![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroAfter defeating Mother Brain for the second time, Samus returns with an expedition to SR388, only to discover that a previously-unknown creature called the “X parasite” has infested the place…and her power suit. An injection of Metroid DNA saves her life, but the X are rapidly multiplying on the space station she’s on.
I have to say, I really appreciate the repercussions of Metroid genocide coming back to bite the Galactic Federation in the ass, here. You can’t just cull an entire species and not expect it to affect the ecosystem!
That said, this game has some issues. It’s much, much more hand-holdy than any other Metroid game I’ve played, and extremely linear: There seem to be virtually no ways to deviate from the path. Despite them locking doors with pretty much every power up, and there also being four color-coded security locks you need to unlock to open various doors, they still felt the need to include assorted hatches that just…don’t open until you’ve advanced the plot. It’s actually really annoying how penned in you are. And because of that, finding a secret path never feels like a neat bonus, because it’s always intended for you to find and, in fact, you need to find it to advance. The side bonuses are few, far between, and never far off the beaten path. This looks like a Metroidvania game, but given the complete lack of free roaming or sequence breaking, I’m not sure you can call it one.
Some interesting changes: If you don’t collect the free-floating X that function as energy and missile recharges, they’ll turn into more enemies. That’s an interesting choice but also a jerk move. Instead of having separate missiles and super missiles, the missiles just get upgrades like the beam does (missiles -> super missiles -> ice missiles -> diffusion ice missiles). For that matter, you never switch beams, you just get upgrades that layer on.
It’s also definitely a harder game than some of the other Metroids, especially the bosses—the bosses remind me of the worst of the Castlevania bosses, where you need to find the exact spot in the attack rhythm to deal damage, and then you need to do it a dozen more times. This also adds the bonus that after you beat each boss you need to fight another mini-boss Core-X parasite to actually win the battle. (The final boss sequence really pissed me off: You have to fight two versions of the SA-X, then you have a three-minute escape sequence that you really only have 45 seconds for, because that three minutes needs to include a scripted sequence, then a final boss battle, then enough time after the boss battle for a final escape cutscene. I used cheat codes and save states and still had to do it four times.)
I ended up with 46% item completion; I think you’re supposed to revisit all the areas after you get the Screw Attack and before fighting the final boss so you can collect all of the remaining energy and missile tanks.
The plot was clearly intended to leave open the possibility of there being more metroids after the last one was killed in Super Metroid. The directing computer, as you can probably guess, had been lying to Samus from the start, mostly about things like the secret Metroid breeding program on the station. But also that the Galactic Federation is made up of idiots who knew she’d try to solve the problem of the X by killing them all; and thinking that stalling her so they could try to retake the station was a good idea. (Politicians are morons everywhere. Another thing the series gets right!)
Overall: While the overall plot has some clever bits, the game itself is far too linear for what it purports to be and more difficult than I’m generally into. I suspect there’s a reason I haven’t played this in almost two decades.
I have to say, I really appreciate the repercussions of Metroid genocide coming back to bite the Galactic Federation in the ass, here. You can’t just cull an entire species and not expect it to affect the ecosystem!
That said, this game has some issues. It’s much, much more hand-holdy than any other Metroid game I’ve played, and extremely linear: There seem to be virtually no ways to deviate from the path. Despite them locking doors with pretty much every power up, and there also being four color-coded security locks you need to unlock to open various doors, they still felt the need to include assorted hatches that just…don’t open until you’ve advanced the plot. It’s actually really annoying how penned in you are. And because of that, finding a secret path never feels like a neat bonus, because it’s always intended for you to find and, in fact, you need to find it to advance. The side bonuses are few, far between, and never far off the beaten path. This looks like a Metroidvania game, but given the complete lack of free roaming or sequence breaking, I’m not sure you can call it one.
Some interesting changes: If you don’t collect the free-floating X that function as energy and missile recharges, they’ll turn into more enemies. That’s an interesting choice but also a jerk move. Instead of having separate missiles and super missiles, the missiles just get upgrades like the beam does (missiles -> super missiles -> ice missiles -> diffusion ice missiles). For that matter, you never switch beams, you just get upgrades that layer on.
It’s also definitely a harder game than some of the other Metroids, especially the bosses—the bosses remind me of the worst of the Castlevania bosses, where you need to find the exact spot in the attack rhythm to deal damage, and then you need to do it a dozen more times. This also adds the bonus that after you beat each boss you need to fight another mini-boss Core-X parasite to actually win the battle. (The final boss sequence really pissed me off: You have to fight two versions of the SA-X, then you have a three-minute escape sequence that you really only have 45 seconds for, because that three minutes needs to include a scripted sequence, then a final boss battle, then enough time after the boss battle for a final escape cutscene. I used cheat codes and save states and still had to do it four times.)
I ended up with 46% item completion; I think you’re supposed to revisit all the areas after you get the Screw Attack and before fighting the final boss so you can collect all of the remaining energy and missile tanks.
The plot was clearly intended to leave open the possibility of there being more metroids after the last one was killed in Super Metroid. The directing computer, as you can probably guess, had been lying to Samus from the start, mostly about things like the secret Metroid breeding program on the station. But also that the Galactic Federation is made up of idiots who knew she’d try to solve the problem of the X by killing them all; and thinking that stalling her so they could try to retake the station was a good idea. (Politicians are morons everywhere. Another thing the series gets right!)
Overall: While the overall plot has some clever bits, the game itself is far too linear for what it purports to be and more difficult than I’m generally into. I suspect there’s a reason I haven’t played this in almost two decades.
