Revisiting Metroid II has had the opposite effect of the original Metroid replay, which is thrilling to me. This was my first Metroid growing up, and I remember feeling good, scary tension from it, but I thought for sure returning to it would be a disaster. After all, it's a Game Boy game, a system notorious for gigantic sprites that make most platformers more uncomfortable than they should be [and it's just generally not a great look].
But Giganto-Samus and tight spaces actually work really well here for one big reason. Metroid had minor horror elements that occasionally helped a straightforward action-maze game, but Metroid II is straight-up horror and thoroughly designed for it, and it's cool as hell.
Some of the changes were necessary to make this more playable, namely having save stations as well as energy and missile recharging spots, so I don't want to put its success all on its horror theming. Obviously the game could have used a map, because while it manages to differentiate its areas a little better it can still sometimes be overwhelming remembering lava pits to check or where the most recent recharge stations were. But the fact that those things exist at all makes this immeasurably more tolerable than Samus' first adventure, not to mention the slew of traversal options that this introduced to the series.
But man, that atmosphere though. Knowing when you're walking into Metroid territory just by the environment is so clutch. The tight view space combined with the eerie music gives the moment when a Metroid appears on screen so much more power, and the game is creative enough to frame a number of these fights in new and exciting ways. Some of those ways are admittedly frustrating for sure! But I think I was sent more into a brief panic trying to take the Metroid out in those scenarios, instead of getting caught up in that frustration. It maintains a certain element of surprise as to how you'll come across them, making the experience pretty fresh across the board.
It's a pretty linear design compared to the rest of the series, but that aids in knowing which areas you've yet to explore and helps keep the game moving a little more as a result. If this had the same map but completely open from the start, with constantly gating the player from areas through various tools, and passed on the lowering-lava mechanic, I imagine this would be a wildly different and more irritating experience, and that would really hurt the atmosphere it's trying to set.
Genuinely impressed by this. I thought when I started my 2D Metroid replays I would definitely play one of the remakes of 2 in addition to the original, but now I feel like I don't have to.
But Giganto-Samus and tight spaces actually work really well here for one big reason. Metroid had minor horror elements that occasionally helped a straightforward action-maze game, but Metroid II is straight-up horror and thoroughly designed for it, and it's cool as hell.
Some of the changes were necessary to make this more playable, namely having save stations as well as energy and missile recharging spots, so I don't want to put its success all on its horror theming. Obviously the game could have used a map, because while it manages to differentiate its areas a little better it can still sometimes be overwhelming remembering lava pits to check or where the most recent recharge stations were. But the fact that those things exist at all makes this immeasurably more tolerable than Samus' first adventure, not to mention the slew of traversal options that this introduced to the series.
But man, that atmosphere though. Knowing when you're walking into Metroid territory just by the environment is so clutch. The tight view space combined with the eerie music gives the moment when a Metroid appears on screen so much more power, and the game is creative enough to frame a number of these fights in new and exciting ways. Some of those ways are admittedly frustrating for sure! But I think I was sent more into a brief panic trying to take the Metroid out in those scenarios, instead of getting caught up in that frustration. It maintains a certain element of surprise as to how you'll come across them, making the experience pretty fresh across the board.
It's a pretty linear design compared to the rest of the series, but that aids in knowing which areas you've yet to explore and helps keep the game moving a little more as a result. If this had the same map but completely open from the start, with constantly gating the player from areas through various tools, and passed on the lowering-lava mechanic, I imagine this would be a wildly different and more irritating experience, and that would really hurt the atmosphere it's trying to set.
Genuinely impressed by this. I thought when I started my 2D Metroid replays I would definitely play one of the remakes of 2 in addition to the original, but now I feel like I don't have to.