Metroid

Samus you must go to a planet with no civilization near it and exterminate an entire species that's minding its own business and keeping an even more dangerous threat under control because........BECAUSE WE SAY SO OKAY!?

I'm supposed to think the Metroids are the bad guys?

and keeping an even more dangerous threat under control

No one knew that at the time.

Metroid...is dead

why she go beach but didn't bikini?

Dread is a 6/10 game.

Space pirates would keep taking metroids from the planet. They are weapons of mass destruction.

She did
Bad bait

Metroids don't kill people. Space Pirates do
Kill the Space Pirates and problem solved

Reminder, Samus was actually in a ship parts store, not a bar in one of the Zero Mission endings.

Nice try Sakamoto

Not bait, my genuine real opinion. It's mediocre.

Anon, the not-jawa is mixing drinks.

Space fuel. For Space

And how exactly do you propose to keep them from getting more Metroids in the process?

Kill them faster.

But

Any objections, Lady?

Why do you feel so? I think it's pretty good

A game can be pretty good while still being 6/10. We're not arguing on a game journalist scale here.

Not that anon but the EMMI sections and constantly shifting map full of one-way tunnels prevent any one area from sticking out in your memory or serving as a remarkable hub. You're never really given a chance to go back through an area with new tools that recontextualize the space, it's always with the added twist of having moved a magnetic block or the temperature having shifted. Pushing power bombs all the way to the end of the game severely reduces their utility and renders them an essential afterthought as they don't gate anything meaningful. It's perfectly functional as a game and I don't want to fall into the ruts of 'EMMI bad' or 'not exactly like super metroid so it's shit', but the game is lacking in structure and focus like a lot of MercurySteam's other titles.

Also the melee parry feels like shit and completely fucks up combat spacing, which combined with free-aiming turns everything into a clusterfuck instead of a careful dance of positioning and movement that treats enemies just as much as environmental obstacles as it does combat tests.

This.
Fusion is 8/10

Space fuel.

Oh yeah, "space fuel". Got it.

My autist rant was too big for one post:

1. MercurySteam cannot design a map that flows well to save their lives. This was a gargantuan problem in Mirror of Fate, it was a problem in SR (although I gave them a little slack because they had to stay somewhat faithful to Metroid 2's map which also sucked), and it's a problem here. Big swathes of the maps are linear and you will constantly be running into the issue of needing to traverse 6 different rooms to go back 1 room's worth of space.
2. The music might as well not even exist, I can't off the top of head remember even a single track that wasn't aping something from Super.
3. EMMI is a shitty gimmick that is utilized very poorly. It was THE big trailer thing and is a minor part of the game that becomes trivially easy to bypass once you get like 1/6th through the game.
4. The melee counter just fundamentally doesn't compliment Metroid's game style and this is their second attempt at it. The complaint that is ground the game to a screeching halt in SR is only partially alleviated by the fact that you can do it while moving, but the bigger issue is that the enemy attack timings for the moves that you can counter are still slow, so what's more likely to happen is you run towards an enemy and do the counter only for it's attack to not be out yet because you're moving too fast. Thus the best way to use the counter is still to just sit still and wait for the move, which solves nothing. It's half baked and should be removed.

They don't look like ship parts. They look like shot glasses and a mixer.

5. The story is just Fusion, but worse. Retreading the X parasite again is bad enough but the entire thing is contingent on Raven Beak being a literal knuckle dragging retard. Like he knew what the X were capable of but he sent actual flesh and blood soldiers down to SR-388 to investigate? How fucking retarded is this guy? And then he just lets them loose on the planet after a certain point in the story just because? The whole thing started because he was looking for Metroids but couldn't find them but like at that point in the story we know that there are Metroids on Tallon IV, there are (probably) still some Metroids on Aether, and both the pirates AND the GFed are shown to be able to clone fully functioning Metroids. The Federation can just clone a trillion Metroids but this guy can't get his hands on one? And even if you use the excuse "Well he's a soldier, not a scientist he couldn't do that" then why doesn't he just STEAL some from the GFed?
6. This is personal taste but Samus being a "metroid" is just fucking retarded. It was retarded in Fusion because that's not how vaccines work but at least they had the good sense to purge all that shit and reset Samus back to normal at the end when you absorb SA-X. Then they retcon that in Dread and don't even bother to like try and explain why that happened.

Nintendo game, man

Retreading the X parasite again is bad enough

As opposed to retreading the Metroids again?
The X being a continued part of the story instead of a one-shot was actually nice.

You're never really given a chance to go back through an area with new tools that recontextualize the space

Very good point mate. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the game, I’d even go as far as to call it my favourite game on the switch but it was this feeling that dropped it from being my potential Metroid to just kinda idk… a really fun romp of a game (but it was still a really good game!).

You make a good point with #6. The whole metroid thing is just silly because you know they're not gonna bring it up again, unless it's for yet another asspull where they need her to go sailor moon in the ending and magically save the day. No build up, no investment. Just a convenient get out of jail free card.

As opposed to retreading the Metroids again?

I agree, there should not be metroids in a metroid game.

When I was like 15 years old I started writing a fanfic about samus just hitting half pipes all day in her morph ball form. I’m not even sorry

Raven Beak being a literal knuckle dragging retard. Like he knew what the X were capable of but he sent actual flesh and blood soldiers down to SR-388 to investigate? How fucking retarded is this guy? And then he just lets them loose on the planet after a certain point in the story just because? The whole thing started because he was looking for Metroids but couldn't find them

No originally Raven Beak heard that the other Chozo were going to blow up SR-388 because they couldn't keep the Metroid under control and also knew the X were too dangerous if they got rid of the Metroids. So Raven Beak led his tribe there and wiped out the Chozo Tribe in that planet except for Quiet Robe because he had bioengineering skills to use on Metroids. They left to Planet ZDR at this time, while he was planning to return at a later date to get Metroid samples to put his plan into action
(Why Raven Beak didn't grab a Metroid Larvae before leaving the planet is unknown)

When they got back to ZDR it turned out one of his soldiers had been infected and replaced by the X so the outbreak happened. He didn't let them loose on the planet, he kept them contained in a single area.

When they got back to ZDR it turned out one of his soldiers had been infected and replaced by the X so the outbreak happened. He didn't let them loose on the planet, he kept them contained in a single area.

Not the anon you're replying to but he then also deliberately guides Samus to the containment area and lets her free them.
He still had other warrior Chozo on ZDR at that point.

heavy story in a Metroid game

story causing linearity in a Metroid game

1 sequence break that tells you to get back on track in a Metroid game

forced to play a Metroid game the same every time

Fusion Suit is ugly as sin

no Chozo

Adam Adam Adam

have to fully speak to Adam to continue a Metroid game

after leaving a sector you can't come back until you're allowed to in a Metroid game

Metroid Fusion is just sudo-Metroid Other M, it was crap in 2002 and it's crap today. Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and Dread are a return to Metroid, TRUE Metroid.

One more thing

no bomb jumping in a Metroid game

Nah by that point in the game they're all gone from the outbreak. It was just Him and Samus by then so he didn't care if the X got out onto the planet
Apparently there were two outbreaks but I can't remember correctly.

Heavy story is okay when Prime 2, Prime 3, and Dread does it but not Fusion

Same with linearity

Muh sequence breaking that nobody cares about

0% runs

Fusion suit is kino and you're just baiting at this point

Not doing LE MCU REFERENCES is somehow a bad thing

Samus speaks about Adam twice in the whole monologues

Adam computer segments are 10 seconds long when you just hold down A, unlike Dread where they're long as shit

Dread forces you on a tighter leash than Fusion (at least you could fully explore the sector you were in and not be out on a one way route) but yet again, anon pretends only Fusion does this

You fight multiple Chozo warriors before the X break out.

Samus' backstory is that she's the last survivor of a massacre who watched her parents get murdered at the age of three. And then the aliens who adopted her also got murdered. Miss me with this "b-but wholesome chungus Nintendo!" bullshit. Samus gets to have a fucking drink. Goodness knows she needs it.

Chozo Soldiers appear as mini bosses in Metroid Dread. These ones have been infected and copied by X Parasites prior to the events of Samus Returns; they are initially confined to Elun, but spread across ZDR after Raven Beak releases the X to test Samus and awaken her Metroid abilities.

Huh, I forgot all about these guys

No, those Chozo are after Samus releases the X on ZDR.
The Chozo I'm talking about are the ones that kill Quiet Robe and ambush Samus in the forest area. Those are before Samus visits Elun and frees the X.

Prime series isn't the main series like 2D/OM, main series has a standard that the 2D games need to follow and both Fusion and Other M didn't follow them. Dread was able to have a story and be a Metroid game because they didn't throw it in your face to the point where you can't skip it like Fusion did.

Same with linearity

It's a Metroid game, man

Muh sequence breaking that nobody cares about

Having the ability to play it your way is cool and adds replayability not found in Fusion.

Fusion suit is kino and you're just baiting at this point

It was so ugly they never used it again after Fusion and had to bring the Power Suit back in the next game with a new look.

Not doing LE MCU REFERENCES is somehow a bad thing

What?

Samus speaks about Adam twice in the whole monologues

Like Other M, she doesn't shut up about him, no one even knew who this guy was before Fusion.

Adam computer segments are 10 seconds long when you just hold down A, unlike Dread where they're long as shit

Locks you in a room to speak to him, you're stuck there longer than you are in Dread.

Dread forces you on a tighter leash than Fusion (at least you could fully explore the sector you were in and not be out on a one way route) but yet again, anon pretends only Fusion does this

Fusion blocks you off at every turn and then tells you to go this off the beaten path to give you the illusion of exploration that doesn't actually exist.

Gonna need a pic of something cause there's no other Chozo in the game from those X infected from what I've been able to look up.

She was raised by Birdmen.

they could totally make a good gameplay mechanic with the metroid suit. have it be a temporary form (like five-ten seconds at base, maybe there can be upgrades increase it) for the time you can switch for solving a puzzle with an item you don't have yet and a combat boost for a boss fight.

You're gonna sit there and tell me that Gray Voice didn't keep a stash of Zebesian vodka in the liquor cabinet? And best believe it was the good stuff.

I wonder if a Metroid game could pull off A Link Between World's mechanic of allowing the player to rent some items early on in the game
Obviously it'd have to restrict the player to only allowing two or three at a time, but I dunno

Who do you think killed Quiet Robe?

That's a robot bro

She was too young for that.

Samus is a rebel. You know she was the type of edgy teen who stole dad's booze.

Well, I won't deny that, she is a tomboy.

Samus is a rebel

does nothing about the murderous fed splinter factions who have tried to kill her [twice] now

the Ringleaders who got fully dealt with by the GF Council between Fusion and Dread

There was a reason Adam wasn't worried, he's an AI, you think he wouldn't leak all of their information to the Council and seal their doom?

Speaking of tomboy teen Samus, the white training outfit is criminally underrated.

Other M doesn't count

the splinter faction has kept their fucking mouths shut since Fusion

Dread, rather comically, seemed to actively avoid that lingering plot. And I'm fine with that because literally what threat do these blithering idiots pose?

the Ringleaders who got fully dealt with by the GF Council between Fusion and Dread

[citation needed]

Japanese Adam isn't worried about what happened at the BSL believing some if not most of the Council members would side with Samus, plus throughout the game Adam was talking to some mysterious Ringleader, chances are he gave their identities away to the Council and they were punished. There a reason Samus once again working with the GF again in Dread as if nothing happened before.

Speaking of tomboy teen Samus, the white training outfit is criminally underrated.

It truly is

zoomers and alphas are so absolutely fucking braindead they can't recognize extremely obvious nods to Alien(s)

I want a Zebes prequel so bad.

There a reason Samus once again working with the GF again in Dread as if nothing happened before.

Yeah, it's because then non-corrupt Feddies know full well that Samus keeps saving their asses.

I'm a big fan of salvaging good ideas from bad/mediocre entries. So glad they bright the Golems back and made them proper chonky buddies.

that is fucking cool

Would a Fed mech be able to kill a Mogenar War Golem?

Feds seem to get their shit pushed in by geemers so probably not.

These mass production ones, yes. The proper Mogenar models, infamously utter bastards, bit more of a challenge.

Pretty much, real world story is most likely due to the poor reception of Other M, this plot point from Other M and even Fusion was completely dropped because no one really liked it and it didn't work and would have hurt the direction of the mainline Metroid games.

I'm normally not one to praise the storytelling in a game, but there is one thing I thought was interesting about the Prime games. And it took me a while to realize it, but the concept of Phazon is awfully similar to the concept of Rez, from Space Pirates and Zombies. For anyone who hasn't played it, I won't bore you with the details. Basically, Rez is a miracle material that purposely makes itself incredibly useful so more people will rely on it and seek it out. You can use it as money, as fuel, you can make ships out of it, and weapons too. It even helps power FTL gates. Only problem is that you can only find it in areas where there's heavy zombie infestation. Turns out that the zombies are making it themselves, and they're led by an evil cult leader demon monster that wants to infect the entire universe, so it uses Rez to lure people in and spread the infection.

A miracle material that purposely has a ton of uses, and is used by both galactic police and pirates alike? And it's so useful because the one who made it wants to spread it and turn people into zombies? Does that sound familiar? Yeah, it does. I think SPAZ got its inspiration from Prime 3, since Phazon is purposely made to be as useful as possible.So even the feds will use it and seek it out, thus propagating it through the cosmos. You expect the space pirates to use it because they're nut jobs that love injecting themselves with alien radioactive cancer, but the feds? You wouldn't expect them to want to weaponize it, but they go gung ho into it with their PED suits.

I’m not dismissing your complaints, but personally, I liked the game’s emphasis on combat. It’s not particularly deep, but it has a good feel to it. As for the EMMI sections, I tend to think it was for the best that they were limited to specified zones. Not saying the game design of the zones was perfect. I just think it would have been worse if the EMMI could roam freely.

Magic vs Technology would be badass.

Phazon is purposely made to be as useful as possible.

highly radioactive substance that kills most things it comes into contact with, horribly mutating those hardy enough to withstand it

And as you can see, that only made the space pirates want it more.

Because they're insane megalomaniacs. That's nowhere near being as useful as possible.

It is also heavily implied to be both sentient and malevolent.

consider all the uses it had.

it was a power source

it could be used in bioengineering and food

you could use it to make super soldiers

you could use it for space travel (the leviathans)

The feds were even using it, though not to the same extent. Meanwhile, the space pirates were making demonic monstrosities like the Omega Pirate and the Berserker Lords. It doesn't have to be useful to everyone, just enough people to make it want to spread.

To be fair, the same could be said for Rez. When you beat the game and kill the zombie lord that was making Rez, the entire galaxy collapses without it, and people are left scraping by for what remnants remain. I think Phazon was trying to get to that point, by infecting everyone and making it useful at the same time. Make more people want to fight fire with fire, so everyone eventually gets infected. Don't forget how many enemies were outright immune to most damage except hypermode. Imagine how many fights the feds won singlehandedly because of their fancy PED suits.

Implied

I haven't played 3 since it released, but don't they outright state it?

I'm supposed to think the Metroids are the bad guys?

Uh, no? What? Why do you think this? The games have never presented the Metroids as the bad guys, they're just caught in the middle of the Federation and the pirates' retarded war.
The problem is that Metroids, and later phazon and the X, are extremely dangerous abominations that present a continuous risk to all life in the universe and the retard pirates keep trying to weaponize them and in the process usually end up fucking up and spreading them to other worlds, Metroids were originally only endemic to SR388, but thanks to the pirates retardation they were eventually spread to Zebes, Tallon IV, Aether and the entire Alimbic cluster and Norion solar system, eventually even mutating into variants that can phase through space-time and literally travel through space, and later the Federation showed they're just as idiotic and kept entire populations of them in the BSL and the Bottle Ship, even engineering them to resist cold weapons.
Same for phazon and the X, Phazee originally only shat out one Leviathan seed every 50 years but the pirates helped Dark Samus kick that shit into overdrive, and the X were about to become the new Metroids when Samus decided to crash the BSL into SR388, and later we learned the Chozo stupidly brought them to ZDR.
Long story shorthis galaxy is a shitshow and Samus can't trust anyone to not fuck up, so it's in the best interest of everyone to just fucking exterminate these things and be done with it.

But even Samus herself fucks it up

Samus' biggest fuckup was inadvertedly causing the population of X in SR388 to explode because she exterminated the Metroids, but she had no way of knowing this would happen as the X was an unknow species at the time, and she actually learned from this and destroyed both the BSL and SR388, and later ZDR to exterminate them.
And I guess sparing the infant Meyroid too, but the whole baby thing was entirely made up for Other M, in Super Metroid she immediately surrendered the thing to the Ceres research facility.
So while Samus fucks up usually, she still has a much better record than either the pirates or the Federation.

Sounds like she could use some good ol' fashioned parental discipline.

It's a game you dip

Samus needs thrusters while Chozo Warriors have wings and don't need them, interesting lore.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH FUCK THIS BOSS

Miracle energy sources that fuck up humans and the planet seems to be a common trope in sci-fi.

>it could be used in bioengineering and food

food

Did I miss the Space Pirate log where somebody's jaw melted off because they put phazon in their milk?

Sounds like spice from dune

She'll get her wings one day.