasites and the way they mimic other creatures and are now integrated into Samus. I think that's quite cool. And it really streamlines the control. Gone is the select button cycling. The aiming diagonally down can be a little tricky but it's not something that really causes a problem in the game except in a couple of boss battles. Overall, the control is better.
But the game has one huge crime as a Metroid game - the open exploration is lost in favour of constantly being told what to do next. And it's not just that, it's not left as optional. The game puts a huge amount of arbitrary locks in place at various times to make sure you don't go too far off. And coming from Super Metroid to this, I found that incredibly frustrating. The joy of Metroid for me is that exploration and Fusion just misses that. It actively prevents it in places.
I actually remember the game being better, that it opens up more but, on this playthrough, I found it very limiting and never once got the joy of exploration.
The other frustration was in the boss battles. They often take place in cramped areas and you can get easily trapped so the boss just gets into a cycle of hitting you and that's just annoying. The spider boss was the worst where it just feels like random chance getting through it. Oddly, the last couple of boss battles are among the easiest and most enjoyable too. But mostly, the bosses are a chore in this game.
It's not a bad game at all. It's just not a great Metroid in my opinion.
METROID SAMUS RETURNS
I'm now playing this 3DS remake of Metroid II and I'll pick this thread up later but two things are immediately apparent. One is that the new combat mechanics change the nature of the game considerably in terms of how you get through places. It has a sort of parry mechanic that is essential and it also has a pretty cool feature of being able to lock yourself down and shoot in any direction. The result is that how you make it through other Metroid games is not at all how you do it in this one. It takes a little while to get used to that but I quite like it. I don't think it's better but I don't think it's worse. It's just different.
The other thing that jumps out is that this game is gorgeous. The backgrounds are amazing. So many beautiful details and little animations and it's so atmospheric. They really have done the Metroid world justice in this game. Samus is skinny and light, at odds with how she felt in Fusion, and I'm not a huge fan of that. And actually that also applies to the weapons. The rockets for example don't feel like they have power to them whereas they do in Fusion. But the animation is nice. Overall the game is gorgeous.
And in terms of exploration, it's a return to form. It does give you an ability to see hidden passages very early on. I don't mind that we have that but I feel it should have been held back until later. Anyway, I shall continue!
But just one last thing for this post...
METROID
I have never finished this game. Turns out I have made it quite far into it, as I found when I loaded up my save in Metroid Zero Mission's bonus NES version, but I have never finished it. I loaded it up again after playing Super Metroid to see if I could get through it but I didn't have the patience for it and it's due to one simple thing - the lack of a map. The game looks so samey that, without a map, I have no idea what I have explored and what I haven't. Back in the day I probably would have got a magazine with a map or even mapped it out by hand but I don't have the patience for that these days. But the game does control really well for NES game. I will never finish this game.
So... anyone played through the Metroid games recently? Thoughts? Feelings? Is a Metroid 5 possible, picking up from after Fusion?
SUPER METROID
Early on Super Metroid can be quite daunting because it really doesn't hold your hand. You have no idea where to go or how to get there. But this very quickly becomes something to its credit because, very early on, pretty much as soon as you get bombs, Super Metroid requires you to find a hidden passage by blowing up a wall in order to proceed. So at that point, the game tells you - this is a game where you will have to search for the hidden routes to get anywhere. From that point on, I (and I imagine most players) change how I make my way through the game and it becomes a game of discovery.
And that's the real genius behind Metroid. I'm sure it was there in the first (a tiny bit more on that below) but it is what Super Metroid is built around and it's fantastic.
In order to make this work and not frustrating, Super Metroid does a whole bunch of things exactly right. Firstly, it's almost never a chore to backtrack. Super Metroid can be challenging in places but, to me, it seems way easier to make it through areas than many games of its time. As you build up your power and get new pickups, you can race through places at a great speed and it's pretty fun. Another thing it gets spot-on is that it always rewards exploration and never punishes it. There are so many hidden upgrades to find that even exploring the wrong place will usually get you a reward. And they signal that with a lovely fanfare too.
And one of the main things they get right, and I'm honestly not sure how this works, is that without almost any signposting they manage to keep you generally on the right track. And that has to be some miracle of game design. It has a flow that feels remarkably natural in the design and that's an amazing thing.
Like going through areas, the bosses are pretty easy too in that you can figure them out in a couple of goes. The only real challenge I think is Ridley and you can just brute force him if you have enough energy tanks.
In terms of negatives, what doesn't hold up now, some of the control is awkward. Having to cycle through the select button gets tedious and the grapple beam is very janky as is the super jump thing, which is bizarrely tricky to time sometimes.
But the game looks amazing, sounds amazing and, for a large part, holds up today in a way that most games from its time just can't.
METROID FUSION
I went from Super Metroid to its GBA sequel: Fusion. Now this game is a mixed bag to say the least. It looks pretty good. Some lovely pixel art but the locations are often dull. It is set on a space station and the game doesn't hugely sell that. It doesn't feel like a real place. Samus' sprites are great. They're actually my favourite of the series. I love the colours of those suits but I especially love how bulky they are. That's something that was lost in the Prime era. They feel heavy and I love that.
Fusion has a pretty good idea behind it with the X parasites and the way they mimic other creatures and are now integrated into Samus. I think that's quite cool. And it really streamlines the control. Gone is the select button cycling. The aiming diagonally down can be a little tricky but it's not something that really causes a problem in the game except in a couple of boss battles. Overall, the control is better.
But the game has one huge crime as a Metroid game - the open exploration is lost in favour of constantly being told what to do next. And it's not just that, it's not left as optional. The game puts a huge amount of arbitrary locks in place at various times to make sure you don't go too far off. And coming from Super Metroid to this, I found that incredibly frustrating. The joy of Metroid for me is that exploration and Fusion just misses that. It actively prevents it in places.
I actually remember the game being better, that it opens up more but, on this playthrough, I found it very limiting and never once got the joy of exploration.
The other frustration was in the boss battles. They often take place in cramped areas and you can get easily trapped so the boss just gets into a cycle of hitting you and that's just annoying. The spider boss was the worst where it just feels like random chance getting through it. Oddly, the last couple of boss battles are among the easiest and most enjoyable too. But mostly, the bosses are a chore in this game.
It's not a bad game at all. It's just not a great Metroid in my opinion.
METROID SAMUS RETURNS
I'm now playing this 3DS remake of Metroid II and I'll pick this thread up later but two things are immediately apparent. One is that the new combat mechanics change the nature of the game considerably in terms of how you get through places. It has a sort of parry mechanic that is essential and it also has a pretty cool feature of being able to lock yourself down and shoot in any direction. The result is that how you make it through other Metroid games is not at all how you do it in this one. It takes a little while to get used to that but I quite like it. I don't think it's better but I don't think it's worse. It's just different.
The other thing that jumps out is that this game is gorgeous. The backgrounds are amazing. So many beautiful details and little animations and it's so atmospheric. They really have done the Metroid world justice in this game. Samus is skinny and light, at odds with how she felt in Fusion, and I'm not a huge fan of that. And actually that also applies to the weapons. The rockets for example don't feel like they have power to them whereas they do in Fusion. But the animation is nice. Overall the game is gorgeous.
And in terms of exploration, it's a return to form. It does give you an ability to see hidden passages very early on. I don't mind that we have that but I feel it should have been held back until later. Anyway, I shall continue!
But just one last thing for this post...
METROID
I have never finished this game. Turns out I have made it quite far into it, as I found when I loaded up my save in Metroid Zero Mission's bonus NES version, but I have never finished it. I loaded it up again after playing Super Metroid to see if I could get through it but I didn't have the patience for it and it's due to one simple thing - the lack of a map. The game looks so samey that, without a map, I have no idea what I have explored and what I haven't. Back in the day I probably would have got a magazine with a map or even mapped it out by hand but I don't have the patience for that these days. But the game does control really well for NES game. I will never finish this game.
So... anyone played through the Metroid games recently? Thoughts? Feelings? Is a Metroid 5 possible, picking up from after Fusion?
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