I prefer Retro's 3D structure to 2D Metroid. Prime 1 and 2 are my faavorites in the series, and two of my favorite games of all time. But 2D Metroid is great as well, so I was pretty excited to see this game announced. A lot of people were upset about the developer Nintendo gave the project to, but I have no other experience with their work, and it's not as if someone making a bad game or two means they're inept. Still, I know how little care has been put in the series for the past decade, so I went in without any real hype. To my surprise, the game was a lot of fun! But... it has a lot of problems that make it the weakest game in the series, barring Other M and the outdated first two. This isn't really a bad thing though, just an unfortunate one.

I think most of the problems definitely lie within the fact that this is a remake of Metroid II. Metroid II isn't a bad game with respect to it's age and limitations. But it wasn't really designed in a way similar to the future games that would define Metroid's structure. You found yourself going a straight path for the most part, and I don't recall any backtracking, even for item upgrades. And that's where the first big problem comes in. It's clear that Mercury Steam put a lot of care into the game in order to differentiate it from both the original, and the rest of the series. Map progression was pretty unique despite the linearity and there were a lot of cool ways to find upgrades. But going through these maps to collect upgrades is a pain.

Every enemy charges you, which is an indication to use your melee counter to score an easy kill. This feature, and the decision to emphasize it within every combat situation, obliterates the flow of travel. In other Metroid games, the AI of the generic enemies would have predetermined paths. They were there so you could refill your health and ammo, and just as a general way to keep the world from feeling empty. Most importantly though, they never felt in the way. But here, because every enemy charges you, combat is basically forced each time you go through an area. And the enemies respawn every time you leave and re-enter, like every other game in the series. But in other games, enemies could be shot through in a few hits at most. In this one, because the counter results in a one-hit kill on every enemy, they give the enemies high health pools. They want to incentivize the counter so much, they make shooting regularly take forever. On top of that, enemies deal far more damage in this game than the others, besides maybe Fusion. So tanking yourself is almost always a bad idea. Essentially, if your path is obstructed by enemies, you will have to engage them. And this is a common occurrence, thanks to the cramped verticality that was retained from the original. Nearly all backtracking is optional, but a lot of the thrill of this series is going back to earlier parts and finding new paths and upgrades. It's actually one of my favorite things in the series. But here, it's just not very fun because it's so slow-paced. I finished with only 60% item completion before I got tired of backtracking, and it still took me 10 hours to beat. I don't think I've ever needed more than 6 hours to 100% a 2D Metroid. Probably four of those hours were from backtracking, honestly. That's just unacceptably slow for a franchise that prides itself on how quickly players can finish it. If they weren't designed to be completed quickly, they wouldn't flash your finishing time at the end of every game. Maybe I was doing something wrong? I never found myself lost or anything. It just takes way too much time to get from point A to point B.

And then there's the second significant issue: control. It goes without saying that this is awkward as hell, and I can't imagine how something this unintuitive managed to make it out of development. For most of the game, Samus is very difficult to get a grasp on, and never feels quite right. This is due in part to the shooting, where in order to aim, you have to hold down a button and plant your feet (which further complicates the speed of the game). The circle pad just doesn't feel entirely accurate. Even with the laser sighting, it took me a few tries to line up my shots properly at times. I mean, this is mostly because I was just bad, but I was bad because the game didn't really make the shooting feel natural. Because you can shoot a full 360 degrees, precision is necessary, but using the slidepad feels so weird. Using the spider ball was more complicated than it should've been as well. You either have to tap down twice, which I'm convinced is impossible on the slide pad, or tap the bottom screen, which requires you to move your thumb away from your only movement option. But if you need to make a jump, then morph and use the spider ball, it's an awkward mesh of button combinations that shouldn't exist in this type of game.

The D-pad is relegated to selecting your aeon powers, which I think is fine on it's own. The game was designed around having a full range motion for your gun, and it becomes clear later on once you have power-ups that actually work with that mechanic. But what's not fine is needing to use A in order to activate them. This makes the A button, which could've been used to do something useful like being a dedicated morph ball button, or allow you to switch beam/missile types, tied up for no real reason. Every power just needed to be activated and deactivated with a press of the corresponding d-pad button. But because they want you to use A to activate them, two very important mechanics in the game are controlled with the touchpad. Some fights will require you to switch beam types on the fly, and in these hectic situations, it never feels comfortable.

But once you get a few upgrades, the issue of control and speed kind of go away, at least until the final area. Upgrade spoilers from here on out, by the way.

Once you get the spazer beam, precision is no longer a necessity, because it has a generous spread. Suddenly, combat doesn't feel all that tiresome. But it's made even better when you get the screw attack, and can completely avoid most encounters. The control suddenly feels super tight, and the pacing ratchets up to a solid level that's to be expected of Metroid. Regular enemies aren't treated as unique encounters anymore, and the main focus becomes exploration for the first time in the game. Pretty much everything after the spazer beam is great stuff. It's the kind of game I wanted to see from this franchise after so many years of nothing.

But then the final area hits...

So before I delve into how this game dropped the ball in the final area, it's important to go over my final major issue with the game, and quite possibly the most crucial screw-up: atmosphere. Metroid games are known for the atmosphere. Stranded on alien planets with no way to leave, forced to go through these cryptic ruins of civilization long passed, armed with only a few tools and forced to scavenge for more powerful ones to survive a harsh environment. Samus Returns has all of this. But it's never very good. Why? Eh, atmosphere is kind of hard to truly describe, but I blame the art design. Samus herself looks fine, but nothing really looks dangerous in this game. Even the big bad bosses have a cartoonish look to them. It just doesn't mesh with the sense of intimidation it's trying to create. This isn't helped by the enemy variety being a complete embarrassment. There are probably less than 10 enemy types not counting bosses. Like, god dammit Mercury Steam, just because the original 1991 Gameboy game had awful for variety doesn't mean the remake should. In fact, that's one of the biggest things I would say should've been fixed! And you know what else should've been fixed? Aesthetics. Everything looks like a damn cave in this game, because that's all it really is. Every texture and background gives off the feeling of a random cave, just with a different tint of color depending on which area you're in. But surely they'd give you a good way of differentiating through some cool names right? Yeah, no. There are 9 areas in the game and aside from the starting area identified as "Surface", they are just named, "Area" followed by the corresponding number. This further muddies the atmosphere of the game, because none of the areas are identifiable by having different aesthetics, enemies, or names. This is a lost Chozo civilization, right? Are we to believe the ecosystem of this place was literally just a bunch of different colored caves with the same wildlife, but also colored differently? I literally just played the damn game, and I couldn't tell you what made Area 3 different from Area 5. I don't remember because the world did nothing to draw me in.

But I will forever remember Area 8. Because it took one of the most brilliant atmospheric design decisions from that era of gaming, and threw it out the window.

STORY SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.

In the original Metroid II, the final area was this empty, somber place.
There weren't many enemies because there was nothing there to sustain the wildlife. The planet had been hollowed out due to the infestation of Metroids, and as you got closer to the hive,
it was clear to see the state of the planet, and what it would soon become. Lifeless, cold,
and unnerving. It was hard to express such a feeling in a Gameboy game, but they nailed it.
It was an incredibly surreal part of the game.

So what the hell else does Samus Returns do but change the area to be a gauntlet of enemies that can't be killed with your plasma beam or screw attack. It's clear that Mercury Steam just doesn't get what makes the Metroid games such an experience. Sure, the gameplay is important,
but the atmosphere is a must as well. They just have no understanding of what made the series so significant and unique.

But once you defeat the Queen Metroid (A fairly weak boss fight, unfortunately), I wasn't too excited for the ending. Metroid II's ending was very surreal. It was somewhat somber, as the last Metroid, completely harmless and actually of great use to you, followed Samus to her ship.
There was no escape sequence, no rushing, no enemies. Just a slow walk back to your ship,
to reflect upon your adventure, and the genocide you committed. The final moments of Metroid II are just so damn good.

But after the scene where you meet the hatchling, you're immediately greeted with a few random enemies. "Oh boy," I sarcastically thought as I shot through the same enemies I've been shooting for the past 10 hours. What proceeds is a big section of enemies getting in the way of your way off this planet. They all go down easily though, so it's not too big of a deal from a gameplay perspective. But I'm still quite ticked off about how they've handled this final part. Finally,
you make it outside and onto the screen holding your ship, and the sky gets darker, with a greenish tint. There's an ominous feeling created and I knew that the Queen Metroid wasn't the final boss of this game.

I won't spoil what the final boss is, but just know that it is a damn good boss fight. I loved it in a bubble, but dammit if it doesn't even further miss the point of Metroid II.

A remake of this game really could've been something special in the right hands.... wait a minute. It did get put into the right hands! There exists a fan made creation known as AM2R. It was made by one guy who loved the Metroid series, and wanted to try his hand at making a true remake to the forgotten classic in the vein of Zero Mission. What resulted was nothing short of a masterpiece. It had an impeccable flow to it's design, giving the player exploration-based upgrades early on in order to free up the cramped structure. It took the relatively plain art design from the original and created a massive civilization with wildly differing areas each recognizable through unique design. It knew how to intimidate players with strong foreshadowing and encounters that didn't overstay their welcome. AM2R is a far more inspired game that understands what makes this series so good. It's a shame Nintendo ordered a cease and desist after it's release, then proceeded to threaten to cut ties with TGA if it were to receive any nominations. The whole thing was handled poorly and it just further shows how one man with a vision can create a more meaningful experience than a group of people with a budget.

Samus Returns really is just an action game at heart. An action game that wanted to bring about a Metroid-scale adventure. These two things just don't really mesh, and the end result is a really weird experiment that ends up pretty middling. I wish the entire game was like the 2-3 hours that I loved, because it managed to find a perfect balance. But the final product is an underwhelming romp that overstays it's welcome. Don't get me wrong, this game is pretty good, but it's hard not to compare it to the franchise's other accomplishments, especially when those were accomplishments were achieved years ago.