Metroid: Samus Returns

[scottcr]

1 hour ago, sid said:

This is one of the best designed games I’ve ever played, especially from all the non gameplay bits. Map is excellent. Check pointing is excellent. General map design is very well judged. Visual clues as to what to look at on screen, excellent. For what is a very complicated set of capabilities, control system is superb.

 

I bounce off games easily but this is sucking me in. It is completely immersive.

 

I wish more games had this level of non ‘core’ game design attached to them.

 

then the production values on graphics, sound, enemy types etc……just absolutely superb.

 

if this isn’t game of the year then we are in For a great year 👍

suspect you're talking about Dread...

 

Samus Returns was good, but it's no where near as good as Dread.

[MikeBeaver]

2 hours ago, Droo said:

here’s me thinking you were coming to rescue me with a reasonable price!

If I still had my opened copy, I'd have offered you that at a reasonable price, unfortunately, once I had plundered a few ( 5 I believe, sorry ) from Argos, I shifted the opened one and stuffed the others in the pile of sealed 3DS titles to await the retro inflation in 10 years time, didn't think they'd get pricey THIS bloody quick!

[Droo]

14 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

If I still had my opened copy, I'd have offered you that at a reasonable price, unfortunately, once I had plundered a few ( 5 I believe, sorry ) from Argos, I shifted the opened one and stuffed the others in the pile of sealed 3DS titles to await the retro inflation in 10 years time, didn't think they'd get pricey THIS bloody quick!

consummate businessman. 
 

no worries. The search continues. 

[MikeBeaver]

36 minutes ago, Droo said:

consummate businessman. 
 

no worries. The search continues. 

Guess you could always do what Polygon suggested, and "borrow" it 😛

[Droo]

35 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

Guess you could always do what Polygon suggested, and "borrow" it 😛

my days of piracy are long over. 

[Cyhwuhx]

2 hours ago, scottcr said:

suspect you're talking about Dread...

 

Samus Returns was good, but it's no where near as good as Dread.

 

I am Cyhwuhx and I approve of this message.

[bear]

Up to the final boss now and it's not great. Seems a bit like they included that baddie just because it's a Metroid game so of course they had to show up. Maybe it's just my shitty eyes but I'm also finding the darker parts of the boss bleeds into the grey greenish background. I've found the same thing happening while fighting metroids in lava areas.

 

The boss fights in general have been underwhelming. I'm assuming the 40 metroid thing is an element taken from the Game Boy game but it feels like padding here. Fighting a new form of Metroid is interesting, repeating the same fight multiple times is just dull. 

 

While I'm complaining I might as well say a lot of the hidden items/expansions could have been cut as well. There are too many missile expansion packs in the game for them to be meaningful. It's entirely that other games have spoilt me by being overly generous but it felt like getting all 80 missile expansions should have unlocked some sort of reward. Giving Samus infinite missiles at that point would have made no real difference to the game but it would have been something. 

 

[Alex W.]

Yeah, the number of Metroids is the same as in the original GB game. In that, you could just get good enough at the fights to basically clear the Metroids out of the way in a few tens of seconds, turning them from mini-bosses in to regular enemies; in Samus Returns they decided to make them deeper and more complicated fights which doesn't really work with the number of them you have to do.

 

Well worth visiting the original GB game by the way, it's got a really unique atmosphere.

[Protocol Penguin]

 

1 hour ago, Alex W. said:

Well worth visiting the original GB game by the way, it's got a really unique atmosphere.

It’s generally rather overlooked, that one. The magazines of the time weren’t particularly interested in it, as the original wasn’t known over here, and it gained limited retroactive recognition after Super Metroid took people by surprise.

[bear]

And done. 

 

Using the armour ability on the last boss definitely helps as being able to take a few extra hits gives you a better chance to learn the later attack patterns. It isn't a hard battle once you recognise the attack patterns but I still think the choice of colours for the background and the boss could have been better. 

 

 

The post-credits scene showing one of the X for the first time is neat considering what little I know about the story in Dread. Also, was this release the first game where they explained that the Metroids had been created by the Chozo? 

[Cyhwuhx]

That was Metroid Fusion. Fusion also had a little blurb in the manual explaining that “metroid” meant “ultimate warrior” to the Chozo.

[bear]

Bah, stuff in manuals doesn't count. 😛

[Cyhwuhx]

6 minutes ago, bear said:

Bah, stuff in manuals doesn't count. 😛

 

It's in the game/Dread now.

[Colonel Panic]

I started playing this right after Dread (which I enjoyed very much). It’s interesting going back to this. I played it for 3 hours in 2017 and don’t even remember why I stopped. 
 

Fighting Metroids over and over isn’t as good as the excellent Dread bosses, but they serve a purpose. 
 

The game has some great use of 3D environments too. I can’t tolerate 3D mode for too long on my original 3DS for this sort of game, but it looks really good too!

[gizmo1990]

18 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

The game has some great use of 3D environments too. I can’t tolerate 3D mode for too long on my original 3DS for this sort of game, but it looks really good too!

 

If you get the chance, pick up a new 3ds. The 3d difference is night and day from the originals. In fact I'd go as far as to say it's pretty much perfect. If the original had launched with it, it would have been an even bigger success than it was. Still wish the Switch had 3d.

[Steven]

On 27/10/2021 at 10:48, Droo said:

consummate businessman. 
 

no worries. The search continues. 

 

  If you can't get it at a really reasonable price, you're not missing out on a great deal - I think you may be disappointed when you actually get to play it.

[Colonel Panic]

1 hour ago, gizmo1990 said:

 

If you get the chance, pick up a new 3ds. The 3d difference is night and day from the originals. In fact I'd go as far as to say it's pretty much perfect. If the original had launched with it, it would have been an even bigger success than it was. Still wish the Switch had 3d.

Yeah, I keep meaning to upgrade! All my games are US though, which complicates where I source one from in these new times of expensive shipping and customs charges. 

[MikeBeaver]

2 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

Yeah, I keep meaning to upgrade! All my games are US though, which complicates where I source one from in these new times of expensive shipping and customs charges. 

Just stick custom firmware on it, then all your cartidge games will work, DLC will be out of bounds though, unless you find it on the high seas, as although cfw allows the use of games from any region, you're still locked into the eshop of the target device.

[Colonel Panic]

@MikeBeaver - Last time I looked into this, it seemed to be limited to certain OS versions. Can any New 3DS be exploited to run CFW?

[MikeBeaver]

16 minutes ago, Colonel Panic said:

@MikeBeaver - Last time I looked into this, it seemed to be limited to certain OS versions. Can any New 3DS be exploited to run CFW?

Yep, right up to the latest version, the method changes depending on your current fw, but all are exploitable, I recently stuck my Metroid Samus Returns  N3DS XL on Luma

[Colonel Panic]

I'm still playing and enjoying this. I've got 4 Metroids left to kill and just took out the big digger boss.

 

There's not many slots left on the equipment screen either so I guess I'm nearly done.

 

I've come across some new Metroid types that pack a bit more of a punch, I'm guessing that's going to continue. 

[Colonel Panic]

Finished in just over 13 hours. The final boss ended up being a bit of a difficulty spike for me, mainly because it felt like a bit of a bullet sponge and it was easy to lose huge chunks of health as time went on.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed the game. Not as much as Dread, but it has some great moments for sure.

[Ninja Doctor]

So is the forum consensus that this is worth a punt but not at an inflated price? I realised I’d never played this one.

 

secondly, did anyone play it on the slab type 2ds? Did it work ok?

[Steven]

I think if you're coming in to this after Dread, you'll be pretty bummed out at what you get. It's alright - but that's it.

[Ninja Doctor]

I’ll keep an eye out for a reasonably priced copy then. 

[Ninja Doctor]

So a reasonably priced copy accidentally fell out of the internet and into my recently acquired and hacked 2ds. 
 

Im quite enjoying it. Finally got the hang of the free aim. Ability wise I’ve got spider ball and lightning armour and am ploughing through the third area taking down metroids like Russian air assets. However it feels different to the 2D metroids. Can’t quite explain it, not necessarily worse just different. 
 

i think it’ll be a good primer before jumping into Dread after this. 

[Popo]

Any tips for reasonably priced copies, @Ninja Doctor? I’m probably willing to pay the £40 eShop price, but if it can be had for less, even better. 

[MikeBeaver]

25 minutes ago, Popo said:

Any tips for reasonably priced copies, @Ninja Doctor? I’m probably willing to pay the £40 eShop price, but if it can be had for less, even better. 

I think his "reasonable" price invold the High Sea, but if you're after physical, Amazon have it around £45, new, think Nintendo have been reprinting a bunch of games.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metroid-Samus-Returns-Nintendo-3DS/dp/B072X4S43N/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3TP2JFU4NDB2Y&keywords=samus+returns&qid=1650488467&sprefix=samus+retu%2Caps%2C2156&sr=8-1

[Ninja Doctor]

Yarrrr! 
 

i did see a copy in CEX today which was also £45. You can get it a bit cheaper on eBay if you bide your time. 
 

Or you can be a filthy pirate scum and download a cia file from archive.org and install it on your luma hacked machine via FBI. Apparently. 

[Ninja Doctor]

And final boss defeated. A bit of a lazy shoehorning in my opinion. 
 

So I have really enjoyed this. Once I had almost all the abilities you can really get fluid zipping about the maps. The new Aeion abilities are a good addition. I particularly liked the radar one. Very helpful. Some interesting puzzles to get all the items. Took me far to long to figure out the super bomb + spider ball fast travel. 
 

If I had one complaint I would say some of the boss fights went on too long, especially the very last one. It was a case of “why won’t you stay down!?!” Total time 16h 14m, item 100%. 

 

If you lot say this is merely quite good compared to Dread I’m in for a treat once I finally start it properly. (Got Halo infinite queued up next - trying to play down my backlog). 
 

My rating: A solid 9/10. Not as good as Super Metroid but easily on a par with Fusion and Zero Mission.