Congratulations, Samus Returns. You're the first 3DS game to ever give me hand cramps.

The atmosphere is on point, and the soundtrack is great, but that's where the stringless positives end. It's just too painful trying to play the game with a circle pad. The lack of shinespark especially holds back both movement and puzzles. I know it's hilarious to suggest, but I think we might need yet Another Metroid 2 Remake for the game to reach its full potential. This time with better controls, less bosses, better pacing, shinespark included and some way for the baby metroid to not unlock half the game's collectibles at the 11th hour.

I did have fun overall, but I'm never going to replay it and I'm not going to recommend it or any other version of Metroid 2 to anyone.

Good:
- Grapple Hooks
- Expanded platforming paths
- Reasonable antagonists
- Sibling dynamics
- Driving sections

Not good:
- Worse controls
- Inconsistent/unsatisfying gunplay
- "Secret long lost brother" trope
- Glitch where dramatic and loud combat music kept playing in all cutscenes and on the main menu, kind of ruined the end of the game

Final verdict:
4.5/5, it's still got a ton of stuff to love but I wish the gunplay was closer to what it was in 1-3, then it would be closer to perfect.

Uncharted 3 is a step backwards, leaning into the worst aspects of the series's gameplay and delivering a rather odd story.
Lstick holding is when the game forces you into a segment where you only hold the left stick, and nothing else. It's the most base form of gameplay, just moving your character in a direction mindlessly. Unfortunately, Uncharted 3 has quite a few of these, and they're quite lengthy. It takes you out of the game and makes you want to pull up your phone with your free hand.
Our two additions to combat for this game are expanded hand to hand combat, adding grapples and throws to the mix, and the ability to throw grenades back at enemies. The expanded melee combat is a good idea, but it led to some melee-only sections that really dragged on. The ability to throw grenades back at enemies is cool, except for towards the end of the game when enemies will spam the shit out of grenades at you- and you're expected to throw them back while taking heavy machine gun fire.
Concerning the story, it takes much longer in this game for us to actually figure out what's going on and what our ultimate goal is. It makes the pacing more awkward and the advancement of the plot feel more arbitrary. There's also some issues of Sully being out of character. It makes sense why they wanted him around for this story, but I think it would have been better served as a prequel. Sully's departure in Uncharted 2 felt properly timed and sensible given his age.
There's still some memorable setpieces here, and I had fun overall, but the game's mostly just okay. Is it worth playing when you're going through the trilogy? Sure. Is it worth going back to, or playing individually? Probably not.