| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| Nintendo 3DS | 7.80 |
| Overall | 7.80 |
|
Not sure what happened with this game but I never felt hooked or engaged like I do most metroid games. Perhaps it's the better AM2R I played last year that did this already. Maybe it's the mercury steam artsyle which I don't care for. But ultimately I think it's the linear for metroid level design that sorts of hurts it. It's still a really fun game, it's metroid, it's a hard formula to screw up but this is one of my least favorite metroids. What works are the new combat moves. There is a melee counter attack which you press right as certain attacks come in which blocks attacks and opens them up for counters. This works well but it slows down the pace of combat as most of metroid is running and gunning. Enemies are very strong, taking big chunks of life so I ended up slowly making my way through sections, it felt too methodical. There is also new abilities which can be turned on at any time as long as you have the energy. This gives you a shield, or a hyper shot as well as slowing down time. This is great when used in conjunction with puzzles and it's helpful in combat as well but is not a game changer. Metroid 2 is about hunting down metroids, 40 of them so the metroid battles are numerous. I will give this game credit for having the best metroid fights, there are clear patterns that change up often and the same types have different attacks depending on locations. The stronger metroid battles are pretty epic and require use of many abilities. But repetition is unavoidable here, there are only two other bosses that are not metroids so the majority of the game is just fighting the same bosses. The world design is where I feel this game falters. It's split up into sections and you progress in a linear fashion from one to the next with almost no reason to every return to a past location. Gone is the maze like trek through a winding map of past metroid, where you return to areas with new abilities and finally find a new path. Yes there are tons of items hidden behind locked areas that you need to return to find, but I enjoyed going off the path as I was naturally returning to old locations. Here you purposefully go out of your way just to get these items, it feels like busy work. One of my favorite parts of metroid games are the crazy shine spark puzzles to get 100%, well this game has no turbo run so there is no traditional shine spark. There are clever puzzles using the new abilities like slow down time but it's no where as devious as shine sparking across 3 different screens. Also a lot of abilities are gained toward the end, do I really need new upgrades that late in, it makes going back to look for them feel wasteful. This game is long, maybe the biggest 2D metroid and yet I feel it has some of the worst enemy variety. I commented on the boss issues, well standard enemies aren't that interesting either. They don't really evolve much from what you fight at the first. Lack of space pirate style enemies really hurt here. It's still metroid, it's a an absolute blast to play. Samus feels as responsive as ever. Boss battles, especially the two original ones are fantastic. Finding upgrades and becoming a powerful badass always feels great. There are just lots of nagging issues that makes this a bottom tier metroid game for me. There is a lot of competition in the indie scene for this genre, many games with unique hooks and new takes that I feel are better than this traditional metroid title. If you are a fan of course get it, you will have fun and it's worth it. |
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Posted by Dvader Mon, 23 Oct 2017 14:52:56
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Unable to play games on the computer so AM2R is out of the question. Besides, the 3DS is much more handy. I was hoping that we would one day get to play the fabled Metroid Dread sequel to Fusion on DS or 3DS but it is obvious now that that will never materialise, so this will have to do!
I am pleased some developers are still making 3D games for the 3DS even if most everyone, including Nintendo's in house studios are ignoring it.
I loved them back when no-one had heard of them! Do you even know what a Wii U is? Have you even seen one? I had one of those ... and games for it to boot. And those were awesome! But of course you wouldn't know cause you didn't play them, no one did except me.
Nowadays everybody and their dog has got a Switch and loves the latest Zelda and Mario and pretends to have been a lifelong Nintendo fan ... Well for your information they are populist garbage now. They sold out to the man and they are totally shit now.
I still need to pick this game up myself.