Metroid: Samus Returns - Nintendo 3DS

Metroid II: The Return of Samus is mostly fondly remembered for it's fantastic ending that leads right into Super Metroid. There was more to the game at first. Being a Gameboy game it was actually quite an impressive feat and managed to evoke some real classic Metroid tropes such as a great atmosphere and a sense of being lost. Unfortunately, the original Gameboy game hasn't aged well and it's also rather difficult to find. This is where the remake Samus Returns comes into play. It's a remake and an updated one. It takes the best of the classic 2D Metroid games and combines it with some of the finest qualities of Metroid Prime. The end result is perhaps the best Metroid game we've seen in a decade.The story in Samus Returns is pretty simple: Samus has destroyed Mother Brain and has now gone to the Metroid home world of SR388 to get rid of the Metroid menance once and for all. She will go to their homeworld and beging eradicating the Metroid's one by one. But the deeper she gets the more dangerous it becomes. And in this remake she'll run into some harrowing new dangers. The story is simple, but the fun of Metroid storytelling is seeing what unfolds in the story by what you discover as you explore. And there is plenty of that to do in Metroid Samus Returns. Metroid has never been that story centric, though. The most story focused game in the series (Metroid Fusion) ended up telling a GREAT story on its own, but the more story heavy a game is the more likely it is to be linear. As Metroid is more about exploration than that, Metroid Returns relies on the environment and the players deductions about what's going on. In spite of that, though, to call Metroid: Samus Returns a nonlinear experience would also be misleading. Certain portions of the game open up at a time. Your goal is to go roaming through areas and defeat enough Metroids to get a pool of acid to lower even further so that you can explore deeper. The game doesn't really open up until the end of the game.This doesn't mean there's no exploring to do. There's plenty of it. It just means the exploration is more controlled than it lets on. Most of the time your goal with exploring is to find a Metroid to destroy. And often this will take you around the majority of the areas that you're exploring as is. This isn't all there is to exploration, though. As with previous Metroid titles, you'll find power ups that will eventually give Samus better abilities. The original Gameboy game had a surprisingly large number of power ups for such a simple game, but Samus Returns expands on them to provide power ups that would make appearances in other Metroid games such as the gravity suit, power bombs and the grapple beam. All of these additions are weaved in rather well and the game makes sure you'll have to utilize them. The exploration becomes great when you realize you'll have to go back to previous areas to find everything.So yes, it's a more controlled and linear exploration but the fun in exploring is still there. Mostly. In making Metroid Samus Returns more accessible it introduces Aeion abilities. One of them is a scanner that unveils the majority of the map and points out any hidden power ups or strange blocks that can be destroyed with weapons. This is an optional thing, but more die-hard Metroid fans probably want to have their exploration be a bit more exciting than that. That being said, however, what I find the most fascinating about finding powerups (whether they be more missiles or energy tanks) is that getting a lot of them is like solving a puzzle. They're usually not difficult but if finding them feels too easy, you'll be rest assured that the game will make sure you understand its mechanics to get them.Other Aeion abilities allow Samus to do such things as slow down time, utilize a rapid fire effect or put up an additional shield to soak up some damage. Samus can also stop and utilize precision aiming if the player holds down a button. This allows for more accurate shots and you'll know if you'll hit something because the lock on sight line will change colors. While all of these seem like they'd make Samus Returns an easy game, you'll be surprised at just how challenging it can actually be. In particular, the main boss fights require excellent pattern recognition and master of one of the best new additions to Samus Returns: The melee counter. At some points enemies will flash and come in for an attack. When timed correctly Samus can execute a melee counter that will temporarily leave an enemy stunned and allow Samus to shoot them with ease. This isn't just used on standard enemies, bosses and Metroids will have this happen as well. In the case of fighting a lot of the Metroids (and you will fight a lot of them) mastering this technique is required and you'll likely learn it just because you'll fight so many of them.The game's difficulty, however, is definitely more top heavy. By that I mean, the beginning and middle stages of the game are fairly challenging but not so much the last third or so of the game. The difficulty, however, feels rather fair. This isn't the kind of game where you'll find yourself dying thanks to cheap tricks from your enemies. All of the attacks the enemies launch into are telegraphed and can be avoided or countered, it's just a matter of learning them. This is especially true of the game's bosses and the Metroids. You'll find it isn't really that difficult as you fail and begin to learn the attacks of your enemies. Likewise, unlike other Metroid games you not only have a plentiful amount of save rooms and warp rooms, but there's also a checkpoint system outside of boss battles and Metroid battles so that you don't have to constantly start from your last save point.There isn't really a lot that keeps Metroid down to be honest. If there was anything it would be that the fights with the Metroid's often become repetitive. New variants are introduced throughout but most of the time you'll fight the standard alphas more than anything and the layout of the arenas don't often change much. Eventually other types are introduced and they do things like run to other rooms, but after a while you wish that there had been more thrown in there to break up this monotony. For instance, the game has three specific boss fights, but there was definitely room for a couple more. Some Metroid's add in new gimmicks and the like but after you've fought your tenth alpha Metroid the experience feels more like a bump in the road rather than a mission. On the other hand, what bosses you do fight are actually quite enjoyable because the battles go in phases that require you to recognize patterns and really test you on how we'll you've learned the gameplay mechanics. They're fun, exhilirating and lengthy boss fights that really test your mettle. Though they're challenging, I was never frustrated at losing. In part because punishment was usually just putting me one room away and because I could rest assured that I screwed up, not that something unfair happened. Metroid: Samus Returns is a learning experience, and it's actually a fun one at that.The graphics and sound have also been updated. The new look and feel of Metroid Samus Returns is great. It's in 2.5D and has some neat looking backgrounds and environments. The soundtrack is also good, with a lot of themes being remixed from other Metroid titles. There are times when I wanted more Metroid II: The Return of Samus tracks to be updated but I'll have to deal without them. The only real problem with the soundtrack is that it isn't always done well enough evoke exploration but rather action. And sure enough the last third or so of the game is really action heavy with enemies basically being all over the place. Which strangely feels out of place when the original game was so much about isolation the further into this planet you got... only to surprise you with the Metroid Queen. It was a subtle bit of narrative that (whether intended or not) made the trek through the final moments of the game rather haunting. That sense isn't here. Your mileage may vary on that one, but one thing that the original game certainly didn't do was allow it's last moments to be too drowned out in enemies. In particular the original's finale was nice and subtle. The 3DS remake doesn't do that. And while it may be more exciting and it's fun as hell to play, it certainly doesn't make its connection to Super Metroid stronger.Don't take the criticisms to heart, they are merely nitpicks from a fan who rather liked the original. But keep in mind part of the reason the atmosphere of the original game was what it was is because of the limitations of the Gameboy. The 3DS remake has no such limitations. They make great use of the hardware here and a great use of the environment. What's most important, though is that this is simply a solid Metroid game overall.Samus Returns feels like a fitting title for the 3DS remake as it truly is the return of Samus this time around. After Metroid: Other M it seemed like the series would be in disarray after some of the most mixed reception a game in the series ever received. This was not helped when just a few years later the follow up would be Metroid Federation Force, a game that didn't even feel like Metroid. Now we have this gem of a game on the 3DS and it really does feel like a return to form. Small problems and nitpicks aside, Metroid Samus Returns is worth the time to play and worth the time to invest in.

Samus Returns was an excellent game, and it holds up very well to the older 2D entries in the series. I say this as a life-long fan of the series, having played through every mainline entry Super Metroid and forward many times. Compared to the others, I would personally rank this game above Fusion, but slightly below Zero Mission and Super.My runthrough of the game with 100% items took exactly 20 hours according to the 3DS timer, and ~15 hours according to the in-game timer. That makes this the longest 2D Metroid game by quite a lot, and arguably the lengthiest game in the whole series.The gameplay is extremely smooth and natural-feeling, and once you get used to it you almost wonder how you ever got by without free aiming. All of the abilities are well implemented and the maps are very well thought out and beautiful to look at. I also loved the new Aeon abilities you get in this game, which adds a whole new dimension to the existing gameplay formula. If I have one complaint, it's that the maps don't interconnect in quite the same way as they do in Super or Zero Mission, but that's mostly to stay true to the original Metroid 2 which was laid out differently from those games as well. Also, while I personally enjoyed it, many people aren't fond of the new Melee mechanic, which is essential to progressing through the game.In terms of difficulty, this is certainly the most difficult Metroid game. I feel pretty safe in saying that. The saving grace, however, is that the game is *very* generous with checkpoints. That's right, new to the series, this game has a checkpoint system, and the game gives you these checkpoints a *lot*. As far as I could tell, checkpoints occur after every elevator and teleporter ride, before and after every boss/Metroid fight, and of course whenever you use a save station. So, while you will probably die way more in this game than past Metroid games, you will never lose more than just a minute or two of gameplay.Nonetheless, this game is *not* easy - many enemies take out an entire energy tank or more, and bosses can take out several just with one hit - and that's on Normal difficulty. I haven't started Hard or Fusion (very hard) mode yet, but I can't even imagine how difficult those must be.-And finally, as a second part to this review, I want to compare this to AM2R.For those who don't know, AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) is a fan remake of Metroid 2. It took the sole developer an entire decade to complete, and it quickly spread across the internet and got great reviews once it was finished. It is very possibly the most in-depth and intricate fan game ever created. Some would argue that it is actually just as good as a real 2D Metroid game. The game can be found freely many places in the internet for those who may want to play it. (Hint: googling "Reddit AM2R" isn't a bad start to finding it.)AM2R was finished and released about a year before Samus Returns was even announced. I myself did play AM2R, and I was very fond of it. At the time I would have called it the definitive Metroid 2 experience. So how does AM2R compare to Samus Returns?Personally, I liked Samus Returns more. AM2R was great, and I would argue that it, too, holds up well to the older Metroid games. But Samus Returns was still better, to me. The core gameplay was smoother, the boss fights were more polished, and I enjoyed the new gameplay additions in Samus Returns quite a lot. And not to spoil anything, but the climax segment of Samus Returns was also significantly better than in AM2R.The one thing that AM2R *did* do really well, though, was that it did a much better job interconnecting the different areas. AM2R made an effort to interconnect the different areas with a more advanced overworld/system than Samus Returns has. For whatever it's worth, that one aspect of AM2R is better than Samus Returns. (Also, I personally like AM2R's soundtrack better, but that's really very subjective, and the soundtrack in SR is good too.)That being said, Samus Returns is still my preference. After you play and finish Samus Returns, AM2R is a very interesting case study of a remake of Metroid 2 that comes from a completely different angle, and in my opinion it shouldn't be skipped over if you're a fan of the series. But if you are unfamiliar with Metroid 2 or what happens in the game, Samus Returns is the one to play first.

It's a beautiful remake of the classic Metroid II game for the old Gameboy. I'm hoping Nintendo adds it to their online store so you can skip playing on a Nintendo 3DS. The old system is still expensive if you don't have one. This game is the origin for alot of cool features we see now in current Metroid games such as the Spider Ball that lets to crawl along walls. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Metroid.