I wasn't the biggest fan for the first half of the game. The presentation was fantastic, however I wasn't on board with the backtracking and lack of direction. However, once that metroidvania magic kicked in, I was hooked.

For a 20 year old game, it hold up incredibly well. The puzzles and world design are timeless, and the attention to detail rivals modern games. I'd personally add some kind of fast travel system to speed things up, however learning the map and learning to navigate the rooms with new abilities is admittedly a lot of fun.

The combat is fairly weak, but that's made up by the enemy and boss designs. The final boss is a good example of enemies feeling more like a puzzle than a skill based challenge. There's 2 things I'd change with the combat. First, enemies respawn way too often, and it gets really tedious. Secondly, the dodge barely does anything, and enemies kinda shoot randomly anyway so it's not very effective.

There's also a fetch quest at the end similar to windwaker's triforce quest which kinda sucks. Luckily it's not that time consuming, as it rewards you for planning ahead and good navigation.

Overall it's hard to say if I prefer 2D or 3D Metroid, as all the games are pretty old and outdated. I'm still excited for Prime 4 though.

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