AM2R: Return of Samus

released on Aug 06, 2016

AM2R, short for Another Metroid 2 Remake, is an action-adventure video game developed by Milton Guasti under the pseudonym DoctorM64, and released in August 2016 for Microsoft Windows, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Metroid series. It is an unofficial, enhanced remake of Nintendo's Game Boy game Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991), borrowing the art style and overall feeling of the Game Boy Advance game Metroid: Zero Mission (2004). Shortly after the game's release, Nintendo sent DMCA notices to websites hosting AM2R; download links to the game were removed from its official website, but Guasti said that he still planned to continue working on the game privately. In September 2016, Guasti ended the development of AM2R after he received a DMCA takedown request from Nintendo. The game follows Samus Aran, who aims to eradicate the parasitic Metroids from their home planet SR388. It includes several new features, including redone graphics and music, a map system, and new areas and minibosses. The controls were changed to be less "floaty", in line with the gameplay of later titles in the series. Video game journalists appreciated the game, frequently calling it impressive and commenting on the improved visuals compared to those of the original Metroid II, although one thought the conditions required to win battles against Metroids were too specific considering how often they occur. The game was nominated for The Game Awards 2016, but was later removed from the nominations page without notice.


Reviews View More

Playing this soured me on the original forever.

for such an oddball game as Metroid 2, this remake absolutely succeeds at preserving the original’s charm while making it generally more fun and polished. what’s really admirable, though, is how AM2R still has an identity all its own. the graphical shaders, sprites, music, and all-around vibe find themselves rooted in the GBA Metroid titles but ultimately leaning towards something more like Terraria, an angle that you’d likely never get from an official Nintendo product. Metroid Prime-style logs are added, slotting the game into the existing lore of the series even better, there are tons of options from difficulty to aesthetic, endings have several unique pieces of art depending on your performance like the GBA games before them… in terms of flaws, yes, it does introduce some slightly irritating darkness sections and Metroid fights can become repetitive as in the Game Boy game, but it really is such a meticulously crafted fan work, and one that deserves to be celebrated.

Amazing remake of a meh game. Nintendo couldn't if they tried, and they proved it.

this is like top 3 nintendo and its not even by nintendo! OMG! the movement is so freeing, the dash and the screw attack make me (samus) feel in complete mastery of my domain. The dash is easier to use and better implemented here than it was in zero mission, and much better than in prime (it wasnt in prime) backtracking here isn't a problem because you could be across the map in 20 seconds. But there really is not much backtracking here at all. You COULD backtrack, but every area feels very separate and distinct. Once you're done with one, you go onto the next. All the times i was lost and decided to backtrack, every single locked door that i now had access to just led to missile upgrades or something, not much progression or whatever. Progression in this game goes like this: u go into an area, this area has a set amount of metroids. You kill them all, then an earthquake happens and it drains some lava so you can go there and go to the next area to kill the next area's metroids. On the one hand, the metroid killing objective always gives u some kind of direction, it feels cooler than just being there “to kill the space pirates” cus your goal being destroying an invasive species before it inevitably consumes every ecosystem in the galaxy is cold as fuck. On the other, it makes everything feel segmented and further disincentivizes backtracking. Which could be a plus? I mean, I really enjoyed this setup. It felt a little linear, I guess, but I liked it. I understand both sides but i'm leaning more towards cool. If you read my zero mission review you know how much I loved fighting the metroids in that game. Each one needing the specific method to be defeated and how relentless they were in both movement and numbers made them such fun enemies. In this, there's "evolved" metroids which.. yeah, took another approach which I didn't appreciate nearly as much. But hey, at least zero mission metroids are still in this game. Doesn't excuse the boring and monotonous bullet sponge evolved metroid fights in this. Oh well. In other news, the rest of the bosses in this game are beautiful. Gone are the giant stationary dudes with one weakness!!! these bosses take full advantage of your mobility, they don't just test your ability to measure how short of a jump you need to shoot your missile at their weak point, you gotta do other cool stuff too that I don't wanna spoil. The final boss? boom? u guys know what im talking about. this guy gets it. Now, I was really close to giving this a 5/5. And the hesitation is what took it down to a 4 and a half. I just thought you guys should know I considered it. I'm really excited to play super metroid next, because apparently that's the videogame to end all videogames. So far i've been very impressed with the metroid series. And to all my vampire the masquerade bloodline awaiters, I will finish that game too. Give me time! Im doing malkavian so it takes me 20 minutes to respond to each dialogue choice.

The best feeling Metroid I've played so far, with also featuring some great bosses (the unique fights). Calling this fangame "impressive" leaves it short, but I'm not rating it as high as Super just by the fact that this is still a Metroid 2 remake. Inherently the story, repeat bosses (even more here actually), and level progression are still untouched from the original, so that brings it down a little. But if you enjoyed Zero Mission, you'll probably like AM2R even more, at least the gameplay side of it.