#honestly this post was originally only about samus *think first shoot later* aran

[tarn-ati0n]

Hello Tumblr, I have thoughts about Samus Aran and the end of Samus Returns that I can't keep within me any longer.

Specifically, I'm talking about one aspect of Samus-Characterization. She's an incredibly "Think First Shoot later" kind of person.

We can see this in Samus Returns and ESPECIALLY in Dread. Samus never shoots something unless it starts posing an actual threat to her safety. She watches the movements of her potential target and usually waits for it to attack her. She isn't one to start a pointless battle.

Even if her opponent obviously plans to harm her, she still never uses her cannon until necessary.

Idk, I just think that this little detail is an important part of her characterization that never gets really noticed.

But you know where she doesn't wait and is instead IMMEDIATELY ready to fire?

The end of SR.

Her cannon wasn't just pointing at the baby. It was fully charged, and Samus was definitely just a mere millisecond away from firing.

"OH, but that could just be shock from seeing the egg suddenly burst open," I hear you say.

But I don't think that's true. Samus never charged her cannon when she got shocked by something. Whenever something surprised her, she immediately pointed it towards whatever it was, but if I remember right, this is the only time she immediately went to charging it up.

I actually don't have a point to make here. It was something I realized, and I needed to get it out.

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Another Metroid II Remake

This review covers v1.2.10, and I didn't know 1.3.1 was already out by the time I finished.  I used an Xbox 360 controller and according to the final stats screen, it took me 4h47m44s to finish the game, with 84% item completion.  I got locked out of the extra features because I suck, but more on those later.

I own the original Metroid II and I only beat it once many years ago, with a clear time of 10h07m.  I don't really remember much about it, other than I got lost about constantly.  No, I didn't make maps.  It was okay but I didn't really get into it.  I haven't gone back because I'm honestly spoiled by things like the automap.  I haven't beaten the original Metroid because of that, actually.  But yeah, my poor memory of the original will lead to poor comparisons, so forgive me for that ahead of time. 

Another Metroid 2 Remake looks to try to give this game the Zero Mission treatment.  A bigger view area, actual colors, better spritework, more items, new items that weren't in the original Metroid 2, new bosses...  It sucks that this was DCMA'd by Nintendo, though who would've thought they were remaking this game too after the poor reception of Other M and Federation Force? 

The story's still the same as in original Metroid II.  The Galactic Federation, realizing the threat that the Metroids serve to the galaxy's peace, orders Samus Aran to go exterminate them on their homeworld of SR388.  You land and leave your ship and prepare to start kicking ass all over the planet.  Things are a little bit different now and that extends to more than just the graphics. 

Parts of the original game were changed around to account for new content such as Power Bombs and the Speed Booster.  You still have the hidden tank upgrades that require different powerups to access, but that's typical Metroid for you.  You get items in a different order and because beams actually stack in this game, you don't need to remember where the Ice Beam was before you tackle the final area.  You actually get the Ice Beam near the end of the game, but you get Space Jump relatively early so you're still free to explore without your floating platforms.  I might not've been paying attention in other games, but this was the first time I noticed that destructible blocks could actually regenerate themselves after a moment.  Not all of them do that but it's one of those things that got me to do a double-take. 

Pretty neat puzzle involving you steering an Autoad to drop Super Missiles onto platforms to make a path for Samus. 

Fighting Metroids in this game is between annoying and dangerous.  I remember in the original M2, you just plugged them with missiles as fast as you could when they appeared.  That still largely applies here but this time you need to hit them in their soft undersides or your missiles will just bounce off.  All of the Metroids have new attacks, like the Alphas having a charge attack or a quick move to avoid your shots, and the Zeta and Omega Metroids no longer fly and they're a lot bigger too.  You still have the warning signs of the discarded shells before you encounter one, though be prepared for a sudden SKREE and fight.  The short cutscenes introducing the next evolutionary step were a nice bonus too.

  There are new bosses as well, some of which come from come from other Metroid games.  You encounter Serris for example near the end of the game, serving as a nice bonus callback to Fusion since Serris is from SR388 too.  Some of the new bosses are mechanical in nature, owing to the Chozo being a technologically-advanced race, so expect to get shot at with beams and missiles at some points.  There's a Logbook feature somewhat like the Prime series that automatically scans new environments and bosses, and that can give you hints about what you're fighting. 

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?” “I didn’t take nuffin’, honest!”

I don't remember the music in Metroid II at all, apart from the main cave theme, the final area theme, and the repetitive Metroid fight theme.  Everything else was ambient.  The music in AM2R takes some cues from the Prime series with the instrumentation, but nothing about it was bad.  The composers deserve credit for making the Metroid fight themes actually high-tempo without sounding like a fast copy of the intro to the Jaws theme.  The sound effects worked fine and there's no voice work except for the very end of the game for a well-known pair of lines. 

Controls were fine and there were several options, such as having the Spider Ball be a hold button or toggle, if aiming was Super Metroid styled with L and R aiming down and up, or like Zero Mission where you stayed diagonal and pressed up or down to switch, and so on.  I think I used the dedicated Morph Ball button more than the usual way of doing it too.  Speed Booster works like in Fusion/ZM with just running until it activates instead of there being a run button like in Super.  There's an option to use the analog stick to have Samus walk, but I never used this and I don't think there's any place it actually is useful, but it's nice to see a rarely-used animation. 

Guess who’s coming to dinner.

I thought the graphics work was great.  They went for sprites and 2D as opposed to Metroid Samus Returns' 3D on a 2D plane, so it has more in line with the GBA games.  The way sprites are rotated in Gamemaker Studio was kinda off but you don't really see it too much (for example, Samus' gunship coming in to land at an angle before leveling off is where it was most obvious for me).  I kinda wish I had a comparison spritesheet but everything in general is just more detailed.  Having an actual background that isn't stark black is a big improvement in any case.  A nice touch was how a couple of areas had entirely different door designs even though they worked the same as normal. 

Speaking of doors...

Difficulty felt about right for Normal, but I hear Hard Mode lives up to its name.  Enemies do a lot more damage and they have some new tactics, but I'm not brave enough to dive into that.  I died to a couple of bosses on Normal just by virtue of taking too much damage without being able to respond in turn.  Omega Metroids had their damage output nerfed in 1.1 but I think the recent fanmade updates put their numbers back where they were, so prepare to lose a few Energy Tanks to each one you fight.  A few bosses at least give you things to shoot to spawn recovery items, so that's some relief. 

Every single one of those dots ignores mercy invincibility.  Every single one of those dots can activate the other bombs.  This is how Metroid can become a bullet hell.  

If you clear the game in under four hours, you unlock New Game+ and Random Game+.  Both set the lava level down low so you're given a lot more freedom to explore and get items in a different order than the linear nature of the game originally allowed, but Random Game+ completely changes the order of items so you might end up getting the Screw Attack very early or Power Bombs instead of regular Bombs, for example.  New Game+ doesn't start you with any previous equipment you had so it's a little bit of a misnomer, but you can always use a save editor to give you some extras before you head out. 

Overall, I enjoyed the game, short as it was.  It's a hell of a lot better than the original Metroid II, not like that's particularly hard to pull off.  I dunno if I want to go back through the game to finish in under four to unlock the extra features, but at least that's something that'll get me to come back, as will future updates.  Part of the DMCA clause said that the original creator of this fangame couldn't work on any more updates, so fans have reverse-engineered what they can and are continuing to bugfix and add small content to the game, like giving the Queen Metroid a new attack and there's plans for a post-credits stinger revealing the X Parasites coming out of dormancy now their predator is long gone... 

Record of Samus