ExoParadigmGamer shits on Metroid Prime

Good review, King K. I'm in the boat that strongly prefers the Wii version, but like you, I was surprised at how simple it was to adjust to the GameCube controls. I guess it's because I played a lot of Star Fox Assault in my youth, as those two games have essentially the same control scheme. Still, the pseudo dual analog is so much better, and since I was introduced to the subseries via Prime 3, I was already used to the beam/visor switching mechanism by the time I played it.

In regards to the sequence breaking, it's important to note that Super Metroid and Metroid Prime approach it differently. Much of Super's sequence breaking stems from abusing wall jumps and the occasional mach ball. My favorite thing is to get the Wave Beam by wall jumping in Norfair; I always do it every time I replay the game. In Metroid Prime, I find that most of the time it's not based around skill with advanced mechanics as much as it is trying to trigger a bunch of glitches that almost never work. For example, no matter how hard I try, I could never trigger the sequence break to get to the Phazon Mines early. I believe there's an elevator in the Chozo Ruins near the Ice Beam that takes you to the entrance of the mines, but there's a gate in the way that you can only open from the Wrecked Frigate side with a boost ball slot. Supposedly, you can use morph ball bombs to glitch through the gate and access the mines early, but I couldn't get it to work no matter how hard I tried. You can also sequence brake by jumping on an obscenely small platforms to cheese your way up to the higher ledge in the morphball room, but that's almost impossible. Point is, in the time it takes you to look up how to do all of this stuff and actually get it to work, you could have just played the game the normal way and done it much faster. Sequence breaking in Metroid Prime isn't as fun or satisfying because of how obtuse and cumbersome it is. Plus, whenever I replay these games, it's always a 100% playthrough, and it's simpler to plan your route when you stick to the game's intended order.

hat being said, I absolutely agree with your assessment of the backtracking. It's been in every game, but in my opinion, it is at it's absolute worst here. I can get from Ridley's Lair to Tourian in just a few minutes, but getting from Phendrana to Tallon Overworld always takes forever. It's because the game tries to disguise load times using protracted set pieces. You know that room in Magmoor with all those little elevators on the walls that you have to wait for? All those little s-shaped hallways? All of those set pieces are designed to give the game more time to load the bigger rooms on either side, and it does a number on the game's pacing. I will never understand how people could think Echoes has it worse; that is simply a wrong opinion, and I don't say that about a lot of things. The more modular structure of Aether in itself greatly improves on the backtracking of the first game.

Anyway, enough rambling. Glad you're getting into the series.