Thursday, September 16, 2010

Super Metroid Sequel?



About the game: This is a very interesting Metroid game. For the first time ever Samus Aran talks. In fact she is the narrator of the story and is talking all throughout. The game also uses cut scenes quite a bit to advance the story and give you some cool cinematics. The game takes place directly after the events of Super Metroid and has you going aboard a giant ship to answer a distress call.

Controls: This is where the game is very different than the Prime series, instead of using both the wii remote and nunchuk. The game only uses the wii remote. You hold it horizontally about 90% of the time and use the dpad and buttons to do shoot or jump. In this mode the camera is located behind your char, and it is a objective perspective. So you can see your whole character. The other 10% of the time if you point the wii remote at the screen you go into a first person view where you can look around and shoot your missles. It is very weird at first but once you get the hang of it, it becomes pretty fluid switching between the two modes.

Graphics: The graphics are not gonna blow you away, but I thought the cinematic's were very good. Especially the opening with Mother Brain.

Sound: I felt the sound was good and set the mood, but it did not seem as good as the classic Metroid music.

Gameplay: The crux of the game has you running around the giant space station figuring out what is going on, which is like most Metroid games. The game differs in that you are helping a team of guys who are also investigating the space station. This adds to the backstory because Samus used to be a part of this team and it adds quite a bit of tension at times between Samus and her Commander (Adam).

The way you got new weapons makes about as much sense as any normal game. You usually have to search the world and beat some boss to get an upgrade. This time around the commanding officer must give you permission to use a weapon to unlock it. Like when you have to save some team member from dying you use your grappling beam to get up there quickly.

Something else that is different than previous Metroid games is there are no health or missile pickups. The way you replenish your health or missiles is by holding the wii remote vertically and holding down A. While this might sound weird, it is quite helpful as certain bosses are very hard to beat. One of the biggest changes other than the ones previously mentioned is the addition of dodge. You can press to the right or left when an enemy is going to hit you and you will dodge in that direction. This is very helpful and quite a bit different than previous games.

There are tons of waypoints (save stations) in the game. When you get to your next one, you are told exactly where to go, unlike in other Metroid games where you have to discover things for yourself. I do not think this really took away much from the game because you really could not go to other places, the game moves you to your next waypoint because of locked doors and what not.

The story I thought was very intriguing and quite a bit different than previous Metroid games, but it still felt like a Metroid game, which was good.

If your a Metroid fan, I highly recommend the game.

Verdict: Playworthy!!!



Spoiler:   
For a big hint as to how the game plays out check out the first letter of each word in the title of the game.