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Finally! Been waiting for another Metroid for so long! I enjoyed Samus Returns. This looks like a step up from that. I’m so happy to see the franchise alive again!
It looks good from what I have seen. I’m hesitant about the melee combat though. I didn’t like that in Samus Returns. I may have to finally buy a Switch…or wait for the New Super Switch Pro Lite. 
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Man… CE’s sold out in minutes. I had one in my cart and they were gone before I could finish the transaction. Scalpers already have them on ebay for $220.
I didn’t mind the melee counter in Returns. Only downside of that game was the world felt kinda too basic and planned. Like every zone felt “by the numbers” with very specific set of power ups and areas that were clearly set aside to come back later in a way that felt overly planned. If any of that makes sense. Still enjoyed it and looking forward to this.
Not really feeling this one yet based on the trailer. The view is zoomed out really far and the game looks a lot like Shadow Complex on 360.
Having played Mirror of Fate and Samus Returns, I’m not that big a fan of Mercury Steam’s stuff, but I’m willing to give this a chance, it just didn’t wow me yet.
I love the trailer and it’s the most exciting game of Nintendo’s conference, but it definitely would have been more exciting had we not just gotten a remake of Metroid 2 in the same style.
Imagine how hyped it would have been. It’s why I really think Nintendo is doing themselves a disservice with all of these remakes. Like Advance Wars 1 and 2. Just release a new game in that new style rather than a remake before hand. It would be so much cooler. A genuine return for these franchises rather than half-measures.
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Agreed. And the new art style for Advance Wars doesn’t have quite the charm of the original sprites.
This is the vibe I got.
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Samus Returns didn’t do much for me but at least this new one seems notably smoother.
I quite like what WayForward (I’d never have guessed it was them until I found out, but it now makes perfect sense) has done with Advance Wars.
Reminds me a lot of this:
I think they honestly faced the same dilemna as with Link’s Awakening - the original sprites communicated as much detail as possible for their resolution, but once you start targeting 1080p it’d be very difficult to replicate that without having huge raw pixels everywhere. So going with the whole toy figure level of detail makes a lot of sense. The character animation is great - at least in the CO power scenes.
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Agreed - Link Between Worlds was a glorious return to 2D Zelda. And in the case of a dormant franchise like Advance Wars a new game would go a much further way.
I’m really not sure what Intelligent Systems is working on if they are only supervising this title, they’ve barely released anything the past 5 years.
Didn’t they recently release a Paper Mario and Fire Emblem this gen?
Can’t wait to play this. Seeing “METROID 5” on the screen was the single best moment of today’s Direct.
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Metroid 5!
And it has a great premise! Been waiting so long. I always said it should be Metroid 5: Metroid Fugitive since Samus was on the run from the federation, and this seems like it may have some of that.
I loved Samus Returns, it was superbly atmospheric, great graphics (some areas made me go wow in 3D) and had the best action front of a Metroid game, made it actually fun to engage regular enemies for the first time.
The only main problems with it were:
- Being based on Metroid 2 inherently limited the design as it had such a simple premise. They at least lampshaded some of the simplicity of the game (kill metroids causes an earthquake? No, a Chozo device caused the earthquake and that was enabled by a Metroid counter)
Soundtrack was a bit of a re-tread too, again somewhat caused by Metroid 2 having so little to work with
- 30fps
Both of these are non-issues now.
It does have one issue all games like this have: HD game, side scrolling in an underground cave zoomed out like this looks a bit ‘cheap’. Shadow Complex, Bloodstained had this same issue. 2D would have the same issue too if in HD, but most 2D games are either in much lower res (240p variations) or highly stylised to be very cartoony and flat.
It looks as premium as possible for an HD side scroller.
Metroid 5!
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They hardly had any involvement with that one! I was shocked when I saw the credits. Probably less than 5 people from Intelligent Systems worked on it.
This is a good point. If the game was handheld mode only I reckon it would have been more zoomed in, but the need to also design it for 50” TVs and 1080p and above changes everything now. With those screens you can’t expect the player to be able to keep an eye on everything at once like with the Super Famicom or the GBA.
Everything else looks promising though, and I was sceptical enough not to try Samus Returns.
Looks great, I can’t wait to play it. It’s good to see Metroid finally getting attention again, hopefully the popularity of Switch helps it sell well for the sake of the franchise going forward. Also very excited that they are finally continuing the mainline story after Fusion, speaking of which, think it’s about time I replayed Fusion, been many years.
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I know Super Metroid is at the top of a lot of peoples best game ever lists, as it is mine, but I wonder if my take on this is somewhat unique…
Thinking about this game got me wondering just what could possibly take that top spot from Super, for me. I mean, it’s not as if there haven’t been exceptional games I’ve played since then, far from it. Somehow it stays at the top though. It just, I don’t know, doesn’t seem plausible that anything could take the spot. I guess “best game ever” is a very personal thing when it comes down to it.
All the epoch-making games we’ve had over the years, they iterate and certainly become better in some clear ways, particularly in terms of technological advancement. Things like level design though are much more difficult to compare directly. Can you even? I think it’s why some of the more iterative game sequels can find it hard to ultimately best their magnum opus. Think of how long Ocarina of Time continued to be labelled the best, after 4 games that were clearly better in some respects. Perhaps the factor of simply being “the first” (in a sense, as they’re not necessarily the first in a series) is heavy part of why these kinds of games are so well considered.
For a large majority of people, it basically took until BotW, a game that substantially changed the formula, to take that spot as Zelda series best. (It’s not really relevant but I haven’t actually played BotW). Is that what it takes? Does the game have to be an epoch-maker to take the top spot?
And what exactly makes an epoch-maker? Especially in this day and age of so many games, it’s hard to imagine something so mind blowing. Even with the Metroid series, Prime, as amazing as it was, can still be looked at (at its most basic), 3D Super Metroid. Does that count? Prime and Prime 2 came very verryyy close to dethroning Super for me. I couldnt really tell you why they ultimately didn’t though, as so it’s hard to quantify.
Even within the 2D Metroid series, you’ll find people with Fusion or Zero Mission at the top of their lists. I can’t argue with people who prefer those games snappier controls and other improvements over Super. But somehow for me, Super is still top.
But just thinking about Nintendo specifically, they’re the most consistent when it comes to having created these games - despite what i said above about “this day and age” - they’ve even done it very recently. It’s kind of amazing. What an incredibly unenviable task it must be to sit down and say “ok how do we best Mario 3… or Zelda 3… or Mario 64… or Ocarina of Time, you know? And arguably, they pull it off for a lot of people even when the result is more iterative than epoch-making.
These guys aren’t perfect, they have their blips of failure. Their Other M’s if you will. But like, you’ve got to give them some damn credit. This is fucking awesome that Sakamoto has had an idea for a Metroid 5 for so long and now we’re actually getting it. Hearing him talk about it was one of those rare moments where, for a second, you think “holy shit, this bastard might actually do it”. For the creators, as opposed to the players, it must be a different feeling when you feel you’ve surpassed a previous work. I got the impression that’s what he feels.
Which leaves me damn well excited to see what he and the team have come up with once again, under the daunting shadow of games like Super Metroid. I expect it’ll be great, but I’m rooting for him to come out on top! They’ve been saying 19 years since Fusion, but if you say Other M is a spin-off, then really it’s been 27 years since a proper console based 2D Metroid. Fucking hyped!
It also leaves me hoping Nintendo releases a damn new model Switch before Oct 8! I’ve resisted all these years, saying I’d get one when Prime 4 hits (or a mythical new F-Zero…). Dread has done it though, and finally I’ll get around to playing BotW and Odyssey as well 
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Zero Mission was the first I played, and I do probably rank it just a touch lower than Super Metroid. Super just has this indefinable “extra” something.
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