#Metroid II: Return of Samus

[nintendometro]

Varia Suit 'Metroid II: Return Of Samus' Game Boy, Japanese Manual Support us on Patreon

[coldgoldlazarus]

Am I reading into this too much, or does anyone else hear a similarity?

[vixivulpixel]

6. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Switch NSO)

6/10

(While we’re not gonna include a ton of repeat playthroughs and rewatches in this media thread, we figured enough time as passed between now and the last time we played Metroid II back in like, 2012.)

It's a much better version of the original Metroid. Yes, that's a back-handed compliment.

It's a decent enough Metroidvania Lite with how linear and easy to 100% it is. It's got a thick atmosphere drenched in the isolation feeling with how inescapably far down into dangerous territory you get. That definitely makes its presentation its biggest strength.

It's just a shame it's still a game held back by a lot of clunky movement. Old Space Jump, as usual, doesn't work very well, and as much as the crunched screen is good at emulating the feeling of being in a dark, claustrophobic cave, they have a tendency to place annoying lil enemies just barely out of view of jumps and it gets annoying.

The fights against the Metroids try to have variety in the rooms they reside in, but this hardly changes the fact that they ram into you at speeds Samus can't really react to, so they feel more like stat checks than actual fights. Also Zetas are more dangerous than Omegas for some reason.

We give Samus Returns a lot of shit for missing the point of Metroid II so hard that it becomes milquetoast, but yeah. It fixes two of this game's biggest annoyances in having better controls and Metroids that are at least more interesting to fight.

Back to Media Masterpost

[g4zdtechtv]

Cinematech's Trailer Park - Game Boy & Game Boy Advance for NSO

True Portable Power.

[moonymaren]

come play metroid we have blob thrower

[megadan94]

Yeah, it did make some steps forward, but it's structure is so un-Metroid.

My biggest gripe with Metroid ii on game boy, besides the modern QOL adjustments it really would have benefited from (teleport pads, maps, switching between beams on the options screen, etc.) is that it’s frustratingly linear. Metroid Fusion also struggled with this, but I think it’s worse in this game because of how you unlock new areas. Typically, in metroidvanias of all flavors, new areas are accessed via upgrades you obtain. Double jump, grappling hook, lava-proof suits, the usual. But here, the only way to progress to a new area is through defeating every Metroid in the previous one, which drains the acid in your way. I’m sure speedrunners have found ways to sequence break, but for the typical player, even if you’re brave and curious, you’re not going to be able to get anywhere the game doesn’t want you to go. The upgrades you get throughout the game, like the spider ball and space jump, ultimately don’t feel as cool or powerful because their usage is still highly constrained. The backtracking is minimal, which isn’t a bad thing here since some areas can be confusing and same-y, but feels extremely weird in a metroidvania. There’s no secret power ups you’ll find by going back to a previous area with new abilities. I’m just disappointed it was so railroad-y for a game with zero dialogue (it’s all in the manual, baby!) and a metroid game. However I admit I’m slightly biased because before I realized the Metroid kill count was linked to progression, I was backtracking quite a long ways to try and find new areas I could access, and upon learning what I was doing wrong I bashed my head against the wall.

[samusu-aran]

Metroid II Return of Samus (1991)

[devileaterjaek]

Metroid II: Return of Samus, via Nintendo Switch Online

[maburito]

Omg this is so cute 🥺

[cupcake-plays-a-game]

January 12th 2024 - GUYS I WENT OUT TO THE SHOPPING CENTRE AND DID A SMALL SPENDING SPREE LOOK AT THIS I found a copy of Rare Replay for just £3! And I got an enormous Eevee plush! It’s huge and I love it like my own child.

But most amazingly, there was a secondhand tech store that had a surprising retro game library - I left with 2-in-1 Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt for the NES and Metroid II and Pokémon Blue for the GameBoy. I have a GBA I can play the GameBoy games on, but the NES cartridge is purely for collectability. Someday I’ll buy recreation cases for these games, too, so they can fit snuggly in my mini-library!

[spinningbuster98]

And we're back! Yes this is indeed Samus' second adventure involving the Metroids. Absolutely. There was positively nothing in between.

So Metroid II is a bit weird to me, not the game itself as much as the fandom's reception of it

Back when I joined in 2012 I...never saw anyone talk about this game, and when they did it was usually with a big "Eh, it's the black sheep (after Other M)"

So it was particularily jarring to me when this game suddenly saw lots of fans come up and present it as some sort of misunderstood masterpiece in later years, like some sort of secretly genius jem of a game that pushed the limits of the gameboy! This was mostly around the time AM2R dropped and especially after Samus Returns, when people would prop up the original game in order to shit on the remake for all the things Samus Returns did wrong.

Not gonna lie I use to resent this game: I used to think it was fucking boring and dull as hell, so seeing people praise it to high heavens just to shit on SR (as flawed as that game also is), and the subsequent clusterfuck that the Metroid fandom was between 2016/17 and 2021, kinda soured me on the game

But looking at this game in an unbiased way (or at least as much as possible)....this game isn't that bad, not as much as I thought (though it definitely is an acquired taste) nor as much as people used to say

...but it's far from great

But let's start with the positives: this game controls comparatively better than Metroid 1.

It's...still not great because Samus still feels clunky and too floaty, but now she can crouch and shoot and also shoot downwards while falling, which helps a lot

The sprite work is also a FUCK ton better than Metroid 1, with stuff being a hell of a lot more detailed, especially Samus.

Granted it's....got its issues (and I'll get into them more next time) but I'll give credit where it's due

Enemy placement is also far better, with enemies being placed far more reasonably except when you're dealing with the screen crunch and not as incessantly spammed as before. They also tend to do much less damage

The game introduces the series' trademark save points which sure beat Metroid 1's password system or even the Famicom version's save system which still spawned you at an area's start and with minimal health

Of course the game still doesn't have a map (in 1991 this was already pushing it) but given the game's more linear nature it's less egregious...but not completely so because most areas still look samey partly due to the gameboy's monochromatic color pattern and also because, despite the game's better overall spritework, most locations still look really samey, either being generic caves, generic Metroid nests (except the Omega's, that one is pretty cool) and generic building ruins that all look pretty much the same as far as architecture goes

And then we have the music

Yyyyyyeah uhhhhhh

The game certainly has some good tunes, the title theme is delightfully creepy and minimalistic, but with a really nice hopeful part. I like the main caverns theme, the credits theme and especially the Metroids' nest theme

Unfortunately you'll be spending a big chunk of the game listening to beeps and boops that wanna pass off as an atmospheric, minimalist ost

Now look: it....sorta works. When you're going through dark spooky caves and only have these atmospheric...weird sounds to keep you company it can absolutely give you a sense of loneliness and creepiness.....but the game overplays its hand with it way too much

These tracks play every time you visit one of the game's main areas and when you're outside of their buildings, meaning this is pretty much gonna be all that you'll hear of this game's OST for about half of your playtime.

I often see people claim that this game pushes the gameboy's limits and yeah in some ways it does, but in this case I'd say it plays against its limitations rather than within them: the gameboy's simple sound font can't easily create minimalist atmospheric tracks without them sounding way too basic or outright boring, or at least the composer wasn't able to, yet the game doesn't seem aware of this and just spams these tracks throughout most of the game, tracks that barely sound any different from each other and just end up blending in.

I think they jumped the gun way too early with this. There is merit in creating tracks that are incredibly simple and un-melodic but that can still give you the creeps. Just compare this to this

As it is Metroid II's soundtrack, at least most of it, makes the game just sound boring and uninteresting which....well isn't helped by the monochromatic pallette and some gameplay aspects though that's for next time

[nintendometro]

'Metroid II: Return Of Samus' was released on the Game Boy 32 years ago today in Japan.

[glyptolite]

Futuristic katakana.

[puppyrickets]

sometimes i wanna post music in all caps like every one else but like what am i gonna do post beeps n boops. and the melee ost isnt even on spotify yet

[caseytheartist-gamer91]

Happy Monday everyone! It's time for the next game review! Metroid II: Samus Returns for the Gameboy!

[samusu-aran]