#return of samus

[raymondsalvador]

S V S X PAGE 21

The final part of SVSX has had to take a backseat while I worked on printing, marketing, and mailing out copies of the first issue of Comic Odyssey. But don’t worry, it’s still coming! Here’s page 21 to hold you over!

[doctorspectre]

[coldgoldlazarus]

Not that we need a third Metroid II remake, but given how disparate the existing versions are from each other, I kinda have to wonder sometimes what another go that tries to combine the best of each might look like.

AM2R is probably the strongest overall package and embraces the series' lore in a great way, but does feel sometimes (to me at least) like it's still going a little too far in trying to force Metroid II into Super/Zero Mission's mold, most noticeably with the cool but jarring geothermal plant sequence.

Samus Returns spectacularly misses the mark with the tone and ending, but there are also a whole heap of other things I really like the handling of in the first 95% of it. (I have a whole list, in fact, buried somewhere in my drafts.)

And the original Metroid II, for all its early installment weirdness and hardware-induced shortcomings can make for an awkward experience, it also used some of those same limitations very elegantly to create a thematic sense of darkness that neither remake really matches. (Even if AM2R does wind up closer, IMO it still falls short in some ways, in trying to solve problems that the original had turned into features.)

Realistically speaking, all three are kinda very different beasts despite their shared core, and hard to reconcile easily. Even so, I do find myself thinking about whether it would still be possible to create a marriage of the best traits of each, and if so, what exactly that would look like.

[metroidworldchozo]

Samus is beautiful ❤

[shepherdknight-gaming]

This game may have been one of my first ever introduction to video games.

[it-seemo]

@yamcans00's Skulltober Day 27 - "Peaceful"

"The Last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace."

<- Day 26 | Day 27 | Day 28 ->

[devileaterjaek]

Metroid II: Return of Samus, via Nintendo Switch Online

[ssjrodimus]

Metroid II Cinnamon Mini Buns Mail-Away Poster [1992] - Kellogg's

[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

[yammmmmmmmie]

Every now and then I get possessed by the ghost of someone who really wants to play Metroid 2 . And then I really want to play Metroid 2

[raymondsalvador]

S V S X

M A S T E R P O S T

Get each Part early on Patreon!

Chapter 1 : Colony Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

[glyptolite]

Futuristic katakana.

[coldgoldlazarus]

It is kinda funny how AM2R and Samus Returns, in trying to give each section of SR388 a unique aesthetic identity, actually lined up on that a fair bit for the most part. Area 1's a temple, Area 2's a hydroelectric plant, Area 4's a crystal mine. Area 3 is a robotics facility in both as well, even if the aesthetic interpretation of that concept differs more than some of the other overlaps.

Area 5, the Tower, is the biggest divergence, with AM2R making it a techy weapons facility with a lava moat, where SR makes it all jungley/swampy.

Area 6 is also subtly different, with AM2R treating it as an extension of the main tunnel route with some extra lava pools, while Samus Returns recasts it as a dusty underground desert. (Also, I'm disregarding the Distribution Center here, since that's a completely new section with no analogues in the other two versions, but if we take that as AM2R's Area 6, the divergence becomes just as strong as with the Tower.)

Most amusingly to me is at the end, with the Omega gauntlet and the Queen's lair. They both have a Chozo lab tied to the creation of the Metroids, and they both have an area where it's more of an organic nest... but the order is swapped. Organic bubbley area to abandoned lab in AM2R; abandoned lab to organic eggy area in Samus Returns.

Just kinda interesting parallels of mostly-convergent evolution between the two projects. Makes me wonder how much was influence by Metroid II itself, or if someone at Mercurysteam was aware of AM2R and taking notes, and how much was just lucky coincidence.

[metroidworldchozo]

[alligator-with-a-top-hat]

The front of a Queen Metroid I sprited in PICO-8. Largely inspired by its appearance in Another Metroid II Remake, but with details taken from the original Metroid II. Bonus Samus Returns-colored Queen included.

[zmyaro]

30 years later, still great environmental storytelling.