Metroid: Samus Returns Review

Seriously, did anyone think we would be getting a new Metroid any time soon?

Click here to donate to my Patreon! If you read my reviews and want to see more and want to be a Patron for a site I love, please donate and become a supporter!

7 years.

It's been 7 years since the last official Metroid game. Not a spin off, or a fan made game, but a legitimate Metroid game for current Nintendo systems. You know, people like to say that Nintendo constantly rehashes its old franchises, and in most cases they're right, but everyone seems to forget that Samus used to be a franchise that was milked to near death. Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, the Metroid Prime trilogy, which includes Metroid Prime Hunters and Metroid Prime Pinball for DS. That's 7 Metroid games in the span of 5 years. And now, we have an entire new generation of gamers where Metroid: Samus Returns will be their first exposure to the franchise outside of Smash Bros.

Wow I feel old as hell.

Anyway, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the series in the world. It's a great series, don't get me wrong, but I got into it in the past couple of years, so I can see how well the games are for their time, but I prefer other examples of "Metroidvania" titles that the franchise unwittingly spawned. Still, when the grandmother of the genre comes to town, you better believe it was something I was going to talk about.

What shocked me even more was that we had about three months from the initial announcement to its release. No massive reveal, no huge marketing campaign, but a small scale, word of mouth advertising campaign. So I didn't know what to expect going in, but once I finished the game, I can safely say that it is the exact definition of what a Metroid game is; no frills, no bells, just polish and basic, tried and true gameplay mechanics.

That isn't to say that the gameplay is bad. By basic, I mean that Metroid: Samus Returns doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. You land on an alien planet, go kill some aliens. So that's exactly what you do. Everything that you have in your arsenal to kill aliens is the exact same as previous games, minus some exceptions. You have special abilities called Aieon powers, that can delete a gauge that'll give you a shield, extra attack power, and other really helpful abilities. The rest of your arsenal is the same as in previous games. You can get new suits to resist fire, water, certain objects, and gain powers that can let you jump forever, climb up walls, turn into a ball, and shoot missiles, bigger missiles, and drop bombs or bigger bombs. That's really about it in terms of your arsenal.

You'll be exploring a planet called SR388, which is a surprisingly massive planet with several areas that feel absolutely huge. Each area can take at least an hour to get through, but you can only progress once you kill a certain number of Metroids, which serve as the minibosses of the game. Some areas will have a bunch of them, while others will have only one, but these guys can put up a fight and kill you if you don't know what you're doing.

But bosses are really the only hard part of the game if I'm being perfectly honest. The areas are massive to explore, but there's really nothing to do in them besides get from one Metroid to the next. Sure, you can explore and gain some additional power ups, and you do feel like a badass when you get more and more powerups like extra missiles or bombs, but it comes with the biggest problem a game like this could face; backtracking.

I don't have an inherent problem with backtracking in theory, Back tracking is at its best when you get a new power and can explore a completely new area, see some new sights, and do it all for something that feels substantial. You didn't have to explore this area, but now you got a super cool new power or some more abilities. Look at a game like Mega Man X; you could just play through the game in one run, but if you go back and explore areas with new abilities, you can get extra health, special armor, and energy tanks to make the end game much easier.

Metroid: Samus Returns does this, but it gives your new powers too far apart and gives you too many reasons to backtrack. Each area will give you a new power or two to backtrack with, so I was more inclined to wait until the near end of the game for every single ability, then go back to previous areas and grab all of the extra powers. In the way that the game is designed now, you should beat an area, go back to the previous area, get all of the power ups with your new abilities, then rinse and repeat with every new powerup and completed area. The backtracking became a chore when it was too plentiful and offered little reward. Oh cool, I can carry three more missiles, but it doesn't feel like a massive improvement over my current arsenal. What's the difference between carrying 128 missiles and 131?

Backtracking aside, which is already prevalent in Metroid games, we do get some fantastic areas to explore. Oh sure, most of the areas are caves, but they're all beautifully designed with great lights, ambient music, foliage, darkness, machinery, and everything else to make the levels stand out. It actually felt like I was going deeper and deeper into the core of SR388, and not just exploring a new area because I unlocked it.

Samus also controls like a dream. You get the ability to shoot into 360 degrees, which makes combat feel even more dynamic, but it requires you to stop and aim, which was fine by me. I know that a lot of people are harping on how the game is very stop and go because of the free style shooting and the melee counter that can only be activated while standing still, but neither ability bothered me all that much. I ran, I shot, I killed creatures, and I didn't really care about the fact that I couldn't walk while shooting enemies around me. I could still run and gun if I wanted to, so the new abilities didn't really bother me.

What did bother me were some of the button layouts for Samus's moves. Usually I could control most of the moves fine, like turning into a ball, shooting enemies, or changing my blaster, but all of the other abilities seemed really complex on the 3DS. In order to change my missiles I had to hold the R button, tap on the missile I wanted, then I could shoot the missiles, but only if I held down the R button. I could drop an ultra bomb is I wanted, but I would have to turn into a ball by pressing down twice, hold the R button for me to change my bomb, select the bomb, then activate the bomb, but make sure I'm in the right position because the R button is also the button that allows me to climb a wall. I don't think the actual button layout translated well into the handheld format. Metroid: Zero Mission was a 2D Metroid game on a handheld that did all of this well and didn't need a dozen buttons to accomplish a basic task.

But Samus Returns is a pretty quick game to go through. My first playthrough took nearly 10 hours, but the game is meant to be speed run. I didn't even get 100% of the items here, so if I did I would surely get an extra hour or two to it. Samus Returns is the kind of game I can imagine going back to to see how fast I could beat it, and it's a damned fun time at that.

But in my honest opinion, while I did have a really fun time playing Metroid: Samus Returns, I can't give it a truly great opinion on it. It has a couple of fundamental flaws that didn't ruin my time with the game, but definitely made it a less than ideal game. I loved the bosses, but getting to them was boring. I had a great time exploring the caves of SR388, but not exploring them again for the fifth time to get new items. I'm glad that I bought and played Samus Returns, since the polish of the game can't be denied. I just can't wait for the next installment and when the developers can really let loose with what they want to do.