A 2D Metroid Retrospective

metroid created to be the fusion of mario's platforming and zelda's non-linearity inspired by the works of ridley scott and the creature design of hr giger metroid is a beloved and iconic series which has struggled to find its place among nintendo's more popular ip some of its greatest titles sold merely a fraction of your average mario and zelda yet despite its neglect from nintendo the cult following still remains you can feel its influence through the metroidvania genre surely a source that would replenish the need for a new metroid alas after all these years after all these games there's something unique to metroid that people still crave today i'd like to explore the series history in an effort to discern its genesequoi from the 1986 release of metroid on the nes to the 2017 remake of metroid 2 on the 3ds we'll be breaking down and analyzing all of metroid's storied history in anticipation of metroid dread which will be getting its own dedicated video shortly after this one this will primarily be aimed at the mainline 2d entries as i already have individual videos on the prime games that i'm still pretty proud of plus dread is a 2d metroid and that's kind of the design framework we're building up to so i don't really want to crowd the video with all these other unrelated metroid adventures we're in for a long one here and i don't want to waste more time grab some popcorn pop a squat and take a journey with me through some of nintendo's best creations [Music] metroid was meant to be a fusion of platforming and non-linear design a mario game where the player didn't necessarily know where to go this design approach fits the game's premise like a glove a mysterious bounty hunter samus aaron sent to infiltrate and destroy the space pirates on planet zebus you are a lone insurgent on a hostile alien planet where mario's enemy design was whimsical and zelda's fantasy metroids are distinctly science fiction they resemble giant malformed insects pincers claws and the scaly wings complete the look not only do they look the part they crawl around on the walls and ceilings or swoop down to hit you given that a fear of insects is not uncommon i think it was a stroke of genius to model these designs after those creepy crawlies nintendo didn't have access to the technology used in alien they were working with the primitive sprites of the nes modeling their design and behavior after various insects does a fair bit to unsettle the player from the very beginning you've got creepy aliens flanking you every which way and on top of that you have no intel you're here to find and defeat mother brain the onus is on the player to figure out where she is fear isolation uncertainty these are the words i'd use to describe metroid on the nes which are quite impressive emotions to elicit given the hardware you start your expedition with almost nothing a short range arm cannon and a frail power suit most enemies are a threat and you have to deal with them very carefully it mirrors the mindset of a first time player exploring uncharted territory for the first time not quite sure what's around the corner as you progress find energy tanks missiles the morph ball beam upgrades you can walk into these hallways with a little more confidence you can be a bit more laissez-faire about your approach now that you're familiar with your surroundings come the end of the game if you've gotten most of the items you have completed your transformation into a badass bounty hunter ready to defeat mother brain and escape the planet at least this is how metroid theoretically functions the first metroid does still fulfill that ideal the game gets a little less stressful the more missile tanks and energy tanks you receive that much is true but it's only true when you bother to refill that energy and ammunition death puts you back to square one no matter how many tanks you have you start with 30 energy and must refill that energy by farming it out for up to 10 straight minutes in the worst case pretty much every time there's a death you'll have to sit by one of these pipes and farm this i feel bleeds into everything about metroid and lessens its impact ideally the freedom you've given the player should prompt them to want to explore to enter whichever door satiates their curiosity at first this is a strong hook you start with only 99 energy so a death won't put you back too far the more tanks you acquire though the less willing you'll probably be to want to go anywhere you begin to treat each new room like your life depends on it because it does i'm sure there's even an argument that this raises the stakes the further you get and makes the adventure even more terrifying as you get stronger i might have even bought into that if the punishment didn't end up being more annoying than the fear i had walking into a room it would almost immediately overwrite that horror leaving in its place an exasperated sigh as i took another 10 minutes of grinding to start exploring again it's difficult to appreciate what metroid is trying to do when it places such an oppressive psychological stranglehold on the player crain's lair establishes a perfectly dreadful atmosphere the pitch black backgrounds the faded brickwork the other worldly music it encapsulates what metroid is braving the terrors of a hostile planet exploring its depths for upgrades and teaching yourself how to survive [Music] and yet that immersion is shattered the moment you die otherwise minor problems are amplified by this tension you can only shoot directly in front of you or directly above you making certain enemy interactions a lot more awkward the knockback you receive after an enemy hits you is quite annoying and if it leads you into a pit of fire trying to wiggle your way out of the ensuing mob of enemies flying at you followed by the inevitable slowdown will test your patience especially since again whenever you die you need to grind energy and missiles five at a time i hate to hammer this point home but it really is the guillotine that hangs over your playthrough long copy pasted hallways filled with enemies and tricky jumps don't simply feel repetitive they're also anxiety inducing nightmares with the potential to spark another 10 minute grind after which you can get lost again in dozens of look-alike rooms boss fights aren't a simple test of your skills they're a dance with death where one wrong step means yet more time sucked from your remaining lifespan instead of engaging with wrigley directly i immediately found a way to cheese him to save me the headache it's fun finally getting the screw attack giving yourself the ability to glide through every room with relative ease that feeling of empowerment is core to the metroid experience and you get much the same feeling with the other items but it doesn't last long taurian is a disaster metroids are a novel idea for an enemy getting them off of you takes a lot of work and likely a ton of your energy cementing their status as apex predators they also eat up a lot of your resources five missiles for each metroid even with every missile tank on zebus this is still a tall order given how many of them you're put up against however there's a bit of a problem with only being able to dispatch them using a finite resource which can only be replenished inside taurian by killing said metroids the fight against mother brain is brutal annoying fire circles dot the screen increasing the slowdown making every jump and shot count you have to spend an inordinate amount of missiles to not only break through the barriers but kill mother brain if you used one too many missiles fighting metroid's on your way over you can kiss your chances of victory goodbye getting hit by these erratic fire circles and subsequently getting knocked into a pit that you desperately try to climb out of is frustrating really frustrating it doesn't take much to fully deplete your energy even if you've obtained every tank as we've established though dying does not replenish your missile supply and since you need so many missiles to get through this segment and you also need missiles to grind off metroids the only enemies in taurian it essentially means you have to leave taurian and then go grind on the weak sauce bugs that only occasionally drop a few missiles at a time since missile and energy drops are random even if you have missiles to grind off of metroids it's entirely possible you'll get unlucky and run out of missiles while grinding forcing you out of taurian happened to me a few times so basically dying to mother brain is one of the most agonizing deaths in any video game i have ever played because of how many resources you need to build back up before you can try again i really do respect how unique metroid was for its time how much choice it put in the hands of the player and how much it trusted them to carve their own path forward however it's also a game that is next to impossible for me to actually play without having an aneurysm an important relic of the era one that at the very least provided a solid base for future games to expand upon it's interesting that a sequel to metroid would come to the game boy and not the super nintendo of course a metroid game would eventually hit the system but to have the sequel release on a handheld is the opposite of expected yet many would argue that it's a more interesting game because of it and i'm inclined to agree not only is it one of my favorite titles on a system i'm not particularly fond of it works within the system's limitations to elevate its atmosphere beyond what even its predecessor was capable of helps that metroid 2 isn't nearly as frustrating it introduces health and ammo recharge stations to prevent the tedium associated with death while maintaining a tense play experience by spreading them out controls have also been tweaked to allow aiming from a crouched and downwards trajectory it's remarkable how much it still feels like you're playing metroid even on the less powerful hardware the smaller screen size is mitigated by enemies which are less aggressive and though you'd think the larger map would be harder to navigate its more linear progression structure makes it difficult to get lost since you're taking each area one at a time of course this does have the drawback of giving the player less freedom to explore of their own volition but choice is still a meaningful factor when hunting down power-ups energy tanks missile tanks and metroids this premise is unbelievably simple and yet there's a lot to ruminate on after the fact you've been sent to exterminate the metroids and so that's what you do you hunt them down they put up a fight but they're fairly predictable and the further you get into the planet's depths the more repetitive and inane the task becomes i think by the time you defeat the queen you're likely in the same headspace as samus you're responsible for wiping out an entire species are you supposed to feel good about that it was a fun adventure but there's something a bit macabre about it all you're less of a bounty hunter here and more like a grisly executioner yet there's one more hatchling left to your surprise a newborn one that takes a liking to you you and samus likely come to the same conclusion here there's no more need for bloodshed so plays the hatchling theme as it helps you to clear a path out of the depths and back to your ship what i'm saying here isn't anything new really metroid 2 has seen somewhat of an opinion renaissance given it's had two remakes over the last several years i am but another verbose visitor to this curious gameboy title what i can say though almost unequivocally is that i find it to be a much more enjoyable game to play than the first playing it makes me realize just how much of the original was a series of hallways there really was nothing to spice up your exploration of zebes you just fought enemies and platformed through a series of dark hallways to get to the bosses metroid 2 is a lot more memorable upgrades like the spider ball and space jump but get a map design which is far more open again despite the much smaller screen size you get an incredible sense of depth in these caverns when you're able to crawl across the ceiling or space jump to the top of a structure there are secret entrances dotted along those explorable spaces giving you a reason to thoroughly comb through each new room it's funny to me that although there's a much more linear progression at play there's actually a lot more to search for than in the original where energy and missile tanks were usually sitting out in the open here you have to look for hidden alcoves in much larger spaces and it fits with the overarching objective of hunting down the metroids you aren't told where to find them you're only given an amount to hunt once that number hits zero a new area opens up and so it maintains the appeal of metroid a progression of strength the freedom to explore while expanding those tenets though i think the hunt for the metroids is a great narrative and aesthetic tool it doesn't exactly present a set of amazing enemies to fight in fact combat in metroid 2 is probably my least favorite part of the whole package as i said before enemies have lost a lot of that aggression you'd see in the previous installment instead most of that frantic tension is given to the fights with the metroids these fights however all follow a similar dynamic you enter their lair and unload missiles into them as they evolve they get faster unlocking more attacks but the way you fight them never really changes keep them at bay by firing missiles into them a reliance on missiles in metroid games is something i'm already not particularly fond of the way i see it missiles should merely be a way of increasing your attack power they should not be the only way to kill bosses yet that is primarily how metroid 2 is structured meaning you're pushed into this explorative play style in a more heavy-handed manner than i would like you've got to find those missile tanks after all it also overshadows the beam upgrades metroid 2 has an interesting dynamic here where you're allowed to choose one of four beams to use which each have their strengths and weaknesses the ice beam freezes enemies the wave beam travels through walls and armored enemies the spacer fires three beams stacked on top of each other and the plasma beam fires a single shot through multiple enemies while you do inevitably need the ice beam at the end of the game i think there's a lot to consider with which beam you want to use do you find your shots always miss their mark perhaps you'll want to use the spacer for a wide berth do you want to use the numerous enemies on your path as platforms maybe the ice beam is good to keep on hand do you want power above all else plasma is the way to go i like this concept a lot however i think it loses a lot of its impact when it has no bearing on the dozens of metroids you fight a lot of enemies can just be maneuvered around without using your beams anyway so while your choice of beam weapon is cool it doesn't feel like it ultimately changes much and for as much as i really do appreciate what metroid 2 is able to accomplish on the gameboy it's also using the gameboy sound chip to emulate ambient noise and atmospheric tunes the surface of sr388 and metroid hatchling theme actually work really well despite the hardware's limitations but the rest well ultimately while i think metroid 2 made some meaningful improvements to metroid it also isn't a particularly mind-blowing title which pushes the series to colossal new heights it's simply as good as a metroid game on the gameboy is gonna get certainly admirable but it pales in comparison to what its own sequel would soon accomplish [Music] so [Music] i don't throw around the word masterpiece very often for fear of diminishing its impact and yet it's difficult to label super metroid as anything short of the mark not only does it provide a solid foundation on which the series can confidently stand it is a triumph of game design the likes of which have scarcely been replicated even by the titans of the genre it has inspired when i think of metroid this is the game that comes to mind the intro sets the tone the last metroid is in captivity and the galaxy is at peace samus gives a brief monologue recapping the events of the previous two games trouble strikes in the form of a distress call from the very research station she left the baby metroid samus enters the facility it's quiet the researchers have all been killed and the metroid is no longer in its capsule there's a lot of tension building here as you observe the scene moving slowly to the final room just as you have the baby metroid in your sights ridley appears you have your answer the space pirates have returned you battle against the creature trading blows but eventually he overpowers you and flees the facility metroid in hand at that moment the station is set to explode and you have to escape before time runs out you make a break for it the screen shaking and skewing perspective the station barely holding on finally you make it out by the skin of your teeth and it's off to planet zebes once more to hunt down the space pirates and retrieve the baby metroid you start out with relatively few options you're essentially forced to go pick up the morph ball and morph ball bombs with each new power-up obtained your options expand exponentially missiles open more doors the high jump boots open other pathways the ice beam gives you platforms in the form of enemies it's the original game's design philosophy on crack because the world is much larger with unique rooms around every corner secrets aren't usually laid out in the open you have to work to find them clear some platforming challenge or find a secret block with a missile tank obtaining a new power up means you have to consider everywhere you've been up to that point where would this have been useful again the original metroid had this to a small extent but super metroid is built around that progression while there is an optimal path to take that path is mostly obscured by red herrings or pathways you can reach earlier than expected after you receive the power bomb for instance you can use it in many different areas you can open up the way to the wrecked ship but you lack any means to progress further it's the same with this aquatic tube it's really cool when you figure out you can power bomb it alluded to by an identical tube that's completely destroyed however you won't get very far without the gravity suit this doesn't feel demoralizing though because the discovery of a new area is knowledge you can keep in your back pocket if you ever find a power up you can use to interact with these blocks on the ceiling you can finally reach the wrecked ship and what do you know the correct path forward is to use the power bombs in this room of norfair fight crocomire and obtain the grapple beam another reason getting lost like this doesn't feel discouraging is because you'll often stumble across secrets that will make samus more powerful extra missile tanks reserve tanks sometimes even get more powerful beam upgrades that are completely optional no matter what point you are in the game's intended progression you are always getting stronger never does it feel like you're wasting your time and so this is how super metroid's intended progression plays out with your hard locks and hard keys which is how i define the literal upgrades you can pick up to open new pathways it's incredibly satisfying on your first playthrough when you're unfamiliar with the world secrets and bosses but these hard locks and hard keys eventually become common knowledge and thus the path to the end of the game is made known to you how then does super metroid fuel to play more than once does the allure wear off will the magic fade away certainly the looming mystery of what lies around the corner the tension built when you're lost in an unfamiliar dank section of meridia will become less effective the more powerful you are with its inner workings super metroid's atmosphere will always be powerful you'll never escape that unique sense of isolation and foreboding that's just key to metroid's dna you will however start to lose the sheer terror of the unknown planet zebus will be in the palm of your hand which is where we start talking about soft locks and soft keys these are the less tangible keys you can pick up keys that you'll be able to keep with you and use in future playthroughs if you happen to find yourself in this section of brinstar you'll come across some animals you're basically trapped here so all you can do is watch them there must be some way out right well what these animals give you is a soft key the wall jump this is an ability samus has access to from the start of the game it's tricky to get the timing down but once you do a bunch of soft locks pop up throughout the planet the only place you can't wall jump is underwater without the gravity suit everywhere else is fair game if there's a wall there's a way using the wall jump you can get the spacer and fight crade without the high jump boots you can travel up to your ship again without the ice beam and on the way there you can also get power bombs much earlier than you're supposed to as you can imagine being able to do stuff like this while incredibly difficult also breaks the game's progression wide open allowing you to craft some crazy potential routes through an otherwise linear progression there are a lot of soft lock and key combos like this some like the wall jump are intended by the developers but some like the mock ball are probably unintentional the mock ball allows you to bypass sections that would normally require the speed booster by performing a specific set of inputs that make your morph ball travel much faster using this you can get super missiles without fighting the worst miniboss in the game sorry sure this is a clearly unintentional speed run strategy that was discovered by players but the cool thing about super metroid is that it doesn't really matter whether you're using an intended or unintended strat whether you're using the infinite bomb jump or the crystal flash fact of the matter is super metroid was built in such a way that any potential sequence breaks are hard coded into the game's design you can take any route you want however unorthodox with the developers express blessing it is one of the only games i've ever played where sequence breaking feels like a completely natural way to play the game super metroid remains one of the most open freeing experiences you can yet have in a video game that isn't expressly an open world it strikes a wonderful balance between its intended progression so new players don't get stuck and it's unintended progression so returning players still have things to learn and master no matter how many times you play it feels like there are a near infinite number of discoveries it has this almost mystical quality to it that transcends time and can be enjoyed by practically anyone once you get past the admittedly cumbersome control scheme what turns this admiration into love though is that super metroid doesn't merely advance the series mechanical framework it also advances the series the aesthetic conventions outside of the opening narration you're left to your own devices you brave the overgrowth of brinstar the fiery pits of norfair and the chilling depths of meridia on your own in search of the baby metroid its music feels like a fusion of the upbeat adventurous tracks from the first game and the second game's attempt at ambience this fusion results in a vibe that is uncomfortable but not expressly terrifying it's the exact right mood to feel as a lone bounty hunter revisiting an alien planet she's already conquered you aren't to let your guard down of course but this isn't your first run around the block it's an almost cautious confidence the ending works as a perfect capstone to the trilogy's story fighting a much beefier rendition of mother brain like crade before it everything in this game is meant to be bigger and better though you put up a fight it's just too much for you to handle on your own and that's where the baby comes in you had an encounter with a huge metroid on your way here one that almost sucked the life from you and yet it left you alone and here it is fighting off mother brain and restoring your energy mother brain though not content to sit idly by kills the metroid what you've now come to understand is the baby that helped you escape sr388 it gives samus the last power up she needs the hyper beam you annihilate mother brain escape in typical metroid fashion and so your adventure comes to an end bittersweet it's difficult to write about super metroid and say anything new of note it's been talked about to death most people know why it works so well what i still find impressive though is that it takes the few building blocks left by its predecessors and constructs a skyscraper with them an instant classic one that would define not only the rest of the metroid franchise but no doubt inspired the currently massive metroidvania genre a tough act to follow for sure but nintendo would certainly try though their attempt would take many many years metroid fusion is a bit of a controversial title not quite as derisive as a game like other m nor can it be called a black sheep like metroid 2. i think perhaps being a follow-up to super metroid in particular is where most people's issues take root see fusion's approach is a bit more accessible than super metroid there's more dialogue than has ever been featured in a metroid game and you're told where to go at practically every turn metroid 2 was pretty linear but it also didn't exactly show you where to go with bright flashing lights you could at least explore sr388 on your own even if it was segmented it felt like a planet fusion feels more artificial in part because the world you're exploring is artificial it takes place on a space station currently studying sr388 as such it has six distinct sectors which each reflect a different part of the planet's ecosystem you can see the vegetative surface the underwater coral reefs the sandy dunes there's a lot of variety here but you can never quite escape the glass windows and mechanical outlines which remind you that you're in a man-made research facility i've always found this to be a neat little twist that transforms your adventure into one with more explicitly horrific undertones every other journey samus embarks upon has danger written on it from the outset you're on an alien planet by yourself and must survive long enough to accomplish your objective in this way though going in expecting danger is less scary than fusion's angle where you're simply here to investigate what is assumed to be an explosion caused by some sort of malfunction it's an in and out fairly mundane mission until it isn't something is wrong here can't quite put your finger on it but everything feels a little off as you're investigating the station fixing its various malfunctions you run into enemies you can absorb into your metroidified dna samus is still recovering from a parasite she encountered on sr388 a consequence of how she essentially disrupted the planet's ecosystem by eradicating the metroids nevertheless she assumed the parasite dealt with except here on this very station the x parasite is alive and well and it's infected the entire station so now you're trapped in a research station with an alien parasite one that will do everything in its power to hunt down and eliminate you fusion does quite a bit with its more linear structure than people might give it credit for though it has more dialogue than previous metroid games it's all in the service of building out samus as a character and escalating the growing conflict between her the federation with adam as their proxy and the ex-parasite sure you're given orders throughout the game and that robs the player of the sense that this is their adventure but also this isn't your adventure is it samus's missions were pretty specific in previous games go to another planet and do something be that killing mother brain killing the metroids or saving the baby metroid here there's a little more going on you're investigating a federation facility and it's clear that there's more going on here than meets the eye it's not common that a computer gives samus strict orders to follow at every turn it's almost as if there's something here the federation wants to hide that they don't want samus to get any colorful ideas of her own what this leads to is a progression defined by the federation adam tells you where to go what upgrades you'll be getting and what bosses you'll be fighting it robs the player of their agency at pretty much every turn but it's done deliberately eventually you find yourself going off script in a moment that always reminds me of portal where you discover an abandoned laboratory full of metroids later adam reveals that the federation were secretly creating them they wanted to use them as a weapon purpose they also desire for the sax part of the reason why you and samus both come to the conclusion this is a bad idea is because of what you've encountered up to this point the sax seems to have an intelligence of its own it has cloned her power suit and stalks her at various points in the game it can use all of her explosive weaponry in addition to creating the dangerous aliens and bosses that she comes up against quite frequently it's a little unsettling that the sax has both the power and the intellect to give samus an entire adventure's worth of a hard time it really helps that fusion is a fairly difficult game as a result of it being able to know where you're going at all times it's not only able to craft effective set pieces it's also able to draw a naturally rising difficulty curve since a lot of the player's ability to carve their own path is taken away from them the player is instead asked to perform more challenging tasks in its place saris is a great test of reflexes using the speed booster against you in a fairly frantic duel nightmare turns gravity itself against you warping the screen and forcing you to space jump around its frantic flight paths its design is just too good truly a creature warped beyond recognition a shade from samus's past come to haunt her what better way to end it than with ridley a ghost of the past and his most challenging incarnation yet he'll give you a run for your money even if you've been grabbing all the upgrades it's great pretty much every boss puts up a fight they're much more challenging than anything in super metroid besides maybe fantune this isn't a force that can be allowed to leave the space station nor can it be controlled it needs to be dealt with immediately through realizing that the computer samus is taking orders from is her old co adam malkovich uploaded as an ai before his death she's able to reach adam's more sensible side and with his help they set the station to crash into sr 388 explode defeat the sax and escape to fight another day presumably off to do whatever's happening in metroid dread despite its strengths this is clearly a break from what metroid has traditionally striven to be fusion's linearity is quite contentious i personally believe that this story couldn't have been achieved in quite the same way without its more linear structure and thus its terrifying atmosphere would be much more difficult to get across your various encounters with the sax while not mechanically challenging offer a rush of adrenaline since you can't do anything to combat it you simply have to run and hide a rare bit of vulnerability you revisit sectors only for them to be changed dramatically sector 5 is all but destroyed by nightmare making for an effective build up to its boss fight it also means that when stuff happens it's much more urgent when you're heading back to your ship on an elevator and the power suddenly goes out it's a bit of a chilling moment was it the sax where is it now and of course you have to find a way out of your current predicament while the lights are out the music which plays during this segment is perfectly chilling i love when this plays it usually signals a break in expectations when someone or something is on the prowl i maintain that fusion is the scariest metroid because of stuff like this which it could only have achieved this effectively through its linear structure and moreover narrative buildup yet i do understand why this could be pretty disappointing as a follow-up to super metroid if your favorite part of super was the ability to get lost in sequence break to carve out your own path it makes sense that fusion would be a pretty huge disappointment it goes to somewhat extreme lengths to keep the player on track there are essentially zero soft locks or keys to speak of you still have a wall jump but it's nerfed in such a way that you can't use it to climb up single walls morph ball bombs have been tweaked so you can't do infinite bomb jumps it is not designed to be broken and it makes that fact relatively clear from the onset given that there are four tiers of additional artificial hard locks and keys in the form of the colored doors this began what i feel is one of metroid's worst trends the massive end game item hunt in super metroid getting every single item was a much more natural process even if you aren't sequence breaking getting every item takes you around the map multiple times over giving you ample opportunity to get every item before having fought all of the bosses or at least nearly all of them this meant that even though there were a couple upgrades you needed the screw attack for it wouldn't take more than a jog around the map to get them before fighting mother brain in fusion because of its structure even if you go to every sector after obtaining a new power up you'll still have a massive number of items to obtain right before the final fight against the sax since the screw attack and speed booster hide an obnoxiously large amount of secrets and you can't really do anything with them until you're at the end before you go to fight the sax you essentially need to explore the entire facility for an hour or two just to get full completion granted the screw attack opens up seamless travel between the sectors but it's also just not an incredibly fulfilling process to go hunt for items when you're pretty much done with the adventure already yet this is a natural consequence of such a linear progression you still want to give the player a lot of secrets to find to live up to the explorative legacy of super metroid but if you can't let the player explore for most of your story you'll naturally have to put most of that stuff at the end for your truly hardcore fanbase i get why stuff like this runs counter to the appeal of the series nevertheless i have a lot of respect and admiration for fusion it's a metroid game so you'll still get that incredible evolution of power from the various items you collect going from a bounty hunter that has been stripped of her power via an infection to a badass powerhouse giving the previously insurmountable sax a run for its money fusion's sense of growth is even more palpable since it's accompanied by samus's staunch defiance of the federation's orders where she kind of comes into her own and does the right thing and for as much as its main progression feels claustrophobic it has probably some of the best secrets in the series up to this point requiring a lot of tricky jumps and shine sparks to collect everything the end game hunt might be a bit of a pacing oddity but it's also home to some of the hardest most satisfying challenges in the entire game trying to create enough space to activate your speed booster pressing down to maintain that speed and then activating it again on a sloped surface until you reach a point where you can use that stored power to rocket through a ceiling or wall is known as shine sparking it was more of a speed running trick in super metroid not strictly required for much and it drained energy to use it solidifying its status as a risk reward mechanic here it's been turned into a puzzle solving mechanic that will put your fingers to the test there's even an incredibly difficult sequence break you can perform in sector 4 involving a long series of shine sparks that is not only acknowledged by the game but gives unique dialogue from the members of the federation themselves commenting on the player's ability to uncover it the existence of a secret like this proves to me that fusion's more linear structure probably wasn't a misguided attempt to appeal to more casual players but an earnest attempt to emulate more traditional horror by removing freedom from the player in its heightened difficulty chilling set pieces and overbearing direction fusion crafts an atmosphere unlike other metroid games one that i can't help but adore i wouldn't exactly want every metroid game to follow in its wake but i also feel like there are lessons to take from its high points that not even super metroid has to its name [Music] we have now entered what we can charitably call the remake phase of metroid 2d metroid anyway metroid dread is the follow up to fusion so what we got in between are remakes of the first and second game they may be remakes but they also technically add their own little spin to the formula seeing as they're more like reimaginings than faithful remakes though they're pulling from established games it's more helpful to think of them as brand new 2d metroids for the sake of this video zero mission is a pretty phenomenal remake pretty much every problem i had with the original is gone and in its place a bevy of new features locations and secrets make it feel like a new adventure naturally we've returned to a game that is much more open than fusion it's based on the original metroid so while there is a path to follow you can deviate from it in a few ways i wouldn't exactly call it super metroid tier but they've added back proper wall jumping and infinite bomb jumps so soft locks and keys are back on the table at least i do think it's a bit excessive that the chozo statues tell you where to go next it doesn't really even need that since its main progression isn't terribly convoluted you'd think that the addition of a map along with map rooms would already make zero mission way more approachable than the original but hey probably wanted to appeal to a wider audience and given the series sales history i don't really blame them for wanting to make it more approachable i might not like how hand-holdy it is but it's hard to deny how easy it is to recommend as a first metroid game for people new to the series the main item path is fairly standard a little less open than super metroid but similar in fundamental ways you get the high jump boots and power grip which will unlock the path the various suit etc dotted along that path are secrets to uncover and hard locks which you get keys for later on standard metroid fare should be used to it by now what i find fascinating about zero mission in particular is how it encourages players to speedrun now speedrunning has always been baked into the metroid dna to some extent your time is recorded and displayed to you at the end of the game changing your ending the lower you can push that time this involves samus taking off more and more of her power suit usually though they've kinda toned that down over the years probably for the best not exactly a good look that beating the game faster makes your powerful female character take off more of her clothing anyway speedrunning these games has always been encouraged but zero mission takes that a step further just like super metroid had mechanics and sequence breaks which were clearly intended by the developers zero mission has entire pathways and sequence breaks built into the actual level design there are optional blocks to bomb that will give way to paths which only have one purpose to skip an item or make it through a room faster like you can skip the long beam pretty much immediately once you know you can shoot these blocks below you instead if you're really good at infinite bomb jumps you can get the varia suit as one of your first upgrades mastering the shine spark will net you super missiles much earlier than you're meant to have them it's like you're systematically eliminating as much backtracking as possible to save time while also producing new challenges for yourself have you ever attempted to get the various suit early it's really hard without the power grip like really [ __ ] hard but if you get the various suit you've jumped up so far that the world opens up in a new way and again exactly how much of it was intentional is up for debate i like to think most of it was but even if it wasn't the developers again have given you their blessing to break the game in half so it doesn't really matter zero mission is designed to be played normally just as much as it's designed to be broken if you don't believe me i implore you to watch a speed run of zero mission practically everything they do feels natural even though they're essentially cracking the planet wide open it adds an entirely new dimension to the playthrough as a whole heightening its potential replay value into the stratosphere unfortunately for as fun as sequence breaking is i don't think it meaningfully affects the game's difficulty i would be willing to say quite confidently that zero mission is the easiest metroid game as long as you're even just picking up a few power-ups along the way enemies and bosses go down in seconds ridley even is pretty much a pushover by the time you're intended to reach him if you go for a hundred percent completion the new final boss is made much more challenging but otherwise zero mission is smooth sailing it's one of my biggest problems with the game as a whole because paired with its relatively short length and straightforward progression i feel like the playthrough lacks a lot of bite compared to previous entries not only is it now bereft of tension it's also a remake of metroid 1 meaning it's a more adventurous take on planet zebes the music is upbeat the visual design is more colorful and even a little bit friendly and that trademark metroid atmosphere is just nowhere to be felt even when you're sequence breaking to fight ridley first as long as you pick up the various suit and a few energy tanks along the way he just doesn't have enough health to be threatening the newly added hard mode does help a bit since energy tanks and missile expansions don't add as much to your arsenal and you take more damage but it's something you have to unlock after beating the normal mode and honestly doesn't really do enough to make the main progression all that more challenging than normal mode it's just designed to be a more accessible metroid one with a few more mini bosses secrets cut scenes and additional gameplay sequences to make it feel more complete in that sense it's impressive just how many of its additions feel completely natural i like that you get to see foreshadowing with mother brain and ridley while you're transitioning between areas i enjoy the twist you get after defeating mother brain where your ship is shot down and you have to infiltrate the space pirates ship without your power suit i've always loved this segment because of how powerless it makes you feel when you finally get your suit back after sneaking around the ship and now your unknown items have turned into upgraded beams and the space jump and a bunch of other stuff it feels really damn good you can run around zebus and show everyone who's boss that said i don't think i like how these items were incorporated into the game itself see they've already added new power ups like the speed booster which you can play around with in metroid 1's world they had to add extra rooms and such to accommodate the power-up but it fit really well and lets you more seamlessly travel between areas with new shortcuts so i really have no problem with adding some super metroid power ups into the mix what i don't like are the unknown items these upgrades don't initially do anything more than break certain blocks with hieroglyphs on them once you reach the very end of the game though and reclaim your power suit these items turn into the gravity suit plasma beam and space jump it's already a little strange that you play this sequence after defeating mother brain but i give it a pass since it's pretty damn cool but it's weird that you get your power suit right before the new final boss like literally only a few rooms away because now you have access to the gravity suit and space jump and you also pick up the power bombs meaning you have to run around the entire world to get a hundred percent since you have access to new items that will unlock them not only that areas like taurean and this new space pirate ship have items to unlock you obviously couldn't get the first time around meaning you have to thoroughly comb through these areas too the space pirate ship is huge with so many items in rooms to unlock i guess i just don't understand why they were willing to add something like the speed booster and have you do some pretty insane shine sparking tricks only to then lock other new items behind the ending portion then forcing you to run a lap around the world again just for a hundred percent in fusion it at least felt like a necessary evil to have its linear progression but in zero mission it just feels unnecessary the point of going after a hundred percent in metroid games is to increase your arsenal to make boss fights a little easier there really is no point at all going for additional items at the very end because at that point what do you really need them for i suppose the final boss is made more challenging but that strikes me as a reason most players would want to avoid getting a hundred percent even as someone who genuinely just enjoys getting a hundred percent in video games even if there's no reward waiting for me or any real reason to do it i've always been bothered by how zero mission just shoves a bunch of it at the end like this destroying the game's pacing if you want to keep up your full completion traditions and it sucks too because i actually really do like how intense the challenges get shine sparking in zero mission is as hard as it's ever been and the stuff they ask you to do with it is pretty insane it's come a long way from a simple speedrunning tool it's now involved in dozens of high-speed tests of your reaction timing and i couldn't be happier like look at what they want you to do in chazodia this is crazy and i love it i don't know zero mission is a blast i really can't deny that i think it's one of the best remakes ever made by virtue of the original making me want to tear my hair out it also continues along the same thread as super metroid adding in many of the cool sequence breaks into the level design itself that focus on speedrunning gives it its identity without that it's pretty much just a worse super metroid in every way it's not a scary or even unsettling mission it's piss easy straightforward and fairly short it's a fun metroid to replay for sure but i can't help but feel it's not a game that best showcases what metroid does exceptionally well at least not in my opinion [Music] [Music] it's easy to forget but 2016 was not a good year for metroid its last game was other m in 2010 six years without a metroid game until the announcement of metroid prime federation force what a time to be a metroid fan amidst the torrent of disappointment came a passion project years in the making a title that sought to remake metroid 2. it was so impressive in fact that nintendo themselves struck it down and saw fit to remove it from that year's game awards am2r is not only one of my favorite metroid games but one of my favorite remakes it improves and adds to the original so much while not eliminating what made that title special to begin with and that's more than i can say for nintendo's own efforts at doing much the same thing i need to take a moment to keep some praise on the control of am2r moreover the level of choice it provides you can rebind all of your keys you can change the way you toggle through your missiles and you can turn into your morph ball with the press of a button this change to the morph ball is so good that i have no idea how it wasn't implemented sooner instant morph ball makes using the damn thing in previous games feels slow and clunky it's amazing not only that am2r has been steadily updated in secret by fans after it was taken down and now has a fusion mode additional lore entries and even a built-in randomizer for added replay value nintendo and options don't usually go hand in hand so am2r serves as a painful reminder that we could be living in a much cooler timeline if nintendo were simply willing to embrace this stuff nevertheless am2r is legendary for more than just its options menu it essentially does for metroid 2 what zero mission did for metroid updated graphics new music new power-ups bosses and even additional lore as such the game obviously still feels like metroid 2 with the same overarching objective and areas but with mechanics and concepts from previous games mixed in to make the adventure feel new and exciting it is kind of a shame that the new music consists mostly of remixes but they're pretty good at setting the tone for each of the areas speaking of sr 388 has so much more depth now what we could only infer from fusion is rendered in great detail here we see the remnants of a chozo civilization their power plant their waterworks their mining facility uncovering this history is fascinating as are the brief appearances by the federation troops fighting against the metroid menace you can clearly see why samus was called in to deal with this when you find the abandoned ship full of dead soldiers i like that there are test tubes full of metroid experiments alluding to the federation's darker elements that would come to light in fusion i love that you can collect lore entries throughout the game spare a few additional sequences with some short cut scenes the only exposition you're forced to read is the intro cutscene giving you your mission aside from that reading about the planet's ecosystem and perusing the logs of dead federation soldiers is entirely up to your discretion this carnage helps to build the threat of the metroids that you've been sent to exterminate and the federation's clearly sinister involvement calls into question the morality of your mission even more convincingly than the original the progression of metroid 2 remains the same hunt down metroids by traveling from area to area in a mostly linear fashion i'm not going to waste time saying the same things i said about metroid 2 so how about what's changed while you are still hunting down metroids various new bosses have been added to accommodate your new set of abilities you fight a flying chozo statue after getting the space jump probably one of the best uses for the ability in a combat scenario you get to fight saris in its natural habitat a really cool nod to fusion since it uses its speed booster hell even just this mole thing from the original has been upgraded so that you can use your morph ball bombs to launch it into the spikes above you rarely are morphball bombs ever used in serious fights so i really appreciate how unique this is pretty much every boss is challenging too especially this floating set of turrets this extends to the metroids which were the biggest problem with the original hunting them down could become repetitive seeing as the fights all feel the same am2r doesn't do a ton to make each fight stand out but it does enough to alleviate a lot of the tedium firstly they're much easier to fight now that their weak spots are more well defined in the original you sort of just had to hit them from the front but here you have to shoot directly at their weak spots this usually means dodging their attacks aiming diagonally and letting loose a missile unless you get a really good pattern though you can't just spam them shooting too many missiles will cause them to dodge and each metroid has a slightly unique set of behaviors some will dodge more often some will attack more often etc as they evolve of course the fights become more interesting and more deadly the big boys pack a mean punch and can fling you across the room if you aren't careful you need more precision to hit their weak spots and you don't get nearly as many opportunities as you do with the small fry at the very least most of them are quick fights so the task of hunting them down is a lot more satisfying you know what else is satisfying gearing up to fight the final boss and realizing i have 95 item collection am2r does this wonderful thing called giving you your upgrades at a steady pace and letting you pick up secrets along the way there's no end game victory lap you can just look for secrets you've got fun shine spark puzzles to solve too have i mentioned how cool the speed booster is it honestly feels like an essential metroid mechanic at this point there's so many cool things you can do with it i love that each area has a theme the tower area starts out without power so you have to travel inside to turn it back on you also get to blow up the reactor here which leads to a neat contextually fitting escape sequence the distribution center has been flooded due to damages incurred by saris this is also where you're introduced to the game's fast travel systems a series of tubes used to transport materials to different areas that you can just about squeeze into with your morph ball if you're going to be taking these areas one at a time i think it's fitting that they've evolved into more massive environments that are more fun to explore still it doesn't disrupt the pace or feel of the original you can 100 the game in a few hours if you're good enough and you're left with an ending that manages to capture the same questions enemies become sparse as you move further in everything becomes more quiet until you defeat the queen and leave with the baby metroid you've exterminated the metroids but for what reason and at what cost it's difficult for me to look at am2r as anything less than a perfect remake in my eyes it takes everything the original was attempting to do and modernizes it i honestly think in many regards it is an even more remarkable remake than zero mission which is why i'm left so frustrated by the other remake that exists [Music] where to begin i should start off by saying that i don't actually hate any of the games discussed in this video metroid has an appeal so specific that it's hard for me to get too upset as long as it can hit all the familiar beats samus returns is a fine metroid game one with a lot of passion and love poured into it you really get the feeling that they wanted metroid to make its triumphant return here it has a lot of cool new ideas aeon abilities are all entirely unique so they don't have to rely on the tried and true upgrades for the whole adventure slowing down time to run across disappearing blocks or becoming impervious to damage to make it through a batch of deadly poison all kinda fit the general metroid progression free aim is genuinely dope allowing for a degree of control metroid simply hasn't had before it's a shame that even free aim though takes away the ability to hold an up or down direction with the shoulder buttons now you have to aim diagonally while moving and can only free aim at a standstill feels like one step forward two steps back initially the melee counter seems like a neat way to spice up combat with weaker enemies it feels good to parry an enemy with proper timing and lay into them with some missiles it's especially flashy during certain boss fights and the trashy part of my brain can't help but appreciate that it also gets the basic metroid movement down pretty well despite the morph ball feeling clunky in a way that's difficult to describe don't worry though if you tap the touch screen you can instantly turn into morph ball mode i think this is where we start ripping into this one sorry to say samus returns has an obsession with the touchscreen that reeks of i'm a 2017 3ds game you pause the game on the touchscreen switch beams on the touchscreen control the map on the touchscreen switch missiles on the touch screen dare i say basic menu navigation sometimes feels clunkier than super metroid you can't actually pause during combat unless it's through the touchscreen itself and you also can't really seamlessly switch weapons it's most egregious with super missiles where you have to hold the r button then tap super missiles to use them i can't tell you how many times i forgot i was in super missile mode and completely wasted a few of them prompting me to stand there and slowly switch back beam upgrades are like this too because samus returns sees fit to return to the original's concept of beam styles except not really in actuality there are two beam types the normal damage beam and the ice beam the normal damage beam is upgraded to the wide beam wave beam and plasma beam throughout the game and you can't switch back meanwhile the ice beam serves as a way to one-shot enemies with missiles i can't quite say i understand this gotta be honest it doesn't retain anything that made the system conceptually interesting on the game boy and it kinda makes certain enemy types complete pushovers with the ice beam until you unlock the plasma beam and never want to switch back to the ice beam doesn't help that switching between them is the most awkward thing i've ever done in a video game i much prefer the direction am2r took where beam upgrades stacked and the ice beam was just a late game upgrade sure it's a little more generic but at least it makes sense and doesn't complicate the combat and the heat of the moment you also switched to the gravel beam with the touchscreen but for my entire first playthrough i didn't actually know that there was a context-sensitive way to switch to the grapple beam via free aim if you're aiming at a grapple point the beam is automatically selected which the game doesn't tell you about at all which begs the question why is the grapple beam on the touchscreen if it's just context sensitive anyway why should the other beams be touchscreen toggled why can't it just be like the [ __ ] aeon abilities bound to the d-pad i can't tell you how many boss fights in my footage you can see me just awkwardly standing there eating a hit because i wanted to switch to super missiles or the ice beam to actually do damage it's hard to explain but they've added so much on top of the base game and structured the world in such a way that it feels extremely forgettable like i can't even place where everything is from memory without relying on stuff the original and am2r were able to flesh out areas that were vast and spacious and am2r are cramped and claustrophobic here they cram every little pocket of space with stuff to the point where it becomes hard to recognize landmarks and make a mental map like you're supposed to do in metroid games doesn't help that basically every room has a bunch of enemies even in the final area of the game where there's supposed to be none of them save the metroids themselves there are even a multitude of puzzles and secrets to uncover here what was once just a huge room where you space jumped to the queen in silence is now this huge labyrinthine set of tunnels with power-ups and enemies and before that there are new linear areas that feel like they're padding the length of the game several hours beyond what it was ever intended to be can you honestly tell me anything distinctive about the final few areas of samus returns because what i remember is a long as [ __ ] boss fight where you dodge attacks until a weak point is shown resembling the worst of metroid prime's boss fights where when you die you have to watch the intro cut scene over again after which you can get the powerbomb and are subsequently sent through yet another area with a few metroids power-ups puzzles right after the last area full of metroid's power-ups and puzzles with basically the exact same visual layout what is the difference between these two segments of the map what is it building up to exactly why is it that the tower area now basically a water level is besieged on both sides by completely random lava rooms which blast a remix of magmor caverns every time you enter them for literally no reason what is the purpose of these rooms to give the various suit meaning they're so distracting and take away from my immersion every single time they don't make any sense to be placed where they are and feel like a poor attempt to tug at the nostalgic heartstrings of a player base that hasn't seen a metroid game in years which makes sense when you realize that ridley is now the final boss and not the queen remember how there's a quiet and reflective moment after saving the baby metroid in both the original and am2r you escape the planet together and think back on the purpose of your mission yeah samus returns chuck's that iconic moment in favor of turning the baby metroid into a power-up that sparks an end-game victory lap and also puts ridley into the mix to justify that end game lap to milk a precious few more hours onto a game which again clearly cannot handle the added weight you see crystals dotted throughout the game in practically every puzzle room and while not all of them require the baby metroid they do make obtaining these secrets easier provided you have it like you can skip genuinely interesting puzzles using the baby metroid and because some of these crystals literally cannot be bypassed without the baby metroid it means that you're gonna have to do a victory lap anyway so you may as well skip out on a puzzle entirely if you see an area with crystals and don't have the required power up like the power bombs or something the end game item hunt i despise from fusion and zero mission is encouraged here in the worst way possible at the worst possible moment it completely ruins one of my favorite sections in metroid so you can awkwardly stumble through the series of filler rooms they've tacked onto the game at every single point even though there are fast travel points because the world is so much bigger and so much more cumbersome to explore the end game lap feels even longer than it really should so prepare to spend several hours doing this am2r had less fast travel points but traversal felt so much easier since there was an abundance of spacious areas and almost every room connected with each other in logical ways there also were only a few added rooms meaning that the intelligent design of the original was mostly intact samus returns really is am2r but three times as long for no good reason the new boss fights are a big part of that one of metroid 2's biggest issues something that not even am2r could entirely escape criticism for was the overarching objective of hunting down the metroids it's hard to make this task exciting and fresh throughout the game and i think am2r did the best job it possibly could by making the fights more involved but ultimately still fast-paced you weren't in a room with a metroid for more than a couple minutes samus returns takes the opposite approach turning every single metroid fight into a huge spectacle and it destroys the game's pacing instead of a back and forth between fighters where their weak points are always exposed and you simply have to reach it samus returns opts to have moments of invulnerability for them where you're forced to dodge and wait for an opening you also get designated segments where you can perform the exact same flashy maneuver over and over again with the right timing the base metroids are fine i guess since they still don't take an incredibly long time to kill but the evolved metroids are absolutely worse the first evolution will run away to different rooms at random points forcing you to slowly bomb through small tunnels to start fighting it again and a single death means starting the whole tedious process over again keep in mind that this wouldn't be so bad if you weren't fighting several of these in a row because the next two evolved forms are actually kind of fun they don't hide their weak point nearly as much and it's a more kinetic fight where you avoid their attacks and sneak in damage wherever possible it's classic metroid but because they're more involved that means they're much longer than in the original or am2r and because samus returns is somewhat randomly one of the most difficult games in the series you're not only fighting this copy-paste long difficult boss fight several times in a row you're also going to have to do the whole thing again when you die and when attacks can do two or three energy tanks worth of damage yeah you'll be seeing this screen a lot doesn't help that energy and missile recharge stations are separate for some reason and are not baked into the save stations a lot of the time that means you have to hunt around for a while to find a recharge station before you fight a boss am2r just made everything one station saving the player a lot of time because you and i both know that we just look for these recharge stations when we're fighting a tough boss it would have made more sense to compile them into one it doesn't meaningfully increase the difficulty in a natural way to separate them it sucks too because the final metroid type is such a cool fight it really feels like a behemoth you need to rip open its chest before you can start doing damage and its beam laser is devastating every single attack packs a big punch as a single boss fight it's very effective but you fight this thing four [ __ ] times inexplicably the last time you do it he just has more health for no other reason than to prolong game time and make it more threatening i guess it's just so frustrating for every potential cool thing this game does it does something else that makes me want to tear my hair out why do some bosses feel like classic metroid and others feel more like the worst slowest parts of prime why does the screw attack bounce off of late game enemies robbing it of its usefulness for the sake of artificially increasing difficulty why do metroids not remain frozen for a while after you shoot them you have to awkwardly shoot an ice beam shot and then a missile to kill them it just feels unnatural why is it so bad at teaching you new things for the most part it has you interact with something that forces you to use a power up you just got but then there's just this added effect to the power bomb where if you're using the spider ball it magically shoots you across the screen like what at a standstill the power bomb literally does nothing to you why would it even do this and why are you never taught it i was so confused during the end game victory lap i had to look up how to clear certain rooms why is this remake shackled to the 3ds where genuinely well-built backgrounds and geometry look blurry and ugly due to the technical limitations and then of course to top it off you have the big final boss spectacle against ridley it's a really cool dynamic fight it would maybe even fit in an entirely new metroid game but it has absolutely no place being here and if you die you have to watch every cut scene again since there's no skip button why is ridley even here what is he after why is this happening look samus returns and i we don't really get along we have some fundamental disagreements about many things despite that despite how angry it made me how bored i was how it seemed to go on forever there were moments that i really did feel like i was playing a metroid game and i still got that hint of satisfaction when i kicked ridley's [ __ ] in and watched the credits i can feel the passion here i really can i just feel like that passion was taken too far put into things that just had no business being in a remake of metroid 2 and makes me all the more upset that am2r had to be taken down for this through this video i hope you can understand how 2d metroid has evolved over the years and why everyone has been clamoring for a new one especially seeing as the series has been stuck in remake limbo for nearly 20 years the announcement of metroid dread has me excited to see where mercury steam will take the franchise i might not be a big fan of samus returns but they clearly have a lot of love for metroid and if the pre-release trailers are anything to go by it seems like they were very receptive to criticism and may have just been held back by the inherent limitations of a 3ds remake if even samus returns can momentarily give me that giddy satisfying feeling only metroid can i honestly can't wait to see what they do with dread i'll be making a video on that very soon but until then if you haven't played a metroid have yourself some well-deserved metroid fun today [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: KingK

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Id: p_dQUgWQfWM

Length: 73min 44sec (4424 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021