How about them Mets, huh? No, I don't mean BASEBALL!
I mentioned how I visited Prime as a kid and didn't like the controls so I only just recently revisited with PrimeHack. Well, after dropping Prime as a kid, I visited this game, thinking 2D Metroid was my route but I lost the save file so this was actually the second Metroid game that I've tried then failed to finish. It's about as well regarded as any top ten list, not just for Metroid but for gaming as a whole, so let's see if it lives up to my memory as well as its reputation.
I could see people falling in love with this as a kid, moreso than the original, I mean this was the first one of "those" Metroid games and definitely pioneered a lot of what made ZM great for me, including the atmosphere. If I mentioned it with the Prime games, then this one makes it feel like Alien at times, little bodies with bugs crawling around, deep mechanical structures, and for the time, this was THE game but how does it age with today's standards?
It feels more precise. Not "more stiff" but just not as buttery as Zero Mission, which would make sense, ZM came out a decade afterwards and a lot of things in that game were based off of this game, which I assume was made to appease the fans of this game as well as introduce it to the handheld market. So, rather than just porting Super, they bred it with the NES one, which for the time sounds great but in today's day and age when you play one after the other, it just feels a bit repetitive to play both. There were a lot of points where I'd ask "Didn't I do this before?" during the first half, the second half differentiates itself a little more.
When comparing the two, I can't help but feel ZM gets the better hand. And because of that, a lot of my gripes from ZM carried over to this game. I actually went back and played the first level of ZM just to be sure and I was right, I think it's just faster momentum wise. (I don't know whether Fusion feels like that or not, haven't played it yet but I'll revisit this topic when I do).
There are a few little downgrades that you can't do like seeing what certain rooms are on the map, there's just maps, ammo and save stations, no indication of colored doors or any of that jazz unfortunately. And I feel like it's a bit harder to follow than the other games because there were a lot more things in your way that just didn't need to be there while backtracking. For example, doors with buttons that can only be opened on one side. They close again after you leave the area rather than just unlocking a shortcut. Part of it is my fault because I've opened these doors before in such a way that I knew what I was doing but just forgot after trekking a completely different area to learn (hence why there should be a map in the first place). But I wouldn't call this the game to start the series with, leaving it in a weird position.
Now I talked about how some things felt out of sorts with ZM but I let them slide because of how early and experimental the game it was based on was and how a lot of the mechanics I complained about weren't mandatory features, just to get certain bonuses but I feel a little less lenient with this one, I definitely felt the most unnecessarily frustrated with this title compared to the others, and I played Prime 2!
The ball bombs aren't OP, you actually have to time them which is fine but still seems like a mechanic they can improve upon. The sand pits of Maridia are a chore to just jump up and out of places. The amount of times I got stuck is beyond belief, the water was one thing because you get the gravity suit eventually but the sand is just horrid to try and traverse and you never get anything to help you with it which made getting optional items like the spring ball a real hassle. I actually took a few day break from the game after Maridia because I didn't want that alone to mar my experience.
Some people will say that they like that because it takes time and training to master since it just drops you in with a brief idea of what Samus is doing and sets you in this world with no instruction but I look at it as "if you gatekeep controls behind masters then how are you supposed to play the game normally?" It's not a bad controlling game overall, it's just certain features that I feel like are purposefully there to get in your way and waste time. Wall jumping, screw attack, have all been improved upon in later titles and going back to a title where it wasn't as fine tuned feels but that's just how I feel, maybe I just couldn't get it to work but it seems like a lot of people have complained about it.
BUT I can say that it allows you to turn whatever abilities you want off. So I complained about the screw attack and freeze ray in ZM and how sometimes I wouldn't want to do that. There are also a lot of really cool secret details that this game opens up since it tells you very little. I liked it, it's still a Metroid game but just didn't live up to what I was expecting.
I mentioned how I visited Prime as a kid and didn't like the controls so I only just recently revisited with PrimeHack. Well, after dropping Prime as a kid, I visited this game, thinking 2D Metroid was my route but I lost the save file so this was actually the second Metroid game that I've tried then failed to finish. It's about as well regarded as any top ten list, not just for Metroid but for gaming as a whole, so let's see if it lives up to my memory as well as its reputation.
I could see people falling in love with this as a kid, moreso than the original, I mean this was the first one of "those" Metroid games and definitely pioneered a lot of what made ZM great for me, including the atmosphere. If I mentioned it with the Prime games, then this one makes it feel like Alien at times, little bodies with bugs crawling around, deep mechanical structures, and for the time, this was THE game but how does it age with today's standards?
It feels more precise. Not "more stiff" but just not as buttery as Zero Mission, which would make sense, ZM came out a decade afterwards and a lot of things in that game were based off of this game, which I assume was made to appease the fans of this game as well as introduce it to the handheld market. So, rather than just porting Super, they bred it with the NES one, which for the time sounds great but in today's day and age when you play one after the other, it just feels a bit repetitive to play both. There were a lot of points where I'd ask "Didn't I do this before?" during the first half, the second half differentiates itself a little more.
When comparing the two, I can't help but feel ZM gets the better hand. And because of that, a lot of my gripes from ZM carried over to this game. I actually went back and played the first level of ZM just to be sure and I was right, I think it's just faster momentum wise. (I don't know whether Fusion feels like that or not, haven't played it yet but I'll revisit this topic when I do).
There are a few little downgrades that you can't do like seeing what certain rooms are on the map, there's just maps, ammo and save stations, no indication of colored doors or any of that jazz unfortunately. And I feel like it's a bit harder to follow than the other games because there were a lot more things in your way that just didn't need to be there while backtracking. For example, doors with buttons that can only be opened on one side. They close again after you leave the area rather than just unlocking a shortcut. Part of it is my fault because I've opened these doors before in such a way that I knew what I was doing but just forgot after trekking a completely different area to learn (hence why there should be a map in the first place). But I wouldn't call this the game to start the series with, leaving it in a weird position.
Now I talked about how some things felt out of sorts with ZM but I let them slide because of how early and experimental the game it was based on was and how a lot of the mechanics I complained about weren't mandatory features, just to get certain bonuses but I feel a little less lenient with this one, I definitely felt the most unnecessarily frustrated with this title compared to the others, and I played Prime 2!
The ball bombs aren't OP, you actually have to time them which is fine but still seems like a mechanic they can improve upon. The sand pits of Maridia are a chore to just jump up and out of places. The amount of times I got stuck is beyond belief, the water was one thing because you get the gravity suit eventually but the sand is just horrid to try and traverse and you never get anything to help you with it which made getting optional items like the spring ball a real hassle. I actually took a few day break from the game after Maridia because I didn't want that alone to mar my experience.
Some people will say that they like that because it takes time and training to master since it just drops you in with a brief idea of what Samus is doing and sets you in this world with no instruction but I look at it as "if you gatekeep controls behind masters then how are you supposed to play the game normally?" It's not a bad controlling game overall, it's just certain features that I feel like are purposefully there to get in your way and waste time. Wall jumping, screw attack, have all been improved upon in later titles and going back to a title where it wasn't as fine tuned feels but that's just how I feel, maybe I just couldn't get it to work but it seems like a lot of people have complained about it.
BUT I can say that it allows you to turn whatever abilities you want off. So I complained about the screw attack and freeze ray in ZM and how sometimes I wouldn't want to do that. There are also a lot of really cool secret details that this game opens up since it tells you very little. I liked it, it's still a Metroid game but just didn't live up to what I was expecting.