The Metroid 2 Effect - Is this real or am I insane

[Chin of Campbell]

Metroid 2 used to be considered a black sheep in the franchise, long before a certain other game came along. Nobody particularly cared about it or liked it.

Then, when AM2R and Samus Returns came out, suddenly it was everyone's favorite Metroid game and these remakes were shitting on its legacy of isolation and horror etc etc etc. (Personally I love both and even loved Metroid 2 long before either, I have fond memories of being called a faggot on /v/ for calling it an underrated gem.)

What is this phenomenon called? Has it happened with other things?

 

[Geralt of Rivia]

That sort of phenomenon in my opinion applied to the Star Wars prequels, people gave Lucas a lot of shit for them but as soon as the Disney sequels came out, they were like the Godfather Part 2.

I'm not exactly sure what to call it, maybe just nostalgia clarity or something like that.

 

[Uncle Warren]

It's called "It could be worse." That being said as someone untainted by rose tinted glasses, Metroid 2 was pretty good. Never played SR.

 

[LullerDerbyRollin]

I liked Metroid 2 and a lot of the ideas it had both mechanically and visually it had to crawl so Super Metroid could walk. I honestly kinda hate SM's fanbase as petty as it sounds, they're annoying zealots and everything else must be beneath SM or be put in its place. I've actually seen that mentality and it sucks when a lot of the Metroid games try to do their own thing. Honestly, maybe that has something to do with this "Metroid 2" effect as Campbell is calling it. That so many for the longest time bashed on something, then worse comes out and suddenly it's okay to like things, except whatever gets to be the newest black sheep.

I really do love classic Nestroid and Metroid 2.

It's similar to the fate Zelda games have.

 

[Red Hood]

When will it be Zelda 2's time?

 

[Chin of Campbell]

When will it be Zelda 2's time?

The guys who made the Megaman Zero series and more recently the Gunvolt games have apparently asked Nintendo multiple times for a crack at it, so maybe one day.

 

[Marissa Moira]

That sort of phenomenon in my opinion applied to the Star Wars prequels, people gave Lucas a lot of shit for them but as soon as the Disney sequels came out, they were like the Godfather Part 2.

I'm not exactly sure what to call it, maybe just nostalgia clarity or something like that.

It's called Lowering the bar, now suddenly the previous low point isn't the lowest anymore.

 

[Big Ruski]

Star Wars Kotor 2 comes to mind. The game was pretty broken and a lot of cut content was missing at launch. It got patched and fixed over the years tho. What really blew it into the mainstream was when The Last Jedi came out and nerds were citing the game as a better example of deconstruction then the movie.

There was also that Philosophy of Kreia video that amassed like 5-7 million views on YouTube. The video furthered the game's popularity as well. Its a good vid but the creator is some loli lovin lolcow that recently got a thread on here. Rikafag I think his name was.

 

[Chin of Campbell]

I get what a lot of you are saying about it being a lower point, but most opinions of Samus Returns are that it's quite good, if not suffering from some of the same problems as its namesake. The thing I'm talking about is more about overselling the original to a ridiculous degree. It's like nostalgia for a thing they don't have nostalgia for.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

I don't think Metroid 2 wasn't as black sheep as Zelda 2, Final Fantasy 2 or Super Mario Bros 2 (japan or us) tho. It was a good game that was on shittier hardware that gotten remade like Link's Awakening.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

nostalgia clarity

"wow this is crap"

[even crappier thing comes out]

"eh it wasn't not so bad"

 

[Friendly Primarina]

When Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out, everyone was claiming that the originals were their favorite games. I remember people hating those games when they came out, largely for the lack of a day/night cycle (which the previous games had) and the inability to transfer pokémon from previous games (which, again, was a feature in Gold/Silver/Crystal)..

 

[Just Here for A and H]

That sort of phenomenon in my opinion applied to the Star Wars prequels, people gave Lucas a lot of shit for them but as soon as the Disney sequels came out, they were like the Godfather Part 2.

I've always chalked this up to the people who were like 10 when Episode I-III came out are just defending it because it was their favorite when they were kids, same with Gen X/early Gen Y with the OT.

 

[byuu]

I've always chalked this up to the people who were like 10 when Episode I-III came out are just defending it because it was their favorite when they were kids, same with Gen X/early Gen Y with the OT.

I don't think that even little kids liked the actual prequel movies. It's more likely that they liked some Star Wars toy, or game, or the clone wars show and bought into the whole marketing hype at the time.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I've noticed this phenomena of games getting reevaluated too.

Metal Gear Solid 2 is another example, most gamers treated it as an embarrassing disappointment until now it's hailed as a masterpiece because it predicted the future.

Wind Waker is another example too, people didn't like toon Link, now it's considered a classic, it's the same deal with Super Mario Sunshine, it was seen as just a souped up Mario 64, now it's considered a classic, unless it was Metroid Prime or Smash Bros Melee the entire GameCube lineup did not get the respect it deserved at the time.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Metroid 2's issue was just that it was on Gameboy, which is only an issue when you factor in Super Metroid coming out IMO. It was still better than original Metroid (which IMO is complete ass even for an NES game)

AM2R was just like really fucking good.

 

[Coelacanth]

When Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire came out, everyone was claiming that the originals were their favorite games. I remember people hating those games when they came out, largely for the lack of a day/night cycle (which the previous games had) and the inability to transfer pokémon from previous games (which, again, was a feature in Gold/Silver/Crystal)..

I remember that too. I was one of the people who loved Gen 3 games from the start even if they didn't have some of the features that GSC had and I remember getting royally shat upon in forums such as Serebii for my opinion.

Of course when the remakes came out I was then shat upon again for not liking them.

 

[Lone MacReady]

It's called Lowering the bar, now suddenly the previous low point isn't the lowest anymore.

Everyone was riding the high of the concluded Prime Trilogy, only to be hit with the MOM game summer 2010. Then there was 6 years of nothing mirroring the draught post-Super, and all we got was a neon stiletto-heel Samus in Smash sporting her suit from fucking MOM (why Sakurai?). Everyone was ready for a SAFE standard Metroid game after all that, but they got FedForce instead. Certainly not a bad game (NLG doesn't make bad games), but it was completely unremarkable, total 180 from what the Fans actually wanted at the time. To make Nintendo's ball dropping worse, AM2R released around the same time, and on Metroid's 30th Birthday at that. A fan game turned out to be a better Metroid game than anything Nintendo released in the past 9 years since Prime 3.

AM2R was quickly killed by the salt-filled company, on Metroid's birthday. Out of that mess you had two groups, people like me who avoided the next game out of spite (and cause of Sakamoto), and the Ninty consoomers. Didn't really matter what came out at the time, so long as it wasn't a total disaster and relatively close to what ""fans"" wanted. We got Nintendo's own sub-par version of Metroid 2, Samus Returns. While Inferior to AM2R in all the ways that matter, Samus Returns was shiny and "official" and fans were simply glad they didn't get another game of canon-destroying, retconning garbage. It's been nearly 4 years since then, and Nintendo has subsequently ball-tickled some of us back for the moment with the prospect of getting a good Prime 4. But we take everything with 2 grains of salt now, killing AM2R on Metroid's B-day was some petty shit.

 

[Judge Dredd]

What is this phenomenon called? Has it happened with other things?

"wow this is crap"

[even crappier thing comes out]

"eh it wasn't not so bad"

The Sonic Cycle?


As for games this happened to. I've not seen Silent Hill mentioned. Silent Hill 4 was a huge turd when it released, but since then western devs and Konami turned the franchise into a cynical cash cow that completely misses the point. Now Silent Hill fans pretend 4 was an underappreciated classic, unironically praising things like unkillable enemies that damage you just by being in the same room as you, and a plot twist where a man thinks an apartment is his mother, because at least it's not SH Downcoming, HD Collection, or pachinko.


One that people generally agree on, Starfox Assault. I liked it at release, but it was hated by the fanbase because it was short, and on foot missions were a betrayal. Since then, the series have devolved so much (Command, Zero) that Assault is viewed as almost the last great Starfox game.

 

[Calandrino]

Metroid 2 is my favorite. I thought the whole reason it got two remakes in the first place was because everybody else hated it. I have not tried them, but Zero Mission is more a sequel to SM than a remake of M1, and I kinda gathered the two M2 remakes were more or less in that boat. Anyway, Metroid 2 being a spooky black-and-white hidden gem horror game has been the "hipster" take long before the remakes, although I happen to agree with it.