Wow. This game was amazing. Really nailed a lot of things perfectly. Here are a few things that stood out:
-This game nailed the game feel of a metroidvania. Most Metroidvanias either dont feel like there's enough upgrades and power-ups to find, or you end up getting lots of upgrades and then get stupidly overpowered. Even though there were a ton of really great upgrades, you never get too OP to the point that the game isn't challenging
-with that, the game nailed the difficulty as well. I died quite a bit playing this game, pretty much entirely to bosses and EMMIs. Basically every boss fight kicked my butt at first and I felt "how am I ever gonna get past this" but then before too long I feel like I mastered the fight and got through it easily. Especially the final boss fight, brutally difficult at first, but so fun and satisfying to finally beat
-The EMMI zones were a neat addition, some of the most tense gameplay I've ever seen, comparable to the twilight realm in Skyward Sword which I recently played. Some of the deaths to EMMIs felt unfair/annoying, but they were never too punishing, you just respawn right outside the door. And man, finally killing an EMMI is one of the most satisfying feelings ever
Just a few nitpicks:
-game is pretty short, in-game time said less than 8 hours (I did only collect ~50% of health and missile upgrades), that time doesn't count deaths tho, was probably closer to 12+ hours with deaths. It's probably actually the longest Metroid game but still feels kinda lacking in content compared to some of the indie Metroidvanias I know and love
-for some reason the game doesn't really like you backtracking. A lot of the time the game kinda just pushes you in a direction and literally won't let you go back and explore for upgrades, like doors lock behind you and ceilings collapse and etc. Then at the end of the game when you finally can explore anywhere, getting around the map is a pain, there's no real fast travel in this game (there are a few point A to point B teleporters that are kinda useless except when you need them to follow the main path) and some of those hidden upgrades are unfairly difficult to get, the shinespark (I think that's what it's called) mechanic is very difficult to use and poorly explained, and you only need it like once in the main story but you gotta master that thing to get all the secrets
-Long load times poorly masked by "cutscenes", but I guess I'll excuse this one since it's a really good looking game with no other big performance issues running on the switch
-Those 3 nitpicks are probably the only reason I didn't give the game a perfect 5/5, it's amazing and I highly recommend playing it. Worth full price if you like the series or the genre, def understand waiting for a sale since it's short but still such a great game I'd say it was worth it for full price
-This game nailed the game feel of a metroidvania. Most Metroidvanias either dont feel like there's enough upgrades and power-ups to find, or you end up getting lots of upgrades and then get stupidly overpowered. Even though there were a ton of really great upgrades, you never get too OP to the point that the game isn't challenging
-with that, the game nailed the difficulty as well. I died quite a bit playing this game, pretty much entirely to bosses and EMMIs. Basically every boss fight kicked my butt at first and I felt "how am I ever gonna get past this" but then before too long I feel like I mastered the fight and got through it easily. Especially the final boss fight, brutally difficult at first, but so fun and satisfying to finally beat
-The EMMI zones were a neat addition, some of the most tense gameplay I've ever seen, comparable to the twilight realm in Skyward Sword which I recently played. Some of the deaths to EMMIs felt unfair/annoying, but they were never too punishing, you just respawn right outside the door. And man, finally killing an EMMI is one of the most satisfying feelings ever
Just a few nitpicks:
-game is pretty short, in-game time said less than 8 hours (I did only collect ~50% of health and missile upgrades), that time doesn't count deaths tho, was probably closer to 12+ hours with deaths. It's probably actually the longest Metroid game but still feels kinda lacking in content compared to some of the indie Metroidvanias I know and love
-for some reason the game doesn't really like you backtracking. A lot of the time the game kinda just pushes you in a direction and literally won't let you go back and explore for upgrades, like doors lock behind you and ceilings collapse and etc. Then at the end of the game when you finally can explore anywhere, getting around the map is a pain, there's no real fast travel in this game (there are a few point A to point B teleporters that are kinda useless except when you need them to follow the main path) and some of those hidden upgrades are unfairly difficult to get, the shinespark (I think that's what it's called) mechanic is very difficult to use and poorly explained, and you only need it like once in the main story but you gotta master that thing to get all the secrets
-Long load times poorly masked by "cutscenes", but I guess I'll excuse this one since it's a really good looking game with no other big performance issues running on the switch
-Those 3 nitpicks are probably the only reason I didn't give the game a perfect 5/5, it's amazing and I highly recommend playing it. Worth full price if you like the series or the genre, def understand waiting for a sale since it's short but still such a great game I'd say it was worth it for full price