I was thinking about this while commiting more intellectual theft, and I believe there are three reasons why the game seems and is short. The first two are obvious but the third wasn't, to me.
1. You've seen it all before. Not just the items and the gameplay and the monsters, but even the majority of the level layout. This game is largely NOT faithful to the original, either in difficulty, open-endedness, gameplay, graphic design, or level design, and thus it's impossible to see it as anything but a new game. As a new game, it doesn't have enough new content.
2. There is simply less real estate. There are drastically fewer passages than Super Metroid and others. Prime at least tries to get more life out of each individual room-as it should. No FPS since Doom (especially console FPS which don't even employ a mouse-bleh) has truly had an atmosphere of speed, and thus they have to milk interaction and content out of each stepping stone. You can debate that if you like, I doubt I'll change my mind.
3. Here's the important one. There's less pathing crossovers. Think about Super Metroid. Two entrances into Maridia. Many ways to move around within Norfair. Multiple routes out of Brinstar. Crateria behaving as an always accessible hub rather than a distant passageway to Tourian or Chozodia. There are a couple of vertical passages within Norfair that I considered to be errors in the game's design the first few times I played, because there was just no reason to use them.
And what were the boring parts of SM? Lower Norfair, Kraid's area, the ice beam area-those places where there is one way in, and one way out. (normally)
ZM has a few of these pathing crossovers, (not sequence breaks since they are INTENDED) the vertical drop to Ridley, the way past the green door in Ridley, the entrance to Tourian from the climbing chamber, but all of these are hidden well from the casual player. Unless I am aggressively seeking tricks, there's only one way to proceed, and that ends up being boring.
The most shocking stupidity of all is that the normal straightforward route to finishing the game, in spite of the hand holding statues and complete lack of obvious pathing crossovers, is often some obscure or weird thing, like the tiny passage at the bottom of the power grip pit, or the tiny passage under the high jump boots. The way to actually finish the game normally should at least be something you can clearly see and walk straight to, with no confusion or scrutinizing.
How can they bring the Metroid series back up to the level of Super Metroid?
1. A straightforward way to proceed, even if it's not to the next objective. No game suffered more brutally from this than Fusion. (Only one area is accessible, but I have to just randomnly bomb everything to find a way forward-yuck.)
2. More content. Not every room has to have multiple puzzles or tricks or items. Obviously every room has to have a purpose or the game is garbage, but having details that don't serve a purpose still serve the role of atmosphere, content, something you have to think about, examine, shoot at, jump towards, and so forth. Just being a hub to other areas is a purpose. (Many rooms in ZM have 3 or 4 purposes, prove me wrong) I remember thinking most of Maridia was pretty boring when I played SM, but that dross often serves to make the interesting areas even more appealing. Maridia wasn't linear, it simply suffered from not enough pathing crossovers, see #4.
3. Ways to get somewhere other than the obvious next objective by doing something SIMPLE. Ie, jumping. Shooting. Rolling into a ball.
4. More pathing crossovers. Returning to exactly the same areas from a different direction and with a different ability. A room doesn't even need a purpose the first time if it's purpose becomes available later. Partial access to areas that can't be completely explored with the items you currently possess.
Think if Maridia had had access to Lower Norfair, but you couldn't proceed in LN without space booster and/or plasma beam? That might not alter speed runs or change the overall design of the game, but it would have been -cool to feel like you have some freedom in movement.
(This is the whole reason why the exploding glass tube has now been celebrated in 4 metroid games. Is the tube cool? No, pathing crossovers are cool. And the tube wasn't used for that purpose in later games.)
1. You've seen it all before. Not just the items and the gameplay and the monsters, but even the majority of the level layout. This game is largely NOT faithful to the original, either in difficulty, open-endedness, gameplay, graphic design, or level design, and thus it's impossible to see it as anything but a new game. As a new game, it doesn't have enough new content.
2. There is simply less real estate. There are drastically fewer passages than Super Metroid and others. Prime at least tries to get more life out of each individual room-as it should. No FPS since Doom (especially console FPS which don't even employ a mouse-bleh) has truly had an atmosphere of speed, and thus they have to milk interaction and content out of each stepping stone. You can debate that if you like, I doubt I'll change my mind.
3. Here's the important one. There's less pathing crossovers. Think about Super Metroid. Two entrances into Maridia. Many ways to move around within Norfair. Multiple routes out of Brinstar. Crateria behaving as an always accessible hub rather than a distant passageway to Tourian or Chozodia. There are a couple of vertical passages within Norfair that I considered to be errors in the game's design the first few times I played, because there was just no reason to use them.
And what were the boring parts of SM? Lower Norfair, Kraid's area, the ice beam area-those places where there is one way in, and one way out. (normally)
ZM has a few of these pathing crossovers, (not sequence breaks since they are INTENDED) the vertical drop to Ridley, the way past the green door in Ridley, the entrance to Tourian from the climbing chamber, but all of these are hidden well from the casual player. Unless I am aggressively seeking tricks, there's only one way to proceed, and that ends up being boring.
The most shocking stupidity of all is that the normal straightforward route to finishing the game, in spite of the hand holding statues and complete lack of obvious pathing crossovers, is often some obscure or weird thing, like the tiny passage at the bottom of the power grip pit, or the tiny passage under the high jump boots. The way to actually finish the game normally should at least be something you can clearly see and walk straight to, with no confusion or scrutinizing.
How can they bring the Metroid series back up to the level of Super Metroid?
1. A straightforward way to proceed, even if it's not to the next objective. No game suffered more brutally from this than Fusion. (Only one area is accessible, but I have to just randomnly bomb everything to find a way forward-yuck.)
2. More content. Not every room has to have multiple puzzles or tricks or items. Obviously every room has to have a purpose or the game is garbage, but having details that don't serve a purpose still serve the role of atmosphere, content, something you have to think about, examine, shoot at, jump towards, and so forth. Just being a hub to other areas is a purpose. (Many rooms in ZM have 3 or 4 purposes, prove me wrong) I remember thinking most of Maridia was pretty boring when I played SM, but that dross often serves to make the interesting areas even more appealing. Maridia wasn't linear, it simply suffered from not enough pathing crossovers, see #4.
3. Ways to get somewhere other than the obvious next objective by doing something SIMPLE. Ie, jumping. Shooting. Rolling into a ball.
4. More pathing crossovers. Returning to exactly the same areas from a different direction and with a different ability. A room doesn't even need a purpose the first time if it's purpose becomes available later. Partial access to areas that can't be completely explored with the items you currently possess.
Think if Maridia had had access to Lower Norfair, but you couldn't proceed in LN without space booster and/or plasma beam? That might not alter speed runs or change the overall design of the game, but it would have been -cool to feel like you have some freedom in movement.
(This is the whole reason why the exploding glass tube has now been celebrated in 4 metroid games. Is the tube cool? No, pathing crossovers are cool. And the tube wasn't used for that purpose in later games.)
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