The first generation of Pokemon is the simplest one in many aspects of it's mechanics, and it suffers from certain hiccups in design that were pretty common in old RPGs, stuff like certain glitches in the Pokemon's movements, having to go from point A to point B just to get an item to go back and access another area form point A, certain maps (caves) being a bit frustrating the first time and so on.

Still, the first generation has something in these hiccups, most glitches actually won't pop up unless you search for them, and those hunts for items or not knowing where to go are pretty much absent in current Pokemon games, and although I know the HMs are not very popular, having to distribute certain Pokemon to use them added if only just a little bit of strategy to what is a very simple and, let's be honest this is a kids game, easy game.

The overall vibe is also different, these being the first steps in a franchise that nobody could've predicted whould become so big, certain bits of the lore, the Pokemon, the people and the world in general feel a bit different or even off, it gives the impression at times that Pokemon were supposed to be treated more like domesticated monsters rather that this world's equivalent of animals that we get now.

If someone wants to play gen 1, I'd recommend the GBA remakes honestly, they are a step up in every way, but these games with falws and all were a fenomenon of their time for a reason, and they have a charm unique to them.

This is not my favorite gen by far, but is one that is fun to revisit once in a while.

When the game you’re following up is Prime 1, how do you go about creating a worthy sequel? Not only do you have to make a worthy follow-up to one of the most praised and critically acclaimed games of all time, but you also have to make sure that it's able to have its own identity compared to the game preceding it. This sounds very familiar, right? I’m not crazy, right? This sounds like the same position Metroid Fusion was in with that game following up on Super Metroid as the next 2D game. While Prime 2 doesn’t make radical changes on the level of Fusion, it does enough to have its own identity compared to the other Metroid games.

So here’s what I think about Prime 2. While I think this is more than a worthy follow-up to Prime 1, I didn’t find the adventure as enjoyable as Prime 1.

The world itself, while more streamlined, cohesive and less backtrack-heavy compared to the previous game, feels more…boring. Other than the Sanctuary Fortress, the other 3 areas feel like 5 shades of the same color which makes these areas blend in with one another. I was pulling up that map like a crack addict with a 5-second memory; I had a hard time remembering the layout of this game compared to Prime 1. I couldn’t remember which rooms lead to where and whether or not I even needed to go this way. I know I played Prime 1 way more than Prime 2, but I found the map layout more interesting and easy to keep in my head, even during my first playthrough.

I didn’t know exactly how to fit this in here, but there’s actually some things about the difficulty of this game that I’m not really the biggest fan of. The spacing of save points, to start off, felt a bit far apart, especially when you get to the Sanctuary Fortress. If you die (more like when you die), then you’ll have to make a tedious trek back to the place you were just at just to get another shot at it (a la Dark Souls). Not only that, the bosses at basically every point in the game hits pretty damn hard; even worse with the fights that take place in the Dark world because of the atmosphere constantly draining your health. They don’t hit obnoxiously hard (like 60-100 units of energy), but it is very possible that you can get hit for 20-30 units of health multiple times in the span of 2 seconds. Do not be surprised if you die to a number of bosses during your first playthrough. I myself wiped to the Boost Guardian twice during my 2nd playthrough of this game (mainly because I sucked at the fight).

Those 2 things individually are something I can deal with, but when they’re combined on top of having to do way more jumping, room traversal and potentially dangerous encounters that can end you really quickly, it becomes a bit of a problem. I’m more than willing to admit that this is just a “me problem”, but after looking at the room layouts of every area in Prime 1 and 2 on top of difficulty consideration, I consider this an issue. Not a deal breaker, not even a major issue, but an issue regardless.

On the topic of room traversal, I had the roughest time going through Torvus Bog and Sanctuary Fortress. The latter because of all the jumping, rift hopping, grappling and Spider balling you have to do just to get from Point A to Point B. The former because of the rift hopping and the existence of the Dark Pirate Commandos. They’re like the Chozo Ghosts, only more annoying. Not only were they buffed in total health and damage output (I think?), but when they materialize in certain rooms in Torvus Bog, the doors are locked, meaning you are forced to either hide in a corner and wait for them to disappear, or fight them off using the Light Beam and hope to god they don’t dimension hop too much. This won’t become an issue after you get the Dark Visor, but until then, yikes. This ain’t it chief.

Then there’s the oh-so infamous Sky Temple Key hunt. Remember the Chozo Artifacts from the first game? It’s exactly like that, yet they somehow managed to make it worse. To start off, you can’t start collecting them until you get the Dark Visor, which is about 2/3rds into the game. That already is a massive downgrade, but on top of that, you can’t get around half of them until you get the Light Suit, which is basically the endgame at that point. I don’t need to explain how god awful this change is…so I won’t. It speaks for itself.

I also didn’t know how to put this in, but the soundtrack is not on the same level as Prime 1. At the time of me writing 4 pages of utter trash, the soundtrack has grown on me quite a bit, but I feel this contributes to the areas feeling so homogenous with one another and not being as memorable overall. I actually like the music used for the various bosses and enemy encounters a lot, but other than that (not counting the subterranean area of Torvus Bog), it’s not that memorable to me.

I sincerely love Metroid Prime 2 and everything it tries to do and accomplish. It just leaves me conflicted when I start thinking about my pantheon of Metroid games. The bosses, backtracking and even the lore are a complete step up from Prime 1. What this game gains in world cohesion and atmosphere in addition to the Light/Dark world concept, it loses in the fun factor and memorability. The beam ammo management on top of some questionable difficulty aspects makes it so I cannot place this above Prime 1. The game in a lot of areas is a definite fundamental improvement over the first game, but as I was playing through the game, something in the back of my mind kept nagging at me and I couldn’t figure out what that nagging feeling was to save my life. I’m willing to bet that that nagging feeling was my subconscious telling me that I really don’t find this as fun to play as the first game, even though the difference in fun factor between Prime 1 and Prime 2 is about as different as a pair of twins who are 99% similar.

Good lord. Why do I do this to myself? I need to stop this. I’ll experience Metroid burnout at this rate.

It seems that not being able to talk about Metroid for most of my life is coming back to haunt me with these long-ass rambles. I try to stick to the stuff that matters most in this case, but that certainly didn’t happen. I guess being able to finally speak my mind about Metroid is a bit alien to me still.

Hopefully, it’s just me…