Metroid Social Thread: Splatoon

[BlackZero]

In my personal opinion, Super Metroid was the best of all. I'd recommend playing that one above all. The VC version has the Crystal Flash removed, so I'd go for the SNES or an emulator version of the original if you want to get the full Super Metroid experience. That game was made for sequence breaking. You can skip levels, fight bosses out of order, and do all manner of impressive speedrun challenges using nothing more than pure gaming skill. They gave you the tools to truly play the game however you want, and makes a point to show you that there are "hidden" abilities you can use to get through the game in creative ways.

You can kinda do that with the later Metroid games, but it truly feels like hacking at times. In Super Metroid, you don't feel like your cheating; you feel like you're demonstrating genuine mastery of the game.

 

[PrinceOfKoopas]

Speaking of Metroid...
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/bge20_vote

Wanna help out Super Metroid? It WAS winning before!
Where do you even go to find a collection of Metroid fans?

 

[BlackZero]

You might try Metroid Database, Shinesparkers, and M2K2; though MDB's forums were pretty dead last time I was on.

 

[JFL]

I think Dolphoshi is saying that disliking a game simply because it changed the way a character looks is not a good reason to dislike a game. That's true enough. I thought Chris Redfield's design in RE5 was ridiculous. Seriously, his muscles had muscles. Despite that, the game was fun to play and I genuinely enjoyed it. I'd be overlooking a lot of good points and fun features if I panned the game based on the poor design choices of one character.

I personally didn't care for Other M, but different people have different tastes. Dolphoshi and I had two different expectations for the game and there's nothing wrong with that. Samus' design didn't bother me as much as the gameplay decisions and continuity errors. Seriously, they were breeding Metroids to be immune to cold? Someone on the dev team didn't play Metroid II. If they did, the'd know the Ice beam doesn't do **** to Metroids at the Alpha stage and beyond.. To be fair, Fusion kinda retconned this though. I blame this on the Omega Metroid being raised in captivity where the scientists may have genetically engineered it to be weak to cold so they'd have some means of stopping them if they had to.

I personally don't care about Samus being "sexualized" or whatever. I think if Samus characterization and the gameplay was more traditionally Metroid no one would have complained about her arse being displayed a few times. Actually you can see people missing the point a lot in internet discussions about Other M, especially in the endless Fedoras vs Feminists debates that tend to happen when this game is concerned. One of the Fedoras favorite arguments, something they seem to be very proud of is "hurr hurr if Samus was a man and Adam a woman you wouldn't have a problem with it!!!".

Actually yes I'd have a problem with it because even if you don't want to interpret the game as sexist (I'm not even a feminist but even I can admit it can easily be seen as sexist) it's still completely at odds with what a lot of people enjoy in Metroid. The isolation, the exploration, the feeling of freedom and discovery, that sense of relief and pride when you're rewarded of your efforts by a new power up that gives you access to new areas of the map... All these things were completely destroyed because you're now forced to submit to some inept jackwagon who decides where you should go, what you should do and when you should use your arsenal. It's not just Samus who acts submissive and restrained by Adam. It's you the player who's basically forced to follow the random whims of a ****ty NPC.


On top of that, everything else also contributes to breaking the immersion: Samus waxes lyrical about how great Adam is while you think he's a douchebag with all the charisma of a microwave oven, there's tons of cinematics taking you out of the action, even the gameplay is automated like the finishing moves where you just sit and watch Samus do a supposedly cool pose you have no control over. You feel like a spectator just like Samus feels like a passenger in a series where you used to BE Samus, the heroine and driving force of the game.

That's the biggest issue and that's something a lot of people misunderstand.

 

[Dolphoshi]

I personally don't care about Samus being "sexualized" or whatever. I think if Samus characterization and the gameplay was more traditionally Metroid no one would have complained about her arse being displayed a few times. Actually you can see people missing the point a lot in internet discussions about Other M, especially in the endless Fedoras vs Feminists debates that tend to happen when this game is concerned. One of the Fedoras favorite arguments, something they seem to be very proud of is "hurr hurr if Samus was a man and Adam a woman you wouldn't have a problem with it!!!".

Actually yes I'd have a problem with it because even if you don't want to interpret the game as sexist (I'm not even a feminist but even I can admit it can easily be seen as sexist) it's still completely at odds with what a lot of people enjoy in Metroid. The isolation, the exploration, the feeling of freedom and discovery, that sense of relief and pride when you're rewarded of your efforts by a new power up that gives you access to new areas of the map... All these things were completely destroyed because you're now forced to submit to some inept jackwagon who decides where you should go, what you should do and when you should use your arsenal. It's not just Samus who acts submissive and restrained by Adam. It's you the player who's basically forced to follow the random whims of a ****ty NPC.


On top of that, everything else also contributes to breaking the immersion: Samus waxes lyrical about how great Adam is while you think he's a douchebag with all the charisma of a microwave oven, there's tons of cinematics taking you out of the action, even the gameplay is automated like the finishing moves where you just sit and watch Samus do a supposedly cool pose you have no control over. You feel like a spectator just like Samus feels like a passenger in a series where you used to BE Samus, the heroine and driving force of the game.

That's the biggest issue and that's something a lot of people misunderstand.

the ****ly NPC was also in metroid fusion and sometimes he would cut off areas of the map from you so I don't think thats what the problem was maybe the feeling of isolation wasn't as strong i guess people didn't like

 

[JFL]

the ****ly NPC was also in metroid fusion and sometimes he would cut off areas of the map from you so I don't think thats what the problem was maybe the feeling of isolation wasn't as strong i guess people didn't like

Fusion still left you far more freedom in the way you reached your goals and the traditional powerup system was still here so no that's not a good comparison.

 

[Ink Gunner Emily]

the ****ly NPC was also in metroid fusion and sometimes he would cut off areas of the map from you so I don't think thats what the problem was maybe the feeling of isolation wasn't as strong i guess people didn't like

Fusion still left you far more freedom in the way you reached your goals and the traditional powerup system was still here so no that's not a good comparison.

I have to say JFL has this one. Adam was not bastardized in Fusion. Samus looked up to him as a CO from what she said of him during her monologues in Fusion. There was nothing saying that she despised him in the whole. She even described that Adam to be relentless in criticism but softened the blow in how he said it. The Adam in Other M was a pompous ***. They were trying too hard to use the Metroid Manga along with what was mentioned in Fusion.

I'll fully admit that Fusion's linearness does suck a bit, but you are allowed some exploration which balances itself out. You get full non-linear exploration available to you after killing Ridley X. I think it was set up that way so you'd be ready for the penultimate and final bosses of the game. SA-X was the tougher one though as the penultimate boss compared to the final boss, which was the Omega Metroid. You do get one chance to sequence break in Fusion and that's by passing up the Diffusion Missiles with the shine spark trick, which prompts a different cutscene from the normal one when you enter the Sector 4 navigation room. The game is flushed out well and SA-X is scary as all flip when it makes it's appearances. It's mostly due to the fear of not being able to hurt it but it being able to hurt you. Not to mention SA-X's appearance theme is chilling and creepy, which pushes the helplessness home.

 

[BlackZero]

I'll fully admit that Fusion's linearness does suck a bit, but you are allowed some exploration which balances itself out

I got tired of the hint system. The whole point of classic Metroids was exploration. Even Metroid Prime was forgiving with its hint system: if you moved around quickly enough, it left you alone. I'm not a Golden Retriever: I don't want to chase a tennis ball, return to my master and have to chase another tennis ball. Let Samus (the player) figure out how to proceed. If she can find her way around SR388 without a map, she can get around a space station. Don't point out exactly where I need to go, leave subtle clues of what to do next and trust the player to have some basic logic and reasoning skills.

 

[Ink Gunner Emily]

I got tired of the hint system. The whole point of classic Metroids was exploration. Even Metroid Prime was forgiving with its hint system: if you moved around quickly enough, it left you alone. I'm not a Golden Retriever: I don't want to chase a tennis ball, return to my master and have to chase another tennis ball. Let Samus (the player) figure out how to proceed. If she can find her way around SR388 without a map, she can get around a space station. Don't point out exactly where I need to go, leave subtle clues of what to do next and trust the player to have some basic logic and reasoning skills.

Okay, I'll grant you that. Fusion did seem to be pandering to a crowd not too familiar with the Metroid series with it's hints. But enough of the map's details about what was in it was left out that when you did start exploring, it was still a surprise to some extent. The boss's location was not necessary especially since they carried over Super Metroid's eye doors for indication that "This is the boss's room". Though the location of some of the more important rooms do help at times. The navigation room forcing linearity does suck, but what exploration could be had was still fun. Though I still stand by the fact that Metroid Fusion is the most fun after beating Ridley X as you have enough of your power ups to explore on your own without having to use the elevators at all.

On an alternate note. I'll agree that the hint system was forgiving in Metroid Prime, but it was obnoxious on a basic gamer level. You'd literally have to be forced to move fast to not have the damn thing repeat itself. Fortunately the ability to shut it off is there, but I'd only recommend that if you know the game inside out. Prime 2 had a even more forgiving hint system that didn't shove it down your throat every hour where you needed to go. Then again Prime 2 was more confusing and tedious as a game.