This is such a phenomenal game, the exploration here is absolutely perfect, the items are cool, the look and vibe of the entire game is spot-on, and the gameplay is amazing. The bosses are super cool and unique, the mechanics of the game are solid and the graphics are gorgeous. I adore this game to death, unfortunately I have 2 complaints which hinder it from being perfect.

One of which being that sometimes the game can feel a little unfair in how you find things, it’s still fun but blowing up a random block in the most random place to get an energy tank (basically a necessity) is a little annoying but still fine. Also some parts of Maridia can be a little annoying to get through but nothing unmanageable. The other problem however is a bit more serious, it didn’t happen to me fortunately but it can happen to a lot of people.

The final boss can only be damaged through missiles, super missiles and your charge beam. There is however a possibility that throughout the game you can miss a lot of upgrades to the missiles which is fine since you still have the charge beam, but the charge beam is also missable. Then when you try to leave Tourian to go find the charge beam the exit is closed, if this were to happen to you, you’d be softlocked. But exploring is a huge part of Metroid so it’s hard not to find.

So overall I only have one minor issue and a slightly bigger one, but this game is still phenomenal and definitely worth playing. Just keep in mind what I said about the final boss.

9.5/10

Reviewed on Jul 03, 2024


1 Comment


tbh i feel like this kind of softlock just inversely highlights how unique the game is. like, the fact a player can engineer this situation is the flipside of super having such a loose, malleable structure that gives insane flexibility in navigating its world. not to say it couldn’t be ironed out elegantly, but i think the fact it wasn’t addressed speaks to the devs broader (good) priorities, and to prevent this kinda thing occurring in a modern game they’d prob throw in a bunch of event triggers and call it a day, which would constrict freedom so much more