Samus Returns misunderstands what Metroid 2 is on a fundamental level and tries to fix problems that didn’t exist in the original, resulting in a game where Samus swashbuckles through xenocide in heavily gamified tunnels.
Finally went back for the 100% before Metroid Dread. Pretty much as beautiful and engaging as I remember it, and the added difficulty with Hard mode this run was much needed. Still, the “endgame” for hopeful 100%-ers—rounding up all the items that were previously locked behind walls that are now open—is a drag and highlights my main problem with most games in the series: why are there this many expansions to find and just WHEN am I gonna need all these damn missiles anyway???
Next time I’ll go for Fusion mode.
Next time I’ll go for Fusion mode.
Congratulations, Samus Returns. You're the first 3DS game to ever give me hand cramps.
The atmosphere is on point, and the soundtrack is great, but that's where the stringless positives end. It's just too painful trying to play the game with a circle pad. The lack of shinespark especially holds back both movement and puzzles. I know it's hilarious to suggest, but I think we might need yet Another Metroid 2 Remake for the game to reach its full potential. This time with better controls, less bosses, better pacing, shinespark included and some way for the baby metroid to not unlock half the game's collectibles at the 11th hour.
I did have fun overall, but I'm never going to replay it and I'm not going to recommend it or any other version of Metroid 2 to anyone.
The atmosphere is on point, and the soundtrack is great, but that's where the stringless positives end. It's just too painful trying to play the game with a circle pad. The lack of shinespark especially holds back both movement and puzzles. I know it's hilarious to suggest, but I think we might need yet Another Metroid 2 Remake for the game to reach its full potential. This time with better controls, less bosses, better pacing, shinespark included and some way for the baby metroid to not unlock half the game's collectibles at the 11th hour.
I did have fun overall, but I'm never going to replay it and I'm not going to recommend it or any other version of Metroid 2 to anyone.
buy it, and then play AM2R
Playing dread really takes the steam outta this one ngl.
Metroidvanias are not really my type of genre, but there was something that clicked with me in this game that made it amazing.
The graphic style was really captivating. Having a dark moody atmosphere but also had a variety of colours and differing environments made the the game so engaging.
I loved, loved, loved the combat! You basically can take a parry melee hit when an enemy is attacking and can blast them when they are stunned. It never got old. The metroids vary in size and skills and have a decent variety of attack pattern. My favorate part is when you parry, climb on top of them and give a metroid a good dose of missiles down their throat, gives that, 'take this!' feeling when you fist pump.
The levels are well made and the upgrades are relevant and honestly, pretty cool.
The main issues I have (although minor) is the levels can be long and doesn't it make it clear if you need to break a block to progress. I don't want a huge display, but a signal on what is destructible and what is not as I did get lost or spend awhile stuck looking for one block to progress which can be frustrating, a slightly different colour of texture is all.
The story is kinda paper thin, if there was more to explain the purpose of the mission would give a higher motivation t the cause of the game. Another issue I had was it can be a difficult game.
The challenge for me was kinda tough but rewarding. This if Shovel Knight difficulty. I bought this for my 10 year old son and he struggled past Zone 3. If there was a more accessible mode it would be great. Otherwise I can see how this was the best game for 2017 on the 3DS that pays respects to the classic Metroid games in the past.
I got lost a couple of times and therefore took me about 13 hours to finish due to being not the most hardened veterians of the genre. if you like a challenge and the genre you must go and scout this game out.
The graphic style was really captivating. Having a dark moody atmosphere but also had a variety of colours and differing environments made the the game so engaging.
I loved, loved, loved the combat! You basically can take a parry melee hit when an enemy is attacking and can blast them when they are stunned. It never got old. The metroids vary in size and skills and have a decent variety of attack pattern. My favorate part is when you parry, climb on top of them and give a metroid a good dose of missiles down their throat, gives that, 'take this!' feeling when you fist pump.
The levels are well made and the upgrades are relevant and honestly, pretty cool.
The main issues I have (although minor) is the levels can be long and doesn't it make it clear if you need to break a block to progress. I don't want a huge display, but a signal on what is destructible and what is not as I did get lost or spend awhile stuck looking for one block to progress which can be frustrating, a slightly different colour of texture is all.
The story is kinda paper thin, if there was more to explain the purpose of the mission would give a higher motivation t the cause of the game. Another issue I had was it can be a difficult game.
The challenge for me was kinda tough but rewarding. This if Shovel Knight difficulty. I bought this for my 10 year old son and he struggled past Zone 3. If there was a more accessible mode it would be great. Otherwise I can see how this was the best game for 2017 on the 3DS that pays respects to the classic Metroid games in the past.
I got lost a couple of times and therefore took me about 13 hours to finish due to being not the most hardened veterians of the genre. if you like a challenge and the genre you must go and scout this game out.
Played for a while, but never finished, on account of losing access to my 3DS. Not sure if I'll be able to play it ever again, but I might try Metroid Dread on Switch if I'm feeling up to it.
played this on and off for a few years. somehow, while it's fun in the moment, i forget getting back to it. and then a year later it's all about learning the moveset over again. guess i'll finish it in a few years.
Meh remake of a meh game. Thanks for trying.
just play am2r dawg
The 30 fps ruined the game for me. I can see the good game behind the poor performance but it just makes the game hard to control and therefore not very fun.
This game is kind of too long but at least the entire game felt fun to play. The first couple areas can be a bit boring but once you start getting more upgrades it becomes really fun. I don't like how we have to fight like 40 Metroids as mini-bosses throughout the entire game. I understand why we do for story reasons, but there had to be a better way to do that without having repeat bosses in a 10+ hour game for a first time player.
I feel like I enjoyed this game more than most. More of a reboot of Metroid 2 than a remake, especially after playing Dread does it become clear how this is essentially just a prequel to that game above all else. The gameplay is pretty great, I love the combat (melee counter mostly) and the bosses are pretty fun. I also really enjoyed a lot of the new additions, especially the new final boss... The soundtrack was quite lacking though, a theme which unfortunately continues in Metroid Dread.
MERCURY STEAM HQ, 2015:
“Alright team, time to plan this Metroid II remake. And I want to say up front: there’s no bad ideas in brainstorming! So, what‘s on your mind?”
“Hmm…well first, how about we make the game look like dogshit? Just real gross. Muddy colors, weird blurry lighting and totally indistinct area themes. I want the player to feel totally lost in an endless maze of poop caves. And while we’re at it, since past Metroid games did such a good job immersing the player in their worlds, what if for this one we took the opposite approach. Shoot for a really unconvincing 2.5D aesthetic with incredibly blocky level design, that way the player is constantly reminded they’re playing a game. Like, the monochrome Gameboy original should feel more immersive than this.”
“That’s brilliant, Dave. Sarah, you had your hand up?”
“Yeah well I was just thinking, what if we made the level design like, way worse? Metroid II split its map into these open, easy-to-digest chunks that have aged pretty well all things considered. So why not throw all that bullshit in the trash and replace it for something really cramped and labyrinthine? Just really arduous to navigate, make exploring feel like a hassle. Maybe instead of interesting power-up gating we also could just fill the map with power bomb tiles, so exploration just becomes a dull game of spamming the scan pulse every few steps.”
“I like where your head is at, Sarah. Who else?”
“Well while we’re talking about the original, I’ve been looking at some reviews and it seems like a common complaint with that game was that the Metroid boss fights got kind of monotonous after a while. So I was thinking—and hear me out on this one—what if we made each Metroid encounter take like twice as long? And not because it’s any more engaging or anything, just way more tedious. Like, half of their new attacks make them invincible so most of the fight is just running around wasting missiles while you wait for an opening. And then make the player do that 50 times. Maybe instead of having them ambush you in interesting locations we could also just place each one in a big game-y boss arena and give the player a grating beeping notification every time they’re near one. You know, that way they never feel any sense of surprise or any illusion this is a believable fragile ecosystem and not a checklist of Goombas for them to stop. It’s not like that’s thematically important to Metroid II or anything.”
“Goddamnit Brian, you’re a loose cannon, but maybe that’s just exactly we need for this project. What next?”
“Well, grinding for health and ammo was always really annoying in previous games. So let’s exhaust that by really spreading out the recharge stations. That way if you need a refill after a boss you have to run around the entire area. Oh, and then let’s make enemies not always respawn when you leave a room, so when you inevitably do have to farm it’s super inconvenient. Fuck it, let’s even add a third type of meter while we’re at it to triple the grinding!”
“I’m gonna be honest Larry I didn’t 100% make out what you said because I was doing coke off Brian’s desk, but fuckin sure dude put it in the game!”
“Hey boss, I was just replaying the GBA games and noticed how fluid their combat felt. So I was thinking for our game we could add this melee counter move to really fuck up the pacing. That way instead of being able to quickly move and shoot your way through enemies, every single goddamn one requires you to stop in your tracks and wait for their attack animation to start so you can do your stupid fucking parry move. Y’know, that way the movement and exploration never get too exciting. Wouldn’t want that in a Metroid game! Then let’s make every enemy have a ton of health when you try to kill them without the parry so players are locked into having to play this way. And—what the hell—let’s not improve enemy variety at all, so you’re stuck seeing the same 20 or so guys without any change in strategy the whole time.”
“Leslie, you son of a bitch. I think you’ve just cracked this thing wide open. In fact, I’m giving you a raise and some of this desk cocaine.”
Did not complete
“Alright team, time to plan this Metroid II remake. And I want to say up front: there’s no bad ideas in brainstorming! So, what‘s on your mind?”
“Hmm…well first, how about we make the game look like dogshit? Just real gross. Muddy colors, weird blurry lighting and totally indistinct area themes. I want the player to feel totally lost in an endless maze of poop caves. And while we’re at it, since past Metroid games did such a good job immersing the player in their worlds, what if for this one we took the opposite approach. Shoot for a really unconvincing 2.5D aesthetic with incredibly blocky level design, that way the player is constantly reminded they’re playing a game. Like, the monochrome Gameboy original should feel more immersive than this.”
“That’s brilliant, Dave. Sarah, you had your hand up?”
“Yeah well I was just thinking, what if we made the level design like, way worse? Metroid II split its map into these open, easy-to-digest chunks that have aged pretty well all things considered. So why not throw all that bullshit in the trash and replace it for something really cramped and labyrinthine? Just really arduous to navigate, make exploring feel like a hassle. Maybe instead of interesting power-up gating we also could just fill the map with power bomb tiles, so exploration just becomes a dull game of spamming the scan pulse every few steps.”
“I like where your head is at, Sarah. Who else?”
“Well while we’re talking about the original, I’ve been looking at some reviews and it seems like a common complaint with that game was that the Metroid boss fights got kind of monotonous after a while. So I was thinking—and hear me out on this one—what if we made each Metroid encounter take like twice as long? And not because it’s any more engaging or anything, just way more tedious. Like, half of their new attacks make them invincible so most of the fight is just running around wasting missiles while you wait for an opening. And then make the player do that 50 times. Maybe instead of having them ambush you in interesting locations we could also just place each one in a big game-y boss arena and give the player a grating beeping notification every time they’re near one. You know, that way they never feel any sense of surprise or any illusion this is a believable fragile ecosystem and not a checklist of Goombas for them to stop. It’s not like that’s thematically important to Metroid II or anything.”
“Goddamnit Brian, you’re a loose cannon, but maybe that’s just exactly we need for this project. What next?”
“Well, grinding for health and ammo was always really annoying in previous games. So let’s exhaust that by really spreading out the recharge stations. That way if you need a refill after a boss you have to run around the entire area. Oh, and then let’s make enemies not always respawn when you leave a room, so when you inevitably do have to farm it’s super inconvenient. Fuck it, let’s even add a third type of meter while we’re at it to triple the grinding!”
“I’m gonna be honest Larry I didn’t 100% make out what you said because I was doing coke off Brian’s desk, but fuckin sure dude put it in the game!”
“Hey boss, I was just replaying the GBA games and noticed how fluid their combat felt. So I was thinking for our game we could add this melee counter move to really fuck up the pacing. That way instead of being able to quickly move and shoot your way through enemies, every single goddamn one requires you to stop in your tracks and wait for their attack animation to start so you can do your stupid fucking parry move. Y’know, that way the movement and exploration never get too exciting. Wouldn’t want that in a Metroid game! Then let’s make every enemy have a ton of health when you try to kill them without the parry so players are locked into having to play this way. And—what the hell—let’s not improve enemy variety at all, so you’re stuck seeing the same 20 or so guys without any change in strategy the whole time.”
“Leslie, you son of a bitch. I think you’ve just cracked this thing wide open. In fact, I’m giving you a raise and some of this desk cocaine.”
Did not complete
kind of fun as shit
From a gameplay standpoint it's a fine update to Metroid 2, but feels slower and clumsier than Fusion or Zero Mission did. Especially with the addition of Aeon Abilities that adds what feels like another unnecessary resource into the game and the melee counter attack, which halts Samus in place while using it and devolves a lot of the combat into waiting on enemies to do their very obviously telegraphed attack that allows you to insta-kill them and then your encounters with anything that isn't a boss becomes robotic and boring.
I'm mixed on the presentation. On one hand, I appreciate the soundtrack being reasonably faithful to the original; really atmospheric and unsettling tracks. But then it throws in random remixes from other game like Ridley's lair and Red-soil Brinstar and man. Remember when Ridley's lair was a cool track hyping up your approach to Ridley, it got brought back in Prime 1 as a nice simple callback, and here it's been reduced to "Fire level music". Jesus.
The backgrounds on their own are nice looking, but they really undercut the tension of Metroid 2 because of how brightly lit and visibly teeming with life they are. Metroid 2 is one of the mainstream Nintendo games with THE most rancid vibes ever and it feels off that a remake of it sticks in a giant fungus forest for no reason.
Speaking undercutting the tension, remember how in Metroid 2, it's just a constant decent deeper and deeper into a cave system, a linear trek downwards to a point where you can't help but think "wow I am really deep underground at this point, when the hell am I ever going to see the surface again?" Well, they stuck teleport stations in so you can just zap back to the surface whenever it's convenient to you. Yay.
And y'know, Metroid 2 is not a glorious game. You're almost basically doing a villain's dirty work by going to a planet to wipe out all of a species by some vague metric of them being "too capable of being used as bioweapons". And it felt very purposeful that killing a Metroid in the original game hardly ever felt gratifying. And that hits especially hard in a post-Fusion world where we see the consequences of Samus' actions, cause it turns out playing god and killing an entire species because they're too inconvenient isn't a very good idea because it can fuck the ecosystem up to a catastrophic degree. So it then feels RIDICULOUSLY tone deaf for Samus Returns here to have all these glory kill cutscenes against these things like it's trying to sell us on how cool Samus' job is.
And as if that wasn't enough, it completely butchers the ending. Like, Metroid 2's ending stands out because pretty much every other Metroid game ends on some big, climactic setpiece, escape sequence or not. Metroid 2 instead has you quietly take the baby Metroid back to the surface, in an almost somber and reflective manner. You just murdered this species out of existence when it's just an animal all the same as anything else. Is what you just did right? Or does it just make you as much a cold killer as the ones supposedly posing to use Metroids as weapons?
That's too lame for us gamers, gotta take the baby Metroid around the world to go 100% the game and then fight a boss because we need a big red arrow pointing at the REAL bad guy in this situation. Bllllluuuuuuuugh.
I like this game in the end, it's not like my mountain of problems with it makes it unplayable. But look at this game and all the missed potential and feel very :/
I'm mixed on the presentation. On one hand, I appreciate the soundtrack being reasonably faithful to the original; really atmospheric and unsettling tracks. But then it throws in random remixes from other game like Ridley's lair and Red-soil Brinstar and man. Remember when Ridley's lair was a cool track hyping up your approach to Ridley, it got brought back in Prime 1 as a nice simple callback, and here it's been reduced to "Fire level music". Jesus.
The backgrounds on their own are nice looking, but they really undercut the tension of Metroid 2 because of how brightly lit and visibly teeming with life they are. Metroid 2 is one of the mainstream Nintendo games with THE most rancid vibes ever and it feels off that a remake of it sticks in a giant fungus forest for no reason.
Speaking undercutting the tension, remember how in Metroid 2, it's just a constant decent deeper and deeper into a cave system, a linear trek downwards to a point where you can't help but think "wow I am really deep underground at this point, when the hell am I ever going to see the surface again?" Well, they stuck teleport stations in so you can just zap back to the surface whenever it's convenient to you. Yay.
And y'know, Metroid 2 is not a glorious game. You're almost basically doing a villain's dirty work by going to a planet to wipe out all of a species by some vague metric of them being "too capable of being used as bioweapons". And it felt very purposeful that killing a Metroid in the original game hardly ever felt gratifying. And that hits especially hard in a post-Fusion world where we see the consequences of Samus' actions, cause it turns out playing god and killing an entire species because they're too inconvenient isn't a very good idea because it can fuck the ecosystem up to a catastrophic degree. So it then feels RIDICULOUSLY tone deaf for Samus Returns here to have all these glory kill cutscenes against these things like it's trying to sell us on how cool Samus' job is.
And as if that wasn't enough, it completely butchers the ending. Like, Metroid 2's ending stands out because pretty much every other Metroid game ends on some big, climactic setpiece, escape sequence or not. Metroid 2 instead has you quietly take the baby Metroid back to the surface, in an almost somber and reflective manner. You just murdered this species out of existence when it's just an animal all the same as anything else. Is what you just did right? Or does it just make you as much a cold killer as the ones supposedly posing to use Metroids as weapons?
That's too lame for us gamers, gotta take the baby Metroid around the world to go 100% the game and then fight a boss because we need a big red arrow pointing at the REAL bad guy in this situation. Bllllluuuuuuuugh.
I like this game in the end, it's not like my mountain of problems with it makes it unplayable. But look at this game and all the missed potential and feel very :/
Finally went back for the 100% before Metroid Dread. Pretty much as beautiful and engaging as I remember it, and the added difficulty with Hard mode this run was much needed. Still, the “endgame” for hopeful 100%-ers—rounding up all the items that were previously locked behind walls that are now open—is a drag and highlights my main problem with most games in the series: why are there this many expansions to find and just WHEN am I gonna need all these damn missiles anyway???
Next time I’ll go for Fusion mode.
Next time I’ll go for Fusion mode.
كنت العبها قبل ما اروح اصلي صلاة العيد مع ابوي قبل 7 سنين
معي ذكريات رائعة معها
بس لما تقول لي العبها الان ابدا اتذكر المناطق الخرا و التصميم الملل
احتاج اعيدها يوم ما, او اني العب ام2ر
معي ذكريات رائعة معها
بس لما تقول لي العبها الان ابدا اتذكر المناطق الخرا و التصميم الملل
احتاج اعيدها يوم ما, او اني العب ام2ر
%100lediğim ilk metroid, harika bir deneyimdi 3ds'in en iyi oyunlarından, diğer metroid oyunlarına göre biraz sönük ama her halükarda gideri var.
Samus and the baby metroid are soooo cute
Played it right after Zero mission and loved it! They modernized the 2D combat brilliantly.
God a lot of people here really seem to think this is just a whatever game. Know I am one that is traditionally open to other peoples interpretations, but I do not understand. Samus Returns is amazing; it takes the concept of that really horrid Game Boy game, and makes something actually good with it. The graphics tend not look great, but the gameplay feels quick, tights, and well balanced. Combined with new additions and some fun boss fights, makes this an amazing 2D Metroid.
Citra decided to stop working mid-game, and I honestly can't be bothered to play the whole thing from zero right now. First impressions from what I played so far are not great, though. AM2R is light-years ahead in terms of charm, specially because of the added variety to the different levels that here are just an ugly mess. Easily the worst looking Metroid. Apart from that, I wasn't enjoying the gameplay, but I guess I didn't play enough to be sure. I'll play it again sometime in the future, but that is what I gathered right now.
(Obligatory fuck Nintendo for stopping development of AM2R for this ugly ass game.)
(Obligatory fuck Nintendo for stopping development of AM2R for this ugly ass game.)
An Amazing Remake of a Meh Game.
aka, the ground foundation on what will later on become Dread.
aka, the ground foundation on what will later on become Dread.
Metroid: Samus Returns is a great reimagining of the original Metroid II: Return of Samus. The combat additions, such as the parry and 360 degree aiming make the game feel so smooth and fluid, and the controls feel like an even more refined version of Super Metroid. This game makes sure you don't get lost, however there are some things that are baffling how poorly conveyed they are. Things such as the super bomb jump is not explained at all, and some bosses are poorly telegraphed. These things are not enough to worsen the overall experience of the game however, it is incredibly fun!
Metroid: Samus Returns: I’ve been playing this as a side game since a little after Infinite Wealth came out and it was fun! It had a rough start but I grew to like it, although it’s one of the weaker metroid games due to some strange game mechanics.
Enjoyed stepping into the shoes of Samus in order to do what bounty hunters are known to do - hunt bounties.
It's ok. AM2R is better, still.
honestamente eu acho muito broxante o fato dele ser dividido em areas com objetivos bem lineares tipo muito mesmo agora a jogabilidade é otima e os bosses tbm
Smooth gameplay.