Metroid: Samus Returns

[Nespresso]

I hate the Circle Pad so much. I constantly need to readjust my grip on the 3DS as it keeps slipping. It's simply the worst way to control a 2D platformer. 

[Calashnikov]

I figured out why I was messsing up the melee counters on those Metroid cunts. I was trying to parry their charged-up attacks, which I don't think is possible. Realised I had to dodge those swoops and then wait for a "regular" attack to counter instead

 

Now that I've figured it out, everything's all going fine. For now.

[Cyhwuhx]

9 hours ago, VN1X said:

I hate the Circle Pad so much. I constantly need to readjust my grip on the 3DS as it keeps slipping. It's simply the worst way to control a 2D platformer. 

 

Every time after loading a save I  instinctively reach for the d-pad and have a small panic attack as I assume my 3DS is broken. 

 

It's a bit like relearning to play with a (non-)inverted Y-axis.

[Nespresso]

Why is the game so fuckin' stingy with health drops? I've had to play without sound for the past 20 minutes because the low health alert is driving me insane. 

[Cyhwuhx]

1 hour ago, VN1X said:

Why is the game so fuckin' stingy with health drops? I've had to play without sound for the past 20 minutes because the low heath alert is driving me insane. 

 

No idea, but even spawn camping enemy generators is taking ages to get health back. Feels like farming for light/dark ammo in Echoes only sloooooow. Also odd how Aeion can be found everywhere, yet using it depletes it so rapidly that it feels a bit useless as a result. Anyone found a great MO for that?

[Corranga]

17 hours ago, VN1X said:

Why is the game so fuckin' stingy with health drops? I've had to play without sound for the past 20 minutes because the low heath alert is driving me insane. 

 

Agreed.  It's terrible.

 

16 hours ago, Cyhwuhx said:

 

No idea, but even spawn camping enemy generators is taking ages to get health back. Feels like farming for light/dark ammo in Echoes only sloooooow. Also odd how Aeion can be found everywhere, yet using it depletes it so rapidly that it feels a bit useless as a result. Anyone found a great MO for that?

 

Really makes no sense since you can just stand and shoot farming health, why not just give you more..

 

My save game screen has me at 8.5 hours and 18.9% (I've just finished Area 3).  I fear I'm terrible at Metroid!

[Cyhwuhx]

I was about 6 hours in with 30%. If anything it's a Metroid that gives you some value for money. (Again, more like Prime.)

[Sumire]

I just cannot get on with the controls in this. I find it difficult to fire the rockets for some reason.

[TheFixx]

It's taken me 9 hours to do 25%, seems like there is a lot left in this game! After playing for longer than an hour my hands start to cramp a bit probably because of the back buttons, but I like how the game controls overall.

[Cyhwuhx]

 

Rant. Skip if so inclined.

 

Spoiler

This is sadly starting to get highly annoying.

 

I've got all the major toys, but blimey, the game simply won't let up. Even the Screw Attack can't instakill some of the simpler and smaller enemies, meaning you still have to stop-aim-shoot to get past some enemies quickly.

 

The Metroids can literally fuck off now. They are not fun. It's like you figure out the pattern to a Mega Man boss the first time around, only to be arbitrarily put on hold, because you have to wait for its weak point to appear for a split-second. I'm normally fine with that, but after repeating the same attack pattern for the umpteenth time, because the Metroid appeared for the same amount of times, it is getting silly. Never mind that a Metroid can decide to just skip its weak spot/counterable move because it wants to do its three rams-in-sequence thing again. Oh, and then do that insanely long-winded charge attack. Both of them. GAH.

 

All the puzzles are Zelda. This is something that not everybody will notice nor care about, but you enter a room, you see the puzzle pieces, you arrange them. That's it. There's nothing to discover, nothing clever that will make you go a-ha. Just "here's the lever, pull it". If you're real lucky you sometimes get to use an ability to do so! Yay you! You did something moderately intensive! Now to celebrate here are a fuck-ton of common enemies that take ages to dispose of even with your arsenal at max. It's downright insulting when I then realize Breath of the Bloody Wild actually let you do crazy inventive stuff to solve puzzles your way. It's like someone swapped the souls of both series.

 

It's still a Metroid, but it's by the numbers and it's so terribly bland. I can't recognize SR388 in this any more. Now a carbon copy would've been bad, but this... half of the time I can't even keep the areas apart, let alone that I recognize which area this was supposed to be. And I've replayed Metroid II two weeks ago. AM2R (yes, I know) was so much better in creating an atmosphere, giving me a sense of being somewhere. I like to call Zebes a home, something I can just traverse and enjoy, but this doesn't even come close. Nothing sports a theme.

 

SR388 is lethal in the way that a death by a thousand cuts is. It's like a buzzer spiral, fall out of line once and enemies will ruthlessly chomp off entire tanks worth of energy. It's hard in the most basest of forms and while that can be fun (just look at Echoes and Fusion) it does nothing for the atmosphere, especially when you then encounter another cookie cutter Metroid that is threatening to kill you with boredom as it starts swooping and beaming in a pattern you've seen dozens of times before. Often it will, because instead of falling in line and repeating the pattern over and over again, you will want to desperately find something to speed up the encounter, only to hit the spiral again and lose a tank in the buzz. Nah-uh-uh! Can't have that now can we? Back to long-winded pattern you go.

 

Christ, it has its elements in place, it just doesn't know what to do with it other than swamp everything with everything. There's no rhythm, no mastery, no discovery. Just endless corridors of pulling levers, hitting triggers and killing enemies that are always just above your current power level. It's like a procedurally generated Metroid. It's OK to work through and do the motions you've done before, but even if you're new to the series by the time you hit area 4, you must be wondering why on Earth people are praising this for anything but its mind-numbing repetitiveness.

 

It even does the enemy colour-palette swap thing. Multiple times.

 

I truly wasn't expecting to have to write something like this when I finally got hold of the Ice Beam and things started to look up again, but dear lord... I just want this to be over now and replay Fusion or so.

 

AM2R (yes, I know) is a goddamn masterpiece compared to this.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Rudderless]

On 21/09/2017 at 17:11, Sumire said:

I just cannot get on with the controls in this. I find it difficult to fire the rockets for some reason.

 

It doesn't really feel natural to have to hold L and R and then Y to fire while also moving the circle pad to aim. It's four inputs to do what should be a very straightforward thing.

[the_debaser]

Finished it. 

 

Didnt feel like a Metroid game. Far too linear. Still fun though. 

[Alex W.]

I feel like they stuck too close to the original in terms of the size of the game world and the number of Metroids. I’m about half way through and it feels like it’s running out of steam a bit. 

 

I do like using Aeon in combat though. Using the shield as a surrogate health bar and the burst weapon to shorten boss battles feels like it was meant to be necessary. I’m doing a lot less health farming than I used to. 

[Cyhwuhx]

Well, there is one new skill after all...

 

Spoiler

Power Bomb Launching? Will probably get a better name, but in any case: use the Spider Ball to cling to a surface, detonate a Power Bomb and you'll be shot off towards the opposite side of the surface you're clinging to. It's a short-hand Shinespark. Had this happen a few times by accident wondering what went wrong, but hey, in my defence, there weren't any native creatures around to explain it to me.

 

[Alex W.]

Here's a first: I kind of want the game to be over now. :/

[Calashnikov]

Whereas I don't really want it to end

 

Played 5 and a half hours solid today. Nothing better than an all-day descent of isolation down an alien cave on a pishing wet Sunday afternoon.

 

Had the 3D cranked up the whole time today. My eyeballs are throbbing Really don't get the criticisms about the graphics. It perhaps lacks the charm of the traditional 2D pixels, but the environments are pretty stunning. I love how all of the platforms and walls are attached to this entire world that goes into the distance. Very nicely done.

[the_debaser]

38 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

Here's a first: I kind of want the game to be over now. :/

 

Same. I’m tired of fighting the same 3 or 4 enemies over and over again. It’s no Super Metroid, for sure. 

[Cyhwuhx]

 

 

Palate cleanser.

[Nespresso]

Look at that guy with his fancy n3DS.

[Cyhwuhx]

1 minute ago, VN1X said:

Look at that guy with his fancy n3DS.

 

Spoiler

 

[Alex W.]

1 hour ago, Calashnikov said:

Whereas I don't really want it to end

 

Played 5 and a half hours solid today. Nothing better than an all-day descent of isolation down an alien cave on a pishing wet Sunday afternoon.

 

Yesterday I actually got the low battery warning light for the first time ever on my 3DS, so I know where you're coming from. Then the game just kind of flatlined.

 

It needs just about a quarter to a third of the Metroids taking out, and the abilities being arranged so they make some sort of sense or have a pacing or something. I think I got three new powers without a single event of note in between them at one point. There's no music to it.

[Cyhwuhx]

11 hours ago, Alex W. said:

 

Yesterday I actually got the low battery warning light for the first time ever on my 3DS, so I know where you're coming from. Then the game just kind of flatlined.

 

It needs just about a quarter to a third of the Metroids taking out, and the abilities being arranged so they make some sort of sense or have a pacing or something. I think I got three new powers without a single event of note in between them at one point. There's no music to it.

 

Nope, it's the saveloy/frikandel of Metroids so far. It lacks a bit of taste to it, Other M had awesome combat at the very least, this has more 'things' that get in the way and the game is fun despite them being present. There's little there that adds to it to elevate it and that's what turns it longwinded in the end.

 

There are still some great moments waiting for you though. Especially one that is the MSR equivalent of an Echoes-worthy boss battle.

[Alex W.]

Were you talking about...

 

Spoiler

...the big robot? Because that was superb. One of those boss battles where each stage is a solid challenge until you figure it out, then you breeze through that to the next stage on each attempt so it never becomes frustrating. Fantastic little fight.

 

Actually quite looking forward to these last 4 Metroids now.

 

[Cyhwuhx]

9 hours ago, Alex W. said:

Were you talking about...

 

  Hide contents

...the big robot? Because that was superb. One of those boss battles where each stage is a solid challenge until you figure it out, then you breeze through that to the next stage on each attempt so it never becomes frustrating. Fantastic little fight.

 

Actually quite looking forward to these last 4 Metroids now.

 

 

Yup, that one.

Spoiler

Felt like a homage to Quadraxis. Which together with Chykka is still tied for best Prime boss.  

 

[mdn2]

The way this game calculates your completion percentage is strange. This morning I opened up a new area, killed two more Metroids and got a new weapon and my completion percentage didn't increase at all. 

[Dig Dug]

It's measured by ammo and tank collection as the game is supposed to be impossible to beat without all suit powers (then someone found out how to skip a few recently). Metroid Fusion is the same, powers don't contribute to completion as you have to get them.

[Yuujiin]

Can you play this with a circle pro pad attached. As that makes the 3ds quite comfortable to hold for me.

[Alex W.]

I was going to post about how the new energy system really gives you interesting boss battle options but instead I’m scratching my head as to why it doesn’t just toggle each ability when you press that d-pad direction. Why is “A” used?

[Dig Dug]

They probably found people were accidentally hitting up on the d pad when sliding the circle pad down in testing or something.

[the_debaser]

16 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

I was going to post about how the new energy system really gives you interesting boss battle options but instead I’m scratching my head as to why it doesn’t just toggle each ability when you press that d-pad direction. Why is “A” used?

 

Because sometimes you want to use abilities at the same time.