Is it actually possible to satisfy Metroid fans?

[A Black Falcon]

So, Nintendo just released Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS. I don't have it, yet at least, but it looks really good, with great graphics, art design, and music, level designs which expand on the Game Boy original they are based on, and what sounds like pretty good gameplay and controls... and a lot of people are complaining. I hope that the game sells well and the complainers prove to be a minority, if if this game doesn't sell as well as it sounds like it should have maybe Nintendo should just give up on Metroid, these fans are impossible to please it seems...

[Dark Jaguar]

I've been hearing good things. Where are you hearing these complaints? The only complaint I can really lodge is that the 3D artwork just doesn't look as good as the 2D pixel art in the fan-made game. They both seem like good adaptations of the original though, and I'm glad to live in a world that has both.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, that probably was an exaggeration; many people are liking the game. As for the complaints though, one major complaint is that it's a remake of Metroid II, which some dislike for its linearity and such. And then there are complaints about the graphics (as you mention), that it's by MercurySteam, the absurdly overdone waves of anger over the fact that it is a 3DS game and not a Switch game, etc. But you can never please everyone so oh well.

... But yeah, Metroid Prime 4, I really wonder how that will turn out...

[Dark Jaguar]

I picked the new remake up. I haven't beaten it yet, but so far it's a pretty solid game. The entire Aeion system consists of "easy mode" switches like convenient scanners, extra shields, and so on, but one can safely ignore all of those abilities. The melee system isn't very complicated just yet (you knock the enemy back then shoot them) but I'm expecting a few more moves before the game is over. The linear nature of Metroid II is, to me, exactly why that game NEEDED a remake. Expanding on the world design to make it less linear with more branching paths is one thing AM2R did exactly right. I don't yet know if Nintendo's version has accomplished this, but I'll find out soon enough.

I do kinda wish it was on the 3DS, but it's not that big a deal. Most people interested in this have one at this point. I'm pretty sure this game had been in development long enough that releasing it for the "sure thing" made more sense than for a console that hadn't yet established itself. The Switch is getting good support, so it's not like it needed this specific game to be successful anyway. Yes, it would have been nice, but no I don't really care since I can play the game just fine.

Oh, about the 2D art. Samus Returns has some amazing art at the very start. It's the sort of thing you would see on an Atari game label, or like a sci-fi book cover. It's not "anime style", it's Metroid. It's amazing, and frankly it blows away the artwork at the start of AM2R. Now, the pixel art in AM2R is amazing stuff for the most part, but that opening and those bits of work, well, if nothing else they could have used some touching up. The art in Samus Returns? That one with Samus riding a missile while fending off a Metroid and simultaneously shooting at the Mother Brain needs to be a poster. If they turned each and every one of those into posters, people would buy them. All of them. (I would add that the artwork for AM2R's Metroid Queen also looks a bit rough. Her colors don't entirely match, and the rotational effects on her head when she tilts it don't do her sprites any favors.)

I will add one complaint about Samus Returns. The controls are mostly solid, but I prefer to play my 2D platformers with a d-pad. In this game, the d-pad is mapped to the cheatin' aeion abilities. That is, switching them. I would have mapped them to the right analog nub on the new 3DS, then allowed the player to use the d-pad for movement. The game allows full 360 directional aiming, but only when you hold down a button that holds Samus in place while you aim. Otherwise, it's standard 8 direction aiming. This is fine. I would just prefer to use the d-pad for normal movement quickly switching to the analog stick when I want to use 360 aiming.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I want to play that GBA Metroid game again, that was pretty sweet. Until the R shoulder button wore off and you needed crazy Bronson thumbs to depress it. Yes, thumbs, fingers wouldn't cut it, not even Bronson thumbs. No, not Pierce Brosnon, Charles Bronson, that crazy buff British prisoner.

Well that's my Metroid post, thanks for reading.

[Dark Jaguar]

Which GBA Metroid game? Fusion or Zero Mission? Zero Mission is great. Fusion's pretty good too, but Zero Mission is great.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Fusion, I want to say? Where you had to fight an alien Samus doppelganger.

[Dark Jaguar]

Yeah that's Fusion. Play Zero Mission! It's a lot more open and less guided by constant cut scenes. You can also find AM2R in the usual ways. Trying to take something off the internet is like taking pee out of a pool.

[A Black Falcon]

I haven't played as much of this game as I should since I got it a while ago, but it does seem to be pretty good. My one complaint is about the melee system; you've got to precisely time your melee counter button presses in a way that I don't like, it makes it kind of like a QTE. That's a major part of this game, so you need to do it, but it's not the best. Otherwise I like it, though. The graphics are great and look nice in 3d, the music's quite good, the controls otherwise are responsive and work well, the level designs are classic Metroid stuff, it's fun to explore around and find things, there's a nice mapping system... yeah, good game.

[Dark Jaguar]

You just have to figure out the timing of enemies and know when to hit it. The window is pretty big. I would argue the counter system does get too much of a focus in the redesign though.