Metroid: Samus Returns

Metroid: Samus Returns is an easy recommendation and you can’t go wrong with this in your 3DS library. The team put a lot of work into polishing this remake and it shows. I can’t even tell who gets the better deal here between fans of the original or newcomers like me. All I can say is that this game makes me realize how much I miss a true Metroidvania game made by masters of the craft. If this is how Nintendo wants to pay homage to classic games, I say let’s go for more!

It's not perfect, but Metroid: Samus Returns is a resounding return to form for the series and a must-play for all 3DS owners.

There's nothing groundbreaking in Samus Returns, no element that strays too far from what’s established Metroid as a series all those years ago. Yet there doesn't need to be. For all of its imitators, nothing has ever completely captured what makes Metroid the captivating series that it is. There’s a mystifying quality that sparks a natural desire to see what strange things are waiting to be discovered. MercurySteam seems to understand this and has provided a striking reminder of how powerful Metroid can be.

Metroid: Samus Returns is a solid remake that doesn't reinvent the wheel or eclipse the high points of the franchise but represents an enjoyable and well-made return to what makes Metroid work. It's low on story and high on exploration, and that's all it needs to be. The frustrating moments are few and far between, and the 3DS iteration eclipses the Game Boy original in pretty much every way. It's a Metroid title that shows why the old 2D classics were popular, and it succeeds wonderfully. With a ton of hints dropped throughout the game about a new Metroid game after Samus Returns, it should be interesting to see what Mercury Steam can do with an original game.

Samus Returns is a return to form for our beloved hero and franchise. The game is fun and while inferior to AM2R in my eyes and fudges the atmosphere part, still has great graphics and music which make for a fantastic game for the 3DS and makes us finally say that Metroid is back.

Metroid: Samus Returns is a commendable re-imagining that has clearly been crafted with plenty of love and care by MercurySteam. Irritating control niggles aside, this is a great experience with fun combat, intuitive puzzles and absolutely stellar music.

Its ragged edges mean it feels more like a competent cover version that occasionally strays off key, rather than the genuine article. [Dec 2017, p.120]

This game is an absolute masterpiece. i simply have never played a better game than this. 10's across the board.

this game is super good for the most part, an amazing remake, but it just doesnt control very well, it also has the "3ds effect" of making me feel like im in purgatory whenever I play it

Good game, but quite flawed in some ways. The presentation is good, the exploration and powerup progression is fun, but the game just goes on for way too long (11-15 hours while the original Metroid II only takes approximately 5) and cannot really fill all that time with enough interesting stuff. The repetitive enemies get really annoying towards the end, ESPECIALLY the metroid boss fights, of which the later ones can become incredibly bullet-spongey; and the powerup progression slows down to a crawl in the late-game. The former factor is especially annoying since enemies respawn VERY fast, so if you find yourself hitting a dead-end or going in the wrong direction, congratulations, you get to fight all those enemies you just passed again! A special shoutout goes out to one of the most annoying foes in video game history, those little spider bots that can drain your Aeon gauge with their explosions, absolutely hate those f**kers. The controls can also be a little problematic, longer play-sessions on the 3DS tend to be quite cramp-inducing anyways, but a mechanically demanding game like this where you have total controller spaghetti going on makes it even worse. While the complicated controls aren't usually a problem, they can be during demanding situations like escape sequences or late-game boss fights. So yeah, not a bad game game and anybody who likes Metroid is probably going to enjoy it, but it's not one of the highlights of the series IMO.

In light of the new Metroid 5 being announced, I felt the need to revisit this trainwreck falling off the Hindenburg. I was not disappointed, it was as aggravating as I remember. Now, before the calls of, "git gud", or "this is how old school Metroid used to be!", I'd like to say I was playing Metroid when there was only one game; it had yet to be a franchise. I could avoid going in depth by saying just one thing: the game has a very, very generous continue system for when you die. The programmers knew you'd be dying a lot, and rather than do their jobs and balance, they decided smoking crack was a reasonable substitute. There's a chase scene that has multiple continue points inside it. So, if they were going for old school Metroid feel, they wouldn't have a continue system. It's a catch all for their lazy programming. Speaking of which! Samus apparently attended that crack party with the programmers, bc she now controls and aims like a refrigerator full of Mogwai that just devoured all the food half past midnight. Her aiming is *abysmal*. I actually took a photo of my thumb holding the direction I wished to aim, with her laser pointer in full view. They were not pointing even at an attempt in the same direction. I'd say a ten to fifteen degree difference at minimum. Now, this problem is negligible if you're taking a nice, peaceful interplanetary stroll. The game, however, forces you to utilize aiming, quickly and precisely, several times. Sev. Er. Al. The previously mentioned (instant death) chase scene comes back to mind here, though it's far from the only one. Finally there's the counterattack function. Dear gods somebody had some unearned pride over this, bc they shoehorn it in EVERYWHERE. Gone are the days of running and blasting through filler tunnels. Now you're stopping every five seconds, waiting for the counterattack signal. In closing, anyone who gave Other M crap, but fluffed this **** probably the same people who liked Daikatana; it just feels like the Venn diagram between those two is a giant circle; this game is very lazily programmed, but with just enough fluff and filler to try to distract you from it. Insult to injury? You unlock a hard mode upon completion. No thanks, I have teabagging a hungry crocodile JUST above playing Samus Returns ever again. Once I cross that off the list, we'll see.

Warning, this game suffers from poor controls and often unfair gameplay. Blind drops into pits of acid or lava, or just bumping against enemies or being hit by them when entering a room without having a moment to counter or avoid. Often the controls are frankly unwieldy, forcing you to have precise aim whilst using the grappling beam to swing from point to point over a pool of lava that does insane damage. In this scenario even the exact order of aim and button presses needs to be precise or you'll wind up doing something totally different from what you intended. Control direction that is inversed sometimes from what you would expect when using spider ball. Juggling to switch between aion powers with the dpad whilst holding the shoulder buttons and circle pad to aim whilst pressing face buttons to fire, it can be a bit too much. And quite frankly it brings back really bad memories from bad control schemes back in the nes & snes era. Add to that that the environment is extremely repetitive and boring, with no story and world building at all. And the most annoying part that the environment is built like a maze to be extremely obtuse to traverse, which is only made slightly easier down the line when extra abilities are unlocked. But unlike prime, where your abilities are keys to doors, here your abilities from even late game are needed for normal traversal in all areas. So be prepared to take that detour in a stupid morph ball maze for the first 6 hours of the game until you finally get the ability you need to just open the door to bypass that horrible experience. Prime games never ever used ability unlocks in that way, because that is very poor gameplay design. I will also challenge you to tell me the difference between each colour block you can blast or each door icon on your minimap. It's impossible. They are extremely non descript. Again, prime was simple in this regard, each color door corresponds to each beam type using the same color. Color association. It works. Here in Samus returns they chose to throw that out of the window. I'm also baffled by why every blastable bit or crack is hidden with little or even no sign that it is there. It's integral to actually playing the game. If it weren't for the scan pulse, you would be blasting and bombing every cell of the level to find where the exit of a room is. Yet again what's wrong with showing cracked walls ? Zelda does it, metroid prime does it. Seems like great game design. Yet Samus returns ignores that too. In the grand scheme of things these are annoyances that can be largely overcome or ignored, but there is one point in the game where all these bits come together in a glorious cocktail of infuriating madness. It's like it is specifically designed to test your determination to actually finish this game. All the bad parts meld together, punishing difficulty, controls that never seem to do exactly what you want. Unfair blind drops. Level design that is a horrible maze mess and annoying to traverse. It all comes together in this part where you'll genuinely question wether this is worth the effort. I also take issue with the worldbuilding and environment. It is extremely repetitive, as are the boss fights and all enemies for that matter. There is no logic at all to the setting of the environment. Gone are the regions of prime. With ruins, ice temples, crash sites, underwater areas, etc. Each area having defense areas, installations, power facilities, laboratories with a logical reason for it being there. In Samus returns it's just level arenas dressed up to resemble a jungle theme, ruins theme, lava theme. But with none of the intricate detail and worldbuilding, backstory and logic. Just some generic hallways in maze form to connect it all. It's a gigantic step down from prime in this regard. I'm terribly afraid of what this means for prime 4 if retro is not at the helm and Samus returns is heralded as being one of the best metroid games in years. To me this is metroid watered down. It's not a terrible game but there are things in there that I deem unacceptable. If the gameplay wasn't borked it would have received a 7.