Metroid 2 Remake AM2R Released!

[Tanooki]

Metroid II aged fine, but it always lacked a really needed map of some sort, but no it wasn't the almost by appearances random almost cryptic looking mess the original was in design. Metroid 1 has not aged well, hadn't aged well since just a few years after it popped up as it just was and always will be rough, but it was new ground so people didn't have something to compare by. Metroid II is like a Super Metroid lite, it just needed the map to really button things up. I can happily play that with a digital or printed map copy handy just fine as I get fed up being lost or forgetting which items/Metroid I picked off.

[Xeogred]

How the hell has Metroid 1 not aged well but 2 has?

Metroid is still incredible to me. I love BOTH the original and Zero Mission. I still replay the original a lot. Still can't beat that dreadful atmosphere for an NES game. The graphics and music are still amazing. Controls and plays really well. I probably like Blaster Master more which came out two years later, but yeah. I'd argue both the original Zelda and Zelda II are a lot more cryptic than Metroid. It does have its weirder moments but I find it to be really straightforward. The only head scratcher for me is remembering where the weird Norfair bomb path is that leads into lower Norfair, since Norfair has a few towering rooms that look a little samey.

My nitpick with 2 is giant sprites. Just can't do it.

@Popo: That's kind of how I figured you'd get the second one, definitely seems tricky. I got one item that was a ball form Shinespark gimmick, I don't even think you could do that in the others haha. Was pretty neat.

[Exhuminator]

The original Metroid is still amazing and beats the piss out of the original Metroid 2.

I would be surprised if AM2R beats Zero Mission.

[Sarge]

There are some really tricky Shinespark moments here. I wondered how on Earth I was going to do a few, but honestly, even the hardest one I did just took some trial and error. There's one, I think in Zero Mission, that's absolutely ridiculous to nail.

As to which game is better, I'm actually hard-pressed to say. There are elements from both Metroid and Metroid II that I find appealing. In many ways, it took Super Metroid, with its presence on a more powerful system, and a combination of the first two games, to make what we think of as "Metroid". The original is probably better from an exploration point of view, but mechanically Metroid II is far superior. I mean, it gave us the incredible Space Jump, and even though it wasn't used elsewhere, I absolutely loved the Spider Ball. It makes so many excellent tweaks, even if some of the other structural elements aren't up to snuff, and the SNES let the developers do what they always wanted to with the series.

AM2R doesn't beat Zero Mission, but the fact that it even comes close is absolutely amazing. Kudos to the devs on this one. (For the record, most of the time, I actually like Zero Mission even more than Super Metroid.)

[Xeogred]

Super Metroid is tied for my favorite game ever. But I do like how Zero Mission is at least a little challenging. That's admittedly maybe my one knock on Super, it's really easy. I really prefer how Super controls compared to this and the GBA game though, I'm not sure if it's just the framerate of the game or what, but Samus' slower more floaty jumps are really strange... but it's perfect to me. In this and the GBA games Samus feels much heavier and you fall faster. Subtle differences but very noticeable. Super also feels bigger in scope, maybe there's some screen/sprite size differences here. AM2R and the GBA games feel a bit smaller and more cramped, yet I wouldn't be surprised if the map sizes are almost identical.

AM2R doesn't beat Zero for me but it's almost there and like I said, I'd probably take it over all the Metroidvania Castlevania's and I love those to death as well. AM2R is basically perfect so it's as close as it gets. I already loved it more than Fusion after a few minutes in and that preference just further solidified the more I played. This is seriously going to be one of my favorite highlights of 2016.

I can't stop thinking about this so I definitely think I'll continue on and replay Zero Mission soon. It'll probably be cool to run through that directly after this too to make some more comparisons and such.

[MrPopo]

@Popo: That's kind of how I figured you'd get the second one, definitely seems tricky. I got one item that was a ball form Shinespark gimmick, I don't even think you could do that in the others haha. Was pretty neat.

Ball shinespark was definitely in Zero Mission; not sure if it was also in Fusion or not.

[Exhuminator]

Super Metroid beats Zero Mission in the atmosphere / immersion departments. But Zero Mission beats Super Metroid in the gameplay / balance departments. They're about a tie for me.

[Tanooki]

^I'd agree pretty much completely with that statement. Prefer Super Metroid though still, it's just Zero Mission is newer and applied learned techniques of developing the other first.

[Xeogred]

I'm not really a fan of the ledge hanging though, which is a pretty strong dynamic that changes up the feel of everything. I know it lends itself to some ball puzzles easier and stuff though.

Just being nitpicky now.

[Sarge]

Super Metroid beats Zero Mission in the atmosphere / immersion departments. But Zero Mission beats Super Metroid in the gameplay / balance departments. They're about a tie for me.

Pretty much how I feel, too, and I generally lean gameplay over atmosphere, so hence my favoring Zero Mission ever so slightly. They're both top-tier all-time greats.

I actually love the edge-grabbing. One of the reasons I like Fusion and ZM. Speaking of games with atmosphere, Fusion has it in spades. Rag on the linearity and the narration all you want, but it really gets the feel and immersion right.