I decided to play Prime, again. Only I thought I'd try hard mode, as I did the same on my 2nd Dread playthrough and I had a great time. Of course they are the same thing...

It was pretty much business as usual until I got to the Phazon Mines. That soon started to give me a kicking. But once I picked up the plasma beam, it felt like I was in god mode. And then I got to Ridley. Spent the last 3 days basically doing 2 (3 if you count the 2 stages of Metroid Prime, the boss, not the game itself) bosses. Ridley took more attempts than the final boss, but it was just a case of repetition and grinding it out. If you get complacent or greedy, you get punished for it. Safe to say I did both several times. What, am I supposed to learn from my mistakes?

But it was a rewarding playthrough, and finishing it felt great. I was in two minds just to fuck it off, but I'd come this far, and surely to give up at the last boss would be pathetic. So I soldiered on. Overran on my lunch break, but it was worth it.

This might have overtaken Dread as my favourite Metroid.

I played through this when it was added to NSO last year and I was a little underwhelmed. Clearly 2023 me was on something. This is a cracking wee Metroid, perfectly formed for the system it was made for. Imagine any other wee 2D handheld game absolutely dripping with this kind of atmosphere and dread. And it looks great. Playing handheld on Switch looks great (not so good playing docked, but it's still lovely), and really is the best way to experience the NSO handheld library.

I really appreciated this time around, how suited it is as a GBA Metroid. Not too long that you've got to commit hours on end staring at that tiny screen, and there's still plenty there to keep the spirit of Super Metroid going. And I don't know how I never noticed how much Metroid Dread takes from this one in terms of overall tone and sound.

These games are flipping great, and we really need Zero Mission adding to the GBA library now. And the other Prime games should be on Switch, too. Not that I don't have the Trilogy on Wii and 2 on Gamecube, but that's beside the point! 😅

Back on point, I don't think I'd have stuck with this if I had it back in the day. The Nightmare boss made me break my self imposed no save state rule, the annoying bastard, and I did find myself turning the air blue a couple of times, but overall, this is some top Metroid, and perfect for an hour or so here and there.