the best metroid has been in a very long time. the map design is excellent, it lacks a lot of the garbage people have come to associate metroidvanias with and i only got lost once, the game does a very good job of naturally leading you through the levels simply with where its flow leads you. the items in this game are great, they make it much easier to explore and fight without breaking anything while also having clever applications in the progression. they also open the door to a lot of very unique puzzles which can be really difficult and make you think creatively for. the combat is also good, enemies are pretty easy to dispatch most of the time but will not be afraid to deal a lot of damage if you dont take them seriously, along with having some decent ai that will attempt to bait an early parry from you before attacking. this also extends to the bosses, their attacks are damaging, are pretty tanky, take a while to find out their gimmick and can even mix up but its all telegraphed clearly so its not bullshit, making them very challenging but very satisfying to crack open and beat. the emmis are also a cool addition, they shake up the gameplay a lot and provide a lot of very tense moments and room for cool optimizations, steadily increasing their difficulty in abilities and level design so that they remain a threat, which also makes it all the more fun when you get to blast their brains out and get rewarded. the only things that arent so great is atmosphere and music. the atmosphere is good but its not great and could use a lot of work, a lot of scenery is reused and looks kinda off but it is still decent, lots of background elements and nice touches really does a lot for it. as for the music its quite frankly shit, its nothing grating but its all really forgettable and not something youd wanna look up on youtube right after which given metroids music history is kinda shocking. but other than that this game is a masterpiece and a top 5 switch game, highly recommend to everyone