Sweeeet, but when did Samus get so sappy?
For those of us who wanted a return to the way Metroid used to be, back in the golden days of Super Metroid, I think we've almost got it. I find it to be a good blend of styles, somewhere between a side scroller and the first-person style adopted for the Metroid Prime series. I was worried about how this would play, after seeing some pre-release videos and comments about the game, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the design's smoothness. As you encounter enemies and fire your arm cannon, Samus aims automatically (which puts me in mind of Tomb Raider only better). You can also switch to a first person aiming mode to lock on and fire missiles by pointing the wii remote at the screen. At first, the transition between the two was a little awkward, but it doesn't take much time to get used to switching back and forth as you need to.
An interesting difference from the prior installments in the series is that enemies DON'T DROP POWERUPS. This takes a lot of getting used to (at least for me it did), because as you're standing there with 23 hp left and your near-death alarm is going off, you find yourself frantically blasting things wondering "why isn't that Geemer giving me a #@&% energy unit?" Instead, you have something called "concentration," where you stand still for a moment and you can recharge your missiles and energy (but only if it's in the red zone).
So far the main drawback for me is that the entire story seems to be playing out in the same research facility, very much like Metroid: Fusion, with the different sectors having different environmental attributes. That said, I love the way the game looks, I just feel a little claustrophobic about the whole thing, and perhaps there's a certain sense of mystery and exploration that comes from entering a different area of the planet rather than just another room in the same building.
There's a surprising amount of reflecting that goes on in this game, too. Samus has a voice, and she spends a lot of time between areas talking about her past, and explaining how she feels about the things she's seen. The jury is still out for me on whether this is a good thing or not...honestly, I feel like the dialog is a little cheesy sometimes, and I kind of like being able to fill in the blanks myself as to what she might be thinking while she's riding the elevator down to sector 3. It doesn't detract from how much I enjoy the game, but it does slow the action down a bit at times when I would like to get on with it.
Overall I think this is a great addition to the Metroid series, and I'm hoping that future releases will follow a similar model, because there's just nothing cooler than being able to really see Samus in action again.
