Time, %, Difficulty

2007-09-10 03:21:17 pm

Percent: 100%
Time: 13:58
Difficulty: Normal

Second playthrough. Time is so slow because I spent a lot of time screwing around and looking for breaks/SWs. I started a Hyper Mode file now:

So far I'm at the trooper escort mission. Haven't died since Mogenar.

dave

2007-09-10 07:11:16 pm

Haha took me long enough to beat it. I can now start catching up on speed tricks and sequence breaking. Enjoyed the hell out of the game, and I'm VERY glad I chose to play on veteran.

Veteran
100%
18:52

100% ending spoiler:

Anyone know what was up with that ship that followed Samus in the 100% ending?

EmeraldElement

2007-09-10 10:03:44 pm

first time through: 94% Normal 21:42
just now: 100% Veteran 12:35

I'm gonna start a hypermode next.

flamancipator

2007-09-10 10:08:02 pm

Veteran
77%
11:17

First play through. My first thought? It seems like there is a lot less pickups in MP3 than MP1 and MP2.

Visors:

MP1 and MP2: Thermal + X-ray, Dark + Echo
MP3: X-Ray

Beams

MP1 and MP2: Ice + Wave + Plasma, Light + Dark + Annihilator
MP3: Plasma + Nova

Suits

MP1 and MP2: Varia Suit +Gravity Suit + Phazon Suit, Dark Suit + Light Suit + Gravity Boost (pretty much the same as Gravity Suit)
MP3: PED Suit (and to me it didn't feel like any significant upgrade, it didn't give access to an otherwise inaccessible area like previous suits)

When I play MP1, Samus starts Tallon IV practically naked. You can shoot and walk and jump once. Wow. MP3, the difference between starting the game and finishing the game was, to me, much less noticeable. My beam goes from yellow weak to green strong, I can walk in acid rain, and I can swing from cliff to cliff where I otherwise couldn't. I was kinda expecting more upgrades. Every time I've beat a huge boss in the past, it's been some incredible pickup that immediately becomes essential to progress... And when I'm beating Mogenar, Helios, Omega Ridley, the 3 big bosses equivalent to, say, Flaaghra, Thardus, and Omega Pirate, all I'm getting is a bunch of items that can only be used in Hypermode and only felt essential for the 10 seconds right after I acquired it. I guess the implementation of the hypermode upgrades is narrow in scope, too, like, obtaining an item that can blow up phazon nodules while you're in morph ball form can't be that essential of an item. If we were to be blowing up phazon nodules in morph ball form all game, that would get boring rather quickly as well. So I guess they had an idea to replace a few visors, beams, and Power Bombs in order to implement this Hypermode which would be used momentarily at key points in the game. If you ask me, maybe I'm old school, but Samus is all about Super Missiles, Power Bombs, a huge variety of beams, and lately, some unique visors. Hypermode and its bazillion add-ons just didn't work so well for me. It's very unique and balanced and pretty essential to the storyline, but it just didn't feel like that Metroid gaming I'm used to in the recent past. Whether or not that's a good thing, I haven't decided, but maybe what I'm trying to say is that this really didn't feel like the kind of 3-D Metroid I'm used to.

Nonetheless, as a stand-alone game, this is definitely one of the most entertaining I've played in a long time. The control is excellent (and the variety of control options excellent as well), the atmosphere and setting are excellent, I did not like the Fusion-esque "Go here and do this now that you've got this, I'll show you how to get there since you didn't know how to get there before" says Mr. Computer, but you kinda had to see that coming if they were going to put a stop to the sequence breaking and otherwise blatant thrashing of their game. The only realistic way to keep us from sequence breaking is to place each item on its own little planet that can only be accessed once a previous pickup has been acquired... and that's just what they did. Smart on their part, frustrating for me, but I'm sure we'll figure something out within each planet. The disintegrating soldiers on the GFS Valhalla so quickly reminded me of Super Metroid that I joygasmed in a combination of fear and nostalgia. One of the best parts of this game, though, is the puzzles. Many of them go beyond simple one-step solutions, and I thoroughly enjoyed their placement in the game and how rewarding it was to solve them :) .

Now maybe someone will explain to me why the series is named after "Metroid Prime," the enemy that was destroyed at the end of the first game and nowhere to be found in 2 and 3 aiwebs_008

.

~Flamy

Veteran
77%
11:17

First play through.  My first thought?  It seems like there is a lot less pickups in MP3 than MP1 and MP2.

[b]Visors[/b]:

MP1 and MP2: Thermal + X-ray, Dark + Echo
MP3: X-Ray

[b]Beams[/b]

MP1 and MP2: Ice + Wave + Plasma, Light + Dark + Annihilator
MP3: Plasma + Nova

[b]Suits[/b]

MP1 and MP2: Varia Suit +Gravity Suit + Phazon Suit, Dark Suit + Light Suit + Gravity Boost (pretty much the same as Gravity Suit)
MP3: PED Suit (and to me it didn't feel like any significant upgrade, it didn't give access to an otherwise inaccessible area like previous suits)

When I play MP1, Samus starts Tallon IV practically naked.  You can shoot and walk and jump once.  Wow.  MP3, the difference between starting the game and finishing the game was, to me, much less noticeable.  My beam goes from yellow weak to green strong, I can walk in acid rain, and I can swing from cliff to cliff where I otherwise couldn't.  I was kinda expecting more upgrades.  Every time I've beat a huge boss in the past, it's been some incredible pickup that immediately becomes essential to progress...  And when I'm beating Mogenar, Helios, Omega Ridley, the 3 big bosses equivalent to, say, Flaaghra, Thardus, and Omega Pirate, all I'm getting is a bunch of items that can only be used in Hypermode and only felt essential for the 10 seconds right after I acquired it.  I guess the implementation of the hypermode upgrades is narrow in scope, too, like, obtaining an item that can blow up phazon nodules while you're in morph ball form can't be that essential of an item.  If we were to be blowing up phazon nodules in morph ball form all game, that would get boring rather quickly as well.  So I guess they had an idea to replace a few visors, beams, and Power Bombs in order to implement this Hypermode which would be used momentarily at key points in the game.  If you ask me, maybe I'm old school, but Samus is all about Super Missiles, Power Bombs, a huge variety of beams, and lately, some unique visors.  Hypermode and its bazillion add-ons just didn't work so well for me.  It's very unique and balanced and pretty essential to the storyline, but it just didn't feel like that Metroid gaming I'm used to in the recent past.  Whether or not that's a good thing, I haven't decided, but maybe what I'm trying to say is that this really didn't feel like the kind of 3-D Metroid I'm used to.

Nonetheless, as a stand-alone game, this is definitely one of the most entertaining I've played in a long time.  The control is excellent (and the variety of control options excellent as well), the atmosphere and setting are excellent, I did not like the Fusion-esque "Go here and do this now that you've got this, I'll show you how to get there since you didn't know how to get there before" says Mr. Computer, but you kinda had to see that coming if they were going to put a stop to the sequence breaking and otherwise blatant thrashing of their game.  The only realistic way to keep us from sequence breaking is to place each item on its own little planet that can only be accessed once a previous pickup has been acquired... and that's just what they did.  Smart on their part, frustrating for me, but I'm sure we'll figure something out within each planet.  The disintegrating soldiers on the GFS Valhalla so quickly reminded me of Super Metroid that I joygasmed in a combination of fear and nostalgia.  One of the best parts of this game, though, is the puzzles.  Many of them go beyond simple one-step solutions, and I thoroughly enjoyed their placement in the game and how rewarding it was to solve them :) .

Now maybe someone will explain to me why the series is named after "Metroid Prime," the enemy that was destroyed at the end of the first game and nowhere to be found in 2 and 3  [aiwebs_008] .

~[color=red]Flamy[/color]

Azure

2007-09-10 10:24:33 pm

Pi-Face

Metroid Prime = Dark Samus

granto

2007-09-10 10:33:05 pm

Hyper difficutly: 9:04 62%

Had 8 energy tanks. Wasn't aiming for a particular time or %, kind of just collected the energy tanks and missiles on the natural route and didn't go out of my way for many. I ended up getting really really good at the final bosses :p... I can see someone beating it on hyper with <4 tanks.

CymicX

2007-09-11 09:59:13 am

Hey... I don't know if anyone noticed this but it the game take an automatic screenshot of your final result screen. I didn't noticed it until my mailbox flashed because there was a picture in it. Nice feature they put in there!

GreenMamba

2007-09-11 02:06:55 pm

What luck, there's french fry stuck in my beard.

8:46
100%
Hypermode

Good gravy is Dark Samus tiring on Hypermode.

Chet Rippo

2007-09-11 03:42:28 pm

6:56
100%
Veteran

craztad

2007-09-11 07:34:09 pm

kyupi+yakisoba=win

After the first part of bryyo i am saved at the ship with 30 and 9%. Hope im keeping up with everyone for speed. On to the ice missle. Oh and vids on their way soon.

TheDro

2007-09-11 07:44:55 pm

beat it twice so far
18h.. on veteran 100%
then 11h.. on hypermode 100%
And now I started normal and it's soooooooo much easier. Especially the first miniboss.

Speaking of the dissolving marines, the one that dissolves right in front of you just as you open the door is really freaky. Definatly made me jump

The last boss on hypermode is uber hard in my opinion. read on in spoilers:P

First phase gave me the hardest time until i figured out charged shots and missiles suck.

I miss snowflakes from phendrana...

Aruki

2007-09-11 08:18:51 pm

Time: 6:38
Percent: 47%
Difficulty: Hypermode

zell99

2007-09-11 08:41:53 pm

Quote from craztad:

After the first part of bryyo i am saved at the ship with 30 and 9%. Hope im keeping up with everyone for speed. On to the ice missle. Oh and vids on their way soon.

You're keeping up, I had 0:31 at that point. Did you get 23 landing on Bryyo? Because I don't understand how you're only 1 min ahead of me (you had 7, I had 8 after Berzerker Lord) if you used Gateway puzzle skip and Grand Court bsjs (I didn't use them)

Tim

2007-09-13 09:39:55 am

Normal: A stunningly pathetic 16:23, with 99% (in my defense, I got lost a lot in *&$#!@^ Skytown)
Veteran: 9:07, 100%
Hypermode: 9:43, 100%

Quote from craztad:

After the first part of bryyo i am saved at the ship with 30 and 9%. Hope im keeping up with everyone for speed. On to the ice missle. Oh and vids on their way soon.

Guess I need to speed the hell up >_>. I thought I was doing good with 00:42 @ 10%.

Fano7

2007-09-13 10:16:17 am

Every Bit Counts

Normal: 23% in 5:25. Took me a while to beat final bosses.

Metroiddestruktor

2007-09-13 03:59:52 pm

Veteran, 15:32h, 93%
For me the best game I ever played =)
Edit: First time through it.

the wicked child

2007-09-13 09:32:16 pm

Normal: 9:01 100%

Although I improved my time by a nice 50%, I screwed myself out of a good 30-45 minutes by missing 3 missle expansions spread across 3 planets and also getting lost in eastern skytown at one point.

Starting a game in Veteran now.

UchihaSasuke

2007-09-14 05:28:30 pm

my umbrella goes directly to Bankai

i beat the game again yesterday.

11:14 Veteran 100%

i'll play on hyper next. but before that, i'll revisit the older primes.

BlueGlass

2007-09-15 08:56:43 am

4:32 23% normal. Not anywhere near as hard as I would have anticipated. Guess the difficulty comes in on hyper.

Prime Hunter

2007-09-15 10:32:45 am

Dang... there goes my one and only record for speed runs at the moment. (Low% Norm) You beat me by less than 10 minutes! laugh new

Too bad I don't have a lot of free time these days to try and reclaim that.

Mgoblue201

2007-09-15 12:28:07 pm

First time got a 17:28 on veteran and 22:00 on the dot for 100%.

Lowest time is 4:08. Didn't bother using a single trick (still need to learn how to do the BSJ), and it was pretty much straight through, only restarted once, so I made a million mistakes. I could've gotten sub 4 hours, but I screwed up on Elysia and took a bad route. By the time that I figured I could've gone to another landing pad faster, I had already saved. Only caveat is that I did it with 38%. I was trying to collect every item I saw, and I tend to keep low percentage runs and speed runs separate anyway. I didn't need all of those extra energy tanks and missiles, but I didn't want to get stuck searching for missiles when I needed more for the seeker.