Completed my Hard mode run today after somewhat taking my time over it, and I am now quite disappointed...not by the game by any means, I'm disappointed that I've finished it as I have thoroughly enjoyed it!
The main parts I got stuck on on Hard mode were:
1. Ridley's second form in which the boss battle takes place completely in 1st person perspective
2. The first time you see the Rhedogian (flaily armed, one eyed monster)
3. Ridley as we know and love him
What I loved about Hard mode is that it makes you deal with attacks that on Normal mode you don't bother dodging or pay little attention to, so you get a better feel for the game and its made much more intense.....imo of course.
Time to go sate my thirst for more Metroid by speed running Zero Mission and Fusion, good fun!

Hey...wait a minute...if all the Metroids "died" in Other M, then where did the Metroid come from in Fusion? You know, the one whose DNA you use to create a vaccine for the X virus...

@Kid_A:

Thanks BlackDragon. Good ol' Wikitroid always has the answers

Just finished it (not 100%'d or Hard Mode yet). And for a moment I thought we weren't going to have the Obligatory Countdown IT'S GONNA BLOW Escape Dash in this one

I loved this game, was a huge amount of fun. Never thought I'd be happy to see Nightmare again. Or Phantoon, for that matter.

hey hey! that's a huge spoi.... ah, forget it.

Do you get anything special for beating it 100%? I already beat the second ending at 44%

Hard Mode, I believe. Unless you're already playing Hard Mode. Then nothing but satisfaction.

I believe that in Hard Mode, there are no items to collect. You simply have 99 energy, 10 missiles, and your upgrades to help you through.

-BF98

Which means there is no item collection percentage in Hard mode, so Pixelman is playing normal mode.

So wait. Does that mean you have all the upgrades from the beginning?

On a Hard mode file the game doesn't even present you your percentage. In the place that, on a Normal mode file, shows you your percentage there is simply the words 'Hard mode'

Morphballer, Adam still authorizes your power-ups in the required sequence, I believe, but there are no missile tanks, energy tanks, accel charges, etc. All the extraneous stuff that is not needed to beat the game has been erased from the map. You start off with the same equipment as in normal mode.

did anyone noticed you fight the same final boss from Metroid II ?

Ah, okay. Thanks guys. :3

I was going to buy Metroid II off of Amazon today, but the cheapest I could find it was for $25. So I bought Fusion instead. I never did beat it, so I'm really looking forward to it--especially since it ties nicely into Other M.

You definitely went with the right game, especially since you like Other M and Zero Mission so much.

Return of Samus has a lot going for it. Even if not for the super scary Metroid bosses, the game is made by spiderball alone. Prime Trilogy's spiderball tracks were a super disappointing implementation. Why would there even be tracks like that? I refuse to believe some ancient civilization thought that was more convenient than building an escalator unless they were particularly bad at tying shoes. But in 2 you can go all over any surface. Very fun.

It's just too bad the tiny screen area, lack of color, and lack of distinguishing landmarks make it difficult to play nowadays without getting so hopelessly lost that Metroid 1 looks like a straight and clear path from start to finish.

It's the only Metroid I've yet to beat and wanted to beat (Corruption being the only one I didn't bother with). Got to just a handful of Metroids left and got lost. Sad times.

On a side note, Spire's spiderball-like ability in Hunters is exactly how spiderball should be implemented in 3D if giving it free reign in 3D is so problematic.

@Adam
I just beat Metroid 1 for the NES for the first time last night. Downloaded it on Virtual Console. I cheated a bit (well, a lot) by putting in the invisibility code, but it was still fun traveling around the world, getting the items and beating the final boss.
The game would be great if Nintendo would have bothered to fix the ridiculous frame rate issues. This game has some serious slowdown problems when the screen is flooded with enemies--which is pretty much all the time. Also, a good number of the rooms are exact replicas of other rooms, which adds needless amounts of confusion. Obviously not being able to shoot diagonally is a problem as well, but that was unavoidable at the time.

I had fun with it, but I can't imagine the game being even remotely possible without cheats. Ultimately, it made me incredibly thankful for Zero Mission, which is probably the best remake ever.

this, lol.
the original Metroid and Super Mario Land on the GB are games I consider impossible without cheats

Super mario land is easy right?, huh?