Pros: Captures the gameplay of Super Metroid in many ways, and in some ways, does things better, with improved mechanics like grabbing onto ledges and climbing certain walls, where you can even fire your arm cannon blaster while hanging on, feels pretty good too. And in general, this game has the staples of a finely crafted Metroid adventure, with an interesting new storyline involving X parasites, where you're trapped on a spooky space station, with various sectors, hatches, and biomes to make your sci-fi journey a memorable one.
(also, I adore those little animal buddies, the Dachora and Etecoons. They're so cute!! There's even a baby Dachora in this game, d'awww! Honestly, probably my favorite part of this whole adventure, haha!)
Cons: I didn't care for the story much, well, I didn't care how it was told, its presentation rather. Near the second half of the game, we start to get dialogue and a lot of personality with Samus, which, was a hint of things to come with Other M, Sakamoto's next Metroid project. I'm of the crowd that would rather Samus be more of a blank slate protagonist, and not speak so much, in order for me, the player, to fill the role of the character, which strengthens the immersion of the adventure, especially when isolation is involved. I felt Super Metroid and especially Metroid Prime did this perfectly, but here, it was a bit of a step backwards.
Also, not exactly a fan of the setting. The space station pales in comparison to a full blown planet to explore, it just never felt like a natural world I was discovering and trekking through, even with the various biomes in each sector on the map. It felt more confined, more artificial, and also unfortunately, linear, as the game railroads progress in such a way where instead of feeling like I'm making discoveries on my own, the game is simply telling me what to do... And that backstory for Samus, sorry, I just couldn't care. The X-parasite stuff was cool, provided plenty of scary fun moments, like whenever the SA-X showed up, it was a thrill, but those moments where they did were disappointingly few and far between. Little aspects here and there of the game bugged me, like an instance where you had to find an invisible opening through a wall, one without bombs, to progress, or the fact that there's no single imposing villain, just "the system" and "the virus", was something that compelled me through this adventure less than other Metroid games.
And lastly, I don't much care for the aesthetic of Samus's new suits. It's kind of Nickelodeon Gak lookin, which, that's fun, but feels very weird for how serious the game tries to present itself in other areas... I dunno, just didn't work for me.
What it means to me: I tried to pick this game up throughout the years, in an attempt to beat it, but time and time again, lost interest partway through for some reason or another. And only just recently beat it in full... It's alright, solid Metroid mechanics, smoother than Super in some ways, like in the way movement works, but still not as smooth as Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and especially Metroid Dread. But y'know, it's cool that 2D Metroid returned in such high quality the way it did here, this was a revival game for the series alongside Metroid Prime after all. But when all's said and done, this is maybe my least favorite 2D Metroid, well, I've still yet to finish Metroid II/Samus Returns, we'll see after that. This wasn't the big glorious revival for the series anyhow, we had Prime for that, and boy was it ever!!
(also, I adore those little animal buddies, the Dachora and Etecoons. They're so cute!! There's even a baby Dachora in this game, d'awww! Honestly, probably my favorite part of this whole adventure, haha!)
Cons: I didn't care for the story much, well, I didn't care how it was told, its presentation rather. Near the second half of the game, we start to get dialogue and a lot of personality with Samus, which, was a hint of things to come with Other M, Sakamoto's next Metroid project. I'm of the crowd that would rather Samus be more of a blank slate protagonist, and not speak so much, in order for me, the player, to fill the role of the character, which strengthens the immersion of the adventure, especially when isolation is involved. I felt Super Metroid and especially Metroid Prime did this perfectly, but here, it was a bit of a step backwards.
Also, not exactly a fan of the setting. The space station pales in comparison to a full blown planet to explore, it just never felt like a natural world I was discovering and trekking through, even with the various biomes in each sector on the map. It felt more confined, more artificial, and also unfortunately, linear, as the game railroads progress in such a way where instead of feeling like I'm making discoveries on my own, the game is simply telling me what to do... And that backstory for Samus, sorry, I just couldn't care. The X-parasite stuff was cool, provided plenty of scary fun moments, like whenever the SA-X showed up, it was a thrill, but those moments where they did were disappointingly few and far between. Little aspects here and there of the game bugged me, like an instance where you had to find an invisible opening through a wall, one without bombs, to progress, or the fact that there's no single imposing villain, just "the system" and "the virus", was something that compelled me through this adventure less than other Metroid games.
And lastly, I don't much care for the aesthetic of Samus's new suits. It's kind of Nickelodeon Gak lookin, which, that's fun, but feels very weird for how serious the game tries to present itself in other areas... I dunno, just didn't work for me.
What it means to me: I tried to pick this game up throughout the years, in an attempt to beat it, but time and time again, lost interest partway through for some reason or another. And only just recently beat it in full... It's alright, solid Metroid mechanics, smoother than Super in some ways, like in the way movement works, but still not as smooth as Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and especially Metroid Dread. But y'know, it's cool that 2D Metroid returned in such high quality the way it did here, this was a revival game for the series alongside Metroid Prime after all. But when all's said and done, this is maybe my least favorite 2D Metroid, well, I've still yet to finish Metroid II/Samus Returns, we'll see after that. This wasn't the big glorious revival for the series anyhow, we had Prime for that, and boy was it ever!!