So this has been a long time coming; and I also have reviews for Prime, Hunters, and Other M that I will probably space out a week apart.
So the story is Samus is sent out to the Metroid's home planet to eradicate them from the galaxy. That is the plot in a nutshell, not much more to say. I do like how it parallels Alien and Aliens a bit; with the second one of both franchises focused on hunting the aliens (metroids) more so than the first.
So the graphics aren't too shabby either, Samus is really detailed compared to the first game and establishes her iconic look. I found all of the designs for the metroids and their evolutions to be very cool and the most detailed part of the game. The back grounds and landscape were average looking. Nothing special in my eyes, and the regular enemies (outside a few exceptions) were equally bland. Also, the game seems very 'zoomed in' for lack of a better term. The view is really focused on Samus, and it is hard to get a feel on the areas being explored. It feels very enclosed compared to the more 'open' wide view of the first game. This is probably due to the fact that its a gameboy, and being such a wide shot of the action would possibly make it difficult to see and move Samus.
The music is pretty bad, if it can be called music. Outside of a couple tunes, the rest of the 'soundtrack' is just series of beeps and clicks. Rather boring stuff. I ended up only turning on the sound for the game to listen and see If I was damaging metroids when fighting them.
The gameplay is , at it's core, the same as metroid. Samus is still exploring unknown region in maze like locales, shooting hostile creatures, and locating upgrades. However, lava generally prevents you from continuing forward until you kill all metroids in an area. This limits the amount exploration that can be done; but also keeps the player from missing a metroid till the end of the game and no way to get back. Also, when falling you can shoot down, helping prevent damage from enemies below you if you're quick. The main enemy in the game (as stated) are the metroids which happen to be evolving as they age. So not only will original metroids be fought, but so will older tougher variants. However, up until the last two forms they aren't too much of a threat. Save points and refill stations are other new additions; though extremely sporadic. Finding refill stations for health or missiles is a god send; and save points are very rare and I am glad I have a save state available on 3DS else the difficulty would be through the roof with lack of saving. I feel as though they should added some of both, more so the save points though. Again we are without a map, and with bland environments and zoomed in perspective it becomes easier than Metroid to get turned around.
Overall, I feel like this game took a few steps forward and a few steps back with the franchise. Unless one is looking to experience the entire metroid franchise I wouldn't really recommend the game; it is easily one of the weaker games of the series. I would say it about on par (perhaps a bit lower than) with Metroid.
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