this game is fusion done right. not that fusion is bad but every single idea that game had is reintegrated here PERFECTLY. The X are more interesting and come later in the game, letting you see the actual enemies change and having the original to compare to the parasitized versions for context, as well as having powered up respawning enemies serve as more of a gradual transition in challenge. The Adam AI acts more as a chill hint machine and story recapper rather than a waypoint placer, and the SA-X role is replaced by the cool emmis. I don’t even have to talk about how fucking amazing and perfect the emmi encounters are. But I will. They encapsulate everything about why I love videogames and life. Well, I don’t love life as much as I love the emmi fights in this game but whatevs. The boss fights in this game all rule, and though maybe they lean too heavily on the parry mechanic, at least 99% of them are beatable without it and it's pretty generous with its timing and visibility. You just have to play the game on its own terms and it works.
It did take me a little while to get used to it. This is my first time controlling a 2d samus with a stick and it felt weird to say the least. But there is a button you can hold to stand firmly in place and point your gun with a red laser. So if you play it like RE4, it's a bit easier.
This game is, in my opinion, a good compromise between linear style and super style. I kind of prefer the super style in general, but at this point in the series I had to realize that only the first one, super, and prime 1 seem to use this formula that everyone including me fellatiaizes. This is a good compromise. It's very clear at all times where you need to go, and at the end of every area an elevator or tram pops up with the next room ready for you.
The sheer amount of items in this game and how filled to the brim the controller feels with combos and inputs and items was a blessing and a curse. Firstly, there's really cool shit like the seeker missiles from the prime games (renamed storm missiles which is way cooler) as well as this awesome dash that you'll be using in every boss.. but there's also stuff like the cross bomb. Which... kind of pointless... and boring... and you use it like three times. It seems cool in theory to have 500 gadgets but all of them overlapping on one measly dainty little switch controller means im gonna be fumbling around trying to do zl+y+quartercircle+flip the controller upside down like... idk. But its interesting that the two best metroid games both have bad controls. shoutout to the select button.
The story in this game is also my favourite since the 2/super wombo combo silent tragedy. The chozo have always felt like the only thing these games cared about (xcept echoes) but this game expanded their lore a shit ton. That whole ending sequence is just.... i hate this phrase but theres no other way to say it so im gonna whisper it. /whisper Peak fiction.
The environments though, are completely terrible. Why's every metroid game gotta have the fire world, the ice world, the cave world, the factory world, like have some cooler and more creative places? Echoes sucks ass but at least it had new settings like... swamp, and.. factory but in the sky. Corruption had factory but STEAMPUNK SKY ISLANDS!!!! Even so, the other games did interesting stuff with their locations. The water world in fusion was like an aquarium, the factory world in am2r was a water treatment facility, (BTW don't get up in my face about me treating am2r as a mainline entry. She's an adopted sibling and she counts just as much as the others.) Yeah, the environments are bland and the art direction is too. I suppose you'd WANT interactibles to clash with the environment, but it wasn't the best game to look at. The graphics are fine, but the areas weren't really that well put together. The music as well, was nothing to write anywhere about. The only songs I remember from this was the use of samus' theme and the one for this bug boss that reminded me of flight of the bumble bee.
Last thing im gonna complain about is the save rooms. They kind of feel redundant. There’s save rooms, and you can also save in map rooms and Adam rooms. It makes me wonder, though. Why? This game has an insanely generous checkpoint system. If you die to an emmi you respawn just outside the last door you used. And it extends to more than just emmi encounters. So many times I thought I had lost progress only to find out a checkpoint brought me 20 seconds back. Which is nice, but lost progress is the only tangible threat to the player in game design and while frustrating, the game doesn’t seem to mind some intentional frustration baked into its (awesome) design. You can keep the checkpoints outside boss rooms, or maybe just put the save room close to them, but EVERY emmi door is a checkpoint? I see one on the side, what’s the reason not to pop in and out just to save my progress? This makes me less engaged in the current life i'm at, I remember in other games when I was low and struggling and aware that any death would lose me 20 minutes of my irl time I was super on edge and invested with a capital i. Speaking of investment and capital, someone emailed me last month and told me the save rooms are there if you wanna save and leave the game, because restarting the game will lose your checkpoint. To you I say; No one does that. You press the home button to return to the home screen and turn off the switch. It’s not like you need to swap between games. The switch isn’t exactly a console where you’re playing more than one game at a time, I sold my copy of tears of the kingdom to buy dread and the sales tax still nearly bankrupt me. Boom, capital and investment setup paid off.
It did take me a little while to get used to it. This is my first time controlling a 2d samus with a stick and it felt weird to say the least. But there is a button you can hold to stand firmly in place and point your gun with a red laser. So if you play it like RE4, it's a bit easier.
This game is, in my opinion, a good compromise between linear style and super style. I kind of prefer the super style in general, but at this point in the series I had to realize that only the first one, super, and prime 1 seem to use this formula that everyone including me fellatiaizes. This is a good compromise. It's very clear at all times where you need to go, and at the end of every area an elevator or tram pops up with the next room ready for you.
The sheer amount of items in this game and how filled to the brim the controller feels with combos and inputs and items was a blessing and a curse. Firstly, there's really cool shit like the seeker missiles from the prime games (renamed storm missiles which is way cooler) as well as this awesome dash that you'll be using in every boss.. but there's also stuff like the cross bomb. Which... kind of pointless... and boring... and you use it like three times. It seems cool in theory to have 500 gadgets but all of them overlapping on one measly dainty little switch controller means im gonna be fumbling around trying to do zl+y+quartercircle+flip the controller upside down like... idk. But its interesting that the two best metroid games both have bad controls. shoutout to the select button.
The story in this game is also my favourite since the 2/super wombo combo silent tragedy. The chozo have always felt like the only thing these games cared about (xcept echoes) but this game expanded their lore a shit ton. That whole ending sequence is just.... i hate this phrase but theres no other way to say it so im gonna whisper it. /whisper Peak fiction.
The environments though, are completely terrible. Why's every metroid game gotta have the fire world, the ice world, the cave world, the factory world, like have some cooler and more creative places? Echoes sucks ass but at least it had new settings like... swamp, and.. factory but in the sky. Corruption had factory but STEAMPUNK SKY ISLANDS!!!! Even so, the other games did interesting stuff with their locations. The water world in fusion was like an aquarium, the factory world in am2r was a water treatment facility, (BTW don't get up in my face about me treating am2r as a mainline entry. She's an adopted sibling and she counts just as much as the others.) Yeah, the environments are bland and the art direction is too. I suppose you'd WANT interactibles to clash with the environment, but it wasn't the best game to look at. The graphics are fine, but the areas weren't really that well put together. The music as well, was nothing to write anywhere about. The only songs I remember from this was the use of samus' theme and the one for this bug boss that reminded me of flight of the bumble bee.
Last thing im gonna complain about is the save rooms. They kind of feel redundant. There’s save rooms, and you can also save in map rooms and Adam rooms. It makes me wonder, though. Why? This game has an insanely generous checkpoint system. If you die to an emmi you respawn just outside the last door you used. And it extends to more than just emmi encounters. So many times I thought I had lost progress only to find out a checkpoint brought me 20 seconds back. Which is nice, but lost progress is the only tangible threat to the player in game design and while frustrating, the game doesn’t seem to mind some intentional frustration baked into its (awesome) design. You can keep the checkpoints outside boss rooms, or maybe just put the save room close to them, but EVERY emmi door is a checkpoint? I see one on the side, what’s the reason not to pop in and out just to save my progress? This makes me less engaged in the current life i'm at, I remember in other games when I was low and struggling and aware that any death would lose me 20 minutes of my irl time I was super on edge and invested with a capital i. Speaking of investment and capital, someone emailed me last month and told me the save rooms are there if you wanna save and leave the game, because restarting the game will lose your checkpoint. To you I say; No one does that. You press the home button to return to the home screen and turn off the switch. It’s not like you need to swap between games. The switch isn’t exactly a console where you’re playing more than one game at a time, I sold my copy of tears of the kingdom to buy dread and the sales tax still nearly bankrupt me. Boom, capital and investment setup paid off.