Metroid: Samus Returns

It has been almost 15 years since the last 2D Metroid game came out. The fans never stopped wanting more, and Nintendo just didn't know how to continue the series. So we had Team Ninja's Metroid Other M, and no 2D entries, till today. So was Metroid Samus Returns worth the wait?

MercurySteam, the developers, are no strangers to the Metroidvania genre. Actually, now they worked on both games that made the genre starting with Castlevania Lords of Shadows 1/2/Mirrors of fate, and now Metroid: Samus Returns. Still, when I first saw that they were behind the development of the game I was skeptical since all the Castlevania games they worked on fell below my expectations.

The first thing you should know, Samus returns is a remake of the Gameboy game Metroid II: Return of Samus - such a clever title - so MercurySteam had some of their work already done, unlike Castlevania. But honestly, I didn't play the original game, yet I saw many changes from previous games in the series that made this entry stand out.

So, if you haven't played any Metroid 2D games previously, first WTF is wrong with you? Second, Metroid games are basically 2D side-scrollers built around exploration, combat, and great boss fights. When it comes to exploration, the first thing that really broke my heart is one of the abilities that eliminated a huge part of the exploration. The scanning ability. In previous games, you had to find secret pathways and hidden blocks to gain powerups or enter new locations. Yes, the old games were too vague and almost gave no indication to where those hidden blocks were, but to solve an issue by eliminating a huge aspect of the game just ruined the experience. They could have solved this problem by putting more subtle indicators to the hidden blocks instead of just making them BLINK BLINK BLINK HELLO IM BLOCK YOU WANT TO FIND!

Furthermore, when you open new areas you will see how the main structure of the map is just too simplistic. You start from the top and finish in the bottom. There is no foreplay in the level design. Older games had intersecting pathways where you start at the first level, pass to the second, return to the first to gain access to the fourth, and so on and so forth. It's just too simple.

When it comes to combat, there are new additions that I welcomed at the start, but they overstayed there welcome, unfortunately. For instance, the parry ability, where an enemy would charge at you and by pressing the parry button at the right time you would deflect its attack, and lock onto him for a finishing blow. The ability is awesome, but to have it play with each and every enemy is just too much. But I'll have to say, parrying three enemies back to back feels fucking awesome.

Another new addition to the combat is the free-aim. In previous games, you had 8 directions to shoot at, so if an enemy is attacking from the top left or right, you had to first aim at that angle, then move Samus fully to get the enemy in your sight. Thanks to the 3DS analog, you can now aim freely and shoot without moving. The developers also make it work further by adding a laser sight to her cannon.

When it comes to Boss fights, you will have to know a short part of the storyline. Samus came to this particular planet, hunting Metroids. So, from the start of the game, you will have a counter of how many Metroids you're supposed to hunt. So the majority of the Boss fights or more like 90% of them are Metroids. The Metroids evolve throughout the game, and the fights change, but still, they repeat way too often. Other than that, there are around four to five major Boss fights that are absolutely phenomenal, and make up for all the repetitiveness.

Power-ups are one of the most fun and important aspects of every Metroid game, and in MSR the same applies. You will get the usual abilities ranging from all sorts of beams, charge beam, screw attack, powerbomb, morph ball, etc. What the game adds more is a new set of abilities built around a new meter. You start with the worst, the scanning ability, then too much, much better abilities such as an armor, more powerful beam, and ill keep the rest for you to uncover.

In closing, the game in some ways lives up to the series, in other ways they let me down. There are some aspects that need patience, such as the repetitive boss fights but still, there is awesome major Boss fights, great puzzles, and beautiful soundtrack. lastly, all I could say, we finally got a new Metroid game, so shut the fuck up and play it.