/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5534342
Metroid 2 is clunky but has a fantastic atmosphere, and I think neither of the remakes were able to properly capture it. AM2R has some nice locations but it fails to grab the "on a tight, cramped planet you know nothing about and the shit that threatened to destroy the universe is both all around you and EVOLVING" sense of tension. That being said, I think AM2R has the best gameplay of the three. It basically meshed the best parts of Super Metroid and ZM and remade SR388 from it. Some of the custom bosses do NOT fit in a Metroid game but they're fun to fight despite that, especially the hallway shmup boss.
I actually haven't bothered playing Samus Returns. I have a (pirated) copy available to play any time I want but just haven't bothered. The parry shit turns me off, plus the game's lackluster, mid-poly visuals. I'm sure it does some things right because this wasn't an Other M/Fed Force disaster, just doesn't seem for me.

>>5541902
To play double's advocate, Prism and AM2R took an extremely long time to make and could have easily ended up DNF levels of bad. The 2010 demo of Prism had some REALLY terrible dialogue and it's really fortunate that KBM matured and basically rewrote the beginning of the game from scratch.
Fans can absolutely make better shit than official devs, but to see it both better than official games AND completed is a "once in a blue moon" rarity. Us getting both games in the same year is just a huge coincidence.

>>4836780
>>4836783
I'm a staunch defender of the NES Metroid but I will admit it's not for everyone. My recommendation is to give the NES game a fair shake, if you don't like it after an hour or so then skip it and try Metroid II. If the same thing happens then I'd try Super Metroid. Zero Mission really should just be thought of its own game with how much it changes, I wouldn't say either of the Metroid remakes replace the original two games.
As for a map, I say play without, or even make your own as you go along. If you have a map you'll know exactly where everything is which hurts the exploration of the game, while making your own will help you navigate where you've been without spoiling what's up ahead. I'm biased as a fag who just likes making maps while playing games, though.

>>4707192
I don't hate Zero Mission, and it might just be my nostalgia bias, but it really didn't click with me. I didn't feel the same sense of atmosphere, the chozo statue waypoints seemed obnoxious even if all were optional after the first few rooms, and the ZSS section dragged on way too long after you get your suit back. I consider ZM to be a completely separate thing from Metroid 1 with everything it changes and how differently it plays, so "replacing" M1 with ZM feels completely wrong to me. I acknowledge that OP might not get into Metroid 1, which is why I just said to give it a fair shake and move on if it doesn't mesh with him. The things I like about Metroid 1, the indistinct layout without many landmarks, the near-necessity to create your own map while playing, are totally clashing with modern design philosophy.

That being said I fucking adore AM2R and I'm not really sure why it fit so well for me when ZM didn't. I played AM2R for the first time immediately after playing Zero Mission for the first time. Maybe it was AM2R being geared specifically for veterans rather than ZM being made to be more accessible to newcomers, and the level design and bosses reflecting that. Or it could just be nostalgia because I didn't play Metroid 2 until I decided to get into the series while I had Metroid 1 on its GBA rerelease.

>>4111617
Finished the game and just wanted to update my position as saying I got over the changes and the Chozo statues slowly disappeared, so I had a lot of fun playing it.
If I had to rank the 2D Metroids, it would probably go

>Nostalgia tier
Metroid 1
>God tier
Super Metroid
>Great tier
Metroid Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission
>Good tier
Metroid 2

I enjoyed all the games honestly. ZM and Fusion feel a lot different to each other, to comment on the main discussion of the thread. Fusion really alienated me at the start, a lot more than ZM's Chozo statues did, because of the linearity and constant dialogue, but I ended up digging it by the end. I grew more and more aggravated with the Federation's shit and then they were revealed to be complete fucking morons with no regard for the safety of the universe, who were fucking breeding Metroids and suddenly everything clicked and I realized the game was playing up the feelings from the earlier on purpose. I'm not a big fan of narrative being pushed to the detriment of gameplay but I think it actually worked well here.
ZM felt a lot more traditional obviously. It wasn't Super Metroid and I already mentioned the Chozo statues being off-putting but once I discovered I could avoid the "you have to beat Kraid before you can go down and see 90% of Norfair" roadblock with a hidden passage. It seems like a game that I would need to try aiming for 100% or replay a few times to fully appreciate all the potential sequence-breaking. The Zero Suit section took me completely by surprise; I knew this was where ZSS came from but I had forgotten about it by the time I beat Mother Brain.
I'm entering Samus Returns with caution. The melee counter doesn't seem like something I want in Metroid because of the way it takes control away of the player with a cutscene attack. I plan to play AM2R before its release to see how a fan's labor of love compares to what modern Nintendo can do with Metroid.