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 :/

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.

Compared to the original Metroid II, the changes it makes are both good and bad. As for the good changes, the addition of teleport stations helps a lot with backtracking, the scan pulse is really useful, the Omega Metroid fights are a lot better, and the parry is fun. As for the bad changes, the 2 new main bosses pad out the game a bit and feel unnecessary, the Gamma Metroid fights are annoying and have unnecessary extra phases, and there is a bit too much backtracking for optional items. Samus Returns fixed some big issues of the original for me, but also introduced a couple of new ones.
Final score: 6/10

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.

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.

I want to kill this piece of shit game. Worst metroid game. Worse than Other M, worst version of metroid 2, worst remake of all time, the only reason it has a positive rating is because there was a metroid drought and this was passable enough, the same way that donkey saliva is a passable beverage for a person whos been stuck in a desert dehydrated for 15 years.

Fuck the parry making the quick movement of 2d metroid into moving forward, waiting for the enemy to attack, parrying, doing the finnicky ass followup. Fuck the control scheme and the dumbass aeion abilities, fuck the cutscenes that play any time anything happens. Fuck the metroid fights being somehow more monotonous and drawn out than the gameboy original or fan remake. Why would you put them all into identical square rooms? just because this one shoots fire or that one shoots lightning doesnt mean its different or fun. Fuck the bosses being parry baits. Fuck the robot drill dude, genuinely one of the worst fights in gaming. Fuck the atmosphere ruining 2007 high fantasy MMO ass graphics and artstyle. Fuck the boring ass layouts, the trashfire haphazard placement of everything, this makes me wonder why the fuck nintendo decided to give the reins for dread to this dev, im glad they did because dread is good but this is an abomination. This is dread with all of the flaws and none of the good parts. Theyve got the parries and inelegant design but no emmis or fun combat or bosses. Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to break up certain metroid fights? yes, its so much more fun to shoot the metroid, get it almost dead, and then it just leaves into another identical room and you have to maneuver around to the next room to continue the fight. If I wasn't committed to the metroid marathon then I would've dropped this like an hour in. I hacked my 3ds to pirate this and I still feel ripped off. Don't forget them completely ruining every aspect of the all timer ending. It's as if the developers hated metroid 2. And I think I heard somewhere that they wanted to remake fusion instead, and you can tell they were mad about that because the only explanation is they made this suck on purpose to ruin metroid 2's reputation. This game makes me respect the metroid series less. It makes me worried that dread was a fluke and this might be the quality of games going forward in the series. Playing this has expedited my suicide meter. I WILL kill myself if I ever think about this again.

*author's note: i havent played other m