Metroid general

[Radical Cadre]

Haven't played it but if it's anything like Samus Returns(from the same Spaniard developers)
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That is more or less the issue. I went into it hoping that MercurySteam had learned a few things after making Samus Returns. And they did; like I said, the game they made came out fine. But it is distinctly lacking when it comes to how fleshed out the world is. They did a great job at masking how linear the game actually is, but ultimately that exploration element is gone. I did enjoy Samus Returns well enough and Dread ended up being much better, but it is not the return to form that some people claim it to be. It's an alright game.

@BrunoMattei I swear to god I'm so mad at you right now. If you weren't my idol and if it wasn't a huge honor to be in the same forum thread as you I'd probably be even more mad.

 

[Sable]

Haven't played it but if it's anything like Samus Returns(from the same Spaniard developers)

It doesn't have the main issues that Samus Returns has i.e the melee counter destroying flow entirely and being shackled to both Metroid II and the 3DS.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

It doesn't have the main issues that Samus Returns has i.e the melee counter destroying flow entirely and being shackled to both Metroid II and the 3DS.

Really? The flow being destroyed by shit flying up my ass when traversing known areas was what really soured me on Samus Returns.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Well in that case, skip Dread and go directly to the Prime games. And then continue skipping Dread until you feel like playing a good game but a lame Metroid game. I liked Dread but on the whole found it to be a frustrating experience. The exploration is very stripped down and the movement is fast, fluid and fun until it isn't for inexplicable reasons. Whoever programmed the double jump somehow managed to make it worse than it has ever been. Still a fine game; but don't let the infrequency of Metroid releases inflate its score.

I'm already finding these games to be fairly linear, at least when compared to the Castlevanias that are in a similar style.

In fact as someone that's long been a fan of the "Metroidvania" Castlevanias but is now playing these Metroids for the first time I'd say the two are pretty different from each other to where I'm not sure lumping them in together like that makes sense.

I mean there are obvious similarities but the Castlevanias seem like they have a little more focus on actual exploration and more things to discover than just another missile, health upgrade etc.

For example in Aria of Sorrow, in order to get the true ending you have to find 3 books in 3 out of the way locations that can easily be missed, similar deal with Symphony of The Night, unless I'm missing something there's not really anything like that in these Metroids, you do plenty of backtracking but there's more of a clear line of progress imo.

So if Dread is a little more linear it doesn't bother me.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

The path of Metroid is becoming more linear and streamlined.

This started 20 years ago with Fusion. I thought us SuperBoomers came to grips with this by now.

 

[Radical Cadre]

The path of Metroid is becoming more linear and streamlined.

This started 20 years ago with Fusion. I thought us SuperBoomers came to grips with this by now.

Apex Boomers such as myself never settle for anything.

 

[Back me up!]

I've gotten back into this series recently, prior to now all I had played and beaten was Super Metroid.

But first off I played and beat Metroid Fusion, it may not be as good as Super but it's still pretty great, I do wish there were more "space station" type environments like crew quarters and less biomes recreating planets, but it's still really cool.

Now I'm playing Zero Mission which is also a blast and next up will be Dread, maybe not now but at some point this year I'd also like to play the Prime trilogy.

I remembered Super being great but I still forgot how great this series is, Samus' movement is so fast, fluid and fun to control and the progression really is refreshingly different than most 2D games "just keep walking to the right" approach.

After you finish Zero you should move to Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R) fan game, which, quit frankly, is vastly superior to Samus Returns. Its Metroid 2 done in the Zero Mission style with expanded lore, areas, and even additional notes with much more interesting boss fights and areas.

You can download the base game here: https://am2r-another-metroid-2-remake.en.uptodown.com/windows
And then get the fan made launcher to add in extra patches and High Quality music: https://www.reddit.com/r/AM2R/comments/ry4uni/am2rlauncher_220_release/

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Huh, I was't aware that AM2R kept getting updates after the takedown. And here I've been just playing the original version this whole time.

 

[Back me up!]

Yeah, the original dev did a few updates, got the Cease and Desist and basically stopped while basically giving the code for people to updates/add in stuff ( I think the reddit crew was able to add in multiplayer/pvp and mod support) while porting the game to Mac/Android/Linux. I think there is suppose to be a complete rework/update of the game coming but its taking time.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I've reached a confusing point in Zero Mission, I beat Mother Brain which was originally the ending of the game and am now in the "zero suit" bonus scenario, but there was a yellow door in the original map I never gained the ability to unlock, did I miss something or do you go back to the original map at some point?

I had the foresight to copy my save before the mother brain fight but I'd hate to have to redo that.

 

[Sable]

I've reached a confusing point in Zero Mission, I beat Mother Brain which was originally the ending of the game and am now in the "zero suit" bonus scenario, but there was a yellow door in the original map I never gained the ability to unlock, did I miss something or do you go back to the original map at some point?

I had the foresight to copy my save before the mother brain fight but I'd hate to have to redo that.

You can get back to the main area from the new area once you have the power bombs, IIRC.

If you've played super you'll understand exactly what to do and where to do it.

If not, it won't take you long anyway.

 

[Dom Cruise]

You can get back to the main area from the new area once you have the power bombs, IIRC.

If you've played super you'll understand exactly what to do and where to do it.

If not, it won't take you long anyway.

Thanks for the quick reply and I think I know what you're talking about.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Just a small thing that bothered me about Fusion. The first thing you do when you go down into the breeding colonies is to fix the atmosphere regulators in SRX because "the X are adjusting them to suit their needs (paraphrased)." My question is: Why? If SRX is supposed to be a perfect recreation of SR-388 why would they need to adjust the atmosphere? Like I said, just a tiny thing but it bugs me.

Another odd decision in Zero Mission is to make the Pirate Mothership not the Wrecked Ship from Super. It's in more or less the right location, has the right enemies (Atomics and those shuffling tin can robots) and even has a glass tube like in Maridia. It would have been a neat way to tie the two areas together. Granted, there is an area in ZM that is supposed to be the actual Wrecked Ship, but still...

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Just a small thing that bothered me about Fusion. The first thing you do when you go down into the breeding colonies is to fix the atmosphere regulators in SRX because "the X are adjusting them to suit their needs (paraphrased)." My question is: Why? If SRX is supposed to be a perfect recreation of SR-388 why would they need to adjust the atmosphere? Like I said, just a tiny thing but it bugs me.

Another odd decision in Zero Mission is to make the Pirate Mothership not the Wrecked Ship from Super. It's in more or less the right location, has the right enemies (Atomics and those shuffling tin can robots) and even has a glass tube like in Maridia. It would have been a neat way to tie the two areas together. Granted, there is an area in ZM that is supposed to be the actual Wrecked Ship, but still...

Funny enough, I believe this was done to stay in line with the Super Metroid instruction manual which stated the wrecked ship was from an ancient civilization and not the Space Pirates.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Funny enough, I believe this was done to stay in line with the Super Metroid instruction manual which stated the wrecked ship was from an ancient civilization and not the Space Pirates.

That makes sense. FWIW It's neat that you can recognize this area in ZM

as this area from Super

I guess the Mothership's explosion blew the top layer of the surface/Chozodia away.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Finished Zero Mission but never found myself back in the main map, only in the mothership and Chozodia, again maybe I missed something but I was in a hurry to finish it.

But I copied another save file in case I get really curious and do want to explore some more without restarting the game, for now I'm done though.

Feels great to have finally played these GBA Metroids after close to 20 years in both instances.

I'm gonna take a break but looking forward to Dread next.

Just a small thing that bothered me about Fusion. The first thing you do when you go down into the breeding colonies is to fix the atmosphere regulators in SRX because "the X are adjusting them to suit their needs (paraphrased)." My question is: Why? If SRX is supposed to be a perfect recreation of SR-388 why would they need to adjust the atmosphere? Like I said, just a tiny thing but it bugs me.

To make things easier for them to replicate? It wasn't about trying to survive, but maybe a different atmosphere would make them able to replicate that much faster.

Another odd decision in Zero Mission is to make the Pirate Mothership not the Wrecked Ship from Super. It's in more or less the right location, has the right enemies (Atomics and those shuffling tin can robots) and even has a glass tube like in Maridia. It would have been a neat way to tie the two areas together. Granted, there is an area in ZM that is supposed to be the actual Wrecked Ship, but still...

As ProblematicUser420 pointed out it's because the wrecked ship is supposed to be ancient.

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Finished Zero Mission but never found myself back in the main map, only in the mothership and Chozodia, again maybe I missed something but I was in a hurry to finish it.

You get back into the main map by power bombing the glass tube connecting Chozodia and the Mothership, then go down to the left (though there's an upgrade down the right side IIRC).

 

[Dom Cruise]

You get back into the main map by power bombing the glass tube connecting Chozodia and the Mothership, then go down to the left (though there's an upgrade down the right side IIRC).

Ohhhhh, I see, I was wondering if there was something up with that glass tube given the history of breaking them in past Metroids.

But I didn't have time to go exploring too much since I really wanted to see the credits roll before putting the game down again, if the mood hits me I'll reload a save and do so but I'm done for now.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Ohhhhh, I see, I was wondering if there was something up with that glass tube given the history of breaking them in past Metroids.

God Damn, Dom. Sometimes I really worry about you lol

 

[Friendly Primarina]

Random Super Metroid fact: Enemies frozen in Norfair thaw out faster due to the higher ambient temperature. Doesn't affect the game much, I just thought it was neat.

Speaking of Super Metroid, has anyone ever got the Spore Spawn skip super missile trick to work consistently? I've seen tutorials and videos and I swear it just works whenever it feels like it.