After a hiatus that lasted eight years, Samus Aran, and the Metroid franchise, had been given new life thanks to Retro Studios: An unproven developer who insisted that the way to make Metroid 3D was to turn it into an FPS. The road to redemption was full of controversy.
WHEN IS THE NEXT EPISODE OUT?
Here's the schedule for this season:
9/16: Metroid Prime
9/23: Prime 2: Echoes
9/30: Prime 3: Corruption
10/7: Donkey Kong Country Returns
10/14: DKC Tropical Freeze
HOW DID YOU PLAY WITH KEYBOARD & MOUSE?
I started with this config, then edited it to suit my preferences: www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comm...
However, the Dolphin emulator recently added the ability to "passthrough" a Bluetooth device, and massively improved its ability to interface with a real Wii Remote. Using a real controller now feels just like it does on an actual console. So if that's an option for you, I'd recommend it.
WILL YOU COVER SAMUS RETURNS AND PRIME 4?
Yeah, at some point. At the moment I don't have that good of a way to capture 3DS footage, though.
WHAT ABOUT OTHER M?
That's this season's Patreon milestone bonus! Same as with the 2D series where the bonus was AM2R, if we hit that milestone, I'll release the episode to everyone on KZhead.
Back TGC on Patreon: / geekcritique
Twitch: / geekcritique
Facebook: / geekcritique
Twitter: / tgcritique
Coming from someone who LOVES this game, I'll admit I was almost ready to click away when you came to the big "BUT..." at the beginning of the video (3:43). But while this is by far the most critical review of Prime I've seen, it was also one of the most thoughtful and, ultimately, fair. You did a great job of explaining what you didn't like and WHY, especially in the context of comparing it to OTHER Metroid titles. But you also gave the game a lot of praise. I think your statement, "It just wasn't a Metroid game for ME" is very wise. A game can be a good Metroid game even if you liked other games in the series more. You highlighted how different Metroid games have themes in common but different tones in their gameplay, and how Prime's tone - and a few design decisions, including the map/upgrade layout and backtracking - just wasn't for you. I personally loved the scan visor and the slower, more spread out pace of the game. Those pieces only added to my sense of immersion, because I felt like a sort of badass archaeologist more than a "bounty hunter" per se, which I actually loved. I enjoyed that sense of cataloging and mentally putting together a picture of a crumbling, lost planet - while still being the one to root out and destroy the threats to galactic civilization lurking within. But that's my opinion and it's cool that you don't necessarily share it! What's important is that we can all be fans of Metroid together. Really well done critique.
Hope you don't mind, I pinned your comment 'cause I loved it so much. I spend a lot of time and effort in a video like this to make sure I balance my criticism, so that even if someone disagrees with me, they can see where I'm coming from. If you LOVE Prime, I don't expect to change your mind, and I'm not TRYING to change your mind, I'm just trying to give you my perspective without undercutting your's. So for someone who loves the game so much to validate that I achieved that goal... yeah, comments like this make it all worthwhile. Thank you!
Weston Maier Couldn't have put it better myself.
Exactly. When playing Zero Mission I think 'I'm really enjoying this game' whereas Prime can engage my suspension of disbelief, like: fuck I'm gonna get eaten
These video present such good rhetoric. My English teacher would love this stuff.
Me too, after playing Illusion of Time (Illusion of Gaia) I got interested in ancient cultures and sucked in all information I could get lol... Also that is a reason why I liked the old Tomb Raider game more than the modern ones which includes Legend and Underworld. Feeling lonely in unknown territory being attacked by it´s fauna. And deal with a couple of bounty hunters, kay. But not having hundreds of soldiers roaming around... Geek Critique I also can understand and agree on what you critizise. That back and forth backtracking was really stupid at times. In the end it was no dealbreaker for me. Skipping many fights wasn´t a big deal and u also found ways to be quicker than before when passing known areas. I also kinda liked the controls on gamecube. Using the scan vizor was really okay, I enjoyed finding them all including the one or two you could miss when not scanning an enemy - which ended up in not achieving 100% i think.
"If the chozo hid the artifacts, then how are they in the mines?" Because the pirates found some. There's even a lore entry in the impact crater saying the pirates had collected a few.
But how can it hent at it being they
Well....who else would it be? Those random animals?
@@sarakitts660 The story logs make a point that some of the Chozo, started having visions of the future
Yup, Chozo were psychic and shit. Further, the Chozo didn’t give up tech on Talon 4 immediately. It was a more slow transition into living a more aescetic existence. It also left them much more vulnerable to Phazon when it arrived. Still, they foresaw Samus’s arrival, and her journeys, and left a lot of upgrades in areas where they saw she’ll need them.
tuuuubes
"The industry was going through this edgy, adolescent phase..." When did that phase end, again?
It started to let up early in the next gen, and particularly changed around 2008, when the Xbox Live Arcade (among other factors) helped spark an indie boom. That's when "real is brown" aesthetics and "hardcore realism=maturity" started to become less prominent. Which is not to say that a game going for GRITTY REALISM is a _bad_ thing, but it seemed to be all AAA development focused on there for a while.
@@GeekCritique I feel like this hasn't entirely passed, though - while the tropes you mentioned have become less prominent I feel like mainstream AAA titles (outside of Nintendo, of course) are still majorly skewed towards being "adult" - the PS1 and PS2 were littered with games like Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. I don't think we can possibly blame these games' core elements for their sharp drop in relevance, and clearly with all of these remasters people still have very fond feelings for them, so why is Nintendo the only one capitalizing on these types of games anymore? Did indie devs just take over "games for fun?" I don't know, maybe I'm drawing some sort of false parallel between this offhand comment and some of my major complaints about games recently, but I wish I could discover something new just for once rather than having to go back and emulate to scratch that particular itch.
Maybe when people started appreciating Wind Waker for how great it is despite not having photorealistic graphics and dark subject matter.
If you’re talking about people not liking games because they’re not “cool”, don’t pay them any mind, they’re clearly trying to compensate for something. If you like a game that isn’t this hyper-realistic, gritty FPS, it shouldn’t matter.
It probably died with Shadow the Hedgehog.
24:57 Called it! This is a pretty terrific write-up, well done!
AND DARK SAMIS, WOOOOOO
Said no one ever. Shameful!
So Nintendo watched this video and decided 'ye, sounds coo, let's do it'?
👽👌👌
@@coolguy02536 You heard it first folks. Accepting that someone has a different opinion on a game makes you "shameful." Brilliant.
21:25 one thing I noticed is when I went back and read some of the logbook entries, there is a pirate entry that states they FOUND some of the artifacts and were performing tests on them, thats how those artifacts ended up in the mines. But still a valid point of this being a glorified "go explore some more" fetch quest.
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@@wingedangel5845 he makes a compelling point
@@placeholder2586 truu truu
Metroid prime's REAL flaw was that Metroid couldn't crawl
lol
Until 2004
Metroid? You mean samus?
Ikr! Metroid should be allowed to take off her power suit to crawl through tight spaces!
Is this a whoosh, or do you mean Samus?
Odd - Metroid Prime was my first entry in the game and subsequently what led me to buy Fusion, Zero Mission, and Samus Returns.
Same, also Super Metroid. :)
Same
Same for me. Tried Prime first. Loved it. Went on to try the original on virtual console and buy a SNES classic JUST to play Super Metroid
I played Prime first, got confused by the tutorial area (I was like 8), and gave up until I got a copy of Zero Mission a year or two later.
Woahhh Darkness Prevails??? I didn't expect to see you on a Metroid Prime Video! I love your content!
im the opposite when it comes to the scan visor, it made me feel more immersed in the game world. you also have to remember that her suit has a vast databank of the lifeforms both from her ties to the chozo and the galactic federation, and it's very likely that its ai processing is vastly superior to anything we could have.
Same I hear so many people saying it breaks the immersion but for me it adds to the immersion so much
@@poppapalpatine8624 the world would feel so empty and lifeless, even pointless, without it
I just played Echoes with 100% logbook for the second time ever. It had been years since the first time so there are a lot of interesting stuff I had totally forgotten about. Ex:Did you know that part of the broken federation ship was recycled in their underground base? I was totally shocked lol. However, it feels like the lore gets less and less inspired as the game goes on;this was probably one of the consequences of how rushed the game was. So now I'm going for Prime 3 100% scan log, which I have never done before. They are many, many scans that can be permanetely missed in this game, but I hope I'll manage it.
I ABSOLUTELY agree with you! I've always loved learning more about the lore and world(s) of each game I play; I remember jumping for joy as a kid each time I learned what a Mario enemy was actually called (mainly thanks to Super Princess Peach's glossary), so a game like THIS which let me learn about EVERY enemy in the game, was a GODSEND!
For me the scanning was a very sensible thought at considering that maybe not every player is an idiot that needs to be told every single detail and interrupt every freaking second of gameplay. Scan, read away, move on, read back if you want to, it's an alien world where you explore and find out where is everybody and what happened. It's very smart putting you into the hands of a very thoughtful explorer and the enemies a very intricate bounty hunter. Something not even modern games can understand, looking at you new GoW
The Scan Visor is easily my favorite thing about the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I love the lore so much.
Same
Holy crap, you actually acknowledged that people have different tastes! Thank you for doing so after sharing your opinion. :D
Realizing that makes people seem less biased, making an opinion ironically stronger than not showing the other side. I have my tastes and preferences, but I don’t like making everything about me, so I’ll let people live.
"Yeah! Ridley for Smash Brothers!" Sakurai: "Wish granted."
Now give us full sized playable kraid
You know, it says something about the quality of this series that I keep coming back to a video that is largely critical of a game that I love. It's clear we have very different priorities in gaming, and that's certainly interesting. I'm the kind of guy who intentionally pushes into the flooded frigate, just to experience the frustration of making my way back out before getting the Gravity Suit. Meanwhile, sequence breaking isn't something I indulge in very often. That said, you raise valid critiques. I love going back and forth across Tallon IV most of the time, but there are a few moments that try even my patience. So I can only imagine how much they aggravated you.
Every single thing you say about this game being a bad introduction to the series. The backtracking. The artifact quest. And every other negative thing you said about this game. Are exactly parts of the reason that I love this game. It is my favorite game in the series and this was also my entry into the series.
Oh yeah, I didn't mean that it was a bad introduction to the series for everyone, just that it was the worst one _I_ could've possibly had.
I think that was what his final point was. Thinking about why you love Metroid and what you like and don't like about a Metroid game can show you a lot of what you value in a game. That being said, I'm curious as to what you value in a game based on what you love in Metroid Prime
The Geek Critique oh I understand that. I'm just saying for me it was the best intro i could've personally had
Are you willing to say what you value in a game based on why you love Metroid Prime, I'm legitimetaly curious about it. In a game I value : 1. How powerful (in some manner) your character and their abilities feel to use 2. How masterful control of that character leads to more of that feeling of power 3. A feeling of an open world with things to find that boost your sense of power That is why I love Sonic, Kirby, 2D Zelda and Metroid so much as their speed, copy abilities and items respectively make me feel powerful, and the better I am at using them, the more powerful I feel It's also why I don't like standard platformers as much because Mario's jump for instance doesn't make me feel powerful no matter how good I am, it maes me feel skilfull but not powerful.
That's a cool way of looking at it, and in particular, I've never thought of Mario from that perspective. Like, I play and enjoy pretty much every single Mario game out there, but none of them (with the possible exception of 64 because it was 1996 and I'd never seen anything like it) ever hooked me the way Sonic or DKC did.
21:25 Actually... they didn't. The Pirates found some of the Artifacts and brought them there. As the Chozo were by this point spirits, they couldn't really STOP them, but had apparently figured out how to make more messages as evidenced by some of the Chozo Lore scans.
So, Metroid Prime is probably my favorite game of all time, along with Super Metroid. As such, it was very interesting to watch and listen to your critique after all the praise you heaped upon my other favorite game of all time. But I understand it, especially having watched your other retrospectives. You are all about gameplay and skill ceilings and the reward of mastery, and that's awesome. The 2D Metroid games reward those traits really well. Metroid Prime doesn't as much, apart from a few things that are largely removed from the Trilogy version. But what made Prime my favorite game was the immersion. I remember playing it for the first time and never feeling more drawn into a game or its world. Everything from the steam on Samus' visor to the environmental storytelling to the (often hilarious) Space Pirate logs just made the world real for me. It's a feeling that left me in awe, and one I've very, very rarely felt since. In fact, Metroid Prime is what made me a "gamer". Before that, games were just one of my hobbies. One of my favorite hobbies, sure, but not a defining part of me. After Metroid Prime that changed. I realized games could move me, they could change me, they could do things beyond just kill time and be fun. Super Metroid was my first ever game, and Metroid Prime was my gaming awakening. But I understand that it's very different in its core design from the 2D games, and it does have a lot of 2000s gaming baggage like fetch quest padding and inconvenient backtracking meant only to lengthen play time because games needed to be long enough to justify their cost at the time. Those things haven't aged that well compared to the succinctness of the 2D games. I thought you gave a very good critique. You highlighted the parts of the game you liked and thought were "objectively" good and the parts you didn't, identifying the reasons why and explaining them very well. There's no fault in differences in taste, and anyone who likes Metroid is a brother in arms to me. Although if they exclusively like Federation Force I would have to regard them with confusion more than anything.
Playing thru Prime Remastered, I really hope Prime 4 adopts a Souls style respawn system for enemies, cause I hate moving 2 rooms away and everything respawns.
I loved how you parodied your editor at the end of this video with the exaggerations he said in the Fusion review
I was hoping someone would catch that, haha. When he was making suggestions on this script, he highlighted that line and just said, "Hey, now."
Zebitas Martinex are the exaggerations if what he said was wholly true?
VixenGaming That would be the case, except is not I love how he said things like "Is the federation trying to get rid of Samus?" In a tone of indignation, when that was exactly the plot point.
Zebitas Martinex i like how you gloss over all of his legitimate critique because of one indignant comment. Good job, champ!
VixenGaming That's why i said "Things like", talking about ONE point of the critique, so you can make an idea of how absurd his points sound overall. I'm not going to talk every single point to make an example If you take what i did like that, then there is not point in bothering
One minor detail is that the Chozo didn't hide the keys in the phazon mines. There's a pirate log that says that they found some and took them there.
If that's the case then why do the hints at the temple tell you where they are in the phazon mines, instead of where they were stolen from
@@DrewZGmusic One of three possibilities. One, the Lore entries of Metroid Prime frequently indicate that the Chozo were somewhat psychic, predicting the Phazon Comet, Samus's return, and the Space Pirates; so is it really so hard to believe that they didn't already know that the artifacts would be stolen, and just changed the hints to match the locations of those artifacts by the time Samus shows up. The second possibility is that the Statues and Artifacts are linked, and the Artifacts are actively broadcasting their locations to their corresponding statue. The third reason is... video game. Seriously, would you rather have a slightly unbelievable hint system or no hints at all? I know what most people would choose.
Gumfireparalax Most people aren't EPIC GAMERS like me
@@DrewZGmusic I believe it’s explained somewhere that the chozo ghosts not infected by Phazon found out about this and changed the hints.
I love the slow pacing of this game: carefully wandering through a forgotten world, acquiring knowledge about the surroundings, solving puzzles with all the time I need... It's a really contemplative game. I also love the beautiful 2D Metroids, but ultimately the Prime series resonates more with my personality. If I could be a game, I would totally be Metroid Prime!
I love how you explain your point of view, which vastly differs from my own, it really makes me see where you are coming from. Great work. I can agree to disagree with you on this one and that’s fine.
That makes me so happy. :D I always try to make sure that I'm articulating my opinions without insulting other people's.
@@GeekCritique People often get offended just by another opinion, I think it's somewhat of a confirmation bias, but I think everyone values different things in a game, or a movie, or anything, so I really don't think that something like an opinion should be shut down as invalid or praised as SUPER EVALUATED. I just think that everyone is eligible to state their own point of view, and getting offended by AN OPINION is something some people just need to get over. Keep up your good work and I'm already looking forward to your Metroid Prime 4 critique if that ever comes into being. :)
I have never played this game as first person games are not for me . Back when I played 007 on the 64 I was never anny good at it and 1st person games have alauded me sence. That is not to say I think this is a bad game. I haven't even played it so what rite do I have to say it is bad. It's just not my kind of game so I'll just leave it alone and go play what I prefer
28:00 I'm going to stop you right there. It's pretty objective across the fanbase that the worst possible introduction you could have had to Metroid was Other M.
Andrew Covarrubias I respectfully disagree about Other M being a better introduction to the series. For one, it is nothing like the rest of the series, as it's as linear as Final Fantasy XIII. The story is nonsense whether you are new to Metroid, and even more so if you are familiar with it already, and the controls are also very unintuitive. But these are just details, point is that Other M isn't about immersion and exploration at all, so it's not a good representation of the series. And it's just a mediocre game on its own, too.
Lancun Very true. Your LP of it showed that well enough.
The problem with Other M is that it was a Ninja Gaiden game with a Metroid skin. I love being able to explore the world Samus traverses. I don't want to feel like I am having to rush through each room just to fight a horde of enemies and then be locked out of the previous room
Other M was ok.
Other M was better than. The Prime series the only thing it lacked was more buttons
21:28 The Pirates have them because they found some of them. I feel the Scan Visor and the log book adds a lot more to the story than you think, and usually, it's better to clear out a room of enemies first before scanning anything other than enemies themselves. After combat, you can take a nice break from combat by reading some interesting lore.
Exactly, ShimizuSolace. That's what I did fairly often when I had a Gamecube and Metroid Prime 1 and 2. I've been wanting to get another Gamecube or a Wii and play the Prime trilogy because the first two games were so dang fantastic to me. Sure the insane amount of backtracking could get annoying, but there were usually one or more other ways to bypass troublesome rooms where they locked up and had to kill a bunch of enemies to progress. Overall, Prime 1 and 2 aren't perfect, but they're fantastic if you give them a chance, and take the time to learn them.
@@adamgray1753 The backtracking never bothered me in the slightest. Everytime they make you go through a previous area, it's with a new upgrade or two and if you take the time to either remember where powerups were or just re-exoplored an area, you'll likely come out of the trek with a slew of new upgrades.
The lore was generic tho. The language used sounds like it was written by a 14 year old try hard
@@exiled5160 How?
@@TheToastedBiscuit I just wish that you could choose whether or not to go through that same area over and over again or take a different approach, but Metroid Prime almost never does this... but the sequel does. I tend to prefer revisiting areas once or twice to get a lot of upgrades in one swoop, but where nearly every other game in the franchise gives you the choice to revisit areas frequently, rather than outright telling you to. (Metroid II and Fusion are more linear, but they embrace it, and... oh forget it, Other M isn't even fundamentally a Metroid game)
Holy smokes, these graphics are amazing for the gamecube!
And it runs at 60 FPS through some kind of black magic fuckery
Yeah man, it looks like an early Wii game
Probably because he's using the Trilogy version (which was on Wii), and running it through the Dolphin GC/Wii emulator (which offers a ton of graphical enhancement options).
@@AlexSchmid-TheAceofSpades perhaps
@@SillyVaporeon Actually, I'd love to see @The Geek Critique do a video on PrimeHack. It's a customized version of the Dolphin emulator designed for playing the Prime Trilogy with FPS controls (both keyboard/mouse and controller). It's got seperate buttons for all the beams/visors and springball, mouse integration the cursor in menus, patches for some of the crazy motion controls in Prime 3... Just tons of stuff. I've beaten Prime 1 & 2 with it, and working through Prime 3 now. It's absolutely fantastic. Their next release is supposed to add support for the original GC version of Prime 1. I compiled the latest build from source code, and it works surprisingly well.
Personally, I love the Scan Visor! I loved reading and learning all I could about the life, the lore, and the Pirate logs on Tallon IV. I have the GameCube version, and I could not believe they included a Hard Mode-- the default is hard enough!
Prime had to have crunch development for 9 months straight leading into its' release in order to make it. This INCLUDES switching the game to first person. I'm not sure when Fusion came into the whole mix, but I have to imagine it came out as a counter-measure in case Prime was a complete disaster. The artifact quest wasn't about keeping players in the world, it was about them going back and trying to get all of the items so they could get 100% completion (AND the ending that goes with it). I agree with you on using beams for specific doors, but again, it was simply another design choice to help mask loading. All of Prime's designs were deliberate, for better and worse.
"but I have to imagine it came out as a counter-measure in case Prime was a complete disaster" Boy was that way off, phew.
KBroly but wasn’t the game announced at E3 2001?
The fatal flaw of Metroid Prime is that it's almost too good
Fatal?
Mike Williams woosh
platanom3n Criticizing a joke doesn't mean not getting it. It doesn't make sense to say fatal, even for a joke, when the game was a success just like it doesn't make sense to start a joke with "why do turkeys have four ears?" They DON'T have four ears. Woosh woosh woosh, Internet regurgitations. Say something original next time.
Mike Williams wow you’re an idiot. He used the word “fatal” as a reference to the thumbnail of the video: “Metroid Primes Fatal Flaw”. The joke is that he’s saying the “Fatal Flaw” of the game is that it’s almost too good. It was just a reference to the video. Fucking WHOOSHHHH
Audifaux Productions Uh, yeah, I know that. But there is no fatal flaw because the game was a success. Like I said, it didn't make sense in the title to begin with. That's what I was pointing out. I was going to make a comment simply pointing out that the video title makes no sense but then saw a comment that makes a reference to it that itself fails to realize that the title makes no sense (which is the real "whoosh"). You fail.
I can't believe this game is 19 years old already. I feel ancient.
Lol, and I was already 20 years old when I got a GameCube and played this.....🤦
I enjoyed the 2d Metroids. Tried Prime Remastered for the first time recently and it bored me to death. The best way to describe how this game made me feel: imagine washing all the dishes in the sink, but every time you reentered the kitchen, the exact same dishes you just washed are in the sink dirty again.
'how did they hide them in the space pirate's stuff?' they didn't. if you actually read the whole lore, the space pirates themselves found some of the artifacts and stored them, but the remaining chozo spirits found them and changed the hints. But yeah, it's a kinda annoying fetch quest.
I thought the statues were "digital" and not "carved". Therefore, they could always keep precise locations on their keys. Then again, the Chozo in Prime were shown to basically be so psychic that they could see the future... So, they could've seen the future, the Pirates taking the artifacts, and making their statues say that in the first place. No need to change it.
You know what? Metroid Prime is one of my favorite games. I was expecting to scoff at whatever nit-picky complaint you'd have, but instead gained a more healthy perspective of the game. You pointed out its flaws in a way that was respectful, but honest. I agree with the pinned comment that highlighted your choice of words with, "It just wasn't a Metroid game for me." Everything you said was clearly subjective and the best part is that you didn't try to make it objective like so many game reviewers try to do. Good job!
Don't ever expect an OoT neckbeard to be as rational as this lmao
It must REALLY irk you that Prime got the deserved Remaster treatment and Prime 2 is just gonna get a high rez port.
Great critique, helped me understand some of my own gripes with the game. I initially thought I disliked the lock on, but really it was how spongey enemies remain for the majority of the game until you get the ice or plasma beams. I, like you, ended up avoiding the majority of enemies after a point. Out of all the Metroid games I've played, Prime is quite possibly my least favourite, despite the fact it feels much more modern than almost every 2D game and the fact that I still think it's great.
I loved the backtracking because to me it felt like I live in this world. I revisit these places stronger and more able to tackle the obstacles I was not able to tackle there before... and upon tackling them I am rewarded with a new area to explore and possibly another item that will make me stronger and able to unlock other areas the world feels lived in. And I am one to live in it. I am one to conquer it. That is this game to me... It remains my most favorite Gamecube game of all time :)
I would just get lost all the time, especially as a kid and even today. Metorid Prime 2 was even worse with giving directions. I love the lore, but going through the same rooms and backtracking totally kills the game for me.
@@WolfBangAlpha As much as I love the entire Prime trilogy, I definitely had some problems with that on my first playthroughs, especially Echoes. It's the only game of the three that I still tend to have trouble navigating.
@@speedude0164 I agree. I think 3 was the easiest to navigate but 2 was by far the worst. Felt more like a Zelda game too.
@JJ Zip well now to be fair, not everybody is an explorer when it comes to gaming. Most folk want action and character building or even sometimes a bit of puzzle solving. While Metroid does have have those things I can kind of understand how backtracking can turn some people off. I still stand by what I said about the game 2 years ago. I embrace the backtracking because I can revisit certain areas and take in the beautiful architect and artwork the developers put into the world. This is my kind of game. A nice little escape from reality while in the safe confines of my home :)
@JJ Zip sometimes games put backtracking to pad stuff, and not every gamer wants to backtrack. Plus, gamers like different stuff in their games like platforming,puzzle solving,and etc.
Crossing my fingers that your success continues even after 6 months of absence that you need to make your content at the highest quality!!!
I agree about the excessive backtracking and pure TEDIUM of fighting space pirates 109 god damn times going through the same rooms over and over. This game is always fun for me until the pirates show up and then makes me want to tear my hair out. Especially the Phazon Mines. I’ve played prime 3 times including the new remaster…. And never seen the credits roll because it’s so ridiculously tedious
As far as the pirates having an artifact, it's stated in the lore that the pirates found a couple of the artifacts
Oh man, if you didn't like the Artifact Quest in this game, Prime 2 will be an unpleasant surprise. They made it worse.
I actually far preferred the Temple Keys in Prime 2 to this.
Hint System doesn't lead to keys. Besides, finding them isn't the problem. The fact that you can't get any of them without the Light Suit is.
DarkLink1996 No that is false. The only thing you need for most of the keys is the dark visor. It is like in MP1 where it is almost only one place you can't reach before the phazon suit!
DarkLink1996 It's better than Prime 1.
maukenboost I agree.
2002 ... 2002 20 years old already. I was ten that year. I want to go back... or at the very least start again after I die.
Strange thing: While I prefer Prime 2 in the harder Veteran mode, the way I truly got into enjoying Prime 1 is by playing on the easier Normal mode. It lessens the health-sponginess of some of the bosses and enemies, and it lets you blaze through the frequent repetitive backtracking at much more brisk a pace. Seriously, give it a shot - having similar complaints to you, strange as it sounds, just turning it down to Normal softens those blows by a surprising amount.
You know, when Metroid Prime strips away your powers in the beginning after playing around with them, that reminds me of Castlevania Symphony of the Night when Death does the exact same thing to Alucard. It's funny because that game took inspiration from Metroid and now Metroid Prime is taking inspiration from SOTN. It comes full Metroidvania circle (or more likely it was a coincidence, but still) XD Great video, Geek Critique. I've been waiting a long time for this. :D
Y'know, whenever I decide to do another series of games that I've always heard about but barely played (which is what Metroid was when I started!), Castlevania would be a really good choice. Glad you enjoyed it!
I can see you enjoying the Metroidvania ones. I'd love to see that kind of retrospective especially since the GBA and especially the DS Castlevania games are underreviewed and often overlooked.
+The Geek Critique Just to warn you: The various exploration-based Castlevania games get REALLY samey. They all introduce different gimmicks (usually related to leveling) to vary things up a bit, but the core gameplay is still nearly identical starting with SOTN and then through all six of the GBA and DS entries. I'm not sure I could recommend trying to shotgun your way through them like you have the Metroid games. (Except unlike Metroid games, you're outright punished for not having high completion\exploration rates by being given a bad ending unless you uncover and solve a series of puzzles hidden in the game design prior to tackling Dracula. You know, speaking of padding out the gameplay.)
I'd like to see thay, because like metroid (and in the music world, green day and the foo fighters), castlevania has always been a series that was always been around but I was never interested in playing for years.
Except it makes a lot more sense in SOTN.
"And calling a game 'overrated' is stupid. Stop it". Agreed.
if it quacks like a duck...
@@ShadowDrakken nope
Indeed. It's essentially devaluing the memories and emotional attachement people have to a game just because it's a popular opinion.
@@CrimsonMoonM Ah yes, your memories and emotions mean I can't think a game is rated higher or more consistently high than it should be. You realize "overrated" simply means you think it's less good than the majority right? Get over yourself. You may as well tell people not to say something is underrated because it devalues the experiences of people who thought it was shit.
@@ElectricBarrier "overrated" is invalidating everyone else's passion for the game just because you didn't enjoy it. It isn't "overrated", it just isn't for you.
Now that the remastered was release, with more powrful hardware and faster load times. It really puts into question some elements of oldschool designed. Back in the day games with loading screens were annoying, specially if they were particularly long, but those games get ported to modern hardware and are instantly better. While games like metroid prime, with elevator cutscenes, combat encounters and tons of narrow passageways to entertain you while rooms load feel padded and empty. So the tables have turned in a way. The previous game made you wait through nothing and the waiting times got shorter and shorter, these games try to entretain you while you wait, but you have to wait almost the same amount of time to continue. The previous clever tricks to fight against limitations continue to evolve into downsides of games. Makes me wonder how should we approach remastering these games. Well... being able to skip cutscenes for sure, but there is not much to do about all the copy pasted loading hallways of metroid prime, at least not without severely restructuring the game.
Time for my monthly viewing of every single Geek Critique!
When you backtrack for the Chozo artifacts, not only you find the artifacts you get to learn about early on the game, but going back to other parts let you discover new areas that weren't critical for the Phazon suit but also those items you knew where there since you past by those suspicious looking holes. And I would say every item get of that kind fills me with satisfaction, specially since you actulaly become more powerful the more tanks, missiles and combo weapons you get. Talking about the artifacts not being lore friendly, you missed a very known one, in Magmoor Caverns the only artifact you get there is in a room called the room of X, but the artifact X is somewhere else while room of X has the artifact of Y.
Some Guy Dadamage actually, there’s two artifacts. One in the room you’re talking about and another in a random pillar
Are you serious? Playing a Wii game on Dolphin with mouse controls and first thing is to ramble on the the controls?!? Used to play the original Metroid in back in 1988. Was mind blown by Super Metroid and I loved Prime, it was truly amazing...
The dude clearly has weirrrrd kinks
To be fair he said it was a mistake later
I bought the prime collection on wii after playing the first one and I can’t stand the controls on Wii. The game was definitely meant for a controller
In his Prime 3 video he plays with the Wii controls and says that using a muse was a mistake.
lol my friend had the exact same complaint about Dark Souls and why he gave up on it - he said the controls were terrible but failed to tell me he was playing with a keyboard and mouse :|
I think the backtracking was annoying, but I think part of the idea was that when you walk through an area, you notice things. They give you hints that you can eventually get to an area, but you don't have a certain weapon or item. It makes it more exciting to get back to where you know you can get somewhere new.
You kind of hit it on the head here. There's a great game hidden underneath all the cruft, but for a lot of us, the cruft makes the game a very hard play compared to the 2d entries.
I personally got the Prime Trilogy edition, and originally did the same thing you did. With no context of what a Metroid game was, I just put it down after the intro and didn't touch it until recently, when I began playing the series in chronological order, and collecting every item. I had a blast playing through the original Metroid, mainly because I am a HUGE old Nintendo fan, and it was the only Metroid game I had beaten before. Then I entered Zero Mission, and was blown away by what they did with the original. It didn't even feel like the same game anymore!! And finally I got to Metroid Prime, the one that is considered one of the best games of all time. And I had a great time! Since I knew about the Chozo Artifact quest already, I collected them throughout the game, which severely decreased the terrible pacing of the game, and gave me a much more pleasurable experience. And while I now know Magmoor Caverns like the back of my hand, I had a much easier time heading to new areas and getting new things, and by the end of the game, I reached the Ancient Artifact circle... area... place... and just fought Ridley, entered the Impact Crater, and had the most intense boss fight that I had faced in the series so far, although there are still quite a few things that annoy the hell out of me, the first being that logbook. I made it more than halfway through the game before I realized that if I missed some scans, I missed them for good. No going back. I AM a completionist (and it drives me CRAZY to seeing you getting 60-80% collected items in a Metroid game. I'm watching you.). As a result, I had to replay this game around THREE times in order to get all of those items. If it was still possible to collect all of those scans somehow, my life would be SO much easier. I can definitely say with complete confidence that you will like Prime 2 better. And you'll definitely have a more fun time with the logbook and item collection. Although the storytelling element of the 2D games gets even more blurred in it, the map is more centralized, and all those little details are there, just like in the first game. Unfortunately, there IS another Chozo Artifact like collectathon, but luckily it is ALOT easier than it originally was, and doesn't destroy the pacing nearly as much. How MUCH more you'll like it, I don't really know. But I can say that you would probably like it more than the original Metroid. Nonetheless, it was nice to see a critical review on this game, not just from someone who had been playing Metroid their whole life and will therefore give this game nothing but praise. I am awaiting the second Prime video soon!!! P.S. Obviously I don't wanna cloud your view of Prime 2 before you go into it or anything like that, so don't let anything I or anyone else says change your pre-critique view on the game. I've just seen some people with the same problems you have with this game enjoy the second one more because it fixes alot of those problems.
I appreciate you trying not to cloud my judgment, but I actually complete a whole season before I start releasing it here, so I can play into KZhead's silly algorithms that favor consistency and quantity over quality, haha. So yeah, I've already played Prime 2, and... well, "I liked it better," is quite an understatement.
The Geek Critique prime 2 is my favorite of the trilogy and prime is my least favorite
Metroid Prime is a masterpiece
This, Smash Bros, and Tales of Symphonia were my absolute favorites for GameCube. I replayed Prime so many times. I loved it. Came out a bit after Halo, and Metroid Prime was WAAAY cleaner, IMO, than Halo. I got in many arguments with friends back then over this.
It's super metroid for kids kek
Neo6364 I really need to try Tales of Symphonia (or any Tales game, for that matter). Just one of those series I have never gotten around to, but I hear a lot of good things about some of the games
@@evertonc1448 for legends you mean
@@Neo6364 eternal darkness, prime and symphonia! :)
21:28 I literally JUST found this out, the reason why there's an artifact on the Space Pirate base is because in the Chozo Lore written on the "Crossway", the Chozo straight up mention the Pirates taking some artifacts, despite them not knowing what they are. Ya gotta reread what that Lore says, I can't believe I missed this
okay like real talk I would have loved an epic escape scene from Impact Crater on PAPER, but NO ONE WANTS TO RUN PAST THAT MANY FISSION METROIDS.
All of the things you hate are my favorite parts about Prime. Especially the lore logs.
that actually ties into his conclusion; Metroid Prime isn't the right game "For Me" I loved the backtracking. I also found it tedious but I pushed through it because the closure and discovery was well worth it.
I basically to this day have no issues with Prime other than the GEngine being out of date but gadam those graphics still look amazing
YUP
Too true
I enjoy reading the lore logs too. I usually don't in most games. Apart from maybe, Mass Effect
Why does no one understand that the items are physical things that the pirates have stolen, and judging by how there are ghosts and other seemingly spiritual/supernatural things, the Chozo could probably change the hints according to the location of the Artifact
Because that requires Scanning and reading a lot, and most people simply aren't interested in doing so. I am not one of these people, but I can see why they'd lose interest. The fact that Space Pirates had found some of the artifacts just doesn't really come through without reading it.
@@gumfireparalax1371 And attempting to complain after that is objectively on them.
@@coolguy02536 forcing the player to stop every few minutes to read a wiki article is boring, and shit game design, if you can't convey your basic story in a non-intrusive way, you've fucked something up and you need to go rework how you've told your story
A compelling and balanced critical response to Metroid Prime. Keep up the great work!
Thanks, will do!
I agree a lot with your criticism, I mean, I also sponged up enemy damage when I was in the late game, I almost didn't bother killing Chozo Ghosts unless I HAD to, which I hated to do, since the enemy was just so... boring. At first it was a little exciting, but after the second encounter I wanted NONE of it. Things like that repeated several times throughout the game, as I had to fight agaisnt Drones, Metroids or just Space Pirates all the time to get somewhere. Some things, like the Pirate lab in Phendrana, were so aggravating to have to go through, in that pitch black environment filled with enemys. And you have to do that, several times, in many different locations, just to get "the fastest you can" to a new environment. I had collected the artifacts as I was going through the game, as I had only 4 remaining to look for by the time I got the Phazon Suit. Still, it was quite annoying and a part of the game I could just have gone without, too. Despite it's negatives, I felt like I loved the game. The inmersion the music lended, the feeling of tension upon my first arrival at the Phazon Mines, knowing each and every Pirate was aware of my presence and would stop at nothing to kill me. And as my health dwindled in the mines, I felt a bit challenged. But after that first visit, I realized how safe I really was. Even more so as I got the Phazon Suit and fights like Ridley and Metroid Prime BARELY took me down 2 energy tanks. I don't really recall dying even once. But I was having fun regardless, specially those times I would wander into a location and find something I didn't think I was meant to find, or scanning everything in the labs, terrified of the tales of those phazon infused Elites. I felt like the world was really there, breathing, but as you said, by a thread. My favorite moments were moments like when I first went through the Frigate, without the Gravity Suit. Just the feeling of being trapped in deep sea, lonely and scavanging everything. Sure it was dissapointing to know I had to go back to get Gravity, but even so, places like Phendrana were never not fun to explore for me. I ended up getting 78% completion, not really caring for all the missile expansions, and having missed some parts of the log book when I started the game. It took me some months, I couldn't get into the game when I first started, but after playing through Super, Fusion and Zero Mission, I decided to go on and face the game head on. And I was glad with what I found. I feel like I ended up loving and hating the game at the same time. Loving the exploration and the atmosphere, the tension and the designs of the monsters and places, but hating the back tracking, the damage sponges, the unnecesary hold ups. But I'm glad I played it. I couldn't ever go back to the game and 100% it because of how the progression is, of how unwilling i am of doing stuff like using the half pipes on Tallon IV again or going through half of the map JUST to enter the Phazon Mines and then GOING THROUGH THE WHOLE MINES just to get to a room. I feel like it was a one off experience, and honestly, i'm ok with that. I feel like it truly was a Metroid game, but it lacked polish in some really important parts. Now I have the rest of the trilogy to look on towards, and I wonder what comes next, really. I hope to see improvements on the back tracking and stuff, but I'm hopeful. Great review, I love your Metroid reviews so, so much.
Luckily I found out you can go through a different area to save me that track through the darkness again
You're going to love Echoes.
Elias Haworth or he will hate it like alot.of people.for.no reason even though it's my fav
Anybody that actually enjoys playing metroid will enjoy echos, I have been playing since the nes metroid and echos is the best prime and almost was better than Super Metroid, which blew me away when I was a kid!
Prime 2 is just as good as Prime 1, and does better in some areas.
Prime 2 is just as good as Prime 1, and does better in some areas.
Ya know, initially when i first started watching this video, i wanted to turn it off. But when i got past the 4 minute mark, i realized that he wasn't necessarily criticizing the game but giving his thoughts on it. This by far is my favorite of the Metroid series, even after playing the originals. This was a great critique of Metroid Prime, and he did bring up a lot of the struggles that i went through when i first played the game myself and i agree with him. Thank you, GEEK CRITIQUE, for your insight. It was well worth my time as a gamer.
Ultimately, I agree with everything he said in this video, and I always have. For every reason he mentioned and even a few more, I enjoyed the sequel far more. However, unlike Josh, I don't necessarily feel as strongly about these things, so these flaws rarely ever hinder my fun. I still love every game in the trilogy, I just like Prime the least. Sincerely- A Guy with Uncommon Opinions
@@gumfireparalax1371 Fondamentally agree
Thank you! This video is exactly how I feel about Prime. I'm fairly new to the whole series, but I loved all the 2D ones, which I played first. I just finished Prime for the first time and it didn't click with me like I was hoping. This video perfectly sums up my issues with it as well, and it makes me so happy knowing someone else out there feels so specifically the same way that I do. I heard the prime sequels handle a lot of those issues better, so I still want to finish the series, especially in time for Prime 4. Great video 👍
Good video. I love Metroid Prime, including the backtracking. The chozo artifacts were great. For me. I enjoy that kind of thing. Others do not neccessarily do so. That isn't wrong. It's just a different taste. I will never understand why gamers are unable to handle people having different tastes like that. 1200 gamers getting angry at the video for... not liking a few elements is really silly. Metroid Prime is awesome and one of the best games I ever played. The video is still good and made good points. These two facts are not mutually exclusive. So, TGC, thanks for making it :)
You get it. :D Thank you!
Probably because reviews are supposed to be objective, not "I didn't like it because X, Y and Z, even though millions of Metroid fans liked it for X, Y and Z, so it's a bad game".
@@ElliotKeaton He never said that, he just said he didn't like it for X, Y and Z. He never said that it was a bad game.
@@ElliotKeaton It isn't a review. He calls it a critique for a reason.
@@ElliotKeaton the reason most people get angry with reviewers is a little different. It's because a youtuber, if big enough, can get people to think of a game along a certain path, even if the thought has no credibility. At this point you've got millions of "fans" who've divorced the game from its context and encourages its developers to divorce the game from its context. Consider the Ridley "fandom" that encouraged Nintendo to put Ridley in Samus returns, a game that Ridley never appeared in. Just because there's a bunch of "fans" that simply say Ridley is Samus' arch nemesis, and because of that Ridley was put in a game he doesn't belong in. This is the reason people get salty when someone says "the game did X, Y, and Z so therefore it's bad."
You beat all of the 2D Metroid games in under 4 hours your first time? No. No way. Not your first time through on all of them.
Metroid II took him 9 hours
Ragnar Ahlman Late reply here but no, the 4 in Metroid II just looks a lot like a 9, it's confusing until you see both numbers at the same time in the game
Oops
Yeah I'm pretty surprised by that myself. I'm guessing he didn't spend much time looking for powerups. I think all those games took me *at least* 6 hours playing the first time, probably much more.
@@44bigfreeze Lol yeah the first time I played metroid 2 I was incredibly confused whenever my energy went below 50
I love the way that the lore of Metroid Prime is conveyed. Because of the greater focus on an immersive world, the world needed to have more depth. the lore needed to achieve that kind of depth can't really be effectively conveyed through sub-text. So Retro decided to use log entries. The thing is, the log entries aren't necessarily acquired in a linear fashion. This means that the player needs to unscramble the information provided, and organize it in an understandable and logical order. The satisfaction of learning the games lore didn't come from understanding what was being conveyed (like in the 2D games), it was from piecing the little bits of lore together and seeing the big picture. The lore in the 2D Metroid games is like charades, while the lore in the 3D games is like a Rubix cube. While I do agree that some of the lore in Metroid Prime should have been conveyed sub-textually, I also can't really see any other way that Retro could have designed the deeper lore in a way that it doesn't feel out of place in a Metroid game. Retro could have flat out told you the story like in Other M, but they decided to use a much more subtle and organic method. This being the data logs.
My favorite logs are the space pirates trying and failing to invent morph ball tech. Subject deceased! :D
*And yet again I have to thank you.* First you got me into 2D Metroid, made me a huge fan... and so what the heck, trusted him once, trusting him twice, throw my doubts about 3D Metroid aside, get the Metroid Prime Trilogy (via Dolphin with m+kb) and _get on that!_ And... hot damn. It's _magical._ It's 3D and first-person, but... it _feels_ just like my beloved 2D Metroid, and _holy crap, I've fallen _*_deeply_*_ in love with this game (especially with the hint system turned off)._ So, yet again: *_Thanks a lot!_*
This was my intro to the game. The backtracking and mystery was upsetting to me when I first tried it. Three years later, i played and beat it and I fell in love. One of my favorite games so far.
Before I finish this video I wanted to say that your metroid series is something, after I saw it, I told my brother I wanted to show him something special. I made him wait a couple of days so we could watch it together. Me and my brother really connected over your metroid series... I'm watching this episode alone right now but I'm gon rewatch with my brother as soon as I get the chance.
Hey, that's awesome! Glad you guys get to watch 'em together!
You don't need to scan everything to get 100% at the end of the game to see the secret ending, you just need to get all upgrades. I actually agree with a lot of points made in the game. It was my first metroid game as well, but I simply just LOVED the exploration and atmosphere. It made me fall in love, it was the first kind of game that left that impact on me. I also agree that the backtracking is definitely one of the WORST parts of the game. But as someone who has played the game multiple times, the routing you can do throughout the game can really speed things up and really make you feel like you're on a mission. Plus, hard mode gives it a bit more of a challenge, since I found most enemies and bosses are piss easy (sadly including Meta Ridley.) The only 2D metroid games I've played are Fusion, 2 (which I honestly hate), and AM2R (if you consider that a "metroid game") and they were fun as hell, but they could never really give me the amount of chills, atmosphere, mood, and sense of awe and adventure as Prime. I love both the Prime series and 2D series, and they're both some of the best games I've ever played, but like most games with multiple styles, they both have differences that can make some aspects better or worse than the others, This is an awesome video, and I love hearing differing opinions on games I love. It makes me see things at a perspective I previously didn't have, or it confirms some flaws to me that I just didn't want to admit. It just makes me appreciate the gaming community much more.
Prime was my first Metroid game. I played it for the first time at a friends house, and had no systems of my own. Prime blew my mind, I was literally obsessed with it, I had only played from the start up to collecting the morph ball upgrade but I devoured every piece of information the game threw at me or which I could find on my own. I would tell bedtime stories to my little brother (I was ten, he was around 6) about the world of this game. I fell like my reaction and experience of Prime was the complete opposite of yours. While we both obviously enjoyed the introductory part of the game, I became intrigued and completely absorbed in the world of the game, scanning every item and creature, looking into every corner and crevice, and exploring through corridor upon corridor until coming across the elevator to the Chozo ruins. After scanning that first Lore piece, I wanted more. The atmosphere of the ruined buildings was so thick I could cut it with a knife. Despite the gameplay having slowed down significantly from the action packed intro my enjoyment of the game and sense of adventure did nothing but increase. I spent several hours exploring, picking up a few upgrades, just enough to get to the morph ball mini-boss fight (which I did manage to defeat after several tries). At no point did I feel lost or like I didn't know where I was going; not because I did of course, but because I didn't care. All I knew was that I wanted to learn more about the world around me. Then I had to go back home and I tortured my parents for months until they bought me a gamecube with metroid prime for christmas. With my own copy and system I was able to play for hours every day, but it still took me many months to actually complete the game. I had since realized the goal was to catch up to and destroy that cyborg dragon (didn't know who Ridley was yet) but was still engrossed in the lore and refused to miss any scraps of information. Prime was and still is my favorite game of all time. It defined a significant chunk of both my childhood and my imagination at the time, influencing everything from short story writing assignments to sketchbook drawings to Halloween costumes. I still play it every now and then, original disk and original gamecube too.
Im finally trying it for the first time via the Switch remaster. I'm enjoying it so far but I'm also only about 2 hours in. Maybe I'll report back when i finish. EDIT: I loved it. Immediately played through a second time. Just having the Wavebuster makes me wanna call it my favorite Metroid (I REALLY like electricity powers/weapons). One teeny-tiny point of embarassment: I didn't realize until reading on TVTropes that the crashed ship on the Tallon overworld IS the Space Pirate station from the intro.
It's great to see you again dude. Looking forward to all you've got to offer.
Did... did I hear this right? Did you just say you *LIKED* the music? In a Metroid game? You? TALK TO YOUR FAMILIES, THE UNIVERSE IS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE!!! THESE ARE THE LAST MINUTES OF OUR LIFES!!! PS: I thought it was made obvious that the Space Pirates collected the Chozo Artifacts.
Say what? I liked the music in the 2D games. I thought Zero Mission and Fusion were a bit held back by the GBA's sound capabilities, and Metroid II only had one good song, but that one song was still my favorite in the series. Then Super's music was perfectly appropriate for its tone, and was one of many things that helped it stand out. I just said I personally preferred the more melodic tunes of the previous games. And yeah, I guess it is obvious that the Space Pirates collected 'em, but I'd have had to scan a lot more things to find that out while I was making the episode. :P And still, that doesn't explain how the hints that you get, which were written by the Chozo ages before the Space Pirates even showed up, could point to exact locations within their mining operation. Ultimately though, I'd be happy to excuse it the same way we do Samus losing her upgrades every game, as a "video games are fun" kind of problem. But it's not actually fun.
What about AM2R's music?
He talked about it in his review
+Dead Smith Elitist?
+Dead Smith Yes, but that's not the definition I've seen of the word "elitist". I've seen it used to describe people that are like "pfff, this game's too easy, you noobs just need to git gud".
9:59 I was today years old when I learned that you can destroy that wall with a single charged shot, I've always used missiles
This was actually my first Metroid game I had known of the series but because I never had a console growing up until after I became a teenager and the fact that the one friend I had with a Nintendo console did not actually own Metroid on any of his made this an experience that I actually loved with every fiber of my being. It was only after a few years of having the game because this came with my GameCube, I was actually terrified to play the game and I was 12-13 around that time. I remember playing this and getting such an impending feeling of dread playing it that I honestly didn't finish the game and I can tell you exactly where I stopped was the giant mantis battle. That one fight scared me to death and then just the tones of the series really got to me I think I finally finished it right before prime 2 came out and I loved echoes. However as time went on I remember seeing corruption come out and just hating the Wii like I owned it but I only ever owned two games for mine when was fire emblem the other brawl. I gave up on Metroid after that I was never a 2d Metroid fan even though I was interested in Samus where the series was going at that time leading to other m and onward just didn't do it for me so I gave up on the series so you can call me a prime Fanboy if you want but one and two were some of the best games I ever played because I could never shake that and pending looming feeling of dread that every new room could be the thing that killed me.
I played _Metroid Prime_ when it first came out. Almost instantly, it became my all-time favorite game, and stayed that way for almost ten years before _Dark Souls_ and _Portal_ nudged it down to the #3 slot. It's the reason that out of all video game series, _Metroid_ is my uncontested favorite, and for years I couldn't decide between it and _Super Metroid_ as the best in the franchise. ...Until a few months ago, when, for the first time in a good many years, I actually went back and replayed it. Funnily enough, the mention of _Dark Souls_ a few sentences ago is good for more than just a throwaway detail. I don't know whether you've ever played it, Josh, but so much of why I love that game is because the world design and the player's progression through it (at least up until the third act, where the developers had to haphazardly rush to meet their release deadline) is better orchestrated than any game I've ever played. From a storytelling perspective, the world of _Dark Souls_ upstages Tallon IV a lot less than it does most game settings, but as far as its design goes, it puts _Prime_ to shame. Despite being substantially larger than _Metroid Prime's_ game world, traveling from almost any corner of Lordran to the other never takes more than a few minutes once you become familiar with its general layout, because by far the most ingenious of its level design's intricacies is its painstaking commitment to weaving back in on itself in order to create a thousand little shortcuts not only connecting all the various areas to one another (and always in a more organic way than _Metroid Prime's_ loading screens disguised as elevators, to boot), but also connecting various points within a single area to each other in order to make backtracking through a level you've already explored just that much quicker and more painless. I don't think the affinity I've found with _Dark Souls_ and my absolute favorite game series being _Metroid_ is at all a coincidence, either; although it lacks the string of mobility-enhancing powerups to collect that defines the Metroidvania genre, _Dark Souls's_ world design captures the core essence of Metroidvania better than any 3D game since... well, the _Metroid Prime_ series - except that what it does carry over from _Metroid Prime,_ it does _so much better._ I found it funny that you mentioned _Metroid Prime's_ lack of a central hub area as a means to traverse the game world quickly, because there actually is one: Magmoor Caverns. Not only does it have elevators connecting it to every area of the game besides the Impact Crater, but it even connects to both ends of Phendrana Drifts - instantly and elegantly circumventing the need to trudge all the way through the biggest area in the game anytime you have business there. The inclusion of Magmoor Caverns should fix so much about this game (and it does help, certainly). But while one of my absolute favorite little details about _Metroid Prime_ is the fact that the imposing lava area is the one level without a single boss fight whereas the beautiful, idyllic Phendrana is easily the deadliest area of the game besides the Phazon Mines, stuff like that and the excellent design conceit behind Magmoor Caverns was significantly harder to appreciate going back to it purely thanks to how poorly the area was laid out. Simply put, if the entire point of Magmoor is to act as a means of quick transit between the areas where all the important things happen, then why on _Earth_ are all the connecting elevators laid along a straight path rather than arranged like spokes on a wheel so that getting from the Chozo Ruins to the Phazon Mines takes less than one minute as opposed to more than five? Now, I realize I'm griping about a matter of mere minutes, and that would indeed be a nitpick if it was a one-time thing. But after a certain point, it goes from a minor annoyance to a genuine, pervasive _flaw_ given just how many times the game requires you to use Magmoor to get from place to place, and nothing renders that more obvious than the Chozo Artifacts. I actually used to defend this fetch quest on the basis that it makes you appreciate how far you've come since your journey began by forcing you to think idly back on all the little adventures you'd had as you tread back through familiar areas and effortlessly one-shot enemies that gave you such a hard time when you first encountered them. The thing is, though, if the Artifact quest wasn't in there, it wouldn't damage the player's ability to do all that one bit - all it does is turn what would have been an introspective and rewarding *option* into an agonizingly lengthy chore. If I have to vehemently disagree with one thing about this video, it's your statement that "the whole game" is filled with repetitive backtracking quests across the world map in order to obtain the powerup that lets you make progress back on the other side of the world map. The whole game isn't - just the _second half_ is. The first half of _Metroid Prime,_ by contrast, is a _bona fide_ masterclass in pacing and progression; your limited abilities upon landing on Tallon IV funnel you toward the Chozo Ruins, you discover through exploration that the only way you can go is toward where you eventually find the Missile Launcher, which lets you open the path to the Morph Ball only a few rooms away, which let you access the nearby path to the Morph Ball Bombs... and so on, all the way through collecting the Boost Ball in Phendrana Drifts. Every single thing about how the game was structured up to that point was so painless and thoughtfully designed that the moment immediately following, where you're told to trudge through no less than four areas back to the start of the game _just_ so you can collect the Space Jump *_just_* so you can immediately trudge _all the way _*_back_* to Phendrana to pick up where you left off, stuck out like a sore thumb from all the player-friendly design that had preceded it. Mind you, it's not like the game just remains stuck in this rut for the rest of its runtime or anything - once you're back in Phendrana, for instance, it proceeds much the same way the Chozo Ruins did for the remainder of your stay, with every new upgrade opening up an intuitively findable path only a few rooms away so that you're almost constantly finding somewhere new to explore, fight, and puzzle your way through - but on those occasions where the hint system goes from a redundant convenience measure to being necessary to complete the game because the designers decided to put the Grapple Beam in the most unimportant, out-of-the-way room ever, even the game's impeccable atmosphere really can't keep it from falling into sheer tedium until the game decides it's ready to get things back on track again. So yeah, _Super Metroid_ boasts most of _Metroid Prime's_ positives to at least some degree while omitting most of its negatives, so _Super Metroid_ is the better game when judged purely objectively. Has this realization and all the realizations that led up to it caused me to bump _Metroid Prime_ still further down the list of my favorite games to make room for the ones that my brain knows are, strictly speaking, superior? Not even close. _Metroid Prime_ is a flawed game. This is a fact (much as it is with literally every game that's ever been made). But even though the existence of those flaws is a fact, what's not a fact is how much those flaws matter, because that's something that varies from person to person. All those objective qualities about _Metroid Prime_ - the detail, the soundtrack, the immersion, the setpieces, the atmosphere, the exploration, the world, the game feel, the context, the juxtaposition, all of it - that for you were constantly bogged down by its objective faults, I subjectively maintain completely and utterly outweigh those faults - to the point that, in spite of every horrible thing I've said about the game over the course of the past thirteen hundred words, I remain unshaken in my belief that _Metroid Prime_ is an utter masterpiece, and will never stop being one of my all-time favorite games. And more to the point, honest, well-thought-out videos like this one can only ever help deepen that appreciation; your videos on the 2D _Metroids_ did that for me already, and it's no different this time. You're doing the Lord's work giving this franchise the attention and analysis it deserves, Josh - keep it up.
...Anyway, since the whole "brevity is the soul of wit" thing has long since flown out the window, I might as well add a few miscellaneous remarks: 1. I was shocked to realize during my recent playthrough that the adult Sheegoth might well beat out Metroid Prime's first phase as the single best-designed boss in the entire game. Not only is its heavy breathing animation one of the examples of the game clueing you in on what you need to do to defeat the boss via in-game design cues without necessarily needing to use the Scan Visor - something the game does way more often than you gave it credit for because the Scan Visor eliminated much of your need to look out for them, I should add - but even when it's not in the middle of its vulnerability animation, you're never left simply waiting for the animation to play out - you can either get close to the Sheegoth to bait it into performing the attack that triggers the vulnerability animation, or save your ammo and engage in some classic risk-reward gameplay by going into Morph Ball form and laying bombs against its unprotected underbelly if you're sufficiently confident in your ability to avoid its stomping attacks. All of which, it bears mentioning, is _highly_ reminiscent of how the boss fights work in _Dark Souls._ 2. Meta Ridley was my favorite boss in the game when I played it as a teenager (because, c'mon, it's Meta Ridley), but in sharp contrast to the Sheegoth, replaying it actually soured me on the fight substantially due to the fact that you spend a good 90% of the fight reacting instead of acting (namely, by watching him fly around in the distance or tediously dodging his charging attacks while you wait for him to decide to reveal his weak point). Nevertheless, though, your cathartic joy at him smashing all the stupid Chozo Artifact statues had me rolling; that moment in the video, even moreso than the thirty minutes of mostly-spot-on analysis that surrounded it, made my whole day. 3. One of the things I came to realize during my latest playthrough that actually made me enjoy the game _more_ than in my younger days (of which there were more than I've probably given the impression so far) was that you shouldn't be shy about using your ammo. As a kid, I would basically never use my Missiles unless an enemy outright required it, but one-shotting a Power Trooper with a Super Missile or freezing a Flying Pirate and shattering it with a single Missile alleviated SO much of the game's tedium (which, conversely, made me resent those segments of the Phazon Mines where you had to fight the Wave and Plasma Troopers, which had no such tricks to them). Definitely something to keep in mind if/whenever you decide to revisit the game. 4. This ridiculous, masturbatory wall of text that no one's ever gonna bother reading except _maybe_ you, Josh, took me more than three hours to write. So make this the pinned comment, or so help me God, you'll never see my $1 a month on Patreon ever again! :P
Thank you for taking the time to write all this. You definitely understand where I was coming from here, and it sounds like being able to acknowledge that has only allowed you to appreciate the game that much more, and that's awesome! As I said in another comment, I'm not trying to change people's minds with these videos, but I definitely hope they can get people thinking about games more critically, thinking about their own tastes and biases, and recognizing that there's absolutely nothing wrong with HAVING tastes and biases. And I would add that when I refer to Prime's flaws, I do it with the full knowledge that even _flaws_ are subjective. One person's game-ruining flaws are another person's slightly-annoying quirks are another person's core part of the appeal.
Great comment, or maybe I should say "essay". I just wanted to let you know that there are a few people out there who appreciate well thought out, well written comments like these, so thanks for sharing.
@@GeekCritique Reading the second half of your comment just made me laugh because it is so true. Because Sonic '06 is so much more fun to play when you DO embrace all of its glitchiness, turning the worst part of the game into something that you can laugh off.
I'VE NEVER CLICKED ON A NOTIFICATION SO FAST BEFORE!
Really shows you the quality of the uploader without even seeing the video what the quality of it'll be like when trash like this is what he leaves a heart on.
Kilo What are you talking about? This video is just as good as all of his other Metroid reviews and he perfectly conveyed all the problems I had with Prime when I played it.
THAT IS SO, FELLOW HUMAN.
Kinda late but amazing video! My girlfriends cousin was actually the lead programmer for the game! He was responsible for a lot of the cool effects with the arm cannon!
And I thought that I was the only one. Thank you for putting all my frustration with this game into words.
I'm caught between wanting to defend certain aspects of the game, and sighing and acknowledging that your criticisms are entirely valid. The top one I've always pointed out myself was those twelve artifacts, and never understood why they kept them around for Echoes. The two points I want to note are regarding the game's quality and the nature of the scans. In terms of enjoyment, I'd say it always works better the second time and onward. Granted, this could be said of any of the Metroid games, or some people might find it bizarre to think this at all. However, playing the game a year or two later, when enough of your memory has fogged up and been over-written by newer games, you'll have a much better time of it. The design is actually pretty smooth in how it takes you through the world with a few transgressions or potential dead-ends, and this includes collecting the artifacts while making your way through the game. I'd also say the game is at its best when you have the hint mode off. It's a bit different when you study the map, trying to recall what each section is and then snapping your fingers as you know how to unlock a new path or item (I even touch on this slightly in my own Metroid video, albeit with different context and for different purpose). Much better than being told "Go over here now". But that also cuts a bit into my next part, which is two-fold. The first is the state of games in 2002, and in particular Western game developers. The primary shift that Prime and Fusion saw was also a reflection of where games were going in 2002 in America and Japan. Metroid Prime released after Half-Life and System Shock hit the scene. One of the things that made Metroid Prime work was the fact that Retro, as a Western developer, took influence from both games when crafting Prime. This itself meant that Prime was bound to leave some of its DNA behind and evolve into a new type of game. Which is, I think, the most important thing to note about Prime. It is its own series that takes Metroid and pushes it into a very specific direction that works great in first-person. But that direction slows the gameplay down and becomes more ponderous than reflexive. Scanning is a complete reflection of this. You are right, it does break the gameplay apart in a lot of ways. The Space Pirate battle music is forever forged into my brain not because I love it, but because I would stop in the middle of a fight to scan stuff in the environment. It slows the combat down, but it rewards players that are really interested in the lore. For me, it was worth stopping the combat to finally have some personality to these Pirates and Chozo. One of my favorite log entries describes how a Pirate experiment imitating Samus' morph ball left the subject mangled. Hell, just reading how all the pirates died on the frigate was both fascinating and helped build tension as I approached closer and closer to the boss. It's great for someone where the combat in Metroid is secondary or tertiary. Which, for me, it usually is. It's funny you mention skipping past enemies as a bad thing when -- as soon as I have the right upgrades to make it possible -- that's precisely what I do in EVERY Metroid. Sure, sometimes you can't, but I don't think of Samus as someone that kills everything in her path. I also grew up a console gamer, and I always had a love of action games, but my favorites were Squaresoft RPGs filled with dialog, narrative, and tactical combat. While Mega Man X and Star Fox are at the top of my favorites list, I always preferred Zelda over them. My background was such that, when Metroid Prime came around, it was THE perfect evolution of the franchise. Of course, I was also 16 or 17 when it came out and my own interests were shifting a bit. But Retro managed to take all the things that made Super Metroid better than the rest and amplify them to a perfect, wonderful degree. Because if I wanted an action game, I'd play Star Fox or Mega Man X over Super Metroid. Super Metroid was about the exploration, the contemplation, and the atmosphere. Prime has that in spades, and Fusion... well, Fusion began to go other directions. Either way, good video, and good critique.
Putting more time into Animal Crossing is kind of a given, actually. Animal Crossing is a long-burn 'life simulator' kind of game with a bunch of day-to-day scheduled events and resource refreshes to keep you coming back over months or throughout a year while Metroid Prime (and most other games) are a single structures experience. I also say this as someone who also put a lot of time in to Animal Crossing. I never really considered that issue you mentioned between Prime flipping from what looks like an action game in the prologue to a Metroid game afterwards. I wonder how I would have felt had I not played Metroid: Fusion before Prime back then and had some idea what I was getting in to. It didn't seem like a big deal to me but I can see how it could maybe put some people off. And it's funny you actually brought that point up yourself. Who knows, maybe there's also another universe where I instead played Prime first and ended up not liking it and never getting in to Metroid. And as a result wasn't driven to mouth-foaming anger after Other M came to be what it was. I will say that, while I don't consider it a "fatal" flaw, having to run around and collect those Chozo artefacts to actually get in to the impact crater is a pain in the ass and is probably the one universally criticized part of the game. You could pick a lot of them up as you went if you knew about them ahead of time, but a first-time player probably just wouldn't. So it could easily seem tedious. Metroid Prime 2 solved backtracking issues by making interconnecting elevators more common and made the key collecting a bit easier, and then Metroid Prime 3 further streamlined the required keys (power cells this time) by making you grab a bunch of them throughout the course of the main game as well. But it is one of the few things I dislike about a game series I otherwise really enjoy. I do still consider the Prime series fantastic even so. This video's criticism was entirely fair, really. I really look forward to seeing if you enjoyed 2 or 3 more. It's a shame Prime 1 didn't really do it for you.
MGlBlaze other m made me foam at the mouth with anger even after beating it. None of it made sence to me and i found alot out ONLINE about the fucking game. I literally had no idea when playing the game, that the little ferby that tirned into a bigger thing, then another bigger thing, then i litterally had no enjoyment by the time samus had a mental retardation breakdown, i couldn't give a shit at all. The story was one of the worst i ever herd. It's the worse sore thumb ever.
Dunno if you're paying attention to this anymore, but as Metroid Prime was the first game in the Metroid franchise I played, I'd like to confirm it's still one of my favorites. I kinda knew what I was getting into beforehand because I'd watch my brother play it occasionally, but my first experience of it was watching him navigate his way to the parasite queen. Once I started playing it for myself, though, I couldn't stop thinking about what was coming next for me in the game, whether or not I was actually playing it at the time. "What's the next boss going to be? What's the next power up going to do?" In a way, I feel like this game actually helped solidify what Metroid games should be for me, and I've always viewed them (at least during your first run) as a game that you should take your time exploring and collecting as many things as you can before completing the game.
MGlBlaze entirely unrelated but it's really interesting and cool to see someone who's Warframe content I watch commenting on a video about a game that's mostly unrelated. Beyond that, I kinda had the same experiences as you, however I never understood what was so horrible about other M, I played a bit of it, and while I remember the gameplay being a bit clunky and like a game that would've served better not being linked officially to Metroid, I never understood WHY everyone got so pissed about it. What exactly about it was so terrible?
"Who knows, maybe there's also another universe where I instead played Prime first and ended up not liking it and never getting in to Metroid." That was me until last year when I suddenly had some weird desire to try Zero Mission, so eventually I did and loved every minute of it. Since then I also played the 3DS remake of Metroid 2 and Super Metroid, both of which I also loved (aside from that stupid "walk through the wall" room in Super, WTF was that?!). I guess next chronologically is Other M... yaaaaaaaaaaaay 😶 I was going to go back and give Prime a second chance, but after watching this video, nah. This video reminded me exactly why I hated the game back in 2005 and let me know I'd still hate it today. I'm so glad this saved me the trouble of playing it again to find out.
"when she already had PTSD during her first encounter with Ridley in the manga" That right there was exactly the problem. Metroid Other M suddenly expects you to know what happened in the manga. And this comes well after it ignores the part of the manga where Samus was raised by the Chozo and had two father figures so it can tell you that Adam was the closest thing she had to a father figure. Make up your goddamn mind, Other M! Is the manga important or not?! Are you rewriting canon or not?! It's incredibly poor writing when one scene hopes you haven't read the manga and another scene requires having read the manga.
loved prime but i agree on the backtracking. it makes sense that prime, as a 3D title, would focus on detail and density over scale, which to me is why each of the rooms is smaller than they felt in the 2D games as 3D is more expensive than 2D.as someone who loovveeedddd the scan visor and lore i adored scanning everything and seeing the intricate ecosystem (where every creature seems keen on blowing itself up LOL) retro crafted along with the lore, and seeing how the chozo had integrated themselves with this ecosystem. i love how in the chozo ruins especially you can see how each of the rooms were used by the chozo and how they may have reflected that function. i also loved reading the space pirate logs and seeing their characterization. stuff like bulletins about not feeding the metroids or keeping the metroids as pets was the best. having said that though, the smaller denser world and 3D controls meant the game couldnt focus on mobility as much as the 2D games, which is a huge reason of why late game backtracking in the 2D metroids is so fun to me: the movement itself is fun and satisfying and makes flying through the huge maps a breeze. prime has no real fun movement mechanics aside from the morph ball, but the level geometry often prevents you from being able to rely on it too much. this is specifically made the artifact hunt so frustrating for me, not only did the map feel restrictive, it was also just a chore to navigate. i also had issues with some of the bosses tbh. with the game's control scheme i found it really frustrating how many bosses were huge and difficult to lock onto up close, making the jump-strafe away from them impossible if they closed the gap. this wasn't a big deal though. i also found the constant flipping between visors and beams kind of annoying (extremely annoying in phazon mines seriously fuck that place) but also pretty minor. one other nitpick was while the world was beautiful i found the level themes pretty generic, i get that for their first 3D metroid it made sense to stay safe and do your usual fire world/ice world/wrecked ship thing like in previous games but i dunno it contributed to me hating the backtracking because it made navigating them again extra boring. but aside from that i dunno, replaying the remastered version recently prime still fill me with butterflies and really made me feel like wow i love video games.
I liken Prime to an immaculate, clean, flawless, beautifully adorned tall mirror... with just _a single crack_ running its entire length.
As much as I love Metroid Prime for getting me into the series (funny, right?) I have to agree with you here. The backtracking got a little out of hand, and on my second playthrough I could feel the combat getting boring, and I started getting frustrated having to backtrack through the same area to advance. I guess it just didn't bug me enough to ruin the experience, but it is a flaw nonetheless.
Totally agree. Going through magmogor cave for the 8th time is not fun at all...
So you'd rather just walk through every room in every area a single time? That is both ludicrous and incredibly inefficient. You don't seem to fathom how these games work, not to mention you've come up with no alternative at all. These guys only have so much to work with in terms of development. And here I thought that was common logic...I suppose it still eludes some.
Hey, Tropical Freeze review comes out the day after my birthday.
MelonBlastGames happy early birthday
Happy birthday early or happy unbirthday then.
The fact that this was released only 9 years after the first Doom just blows my mind. Video games evolved so fast in the 90s!
Metroid prime remastered huh
yes, and they've evolved so little since the early 2000s
@@nathanbraun2067 to what are you referring?
20:14 YES DIE AT MY FEET.
“…your real-time weapon and visor changes aren’t nearly as snappy…” Sounds like you never got fully accustomed to the way the radial menus work in Trilogy. You can switch visors and beams instantly if you have a feel for the control. I actually really love how they programmed those, and I wish other games with radial menus used similar coding. They just feel so intuitive and responsive…
Yeah, later on in the production of this season, I would figure out that the problem was that I was playing with mouse & keyboard. I played Prime 3 with a Wiimote, and it was much more natural.
You didn't like the idea of collecting Chozo Artifacts? Just wait until Metroid Prime 2...
I love the Prime trilogy, but this critique made me realize as much as I loved it when it came out. I do not want to replay it and do all that back tracking again. And I really agree with Weston Maiers pinned comment. I could not have put it so eloquently. I'm really glad I found your videos so I could I could relive the nostalgia without actually playing through again. Big time saver.
One year later: "RIDLEY IN SMASH BROS." is real 😂
I'd like to say that Metroid Prime did for Metroid for what Ocarina of Time did for ZElda when bringing the Franchises to 3D, They risked aspects of their 2D counterparts but knew how to build and develop for them to fit into a new type of game. I have to say while I'm a HUGE fan of Metroid Prime and consider it my favorite game of all time (along Super Metroid), your review and critique was so wonderfully made, because it shows another point of view that I didn't had considered but agreed upon too. It's amazing how also you gave an amazing insight for the era back when prime was released, Quantity of Gameplay time was an aspect a lot of games had to fill back then if not they were negatively seen. So yeah! Amazing review once again! I'm glad this wasn't just overly praising the game but also bringing your point and view of it, honestly you made me click with "...why did I always feel the final part of the game was a chore?" Because while you get the amazing and badass Phazon Suit, you don't get... to test your skills with all your gear at that point, you just have to go from point to point and get things to unlock the final bosses, which now I wonder how Prime 2 will fare in that part as I feel it was even worse in that game. Anyways, wonderful video once again! I'll look forward the Prime 2 one!
Prime 2 is indeed far worse than Prime 1 with regard to the endgame fetch quest. That first Chozo Artifact can be obtained immediately after recovering missiles, and many of them can be collected "on the way"; there is one that can be found in the same room which contains the X-Ray Visor, so that only one trip to the Life Grove needs to be made. (My least favorite is the one in the lab in the Phendrana Drifts.) Only the last Chozo Artifact truly requires the Phazon Suit; I haven't yet tested whether 13 energy tanks is enough to survive that trip, but I would be very surprised if I make it out of there alive with it before challenging the Omega Pirate. Many of the Sky Temple keys in Prime 2, however, absolutely require the Light Suit. Only three (four, if you're confident in your jumping ability) can be obtained without the Light Suit; most of the others are located underwater on Dark Aether, one of them is in an Ingstorm area, and one of them requires light beam teleportation.
What's funny is that when I was a kid first playing, the final fight was the last thing on my mind when I beat the Omega Pirate. My first thought was actually more along the lines of "Ooh! I wonder what new places I can find now?" Well, that and "I'm gonna see what magmoors look like under the lava." because I didn't fully read the Phazon Suit's description and though that it made you immune to lava as well...
Al Baker I've seen speedrunners able to get it without getting the Phazon Suit - it's pretty close though.
Numbah1234: You have piqued my curiosity. Do you have a link to a video showing this?
That…is impressive.
Is it ok if I ask for a tutorial on how to play Meteoid Prime with a keyboard and mouse?
I started with this config, then edited it to suit my preferences: www.reddit.com/r/Metroid/comments/2i4cqf/who_has_played_the_prime_trilogy_on_dolphin_with/ckysiic/?st=j7no9ju3&sh=f0f6b6e7 However, the Dolphin emulator recently added the ability to "passthrough" a Bluetooth device, and _massively_ improved its ability to interface with a real Wii Remote. Using a real controller now feels just like it does on an actual console. So if that's an option for you, I'd recommend it.
Fleetway Sonic Well, I played a lot of games with keyboard and mouse controls so analog isn't my biggest issue. I didn't know about the GC controller and the Wii U adaptor tho... that could be really useful for a lot of games (plus a GC controller for Smash is always welcome)
Hey I noticed in your video thought that changing beam weapons was worse in the trilogy version, but I think that stems from your use of the mouse+keyboard rather than the game itself. In the original version you could have the cursor be in the area that the beam would pop up, hit plus, and it would change to that beam. It looked in the video like for some reason the cursor would reset to the middle when you pressed the key you binded + to, so you had to deliberately move the cursor to a beam while holding the + key down, which is understandably tedious and slow.
Yep! Just wait 'til I get to Prime 3 and kind of repent for all this, haha.
For the love of everything, let me know if manage to complete Prime 3 on an emulator! I and my brother got stuck with a game crashing bug, and we can't progress at all. RIP.
5:00 I love that this moment gets it's just desserts during the critiques of this series. It just goes to show how experience can change our perspectives. It's also telling of the kind of person you are that you admit that you change over the course of these deep looks into the series. Most people would just chalk it up to improvements along the way, or something equally hollow. You admit that something you believed about the series was wrong, and it's one of the reasons I'm still watching your stuff till this day!
One of the coolest aspects of this game has always been the music. It's a blend between music genres one would not expect to be used. Reaggeaton? Trap? Breakbeat? It's all there and it's amazing.
The truest review of MP ever. Lots of great stuff here, but ultimately the cons really, really hurt it. MP4 could be amazing if they take what works and give us more gameplay and QoL.
I feel like there was a pirate log explaining that the pirates found some of the artifacts but were unsure what to do with them thus explaining how some artifacts are located in the pirate base.
It's the 4th time i am revisiting this series. Your honest and sincere reviews are really aomething to enjoy more than 1, 2 or even 3 times! Hope to see a part on metroid dread and maybe a revisit of prime 1 because of the remastet
"Those idiots are growing Metroids and injecting them with Phazon, what can possibly go wrong?!" lol
You know, I just rewatched this review *again* for like the 9th time (I really do love your take on this game) and something struck me: in the majority of the footage, you're using the Power Beam. This is a really small detail, I'm sure it feels like, but it's more important than you may think. Did you know that the beams actually *scale in power?* The game doesn't explain that, and I admit that's terrible, but each beam is, in fact, more powerful than the last. Part of where a lot of your issues with the game being repetitive in boss fights may very well have stemmed from the overuse of the Power Beam. If you play through Prime again, I highly suggest sticking with the latest beam upgrade while going through areas and see if that improves the experience. It often gives that old feeling you'd get in Super Metroid when you come across a new beam upgrade, where the enemies you'd been facing up until that point just melt away under your newfound power. And seriously, the fight with bosses like the Omega Pirate and Ridley can be over 5x faster if you use the Plasma Beam.
Okay but the combat is still repetitive
Andy also the ice spreader was strong. Try hitting prime in the face with it
THANK YOU!!! I thought i was crazy for not enjoying this game. When i finished it for the first time last year i immediately went online to see if people thought it was as dull as i did. Cause surely people must have changed their opinion of the game after all these years? But nope! I missed everything i enjoyed from the 2D games. The snappy movement, the fast paced combat, the excitement and joy of exploration. The backtracking always was the most tedious part! I'm still hesitant towards buying Samus returns, cause every gameplay video i saw during E3 had a damn cutscene when entering every room! I just wish Nintendo would've released Metroid 5 in the style of AM2R instead.
If you're worried about Samus Returns being slowed by cutscenes, you don't need to worry too much. After the game intro you only see a quick melee counter tutorial and 10 seconds showing the reveal each new Metroid form. Also, the actual game play is SUPER snappy. All movements are quick, and combat decisions feel like they take a tenth of a second. (Also, I may have misunderstood your comment, but Samus Returns isn't Metroid 5; it's a remake of Metroid II).
Victor Mumford I'm glad to hear that! Cause i really want to be happy that Metroid is back. I guess i'm also hesitant since i finished AM2R only weeks before Samus returns was announced, and i kind of wanted something new rather than revisit Metroid II again. That's why i'd rather have a Metroid 5 instead of a remake.
washburn888 I'm only in the third area so far of Samus Returns, but it has a curious relationship with AM2R. They look and play totally differently, but feel like cousins, since they recreate the same areas in different ways. Personally, I'd recommend Samus Returns. You might notice some vague similarities between areas in it and AM2R now and then, but I haven't felt like "I've been here before" with any area, except for maybe the surface, since they both have a tunnel to the right designed to introduce you to mechanics.
Hey, I'm glad I was able to bring an uncommon take on the game to light! Thank you!
The Geek Critique It was very appreciated! Also, as always, great job providing some historical context in the start of the review. By the way, i think my initial impression of this game was also hurt by that awful narration we got in the PAL version. "But among the stars, there is one light that burns brighter than all others. The light of Samus Aran." Is this the story of a bounty hunter or some beloved savior of the universe?
5 Years after I got the trilogy and dropped it a day afterwards, this series made me reconsider. And now, I've beaten the first game (Trilogy version) with 1 death. Though I still hate the chozo artifact hunt. But it was worth it to finally finish this game. I feel like our experiences were the exact same. Especially since another piece of footage in one of your other videos hinted your first death was at the same spot as mine: the hive chamber.
I actually loved that the scanner worked how it did. Being able to stop and read through the lore was one of the things that kept me playing the most. As for interrupting the fight, maybe, but I really liked how it was like the suit's AI informing you of your enemy and surroundings and how the tool was there if you wanted to learn more.
I felt the exact same way about Metroid Prime as it was my first exposure to MP. In addition I didn't really know what to do, as I was not familiar with the game mechanics (hell, shooting a door to open it? mmkay).