Metroid: Samus Returns

[Popo]

I got a reasonably priced copy a little while back and am now Spider Balls-deep. It’s really, really good! I find it hard to put the 3DS down - usually I stop because the battery has run down yet again. 
 

Having played Dread already, it’s clear to see all the building blocks of that game were present here back in 2017 - I’m thinking of the counters and the finger gymnastics required to pull off certain actions (although interestingly the grapple beam is much more streamlined and elegant here). 
 

The introduction of the slide in Dread was transformational, and any pre-Dread Metroid is going to lack speed and flow without it, which is the case here - but it’s still a topmost Metroid game by any measure (purists notwithstanding).

 

I’m on Area 4 and had no idea you could counter the Metroids! I’ve been blasting them with ice beam and rockets the whole game. 

[Popo]

Also - the multi-room Metroid battles feel like where the idea of the EMMI battles in Dread might have originated. The idea that there are whole chunks of the map given over to just battling a single enemy seems to have its roots here. 

[Popo]

One thing Mercury Steam are not brilliant at is the music; like Dread, there’s nothing very exciting here. A shortcoming that’s only emphasised when the Lower Norfair and Brinstar music turns up later on, and you suddenly realise you’re tapping your foot, bopping your head and rocking the absolute fuck out to a couple of old school bangers. 

[DeDeDe]

@Popo The odd thing about the soundtrack is that it’s the only thing that Mercury Steam did not have a hand in: it was composed/arranged in-house by Daisuke Matsuoka and produced by Kenji Yamamoto (Super Metroid). I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it’s possible that for many people Samus Returns was the first time to hear many of the classic Metroid tunes. On the other hand, it feels like as the series has expanded in scope and mechanics, the soundscape has suffered.

 

So, basically, soundtrack-wise: Metroid (FDS) > Metroid II (GB), Super Metroid > all subsequent Metroid games

[Popo]

I would agree with that, although my own Metroid journey began with Prime, which I think is just as good as Super; but the general trend is down, for sure. 

[Phantoon]

1 hour ago, DeDeDe said:

So, basically, soundtrack-wise: Metroid (FDS) > Metroid II (GB), Super Metroid > all subsequent Metroid games

I can't agree with that at all

Super > Prime > Prime 2 > Prime 3 > Metroid > Zero Mission > Fusion > other Metroids >>>> Other M

 

Metroid 2 (and likely Samus Returns) is a bit weird because it's ambient. So it's good, but not exactly something you'd whistle

[DeDeDe]

@Phantoon That was one thing I found really disappointing about Samus Returns—with so many remixes and reused pieces from earlier games, it didn’t have a musical personality of its own, and at the same time it featured so much music that it lost the original eerie atmosphere of the original GB game.

[Klatrymadon]

Metroid 2's music has to be understood primarily as a horror soundtrack, imo, and it's one of the most effective ones the medium has ever had. Samus Returns wasn't content to let that music exist as the monotonous, minimalistic, insect-legs-on-a-digital-keyboard avant-garde weirdness that it was, though, and chose instead to hammer it all into more familiarly 'creepy' and 'evil'-sounding fare. In everything from its soundtrack and its approach to level design and combat to its heavy-handed treatment of the story, it's clear that Samus Returns is a remake by and for people who accept the boring conventional wisdom that Metroid 2 was bad and a mistake, so that there was nothing to live up to other than to bang out another oatmeal Metroid.

[Phantoon]

Samus Returns is a great game, but a really bad remake of Return of Samus.

[Popo]

Another trait shared between Samus Returns and Dread - absolutely solid bosses that seem unbeatable at first, until you learn their patterns and work out how to overcome. 
 

I’m now squaring off against the big driller robot and getting absolutely mullered. 

[Ninja Doctor]

That driller robot was the bane of my playthrough. 

[Popo]

I can get him to the third phase, then he stops giving me any openings to attack. I have no idea what to do. Fucker!

 

Edit - I figured it out! Now I just need to stay alive long enough to kill him…

[Popo]

Finally! I had to use YouTube to understand how to deal the finishing blow, because I wasn’t doing it from the start again. I didn’t realise that

 

Spoiler

You can stick to any of those three weak spots in his drill head even while he’s electrified - which I needed to do while I waited for the weak spot to align properly. 

 

What an ordeal. 
 

Spoiler

 

[Popo]

I’ve now gotten all the upgrades and have taken down the penultimate Metroid, but was still unclear on how to traverse the numerous spike traps there are dotted around. Having now Googled the answer I have to say - not impressed. The game never teaches this technique, and it’s kind of a bummer that I wasn’t able to figure it out by myself. 
 

Anyway, time to go back and get all the locked away upgrades before moving on to the endgame. 

[Popo]

Fuck me, I accidentally triggered the fight with

 

Spoiler

Ridley

 

before getting all the hidden upgrades. That’s a very tough fight! And when you die, you go right back to the start of the fight! I am not looking forward to this…

[Ninja Doctor]

6 hours ago, Popo said:

I’ve now gotten all the upgrades and have taken down the penultimate Metroid, but was still unclear on how to traverse the numerous spike traps there are dotted around. Having now Googled the answer I have to say - not impressed. The game never teaches this technique, and it’s kind of a bummer that I wasn’t able to figure it out by myself. 
 

Anyway, time to go back and get all the locked away upgrades before moving on to the endgame. 

Yeah I only came across that trick on a video. I think it’s pretty nifty but would have been good to have had it teased like they did with spark jump and wall jump in super. 

[Popo]

And done! 100%, and the final boss went down easier than I feared, given my unexpected earlier run-in. By no means a pushover though - it was frequently challenging, finding the right balance in the way that Dread also achieved. Honestly, I’m just amazed at how good a job Mercury Steam did at making a Metroid game at the first time of asking. Brilliant brilliant brilliant.