Metroid

[Videomaster21XX]

Making steady progress through the game. Got the Screw attack last night. Went around and got a couple of those speed booster puzzles. I appreciate there are ways to do them without ever having to 'bounce off the walls' because I just can't get that down.

I do enjoy the game, but better than Super Metroid? No. Not even close. Hell Zero Mission is a better game. This is maybe on par with Fusion, though I might have Fusion be a step above this one.

The bosses aren't too bad. Yes they are challenging, but it's all a pattern. Learn the pattern and you eventually can get through the fight with little damage.

That being said, I don't EVER remember Samus being this fragile when playing the old games. In the old games sure there might be one or two attacks from a boss that could really wipe your health out, but I swear here it's like 80% of the attacks take an energy tank or two.

Also as some have said, there are just too many damn mini boss encounters. It's just annoying. I just want to walk into a new place and explore. I don't want to have to worry about being jumped by some mini boss ever minute.

AND that brings me to the worst thing about this game. The EMMI zones. They aren't fun. At all. Invincible enemies need to stop being a thing. I don't care if you can't kill it, but you need to be able to stun it or SOMETHING.

Last one I dealt with was the one that if it hits you with it's scanner. Once it scans you, you're tagged so you can't go Phantom to hide, AND you're underwater a lot! So you move ever so slowly! Isn't this fun!?

Well true to the game's name. I dread going in there that's for sure. However I'm not supposed to dread playing your game. That's a failure in my eyes.

Thankfully there isn't so much bad that it outweighs the good. The mini bosses are annoying, but not too hard to take out. My main issue is always going to be these EMMI. At least with the SA-X I could touch the stupid thing and keep running. Not the EMMI though! Oh you tapped it? Here's a one death kill screen! Hope you got one of those counters off or you're screwed!

The checkpoints are the only saving grace. I can tell you flat out, if those weren't there, this game would be sooooooo much lower in ranking.

 

[Caldwin]

Fair. I overall love it. I have said a couple times "cut me some hugging slack." I have gone from love to hate to love again with this game. If I could make one single change to this game, it would be to at least nerf the EMMIs.

But like you said, the bad doesn't outweigh the good in the end.

I will say though, I did take the past couple days off. That final boss is just a beast. Also, Sora just came out for Smash, so I may be playing that for a bit. I also watched the ending on YouTube, so the need for completion has been lessened.

But I do every intention of coming back to it at some point.

 

[Thefakelink]

I found the EMMIs more of an annoyance than anything. Not so bad that I didn’t want to pick up the game again. Definitely not stirring up feelings of “Dread”, more like “ok let me try a workaround for next time”. I think Fusion was a lot more effective in creating a tense atmosphere. I still think Fusion and Dread should’ve swapped titles.

 

[Sjogre]

The impact of the EMMI definitely wore off over time.

At first they're a terror, then they're a chore, then you realize that Samus can platform slightly faster so it's actually a race. Seriously, the best advice I can offer is to keep moving and remember to use all of Samus' movement abilities.

Even that underwater section with the purple EMMI is manageable when you realize that Samus can use the grapple beam to zip around under water.

The SA-X only encountered Samus in setpieces, which had the advantage of being crafted for impact but at the cost of being more predictable. Honestly, I think that the EMMI needed more of both. Some more setpieces would have allowed the EMMI to threatening in a wider variety of ways, while having less set patrol routes would have made entering a zone less predictable.

As is, you know that the EMMI is always going to be fairly close to your entry point, so you just need to keep up a good pace while it follows you. With a wider patrol zone, it might be right next to you, or you might get out without catching sight of it. Or it might be camping the exit that you want to use, so you have to figure out how to lure it out of position.

Call it a good sophmore effort. They've got the basics down, but the hunter enemy still needs work to stay interesting.

In retrospect, letting Samus use the ice missiles to freeze the SA-X actually meant that there was slightly more variety to how the player could deal with her.

 

[Caldwin]

The one game I have that Caldwin didn't show is Federation Force, but I have a feeling the reason is people don't consider it an actual Metroid game?

No, I don't have Federation Forces. I could have gotten it if I'd wanted it. But as a Metroid fan, I'd be embarrassed to have it in my collection.

So just because it was the one game with a Metroid title that I don't own, I did get Fedeeration Force from Ebay and it just arrived today. Okay graphics, decent controls. I only played the first mission. It's all well and good. But if it doesn't follow Samus, it just isn't Metroid. Those marine designs could have just as well have been Halo or Doom.

Honestly, decent game. But it feels like they only slapped the Metroid name on it to draw attention away from Other M.

 

[Caldwin]

My Amiibo came today

I also got to phase 3 of Raven Beak. Still haven't beaten it...but...progress!

 

[Haze Arquebus]

Got it cleared yesterday. That lead-in to phase 3 is cool as hell.

 

[Thefakelink]

Nice find. Hope you clear it soon.

 

[Caldwin]

Holy hug, I ******* beat it! Holy jive, what a massive adrenaline dump! I can't believe it. I ******* beat it!

Edit to add:
12:22:28 as my finish time.
And hell no, I do not want to try Hard Mode. *faints*

 

[Videomaster21XX]

I'm trying to find 100% items before beating it. While I appreciate you can beat the shinespark puzzles without the wall jump, some of these can go straight to hell.

This one in particular can rot in hell. This isn't even how I finally managed it either. I don't know how he's wall jumping and NOT flying into the block wall, because that's what happened to me every time. I'd either hit the wall just above the shootable blocks and lose the shinespark, or I'd manage to roll into a ball, but I'd literally roll into a ball and roll through the entire passageway, losing my shinespark because you can't push down to save it in ball form.

I finally got it by stopping right before the door he jumps off of, hitting down just in time to save the energy. Jumping up there and shooting the blocks with the wave beam. Then using the cross bomb to bypass the BS breakable blocks, then laying a bomb just before hitting the jump button and got it. Took me the better part of an hour.

Never again.

 

[Caldwin]

I've never been good with shine-sparking. That's why I just look at what I got, ask my self "do I really need to even try for 100%?" When I saw how many things had to be collected using the shinespark, I was like...hug no!

 

[Thefakelink]

I feel the same way. Dread was the first Metroid where I actually tried the shinespark puzzles (not without help from YouTube). But I remember playing ZM and seeing Speed Boost blocks tucked away underneath rocks and platforms with no obvious means of access, let alone room to speed up. I gave up on 100% pretty quick.

 

[Exatron]

I'm trying to find 100% items before beating it. While I appreciate you can beat the shinespark puzzles without the wall jump, some of these can go straight to hell.

This one in particular can rot in hell. This isn't even how I finally managed it either. I don't know how he's wall jumping and NOT flying into the block wall, because that's what happened to me every time. I'd either hit the wall just above the shootable blocks and lose the shinespark, or I'd manage to roll into a ball, but I'd literally roll into a ball and roll through the entire passageway, losing my shinespark because you can't push down to save it in ball form.

I finally got it by stopping right before the door he jumps off of, hitting down just in time to save the energy. Jumping up there and shooting the blocks with the wave beam. Then using the cross bomb to bypass the BS breakable blocks, then laying a bomb just before hitting the jump button and got it. Took me the better part of an hour.

Never again.

That's the last item I got, and the only one I got help with. Or rather, my wife looked it up after I'd spent a while trying. I hadn't given up trying to figure it out yet, but I don't know if I would have ever gotten it without looking it up myself. What I was missing is that I didn't know you could maintain speed through a wall jump. I was trying to charge on the floor below, then rush up there before I lost the charge, but just couldn't make it quickly enough. Once I found out about the wall jump, got it after a few tries.

I also didn't know about being able to slide and ball up while maintaining speed, so that's not how I did it either. I did the wall jump, then charged before hitting the wall. Balled up, cross-bombed across the pitfalls, bombed the block, then shinesparked up. Barely made that in time.

As for how not to hit the wall, it's all about the timing of the jump into the wall. If you jump too early, you're too high up on the wall, and you bounce off into the wall above the tunnel. Jump too late, and you don't get enough height to clear the ledge. Have to hit that sweet in the middle to land on the ledge.

 

[Videomaster21XX]

Yeah, no matter how I jumped, I only ever went flying into the wall. I can't do a shinespark wall jump to save my life. Thankfully I found an alternative, but man I don't EVER want to do that again.

Anyway I beat the game, got all items. Final boss was certainly a thrill to fight, though I wish we didn't have the 'You must counter attack twice to end the fight or else it goes on forever' nonsense happening. It's not the worst thing, but it's another annoyance I'd rather just not be there.

All in all I did have fun. I give it a solid B, or 8 out of 10. Sadly little things like the boring EMMI sections, and the counter thing I just mentioned keep it from being any higher.

(Edit: Oh as for the shinespark puzzles, if I didn't get them after a few tries, I just looked em up so I'd at least know what I'm suppose to do. I just don't have time to spend hours trying to figure this stuff out anymore. I figure if I'm at least able to pull it off, that's good enough.)

 

[Exatron]

I just recently played Zero Mission. That game had a few shinespark puzzles I had to look up. I know I did some shinesparks back in Super and Fusion, but it had been too long to remember anything from those games.

Anyway, that recent exposure was enough for me to come up with solutions for all the shinesparks here, other than that last one where I couldn't do it without knowing about the wall jumps. Aside from that trick, I found all the ones here easier to figure out than ZM's. I've since realized that some of the solutions I came up with weren't the same as what other people were coming up with since I didn't know a couple of those tricks. I'll be watching for some of those when I replay for the other gallery pictures.

 

[Videomaster21XX]

I honestly can't remember if I ever got 100% on Zero Mission. I think I have, but it's been a while.

There are a couple of Shinespark puzzles here that are tricky, but I wouldn't say outright frustrating. Yeah it might take a bit of work, but you can get them.

Just that one. Bleep that one. It's annoying when I'm seeing and hearing. "Oh you have to jump at the right time and bounce off" Because in my eyes, I'M DOING THAT. I'm doing EXACTLY what I'm seeing in the video but instead of landing on the ledge, I go freaking flying into the wall, and I'm sure if anyone was watching they'd go: "Oh no, you did that wrong you have to jump later/earlier" except to me, I AM doing that. Whatever this stupid trick is that I'm not doing, it's simply because I guess I'm not capable of doing that. It looks no different from what I'm doing to what THEY are doing, yet the result is never the same.

It's all very frustrating.

 

[Caldwin]

Oddly enough, in spite of being the one Metroid I criticized the harshest, Other M is the only Metroidvania, let alone Metroid game I ever got 100% on.

 

[Rhinox]

I've never 100%ed a Metroid. That's never been a big thing for me. I don't need that kind of frustration. I'm content with just getting through it all.

 

[Caldwin]

Me either, but Other M made it so easy.

 

[Rhinox]

I never played Other M. By that point I'd gotten rid of my Wii.