Plays like a dream. Bit of a monkey's paw wish with the storytelling. On the one hand, it's great getting some logs from Samus' perspective and an unfolding narrative rather than just major events at the bookends for a 2D entry in the series. But the navigation rooms really break up the flow at times and also remove the element of exploration that makes Metroid games feel like a personal experience to the player. This also makes it a great one to start with, despite being so late in the chronology. Yet the ways it messes with the formula is so much better when you go in with the expectations set by its predecessors, so Zero Mission is probably the better choice.

I think the difficulty is a little strange, with some puzzles I only got through because I distantly remembered the solutions (that one bomb pillar... you know the one) and others required no thinking whatsoever. I also think the final battle is both far less interesting than the penultimate one and mirrors Super Metroid's ending far too closely to be just an homage. Maybe without other context it would be cool but knowing SM it feels a tad empty.

There's quite a few negatives to mention, but that's partly because the positives are so immediately satisfying they fail to register in quite the same way. The gameplay has the right feel and the music and pacing make this such a breeze to play, so when anything feels off it sticks out like a sore thumb. Looking forward to replaying this a third time already.