"Brevity is the soul of wit."
Luckily I never claimed to have wit. Ladies and gentlemen, Samus has returned, and I have as many opinions about this game as there have been years since the last good Metroid game. I'll try to be brief, but we both know better, don't we. But this will be pure thoughts. No headings, no pictures, just me translating my thoughts into kinetic motion that is recorded by an electronic device and translates that motion into digital information that is interpreted by your browser as my original thoughts. Pretty weird, when you think about it. Full spoilers, turn back now!
Truthfully, there is a lot to love about Samus Returns. First and foremost, the game looked amazing, probably better than any 3DS title I've played. It was blissful to watch a fully-animated Samus in a 2D game. At one point I stopped and noticed that Samus could twist at the hip and shoot behind her, or point her cannon straight down to Wave Beam an unsuspecting creature below the floor. These are natural postures that we've never seen the huntress make, and it was beyond cool to see a more naturally-moving Samus. The environments looked great, and the 3D effects were utilized brilliantly. The Metroid designs were wonderful and the Omega Metroids looked particularly ferocious. We all knew having the map on the bottom screen simultaneously with gameplay would be wonderful, and so it was. The pins were a nice touch as well.
Speaking of the map, I appreciated how big this game was; easily the biggest 2D Metroid to date. People have harped on M2's more linear design, but it's hard to complain in Samus Returns when each Area is the size of Super Metroid's Norfair. Items were well-hidden without ever feeling impossible, and I am absolutely planning to travel back to get 100%. But not right now. My wrist hurts too much. It's 1:43 am right now and I've been playing this game since 11:00 am yesterday, with a few breaks in between. This is what happens when I get a day off.
The new abilities were hit-or-miss. I thought the new Aeion abilities were pretty good, and a welcome change. Some people are complaining about the scan ability that let's you see trick blocks, but it didn't bother me. If you really feel that bombing every tile is a more noble form of "exploring" than using limited, pooled energy to take a brief look at your surroundings, then simply ignore it. I can't say I used it too much. I really liked the rapid fire ability. Samus should have had this kind of firepower decades ago.
Let's talk about the melee counter. First of all, I do kind of like the idea of a Samus that punches fools in the face (more on that in a minute). It makes since that such a well-armed bounty hunter would have close-combat capabilities. My problem is how necessary the melee counter was to combat, especially in the early game. You could try to chop away at enemies from a distance, but there are two major reasons why this doesn't work. First, the firepower isn't there. It takes too long to kill enemies this way, and most of them will come up to you before you kill them at a distance, and you'll just use the counter anyway. Second, while 360-degree aiming is nice, it comes at the expense of being able to move and aim at the same time. This is a major bummer for me. 2D Metroid games are all about movement. While you're frying an enemy with your cannon, you can close the gap on him, keep progressing through the room, or tactically retreat. If your're aiming in SR, you're standing still. Didn't really care for it. I'll take 8-directional shooting with full movement any day of the week. Ain't never had a problem putting energy beams exactly where I want them to go.
As you have probably noticed, the title "Samus Returns" carries some meta-subtext. Not only is it a rewording of the game it's based on (Return of Samus, if that wasn't clear), but it signifies the protagonist's return from a long hiatus. Las time we saw Samus, she was in a slim, more feminized power suit, that she inexplicably powered down during every cut scene; cut scenes where imbecile men told her what to do and she obeyed their ever word. In between these moments, she rambled on and on about her feelings for an alien life form that she had no problem condemning to a life as a scientific test subject just a few months prior. Needless to say, this was not a popular interpretation of perhaps the greatest icon of empowered women in gaming. Fear not, though, dear reader, for not only has Samus RETURNED, but SAMUS has returned. This is the Samus that I have unapologetically admired since I learned of her existence. The first time the player sees her on the title screen, she's sitting at the pilot's chair of her gunship like a monkeyflippin Bond villain. The first and only look you get at the face under the visor is one of pure fury. As the great Starbomb noted, "when she wasn't totally pissed she was extremely annoyed." There's more bulk to her suit, and an "angry brow" to her visor. She punches enemies in the face, then fires lasers right up their rectum (honest!).
The game peaks with a fight against an original boss, one who recurs throughout the adventure. The giant mechanical golem is a fierce opponent, but one of the all-time great Samus moments puts an exclamation point on its defeat. As Samus turns her back to the machine and and calmly struts toward her power bomb upgrade, the boss makes a last ditch effort to kill Samus. Without taking her eyes off of the Chozo orb, Samus readies a charge beam and blasts the giant right in the face. This evoked a series of "ooooooooh"'s from this fanboy, but they were muted because it was late and my roommate was sleeping.
Unfortunately, the game only went downhill from here.
Instead of meticulously detailing all my hyper-fan nitpicking, I will summarize my major problems with this game in one simple concept: Tone. As I discussed in my AM2R "review", Metroid 2 has the most unique tone in all of the Metroid games. I argue that it's the bleakest, loneliest, and most melancholy of the series. There's very little since of bombastic adventure or clear-cut good vs. evil that is present in Metroid or Super M. One of the biggest contributors to this feeling when I play the original M2 is the gray-scale graphics with a stark black background. Admittedly, a graphics change with more varied environments and additional color is almost as necessary as a map in order to responsibly make an updated version of the game. I reluctantly accept this to be true, and even noted this on my AM2R piece, but it is one area where M2 made the best of its limitations.
So there's the concept, let's talk about specific examples. The entire adventure of Metroid 2 is an exercise in going farther and farther underground through a network of labyrinthine tunnels. As Samus gets farther and farther away from natural light, her gunship, and civilization, the sense of danger and dread builds. It feels like the tunnels of SR388 will stretch on endlessly, leading to even more dreadful terrors. I think this is what lets me accept the stark back background of M2. While adding some color and environments, AM2R is also consistent about keeping the dark aesthetic and tone. Samus Returns ditches this idea for random environments that don't end up making any sense. About a third of the way through the adventure, you find what looks to be a well-lit underground dam. You walk in a door a few screens over, and suddenly you're surrounded by lava and intense heat. What are we going for, there? This may sound nit picky, but the lack of attention to detail leads to a pretty derailing turn later in the game.
My biggest grievance in the game comes in how the ending is handled, in both environmental subtleties and events.
In the original M2, there were areas of ruin and hints of the lost Chozo civilization, but most of the Metroids did not hang out in these areas. They were found in their own lairs that were rich in natural flora. "Nests", if you will. You see, Metroids were an introduced species to SR388, artificially created by the Chozo. Unfortunaly, they destroyed over 80% of the ecosystem of SR388, which resulted in the barren rock experienced by the player. The Metroids have no interest in the lost technology of the Chozo. They wipe out most of the life on SR388 and take over the planet, conforming its landscape to their needs.
This principle is highlighted in one of my favorite areas of the game: Area 7, AKA the Omega Nest. A dark, narrow, and overgrown area where 3 Omega Metroids reside. This is really the last big test before the final boss. After they are defeated, there is only 1 Metroid left on the counter. You move along to Area 8, which has a suspicious tranquility about it. There are no hazards, power ups, or enemies; only waterfalls along with energy and missile refills. Like I've mentioned before, I always interpreted this as a time of intended reflection, thinking about what you have done and what you're about to do to finish the job. As you work your way through this area, you come across a huge opening. You space jump up and up and up, and are finally shocked to find a massive glass laboratory that contrasts starkly with the natural Omega Nest you were just in. This, of course, is the lab the Chozo built when they originally created the Metroids. This should go without saying that this may be the most consequential location in the Metroid universe. It is very plausible that the last Metroid on your counter may be the original, sentinel creature of the species. As you go through the first entrance. You find a Chozo Statue holding the ice beam, almost as if the Chozo knew you might need it someday. It is implied the Metroids know this as well, as the statue has been partially destroyed and the ice beam is casually off to the side. As you make your way further inside the abandoned and wrecked lab....SURPRISE! The Metroid counter goes up to 9, accompanied by the game's characteristic creepy music swelling. You then fight several of the classic, larval Metroids, that presumably have hatched since Samus arrived on the planet. After they are defeated, the music changes to a frantic, alarm like tone and you can hear the Gameboy's best effort at a distant roar. You drop through a gap in the floor, the screen fades to black, and when it fades back in...(hit play now).
The Gameboy's tiny speaker tries to make you hear what was absolutely intended to sound exactly like what you're listening to, and a giant Metroid Queen roars in your face. In one of the most underrated boss fights of the entire series, Samus defeats the Queen. She then finds a lone egg, which hatches and imprints on Samus. She spares it, and the two begin a peaceful quest back to the surface of the planet. No enemies stand in their way, and the two get in the gunship and leave the planet, and the credits roll.
This ending is a stark juxtaposition against most other Metroid games. The original Metroid blew players' minds by rewarding their defeat of a grueling final boss by an intensely unexpected escape sequence, and almost every Metroid game since has tried to replicate that. While it's totally fine to keep that tradition alive, I really appreciate M2 doing what I believe was a very intentional opposite. As I mentioned earlier, there was a very real sense of dread and isolation, more so than any other game in the series, throughout Metroid 2, but the ending offers a sliver of optimism and a companion. Now that I've rambled on about the ending of M2, let's compare with the ending of Samus Returns.
Samus Returns' Omega Nest isn't a nest at all, but rather a lab. While you could argue that they decided to have the "big lab reveal" here instead of later, it doesn't feel like a big reveal or highly significant moment, because Samus has been wondering through technologically advanced areas the entire game. There's no contrast to highlight this development. As Samus moves to Area 8, the waterfalls have been replaced with Metroid goop and there are enemies, puzzles, and powerups everywhere. Gone is the uncomfortable silence that made the player stop and think; instead, this area doesn't feel any different from the rest of the game. As she makes her way to the giant cave and up to where the lab used to be, it's just a big Metroid nest. So yes, the lab was where the nest should be, and the nest was where the lab should be. You no longer have the pleasure of going into this historically significant location, you're instead just going to kill some more Metroids like you've been doing the whole game.
Admittedly, I did get the same rush as in M2 and AM2R when the Metroid counter rose and I once again began battling larval Metroids. When the last one is defeated, a wonderful roar of rage that shakes the foundation of the planet can be heard. The battle with the Queen and the encounter with the infant Metroid were both outstanding.
As the Metroid and Samus left the caves and made their way to the surfect, I couldn't help but feel uneasy as they continued to battle scrub enemies and find more power ups. As they broke through the surface, they are greeted not with a tranquil night sky seen in the other two games, but rather a wicked neon green storm. It was at that point that I knew we were up for a secret final boss, and, unfortunately I knew who it was going to be.
Surely enough, as the unlikely duo make their way to the gunship, Ridley comes flying in for an uninspiring final fight. His inclusion completed the abandonment of a thoughtful ending for the sake of cheap thrills and nostalgia.
First, there's no canonical reason Ridley should be present on SR388. The events of Super Metroid take place immediately after M2, and as we all know, Ridley stealing the infant Metroid from the Ceres Space Station is the first thing to happen in Super. So if Samus just handed Ridley an ass-whooping, how is it that he completely recovers and tails Samus only to defeat her himself? I actually don't care, because there's a much bigger problem.
As I have gone on record saying, the most unique characteristic of Metroid games is their ability to tell a story with subtlety within the context of the game engine and the gameplay itself. Even with severe hardware limitations, M2 brilliantly accomplishes this. From the natural horror of the Omegas, to the artificial yet abandoned glass lab, to the uplifting and action-free epilogue, Metroid 2 had a consistent tone that intentionally made the player feel things. Now maybe you didn't notice these things...but your brain did (s/o to Plinkett). It's clear to me that this subtlety was completely lost on the devs of Samus Returns. Instead of subtext, they shoved as much action to the player as they could, with the most shoehorned boss of the entire series as the grand finale; all in an attempt to make people go "DUUUDE IT'S RIDLEY! RAAADICAL." It didn't make any sense, and it destroyed the tone of the original game.
Now maybe I'm the only person who noticed these things. More likely, I'm the only one who cares. But I think it demotes Metroid 2 from an imperfect game that impressively had deeper implications into a more blockbuster-styled action game. Did I still thoroughly enjoy the game in spite of this? You bet your butt I did. You don't play a game for 12 hours in one day if you don't enjoy it. I think it was a great return for the series and hopefully the response will lead to more 2D Metroid action (who's ready for a Fusion follow up???). I just think MecurySteam missed the tone of the original. In this light, AM2R is all the more impressive, as it was able to modernize the game but still stay faithful to the key subtleties that elevated the game to another level. If you're wondering, I absolutely prefer AM2R to Samus Returns. It gets the tone, has more interesting movement and combat, and honestly has a greater amount of original content. Playing Samus Returns really just made me want to go revisit AM2R.
Sorry for the ramble, I hope my musings made sense. Tweet at me if you want. See you next mission!
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