But I went out to a local GameStop yesterday and snagged myself a copy of Samus Returns. I opted for the limited edition, about which I was completely under-researched; I thought I'd be getting some figurines and an artbook, as did our European friends, but nope--it's simply a bonus CD to which I'll probably never listen. Oh well--it's no big deal; all I care about is the game, anyway. Also, I had a lovely conversation with the store's clerk. Hey--did you know that Microsoft rules the US, Sony rules Japan, and Nintendo rules everywhere else, including the US and Japan, which it also rules except in cases when it doesn't? Well, if you do know anything about it, please contact me and explain what that means. Thanks!
I do love me a good conversation with the well-informed, let me tell you.
Anyway: I just wanted to drop in and give some quick thoughts about Samus Returns in this inaugural edition of "First Impressions," a category in which I'm going to talk about my initial hour or so of game time and express my, well, first impressions.
So here's how it went:
Before I begin, I should note that I'm currently three Metroids in, and I'm about to finish clearing out the first dome area. I'll try to front-load the negatives, as I'm apt to do, since I don't like to end pieces on a sour note.
Upon first hearing the title screen's music, I was afraid that they'd dumped the Metroid II: Return of Samus main theme in favor of yet another rearrangement of the original Metroid's main theme. Replacing it with a previously existing work only serves to betray Return of Samus' uniquely established tone and ambiance and strip away part of its personality, I feel. However, to my relief, the song did eventually segue into a pretty moving remix of the Return of Samus main theme (which I presume went unheard by many of the people who were too impatient to wait through a minute of its seemingly directionless, alien-sounding cacophony).Its storyline intro's recycling of Super Metroid's similarly piece intro fills me with the sense that Samus Returns might be too referential when it doesn't need to be. The original strove to be a creature of its own design, and so too should this remake.
Early on I wasn't feeling that distinct Metroid II vibe. It's been capturing more and more of it as we've progress, so that's an encouraging sign.
I'm not a big fan of the control scheme, which has posed a few problems for me. To start, Samus will only move if the analog nub is fully tilted; anything else and she'll remain motionless. And since I kept forgetting that movement-control is more tactile than usual, there were several instances in which an attempt to charge forward or aim Samus' arm cannon in a certain direction netted absolutely no response. It's one of a couple of control quirks I'm just going to have to get used to, I guess.Having to double-tap down on the analog nub to enter Morph Ball mode doesn't work as smoothly as doing the same with a d-pad. Even if you're even slightly left or right of center, Samus will remain vertical. This makes it difficult to reliably enter Morph Ball mode while airborne--more so when Samus is floating diagonally. Jumping and squeezing into block-wide crevices is an advanced technique and will probably never be required, sure, but its reduced serviceability will definitely hinder the execution of minor sequence-breaks and remove some of the swag potential.
Though I'm not a fan of having to hold down the R-trigger to fire missiles, I understand why they did it; quickly switching to missiles is too tactile an action to map to the touchscreen, and the Select button is too far out of reach. It's something to which I know I can adapt. However, I'll never be able to fully adjust to any portable-game control scheme that includes heavy use of the L-trigger, since contorting my index finger in the required manner limits my range of thumb movement; when forced to use the L-trigger, I can barely hold onto the system. It's particularly bad with the 3DS' flat ergonomics, which offer little grip-support. So I'm going to have to refrain from using the free-aiming ability except when it's absolutely necessary.
I have to say that the jumping controls are solid. Samus executes jumps quickly and fluidly, and her airborne movements are reactive and precise. Precise jumping controls are foundational to the Metroid experience, so I'm happy to see that Mercury Steam did so well to meet this standard.
There's an overemphasis on the Melee Counter early on. It kind of interrupts the flow of play when you can't quickly move between points A and B because you have to stop every three seconds to repel an enemy's dashing attack. You can always tank your way through the barrage, sure, but doing so can prove to be particularly unhealthy, since these enemies hit hard. You have to remain alert at all times, because it's usually true that enemies are lurking just beyond the field of view, the hopping and flying critters ready to pounce before the screen finishes scrolling over and your brain can even process the visual identification. This gets pretty obnoxious when you're ascending your way up vertical corridors and flying enemies are positioned directly overhead and within the most inconvenient lengths of navigable space.I hope to see its use relaxed a bit going forward, because it's already becoming repetitive. Or, at the least, I hope the game starts to mix things up--introduce new enemy types whose attack patterns require more-varied methods of using the move. Because, as is, I've seen enough Gullugs for one lifetime. There were what--a handful of them in the original game? Now they're seemingly the planet's most populous species, which you know wouldn't be the case if there weren't such a heavy emphasis on countering.
Also, the soundtrack features too much in the way of Metroid Prime ambiance and fanfare--most of it ripped directly from the Prime games. Return of Samus had its own appearance and item-collecting fanfare, and I wish they had instead resampled those. Again: I want Samus Returns to be its own game with its own personality--not feel that parts of it have been stitched together using pieces snipped from the sandwiching games. I haven't yet decided how I feel about the Aeon Abilities. Frankly I'm not big on the implementation of maneuvers and abilities that weren't there in the original game (like the Speed Booster and wall-jump in Zero Mission, which were canonically out of place) and will probably never be seen again. Still, I look forward to seeing what they are and finding out what kind of dimension they add to the game. Well, except for one: the Scan Pulse, which for a limited time reveals the location of destructible surfaces. I sure as hell ain't usin' it. Nope. Nuh-uh. It'll be a helpful ability for those who are new to Metroid series--those who have yet to understand the intricacies of its mode of exploration--but for me a deterrent to an authentic Metroid experience. I don't want to know anything; if I can't find an item or weapon on my own, then I'm not going to find it at all.
I appreciate the adjustments they made to the Spider Ball. That pesky control issue (directional control would often reset whenever Samus' movement would halt), which previously caused a rolling Samus to become stuck in place for seconds at a time if she stopped moving while navigating around a corner or a craggy slope, has been eliminated, and bomb explosions no longer break the Spider Ball's adherence to walls and ceilings. It's comforting to know that I can roll along and check for bombable surfaces on the dome's elevated ceilings without the risk being dislodged by a bomb explosion's deceptively large splash range.Its continued activation, like free-aiming, is mapped to the L-trigger, so there's some potential for trouble there. But I don't think it'll cause too much of a headache, since there are no combat scenarios built around spider-balling (at least I think). Rolling up and across walls and ceilings was a quiet, stress-free activity in the past, after all, and it's likely to remain that way.
You can do it. You can actually wall-jump. I was betting against it working, so I was genuinely surprised when I ran a test near the wall placed directly to the left of Samus' ship and she successfully rebounded off of it. And it's easy to pull off! Though, the game won't let you execute wall-jumps within narrow spaces, which I have to think is intentional. I'm fine with that; it saves me from having to feel guilty about sequence-breaking. I'm just glad that (a) it's still there and (b) it remains an undocumented ability, its existence discovered purely through experimentation. I'm pleased to see that Mercury Steam has added some variety to the Metroid battles, which in the original were quite repetitive. Actually, it didn't occur to me that theirs was an increased repertoire until I started playing closer attention; until then, I kept blindly attempting to counter all of the second Alpha Metroid's charge attacks and soon became confused when it wouldn't work half the time. I dropped about six or seven lives before I noticed that the second specimen had mixed in a new type of charge attack--that it would glow blue after channeling energy and unleash a series of uncounterable bursts. Hopefully it's the start of an enduring trend. Beams don't stack. Like in the Prime games, they're kept separate, their use purely situational. I'm OK with this if it infers that they've crafted specific platforming scenarios around the individual beams' powers. Having to freeze the fluttering Chute Leeches to reach higher-up platforms tells me that this is the case.
For consistency's sake, I would have preferred that Samus Returns' visuals were sprite-based, yet I can't deny that the chosen style works rather well. I'm not talking specifically about the quality of the graphics, which are fine--environments and character models are a bit blocky, more so when the action is zoomed in, but otherwise they're solidly rendered and filled with detail--but more so how the 3D effect is applied. I'm a proponent of the 3DS' stereoscopic 3D effect when it's used to add depth and scope to a game's background imagery, and it does so in abundance for Samus Returns, which gives it a lot to work with. The game's cavernous background and foreground environments are loaded with interesting visual touches; if you pay them attention, you'll notice all kinds of dilapidated Chozo monuments and other allusory ruins and aged mechanisms. There's a real story to this place, which the original game wasn't able to fully illustrate (for obvious reasons, of course).Character-boasting backdrops are especially desirable when the situation calls for spider-ball-fueled exploration. I mean, you've gotta have something thought-provoking to look at when partaking in those prolonged episodes of circumnavigating the monstrous dome's extremities, and Samus Returns doesn't skimp on interesting sights. It has an atmosphere all its own, its brand of environmental conveyance unique among Metroids.
I miss the empowering 8-bit composition of Surface of SR388, whose instrumentation was resounding and energetic, but I'm fine with the more muted version. Honestly, I can see the value in Samus Returns' approach to aural augmentation: The music's understated nature works to create an ever-swelling sense of tension; it renders sudden disquieting moments--like an unexpected Metroid encounter or an entrance into health-sapping heated area--all the more impactul. I wonder if the rest of the soundtrack adheres to this approach--if it remains tonally consistent. Really, I hope it varies at least a bit; I'll be disappointed if I don't hear at least two or three reverberant, pulse-pounding ominous/menacing area themes as I tunnel my way into the planet's deepest layers.
The great news is that Samus Returns does indeed convey a strong sense of exploration. Knowledge of the original game will prove useful, yes, but only to a limited degree. You might know the general location of a Metroid or an item, but now you'll have to take into account revised layouts and new types of destructible terrain, the means for clearing away which you might very well lack. Plenty of experimenting--basically a whole lot of wall-bombing and surface-blasting--is required here, and I couldn't be happier to know as much.To give it proper framing: I'm currently in a position where I'm lost and I don't know what to do next. There are so many places to go, and I'm not sure which path will bear the most fruit. To some people, a clear lack of direction is a turnoff. To me, it's what makes a Metroid game what it is.
It's a really fun game! I didn't want to stop playing. I had to because it was getting late. But I'm eager to jump back in; I can't wait to finish up this piece so I can return to it!
I mean, here I am playing a brand-spankin' new 2D Metroid game after 13 years! This is what I've long been waiting for! The mood is right. The weather is desirable--the air is cool but still lingering are summer remnants in the form of soft thunder and persistent crickets. And I'm feeling inspired.
I'm going to make it a point to savor this one, because who knows if we'll ever see another game like it.
Here's to Samus Returns' success. May it play a role in helping the series find the large audience it so richly deserves.
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