I love that this is more linear and lean, it makes the whole game an extremely tight and satisfying experience. The spritework and visuals are just gorgeous, and taking inspiration from The Thing makes this my favorite Metroid atmospherically. The SA-X is dope and I long for the day where this gets an RE2 style remake where it's just constantly stalking you. And narratively, this one's great!

The only thing holding this back from being 10/10 chef's kiss mama mia perfection is, what I call, "the bullshit": hidden passageways on the critical path with absolutely zero visual indication, diminishing returns on exploring for item pickups, frustrating bosses in microscopic arenas, and the perpetuation of those god awful space jump controls.