Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

Samus vs. Aliens

Late in the 1990s, many game series leaped from two to three dimensions, including Zelda and Metroid, their gameplay adapting to the visual change. Some franchises made the leap well, while others didn’t, and while the latter franchise’s 3-D Prime subseries got decent reception, fans yearned for throwback and thus came Metroid Fusion and a remake of the debut title in the series, both on the Game Boy Advance. Years would pass before the next 2-D entry, Metroid: Samus Returns for the Nintendo 3DS, released, a reimagining of Return of Samus for the first Game Boy, providing an experience on par with prior 2-D entries.

Series protagonist Samus Aran can initially fire her arm cannon; players use the 3DS’s analog stick to point her armament in any direction. Players can further lock her in place (still able to jump) and fire at will, a feature proving a real godsend. Samus sporadically receives upgrades to her combat and exploration abilities, not to mention increases in the maximum capacities of her regular missiles, super missiles, power bombs, life, and energy that powers abilities such as a shield protecting her from damage to her life.

Samus must exterminate a certain number of Metroids on the planet SR388. Another feature critical to her success is the ability to execute a physical counter which can throw them off balance when timed right, making them more vulnerable to damage. Mastery of this technique is tricky but possible, and the ability of Metroids to drain Samus’s life quickly can make the game slightly hard. Even so, sufficient tracking of their patterns can be enough to avoid damaging attacks, and aside from the slight difficulty of the game attributable to not enough energy upgrades and way too many standard missile upgrades, the gameplay serves its purpose.

Like other 2-D Metroid titles, Samus explores a vast world with certain abilities to advance exploration; teleportation points also become available. Somewhat preventing players from losing themselves is the ability to use energy to scan the surrounding area to reveal unvisited places on the automap. Issues in terms of control include the sloppy placement of opportunities to recover life, ammo, and energy, with many stretches to boss Metroids lacking them when the game could have combined them. The player also can’t view playtime within the game, some jumps can be tricky, and the lack of a suspend save is inexcusable. Still, things could have been worse in interaction.

The Metroid series has never been heavy on plot, and the remake is no exception. Little reveals itself in the series mythos or Samus’s backstory; however, players can unlock artwork depicting the background of the Chozo civilization, and the ending ties well with Super Metroid.

The graphics are one of the game's highlights.

There are many good pieces in Samus Returns’s soundtrack, all fitting extraterrestrial setting, with maybe a piece or two from other entries in the series such as the ominous “hot area” music from Super Metroid rife with chanting; however, the music is largely unmemorable. The sound effects are good, though, and the remake is easy on the ears.

The developers largely went all-out with the visuals, which are in a 2.5-dimensional style akin to titles such as Valkyrie Profile 2 and Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. The graphics also utilize the system’s 3-D capabilities, and they look gorgeous, with excellent alien scenery and Metroid designs (albeit with some reskins), Samus herself having good animation and attack effects, with occasional dialogue-less cutscenes sometimes being fully three-dimensional. Some of the usual drawbacks of 3-D graphics exist, like blurriness and pixilation of environmental textures, but the remake is an excellent-looking game.

Finally, while one can blaze through the game in as little as eight hours, one could take up to twenty-four (and I should note the in-game clock doesn’t consider time wasted on losing battles), with a smidgeon of lasting appeal in the form of acquiring every enhancement, ending variations, and a higher difficulty setting unlocked after an initial playthrough. However, the frustrations at points may deter players from investing more time in the remake.

Overall, Metroid: Samus Returns is a successful reimagining of its Game Boy original, with the upgraded gameplay central to the series, a big contiguous world to explore, good sound, and polished visuals. However, it leaves room for improvement, the difficulty attributable to the disproportionate life and ammo upgrades, and the developers could have addressed the segregation of the save, recovery, and teleportation points. The narrative is also scarce, but the game is worth a look from fans of prior games in the franchise, not to mention those that enjoy action/adventure titles that don’t quite qualify as roleplaying games.

This review is based on a single playthrough to one of the standard endings of a digital copy purchased by the reviewer and downloaded to his Nintendo 3DS.