Actually think the combat is pretty great on replaying, refreshing in that the free-aim of Wiimote controls felt stifled when stapled onto the first two games that never required it by virtue of their original GameCube-controller-based design.

Elysia is peak, and continue to love the detailed eerie environmental design Retro kicks butt at. Centering the game around the idea of your ship being movable/upgrade able is a fun way of making this one distinct, though the heavy militaristic “federation” presence throughout really takes away from the sense of isolation and… Samus being a subversive element in a cutthroat world that I love about the other games. SPOILERS I kept waiting for the federation to be corrupt or to double cross her or something as a crux of the plot but it never got very interesting like that.

Also am not sure the push and pull of “hyper mode” works as well as they want. Feels a bit more confusing whether I’m making a good call to sacrifice the health to use it or not instead of being something where I feel like I’m making smart decisions.

Worst of the Prime trilogy imo but still a blast. Retro rocks.