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[The Satellite]

I'm gonna go completely off-topic now all of a sudden and briefly discuss an idea I'd had a little bit ago about how to improve the plot of Metroid Prime 3.

 

Now its plot is fine, pretty solid, but when I got to thinking about it, there's a single element that, in my eyes, would have made it really good.

 

The short version? Cut Gandrayda and Ghor, keep only Rundas.

 

To elaborate, they introduce these partner characters into the plot as part of some force to combat the Space Pirates, but we never see them fulfill any potential. Aside from Rundas, but even then only barely. Rundas was easily the most interesting because he actually came to your aid, interacted with you, and seemed to be a cool (heh) guy, only to soon after become a victim of possession and force you to fight him, with one of the most amazing boss themes ever might I add. Gandrayda and Ghor... well, Gandrayda plays a single prank on you but otherwise these two do absolutely nothing to make them interesting.

 

Cutting them and putting a greater focus on Rundas would have been a great improvement. Have him be present throughout the plot, have him aid Samus more, hell, let them team up in some situations for some neat moments. Then near the very end of the game, he pulls the inevitable heel-turn-via-possession, making the gut punch that much more powerful. After you're forced to defeat him, you're even more motivated to destroy Dark Samus and the hordes of Phaaze. It would've been brilliant.

 

And please keep the boss battle theme.

[The Satellite]

Beat Metroid 2 today, 2:52 in-game time. After a point I started consulting a map because I was getting a little bit tired of not having one in-game. It's very hard to play a Metroidvania with a map and then move to one that doesn't have one. That little feature alone would have far improved my experience with this game. Also a bit less floatiness, but it's a Game Boy game, almost expected at that point.

 

The game itself is fine. A bit dated, sure, and repetitive, but I didn't regret my time with it. There's not a lot I can say other than Samus Returns is an improvement in every area, I feel. It's fine for a look back at the series' origins and I'd far and away recommend it over the NES original personally (though that's really solely due to the lack of save points and thus always restarting with 30 health), but I dunno I can recommend it to anyone else based on that. Won't hurt to try it out if you're curious, but you'd be better off just sticking to Samus Returns.

 

Onward to the next game.

[The Satellite]

And Super Metroid down. I have a few reservations. I'm not terribly fond of the control scheme, there's no comfortable layout for run, jump, and dash on the face buttons. This would be less of a problem if diagonal aiming was mapped to a single button and you press up and down to change direction, but instead, up and down are separate buttons. I don't mind having to press select to get to the weapon I need too much, especially since you can press a button to go back to beam no matter which weapon you have selected, but I do wish it was simplified somewhat.

 

Physics are also a bit floaty, though nowhere near as bad as Metroid 2's, and in fact I didn't have much trouble at all adjusting to them. Space jumping in particular was a bit of a pain, as it felt inconsistent, even after realizing that additional jumps could only be triggered by holding a direction. On rare occasion I feel hitboxes are a little wonky as well?

 

I also feel that navigation is for the most part well-done, though there are a few times it was easy to get lost because I didn't immediately remember there was a room in an earlier area that I could pass through now that I had a better powerup. I also miss the function from newer Metroids where the map had a circle on a screen with a collectible that wasn't picked up, and turned into a dot when it was. I also wish some of said dots weren't also either refill stations or where you meet a boss, because that was a little confusing as well.

 

Aside from that, this is the best 2D Metroid game so far. Bold of me to state that opinion in public, I know, but it's everything apart from the issues above that makes it great. World design, soundtrack, bosses, atmosphere... Well, admittedly, Fusion and Zero Mission are a little stronger in this department thanks to superb graphic design, but Super accomplishes this in other ways, such as world design, enemy placement, etc. For all we know, Crocomire was just minding his own business when Samus dropped in out of nowhere. Not to mention everything involving the Super Metroid being superbly told through gameplay events. It's one of the most powerful endings in the series, maybe the most.

 

So yeah, while some areas didn't age that well, everything else still holds up wonderfully and I find this is the best 2D Metroid game... so far. I still have to replay Fusion to be sure. It also made me realize just how derivative Zero Mission and AM2R ended up being. Both of those had several aspects that in retrospect feel like they were put in there just because Super Metroid did it, without really refining or reinventing them. Speed booster, for instance, felt tacked on. I feel like the only reason there was a Torizo fight in AM2R was because, again, Super Metroid did it.

 

Not saying games shouldn't reuse concepts and expand on them, I just feel neither Zero Mission nor AM2R did this well.