Metroid games ranked as I play them
I played the Metroid games this year. I'm working on the Prime games but that's gonna be slow.
7 Games
Pros:
-Wonderful story
-Beautiful graphics and animations
-Interesting enemy and character design
-Really good at setting tone
-Fun boss design
-Fixing literally every problem I had with Samus Returns' combat
Cons:
-Some bosses or encounters were confusing at first but literally nothing else
-Wonderful story
-Beautiful graphics and animations
-Interesting enemy and character design
-Really good at setting tone
-Fun boss design
-Fixing literally every problem I had with Samus Returns' combat
Cons:
-Some bosses or encounters were confusing at first but literally nothing else
Pros:
-Love the spritework and design of this game
-Story is great
-SA-X makes a really effective villain
-Doesn't feel overly complicated or convuluted
Cons:
-Some enemies felt pretty tanky later on
-Fusion suit looks kind of ugly in colors other than the original blue
-That one part in the beginning where you gotta powerbomb a spot to lift up a platform
-Love the spritework and design of this game
-Story is great
-SA-X makes a really effective villain
-Doesn't feel overly complicated or convuluted
Cons:
-Some enemies felt pretty tanky later on
-Fusion suit looks kind of ugly in colors other than the original blue
-That one part in the beginning where you gotta powerbomb a spot to lift up a platform
Pros:
-Effective remake of the first game
-Interesting changes to the story and events. especially in the last part of the game
-Good graphics, about on par with Fusion for the most part
-Wonderful introduction to the series
Cons:
-Still a remake of an NES game
-Effective remake of the first game
-Interesting changes to the story and events. especially in the last part of the game
-Good graphics, about on par with Fusion for the most part
-Wonderful introduction to the series
Cons:
-Still a remake of an NES game
Pros:
-Good graphics, like usual
-Game design can be fun in a lot of places, with it serving more as a puzzle
-Bosses are really neat, especially that last fight against Mother Brain
-The secret skills are actually pretty sick and can provide some cool speedrunning tricks for skilled players
-The Baby
Cons:
-It's still a Super Nintendo game. It's convoluted at times and can feel near impossible without a guide at moments. I could play most of Zero Mission without a guide, but this one I needed a lot of handholding. Skill issue for me ig.
- The walljumping tutorial room essentially forces you to perfect frame perfect walljump inputs, got really annoying
-Boss fights are gruelling at times. Bullet sponges with quick, hard to dodge attacks. Mother Brain's normal boss fight still sucks so much. Rewind was a necessary tool.
-Good graphics, like usual
-Game design can be fun in a lot of places, with it serving more as a puzzle
-Bosses are really neat, especially that last fight against Mother Brain
-The secret skills are actually pretty sick and can provide some cool speedrunning tricks for skilled players
-The Baby
Cons:
-It's still a Super Nintendo game. It's convoluted at times and can feel near impossible without a guide at moments. I could play most of Zero Mission without a guide, but this one I needed a lot of handholding. Skill issue for me ig.
- The walljumping tutorial room essentially forces you to perfect frame perfect walljump inputs, got really annoying
-Boss fights are gruelling at times. Bullet sponges with quick, hard to dodge attacks. Mother Brain's normal boss fight still sucks so much. Rewind was a necessary tool.
Pros:
-Really cool introduction to Samus in 3D
-Looks pretty dang good. Graphics haven't aged by much, on par with most Nintendo-made GC games
-Had a lot of lore that you could seek out if you desired, allowed for a much bigger story
-Some of the lategame enemies and locations are really sick.
-Love the use of different visors and beams to solve puzzles, but that was helped with Primehack's QoL features with that mechanic.
Cons:
-Can't imagine playing this game with a controller or a fucking wiimote and nunchuck.
-The game is a lot larger than its 2d counterparts, which helps it develop it's story and world more, but also means much longer backtracking segments and some major low moments in between getting upgrades and discovering new areas.
-Really easy to get lost, especially with the unintuitive, and laggy (at least on emulator), map
-Bosses feel pretty bullet spongey, especially that pirate elite. The final boss of the game, Metroid Prime, felt pretty underwhelming as well, despite it's kinda neat design.
-Not a huge fan of Samus' design in this game? Like the suit is fine and some of the later upgrades look sick as hell (like the Phazon suit!) but her face looks really bad. I much prefer how the later 2d games and Smash did her unmasked appearance.
-Really cool introduction to Samus in 3D
-Looks pretty dang good. Graphics haven't aged by much, on par with most Nintendo-made GC games
-Had a lot of lore that you could seek out if you desired, allowed for a much bigger story
-Some of the lategame enemies and locations are really sick.
-Love the use of different visors and beams to solve puzzles, but that was helped with Primehack's QoL features with that mechanic.
Cons:
-Can't imagine playing this game with a controller or a fucking wiimote and nunchuck.
-The game is a lot larger than its 2d counterparts, which helps it develop it's story and world more, but also means much longer backtracking segments and some major low moments in between getting upgrades and discovering new areas.
-Really easy to get lost, especially with the unintuitive, and laggy (at least on emulator), map
-Bosses feel pretty bullet spongey, especially that pirate elite. The final boss of the game, Metroid Prime, felt pretty underwhelming as well, despite it's kinda neat design.
-Not a huge fan of Samus' design in this game? Like the suit is fine and some of the later upgrades look sick as hell (like the Phazon suit!) but her face looks really bad. I much prefer how the later 2d games and Smash did her unmasked appearance.
Pros:
-Loved the aesthetics and music of this game. Actually a step up from the original in that regard, kinda bummed I didn't end up actually liking it better than the first.
-Locations especially were super sick
-Dark Samus is such an excellent design
Cons:
-Same long, drawn out gameplay I disliked about the first Prime. Backtracking was even more of a slog thanks to the two dimensions. Entire cutscene just to enter a portal. It was annoying!
-The beams didn't feel, idk, specialized? Like they had their use in gameplay and I kinda like how it plays into the "light and dark" motif but it just feels like the same shit as the power shot just this time with ammo that's annoying to grab. And the last beam being a combination of the two is kinda boring too.
-The suits were so sick in their design but once again just boiled down to how resistant you were to the other dimension. Shit didn't feel varied in it's use. It was just "the dark suit" and then "the light suit" and no matter how cool those designs were it just wasn't as cool as it looks. Sorry if that's odd to say.
-The boss design of this game was pretty annoying. A lot of waiting for cycles. Especially with that cool as hell four-legged robot boss. It looks cool, but it was a fucking PAIN to fight.
-Like Samus Returns I have not actually finished this game, sorry. It just got a bit frustrating near the end and I didn't feel like doing the final key hunt. I will probably come back to it when it gets remastered on Switch but it will be begrudgingly.
Overall, I get why people love this game because I ADORED it aesthetically. But in gameplay it just felt like even more of a slog than the first Prime. I just don't think I like 3D Metroid guys I'm sorry.
-Loved the aesthetics and music of this game. Actually a step up from the original in that regard, kinda bummed I didn't end up actually liking it better than the first.
-Locations especially were super sick
-Dark Samus is such an excellent design
Cons:
-Same long, drawn out gameplay I disliked about the first Prime. Backtracking was even more of a slog thanks to the two dimensions. Entire cutscene just to enter a portal. It was annoying!
-The beams didn't feel, idk, specialized? Like they had their use in gameplay and I kinda like how it plays into the "light and dark" motif but it just feels like the same shit as the power shot just this time with ammo that's annoying to grab. And the last beam being a combination of the two is kinda boring too.
-The suits were so sick in their design but once again just boiled down to how resistant you were to the other dimension. Shit didn't feel varied in it's use. It was just "the dark suit" and then "the light suit" and no matter how cool those designs were it just wasn't as cool as it looks. Sorry if that's odd to say.
-The boss design of this game was pretty annoying. A lot of waiting for cycles. Especially with that cool as hell four-legged robot boss. It looks cool, but it was a fucking PAIN to fight.
-Like Samus Returns I have not actually finished this game, sorry. It just got a bit frustrating near the end and I didn't feel like doing the final key hunt. I will probably come back to it when it gets remastered on Switch but it will be begrudgingly.
Overall, I get why people love this game because I ADORED it aesthetically. But in gameplay it just felt like even more of a slog than the first Prime. I just don't think I like 3D Metroid guys I'm sorry.
Pros:
-I feel it does a good job at taking a black and white GB game and making it modern.
-The new combat mechanics definitely have potential and are fun to play with at first.
-The soundtrack is super faithful to the original.
-Metroid babies are born.
Cons:
-Locations felt really boring, with a lot of them looking pretty damn similar just with a new pallette.
-The Metroid minibosses in this game suck so much. Repetitive fights with slightly different strategies that go on for way too long. Not to mention the sheer amount as well.
-The new melee combat also felt repetitive after a bit, with enemies having the same exact patterns that usually resulted in being countered to kill them effectively, stopping you in your tracks.
-To make the game feel worth it in modern day it felt like they needlessly extended it, I felt the game took too long to make progress.
-The only game in this franchise I had to skip because I got bored.
-I feel it does a good job at taking a black and white GB game and making it modern.
-The new combat mechanics definitely have potential and are fun to play with at first.
-The soundtrack is super faithful to the original.
-Metroid babies are born.
Cons:
-Locations felt really boring, with a lot of them looking pretty damn similar just with a new pallette.
-The Metroid minibosses in this game suck so much. Repetitive fights with slightly different strategies that go on for way too long. Not to mention the sheer amount as well.
-The new melee combat also felt repetitive after a bit, with enemies having the same exact patterns that usually resulted in being countered to kill them effectively, stopping you in your tracks.
-To make the game feel worth it in modern day it felt like they needlessly extended it, I felt the game took too long to make progress.
-The only game in this franchise I had to skip because I got bored.