Encounter an enemy
Stop
Wait for flash
Parry
Kill
Repeat

Truly elite combat on display here

Okay I’m being a little harsh here because I do like the bosses a lot but the general combat is way too clunky and poorly paced for its own good.

The addition of 360° aiming and more fluid movement overall makes this game the best controls of a Metroid game (pre-Dread). Other than that the game suffers a lot of issues.

The largest problem in my opinion is the world design. The game is split up into 8 seperate areas which you complete and move on to the next with little reason to return. This removes the annoyance of backtracking but at the expense of feeling like you're exploring a real world, slowly unravelling it's mysteries and mastering it's environments until you can blaze through them with a mental map of every pathway and enemy placement. The bland design of most areas in the game doesn't help it's case either. Due to a combination of a lack of creative vision and hardware restrictions of the 3DS, this is easily the worst looking game in the series (besides maybe the NES original and it's gameboy sequel). To me an integral part of Metroid's identity is it's thick atmosphere, a huge contributer to it's themes of isolation and dread. I won't say that this game has no atmosphere, because it does, however those feelings are significantly weaker than they are in other entries.

Besides my issues with the world design it's worth saying that it's still a fun game, it's still a good Metroid and it's definitely not worth skipping.

I never got very far in the original, but I'd say this game does a fairly good job of transforming it into something more modern in the same way Zero Mission remade first game. Unfortunately, whenever this game tries to do things that are original it often falls flat.

The new parry system is a neat idea but they also made the cannon beams do barely any damage so the only viable way of killing monsters is to stop and parry every monster. It really seems like each monster is designed solely to waste your time in each their own unique ways than to be a threat, but if you do get hit you'll take tons of damage. It sometimes makes getting around a chore especially since the map is way scaled up from the original without adding much new stuff to justify it.

The graphics are alright. The models look good and there are some varied and interesting environments in there but the majority of the game is just yellow cave and purple cave. The music wasn't bad but it all just blends together for me (except for the tracks from Super Metroid, but why are those even in here?). The new aeion abilities are fine, just clunky to use and the controls are smooth as butter, I'll say it.

All in all, it has everything a good Metroid game would have, and then some other stuff. It is a good game, but it is the worst Metroid game since Metroid 2.