Metroid: Samus Returns

Metroid: Samus Returns is another mediocre official Metroid release that shows that Nintendo just doesn’t know what to do with the franchise. Fans of Metroid should temper expectations, newcomers should maybe look somewhere else.

Note: there will be some minor spoilers in this review.

It’s impossible for me not to compare Samus Returns to last year’s fan-made Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R). Both games reimagine a Game Boy only sequel to a popular NES game, but take drastically different approaches. AM2R was my favorite game of 2016. It captured the spirit of the genre and franchise so well, while also modernizing it in some smart ways. It was the best Metroid related thing I’ve played since Super Metroid. It’s unfortunate to report that Nintendo official remake doesn’t come close to achieving that.

Samus Returns felt like a lot of the other handheld Metroid games. Just how Fusion and Zero Mission suffered from the limitations from the GBA’s fewer buttons, Samus Returns faces similar issues. I played it on an original 3DS XL, and often ended sessions because my hands (particularly my left hand) hurt. The game requires you to hold the shoulder buttons, sometimes both at once, to aim and it felt so awkward. Using the circle pad to to both move and aim doesn’t quite allow precision with either. Holding L to lock your position then aiming with the circle pad is never as precise as you want it to be. Even trying to shoot directly forward while moving is a chore. Firing missiles while holding R often ends up with them going slightly off course. This makes boss fights or some of the tighter exploration way more frustrating than enjoyable.
Controls can’t be changed either. There is no option to make it so that L and R are toggles instead of holds. In an ideal world, you would be able to move with the D-pad, aim with the circle pad, and use L to go through the new Aeion abilities. Well, in a real ideal world this game would be on a platform with a modern gampad, but regardless the developers did not utilize what they had well enough.
Control customization is something that has been widely unavailable in the first party 3DS games that I’ve played and it’s never not a knock against them. Nintendo really needs to step of their game and allow players to rebind their controls. It’s clearly not a priority for them and they need to change that. Especially considering that it was a feature in many first party SNES games.

Controls asides, Samus Returns is lackluster in other ways. Where in other Metroid games each area had its own unique appearance, that’s not really the case for this game. While there are some really beautiful unique backgrounds and the occasional one-off set piece, all the rooms are built from the same few tile sets. Here’s the purple caves, here’s the ancient tech, etc. Music is bound to the tile sets too. Hot rooms always have a rearranged Lower Nofair theme, etc. This creates a feeling of sameyness. It’s easy to forget what area you’re in when exploring for missed upgrades.
Lack of enemy variety compounds this. You face maybe around five to six different enemy types throughout the game. There are upgraded versions that are colored slightly different, but the tactics don’t generally change much. Maybe you use the Screw Attack against this version, or Powerbombs against this one, but generally once you’ve seen an enemy you know how you’ll be dealing with it for the rest of the game.

I have mixed feelings about the combat. They tried something new by giving you the ability to “parry” certain incoming attacks. It works well enough and it utilized well in boss fights, but for the majority of encounters against regular enemies it’s the most common way to deal with them. Your gun is pathetic. Even after upgrades. Most enemies take tens of shots to bring down. It’s best to let them do their one attack then counter it. Countering leaves enemies dazed and usually then only takes a single shot to kill. This makes shooting feel flimsy and underpowered. I ended up trying to just avoid enemies if I could, or impatiently waiting for them to do something I could counter. It really ended bringing the game to a crawl. Move a screen forward, counter the enemy, then repeat.
A lot of the combat is in boss battles. Just like any of the other versions of Metroid 2, this game features many encounters with metroids in various points in the metroid life cycle. These encounters are by far the best part of this game. I particularly liked the fights against the Zeta and Omega metroids. If there is anything that this game has above AM2R it's these fights. However, that’s not saying too much because the metroid fights were the weakest part of AM2R. Here, they’re varied and more interesting. Though they’re still fairly repetitive and I wish there was even more variation in the arena designs. Especially for the later encounters.
I wish I could be as positive about the non-metroid related boss fights, because those are by far the worst part of the game. There’s not many. Only about three or four. One in particular was so awful that I had considered putting down the game for good. That boss was this large robot thing that you face late in the game. The fight has the typical hallmarks of poor boss design. Short windows when it can be damaged, long periods (2+ minutes!) where you can do nothing but dodge, and one-off gimmick mechanics that aren’t very clear. But there was one thing that was especially egregious.
In its second phase it has an inhale attack that is real easy to dodge. You can see it sucking up rocks from the ground and if you try dropping bombs in its path they do nothing. Then in the third phase, it has that same attack, but this time to further the fight you HAVE to drop bombs that then get sucked up and damage it. That’s some extremely questionable design!
None of the bosses in this game are super challenging. They’re all very pattern based and focus completely on having the player recognize those patterns. The cost for any mistake, however, is tons of damage. It’s not unusual for an attack to drop more than two full tanks of health off you. Fortunately the game checkpoints before every fight. So when you die, you can, after a rather long loading sequence, start the fight over without losing progress.

The abilities in this game, outside of the new Aeion abilities, are pretty standard for a Metroid game. The Aeion ones are fine, but not really used very well. Of the four, I found myself only really using two of them frequently. The other two were completely situational. One thing of note is that almost every ability you get also acts as a key to a particular type of door. “You need the charge beam to open this door,” etc. It’s odd. It some ways, it makes sense and prevents sequence breaking (though why would you?). On the other hand, coupled with how underpowered the shooting already is, it makes your weapons feel like just keys. They do find some clever ways to use the grapple beam that as a fan of the series I certainly appreciate though.
Then there’s the upgrades. Missile tank upgrades are a common thing in Metroid games. Typically they end up giving you around 255 missiles if you collect all of them. This game is no different. However, in Super Metroid you would pick up 5 at a time. Meaning there are 51 missile upgrades in that game. In this game, you pick up 3. Meaning there are 85 missile tanks to collect! You pick up so many missile upgrade over the course of this game. Almost all the rewards for exploration are more missile upgrades. You never need more than maybe 100 missiles, and are more likely going to rely on super missiles once you get those as you’re more likely going to counter them instead. Missiles aren’t an important thing in this game at all, but man, will you be collecting them.

I can’t say that Samus Returns is awful. It’s not. It’s playable, but unremarkable. Coming off the heels of AM2R really paints this mediocre game in a much worse light. Nintendo needs to with Metroid what Sega did with Sonic Mania. Give it over to the fans who know what they want rather than making another dull addition. I’m starting to feel like Super Metroid was lightning in a bottle and they’ve been failing to recapture that ever since. At least with the 2D Metroid games. I have not played the Prime games and have no opinion on them. AM2R is a much superior product and I’m excited to see what comes from that dev in the future.

I’m not sure who to recommend this game for. Fans of the series will likely be disappointed. Fans of the genre will find a playable, but uninspired game. Newcomers to both should probably start elsewhere. The price is too high and the game is not worth it. I have not done hard mode nor used any of the Amiibo stuff, so I cannot comment on that. I know Metroid fans have been clamouring for a new 2D Metroid, but they should turn to other developers for the higher quality experience they’re looking for, as they won’t find it in this game.

As always you can find my as-I-played thoughts on the game in my List of Games Played 2017.