Metroid 2 Remake AM2R Released!

[Sarge]

We were discussing GBA sound quality in another thread, and yeah, the sound chip is sub-optimal. You had to sacrifice CPU cyles to increase the sound fidelity, so many devs kept the sampling rates pretty low.

[Exhuminator]

That's why I bristle when people say the GBA was a portable SNES. No. Its sound hardware and resolution were both lesser. I guess it had more oomph in other areas sure, but the audio visual stuff didn't touch SNES IMO.

[Sarge]

Depends on the game, the GBA could pull some neat tricks. But you're right, the resolution hurts it a bit.

Audio hardware is no contest. SNES easily wins.

I'm sure most people said it because it was the first handheld system powerful enough to give SNES-level (or near to it) graphics, and it got a lot of ports from there. I don't think the ports fared quite as well as the original content, but that's just me.

(I think the resolution of the GBA was something like 240x160? Not bad in the horizontal, but losing 64 pixels of vertical resolution didn't help. I was also disappointed when the DS didn't quite reach SNES resolution. But 256x192 was a jump up, and seemed to make a pretty significant difference.)

[Xeogred]

I probably sounded a little harsh on the music there earlier. I still like it a lot, but it really doesn't seem all that memorable compared to other Metroid games... basically the original, Super, and the Prime series. I do like how the style for Zero Mission is a little Prime-infused at times. Really it's mainly Norfair that bugs me, it sounds VERY different and completely changes the tone of that level. Ridley sounds great though and Kraid always sounds amazing. I do love the Crateria theme too and well... just Crateria being added in general.

I'm playing the post Mother Brain content this time, since I've only done that once or twice. Still not a huge fan of it up to getting the suit back. Not a huge fan of when games strip you of everything like that and then it throws you into this arena of a purely linear driven area, kind of going backwards from the rest of the game up to that point. It's cool and I can't really complain about some nice additional content, but yeah.

It's so amazing how much work they had to put into the Ridley and Kraid levels. Since those were really open and basic levels in the original game, unlike Brinstar and Norfair that kind of have various branching paths and key items. So a lot of nice intricate work went into the boss areas, transforming them more into the Metroidvania progression flavor.

Anyways it seriously feels crazy to think this but I almost want to say AM2R is just as good as Zero Mission. Maybe even better? The thought is seriously crossing my mind playing them back to back. There's the newness factor to AM2R that's exciting and some nostalgia tied to Zero Mission, so I'll probably need to sit on it. But I would probably settle on the original NES Metroid here in the end if we pit these three against one another. I'm still very partial to it but I guess most would take Zero over it. I'm all about that darker atmosphere and NES Metroid and Super definitely beat the rest in that department.

What are some "what if's" for you guys and Metroid games? For me with both the original and Zero Mission, along with Super, I kind of wish Tourian was a real fully fleshed out huge level with branching sections and whatnot. Especially with Super's being so dynamic as you progress and see the rusty broken down areas that the good Metroid tore up. The levels just look absolutely amazing and so cool but they're super brief. It's basically the red carpet to Mother Brain but I've always wished these areas were more elaborate. I also wish that we got more of blue Brinstar in Super, even though I wouldn't want any less of green or red since those areas are incredible. Basically I wish we got a SoTN sized 2D Metroid.

[Exhuminator]

(I think the resolution of the GBA was something like 240x160? Not bad in the horizontal, but losing 64 pixels of vertical resolution didn't help. I was also disappointed when the DS didn't quite reach SNES resolution. But 256x192 was a jump up, and seemed to make a pretty significant difference.)

Yep the SNES = 256x224 (with a special 512x448 mode)

But for fun...

GB/C = 160x144
VB = 384x224
GBA = 240x160
DS = 256x192
3DS = 400x240 (in 3D mode)

[Xeogred]

How many teraflops?

Finished Zero Mission at 3:15:43 with a measly 75% (accidentally slipped into the final boss, somewhat point of no return). Went back to get some items for fun though. I imagine probably somewhere in the 80%. This one seems tougher than normal to 100%. Had two other shinespark items to get in Crateria, heh. I missed all three energy tanks in the pirate ship? One missile in Brinstar... things like that are gonna be the end of me.

Might watch a speedrun now to see how much people can sequence break this one. I've been able to do Super Metroid in about 50 minutes myself and in the past, on the keyboard haha.

[samsonlonghair]

I meant to play AM2R earlier, but life got in the way. I finally sat down and played it last night. Wow. This is a beautiful tribute to the Metroid series. This dev was super faithful to every detail of the series.

And the music! Oh my goodness! The moment I heard the title screen theme, I stopped everything else to dig out a good pair of headphones. Isolating oneself in this auditory landscape makes for quite the experience.


Oh, by the way...
Cough v1.1 has been released cough

[noiseredux]

awesome that the first patch came so quickly. I need to get back to this. It really is a great remake.

[Exhuminator]

Cough v1.1 has been released cough

Thanks for the heads up.

[samsonlonghair]

Roger that.