Any and all... post impressions of the game (Spoilers)

2004-02-07 12:12:21 am

After playing it through, i feel kinda sad. like it went entirely too fast for what it was supposed to be... come on, 3:02:16 for my first time, on normal difficulty.

Initial impressions

Pros-
- best early- mid game of any metroid i've ever played.
- In fact, pretty much anything about the early game is a pro.
- Nice, new suitless stealth action
- Puzzles are for the most part, well implemented

Cons-
- I've yet to play easy, but some parts on normal aren't anything special (especially with chozo statues everywhere) but some parts are overly hard (mother brain comes to mind)
- Suitless stealth is too long.
- After gravity suit/space jump/plasma beam regained, 2 kinds of enemies are encountered on the ship. no exploring, no neat puzzles, just straight up endless waves of space pirates.
- Final ending seems very rushed
- In general, after ridley is defeated, game seems emotionless and mostly mindless.
- Samus makes no comments about seeing the metroids, no curiosity about them... etc. For being the namesake of the series, they just seem to be thrown in there.
-No item turning off like in SM.
- chozo statues elminate most mystery and exploration in the game,

Neutral /changes
- screw attack is toned down considerably., and i found it more annoying than helpful, simply because you get it before the space jump.
- space pirates murder energy tanks (50 / hit with gravity suit)
-after wave beam, beam looks so much like megaman's charge shot.

Overall rating...
SM-10
MZM (First half) - 9.5
MP-9
MF- 8
MZM (overall)- 6.5
MZM (2nd half) - 4

What could have been so much better was almost ruined by the addition of new content. it took the heart and soul away from the end. I believe they should have had an addition, but made it take place before the mother brain battle (perhaps another main boss, like ridley and kraid) where the 4 new items from SM could have been earned over time, rather than forced down your throat at the end.

Thread title:

After playing it through,  i feel kinda sad.  like it went entirely too fast for what it was supposed to be... come on, 3:02:16 for my first time, on normal difficulty.

Initial impressions

Pros-
- best early- mid game of any metroid i've ever played. 
- In fact, pretty much anything about the early game is a pro.
- Nice, new suitless stealth action
- Puzzles are for the most part, well implemented

Cons- 
- I've yet to play easy, but some parts on normal aren't anything special (especially with chozo statues everywhere) but some parts are overly hard (mother brain comes to mind) 
- Suitless stealth is too long.
- After gravity suit/space jump/plasma beam regained, 2 kinds of enemies are encountered on the ship. no exploring, no neat puzzles, just straight up endless waves of space pirates. 
- Final ending seems very rushed
- In general, after ridley is defeated, game seems emotionless and mostly mindless. 
- Samus makes no comments about seeing the metroids, no curiosity about them... etc.  For being the namesake of the series, they just seem to be thrown in there. 
-No item turning off like in SM. 
- chozo statues elminate most mystery and exploration in the game,

Neutral /changes
- screw attack is toned down considerably., and i found it more annoying than helpful, simply because you get it before the space jump. 
- space pirates murder energy tanks (50 / hit with gravity suit) 
-after wave beam, beam looks so much like megaman's charge shot.

Overall rating... 
SM-10
MZM (First half) - 9.5
MP-9
MF- 8
MZM (overall)- 6.5
MZM (2nd half) - 4

What could have been so much better was almost ruined by the addition of new content. it took the heart and soul away from the end. I believe they should have had an addition, but made it take place before the mother brain battle (perhaps another main boss, like ridley and kraid) where the 4 new items from SM could have been earned over time, rather than forced down your throat at the end.

Weasel

2004-02-07 02:14:26 am

Quote:

- I've yet to play easy, but some parts on normal aren't anything special (especially with chozo statues everywhere) but some parts are overly hard (mother brain comes to mind)

Play it on hard mode. It's a lot more interesting.

Quote:

- Suitless stealth is too long.

It's only roughly 7 or 8 minutes, depending on how skilled you are at it. I got through pretty quick, so it wasn't bad at all.

Quote:

After gravity suit/space jump/plasma beam regained, 2 kinds of enemies are encountered on the ship. no exploring, no neat puzzles, just straight up endless waves of space pirates.

I'm not sure, but someone mentioned that you could get out of Chozodia and back into Brinstar (or Crateria?), so you could do more stuff. I dunno. I agree with what you say though.

Quote:

Final ending seems very rushed

You thought so? I thought they did it quite well. It explained the Wrecked Ship, it actually had space pirates, it explains why Samus's ship looked different at the beginning of the game, explains why Samus's armor has the rounded shoulders. Etc.

Quote:

In general, after ridley is defeated, game seems emotionless and mostly mindless.

There's still mother brain though. I don't know about mindless. I was sure using my mind when trying to beat Mrs. Brain with only 10 missiles.

Quote:

Samus makes no comments about seeing the metroids, no curiosity about them... etc. For being the namesake of the series, they just seem to be thrown in there.

In the intro, she's supposed to kill the metroids and Mrs. Brain, so there's a comment. Besides, the original Metroid didn't comment about them too much either. It was just "Get through Tourian and kill stuff on the way"

Quote:

No item turning off like in SM.

This is, by far, the biggest flaw in the game :D I loathe the ice beam.

Quote:

chozo statues elminate most mystery and exploration in the game,

Not if you skip them. Which, in some places, you can. The statues just give you hints, like Metroid Prime. You can explore whereever you want.

[quote]
- I've yet to play easy, but some parts on normal aren't anything special (especially with chozo statues everywhere) but some parts are overly hard (mother brain comes to mind) [/quote]
Play it on hard mode. It's a lot more interesting.

[quote]- Suitless stealth is too long.[/quote]
It's only roughly 7 or 8 minutes, depending on how skilled you are at it. I got through pretty quick, so it wasn't bad at all.

[quote]After gravity suit/space jump/plasma beam regained, 2 kinds of enemies are encountered on the ship. no exploring, no neat puzzles, just straight up endless waves of space pirates.[/quote]
I'm not sure, but someone mentioned that you could get out of Chozodia and back into Brinstar (or Crateria?), so you could do more stuff. I dunno. I agree with what you say though.

[quote]Final ending seems very rushed[/quote]
You thought so? I thought they did it quite well. It explained the Wrecked Ship, it actually had space pirates, it explains why Samus's ship looked different at the beginning of the game, explains why Samus's armor has the rounded shoulders. Etc.

[quote]In general, after ridley is defeated, game seems emotionless and mostly mindless. [/quote]
There's still mother brain though. I don't know about mindless. I was sure using my mind when trying to beat Mrs. Brain with only 10 missiles.

[quote]Samus makes no comments about seeing the metroids, no curiosity about them... etc.  For being the namesake of the series, they just seem to be thrown in there. [/quote]
In the intro, she's supposed to kill the metroids and Mrs. Brain, so there's a comment. Besides, the original Metroid didn't comment about them too much either. It was just "Get through Tourian and kill stuff on the way"

[quote]No item turning off like in SM. [/quote]
This is, by far, the biggest flaw in the game :D I loathe the ice beam.

[quote]chozo statues elminate most mystery and exploration in the game, [/quote]
Not if you skip them. Which, in some places, you can. The statues just give you hints, like Metroid Prime. You can explore whereever you want.

Toozin

2004-02-07 02:43:18 am

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

You can indeed go back to Crateria from Chozodia. There's plenty of exploring to be done with your new toys in other areas.

Chozo Nut

2004-02-07 12:29:05 pm

Quote from Toozin:

You can indeed go back to Crateria from Chozodia. There's plenty of exploring to be done with your new toys in other areas.

Wich was what I was wondering. There's pretty much an entire area you can't get to with out Power Bombs. But you don't get them till much later. So it's possible to get to these areas from the Ship?

Red Scarlet

2004-02-07 01:07:19 pm

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

Yeah, you have to pull a Super Metroid in 1 part of the game to get back to the other areas.

There's more enemies than just the red and purple? pirates in the ship, there's those green blobs and the worker robots too.

DominicanZero

2004-02-07 02:26:44 pm

直死の魔眼使い

Quote from Red Scarlet Bulleta:

Yeah, you have to pull a Super Metroid in 1 part of the game to get back to the other areas.

What exactly does that mean? Can you please enlighten me? :D

Light of Day

2004-02-07 03:03:25 pm

Quote from DominicanZero:

Quote from Red Scarlet Bulleta:

Yeah, you have to pull a Super Metroid in 1 part of the game to get back to the other areas.

What exactly does that mean? Can you please enlighten me? :D

Its somewhere in Chozodia, and it involves a power bomb. It's not too hard to work out from there, I mean they did it in Prime too...

Chozo Nut

2004-02-07 10:25:01 pm

Could I get some detailed info on how to do it?

Light of Day

2004-02-07 10:30:14 pm

Power bomb the big glass Maridia-like tube between the pirate mothership and Chozodia. Drop down into the new area, and just work you way left.

DominicanZero

2004-02-08 07:51:24 am

直死の魔眼使い

Heh heh... clever one. :P I quite didn't think of Maridia when you referred to Super, I thought of something by the lines of screw attacking some wall or something. :P

Chozo Nut

2004-02-08 03:50:01 pm

Quote from Light of Day:

Power bomb the big glass Maridia-like tube between the pirate mothership and Chozodia. Drop down into the new area, and just work you way left.

Ahh...Ofcourse. I thought that tube reminded me of something. Wink

I guess the only trick is to do it before you defeat Ridley again.

Thanatos

2004-02-08 10:27:35 pm

Quote:

There's more enemies than just the red and purple? pirates in the ship, there's those green blobs and the worker robots too.

2 types of space pirate (easy and pain in the ass), worker robots (which don't attack, can't hurt you, just get in your way) and those electodes, which are only in normal mode.

The exploration of the sections aren't actually that bad. but if you just get the SB, beat up the very sonic-esq boss (he looks like something from sonic 3, not something from metroid, IMO) its very unforfilling.

on my list of cons to add about the game

cons
- "robo-ridley" looks horrible.
- in fact, anything involving ridley. his first form is about as hard to beat as the myridia boss with a grappling beam.. as long as you have 6 tanks and missiles, hes no problem. RR isn't so much hard as annoying for the same reasons as MB or any boss you fight on a single screen.
- No final beam. it just isn't metroid without a final beam.

neutral
-excessive time given to escape... i.e. i escape with 2/3 time left

[quote]There's more enemies than just the red and purple? pirates in the ship, there's those green blobs and the worker robots too.[/quote]

2 types of space pirate (easy and pain in the ass), worker robots (which don't attack, can't hurt you, just get in your way) and those electodes, which are only in normal mode.

The exploration of the sections aren't actually that bad. but if you just get the SB, beat up the very sonic-esq boss (he looks like something from sonic 3, not something from metroid, IMO) its very unforfilling.

on my list of cons to add about the game

cons
- "robo-ridley" looks horrible. 
- in fact, anything involving ridley. his first form is about as hard to beat as the myridia boss with a grappling beam.. as long as you have 6 tanks and missiles, hes no problem.  RR isn't so much hard as annoying for the same reasons as MB or any boss you fight on a single screen.
- No final beam. it just isn't metroid without a final beam.

neutral 
-excessive time given to escape... i.e. i escape with 2/3 time left

Toozin

2004-02-08 10:35:41 pm

Not impossible

just highly unlikely

Quote from Thanatos:

- No final beam. it just isn't metroid without a final beam.

Metroid 1 and Metroid 2 aren't Metroid games now?

I find that kind of a weak argument. Like saying Prime isn't a Metroid game because it doesn't have the Screw Attack.

Red Scarlet

2004-02-08 11:02:27 pm

I('d) like to watch (some MP3 runs)

Try the first Ridley on hard or a low% game, he's annoying.

Light of Day

2004-02-08 11:08:20 pm

Quote from Toozin:

I find that kind of a weak argument. Like saying Prime isn't a Metroid game because it doesn't have the Screw Attack.

It can't be as bad as the guy on GameFAQs who claimed the Samus in Prime is an imposter because she doesn't spin when she jumps. Rolling Eyes

Thanatos, if you're worrying about easy bosses and excessive time, I take it you haven't tried hard mode. Both escape times are lowered by a minute from normal, energy tanks only give you 50 more max energy instead of 100, missile tanks only give you 2 more missiles, super missile and power bomb tanks each only give you 1 extra, and all enemies do double the damage they did on normal. Try that, and then tell me Ridley is easy.

Yoshi348

2004-02-11 08:39:54 pm

PAGE BREAKER

Ready and willing.

Eep, looks like I have something to ph34r after I get myself some hot 100% action. Heh. First time, BTW, is 3:44:26 with 78%. Heh, the music after getting your suit back perfectly fits the moment: "Now I'm ready to kick some serious %*#&%!&". It made me feel so badass I almost died cause I didn't realize how ouchie the space pirates were.

Light of Day

2004-02-11 09:59:15 pm

Quote from Yoshi348:

It made me feel so badass I almost died cause I didn't realize how ouchie the space pirates were.

Hah. I think I did die because of that.

Cantonbags04

2004-02-13 10:28:06 am

Samus Lauren

Quote from Light of Day:

Quote from Yoshi348:

It made me feel so badass I almost died cause I didn't realize how ouchie the space pirates were.

Hah. I think I did die because of that.

That was one of my favorite parts int he whole mother ship for me!! Just thinking, "Oh man, once i get my suit back..." it made me keep going until i got it. Then, i went on a really nice and well deserved rampage after saving, and there was nothing those stupid pirates could do about it. The only thing i was thinking was. "DIE! DIE! BWHAHAHAHAHA!" Twisted Evil

Faust

2004-02-13 11:39:18 am

Quote from Cantonbags04:

That was one of my favorite parts int he whole mother ship for me!! Just thinking, "Oh man, once i get my suit back..." it made me keep going until i got it. Then, i went on a really nice and well deserved rampage after saving, and there was nothing those stupid pirates could do about it. The only thing i was thinking was. "DIE! DIE! BWHAHAHAHAHA!" Twisted Evil

Even with your suit on they take a chunck of health (50 I believe) with each shot. I can go from the Mecha Ridley save to Chozodia and be down a 1/4 of my total energy because of them. They don't give up anything either, damn pirates.

One thing I do like about this game in reference to enemies is that they actually made the space pirates act like pirates: mean and something to avoid. The defenders of the mothership are fucking nasty compared to the "meh, we don't really give a crap that Samus is here" attitude of the Super Metroid pirates. We get to see their true nature in this game as opposed to them being a relatively idle obstacle like in Super and Fusion. Then again, the pirates in this game are defending their ship whereas the others were probably just reconnaissance.

But I digress.

[quote="Cantonbags04"]
 :lol: That was one of my favorite parts int he whole mother ship for me!! Just thinking, "Oh man, once i get my suit back..." it made me keep going until i got it. Then, i went on a really nice and well deserved rampage after saving, and there was nothing those stupid pirates could do about it. The only thing i was thinking was. "DIE! DIE! BWHAHAHAHAHA!" :twisted:[/quote]

Even with your suit on they take a chunck of health (50 I believe) with each shot.  I can go from the Mecha Ridley save to Chozodia and be down a 1/4 of my total energy because of them. They don't give up anything either, damn pirates.

One thing I do like about this game in reference to enemies is that they actually made the space pirates act like pirates: mean and something to avoid.  The defenders of the mothership are fucking nasty compared to the "meh, we don't really give a crap that Samus is here" attitude of the Super Metroid pirates.  We get to see their true nature in this game as opposed to them being a relatively idle obstacle like in Super and Fusion. Then again, the pirates in this game [i]are[/i] defending their ship whereas the others were probably just reconnaissance.

But I digress.

Yoshi348

2004-02-13 11:52:57 am

PAGE BREAKER

Ready and willing.

You can really see their attidute as you take off in the ship, with that one pirate that shoots your ship, runs in front of it, and jumps and shoots it before getting annihalated in the collision. The pirates don't give a rat's ass about escaping, they just want to DESTROY Samus.

nate

2004-02-13 12:09:33 pm

Quote from Yoshi348:

The pirates don't give a rat's ass about escaping, they just want to DESTROY Samus.

i think this has been a great innovation in literature in the past twenty years - this idea of <i>true</i> "aliens," or things so foreign their motivations probably can't even be understood by the human brain.

imagine what it takes to write about things like that and convince the reader/viewer. the old borg from star trek: tng and the new space pirates from zero mission come to mind, although on the space pirates, i recall reading about them earlier in metroid prime:

<i>"only the results matter."</i>

creepy? i think so.

Dark_T_Zeratul

2004-02-14 03:18:42 am

Quote from DominicanZero:

Heh heh... clever one. :P I quite didn't think of Maridia when you referred to Super, I thought of something by the lines of screw attacking some wall or something. :P

It's surprising how many Metroid fans failed to notice that, as well as a similar tube in Metroid Prime where you get the Ice Spreader. At both of those points, the first time I went through, my first thought was "Power Bomb."

Warlock

2004-02-14 03:38:30 am

Quote from Dark_T_Zeratul:

Quote from DominicanZero:

Heh heh... clever one. :P I quite didn't think of Maridia when you referred to Super, I thought of something by the lines of screw attacking some wall or something. :P

It's surprising how many Metroid fans failed to notice that, as well as a similar tube in Metroid Prime where you get the Ice Spreader. At both of those points, the first time I went through, my first thought was "Power Bomb."

I think the main reason is that it's just so far out of the way by the time you actually get the Power Bombs that you sort of forget about it. I know the first time I played I just sort of stumbled on Mecca Ridley by accident :D I had intended to do some more exploring but of course he isn't marked on the map like Kraid & Ridley were. So yeah ;)

I'm a little surprised they didn't do something with Power Bombs and the ship's bridge (edit: apparently the term I used before was censored.. haha.. oh well, I think bridge is more accurate anyways) which had those huge windows. It was RIGHT where you got the bombs too.. you'd think they would have at least hidden a powerup out there or something :)

[quote="Dark_T_Zeratul"][quote="DominicanZero"]Heh heh... clever one. :P I quite didn't think of Maridia when you referred to Super, I thought of something by the lines of screw attacking some wall or something. :P[/quote]
It's surprising how many Metroid fans failed to notice that, as well as a similar tube in Metroid Prime where you get the Ice Spreader.  At both of those points, the first time I went through, my first thought was "Power Bomb."[/quote]

I think the main reason is that it's just so far out of the way by the time you actually get the Power Bombs that you sort of forget about it.  I know the first time I played I just sort of stumbled on Mecca Ridley by accident :D  I had intended to do some more exploring but of course he isn't marked on the map like Kraid & Ridley were.  So yeah ;)

I'm a little surprised they didn't do something with Power Bombs and the ship's bridge (edit: apparently the term I used before was censored.. haha.. oh well, I think bridge is more accurate anyways) which had those huge windows.  It was RIGHT where you got the bombs too.. you'd think they would have at least hidden a powerup out there or something :)

Dark_T_Zeratul

2004-02-14 03:41:40 am

You've got a good point there. To be honest I forgot about the tube too, until I went back through it trying to find a path back to Crateria. And yeah, I tried to blow out those windows as well. It's a shame it didn't work.