Jaymonke123
The Pur-Zero Suit of Happiness
A complete reimagining of the original NES Metroid narrative that improves upon it in every single way. This game makes the original look like a test run. This has better controls, more detailed visuals, an improved soundtrack, some quality of life enhancements (including a map), clearer story, and even some new original content to go along with that story.
The new cutscenes and their art are especially dope, and make transitions to bosses and new areas seamless. Also, you get pictures of Zero Suit Samus as a reward for beating the game in harder ways… so uh, take that as you will.
The art of the in-game areas themselves is also a vast improvement over the original. The backgrounds and tilesets have such a nice blend of being organic and very clearly alien, as if the planet is a living thing itself. The remixes of the original tracks and additional ambience tracks for cutscenes also really help set the atmosphere, too.
The map and the fact that the game attempts to nudge players in the correct direction make the game so much easier to navigate. I think one of the main problems with the original is that it's so easy to get lost in all these similar looking rooms, let alone with no guidance as well. But now there's things like the Chozo statues that give you markers on your map on exactly where you should be heading. This first Metroid story is playable now, and it's great.
HOWEVERー it's not without its flaws. There's a couple of little bullshit parts sprinkled throughout. Sometimes it can still be a little unclear as to what you need to do. There's often the need to interact with one specific block that is hidden and has little to no visual indicators for progression to the next room. Also, the way bosses scale is crazy to me. It starts off withー albeit unique, quite easy boss fights, and then it ends with two of the most tedious fucking boss fights ever. They felt wayyy more unforgiving, even for final bosses, either because they spammed these ridiculous attacks or because their attack patterns required insane precision. Apparently, the difficulty of those bosses especially can change depending on how many upgrade items you’ve acquired along the way, which makes a little more sense. But even with the generous ability to rewind and use save states via emulation like I did (I have no shame whatsoever), those were some painstakingly annoying fuckin’ bossfights. Consider that if you’re a more casual player, I suppose.
Regardless of some slight bullshittery, if you’re looking for where to start with the Metroid games, I would say this game is worth a go as an introduction to a great series.
Good; 7/10.
A complete reimagining of the original NES Metroid narrative that improves upon it in every single way. This game makes the original look like a test run. This has better controls, more detailed visuals, an improved soundtrack, some quality of life enhancements (including a map), clearer story, and even some new original content to go along with that story.
The new cutscenes and their art are especially dope, and make transitions to bosses and new areas seamless. Also, you get pictures of Zero Suit Samus as a reward for beating the game in harder ways… so uh, take that as you will.
The art of the in-game areas themselves is also a vast improvement over the original. The backgrounds and tilesets have such a nice blend of being organic and very clearly alien, as if the planet is a living thing itself. The remixes of the original tracks and additional ambience tracks for cutscenes also really help set the atmosphere, too.
The map and the fact that the game attempts to nudge players in the correct direction make the game so much easier to navigate. I think one of the main problems with the original is that it's so easy to get lost in all these similar looking rooms, let alone with no guidance as well. But now there's things like the Chozo statues that give you markers on your map on exactly where you should be heading. This first Metroid story is playable now, and it's great.
HOWEVERー it's not without its flaws. There's a couple of little bullshit parts sprinkled throughout. Sometimes it can still be a little unclear as to what you need to do. There's often the need to interact with one specific block that is hidden and has little to no visual indicators for progression to the next room. Also, the way bosses scale is crazy to me. It starts off withー albeit unique, quite easy boss fights, and then it ends with two of the most tedious fucking boss fights ever. They felt wayyy more unforgiving, even for final bosses, either because they spammed these ridiculous attacks or because their attack patterns required insane precision. Apparently, the difficulty of those bosses especially can change depending on how many upgrade items you’ve acquired along the way, which makes a little more sense. But even with the generous ability to rewind and use save states via emulation like I did (I have no shame whatsoever), those were some painstakingly annoying fuckin’ bossfights. Consider that if you’re a more casual player, I suppose.
Regardless of some slight bullshittery, if you’re looking for where to start with the Metroid games, I would say this game is worth a go as an introduction to a great series.
Good; 7/10.
2011
Terraria: Journey Never Ends
Dig, fight, explore, build— this game has a little something for everyone. There's the simple fun of the exploration aspect; venturing out into the world, mining for ores or discovering loot that will turn you from a little forest dweller baby— into a big, strong, pull-up wearing big boy. There's the fun in the control you have over shaping your world as you want, as basically everything in sight is destructible, and the game gives you thousands of building options. Then most of all, there's the fun of the combat and progression system throughout the game, whether you’re fighting the thousands of enemy varieties, or the game’s various bosses.
The amount of weapons the game also provides you to fight these enemies is absolutely vast and not lacking in creativity. There's consecutively fish as weapons and a book that allows you to literally ‘piss’ on your foes.
I think the main and best thing that made me addicted to this game was the discovery aspect. From finding the best builds with the weapon class system of the game, to learning how each boss works and mastering the skills to defeat them. The progression throughout the game is made so clearly direct to the player that it feels amazing to keep upgrading your character. It's a fuckin’ free dopamine generator. Again, this fact is greatly supported by the thousands of items, hundreds of enemies, different classes of weapons and armor to choose from, ways to build, and various biomes to explore in. Also as with basically every game it's made miles better with friends. Personally it's hard to go back to playing solo with how fun the multiplayer experience can be. It may also help that this game is still getting updates after more than 10 years and the developers seriously put a lot of care into each major update.
With all this content don’t feel overwhelmed or put off by not knowing where to start. No shame in finding help by asking anyone who has beaten it before, referring to any guides, or my personal most common method, using the official wiki to help steer you in the right direction. This game leaves a lot open for self discovery so understandably I hear that newcomers can feel lost. But, I think it's an intended learning curve that many sandbox games like this have (looking at you Minecraft). It's great when you get the ball rolling.
One small complaint about this game I personally have is that I wish Master Mode had more 'master' in it. Besides increased enemy health and damage, it would do well with more of an incentive to replay this mode without it being just a more expert mode with a couple new pets and trophies. I would think it could do with some changes to boss AI or some other tweaks to make the experience tougher and different. I suppose wanting more of a challenge is something veterans of any game may want, however.
Will check in again at 10,000 hours of playtime when the devs release final update number 10. This game is one of the best out there.
(Near) Perfect; 10/10.
Dig, fight, explore, build— this game has a little something for everyone. There's the simple fun of the exploration aspect; venturing out into the world, mining for ores or discovering loot that will turn you from a little forest dweller baby— into a big, strong, pull-up wearing big boy. There's the fun in the control you have over shaping your world as you want, as basically everything in sight is destructible, and the game gives you thousands of building options. Then most of all, there's the fun of the combat and progression system throughout the game, whether you’re fighting the thousands of enemy varieties, or the game’s various bosses.
The amount of weapons the game also provides you to fight these enemies is absolutely vast and not lacking in creativity. There's consecutively fish as weapons and a book that allows you to literally ‘piss’ on your foes.
I think the main and best thing that made me addicted to this game was the discovery aspect. From finding the best builds with the weapon class system of the game, to learning how each boss works and mastering the skills to defeat them. The progression throughout the game is made so clearly direct to the player that it feels amazing to keep upgrading your character. It's a fuckin’ free dopamine generator. Again, this fact is greatly supported by the thousands of items, hundreds of enemies, different classes of weapons and armor to choose from, ways to build, and various biomes to explore in. Also as with basically every game it's made miles better with friends. Personally it's hard to go back to playing solo with how fun the multiplayer experience can be. It may also help that this game is still getting updates after more than 10 years and the developers seriously put a lot of care into each major update.
With all this content don’t feel overwhelmed or put off by not knowing where to start. No shame in finding help by asking anyone who has beaten it before, referring to any guides, or my personal most common method, using the official wiki to help steer you in the right direction. This game leaves a lot open for self discovery so understandably I hear that newcomers can feel lost. But, I think it's an intended learning curve that many sandbox games like this have (looking at you Minecraft). It's great when you get the ball rolling.
One small complaint about this game I personally have is that I wish Master Mode had more 'master' in it. Besides increased enemy health and damage, it would do well with more of an incentive to replay this mode without it being just a more expert mode with a couple new pets and trophies. I would think it could do with some changes to boss AI or some other tweaks to make the experience tougher and different. I suppose wanting more of a challenge is something veterans of any game may want, however.
Will check in again at 10,000 hours of playtime when the devs release final update number 10. This game is one of the best out there.
(Near) Perfect; 10/10.