Introduction:

Metroid: Samus Returns is the newest 2D Metroid game, similar to the likes of Super Metroid, Zero Mission, and Fusion. It was released on September 15th, 2017. And so far, Samus Returns has been my favorite game on the 3DS during all of 2017.

I’ve never been a huge fan of 3D Metroid games. Couldn’t get into the Prime series, and definitely not Other M. This game, however, combines some elements from 3D Metroid titles, such as the sound design and the new melee attack, but retains many of the best parts of 2D Metroid, like exploring for pickups, backtracking, and many different linked explorable areas.

I finished Metroid: Samus returns in 14:01:11, and yes, I do know that I play games very slowly. I played in normal mode, and my clear percentage was 94.0%

Gameplay:

Samus Returns is definitely easier than most other 2D Metroid games, and that isn’t necessarily a problem. I’ve heard different views on the difficulty of the game, though for me, it was one of the easier 2D Metroids. The reason I see this game as a fair bit easier than other 2D Metroids is because of the Aeon abilities. The first one you find, the scan ability makes it so you never have to search for a power up again. There’s also the ability which allows you to be impervious to most damage for a set amount of hits, an ability that supercharges your weapon, and an ability that slows down time.

You have all of the powers Samus usually has in fully fledged Metroid games, other than the sad exclusion of the Speed Booster. Another change that I wasn’t incredibly keen on in the beginning is the fact that the normal blaster and freeze blaster are now two different blaster selections. This didn’t strike me as a problem at first, but upgrades like the wave blaster don’t translate to the freeze blaster, so the only time I ever used the freeze blaster is when it was strictly required. That being said, the function of the freeze blaster was changed. For example, enemies that were unkillable in older Metroid games were often used as platforms. In this game, you may find yourself freezing killable enemies as platforms in order to traverse.

One of my biggest gripes, is that in a lot of the game, when traversing and especially backtracking for power ups, it just felt like jumping through hoops. In games like Super Metroid and Zero Mission, you’d find subtle cues that lead to hidden areas where you may find any given powerup. In this game, I feel like the developers didn’t see a need to add subtle cues to find these hidden objects, and for the most part, they didn’t. The Aeon ability that allows you to scan the nearby area, makes finding the power-ups and expansions incredibly easy. And even when you do find these power-ups, they’re almost always a normal missile expansion! These normal missile expansion packs seem incredibly plentiful compared to health upgrades, super missile expansions, or power bombs. Not once did I randomly stumble upon a health upgrade, which are only placed in key spots, and they aren’t at all hard to find. This made me feel like I was wasting my time hunting down these small circles left on my map, but it still felt so easy to do with the scanning ability.

Finally, getting onto the bosses in Samus Returns, they can be a bit… Repetitive. This does match up with Metroid 2, and to the credit of this game, Samus Returns adds a few different aspects that makes these fights more interesting. Some of these additions were the ability to aim in 360 degrees when standing still. This is very helpful when taking down enemies and the game finds very interesting ways to incorporate this in tandem with the other new addition, the melee attack. When an enemy has lights up and lunges towards you, you have a chance to counter with the X button. Following a successful counter you’ll have a single powered-up shot that you need to be careful aiming to quickly dispatch your foes.

Of course, the bosses also utilize the 360 degree aiming as well as the melee attack, but they also have a special addition that differentiate them further from other enemies and other bosses; they take advantage of elemental attacks. Some enemies will have some ice attacks that freeze the floor or some fire attacks that burn the floor, forcing you to move around more and stop you from standing in one spot and unloading missiles into the enemies until they die.

Minor Spoilers; I also didn’t enjoy the Giant robot fight. It felt more like an incredibly easy puzzle and less of a challenge, having to use the morph ball and bombs more than anything else. This made it feel incredibly easy and tiresome once I understood the repetitive nature of defeating the boss. Most of the other bosses that weren’t the various evolutions of Metroid, were very interesting and engaging.

Story:

The story of Metroid 2 and by extension, Metroid: Samus Returns, is very simplistic. Following the events of the original Metroid, the story involves Samus going to the planet SR-388 with the intent of destroying the rest of the living Metroids.

This is about the extent of the plot in Metroid 2. There are a few extra nuances in Samus Returns, like watching the special cutscenes that play for each of the different kind of Metroid evolutions. There are a couple twists and turns at the end, but it’s nothing big if you’ve played pretty much any other Metroid game. The story isn’t particularly heavy with either the lore or the events in game, but as with the original Metroid 2, the ending of this game leads into Super Metroid.

Visuals and Design:

I think that the visuals in Samus Returns are great. I really enjoy the style, and just the way everything looks. The first time I saw the game after the E3 Treehouse demo I was a bit worried, and thought it looked a bit bland compared to the sprite based 2D Metroid games before it, but I was pleasantly surprised by this game. The colors of all moves and powers used by Samus contrast very well with the rest of the game and there wasn’t a single irritating “dark” section like some of the other 2D Metroid titles.

I also found it much more manageable to see while traversing through water or lava. In past Metroid games it was an issue to see through the lava or water in certain sections of the game. The visual style for this game is ideal for me personally, while I may prefer the style in games like Super Metroid and Fusion (and another amazing fan game I won’t name right now), this is the best there could’ve been other than a retro-styled game made to look like more in line with the other 2D Metroid games that followed Super Metroid.

I also found that each area had less of a visual distinction between each one, a lot of them felt more maze-like than they needed to be, and since many of them touch in the more dense areas of the map, and there are no connection between the rooms. This made backtracking to power ups that were a bit off the beaten path and not near teleport stations quite irritating.

Music:

The music from Samus Returns ranges from high energy boss themes (of which there are many), and slow, ambient and atmospheric tracks. I do enjoy this game’s rendition of The Theme of Samus, Lower Brinstar, Phase 1 of the Final Boss theme, the Magmoor Caverns theme, and the Zeta Metroid theme. The rest of the music is very atmospheric, but doesn’t strike me to anything that I’d like to listen to out of context. This is a theme that goes across a lot of metroid games, and it still works very well here.

A short word on amiibo:

Despite having some of the harder boss fights of the series, the game seemed to be very easy for me. The new Metroid amiibo (the creature, not series), unlocks Fusion mode, which is a far more challenging and interesting looking difficulty of the game. However, there’s no other way that this can be unlocked other than the amiibo. There are also a missile tank and energy tank that can only be unlocked by scanning amiibo. While this is not something that greatly affects me, and it would’ve been something nice to have, it’s clear to see why this can be an infuriating aspect for many people.

Ending:

Not many people have expected to see another Metroid game quite like this, at least not for awhile. Since the beginning of the 3DS’s lifetime, I’d been hoping for a new 2D Metroid game. Even if my dream game has a bit more of a sprite based aesthetic, this is a great game in its own right. The blend of the music and the overall atmosphere of each area of the game is great, and the gameplay has blended together the elements that make a 2D Metroid game great with many new elements. The new developer of this game, MercurySteam has handled Nintendo’s IP very well. I highly recommend Metroid: Samus Returns to any fan of the Metroid Series, and to pretty much anyone who owns a 3DS.