an improvement in many ways - better art and animation, expanded and improved mechanics, more engaging and thoughtfully designed boss encounters - and a step back in a few others, namely the level design. not nearly as cohesive as the first game, which so beautifully imparted the sense that samus was learning how to navigate this vast interconnected alien lair over the course of the playthrough. the areas here being connected by barriers that crumble after you kill a certain number of metroids, as opposed to elevators that you can only access once you’ve acquired key abilities, feels like some video game nonsense and, for me, makes for a much less immersive and convincing experience. the individual areas themselves, while certainly more ambitious than the first game, are not as satisfying to master, either. they’re split between massive and cavernous spaces that feel overly laborious to explore and tiny, linear hallways that don’t offer anything in the way of exploration with very little in between. the game boy aesthetic definitely doesn’t help here; on a moment to moment basis monochrome suits the material quite well, at its best delivering a sense of desolation, loneliness, and dread (seriously underrated how well these work as horror experiences) that the first game can’t match, but it starts to feel a little…stale over the course of 4 hours (or however long it takes you). there’s just very little room for variance visually or mood-wise and the game is exceedingly difficult to navigate on account of every room looking more or less the same…i should be clear that the game is pretty terrific in spite of all this, would be hard to completely bungle the formula i’d imagine and it generally plays better than it’s predecessor which already played just about perfectly. it’s just a bit frustrating since the pieces for a truly transcendent sequel are all in place and for a number of reasons it can’t quite get there. ah well, maybe next time