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Metroid: Samus Returns |OT| What's past is prologue.

Yeah I play with headphones and everything just feels so much more immersive. I got a Samus N3DSXL and that I never turn the 3D now. That super stable 3D was worth the upgrade alone. I love the little things with the 3D turned on like seeing the ice shards fly at you when you kill a frozen enemy.

I'm super happy they weren't afraid to have the effect fly out of the screen at you when the ice breaks, I love it personally despite being such a small touch.
 

1upsuper

Member
The description specifically addresses that you can cancel the pulse by pressing A again before the scan happens, probably a feature implemented specifically for people that accidentally hit the A button.

Yeah, I know. But since I press it by accident by the time I realize what's happening it's almost too late. And if I do have the wherewithal to cancel it I usually hit B since pressing the same button to undo it just isn't intuitive. The obvious solution would be to just let you press a d-pad button twice to deselect or something.
 

FiveSide

Banned
The 3D in this game is great. Honestly making me mourn the loss of 3D for the Switch.

I'd pay another $100 on top of the Switch MSRP if there was a 3D option. It'll never happen though :(

About one of the late-game bosses:
the Digger was a strange boss. It felt like 90% of the fight revolved around the spider ball, which is such a bizarre mechanic to emphasize in a major boss fight.

It was...meh. A serviceable boss fight I guess. The bosses are still the weakest aspect of the game, hoping there's some good ones coming up.
 
I was out tonight with friends and saw a young kid playing this at a local restaurant. It is nice to see random people embracing Metroid.

After a day with the game I can say with ease that I am really enjoying it. I had my doubts about the nub controls but so far it has been a breeze.
 

big_z

Member
10 metroids left to exterminate and while im still enjoying the game it's turning out to not be as good as I hoped for a remake. the bosses are super repetitive, there's only been 3 types, one type which ive only fought once. sure the room design changes but they could have done so much more. same with enemies, which there are only a few kinds that are recycled through out the game. maybe a limitation put on by Nintendo to keep it true to the original.

controls still cramp my hands a lot but theres not much you can do unless this comes to switch. frame rate beyond area 3 still remains quite bad in spots. there is a sequence that you have to move quickly or its instant death and the game drops to maybe 7-10fps which made it incredibly frustrating to navigate.

its still a fun remake which ill see to the end and the stuff the added is mostly good but you can see the roots of this one holding it back from its true potential.
 

1upsuper

Member
So for anyone who's now beaten this and AM2R (and preferably the original GB game), which do you think is ultimately the best? I still haven't gotten around to playing AM2R.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Fought my first Zeta tonight.

That was really damn good.

Music's been very interesting too, I'm constantly impressed by how they integrated the original tracks in this. That's some dedication.
 

Kindekuma

Banned
So for anyone who's now beaten this and AM2R (and preferably the original GB game), which do you think is ultimately the best? I still haven't gotten around to playing AM2R.

I'm very very far in MSR, but having played both Metroid II and AM2R, I gotta say I like this game better. The Metroid fights are handled way better in Samus Returns, AM2R has some really frustrating and wonky hitboxes for Metroids. Considering a huge chunk of the game is doing just that, it becomes a drag almost instantly. This is my opinion however. Some boss fights are good, and the general experience is a good time. There's a lot of love and effort put into it, but I gotta say Samus Returns is the better title here.

Metroid II is dated. But for a GameBoy game back in 1991 I'll give it a pass. The lack of a map system in areas where it all looks pretty much the same means getting lost is incredibly easy. I managed to get by this game just fine, and it was actually a good time. The game is incredibly atmospheric, for a game of it's time and platform. The isolation, world design, music, and visuals are all very good for the system.

I'd say give AM2R a shot to see how you like all 3 versions of the same general idea of the same game.

But in all (TL;DR): Samus Returns > AM2R > Metroid II.
 

Wanderer5

Member
Well just got down to Area 5, and Area 4 was bit of a nice change of pace. Still liking this game a lot, even through in the end I am not too big of a fan on the whole hunting down Metroid setup and them being most of the "bosses." Eh well it is a interesting idea regardless, and the Zeta Metroid was fun.
 

Mr. Tibbs

Member
So for anyone who's now beaten this and AM2R (and preferably the original GB game), which do you think is ultimately the best? I still haven't gotten around to playing AM2R.

I haven't played either yet, but Mark Brown will be releasing a Game Makers Toolkit video next week detailing why he considers AM2R the superior Metroid II re-imaginin. If you look at the general consensus, however, he's a bit of an outlier, as most people love MercurySteam's game. I'm looking forward to seeing the video!
 

Opa-Pa

Member
I liked AM2R, thought it was very good outside of most metroid boss fights and had a great time. Samus Returns is in another level though, gameplay alone makes a big difference.

Though if we're measuring quality by how faithful they're to the original... Well, I'm not sure, I'll have to beat SR first.
 
Guys, I need a little tip. I think I'm stuck and have no idea where to go now.

I'm at the place after the first elevator and found the first Metroid there. Now I have no idea where to go. That's my map at the moment down there:

lMjfPiP.jpg


Where I am is where the Metroid was, dead end.

Above and left at the long verticality where the save is, that's another dead end and if I go down there, I cant go up again, checkpoint reloading. If go back up with the elevator I can go and jump a few feet but then there is another place where I can't jump high enough to go back where I was before. What now? I can't destroy these purple blocks yet and have no idea what to do.

Can you give me a little tip? Maybe not spoiling the solution but a hint would be nice.

And please don't tell me I'm alone here in the thread with getting stuck at some place. ^^°
 

KingBroly

Banned
I think it's time for me to go back and get all of the items I missed along the way. I'm sitting at 9 and a half hours right now.
The boss I just beat was pretty interesting, and I'd love to see some strategies on how to speed up the fight/make it safer.

I wonder if there's a difference between beating this game at 100% and not, and I mean in the Zero Mission way.
 

Nere

Member
Put me as well on the group who thinks AM2R is better than this game. I can't stand the enemy variety in samus returns which is abysmal. You fight around 5 enemies with different colour variations to make them harder, that is just lazy. You also have to rely on the parry way too much until halfway through the game because the enemies just don't die with the starting weapons. The item acquisition pacing is all over the place as well. There are entire areas which have 1 or 2 items and then there is a late area in which you get the space jump and in not even 5 minutes later you get the gravity suit as well, why couldn't they space the items a bit better and give them sometime to breath? I think I prefer AM2R over this.
 

Toxi

Banned
Holy shit, I wasn't expecting (AREA 6 SPOILERS)
a boss based around the spider ball
in a 2D Metroid.

Really fun, though it took me several tries to figure out what to do at the end.

And that cutscene afterwards is just icing on the cake.
 

KHlover

Banned
Put me as well on the group who thinks AM2R is better than this game. I can't stand the enemy variety in samus returns which is abysmal. You fight around 5 enemies with different colour variations to make them harder, that is just lazy. You also have to rely on the parry way too much until halfway through the game because the enemies just don't die with the starting weapons. The item acquisition pacing is all over the place as well. There are entire areas which have 1 or 2 items and then there is a late area in which you get the space jump and in not even 5 minutes later you get the gravity suit as well, why couldn't they space the items a bit better and give them sometime to breath? I think I prefer AM2R over this.

Don't forget the Super Missiles. You get Space Jump -> Super Missiles -> Gravity Suit within a few minutes of each other.

Yeah, I'd also have liked a more evenly spread item progression. I just got the gravity suit and so far I agree - AM2R is better (Samus Returns still good tho).
 
So for anyone who's now beaten this and AM2R (and preferably the original GB game), which do you think is ultimately the best? I still haven't gotten around to playing AM2R.

Well I just finished Samus Returns with guideless 100% item collection like 5 minutes ago, and this may be the high talking, but I think I might just prefer MSR over AM2R.

AM2R is an excellent modernization of the original M2, and that's great -- amazing even -- if you're looking for more strict adherence to the original. On the other hand, MSR kept me guessing through a lot of it, and I guess (hurr) that's just supremely my jam. Area layouts, while similar to the original, are so drastically overhauled that it'd be hard to match any single room 1:1 with the Gameboy version. The Aeion abilities, especially the combat oriented ones, all changed the way I approached the game for the better. The controls are tight, the graphics are good by 3DS standards, and the art style looks really, really nice. In my short period of reflection, my only real nitpick is that (minor item spoiler about an item in the original game)
the space jump feels a bit underwhelming to use due to lack of graphical effects unique to it.

I'd also like to bring up that I never actually finished Metroid II on GB until after I finished AM2R. Playing the original after the fan remake let me see just how faithful AM2R really is to the original; I didn't even feel the need to use a map on the GB version because I was so familiar with AM2R!

AM2R feels a lot like M2's Zero Mission, while MSR feels like M2, but made from the ground up in 2017, which ultimately is what I think I prefer.

(As a side note, even while riding this high I still find it hard to call one game definitively "better" than the other specifically because of the fact that they're so different. They set out to do different things with the source material, and I personally think they both succeeded spectacularly!)
 

GeekyDad

Member
I'm super happy they weren't afraid to have the effect fly out of the screen at you when the ice breaks, I love it personally despite being such a small touch.

I just saw it for the first time last night. I had already put in a good few hours with the game. I was surprised when I saw the pieces fly out. Was a really cool little touch.
 

Jacobs

Member
Help I can't seem to get the timing for the counter to the first metroid enemy down. Always when I think I got it exactly right it fails, then I try to do it earlier and later it fails as wel. Is there a tell to when you have to press x?

edit: never mind they were electrified.
 

Toxi

Banned
Help I can't seem to get the timing for the counter to the first metroid enemy down. Always when I think I got it exactly right it fails, then I try to do it earlier and later it fails as wel. Is there a tell to when you have to press x?
The tell is a little flash and sound effect before the Metroid charges, which every counterable attack in the game shares. Just try to hit it before it hits you; the window's pretty lenient.

If the Metroid covers itself in electricity during a charge, you can't counter it and have to dodge instead.

Edit: LOL
 

KHlover

Banned
Help I can't seem to get the timing for the counter to the first metroid enemy down. Always when I think I got it exactly right it fails, then I try to do it earlier and later it fails as wel. Is there a tell to when you have to press x?

edit: never mind they were electrified.
1. You can't counter when it's surrounded by fire/electricity

2. When you can counter there's a flash before the Metroid starts charging you, just wait until it's close enough for your weapon arm to actually hit it before pressing X.

Edit: yup
 

Jacobs

Member
1. You can't counter when it's surrounded by fire/electricity

2. When you can counter there's a flash before the Metroid starts charging you, just wait until it's close enough for your weapon arm to actually hit it before pressing X.

Edit: yup

The tell is a little flash and sound effect before the Metroid charges, which every counterable attack in the game shares. Just try to hit it before it hits you; the window's pretty lenient.

If the Metroid covers itself in electricity during a charge, you can't counter it and have to dodge instead.

Edit: LOL

Thanks guys I am stupid.
 

KingBroly

Banned
I feel like the best thing about SR vs AM2R that I can say is that SR feels like a 2D Metroid, where AM2R made me want it as a 3D Metroid.
 

VDenter

Banned
Hopefully i can finally get the game today. Had a chance to try it for about half an hour and it seems great. As always i am glad i avoided 90% of the pre release footage. Going into this mostly blind is really exciting. The wait is painful.
 

GeekyDad

Member
Help I can't seem to get the timing for the counter to the first metroid enemy down. Always when I think I got it exactly right it fails, then I try to do it earlier and later it fails as wel. Is there a tell to when you have to press x?

edit: never mind they were electrified.

:p Yeah...

To be honest, the way some previews were talking about the counter, I thought it would be a lot more difficult to time.
 
MSR is a lot better then AM2R. AM2R has a few things over MSR like a few more new bosses, making the latter metroid fights feel like a challenge, and some interesting ways to expand the lore during the run of the game (most of MSR's stuff seems to be saved for the ending). Where AM2R falls flat is the hit detection is crap at times especially in the Zeta/Omega boss fights, the new sprites they made look completely out of place conpared to the ones they ripped from zero mission/fusion, and the game just lacks the level of polish you'd expect from a Metroid title.

The highlight for me comes when you compare the big new boss in each game, the shield robot thing in am2r and the
digger
in msr. The fight in MSR's biggest issue is that it doesn't do a great job of telegraphing what you need to do, at the same time the game does hint at it
you need bombs for his arms, and once you see missiles get sucked in but do nothing trying bombs is a logical next step.
It's not a perfect fight but it's loads better then the shield boss in AM2R. The am2r fight is a super janky battle with an enemy in a tall vertical shaft that can heal itself if it goes off screen and and just feels like a fight much too difficult for both where you fight it in the game and too difficult compared to any other challenge in the fan game. I'll take poorly explained over poorly made anyday.
 
I'm liking this a lot. It has more creative challenges and is more modern feeling than Super...on the other hand, it is not as good to look at, or immersive. Ultimately, it feels like the best handheld option, but the worlds are extremely uncohesive, and it lacks a sense of precense, to me. The powers are not that interesting, either. Making backtracking optional was a very bad decision. That is responsible for most of the connectivity problems.

However, it is fun! The bosses are great, especially
the one in area 6.
And, in the end, it feels like a modern Metroid title! Hopefully more effort goes into next one, on creating a world.Liied all their othed little choices that webt into modernizing the series. Have another go! Before Prime 4, I say.
 

13ruce

Banned
This is honestly one of the only games to get Quick Time Events right you are still in control and the camera just zooms in you can shoot if you want or not and even choose your weaponary while doing em. The parry's in this game are badass as fuck.

i would not mind having a melee counter in Prime 4 if it kinda works like Samus Returns because damn it's badass AF!

Also love how the camera zooms in after doing the melee counter at all really adds to the badassery.
 

big_z

Member
Any tip on how to get to this Metroid on the left?

God I feel so stupid, I just can't figure it out.

https://i.imgur.com/ITit1KD.jpg[img][/QUOTE]

that's the one I got stuck on too and its a bit of a pain. using the scanner and looking up is the first step.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Utterly enamoured by this. It's so good to have Metroid back. Almost upsetting that it's taken this long.

I'm loving what Mercury Steam has done. The music should be a lot better (it's not bad, it's just too reliant on forgettable atmospheric backing tracks like Other M instead of beats and rhythms). The 3DS makes my hands hurt after awhile. Despite looking good the zones do blend together a bit too much. But beyond these deficiencies the overall production and play is very, very solid.

untitled-2fzsk9.jpg


Picked up a Metroid 3DS just to play this, having sold both my other systems ages ago.
 

zeioIIDX

Member
Ah thank you, I didn't knew I can jump on him while he is frozen, lol. :D

I was stuck at this same spot earlier today for a while and finally realized I should have looked up higher towards the ceiling lol. Wasted quite some time backtracking and exploring Area 1 and the Surface trying to figure out how to progress.
 

FiveSide

Banned
Just beat it, total playtime ~9 hours. That's roughly the same length as my first playthrough of Super Metroid, and twice the length of my first Fusion and Zero Mission runs.

This is a difficult game to compare to other recent games in the genre. As a total package, I'm not sure if it's better than Ori, Hollow Knight, etc. But there's just something magical about the fact that it's Metroid. A 2D Metroid in 2017. It honestly still feels...surreal.

The game is very well-balanced between adding new mechanics and staying familiar enough to feel like a natural progression of the 2D Metroid template. Going way back to Fusion and Zero Mission, Nintendo toyed with various ways of giving the player more direction. But the problem was that (especially in Fusion's case) the pointers could be fairly intrusive.

Fast-forward to SR, and the scanning is actually a pretty elegant solution to this dilemma. By revealing nearby upgrades and pathways, the scanner gives you constant mini-objectives, and there's a sense of direction without explicitly being told what to do. On the flip side, players who want to wander and explore in a more purist style can just ignore the scanner. Great compromise between the classic Metroid experience and modern accessibility.

The melee counter is well-implemented. Satisfying to pull off and adds a layer of depth to the close-quarters fighting, especially with bosses.

(Plus Samus needs a good finisher in Smash and I'm sure this move will be OP as hell when the next Smash comes out.)

I'm happy with the game, and given its roots in Metroid 2, this is probably a best-case scenario outcome. In fact it's much better than I expected it'd be. Only notable complaint is the bosses, didn't really care for any of them other than the final boss.
 

Sadist

Member
First hours are really solid. Had a few derp moments with discovering new area's and new items, but hey, it happens when you don't play a new Metroid for about seven years. When I just got the Spider-Bal I was staring at the ceiling thinking "oh how do I get there?" untill ten seconds later I realized I had a new shiny abillity. Good pacing, good controls... only thing that's somewhat disappointing is the soundtrack. It's Metroid, but nothing really surprising.
 
I'm 3 hours in now, 10% completed, area 2. I have the feeling I'm a little bit slow but man is this game fun. It feels so good to get new abilities and new ways to explore. The soundtrack is amazing (I personally like it a lot) and the atmosphere is great.
I love this genre in general but they nailed it with this one.
 

KingBroly

Banned
Area 4 backtracking question.

What's the deal with the item behind the Green Door on the left side? Even if I Slow down time and try to Power Ball jump it doesn't seem to work


EDIT: And I was overcomplicating things. Still missing 1 item that I cannot find in the area, though. hmm
 
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