Retro Blog: Super Metroid

Building upon what was established in the original Metroid and it's sequel on Gameboy, Super Metroid is one of Nintendo's very best projects, and it has innovated and excelled in excellence even today.

After destroying the home planet of the Metroids previously and keeping the last one for research purposes, all seems to go well until Samus gets a sudden distress signal. Discovering that her old foe Ridley is still alive, she starts hunting and looking for the last Metroid on planet Zebes.

Super Metroid welcomes you to re-discover this planet as it has aesthetically improved, although the original still holds it's own charm as well. From a green nature environment to underwater and lava environments, it has the typical settings to play through.

With enemies carrying difficult names to remember, the adventure can feel alien in a good way. Luckily, the new map system is your best ally, aside from the various abilities you will discover as you progress.

Some of the classics return including the Morph Ball and the Screw Attack, but new ones include the X-Ray, allowing you to see hidden passages, or the Speed Booster, allowing you to speed run but more interestingly, it allows you to perform Shine Sparks/Power Jumps, which is normally not explained.

The game actually has a few more special techniques for Samus to use, such as consuming Power Bombs to perform specific beam effects, doing wall jumps and dropping a clusterbomb of several normal bombs.

The soundtrack is very immersive and fits great with the game's environments and the little plot it has building up. The bosses are giant, intimidating and memorable, including Kraid's tower appearance and Draygon(my favorite)'s special way of defeating it.

Super Metroid deserves to be called one of the best games ever. With superb gameplay and tons of secrets to find, atmospheric music and backgrounds, great bosses to fight and great equipment for Samus to use, Super Metroid is the grand champion of the 2D Metroids.

Replayability is very nice too, trying to find all the secrets or beating the game faster, it's no wonder that Super Metroid could possibly still be the best game to speed run through, as many have done already.

If only Nintendo could give us another Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion or Metroid: Zero Mission sooner than later...

Rating: 9.1

Metroidvania

What used to be called non-linear and open world in the old days, before nowadays those terms have gained new meaning, inbetween the 80's and 90's, Metroid arguably layed the foundations of "getting stuck and only being able to progress by obtaining a particular item through backtracking."

Metroidvania, or as I like to prefer calling the subgenre, Castleroid, is a popular phenomenon which is cherished by speed runners, passionate gamers whom beat the games as fast as possible, either by glitches or by conventional ways.

Over the new century, dozens of new Metroidvania games have appeared. The 2 main inspiration sources are Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Today, I would like to talk about 4 similar games which pay respects to both:

A charming throwback game towards good old gaming with plenty of inspiration sources. Its story is engulfing, the music and graphics go hand in hand with each other and the gameplay is exciting and fluent. Perhaps the best known independent game from Japan in the 00's, Cave Story essentially could had been released as an NES game back in the day!

Rating: 8.3

Now this is pretty. A platform adventure in the vein of Metroidvania and Castleroid esque formula’s alongside appealing visuals reminding me of Muramasa: The Demon Blade somewhat. Ori and the Blind Forest features a touching opening and an otherworldly narrative that vaguely guides our little hero through this vast area of interconnected locations.

With an orb acting as your guide and your melee combat, explore the surroundings for not only your next destination, but many secrets awaiting too, of which most of them are conveniently marked on the overall map.

What’s different is that you are able to create your own checkpoint almost anywhere, given that you sacrifice an energy ball which is normally used for special powers such as blowing objects up. Other permanent special abilities which await you are amongst others double jumping, wall climbing and the fun maneuver of grabbing objects or enemies and using their momentum to either reach higher ground or to crush other objects or enemies.

While some parts of the game can be quite frustrating to die a lot into, it would be wise for players to remember that an auto save feature is absent, while traditional bosses for these kind of games are also missing. Ori and the Blind Forest is mesmerizing, fresh, artistic and captivating.

Rating: 8.0

Created and designed by a single person, similar to Turrican from the 90’s, Axiom Verge is everyone’s proper Metroid fix for the fans that have been waiting so long for a 2D Metroid to return, or even a good 3D Metroid. 

As a scientist protagonist, you emerge on an alien overworld called Sudra after a disastrous experiment went wrong. With a retro style of graphics accompanying the effective soundtrack, exploring these areas is fun because as the traditional Metroid formula is used, new abilities will make you progress further through backtracking.

Abilities such as controlling a remote drone and teleport blinking short distances make it stand out from other recent Metroidvania’s, but Axiom Verge really is the closest we currently have on our hands when it comes to going way back to the original Metroid and capturing that one’s style and presentation. And Nintendo should take notice. 

Rating: 8.2

After a long exclusive status, Shadow Complex is now coming over to new generation consoles, as well as PC. Being heavily inspired by Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it’s format is presented in 2.5D, meaning that the world is three-dimensional but the player can only move in two dimensions, reminiscent of a classic side scrolling video game.

In order to progress, you will have to find weapons and abilities so that you can open certain obstacles marked with different colors which you can see using the flashlight. The framerate is quite smooth but there are moments when lag appears.

Experience points and leveling up makes the player go gradually stronger, and there are extra ammo packs to be found in hidden areas, which is very similar to Metroid. To be honest, if Metroid were to return once more in 2.5 format, Shadow Complex would be a great example to follow as the level design is neat, it encourages speed running and it’s nifty in several factors such as being able to shoot(with auto aim) at enemies in the third dimension(or background).

Rating: 8.1

Where's Mega Man?

 

After nearly 6 years have passed and no major entry has been released since then, the community wonders where the Blue Bomber could have gone too. I fully agree that a long break was needed, but it's been a long time since Inafune's departure and the cancellation of 3 games.

Where has Mega Man been? Well, he has been popping up as a guest or a cameo in recent years, with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U being the best example of portraying him with utmost respect from Sakurai's team, and it might just have been the element needed to craft a new development.

Another example are the Project X Zone games, a longer running series where many characters from different worlds join and interact together, and Mega Man X plus Zero are amongst them. With the recent Legacy Collection, Capcom keeps playing it safe with the franchise, but we really would like something new by now.

Mighty No.9's shameful investment process through Kickstarter, the numerous promises and the numerous delays have made it alongside Keiji Inafune's reputation a shameful example of how to dissapoint the backers and the potential demographic, including myself.

Graphically, it looks like a mess, and despite having a familiar formula, I really am skeptic if Mighty No. 9 with the carnival of merchandise surrounding it will be satisfying.

Capcom could go 3 ways with the future of Mega Man. The first one would be to continue playing it safe, keeping a low profile and releasing re-releases or simply braindead products like Mega Man Xover.

The second one would be to clear up the cliffhangers which have have been left behind by Mega Man X8, Mega Man ZX Advent, Mega Man Legends 2 and arguably the gap between Classic and X series. To simply tackle one at a time would satisfy the old-school community immediately.

But since we are talking about investments and making a profit, perhaps the third choice would be to reboot or create an original title that would stand on it's own from the other series and bring back the hype, sales and demand surrounding Mega Man.

Whatever it will be, I will be monitoring Capcom's announcements closely.

Star Wars

 

Star Wars is huge and part of several human generations, and right now, could possibly be bigger than ever as the so called Sequel Trilogy has finally started in last year's december. It is without a doubt one of if not the biggest communities of fandom out there.

My preference goes to Lord of the Rings's universe, but seeing as that story and The Hobbit are both fully adapted by now, our focus is entirely onto Star Wars's even larger universe, and the announced movies alongside spin-offs will keep even the main movie audience interested.

My first movie was Episode IV: A New Hope as a kid, and it kind of was the only one I saw until seeing V and VI much later in my teenage years, forgetting about those two then, and reinvigorating interest in all three after seeing the Prequel Trilogy which is infamous for it's mixed reactions.

Of course, massive amounts of merchandise including video games, comic books, action figures and more mediums combine all into the popularity it gets, and recognizable themes such as the Jedi and the Sith, robots, aliens, space opera and the Death Star keep up the familiarity.

George Lucas was also inspired by numerous older movies including Westerns and Japanese art houses from the 50's before directing Star Wars in 1977, and clever videos like on YouTube portray exact similarities towards them.

Star Wars is so huge that I honestly can only talk individually about the Episodes now, as I am not even familiar with the so called Expanded Universe term that fans often like to point out when it comes to canon.

Perhaps I will speak more about this franchise sooner or later, but for now, I am glad that I have been able to experience these space opera stories alongside the rest of the fan community.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

 

The fifth entry into a solid sub RPG series in general, I never expected it to have so many titles in the long run. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam is a good continuation that fixes some tedious parts from Dream Team, adds Paper Mario into the mix as guest, and has creative battles.

By now, Paper Mario as a franchise is getting more stretched out so to speak, because starting from Super Paper Mario, the quality has gone downwards ever since, and I better not get reminded of Sticker Star's shortcomings.

Let's hope that his status in here will retaliate interest and polished design in his next potential entry. As for Mario & Luigi in this 3DS adventure however, consider the story to be very basic, but even then, where has the creativity gone too after developing Superstar Saga's unique world as a good example?

Paper Jam, like Sticker Star, suffers heavily for not creating unique NPC's or for the most part even enemies. It's sad to see this happen because it's welcoming to add in original characters for RPG's, unlike Mario platformers where I wouldn't care as much as seeing the umpteenth goomba or koopa troopa.

The paper world gets absorbed into AlphaDream's world, and with it, paper variants of Mario characters come along with it, without Luigi for some vague reason. Bowser will now be twice as dangerous and sends his Koopalings alongside Bowser Jr. to keep you busy.

Replacing giant battles from Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team are the papercraft battles where you will fight in 3D environments against other papercrafts. More paper mechanics are to be found on the field where Paper Mario can form into a plane or squeeze through holes.

Or, Trio Attacks involve all three "brothers" resulting into generally the most destructive attacks. The highlight of this game however are the boss battles, which despite featuring very familiar foes, has creative enemy attacks that keep you quite challenged as you get further.

Musically it's not as good as the previous entries, but it's not bad either. The tedious parts which are fixed include being able to skip cutscenes and being able to fast forwards text, as well as lessening onto tutorials and rather making them more of a background idea to delve into by reading more upon them in the menu.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam  plays it safe and improves in some areas, and yet it's also not inventive with ideas. However, crossing over both Mario RPG worlds is an exception and I think that AlphaDream pulled a fine job with blending them.

Just, for crying out loud, lessen on those Paper Toad Quests next time!

Rating: 8.1

Xenoblade Chronicles X

 

I will admit it. A "burn out" effect of extending gameplay on Wii U's largest and arguably only RPG title has left me dissatisfied towards a sequel of which I was thrilled to play the original and call it my favorite on the predecessor console. After playing 70 hours, I will lay down my review and my verdict.

Xenoblade Chronicles X has a number of cons that are unavoidable for me to ignore. Party members are recruitable if you navigate to them into NLA somewhere, and not by a simple menu of switching them around.

Members are also restricted for various affinity and story missions for no particular reasons,annoying me towards the pre-requirements. They also do not scale with experience if you do not touch idle ones.

Hip-Hop music does not go well with this game's setting, and I was thrown into an affinity mission called the Repair Job which did not explain to me how Frontier Nav works, a tool allowing you to mine resources and revenue and acquire stats upgrades, which I learned about a few hours later.

The biggest con might be how it's story and pacing are so bleak considering the beautiful world Mira is with it's 5 huge continents of green, jungle, desert, ice and fire settings. Indigens are everywhere and will disturb your playthrough numerous times because they can either see or hear you, which only got more obnoxious.

The Art system rightfully returns, and this time, you will be able to ride on mecha's called Skells, letting you eventually fly over the continents and in the mean time grant additional battle effects, and it's likely that you will need them in order to beat the game.

Although combat is fun and the various classes for your main character means that building the avatar up can be done in many ways, the enemy design isn't that exciting, and worse, clones exist on the continents allowing for less variety.

XCX is a highly graphical experience as you are able to basically explore everything that is observable thanks to the Skells, and it's so massive that the interface's text is damn tiny, the tutorials in game don't explain crucial details towards features and it just might be the biggest open world game at the moment.

Uncountable things are there to do, and online features include going on support missions, reading messages, recruiting people and acquiring mutual goals in order to get rewards. It's so overwhelming that I think that in the long term, I did not really feel invited towards Mira.

The pro's are basically the gameplay and the landscapes, but the many annoyances and me being stuck at Chapter 10 at the type of writing while technically I am overleveled for it's boss means that I don't know when I will return to Xenoblade Chronicles X, but it's climax and ending better be worth it in an otherwise miserable bland story.

EDIT: After finally beating the game 20 hours later, I can say that I am satisfied, but the first part is leaps and bounds still better to me, for focusing more on a storyline and it's characters plus having a better soundtrack.

Rating: 8.3