I've been a Metroid fan since childhood and I'd known Prime 1 was consistently ranked as the best or second best of the franchise, alternating with Super Metroid. Since I never had a GameCube, I relished the opportunity to finally get to play this. It's obviously good - it wouldn't have been remastered if it wasn't - but I have to admit it left me disappointed in several aspects that I wasn't expecting.
For context, the last Metroidvania I played before this was Metroid Dread, and I loved it. It felt like a refreshingly modern take on the classic 2D style with excellent boss fights and most of the level backtracking only coming into play with finding optional bonuses and secrets. In stark contrast, Prime is built entirely on the concept of backtracking. The core goal of finding the 12 chozo artifacts is married to the design philosophy of the player coming across something gated behind a lock that can only be unlocked with an ability that will be gained later. As a result, you're destined to have to retread the exact same rooms, obstacles, and enemies dozens of times before finally getting what you're looking for. I know the whole series is built on that design philosophy, but this game pushes it to the extreme.
My other major complaint is that the enemy respawn system is gratuitous, and this point is another reason why the lengthy amount of backtracking got annoying. You'll enter a room, kill all the enemies in it, move to the next room, realize you took the wrong exit after a few moments, return to the prior room, and all the enemies will have already respawned. This got so tiresome that I started simply running through rooms ignoring enemies in the later parts of my playthrough. Regarding bosses, they're okay for the additional challenge they present, but on Normal difficulty they feel like they have way too much HP. Fights went on for so long that I grew bored before they ended.
I'm still glad I got to play this piece of gaming history, especially as a die-hard Metroid fan, but this is my least favorite of the ones I've played. A good game that may have been a masterpiece when it first came out, but by the newer standards both of its own series and of others, it's still somewhat dated.
(One more positive thing: the ambient music absolutely slaps!)
For context, the last Metroidvania I played before this was Metroid Dread, and I loved it. It felt like a refreshingly modern take on the classic 2D style with excellent boss fights and most of the level backtracking only coming into play with finding optional bonuses and secrets. In stark contrast, Prime is built entirely on the concept of backtracking. The core goal of finding the 12 chozo artifacts is married to the design philosophy of the player coming across something gated behind a lock that can only be unlocked with an ability that will be gained later. As a result, you're destined to have to retread the exact same rooms, obstacles, and enemies dozens of times before finally getting what you're looking for. I know the whole series is built on that design philosophy, but this game pushes it to the extreme.
My other major complaint is that the enemy respawn system is gratuitous, and this point is another reason why the lengthy amount of backtracking got annoying. You'll enter a room, kill all the enemies in it, move to the next room, realize you took the wrong exit after a few moments, return to the prior room, and all the enemies will have already respawned. This got so tiresome that I started simply running through rooms ignoring enemies in the later parts of my playthrough. Regarding bosses, they're okay for the additional challenge they present, but on Normal difficulty they feel like they have way too much HP. Fights went on for so long that I grew bored before they ended.
I'm still glad I got to play this piece of gaming history, especially as a die-hard Metroid fan, but this is my least favorite of the ones I've played. A good game that may have been a masterpiece when it first came out, but by the newer standards both of its own series and of others, it's still somewhat dated.
(One more positive thing: the ambient music absolutely slaps!)