Metroid Fusion was my favourite game on GBA and since then I can call myself a Metroid fanboy. Oddly enough, Metroid Prime was in a weird spot for me and when the first DS came out, the franchise was in a rough spot after Pinball and Hunters. Finally, Samus Aran is back in a worthy, full fledged sequel.
There is an article how developer MercurySteam cut out some staff in the credits, although working on the title. The same article also stated they had planned the double amount of cutscenes and content, but this got cut by Nintendo, maybe in order to tighten the game overall, who knows. While overall I think the game is exactly in the spot it should be, I cannot acknowledge the practices of the game developer or publisher.
I love how they succeed in making a very fluent action game with Alien (Isolation) 80s Sci-Fi like atmosphere. The encouters with E.M.M.I are engaging, but you have to see a lot of Game Over screens. Fortunately, it's not like pure "trial and error" like Little Nightmares (which I detested for that aspect) because the E.M.M.I move always differently.
The game delivers in the aspect that it is a Sci-Fi "horror light" action game with very slight nods to Dead Space, Alien: Isolation and also some Bullet Hell shooters and still is a Metroid game in it's core mechanics.
There are 2 aspects I don't like:
- While the overall performance is nice (60 fps with only some frame drops), the art style is something I had to get used to. The Switch is not powerful so I can see why there is no Anti-Aliasing or low textures, but a better, less bloomy art style might have been more fitting. It could have been much darker, less colourful in my opinion. Or even much more towards Hollow Knight with a much deeper art style. But maybe this is the most 'mature' a Nintendo IP might get.
- The controls. The option to use the D-Pad could have been much better. The laser pointer beam mechanics can be very tricky because they are too exact. I would've liked to use a shoulder button to do a diagonal shot only and implement it in the game. In addition to that, the controls can be overloaded, especially when you get all the items with Shinespark. But hey, this is also a nod to Super Metroid, they also had very tricky item spots. The analog stick is just too hit-and-miss.
Verdict: well done and thanks for the Special Edition!
There is an article how developer MercurySteam cut out some staff in the credits, although working on the title. The same article also stated they had planned the double amount of cutscenes and content, but this got cut by Nintendo, maybe in order to tighten the game overall, who knows. While overall I think the game is exactly in the spot it should be, I cannot acknowledge the practices of the game developer or publisher.
I love how they succeed in making a very fluent action game with Alien (Isolation) 80s Sci-Fi like atmosphere. The encouters with E.M.M.I are engaging, but you have to see a lot of Game Over screens. Fortunately, it's not like pure "trial and error" like Little Nightmares (which I detested for that aspect) because the E.M.M.I move always differently.
The game delivers in the aspect that it is a Sci-Fi "horror light" action game with very slight nods to Dead Space, Alien: Isolation and also some Bullet Hell shooters and still is a Metroid game in it's core mechanics.
There are 2 aspects I don't like:
- While the overall performance is nice (60 fps with only some frame drops), the art style is something I had to get used to. The Switch is not powerful so I can see why there is no Anti-Aliasing or low textures, but a better, less bloomy art style might have been more fitting. It could have been much darker, less colourful in my opinion. Or even much more towards Hollow Knight with a much deeper art style. But maybe this is the most 'mature' a Nintendo IP might get.
- The controls. The option to use the D-Pad could have been much better. The laser pointer beam mechanics can be very tricky because they are too exact. I would've liked to use a shoulder button to do a diagonal shot only and implement it in the game. In addition to that, the controls can be overloaded, especially when you get all the items with Shinespark. But hey, this is also a nod to Super Metroid, they also had very tricky item spots. The analog stick is just too hit-and-miss.
Verdict: well done and thanks for the Special Edition!