My history with the Metroid series is mostly recent, I had barely touched Metroid before I decided to play Super Metroid leading up to Dread’s release.

Since then I’ve played Super Metroid, Dread, Metroid II, and AM2R. I fell in love with 2D Metroid.

I was skeptical about 3D Metroid living up to my love of 2D Metroid, but went into Prime optimistic.

I had been looking forward to Prime for the longest time. It is actually one of the first games I can remember playing as a child, but it was too hard for me and I cried.

For the first half or so of playing Prime Remastered (the perfect excuse to finally play it btw), I was really feeling like it was by and large living up to the heights of 2D Metroid. I loved the atmosphere, and the immersion. The lore and scan based story telling felt perfect for the game. The 3D platforming felt great to me, and I was happily backtracking to places and progressing and having a great time.

After awhile though, my enjoyment was hampered a bit. The increasing focus on combat as the game progresses did not land well for me, combat mechanics that initially felt right began to feel strained. The boss fights can be very tedious. The backtracking is in my opinion not well balanced with forward progression.

While I don’t have nostalgia glasses for this game (nothing wrong with that but I don’t) the aspects that hampered my enjoyment a bit did not stop me from appreciating Metroid Prime and having a great deal of fun.

Shout out to the music (great remixes and original), rolling around as a ball, and the always indomitable spirit of Metroid.

Also, I think I’ll play Metroid Fusion soon.

See you next mission…