Jess' Cool Forum

The Metroid topic is in captivity. The forum is at peace.

Personal history: Other than learning about Samus thanks to Brawl, there was a time as a kid when my cousin started going on about games in the series. As I did with various other things he was into, I naturally followed suit and engorged myself into the series as a whole, playing each entry I could get my hands on, and consuming info on the ones I couldn't via the internet. Some years after this, the series served as my entry into romhacking/modding.

Now for my takes on the games:
Metroid 1 - Time has not been kind to it, but I do find myself enjoying it every now and then, especially in comparison to other NES games that are just arcade-style shoot-or-dies. Also I love the FDS version's door noise.
Metroid II - The big killer tends to be the lack of a map and the samey level visuals, but thanks to support from the remakes, I've been able to better explore this one and admire it more.
Super Metroid - One of the big hitters, and the first one I played, I quite enjoy the eerie, atmospheric experience it has to offer, even if the controls don't totally align with my liking. I always dread fighting Ridley though.
Fusion - Probably my most-beaten game of any kind, I've always enjoyed this one's overall vibe, and I've always liked the variety of bosses. Linearity's not gonna stop this one from being so near and dear to my heart.
Prime 1 - Does a beautiful job introducing Samus to 3D, with unmatched visuals and sound design. The recent remaster was a Godsend, too.
Zero Mission - A short but sweet retake on Metroid 1 with swift and buttery physics.
Prime 2 - Oh man, this one's where it's at for me. The epic battle between light and darkness, with challenging bosses and sprawling environments, this one got burnt into my soul as a child. The Luminoth have cool designs, too.
Prime Hunters: First Hunt - Pretty neat for a DS pack-in title honestly. Music slaps too, even if it's sampled at 11025hz.
Prime Pinball - It's a better pinball experience than Mario Pinball Land, the one Fuse Games did before it.
Prime Hunters - People like to pretend this one didn't happen, but I've always had a soft spot for it. Even if the single player is kind of a joke, it does offer some of the nonlinearity the series is known for, and the Piston Cave skip is one of the first sequence breaks I was ever able to do in a game. Multiplayer's cool too.
Prime 3 - A bit more of a slog than the first two, and the other characters are just sorta there, but it brings some neat ideas to the table. The music is also a mixed bag, but the good tracks sure are good.
Trilogy - Good thing they brought the first two to the Wii, otherwise the wait for Prime 1's remaster would've been even more painful with less of a basis for KB+M.
Other M - Disregarding the story/characters, I like how they tried doing another take on 3D Metroid, but I find this one a bit too constrained, with only the very end being more open being kind of a bummer.
Blast - Haven't actually played this one, Nintendo Land, nor have I even owned a Wii U, but I saw a video when it was new and quite admired the amusement park-esque look on the Metroid enemies.
AM2R - Including this one because it was pretty much the new Metroid game to the fandom when it launched, and I also have a history of following its development as a kid. The weird juxtaposition of ZM sounds and stock sounds isn't enough for me to shy away from this impressive take on Metroid II, even if it goes a bit too far from the original identity, and more to the traditional series vibe established after Super.
Federation Force - Disregarding the reputation gained from the time of its reveal, I think it's a pretty neat take on things, the highlight from my aborted playthrough being that boss that almost seems like Serris in 3D. It definitely gets painful midway if you're playing solo, though.
Blast Ball - I didn't actually try this one. Good to know the Federation likes to do more than just sit on their bums all day and work, telling Samus off everytime she tries to interact, though.
Samus Returns - I'm kinda mixed on this one. The new creature designs absolutely rock, but the control is a bit much for the poor little 3DS (but maybe my mistake there was buying the OG variant), and I don't really agree with certain gameplay decisions, with the melee counter coming off as forced.
Dread - The first one I played through totally unspoiled, I quite enjoyed it for the most part, even if the bosses were more on the trial-and-error-side, the story had some weirdness, and the music was a bit drab. I'd much like to see what happens after this game.
Prime 4 - My uncle who works for Nintendo got special permission to let me review this one before they reveal it for the Ultra Switch NX 64 Revolution. It's about a forbidden romance between Samus and Sylux that they have to live out without getting caught by the Federation.

I LOVE METROID. I imagine much like many, I only got into the series because I recognised the character from Smash and wanted to learn more about them.

Cue kid me getting a second hand copy of Metroid Prime, possibly the single greatest introduction I could have had and what would become one of my favourite games of all time. It was thanks to Prime I ended up searching for a copy of Fusion, so I could unlock the bonus features, but then I found that game kicked ass too and I became a fast fan of the series ever since. The wait for Dread to continue on was so long...

At some point, I went back to play Super Metroid on an emulator, never had a SNES, but I was actually kind of put off by it, it just didn't control at all like I was used to from either the GBA titles or other SNES games. It took me revisiting it a while later for the movement of that game to finally click, and that jumped into my favourites games list ever since too.

We've had some ups and downs. I wanted Ridley in Smash for over a decade before he finally got in and waited even longer for Dread to exist, but I'm feeling pretty optimistic for the series right now. We're in a much better state than where Other M left it. :)

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that was very meh on Samus Returns. Especially after AM2R, which felt way, way more fun. Samus Returns just felt. So bad. The shoehorned in counter attack was just incredibly not fun.

Samus Returns was alright, but I wish I coulda played it on a different system. The 3DS just makes my hands hurt playing that game lmao as for AM2R, I liked it when it first came out, but the last time I played it, I was just like "mannnn" and I turned it off. Idk, something about being a game dev now and looking at that game with a different eye just made me go, hmm haha

I'm always so glad that Samus had an excellent transition to 3D. Prime 2 is an interesting one for me because like, I like it and I like to play it, but I don't like to play it often. I really gotta be in the mood for it, because like, it's a slog until the end I feel? Also always find it funny that I happened to go to the store the day Metroid Zero Mission came out, and I didn't keep up on games at the time, so I was just like "woah new metroid game jumpscare??" and got it. If I had to say one was my favorite, it's probably Fusion, but I also have a soft spot for Super Metroid as well, because that's the one that I grew up with. Metroid Prime is also quite amazing

Honestly, I'm fine with the way Samus Returns is though, because it allowed us to get Metroid Dread, which overall was much better. Like that game, but more and better

I’ve always bounced off Metroid games. The ones I tried didn’t engage me enough, story wise. This I should probably try Zero Mission and Fusion to see if those pull me in more.

Metroid will always be one of my favorite games franchises.
I could go on about my history and inspiration for hours if I wanted to.

Honestly after playing Metroid dread, I want to see a remake of Metroid fusion where they take the SA-X and make it function more like the Emmi but there isn't any dedicated "emmi" zones, at any point, the SA-X could show up and you'll either have to employ stealth or book it. Like that could legitimately be terrifying and I want that so bad, I want a Metroid game to put me on edge the entire time and make the SA-X legitimately threatening.

I've been so obsessed with this idea I actually had a dream I actually got to play this idea and it was so terrifying my dream made it like a nightmare lmao

I think that'd be a really neat idea. The SA-X sequences in Fusion as they are come off as more of a one-and-done experience, you're just ready to deal with it again on each subsequent playthrough. Similar feelings about the EMMI zones in Dread, since they're so obviously marked and you have a chance to situate yourself for something more terrifying. Something more unpredictable like your idea could live the whole concept up much more to how it tends to be advertised.

Now that I think of it, this does kinda remind me of the aspect of Prime Hunters where they just throw one of the enemy hunters into a random room, lock the room once you enter it, and have you defeat that hunter to unlock the room.

I think the issue is like, having a guy be able to track you across the entire game means there's so many weird edge cases that you have to account for. With the EMMI in their specific zones with the specific tiles that work with them, they can craft an experience for you while also making sure they can get all the weird edge cases resolved by keeping the scope manageable

Roxy wrote: ↑Mon Oct 30, 2023 6:44 pm

I think the issue is like, having a guy be able to track you across the entire game means there's so many weird edge cases that you have to account for. With the EMMI in their specific zones with the specific tiles that work with them, they can craft an experience for you while also making sure they can get all the weird edge cases resolved by keeping the scope manageable

I'm more so speaking of the idea, like the SA-X would still only be in those kind of zones but having it be more subtle where to the player doesn't know when it's going to happen like in the original, but not having it be scripted encounters every time.

Like from what I remember, the SA-X only ever has one encounter where you have to escape it, the only other direct confrontation being the boss.

I guess what I'm asking for is the emmi segments but there's not an obvious "here is the spooky zone" signs and more of a lenient patrol around their areas.

Like even in my dream, the part where it was chasing me was actually in the elevator HUB and to escape it I had to duck into one of the other sector elevators

Even as someone who is a huge fan of the SA-X and EMMI segments, I do kinda wish they cribbed from something like survival horror even more than they already do. As the series trend with Fusion and Dread seems to be leaning more and more into horror/thriller elements, I think something like REmake 2's Mr.X would fit really well in an outright metroidvania.

Anyway for my overall series thoughts: Dread is my absolute favorite with Fusion coming in second.