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Shadow the Hedgehog
2005
you have to understand how immune to reviews kids are. i saw x-play gave this shit a scathing 1 out of 5, baffled by how repulsive it was to play. i watched that review and said, "i HAVE to get this game." i did, and i loved it.
soundtrack is fucking great though, release that shit on vinyl please.
soundtrack is fucking great though, release that shit on vinyl please.
Xenogears
1998
Most people nowadays that pick up Xenogears go in knowing it's going to be a good game, a great one, even. Word of its quality has spread gradually over time, primarily due to the success of its descendants; Xenosaga and Xenoblade. What people don’t seem to know is how ambitious it was.
The game having a good story is practically a given thanks to the names behind it, but it's the rest of the game that really impresses. Not only does the game have a ‘normal’ form of combat, in which up to three of your party members use their three attack types to combo their opponents into hell, there’s also gear combat. Gears are the mechs in this game, and unlike the normal characters, gears need to build attack level to combo, rely on fuel, and can’t be healed normally. The game switches between these two combat forms depending on the situation, and each of them are remarkably fleshed out, making it much harder to tire of combat than it is in most jrpgs.
Besides the main combat forms, there are also side modes and mini games such as gear combat. Not the same gear combat as before, the battlin’ gear combat is a lot more comparable to an arena fighter (albeit much less fleshed out) giving the gameplay even more variety. There’s even a speed minigame, a goddamn fully built card game that looks pretty good even now.
Xenogears bleeds creativity and is fully deserving of its legacy. The game is far from perfect - there are some glitches and some party members feel a tad underdeveloped, for example - but it's a truly one-of-a-kind experience worth anyone’s time.
The game having a good story is practically a given thanks to the names behind it, but it's the rest of the game that really impresses. Not only does the game have a ‘normal’ form of combat, in which up to three of your party members use their three attack types to combo their opponents into hell, there’s also gear combat. Gears are the mechs in this game, and unlike the normal characters, gears need to build attack level to combo, rely on fuel, and can’t be healed normally. The game switches between these two combat forms depending on the situation, and each of them are remarkably fleshed out, making it much harder to tire of combat than it is in most jrpgs.
Besides the main combat forms, there are also side modes and mini games such as gear combat. Not the same gear combat as before, the battlin’ gear combat is a lot more comparable to an arena fighter (albeit much less fleshed out) giving the gameplay even more variety. There’s even a speed minigame, a goddamn fully built card game that looks pretty good even now.
Xenogears bleeds creativity and is fully deserving of its legacy. The game is far from perfect - there are some glitches and some party members feel a tad underdeveloped, for example - but it's a truly one-of-a-kind experience worth anyone’s time.
Super Metroid
1994
“Thats no ordinary Metroid, that’s a Super Metroid!” exclaimed samus in shock and awe
Samus never really returned to my childhood gaming life since the day I first met them back on the NES, it was quite a hole there between that and 2002, aka The Year Metroid Beat Everyone's Ass. Metroid II for all intents and purposes was just the cover for the box of the Super Game Boy, that was everything I knew it as. Just the front of a piece of cardboard that I saw at some store or in a JC Penny catalog maybe. It existed, that's all I knew.
I have many bones to pick with the way Nintendo treats it's back catalog of classics and oddities, but if there's any silver lining to the dripfeed of past content it's finding a reason to finally give a serious go at Samus' mission to genocide a race of beings for the supposed sake of the galaxy. The final enemies that you were once scared of back on your original adventure are now the sole focus of your mission, and as it turns out those were just the little baby forms. The nightmarish vampire jellyfish can evolve into monstrosities that could no doubt devastate many a civilization.
This is a fight for survival on both ends, it's us or them. It's not pretty.
The sprites are huge and chunky, resulting in screen space being closed in on you. This isn't just the screen, this is the darkness that Samus must traverse as she delves deeper into SR388. There's no telling what's coming up, and you're allowed just the faintest sighting of a Metroid before it spots you and begins it's attack for you to contemplate a battle or to make a strategic retreat to restock. Missiles require more and more care as the Metroids grow stronger and more terrifying as fear begins settling more and more during your first venture into this journey, and the music joins in on making your life go from disturbing to downright hellish with one of my favorite scare chords in recent memory.
Metroid II is a milestone for gaming as a medium, it truly drives home the utter misery that is to carry out a mass killing of other living beings who wouldn't think a second thought to do the same thing to you and your loved ones. It is...dare I say, an early example of Survival Horror. I don't see this game brought up a lot, but it really leans into much of the same pillars of which that genre builds itself upon. You traverse unexplored maps, looking for either dangerous creatures that make your universal counter go down one by one, or energy and ammunition to keep yourself strong to carry out said objective with more confidence. Your little vacation at SR388 begins all fun and games, then only gets more and more visceral as it becomes apparent just how destructive the Metroids truly are with long pathways that bear little to zero life. Violence to end violence...and at the end of all the destruction, an innocent that you can't go through with the killing of....a shred of hope that peace could be theoretically achieved with these lifeforms still intact.
Peace Sells, I'm buying.
Over the course of the 2010s I used to hear a lot of hollering of this game requiring a remake. It got them, all two of them. Personally, I feel once you take the aesthetic of the Game Boy away from Metroid II it dampers the experience a smidgen and it's identity is lost. That fear isn't really there anymore and many AAA-isms get thrown in to make the experience more "epic", which puts a bit of a bad taste in my mouth when the original foundation was to be a legitimately Dreadful experience as opposed to Samus doing kickflips off an Omega Metroid and striking a pose for the camera as the cutscene does the actions for you. Maybe it's just my age showing, but considering I only got to play this seriously recently and formerly brushed it off myself, I think there's legitimacy behind it.
Give this one a go, wait for the sun to go down, close your curtains, and play this on your Switch while under your blanket in your room. Simulate that feeling of a child playing this haunting game alone with only the sounds of that experimental atmospheric soundtrack going off as you wander the caverns of SR388. Perhaps even get a worm light on a Game Boy Color to get the ultimate experience. I don't think you'll regret it. It's an experience I wish I grew up with.
Respect the originals, don't replace them. Admire them.
I have many bones to pick with the way Nintendo treats it's back catalog of classics and oddities, but if there's any silver lining to the dripfeed of past content it's finding a reason to finally give a serious go at Samus' mission to genocide a race of beings for the supposed sake of the galaxy. The final enemies that you were once scared of back on your original adventure are now the sole focus of your mission, and as it turns out those were just the little baby forms. The nightmarish vampire jellyfish can evolve into monstrosities that could no doubt devastate many a civilization.
This is a fight for survival on both ends, it's us or them. It's not pretty.
The sprites are huge and chunky, resulting in screen space being closed in on you. This isn't just the screen, this is the darkness that Samus must traverse as she delves deeper into SR388. There's no telling what's coming up, and you're allowed just the faintest sighting of a Metroid before it spots you and begins it's attack for you to contemplate a battle or to make a strategic retreat to restock. Missiles require more and more care as the Metroids grow stronger and more terrifying as fear begins settling more and more during your first venture into this journey, and the music joins in on making your life go from disturbing to downright hellish with one of my favorite scare chords in recent memory.
Metroid II is a milestone for gaming as a medium, it truly drives home the utter misery that is to carry out a mass killing of other living beings who wouldn't think a second thought to do the same thing to you and your loved ones. It is...dare I say, an early example of Survival Horror. I don't see this game brought up a lot, but it really leans into much of the same pillars of which that genre builds itself upon. You traverse unexplored maps, looking for either dangerous creatures that make your universal counter go down one by one, or energy and ammunition to keep yourself strong to carry out said objective with more confidence. Your little vacation at SR388 begins all fun and games, then only gets more and more visceral as it becomes apparent just how destructive the Metroids truly are with long pathways that bear little to zero life. Violence to end violence...and at the end of all the destruction, an innocent that you can't go through with the killing of....a shred of hope that peace could be theoretically achieved with these lifeforms still intact.
Peace Sells, I'm buying.
Over the course of the 2010s I used to hear a lot of hollering of this game requiring a remake. It got them, all two of them. Personally, I feel once you take the aesthetic of the Game Boy away from Metroid II it dampers the experience a smidgen and it's identity is lost. That fear isn't really there anymore and many AAA-isms get thrown in to make the experience more "epic", which puts a bit of a bad taste in my mouth when the original foundation was to be a legitimately Dreadful experience as opposed to Samus doing kickflips off an Omega Metroid and striking a pose for the camera as the cutscene does the actions for you. Maybe it's just my age showing, but considering I only got to play this seriously recently and formerly brushed it off myself, I think there's legitimacy behind it.
Give this one a go, wait for the sun to go down, close your curtains, and play this on your Switch while under your blanket in your room. Simulate that feeling of a child playing this haunting game alone with only the sounds of that experimental atmospheric soundtrack going off as you wander the caverns of SR388. Perhaps even get a worm light on a Game Boy Color to get the ultimate experience. I don't think you'll regret it. It's an experience I wish I grew up with.
Respect the originals, don't replace them. Admire them.
transcendent and emotionally affecting in a way not dissimilar to link's awakening, and genuinely unnerving even 20 years later. metroid's first masterpiece
Systematic Genocide Simulator, brought to you by Nintendo. Complete with jump scares, labyrinthian and borderline non-euclidean oppressive spaces to stumble through, bizarre and uncomfortable musical choices, a camera that manages to convey uneasy claustrophobia in a 1991 handheld game, and an ending that gives you the very companion that you set out to kill and makes you contemplate your actions through 5 minutes of uneventful walking set to melancholic yet vaguely friendly music as you realize you're the monster. How did this get made?
This is better than I remembered. Everything is right in its place. Disregarding the obvious inherited aspects of the original (lack of a map, floating jump mechanics, only having one type of weapon at a time) that work just as well here, the changes reshape the meaning of the experience. The close camera to represent a dark cavern where watching ahead is difficult, the repeated tiles to simulate the feeling of getting lost the more one enters into labyrinthine places, and the black-and-white coloration that strengthens the limited vision. In a sense, you can interpret these elements as the developer's way to put the player in Samus's perspective, and they help as well to give thrill to the anticipation of an encounter. Even if the game is linear, it's easy to stop having track on where to go if you don't pay attention, and even if the game has some modern conventions such as save points and healing spots, it's not nearly as bad as modern works because they're hidden, more dispersed across the world, and require effort to get there. So even if the game isn't as radical as its predecessor, the modern conventions it applies aren't nearly as disruptive to the experience as later games.
The only real major drawback however are the Metroids themselves. They are fittingly aggressive and non-deterministic in their behavior, which contributes to close, even personal brawls, but their lack of solid damage output in combination to the game's floating physics allowing maneuvering over them made them non-threatening, and the fear of facing them diminishes once the player realizes that merely staying healthy for the fight suffices to engage them. It's an exploit in the design, but one that doesn't make the experience of facing them ring false.
The most beautiful aspect of the game for me however is in the little spaces that Samus can enter. Paths in the ground that lead nowhere, but exist as an extension of the landscape. These places, which have no purpose, are representative of the developer's intent to create a wild planet, a place not built for the player but to be an habitat to its fauna. Or edifications in ruins, abandoned long ago that tell the history of the planet with just their existence. And the feeling you get by navigating through them is to be in virgin soil, untouched by human hands, even sacred, through mere abstraction. And this feeling, unique in any game I have seen, is why Return of Samus is one of the vital games of 1991.
The only real major drawback however are the Metroids themselves. They are fittingly aggressive and non-deterministic in their behavior, which contributes to close, even personal brawls, but their lack of solid damage output in combination to the game's floating physics allowing maneuvering over them made them non-threatening, and the fear of facing them diminishes once the player realizes that merely staying healthy for the fight suffices to engage them. It's an exploit in the design, but one that doesn't make the experience of facing them ring false.
The most beautiful aspect of the game for me however is in the little spaces that Samus can enter. Paths in the ground that lead nowhere, but exist as an extension of the landscape. These places, which have no purpose, are representative of the developer's intent to create a wild planet, a place not built for the player but to be an habitat to its fauna. Or edifications in ruins, abandoned long ago that tell the history of the planet with just their existence. And the feeling you get by navigating through them is to be in virgin soil, untouched by human hands, even sacred, through mere abstraction. And this feeling, unique in any game I have seen, is why Return of Samus is one of the vital games of 1991.
This review contains spoilers
Maybe going to write more long form about this so I'll keep it brief, but I thought this was shockingly powerful and horrific honestly. This game really makes explicit that Samus is an arm of the state, she ensures the slow methodical death of every single living thing on this planet. I'm sure there's a backstory on the box or in the manual about why she has to hunt down these metroids, but the game itself is really bare. Which makes the final moment of kindness all the more strange and haunting. It's also just scary! Seeing the metroids' abandoned shells is such an effective signpost and a little scary treat. All the horror is helped by the surprisingly expansive areas, cut down to a small frame. Exploring is not exciting but isolating and frightening. You are not here to do good work and this abandoned world treats you in kind.
It’s a common joke that Samus Aran never hunts bounties. She’s always either stumbling into heroics for free by accident or hired for, essentially, mercenary work by Da Army. The only game where Samus’ work could I think be conceivably considered actual Bounty Hunting is Metroid II: Return of Samus. She’s given her hit list and she trudges down into the depths to do her job.
And what we get out of it is arguably the most ambitious Metroid game to date, clearly pushing the limits of its hardware in terms of delivering a gameplay experience that, similar to its predecessor with the NES, is just clearly beyond the ken of the Gameboy but also accidentally in terms of themes and mood. It’s not a secret that Metroid 2 has gotten the coolguy art gamer reevaluation over the years as a secret death of the author gem but that doesn’t make it work any less well as one.
Samus takes up a huge chunk of the screen. You can barely see where you’re going. You can barely remember where you’ve been. The world isn’t hostile, necessarily; how could it be hostile when you dominate it so powerfully from the very beginning? Samus is untouchable – more agile and powerful than anything she’ll face from the first second to the last as she trudges down, down, ever downward, through endless twisting corridors as she practices the tedious chore of genocide. She only becomes more durable and more powerful as her targets become fewer and more vulnerable to her weaponry.
No, the only resistance is from the world’s indifference, its ambivalence to Samus and her violence, and even then only in the few places where she cannot enforce herself upon it. The only dangers on SR388 are momentary environmental hazards, getting frustrated by disorientation, being frightened by surprise or by unknown sounds. But never by anything remotely similar to what Samus herself brings to the Metroids, to the other fauna she might encounter.
Atmosphere is king in Metroid, and narrative – explicit and implicit – is rarely given much heft in these games, especially early in the series. It’s hard to imagine that Samus, given what we know of her (with her military background, her most frequent contractor being the Federation marines, literally spending all her time with one of her hands replaced with a gun) has spent a lot of time considering the morality of her place in the galactic landscape. She probably doesn’t have to think much about it, since she mostly seems to fight, like, animals and the Space Pirates who do seem like assholes (I don’t have time to go into the absolutely batshit colonialism allegories happening in Prime 2 but that game is a weird can of worms). So I really have to wonder what’s going through her head when she’s struck by the burst of compassion that leads her to spare the last metroid. What’s she thinking about as she makes that long ascent back to the surface with a little buddy who doesn’t know that its mom just butchered its race. Does she think she’s done a kindness? Is she considering the enormity of the act she’s just failed to complete? Are these things she thinks about at all?
I don’t know. Metroid 2 is a masterpiece.
And what we get out of it is arguably the most ambitious Metroid game to date, clearly pushing the limits of its hardware in terms of delivering a gameplay experience that, similar to its predecessor with the NES, is just clearly beyond the ken of the Gameboy but also accidentally in terms of themes and mood. It’s not a secret that Metroid 2 has gotten the coolguy art gamer reevaluation over the years as a secret death of the author gem but that doesn’t make it work any less well as one.
Samus takes up a huge chunk of the screen. You can barely see where you’re going. You can barely remember where you’ve been. The world isn’t hostile, necessarily; how could it be hostile when you dominate it so powerfully from the very beginning? Samus is untouchable – more agile and powerful than anything she’ll face from the first second to the last as she trudges down, down, ever downward, through endless twisting corridors as she practices the tedious chore of genocide. She only becomes more durable and more powerful as her targets become fewer and more vulnerable to her weaponry.
No, the only resistance is from the world’s indifference, its ambivalence to Samus and her violence, and even then only in the few places where she cannot enforce herself upon it. The only dangers on SR388 are momentary environmental hazards, getting frustrated by disorientation, being frightened by surprise or by unknown sounds. But never by anything remotely similar to what Samus herself brings to the Metroids, to the other fauna she might encounter.
Atmosphere is king in Metroid, and narrative – explicit and implicit – is rarely given much heft in these games, especially early in the series. It’s hard to imagine that Samus, given what we know of her (with her military background, her most frequent contractor being the Federation marines, literally spending all her time with one of her hands replaced with a gun) has spent a lot of time considering the morality of her place in the galactic landscape. She probably doesn’t have to think much about it, since she mostly seems to fight, like, animals and the Space Pirates who do seem like assholes (I don’t have time to go into the absolutely batshit colonialism allegories happening in Prime 2 but that game is a weird can of worms). So I really have to wonder what’s going through her head when she’s struck by the burst of compassion that leads her to spare the last metroid. What’s she thinking about as she makes that long ascent back to the surface with a little buddy who doesn’t know that its mom just butchered its race. Does she think she’s done a kindness? Is she considering the enormity of the act she’s just failed to complete? Are these things she thinks about at all?
I don’t know. Metroid 2 is a masterpiece.
This review contains spoilers
I went into this game with tempered expectations as I was cautious of how the game would hold up. Despite how much I respect its ambition and how ahead of its time it was, I found Metroid 1 to range from mildly enjoyable to moderately frustrating, so I was pretty skeptical on how a successor on the Gameboy would stack up…after playing it, I am glad to have had my concerns proved wrong. Very wrong in fact, as this is a fantastic game, a huge step up from its predecessor and the game that made me a real fan of Metroid.
The first substantial improvement over the first game is the controls. Samus is now able to shoot below herself when in midair and can take a stationary crouched position to shoot knee-high targets, making it so combat is more like fighting enemies and less like fighting the limited controls.
There are ten save stations around the map, though two are very close to each other so functionally there are nine. I think it can be a little bit too hard to come by one, but overall, it works fine, and I much prefer it over Metroid 1’s password system. There are also refueling stations placed about, they come in handy but are too few and far between to be able to lean on.
Metroid wouldn’t be Metroid without upgrades and Metroid II not only keeps the old ones but brings in some new blood with the spider-ball and the space-jump. The spider ball lets Samus cling to surfaces while in morph-ball mode and traverse walls and ceilings which adds some nice verticality to exploration. The space-jump serves as its more mobile late game equivalent, letting Samus be able to jump repeatedly while in midair, infinitely if your timing is good. I don’t think a single other powerup in Metroid’s history feels as satisfying to get as the space-jump, though the screw-attack comes second due to how well it synergizes with the space-jump.
What I believe to be the most important quality of a Metroid game is its exploration and world design…and the Metroid community’s most common complaint about Metroid II is regarding its exploration and world design…specifically, its different approach to entries in the series both preceding and succeeding it. The player has to enter and complete each zone in a specific order with backtracking being largely absent, once you are done with an area you typically never have to set foot in it again and what few revisits there are, are very brief. Though, each zone lets you explore in a non-linear manner within its confines. I think this direction is perfect for the game when accounting for the often-forgotten fact that this was made for the Gameboy, a handheld console most owners would typically use in car rides, on breaks or during recess. Having a giant intertwined world with backtracking large distances like Metroid 1 is a little bit demanding for a system people would typically play for shorter time frames. add the fact that the first Metroid was already difficult to navigate while having the advantage of being on a home console where most people would typically have longer more dedicated play-sessions than a handheld, a more bite-sized approach to the world that still embraces non-linearity works best for the Gameboy, while still keeping what makes Metroid…well, Metroid!
The second most common complaint about Metroid II is how zoomed in the camera is. I view it in a similar vein to Resident Evil’s fixed camera angles, where the game is designed specifically to obscure the players vision. Vision is one of your strongest and most reliable abilities in a game, so to have that limited makes you more vulnerable. The game takes something away from you. This would normally be annoying in something like an action game or a shooter, but with horror it adds to the experience. Metroid II, whether you find it scary or not, is a horror game. It turns what was a limitation of the hardware into a way to build dread. When you find the shed remains of a recently hatched mutant Metroid, you know its near, but not exactly where it is or when it will attack, having to keep begrudgingly inching forward, not knowing when it’s going to pop into view.
Both the story and objective of the game revolve around hunting Metroids. the Metroids, while being a plot point in Metroid 1 and the series namesake, I’d argue this is their first real game in the spotlight. When you first land on SR-388 you enter a cave and explore for a bit, then eventually find a Metroid, but unlike previous encounters with one, this one starts to mutate. It jettisons its old form for one resistant to the ice beam at the cost of a very weak underbelly. As you dive further into the planets depths finding upgrades and progressing, you find more and more Metroids, some being even further along their mutation process, getting more agile and deadly. while fighting the Metroids can be range from an intense, erratic scuffle to a complete mess depending on the arena design, I ultimately enjoy their presence throughout the game and even the worst of the fights are better than any of the bosses in Metroid 1.
I really adore the environmental story telling throughout the game, especially near the end just before the Metroid nest where there are no enemies besides the Metroids to convey how invasive they are to SR-388’s ecosystem. It really sells the sense of urgency in hunting the Metroids before they mutate to a stage too strong for you to stop and eventually take over the planet in its entirety.
Metroid II is extremely ambitious for a horror game on the Gameboy and it’s even more impressive that it manages to achieve what it does. It has an intensely strong sense of identity and stands as both a huge improvement from Metroid 1 on almost every front and as a great game in its own right.
Maybe the most underrated game of its era.
The first substantial improvement over the first game is the controls. Samus is now able to shoot below herself when in midair and can take a stationary crouched position to shoot knee-high targets, making it so combat is more like fighting enemies and less like fighting the limited controls.
There are ten save stations around the map, though two are very close to each other so functionally there are nine. I think it can be a little bit too hard to come by one, but overall, it works fine, and I much prefer it over Metroid 1’s password system. There are also refueling stations placed about, they come in handy but are too few and far between to be able to lean on.
Metroid wouldn’t be Metroid without upgrades and Metroid II not only keeps the old ones but brings in some new blood with the spider-ball and the space-jump. The spider ball lets Samus cling to surfaces while in morph-ball mode and traverse walls and ceilings which adds some nice verticality to exploration. The space-jump serves as its more mobile late game equivalent, letting Samus be able to jump repeatedly while in midair, infinitely if your timing is good. I don’t think a single other powerup in Metroid’s history feels as satisfying to get as the space-jump, though the screw-attack comes second due to how well it synergizes with the space-jump.
What I believe to be the most important quality of a Metroid game is its exploration and world design…and the Metroid community’s most common complaint about Metroid II is regarding its exploration and world design…specifically, its different approach to entries in the series both preceding and succeeding it. The player has to enter and complete each zone in a specific order with backtracking being largely absent, once you are done with an area you typically never have to set foot in it again and what few revisits there are, are very brief. Though, each zone lets you explore in a non-linear manner within its confines. I think this direction is perfect for the game when accounting for the often-forgotten fact that this was made for the Gameboy, a handheld console most owners would typically use in car rides, on breaks or during recess. Having a giant intertwined world with backtracking large distances like Metroid 1 is a little bit demanding for a system people would typically play for shorter time frames. add the fact that the first Metroid was already difficult to navigate while having the advantage of being on a home console where most people would typically have longer more dedicated play-sessions than a handheld, a more bite-sized approach to the world that still embraces non-linearity works best for the Gameboy, while still keeping what makes Metroid…well, Metroid!
The second most common complaint about Metroid II is how zoomed in the camera is. I view it in a similar vein to Resident Evil’s fixed camera angles, where the game is designed specifically to obscure the players vision. Vision is one of your strongest and most reliable abilities in a game, so to have that limited makes you more vulnerable. The game takes something away from you. This would normally be annoying in something like an action game or a shooter, but with horror it adds to the experience. Metroid II, whether you find it scary or not, is a horror game. It turns what was a limitation of the hardware into a way to build dread. When you find the shed remains of a recently hatched mutant Metroid, you know its near, but not exactly where it is or when it will attack, having to keep begrudgingly inching forward, not knowing when it’s going to pop into view.
Both the story and objective of the game revolve around hunting Metroids. the Metroids, while being a plot point in Metroid 1 and the series namesake, I’d argue this is their first real game in the spotlight. When you first land on SR-388 you enter a cave and explore for a bit, then eventually find a Metroid, but unlike previous encounters with one, this one starts to mutate. It jettisons its old form for one resistant to the ice beam at the cost of a very weak underbelly. As you dive further into the planets depths finding upgrades and progressing, you find more and more Metroids, some being even further along their mutation process, getting more agile and deadly. while fighting the Metroids can be range from an intense, erratic scuffle to a complete mess depending on the arena design, I ultimately enjoy their presence throughout the game and even the worst of the fights are better than any of the bosses in Metroid 1.
I really adore the environmental story telling throughout the game, especially near the end just before the Metroid nest where there are no enemies besides the Metroids to convey how invasive they are to SR-388’s ecosystem. It really sells the sense of urgency in hunting the Metroids before they mutate to a stage too strong for you to stop and eventually take over the planet in its entirety.
Metroid II is extremely ambitious for a horror game on the Gameboy and it’s even more impressive that it manages to achieve what it does. It has an intensely strong sense of identity and stands as both a huge improvement from Metroid 1 on almost every front and as a great game in its own right.
Maybe the most underrated game of its era.
It's not as daunting as a you for think for a Metroidvania without a map. The game is split up into sections where you eliminate all of the Metroids in an area and then move on to the next. The game really doesn't ask you to backtrack to the extent that Super Metroid or Dread might. This is probably the Metroidvania where I had to consult the internet the least, although the best method ro defeat the final boss is fairly obtuse. That said you should probably play it within the span of a weekend or so, rather than just pick it up and finish it later, so you'll have a stronger mental map.
To give this game a bit more criticism, I wish there was more than 2 area themes. I implied it's easy to find your way to the end, and it is, but some different tunes would be appreciated . Still this is one of the best Gameboy games in my opinion and definitely has all the Super Metroid vides down( as much as you can given the vastly weaker hardware).
To give this game a bit more criticism, I wish there was more than 2 area themes. I implied it's easy to find your way to the end, and it is, but some different tunes would be appreciated . Still this is one of the best Gameboy games in my opinion and definitely has all the Super Metroid vides down( as much as you can given the vastly weaker hardware).
The original metroid on nes isn't the most flattering game out there, it has its rough edges but I can ultimately appreciate what it goes for and it's place in gaming history. So, it was a shock to my system that the metroid game on gameboy (essentially a portable nes) was actually a considerable step up from its console counterpart.
I know its odd to call a gameboy game atmospheric but Metroid II finds a way. The faint hints of music sounding like the organic life of this alien planet, the fantastic spritework and art direction, and the black and grey color pallet of the gameboy pocket really elevate the feeling of exploring deeper and deeper into the depths of an underground cave.
This is all just to say that Metroid II is a survival horror game. Encountering a metroid borders on being a jumpscare, with the mutated aliens making their presence known with their harsh and sudden theme contrasting brightly with the atmospheric tunes prior. The metoids' freakish mutations as you delve further into the caves of SR388 also don't let up and can kill you at a moments notice if you aren't on your toes. Just like a good ol' classic survival horror!
This may be one of the most linear metroid games, if not the most linear. However it's linearity encourages exploration as you explore left behind ancient ruins and hunt down every single last metroid hiding in the caves. It feels like every single nook and cranny rewards your exploration with some goodies. The constant stream of abilities you gain all feel meaningful towards further expanding your moveset, and are fun to experiment and play around with. The exploration ties beautifully with the gameplay, which is a significant step from Metroid I. Finally being able to crouch and shoot in more direction feels like a relative breath of fresh air combined with the tight movement.
Overall, Metroid II is a classic example on how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. "How good can it really be? It's just a gameboy game after all," I foolishly thought before playing. But Metroid II proves to be a great time throughout, despite some annoying Metroid moments™ here and there.
I know its odd to call a gameboy game atmospheric but Metroid II finds a way. The faint hints of music sounding like the organic life of this alien planet, the fantastic spritework and art direction, and the black and grey color pallet of the gameboy pocket really elevate the feeling of exploring deeper and deeper into the depths of an underground cave.
This is all just to say that Metroid II is a survival horror game. Encountering a metroid borders on being a jumpscare, with the mutated aliens making their presence known with their harsh and sudden theme contrasting brightly with the atmospheric tunes prior. The metoids' freakish mutations as you delve further into the caves of SR388 also don't let up and can kill you at a moments notice if you aren't on your toes. Just like a good ol' classic survival horror!
This may be one of the most linear metroid games, if not the most linear. However it's linearity encourages exploration as you explore left behind ancient ruins and hunt down every single last metroid hiding in the caves. It feels like every single nook and cranny rewards your exploration with some goodies. The constant stream of abilities you gain all feel meaningful towards further expanding your moveset, and are fun to experiment and play around with. The exploration ties beautifully with the gameplay, which is a significant step from Metroid I. Finally being able to crouch and shoot in more direction feels like a relative breath of fresh air combined with the tight movement.
Overall, Metroid II is a classic example on how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. "How good can it really be? It's just a gameboy game after all," I foolishly thought before playing. But Metroid II proves to be a great time throughout, despite some annoying Metroid moments™ here and there.
Would be so much better without that ridiculous difficulty spike in the end.
Illbleed
2001
There is absolutely nothing like Illbleed.
Illbleed is an absolute achievement. Bonkers. Wild as hell. Absolutely unpredictable in everything its doing. Designed to entertain and fuck with you to a degree I haven't seen a horror comedy joint ever really quite do and only really in the way that a video game can.
Illbleed is a reminder of the kinds of things only video games as a medium can do in the ways in which they interact and interface with the player and the way the player interacts and interfaces with the game. You could adapt The Last of Us, Dead Space, God of War and Final Fantasy XV into a series or film or something. You could NOT adapt Illbleed into anything else.
You could not remake Illbleed and get the same result. You could not make a sequel to Illbleed and have it work the same at all. This is a culmination of absolutely deranged ideas all culminating into a beautiful package at one specific time by one specific team at one specific moment. This shit is special.
Illbleed frankly is fuckin peak. The more I played the more I fell in absolute love with it. It trolled me, it baffled me, it knocked me on my ass and every twist and turn had me waiting for where the fuck this thing was gonna go next.
Sorry to be vague but you should really just play it for yourself and see what this has to offer. I want people who experience it to have the raw experience I had with it. I really wish there was some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type procedure so I could wipe my memory and play this shit fresh cause it is such a transcendent and wild experience. I will absolutely never forget it. Don't be afraid to use a guide if ya need to, it's absolutely worth experiencing.
Make sure ya invest in them worm stocks alright?
Illbleed is an absolute achievement. Bonkers. Wild as hell. Absolutely unpredictable in everything its doing. Designed to entertain and fuck with you to a degree I haven't seen a horror comedy joint ever really quite do and only really in the way that a video game can.
Illbleed is a reminder of the kinds of things only video games as a medium can do in the ways in which they interact and interface with the player and the way the player interacts and interfaces with the game. You could adapt The Last of Us, Dead Space, God of War and Final Fantasy XV into a series or film or something. You could NOT adapt Illbleed into anything else.
You could not remake Illbleed and get the same result. You could not make a sequel to Illbleed and have it work the same at all. This is a culmination of absolutely deranged ideas all culminating into a beautiful package at one specific time by one specific team at one specific moment. This shit is special.
Illbleed frankly is fuckin peak. The more I played the more I fell in absolute love with it. It trolled me, it baffled me, it knocked me on my ass and every twist and turn had me waiting for where the fuck this thing was gonna go next.
Sorry to be vague but you should really just play it for yourself and see what this has to offer. I want people who experience it to have the raw experience I had with it. I really wish there was some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type procedure so I could wipe my memory and play this shit fresh cause it is such a transcendent and wild experience. I will absolutely never forget it. Don't be afraid to use a guide if ya need to, it's absolutely worth experiencing.
Make sure ya invest in them worm stocks alright?
I used to be waaaaay more cold on this game quite honestly.
I played it all the way back on the 3DS and could not finish it cause it caused really bad hand cramps for me (do your wrist stretches everybody) to the point where I could play it in fairly small bursts until I eventually gave up because I just wasn't enjoying myself all that much with it.
So I waited for a remaster or cutscene compilation given the remasters steadily coming out at the time, plus 0.2 cause like hot DAMN that shit is fire I cannot wait to write about that one.
So eventually I picked up the 2.8 collection but didn't really finally get around to it until KH3 was almost out which in hindsight was kind of a stupid decision. I was rushing the first real playthrough of this game so that I'd be ready and prepped for 3. I feel like I wasn't quite the most charitable to this game in my excitement and overall more direct want of 3 which sucks but sometimes ya get caught up in the moment ya know!
Something about this game didn't really click into place for me at the time, everything with Sora annoyed me initially, I had at the time felt like the game meandered a bit too much, I didn't really love the worlds, the one thing I DID majorly love was the ending mainly because of how much it goes about setting up for 3.
So going into this I had my worries and concerns about it given the last time though I was still open to trying to really give it that second look and I'm really glad I did especially after playing 3+ReMind.
Dream Drop Distance is such an improvement over Birth By Sleep from a gameplay standpoint that it's kinda fuckin wild that this is seemingly from the same team. They clearly learned a loooot of really good lessons from developing that game and its systems. The movement and feel of the game feels a lot faster and looser, the addition of flowmotion as a system has ya bouncing and zooming around levels like nobodies business, the way it flows into the combat and meshes with how you tangibly interact with the game even brings back a tiny bit of that 1 style exploration and curiosity of its landscapes in my eyes though not to the full degree it could. Honestly I think 3 does that better but again still not to the 3D platformer experimental way that 1 specifically did it.
Dream Eaters are such a good choice for both allies and enemies here. They cute, they hunger, they attack, they heal, they defend. They're really cool and I like them! I like that you can name them whatever ya want and really make them your own. KhimarisSon was a real one and got me through many a battle by the end.
The level scaling this time works pretty well as the game goes on, at no point did I ever feel like I was behind after finishing a location, I felt like the game gave me more than enough in each world to do in terms of battles that by the end I felt properly leveled and ready for whatever was going to pop up next.
The real only gameplay downsides are that some bosses still have the Birth By Sleep problem of just not being able to get hitstunned or any kind of real major knockback at points, making you essentially wait for your turn to do anything before waiting 5 minutes for your next swing which is a bit lame! I know this problem is fixed in 3 at least but it was still pretty annoying to deal with and I feel like this problem more-so only majorly popped up near the end but it was absolutely still there in a way that annoyed.
As for the narrative, I dig the dual split drop in style of the entire thing. This dual perspective seemingly parallel world perspective of both Sora and Riku's adventure. I remember the first time I played through this I was confused on how exactly the world split stuff works even though the game quite literally tells you multiple times so that was on me!
I also used to think that they made Sora WAY too dumb in this game for his own good and to at least be fair to that, he still kinda is for like the first half of the game. I feel like while Sora has always been a real one who takes to other people really easily, there are multiple times here where he almost feels like a parody of himself at points. Maybe that's supposed to play into something of the dream logic kinda weird vibes going on but idk it felt too off in a way that felt wrong at points. Tron onwards though I feel like that problem goes away for the most part at least which I was thankful for.
Sora is dealing with an insecurity about his connections with others that has been deep in there but hasn't really been dug out until now. This tends to be reflected within all the worlds in some capacity ESPECIALLY TRON but especially given that most of the worlds are about some kind of outcast trying their best to connect with others in some kinda way, trying to get some kinda recognition or some kind of value. The pain that others in his life are facing and how much he wants to help them from having to feel any of that pain or despair. It's real good!
Riku's story is a continuation of his arc from the other games, his insecurities around falling to the darkness and the fear it inspires, his want to keep distance out of fear but others not letting him, him learning to rely on others and especially the one he looks up to the most, him choosing to fight on despite the deepest despair he could possibly fall into, seeing others fall prey to similar situations that ailed him and going out of his way to stop them from going through the same. This game has him really look in a mirror again and really dig through a lot of what he's done and was manipulated to do again and really find that groove within himself.
There's a really good moment near the end that's a callback to 1's beginning questionnaire with him and I really think it's a perfect tail end to his entire story within this game and all the games that led up to this point. I think Riku's half of the story is the best part of the game and that while Sora's half is also very important, he's the real protagonist of this particular story with everything that it's doing by the end especially.
If I had any major story complaint, it's that some of the world's (MAINLY TRON) sometimes don't give Riku much of anything which is a bit strange. Tron especially feeling like Riku's section gives more to the movie while Riku kinda hangs around which is a bummer and a bit of a problem with 1 or 2 worlds in 3's case.
Also I just wanna say, the end of this game is absolutely fuckin BONKERS dude, like you've probably seen some shit floating around from it at this point, the reveals, the setup for 3, mickey mouse getting slammed against a pillar like a DBZ fight, it's all here.
Things setup all the way in the first game are reintegrated in order to be paid off or used in a completely new way, characters reveal themselves, new mysteries are setup, seeds are planted, it's so fuckin cool, I genuinely think the end of this game narratively is up there with KH2's in just how much it throws at you and how much it pays off by the end. It's fuckin rad as hell.
Also we wanna talk banger fuckin music. Holy F U C K they brought it hard yet again. That fuckin violin man. An absolute treat of the senses from beginning to end, I really gotta make an OST ranking list for this series on here at some point. 2, 3, DDD and BBS are all a bit tied though so I dunno lol.
This is my constant reminder that I finally need to play The World Ends With You sometime I love the cast here.
I played it all the way back on the 3DS and could not finish it cause it caused really bad hand cramps for me (do your wrist stretches everybody) to the point where I could play it in fairly small bursts until I eventually gave up because I just wasn't enjoying myself all that much with it.
So I waited for a remaster or cutscene compilation given the remasters steadily coming out at the time, plus 0.2 cause like hot DAMN that shit is fire I cannot wait to write about that one.
So eventually I picked up the 2.8 collection but didn't really finally get around to it until KH3 was almost out which in hindsight was kind of a stupid decision. I was rushing the first real playthrough of this game so that I'd be ready and prepped for 3. I feel like I wasn't quite the most charitable to this game in my excitement and overall more direct want of 3 which sucks but sometimes ya get caught up in the moment ya know!
Something about this game didn't really click into place for me at the time, everything with Sora annoyed me initially, I had at the time felt like the game meandered a bit too much, I didn't really love the worlds, the one thing I DID majorly love was the ending mainly because of how much it goes about setting up for 3.
So going into this I had my worries and concerns about it given the last time though I was still open to trying to really give it that second look and I'm really glad I did especially after playing 3+ReMind.
Dream Drop Distance is such an improvement over Birth By Sleep from a gameplay standpoint that it's kinda fuckin wild that this is seemingly from the same team. They clearly learned a loooot of really good lessons from developing that game and its systems. The movement and feel of the game feels a lot faster and looser, the addition of flowmotion as a system has ya bouncing and zooming around levels like nobodies business, the way it flows into the combat and meshes with how you tangibly interact with the game even brings back a tiny bit of that 1 style exploration and curiosity of its landscapes in my eyes though not to the full degree it could. Honestly I think 3 does that better but again still not to the 3D platformer experimental way that 1 specifically did it.
Dream Eaters are such a good choice for both allies and enemies here. They cute, they hunger, they attack, they heal, they defend. They're really cool and I like them! I like that you can name them whatever ya want and really make them your own. KhimarisSon was a real one and got me through many a battle by the end.
The level scaling this time works pretty well as the game goes on, at no point did I ever feel like I was behind after finishing a location, I felt like the game gave me more than enough in each world to do in terms of battles that by the end I felt properly leveled and ready for whatever was going to pop up next.
The real only gameplay downsides are that some bosses still have the Birth By Sleep problem of just not being able to get hitstunned or any kind of real major knockback at points, making you essentially wait for your turn to do anything before waiting 5 minutes for your next swing which is a bit lame! I know this problem is fixed in 3 at least but it was still pretty annoying to deal with and I feel like this problem more-so only majorly popped up near the end but it was absolutely still there in a way that annoyed.
As for the narrative, I dig the dual split drop in style of the entire thing. This dual perspective seemingly parallel world perspective of both Sora and Riku's adventure. I remember the first time I played through this I was confused on how exactly the world split stuff works even though the game quite literally tells you multiple times so that was on me!
I also used to think that they made Sora WAY too dumb in this game for his own good and to at least be fair to that, he still kinda is for like the first half of the game. I feel like while Sora has always been a real one who takes to other people really easily, there are multiple times here where he almost feels like a parody of himself at points. Maybe that's supposed to play into something of the dream logic kinda weird vibes going on but idk it felt too off in a way that felt wrong at points. Tron onwards though I feel like that problem goes away for the most part at least which I was thankful for.
Sora is dealing with an insecurity about his connections with others that has been deep in there but hasn't really been dug out until now. This tends to be reflected within all the worlds in some capacity ESPECIALLY TRON but especially given that most of the worlds are about some kind of outcast trying their best to connect with others in some kinda way, trying to get some kinda recognition or some kind of value. The pain that others in his life are facing and how much he wants to help them from having to feel any of that pain or despair. It's real good!
Riku's story is a continuation of his arc from the other games, his insecurities around falling to the darkness and the fear it inspires, his want to keep distance out of fear but others not letting him, him learning to rely on others and especially the one he looks up to the most, him choosing to fight on despite the deepest despair he could possibly fall into, seeing others fall prey to similar situations that ailed him and going out of his way to stop them from going through the same. This game has him really look in a mirror again and really dig through a lot of what he's done and was manipulated to do again and really find that groove within himself.
There's a really good moment near the end that's a callback to 1's beginning questionnaire with him and I really think it's a perfect tail end to his entire story within this game and all the games that led up to this point. I think Riku's half of the story is the best part of the game and that while Sora's half is also very important, he's the real protagonist of this particular story with everything that it's doing by the end especially.
If I had any major story complaint, it's that some of the world's (MAINLY TRON) sometimes don't give Riku much of anything which is a bit strange. Tron especially feeling like Riku's section gives more to the movie while Riku kinda hangs around which is a bummer and a bit of a problem with 1 or 2 worlds in 3's case.
Also I just wanna say, the end of this game is absolutely fuckin BONKERS dude, like you've probably seen some shit floating around from it at this point, the reveals, the setup for 3, mickey mouse getting slammed against a pillar like a DBZ fight, it's all here.
Things setup all the way in the first game are reintegrated in order to be paid off or used in a completely new way, characters reveal themselves, new mysteries are setup, seeds are planted, it's so fuckin cool, I genuinely think the end of this game narratively is up there with KH2's in just how much it throws at you and how much it pays off by the end. It's fuckin rad as hell.
Also we wanna talk banger fuckin music. Holy F U C K they brought it hard yet again. That fuckin violin man. An absolute treat of the senses from beginning to end, I really gotta make an OST ranking list for this series on here at some point. 2, 3, DDD and BBS are all a bit tied though so I dunno lol.
This is my constant reminder that I finally need to play The World Ends With You sometime I love the cast here.