a solid action adventure game tbh. very interested in making the player feel uncomfortable.
The extremely zoomed in screen and lack of color makes this one almost impossible to get your bearings without a map. I do, however, appreciate what they were going for and how this is very well-tailored for portable gaming.
I still can't fully enjoy the soundtrack, but it does create a very different, perhaps brutal and jarring, vibe to this game and that I can get behind.
I still can't fully enjoy the soundtrack, but it does create a very different, perhaps brutal and jarring, vibe to this game and that I can get behind.
Count me in as one of the people who say it's better than the original. That said, I have somewhat of a personal vendetta against Game Boy. I don't like how the thing looks or sounds, so I'm quite glad that some of the most influential games receive remakes.
The game suffers from some pacing issues which mainly stem from there being a lot of repeat minibosses, and while I don't dig the tunes from this one even when they're arranged, I think the atmosphere tops its NES predeccesor easily.
The game suffers from some pacing issues which mainly stem from there being a lot of repeat minibosses, and while I don't dig the tunes from this one even when they're arranged, I think the atmosphere tops its NES predeccesor easily.
I'd played this some back in the day but had never finished it as I'd inexplicably found myself stuck and/or lost in a fairly linear game (something a quick glance at the instruction manual would have clarified had I had one in my possession.) Coming back to it now was fairly eye-opening after long since been Metroidvania pilled to an extreme. I'd really expected this to play closer to NES Metroid instead of being the prototype of so much to come. The game itself is extremely straightforward but that's befitting of something on a battery powered portable system. The emphasis on the hunt in lieu of exploration was certainly something I'd forgotten about as well. Given the short length of the game even by series' standards, I can see myself coming back to this now and then. If there's any criticism to be offered, it's probably centered around the metroid evolutions acting as mini-bosses throughout. While typically not a challenge, I was jump scared twice by them in general play and quite anxious against an Alpha that I finished with my last missile so perhaps they're fine as is. I'm looking forward to the opportunities opened up to me after having completed this as AM2R and Samus Returns both await.
Played this really late, but I enjoyed it. Was very difficult to navigate initially.
Metroid II: Return of Samus is a bafflingly good game by Game Boy standards, I would just hesitate to play it on original hardware.
In my opinion, Return of Samus, despite being on the GB, is significantly better then the first game in everyway. As with the first game, I felt as if they where trying to do too much with the game when they couldn't on NES hardware. But here, Nintendo was able to completely translate the concepts of the first game and make something that feels much better for the GB hardware. I am not going to finish it however, as I will instead play the remake; but understand through my good amount of playtime here, that it is quite a good game.
The action packed sequel to the original game. Despite being in black and white, it has incredible detail gor a Gameboy outing. Things like new movement and aiming angles, as well as save stations help this game immensely, However the repetitive boss fights (hunting Metroids), and a bit uninspiring map can turn some away. Something Suggested to play after becoming a bit familiar with the franchise.
Such a good game. Ending is still my favorite moment in all of Metroid.
Eh, it's ok. Still a better game than Metroid 1 imo.
This game is badass, you have one goal: kill every single metroid on this planet and its as satisfying as it sounds.
The Metroid gameplay translated well onto the handheld, amazing atmosphere and music and all this on a gameboy which is pretty crazy.
Ending is also great without the unnecessary boss they added in the 3ds remake
The Metroid gameplay translated well onto the handheld, amazing atmosphere and music and all this on a gameboy which is pretty crazy.
Ending is also great without the unnecessary boss they added in the 3ds remake
Tough to go back to after the masterpiece that was the 3DS remake, but it's impressive to see what they were trying to do on the Gameboy back in '91
Somehow both the most non-metroidvania metroid game and also the most confusing. If I didn't have a map pulled up, I never would have finished it. Worst final boss in video game history
The heyday of the 3DS Virtual Console was a magical time. I would play this and Link's Awakening on long car rides to and from Southern California, an experience that many others probably had before me when they originally released on Game Boy in the 90s. Having renewed access to important moments in Nintendo's history delighted me, elevating an already amazing handheld library to new heights. I had played retro games before, but this time is what made me a fan of retro games.
There's something special about this one in particular. The lack of a map, while annoying, is not as crippling as it was for the original Metroid, and with some trial and error I could still make progress through the winding tunnels of SR388 while keeping the thrill of exploration and isolated atmosphere intact. It was also--and Samus Returns never quite achieved this--genuinely scary! Samus' sprite is comically huge, yes, and it leads to some unfair blind jumps, but it also lends itself to a cozier, more immersively claustrophobic experience than the likes of Super Metroid. You truly are walking around in the dark on an alien planet, anticipating what horror may lurk beyond the next corner or sea of acid. Dissonant beeps and boops in the soundtrack are just eerie enough to pay off in an effective jumpscare when you scroll the screen just far enough for a hatchling Metroid to bust out of the wall and absolutely WRECK you. A simple counter at the bottom of the screen for how many you have left to go is a refreshingly simple objective to shoot for, fittingly placed next to your missile count. This is one of the few Metroid games where the amount you are given is justified and needed to take down the bosses, and there's not so many arbitrary expansions that it becomes too easy.
It's an awesome little game that leaves me excited, lonely, and a little unsettled each time I come back to it. And isn't that what Metroid is all about?
There's something special about this one in particular. The lack of a map, while annoying, is not as crippling as it was for the original Metroid, and with some trial and error I could still make progress through the winding tunnels of SR388 while keeping the thrill of exploration and isolated atmosphere intact. It was also--and Samus Returns never quite achieved this--genuinely scary! Samus' sprite is comically huge, yes, and it leads to some unfair blind jumps, but it also lends itself to a cozier, more immersively claustrophobic experience than the likes of Super Metroid. You truly are walking around in the dark on an alien planet, anticipating what horror may lurk beyond the next corner or sea of acid. Dissonant beeps and boops in the soundtrack are just eerie enough to pay off in an effective jumpscare when you scroll the screen just far enough for a hatchling Metroid to bust out of the wall and absolutely WRECK you. A simple counter at the bottom of the screen for how many you have left to go is a refreshingly simple objective to shoot for, fittingly placed next to your missile count. This is one of the few Metroid games where the amount you are given is justified and needed to take down the bosses, and there's not so many arbitrary expansions that it becomes too easy.
It's an awesome little game that leaves me excited, lonely, and a little unsettled each time I come back to it. And isn't that what Metroid is all about?
No, Redditor, Metroid 2 isn't a "misunderstood classic"
I was really happy that I did not drop Metroid II. Initially I was going to drop the Metroid II because before you get any of the upgrades the game was kinda slow, but after I got some of the upgrades, I changed my mind on dropping it.
I loved most of the upgrades you got throughout the game, like the plasma beam and the space jump for example. The combat was fun, though I wish you could switch beams whenever since the ice beam is really fun to use. I enjoyed fighting the Metroids (i.e Omega, Zeta, Gamma) because of how intense it was, since they have a LOT of health, deal a lot of damage and are fast.
The main issue I had with the game was that it was a Game boy game, so the screen size hindered platforming and combat. Two minor issues I had were that the game did not have a map which made it confusing to navigate the world, and that there was no color, so most areas blended together (game boy moment).
Other than that, this game was surprisingly great!
I loved most of the upgrades you got throughout the game, like the plasma beam and the space jump for example. The combat was fun, though I wish you could switch beams whenever since the ice beam is really fun to use. I enjoyed fighting the Metroids (i.e Omega, Zeta, Gamma) because of how intense it was, since they have a LOT of health, deal a lot of damage and are fast.
The main issue I had with the game was that it was a Game boy game, so the screen size hindered platforming and combat. Two minor issues I had were that the game did not have a map which made it confusing to navigate the world, and that there was no color, so most areas blended together (game boy moment).
Other than that, this game was surprisingly great!
Surprisingly better than Metroid 1, I was expecting them to be the same but I was actually enjoying myself and the gameplay felt a bit smoother.
This one wasn't quite as enjoyable as the first, but it was still overall a good experience. I liked the types of upgrades you can get more, like the Spider-ball and space jump. Also saving and recharge stations were lovely! But.. Samus' sprite feels too big, it gets hit by everything! And most of the time, the music is nonexistent, or SUCKS like the Chozo Ruins music. (At least 'Surface of SR388' and the credits are bangers)
TL;DR: I feel like it's kind of unnecessary to complain about the obvious shortcomings that the Game Boy imposed upon this game. I feel it's much more useful to consider the benefits of this game being on GB, that being that it adds to the atmosphere that you can't properly see the screen, and how the backgrounds are so dark. Interestingly enough, this means that the original Metroid II has a better, more faithful ambience than Samus Returns, and some ways even AM2R.
That said, this game is a frustrating play, despite being on the better side of early Game Boy titles. Wouldn't really recommend trying this over replaying Samus Returns or AM2R unless you're a really die-hard fan.
That said, this game is a frustrating play, despite being on the better side of early Game Boy titles. Wouldn't really recommend trying this over replaying Samus Returns or AM2R unless you're a really die-hard fan.
Enjoyed it, need a map to guide you, aim to get as many energy tanks and missiles or you will have a difficult time.
its not bad but it just feels really dated. the screen is really zoomed in so seeing everything and remembering where you need to go without a map is kind of lame. also once you get near the end each metroid just feels more and more like a waste of time. i really need to play samus returns at some point
More dated than the first in most ways but this one has crouching so its really even
Samus' adventures continue as she finds Metroids grow up into nightmares, so she blows them up
Holds up impressively well. If it had an ingame mapping system (alongside other QOL features introduced in Super Metroid) it would be an easy recommendation alongside the other games in the series that came after it. Still a game that should not be skipped for people who are fans of Metroid, though.
Joguei por uns 20 minutos em um Switch e achei um puta negócio estranho esse jogo. As cores são praticamente idênticas! Dá nem pra saber onde tem que ir.
Used rewind in the emulator
This review contains spoilers
Metroid’s debut on the NES possessed plenty of unique and admirable elements, hence why it has influenced countless subsequent video games since its release. However, I grant the first Metroid game much less clemency than its fellow Nintendo icons during their freshmen years because navigating through the hostile hedge maze of an alien planet was too absurdly rigorous a task while being rendered in 8-bit graphics. It’s a brilliant idea whose execution in this vestigial era of gaming couldn’t possibly have been feasible, which is probably what inspired so many imitators to replicate its design philosophy when the gaming hardware could emulate it effectively. Because I’m already adamantly critical of a Metroid game on the NES, you can imagine why I’ve avoided its sequel on the original Gameboy like the plague. If Metroid on the NES is aggravatingly primitive as is, imagine how it would be downscaled on a handheld. It’s something I’ve shuttered to comprehend for some time now. However, Metroid II: Return of Samus on the original Gameboy is still an essential piece of the franchise’s evolutionary history, so I feel obligated not to eschew it from my gaming repertoire. Upon playing a game akin to eating my Brussels sprouts, I was surprised to find more positive aspects of Metroid II than I initially anticipated. Do these additions and rearrangements make Metroid II more pleasant than its console predecessor? Uh…
As detailed in the game’s manual, Metroid II is a direct sequel to the original Metroid in that its narrative follows the events of the first game when Samus defeated Mother Brain on Zebes. Now, the Galactic Federation is taking the fight to the metroid’s home planet of SR388 to exterminate the intergalactic parasites, ensuring that the dastardly Space Pirates will never harness their deadly biological properties ever again. However, upon storming the hive, an entire fleet of Federation mercenaries goes missing. Evidently, not even a gang of men can be relied on to do a woman’s job, so the Federation assigns Samus the intrepid mission of causing the metroid’s abrupt extinction. Future Metroid games would utilize the premise of invading an enemy hive as a climactic point, but Metroid II revels in the thrill of infiltration for the duration of the game. Because entering the heart of the threat is more of an intimate attack, Metroid II immediately raises the stakes of the narrative compared to the previous game.
The first Metroid certainly portrayed the dim nothingness of space effectively with its blank, black backgrounds setting the scene, whether it was an intentional artistic display from the developers or an inadvertent advantage of the NES’s primitiveness. At least the unseeable abyss of the backgrounds was contrasted with a pleasantly diverse color palette that gave the foregrounds their discernibility. Little known fact about the original Gameboy model, the handheld was so rudimentary that it could not support colors, so every game was rendered in stark black and white like the golden age of Hollywood. While the lack of colorization wouldn’t necessarily impact a Mario or Zelda game on the go, Metroid suffers completely. Contrasting a completely black background with white amongst grainy shades of more black turns any game into a graphical slurry thick as pea soup. Some later versions of Metroid II provide color where the foreground of SR388 is a cool blue, with Samus sporting her trademark red power suit with tinges of yellow. Still, the improved color scheme is only marginally less monochromatic than its original in black and white or the other version where it is shaded in a blanched, greenish-brown. To compensate for the lack of graphical discernibility, Metroid II’s camera perspective for the player is zoomed in to the point where it feels as if Samus’s body takes up half of the screen. I appreciate the consideration that Samus wouldn’t be sighted as easily from afar in black and white, but it’s a tad too close for my comfort threshold.
Considering that Metroid II couldn’t possibly stand up as a bonafide sequel to the NES Metroid with graphical enhancements, the developers sure did attempt to amend the awkward regression of hardware with several quality-of-life enhancements. Then again, the first Metroid was in desperate need of these enhancements anyway, so they were ultimately still a necessity even if Metroid’s sequel was on the same system. Firstly, the ability to aim Samus’s blaster in more directions than horizontally and vertically is a blessing. With a flexible dexterity that allows Samus to aim downward in the air, Samus is much less vulnerable and will take less unfair damage because the blind spot has been rectified. Acquiring energy tanks and missile upgrades will no longer involve borderline sequence breaking, although the paths to a number of them will sometimes be behind illusory walls like a number of upgrades throughout the games of this era. Most importantly, save stations are strewn aplenty as well as places to replenish health and missile ammunition, mitigating the need for an excruciating grinding session shooting at enemies to stave off dying and reverting all the way back to the beginning (which is now defined as where Samus parks her ship). If the Gameboy could implement a functional save feature, what’s the excuse for the NES rarely offering one? Outside of my general delight that all of these features heightened Metroid II’s accessibility, what surprised me was how many of Metroid’s power-ups made their debut here. The Spider Ball climbs up the coarse terrain of the metroid’s home planet as smoothly as seen in other Metroid iterations, and the same goes for the Spring Ball that jumpstarts Samus in ball form as sprightly as a reflex test. I had no idea that something as dangerous and erratic as the Screwattack could be implemented onto something as fragile and unsophisticated as the Gameboy but nevertheless, Samus is able to spin herself airborne with deadly energy to her heart’s content. The new spazer and plasma beams accompany the returning ice and wave beams, but Metroid II continues the problem from the previous game in that these beams cannot be alternated in an inventory of sorts.
You know what other feature Metroid II continues to omit? In all their wisdom and experience, Nintendo still did not find a map to be an indispensable facet of their exploration-intensive IP with cramped corridors galore and a smattering of secret upgrades. If I were on the decision board, I’d heavily protest. The visually muted depiction of this (literally) uncharted planet is really an insult to injury. Also, to compound how egregious this glaring oversight is, SR388’s world here is at least three times larger than Zebes. Have fun trying not to struggle at every waking moment trying to find your position in relation to where you’re intended to go. While the exclusion of a map is still just as unacceptable, at least SR388 is constructed a bit more prudently than the series of stairs and hallways that was Zebes. SB388 is organized incrementally, meaning that the entirety of one section has to be completed in order to proceed to the next one. Once everything is cleared out, the game gives them an indication to move onward: shaking the map like an earthquake, signifying that another section has been unearthed. Still, not providing a map for this instance renders this neat progression point moot because it’s incredibly unclear where the next area is.
Constantly scrambling to find the next area notwithstanding, how does one progress through the catacombs of the metroid’s home planet? When I stated that Samus’s mission was to eradicate all Metroids from the galaxy, this isn’t merely a narrative catalyst. Forty metroids have hatched from their cocoons like caterpillars and the overarching quest of Metroid II is to eliminate all of them. However, these are not the same jelly-headed brain suckers seen in the first game (and the ones we’ve become familiar with through subsequent titles). The homebound metroid resembles something of an intergalactic hornet, also buzzing around with the aggression of one once they encounter Samus. As Samus continually blasts them to bits, the genome of the metroid species is going to adapt to Samus’s opposition, scrolling down the letters of the Greek alphabet for categorization. The Zeta and Omega metroids that Samus will eventually be forced to contend with will look gnarlier, uncategorizable space monsters. However, their formidability will only prove to be an aesthetic evolution as a few missiles will still be the tried and true formula for this “superior” genetic line of metroids as it was for the Alpha and Gamma ones. Defeating them will always be a facile undertaking, but I cannot proclaim relief for the challenge of finding all of these bastards without a map. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’d scour the map frantically if I missed one. Anytime I eventually found the untouched metroid, I always felt my efforts were due to dumb luck.
It isn’t until the final boss against the Metroid Queen that Metroid II offers something on this planet that Samus won’t be able to gun down in a matter of seconds. This monstrous matriarch isn’t the overwhelming endurance test that Mother Brain proved to be, but its retractable head and screen-spanning spike balls it regurgitates is bound to graze many unknowing players. Instead of a spontaneous self-destruct sequence occurring as a falling action, Samus looks behind the remains of the final boss to find an egg on the verge of hatching. Suddenly, a little metroid hatchling in the classic model appears, but it does not approach Samus with the same hostility as the adult ones Samus has been laying waste to. Samus takes the little guy back to her ship at a leisurely pace, and the process of walking this unexpectedly cute and docile baby metroid like a pet is quite gleeful. It almost gives some perspective on how dangerous the metroids really are despite what the narrative has been feeding us. A nature versus nurture argument, or maybe it turns into a monster when its innocence is inevitably lost somehow.
Was it really necessary to put the sequel to Metroid on the Gameboy? Nintendo’s first console overstayed its welcome far past its commercial peak of the late 1980s well into the next generation, so why couldn’t Metroid II have joined its predecessor on the same system? Metroid II would have benefited greatly from being developed on a more reliable and stable piece of hardware because it should by all means be unequivocally better than the first game with all of its successful advancements. However, the opaque, black-and-white graphics, uncomfortable angle of sight, and no map to reference for progression yet again make Metroid II nauseating. At least some of these issues could've been remedied on a home console. The next game in the Metroid series was when the series definitively joined the primetime of gaming royalty, but it’s a shame to think that it potentially could’ve happened three years sooner if a mechanically inferior Nintendo product didn’t mar Metroid II.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
As detailed in the game’s manual, Metroid II is a direct sequel to the original Metroid in that its narrative follows the events of the first game when Samus defeated Mother Brain on Zebes. Now, the Galactic Federation is taking the fight to the metroid’s home planet of SR388 to exterminate the intergalactic parasites, ensuring that the dastardly Space Pirates will never harness their deadly biological properties ever again. However, upon storming the hive, an entire fleet of Federation mercenaries goes missing. Evidently, not even a gang of men can be relied on to do a woman’s job, so the Federation assigns Samus the intrepid mission of causing the metroid’s abrupt extinction. Future Metroid games would utilize the premise of invading an enemy hive as a climactic point, but Metroid II revels in the thrill of infiltration for the duration of the game. Because entering the heart of the threat is more of an intimate attack, Metroid II immediately raises the stakes of the narrative compared to the previous game.
The first Metroid certainly portrayed the dim nothingness of space effectively with its blank, black backgrounds setting the scene, whether it was an intentional artistic display from the developers or an inadvertent advantage of the NES’s primitiveness. At least the unseeable abyss of the backgrounds was contrasted with a pleasantly diverse color palette that gave the foregrounds their discernibility. Little known fact about the original Gameboy model, the handheld was so rudimentary that it could not support colors, so every game was rendered in stark black and white like the golden age of Hollywood. While the lack of colorization wouldn’t necessarily impact a Mario or Zelda game on the go, Metroid suffers completely. Contrasting a completely black background with white amongst grainy shades of more black turns any game into a graphical slurry thick as pea soup. Some later versions of Metroid II provide color where the foreground of SR388 is a cool blue, with Samus sporting her trademark red power suit with tinges of yellow. Still, the improved color scheme is only marginally less monochromatic than its original in black and white or the other version where it is shaded in a blanched, greenish-brown. To compensate for the lack of graphical discernibility, Metroid II’s camera perspective for the player is zoomed in to the point where it feels as if Samus’s body takes up half of the screen. I appreciate the consideration that Samus wouldn’t be sighted as easily from afar in black and white, but it’s a tad too close for my comfort threshold.
Considering that Metroid II couldn’t possibly stand up as a bonafide sequel to the NES Metroid with graphical enhancements, the developers sure did attempt to amend the awkward regression of hardware with several quality-of-life enhancements. Then again, the first Metroid was in desperate need of these enhancements anyway, so they were ultimately still a necessity even if Metroid’s sequel was on the same system. Firstly, the ability to aim Samus’s blaster in more directions than horizontally and vertically is a blessing. With a flexible dexterity that allows Samus to aim downward in the air, Samus is much less vulnerable and will take less unfair damage because the blind spot has been rectified. Acquiring energy tanks and missile upgrades will no longer involve borderline sequence breaking, although the paths to a number of them will sometimes be behind illusory walls like a number of upgrades throughout the games of this era. Most importantly, save stations are strewn aplenty as well as places to replenish health and missile ammunition, mitigating the need for an excruciating grinding session shooting at enemies to stave off dying and reverting all the way back to the beginning (which is now defined as where Samus parks her ship). If the Gameboy could implement a functional save feature, what’s the excuse for the NES rarely offering one? Outside of my general delight that all of these features heightened Metroid II’s accessibility, what surprised me was how many of Metroid’s power-ups made their debut here. The Spider Ball climbs up the coarse terrain of the metroid’s home planet as smoothly as seen in other Metroid iterations, and the same goes for the Spring Ball that jumpstarts Samus in ball form as sprightly as a reflex test. I had no idea that something as dangerous and erratic as the Screwattack could be implemented onto something as fragile and unsophisticated as the Gameboy but nevertheless, Samus is able to spin herself airborne with deadly energy to her heart’s content. The new spazer and plasma beams accompany the returning ice and wave beams, but Metroid II continues the problem from the previous game in that these beams cannot be alternated in an inventory of sorts.
You know what other feature Metroid II continues to omit? In all their wisdom and experience, Nintendo still did not find a map to be an indispensable facet of their exploration-intensive IP with cramped corridors galore and a smattering of secret upgrades. If I were on the decision board, I’d heavily protest. The visually muted depiction of this (literally) uncharted planet is really an insult to injury. Also, to compound how egregious this glaring oversight is, SR388’s world here is at least three times larger than Zebes. Have fun trying not to struggle at every waking moment trying to find your position in relation to where you’re intended to go. While the exclusion of a map is still just as unacceptable, at least SR388 is constructed a bit more prudently than the series of stairs and hallways that was Zebes. SB388 is organized incrementally, meaning that the entirety of one section has to be completed in order to proceed to the next one. Once everything is cleared out, the game gives them an indication to move onward: shaking the map like an earthquake, signifying that another section has been unearthed. Still, not providing a map for this instance renders this neat progression point moot because it’s incredibly unclear where the next area is.
Constantly scrambling to find the next area notwithstanding, how does one progress through the catacombs of the metroid’s home planet? When I stated that Samus’s mission was to eradicate all Metroids from the galaxy, this isn’t merely a narrative catalyst. Forty metroids have hatched from their cocoons like caterpillars and the overarching quest of Metroid II is to eliminate all of them. However, these are not the same jelly-headed brain suckers seen in the first game (and the ones we’ve become familiar with through subsequent titles). The homebound metroid resembles something of an intergalactic hornet, also buzzing around with the aggression of one once they encounter Samus. As Samus continually blasts them to bits, the genome of the metroid species is going to adapt to Samus’s opposition, scrolling down the letters of the Greek alphabet for categorization. The Zeta and Omega metroids that Samus will eventually be forced to contend with will look gnarlier, uncategorizable space monsters. However, their formidability will only prove to be an aesthetic evolution as a few missiles will still be the tried and true formula for this “superior” genetic line of metroids as it was for the Alpha and Gamma ones. Defeating them will always be a facile undertaking, but I cannot proclaim relief for the challenge of finding all of these bastards without a map. I can’t even begin to count how many times I’d scour the map frantically if I missed one. Anytime I eventually found the untouched metroid, I always felt my efforts were due to dumb luck.
It isn’t until the final boss against the Metroid Queen that Metroid II offers something on this planet that Samus won’t be able to gun down in a matter of seconds. This monstrous matriarch isn’t the overwhelming endurance test that Mother Brain proved to be, but its retractable head and screen-spanning spike balls it regurgitates is bound to graze many unknowing players. Instead of a spontaneous self-destruct sequence occurring as a falling action, Samus looks behind the remains of the final boss to find an egg on the verge of hatching. Suddenly, a little metroid hatchling in the classic model appears, but it does not approach Samus with the same hostility as the adult ones Samus has been laying waste to. Samus takes the little guy back to her ship at a leisurely pace, and the process of walking this unexpectedly cute and docile baby metroid like a pet is quite gleeful. It almost gives some perspective on how dangerous the metroids really are despite what the narrative has been feeding us. A nature versus nurture argument, or maybe it turns into a monster when its innocence is inevitably lost somehow.
Was it really necessary to put the sequel to Metroid on the Gameboy? Nintendo’s first console overstayed its welcome far past its commercial peak of the late 1980s well into the next generation, so why couldn’t Metroid II have joined its predecessor on the same system? Metroid II would have benefited greatly from being developed on a more reliable and stable piece of hardware because it should by all means be unequivocally better than the first game with all of its successful advancements. However, the opaque, black-and-white graphics, uncomfortable angle of sight, and no map to reference for progression yet again make Metroid II nauseating. At least some of these issues could've been remedied on a home console. The next game in the Metroid series was when the series definitively joined the primetime of gaming royalty, but it’s a shame to think that it potentially could’ve happened three years sooner if a mechanically inferior Nintendo product didn’t mar Metroid II.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
It's not as daunting as a you for think for a Metroidvania without a map. The game is split up into sections where you eliminate all of the Metroids in an area and then move on to the next. The game really doesn't ask you to backtrack to the extent that Super Metroid or Dread might. This is probably the Metroidvania where I had to consult the internet the least, although the best method ro defeat the final boss is fairly obtuse. That said you should probably play it within the span of a weekend or so, rather than just pick it up and finish it later, so you'll have a stronger mental map.
To give this game a bit more criticism, I wish there was more than 2 area themes. I implied it's easy to find your way to the end, and it is, but some different tunes would be appreciated . Still this is one of the best Gameboy games in my opinion and definitely has all the Super Metroid vides down( as much as you can given the vastly weaker hardware).
To give this game a bit more criticism, I wish there was more than 2 area themes. I implied it's easy to find your way to the end, and it is, but some different tunes would be appreciated . Still this is one of the best Gameboy games in my opinion and definitely has all the Super Metroid vides down( as much as you can given the vastly weaker hardware).
I dunno, I just don't like the feel of it. I mean, it's definitely an improvement over the NES game but I just don't really vibe with how it runs. I feel like some of it is just really clunky compared to other games on the GameBoy (I think Kirby's Dream Land 2 ruined my expectations of the GameBoy forever). The movement and combat isn't terrible but it just feels really awkward, though I will say the game at least doesn't have terrible physics or any slow down. I also just REALLY don't like the lack of a map and the monochrome visuals just feel a sort of worse than other GameBoy games I've played so far. Again, like NEStroid, I might come back to this one day but for now, I think I'll just stick to the remake, sorry. Overall, a definite improvement over the first game, but not something I'd want to invest a lot of time in so I'll stick to trying out the remake.
Beaten for the third time in a week at 1:46. I think it's safe to say that this is my favorite Metroid out of the first 3. Short, sweet, and hella atmospheric. I love it.