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Metroid II might be my favorite game of all time. It was the first Metroid game I owned and beat, and despite being fairly linear it was at least as formative of a game for me as OG Metroid. Now, if you have a GBC flash cart or emulator I recommend the Metroid II - EJRTQ Colorization patch. The last time I played Metroid II it was with this patch on an IPS modded GBA and I had a blast. The colorization doesn't necessarily make the world easier to navigate, but it's nice either way. Also I have to mention Axiom Verge as being the most OG Metroid-rear end game since OG Metroid.
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Aug 29, 2021 04:16
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The only thing I might say is straight up bad design in Super is the lower Tourian save point where you can save while (unknowingly) locked in Tourian, so you can't backtrack for items after you beat the game on that save file. Another hot take: Super is story-wise a direct sequel to the first two titles but functionally and mechanically it's a remake of OG Metroid. Samus lands on Zebes, defeats Kraid and Ridley (and some other bosses), goes to Tourian to fight the metroids and mother brain, and escapes before the planet explodes (again). ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Aug 29, 2021 |
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Aug 29, 2021 13:14
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Super's default controls are, fine, to me, although I've been playing it that way since 1994. The challenge I've found is that you have to do all three of jump+shoot simultaneously, run+jump simultaneously, and occasionally run+shoot, the latter which I can only do with claw-gripping X. With a SNES controller I suppose the most sensible alternate scheme would be Y shoot, B jump, and A run but you still end up claw gripping the run+shoot scenario and that's even harder now. On a modern controller I'd probably do Y shoot, B jump, and map run to L-trigger or something. The last time I played it was a SNES Classic though so SNES controller it was. The weapon switching is also not as fluid as the GBA titles.
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Aug 29, 2021 16:48
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The United States posted:Note that this is the map that the instruction manual gives you: Regarding Nintendo Power: the magazine didn't get its start until 1988. All the big 1987 NES releases including Zelda, Zelda II, Metroid, Kid Icarus, etc., were featured in the The Official Nintendo Player's Guide (which I've mentioned on here before and got a brief mention earlier in the thread). It's Metroid coverage, while succinct, is really helpful for folks started with the game. It also had a totally spoilery full map too. I don't know how much the guide cost, but it was sure worth it given how much useful content it contains.
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Aug 30, 2021 15:43
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The United States posted:It's the giant rectangles that just say "here be norfair (fire zone)!" that make it hilarious and nigh-useless. The United States posted:They could at least have mapped out the major thoroughfares and kept things mysterious by just leaving some passageways as "mapping probe destroyed, no data found" or somesuch scifi nonsense.
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Aug 31, 2021 14:26
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Again I'm going to plug the Metroid II - EJRTQ Colorization patch. It doesn't make the game perfect, but playing in color on a nice IPS display (or an emulator) is a world of difference compared to playing the original release on the ghostly DMG screen. Regarding the Metroid II metroids, missiles in Metroid II basically have no cooldown, as soon as the missile makes contact with its target you can fire again. So the "best" way to handle metroids is to get as close as possible and rapid-fire pump them full of missiles. I've always done it manually, but if you have a turbo feature on your controller it's absolutely appropriate for this. This technique also works during the queen fight. When I was replaying this game regularly I could defeat her in under 30 seconds without even using the belly bomb trick. Metroid II's music is definitely a departure from the first title. Honestly I'm not really a fan of the ruins theme. The main theme (played in the first area and the lava tunnels) is pretty awesome, as is the theme for the final area which I find particularly haunting. The rest of the areas have ambient tracks that I find appropriate for the game, but then I've been playing it for 30 years too. It's a totally fair statement that Metroid II is the worst of the 2D Metroids, although I think it's a definitely improvement over OG Metroid in terms of controls and the QoL enhancements you've mentioned. I still think that it's a high-watermark for the Game Boy platform, particularly in 1991. For me, it's a fun game to occasionally revisit--of course, with the benefit of having memorized the map many years ago.
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Aug 31, 2021 17:15
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AV2 definitely, intentionally, plays different that AV1 but it doesn't strike me as particularly Castlevania-like. It's more like a side scrolling Zelda: LttP?
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Aug 31, 2021 21:07
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The United States posted:I think it's fair to say something is more on the 'Vania side if most of the attacks are melee instead of ranged. AV2 is less combat-centric than AV1. Yes, I can see how the melee attacks feel more like Castlevania (and maybe AoS/DoS specifically instead of the whip ones), but I was thinking more in its exploration style and specifically the dual world mechanics.
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Sep 1, 2021 02:43
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Shiroc posted:Samus Returns is a little weird in how many items you can only get once you have the baby but by then you will almost certainly have more than enough of everything to beat Ridley.
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Sep 1, 2021 02:46
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The glass tube in lower Maridia is already a standout for being like nothing else in the game. You can blow it early if you want, but in the intended path you take the elevator to upper Maridia after finishing the Wrecked Ship and getting the Gravity Suit. You then make your way down to lower Maridia, find the broken tube, find the secret path beneath it that drops you outside the intact tube, and you have to blow it up in order to reach the rest of lower Maridia.
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Sep 1, 2021 21:17
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The United States posted:Also it's not really appreciably more linear than Metroid II, and Other M basically being "Fusion, in 3D, but worse" has made it look better in retrospect. Fusion regularly locks you in and out of different areas and there's at least one time during the game where you have one shot to get an missle or bomb expansion (I forget which) and if you miss it you can't get it until the very end of the game. For the most part, Fusion makes good use of the scripted event system and the fact that you frequently can't go back the way you came and have to forge a new path fits within the game's MO of constantly making you feel uneasy. It is, though, a strictly more linear game than II because of it.
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Sep 7, 2021 00:01
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Mode 7 posted:So despite having played a bunch of them I've never actually finished a Metroid game. With Metroid Dread only like, 2 weeks out I figured I should correct that so I'm going to try and go through Zero Mission > Samus Returns > Super Metroid > Metroid Fusion before Dread releases.
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Sep 23, 2021 15:01
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Twelve by Pies posted:Now that I think about it I've never gotten 100% in Super Metroid, I always end with every energy/sub tank, and 50 super missiles and power bombs, so it's always missile tanks that prevent me from getting 100%. I feel like I've even gone through every room in the game with the X-Ray Scope and still never gotten everything.
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Oct 4, 2021 14:18
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Honest question time, I've been playing a lot of Fusion and Zero Mission lately (Don't have a switch for Dread, but got a used DS recently, and those are 2 of the 4 games I have for it), and does anyone feel like some of the puzzles for items in those games were... too hard? Maybe I'm too much of an old man, but some of them require a lot of shinesparking and perfect reflexes and... I don't have that. I'm actually kind of afraid to play it now, fearing that my reflexes have gone bad in the intervening time. Although I did 100% the Messenger a couple of years ago and some of the optional stuff in that is pretty brutal too.
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Oct 6, 2021 14:59
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Alright folks this is my most anticipated game in nearly 20 years and being a brand new title I want to go in blind. The only problem is that while my copy is coming tomorrow I won't have time to play it for a couple of weeks. So, goodnight Metroid thread.
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Oct 8, 2021 02:55
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I haven't read the last 80 pages of this thread because I'm desperately trying to avoid spoilers for myself (Google News spoiled Kraid for me), but I just got to the "scene" that happens mid-game, and just before that the coolest thing that I've seen in a Metroid series in a long time happened: Before going up to Ferenia for the first time I was backtracking through the earlier regions to get every collectible I could get with speed+grapple and the occasional (but not exhaustive) bomb jumping. Doing so I found the orange teleporter in Cataris which I don't think is particularly gated except requiring grapple, which says the destination was Ghavoran ... and I haven't been to Ghavoran yet--certainly not through the "front door" or whatever. I wasn't sure if I had unintentionally sequence breaked and I actually do want to follow the intended path for plot reasons, but I decided to take a peek. To my surprise I found myself locked into a tiny area full of morph ball tunnels and the pulse radar--an ability that helps you find all the collectibles! This was clearly an early discovery, but also an intentional one--the designers are rewarding players who seek out collectibles early by giving away early the ability that helps you seek out collectibles. That's very, very smart. Impressed. Before that I've been having a pretty good time with Dread--the combat is easily the best of the "2D" Metroids--but I wasn't so sure how I felt about the exploration as I was routinely railroaded into new areas without being able to exhaustively search old ones--a frequent problem with Fusion, but something that happens only once in Super. I also got an early power bomb upgrade at the top of the one EMMI room in Artaria, but it's shown up as an unknown item. I guess that limits actual sequence breaks. Alright, off again I go until beat this. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Nov 2, 2021 |
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Nov 2, 2021 21:27
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I know I'm like 50 pages behind now but I just finished Elun and this game went from being a pretty good modern take on Metroid to possibly being the best in the series. I don't know, we'll have to see how it shakes out.
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Nov 3, 2021 18:27
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To be fair, I'm pretty sure Sakamoto told Mercury Steam they have to include the EMMI stuff and Mercury Steam went around and designed the rest of it to be an amazing game around that particular requirement.
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Nov 3, 2021 18:38
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For what it's worth, my only (Normal 100%) playthrough of Dread was done over the course of a month with an in game time of 13 hours and an activity screen time of 20. So that's something like 45 minutes a day on average? What helps with Switch games is I take a lot of screenshots to remind me of where I've been and where I need to revisit. Dread's map features were impressive in their own right but I basically didn't need them. Granted, you have to have enough experience with exploratory platformers to know that, say, the landing-strip lights in Burenia are important and worth screenshotting for later.
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Nov 17, 2021 15:32
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ImpAtom posted:Developers have always patched bugs when possible. It is the reason you have some runs done on earlier versions of a game even in cart days. I am pretty sure all speedrunners know that any exploits found in a moderm games launch month may not exist forever I'm also not sure what the size of the glitch community has to do with anything here since they should be expecting this.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:20
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Ogmius815 posted:Although I would say it would have to be a lot bigger to justify not patching serious bugs that can be triggered by casual players by accident. Ogmius815 posted:But, what if video game culture in general was such that a solid majority of players could be expected to participate in speed running, and speed running a accounted for a much larger portion of total game play from the very beginning of a product’s life? I would say that the bar for fixing bugs, wherever it is now, would justifiably be somewhere else. Wouldn’t you?
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Nov 17, 2021 20:47
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Maybe once the Steam Deck comes out I can finish MP2. I got to Sanctuary Fortress the last time then got busy for like ten years.
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Nov 26, 2021 13:58
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Makes you wonder what busted it up in the first place. Kraid?. Certainly not chozo rocksteady and bebop.
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Nov 29, 2021 20:23
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What are the chances it runs at 30 FPS though?
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Feb 9, 2023 00:51
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They did. PrimeHack has an option to restore them since it restricts the reticle to the center of the screen and the canon doesn't move. But when I tried them they still didn't quite look right so I kept them off.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:50
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Fedule posted:The difference is kinda technical and kinda academic and not everybody cares enough to really want to be precise and the line blurs a lot in most cases anywhere but there is a line. The game is literally named Metroid Prime Remastered, so I'd be inclined to go with the game's own identity. Also the lead engineer of the original Prime trilogy (uncertain of his role with the remaster if any) suggested this:https://mobile.twitter.com/jack_mathews/status/1623735955675836418
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Feb 9, 2023 23:18
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ChaseSP posted:MP3 is not great and would be a pain to translate all those motion control options to joystick in a non-janky manner along with all the tools for the game itself being gone compared to mp1/2. I don't see a port of it happening due to this but quote me on this I guess. I agree that MP3 with just dual analog controls is probably a bit much of an ask, but it's perfectly playable on my Deck with the SN30 Pro 2's gyro and there's no reason that couldn't be done on the Switch.
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Feb 10, 2023 05:09
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No mouse! The "twist the remote to rotate the lock rings" stuff is just done with the left stick and it's fine if a bit silly.
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Feb 10, 2023 05:12
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Do they really tell you where to go in 3 more often than 1? MP1 also has the hint system that lights up your map whenever you spend too much time farting around looking for items.
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Feb 10, 2023 05:17
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Rand Brittain posted:How do the beams work in terms of DPS? Is one ever preferable over another outside of special traits? The power beam has the fastest fire rate but is the weakest. Good for killing tunnel critters though. The wave beam is a bit slower but stronger than power. Its big advantage though is that (charged) wave shots will home-in on your locked-on enemies though so it's the best weapon for highly-evasive enemies like the flying pirates. Its disadvantage is that it causes electrical disturbances--mostly this is an issue with turrets that can cause them to spam fire, usually better to do charged power shots or missiles in the early game (where you encounter more turrets). The ice beam is the slowest and projectile. But, when it does freeze enemies it stops them dead in their tracks. It's good for enemies that do straight-line melee attacks, which includes Metroids. It's also the only weapon that reliably disables those water triangle guys (jelzaps, had to look it up). The plasma beam has a pretty fast fire rate and is quite strong, but most of the damage comes from cumulative "burning" since you're basically cooking enemies with it. It's good for fire-and-forget scenarios, but beware that there is a window where high-HP enemies (mostly pirates) can still attack you while they're cooking. Beyond that, some enemies are straight-up vulnerable/invulnerable to certain weapons. The end of the game throws color-coded pirates at you that you have to deal with in the obvious way.
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Feb 10, 2023 15:43
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Icon Of Sin posted:The mad lads really double-mapped the buttons to where you can play with the normal button layout, or (mostly) play with the L/R and zL/zR buttons, and only gently caress around with the others when you’re changing beams/visors, or need morph ball.
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Feb 10, 2023 15:44
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Jables88 posted:I remember there apparently being some differences between the US and EU versions of Prime 1, that removed a lot of possible skips - I think by dumping Power Bomb obstacles over a couple of late game doors? ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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Feb 10, 2023 16:41
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Veotax posted:EDIT: Like yeah, there were legitimate bug fixes to try to fix crashes, but there were also things in there to stop sequence breaks.
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Feb 10, 2023 17:29
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ErrEff posted:I was coming at it from the point of view that industry rumors have implied that a MP1 remaster/remake was already largely finished way back in 2021. This game could've been held back while other stuff gets made, and then the release schedule happens to work out so that they get released shortly one after another in 2023/2024. Retro was tasked to work on the Trilogy remaster while Bamco worked on Prime 4. Since Retro's level designers didn't actually have anything to do with Trilogy they were helping Bamco. But the results of MP1 were so impressive that Nintendo fired Bamco and tasked Retro to work on Prime 4. Which probably means that Retro isn't working on Prime 2 & 3 right now. Is anyone? Who knows.
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Feb 10, 2023 22:04
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EightFlyingCars posted:i also quickly noticed that while the wilderness is filled with aliens and other fauna type enemies, the chozo depots are protected mostly by automated defences. they put a lot of thought into the layout and the worldbuilding of this tiny little game boy game. it's really impressive! If you haven't already gotten there, the last area is fantastic. It's not that dramatically different from the rest of the game, but it really nails the subtleties of the atmosphere.
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Feb 10, 2023 22:08
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:Also Metroid Prime was never an actual Metroid, the space pirates dubbed it so because it seemed similar to a Metroid in its ability to absorb stuff, mainly weapons. I don’t think that changed in the retcon though?
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Feb 10, 2023 22:13
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LividLiquid posted:I can bounce off things only to later discover I could like them for what they are instead of disliking them for what they aren't. I think your criticisms are valid. The game starts to open up more once you reach Torvus, but it doesn't change the fact that the gameplay loop in identical in each of the three major biomes. It's weird. I like the individual components of MP2. I think it has some great set pieces. I'm glad I was able to experience Sanctuary Fortress for example. It's just a weird instance where somehow the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
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Feb 11, 2023 00:01
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DeafNote posted:Love how they fixed this for one version of the game and then undid the fix for the trilogy version. Fedule posted:I forgot that Phazon Elite is a different enemy from Elite Pirate, press F for my log book Prime is a great game but I do think that MP2 and MP3 both improved scans and item discovery. In MP2 the entire scannable surface is highlighted instead of just an icon appearing, so it makes it easier to quickly check a room for any surface you might be interested in later. MP3 straight-up marks items on the map after you visit the Chozo Observatory, so you can go back and grab anything you missed. I kind of wish they had backported those changes to the MP1 engine.
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Feb 14, 2023 16:09
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Bleck posted:It seems to me like the reason they had to rewrite "the Chozo left this plane of existence entirely" is probably because Sakamoto came out and was like "hey yeah that didn't happen." Don't know if he had Dread planned out already back then, but...
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Feb 14, 2023 20:26
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Amppelix posted:Truly do not understand this decision. There's so many buttons free on the controller with the other styles but no, we have to be accurate to the originals i guess??? Edit: Oh, your complaint is that they don't expose morph ball jump as a button with the original controls. Fair complaint. ExcessBLarg! fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Feb 16, 2023 |
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Feb 16, 2023 15:37
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