Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

MP1's balanced gameplay makes it the stand-out entry in the series to this day.

Such a masterpiece.

Started playing the Metroid Prime games recently. They're good but they just don't appeal to me like the 2D games do.

When does Hunters take place? I forget and I am thinking of playing through the whole series sometime lol

Because as well as the undoubtedly worse mechanics, Metroid Prime 1 has the least interesting setting of the whole series. It's typical sandy ruins / fire / ice / evil base / final boss / end. Some of those areas were better, such as the sunken ship or northern Phendrana Drifts, but the whole of Magmoor Caverns and the Phazon Mines are an uninspired slog.

That, and the whole mystery boils down to:
-The evil plant monster poisoned the water.
-The space pirates did evil phazon experiments.
-Phazon is bad and arrived via Call of Duty airstrike.

None of those themes get interesting until they really start exploring them in Corruption. Showing their impact, both literal and non-literal.

@CreamyDream Part of the point of using "buzzwords" is not using "buzzwords" itself as a buzzword. You also said that "the addition of 'ammo' in MP2 was for the worse" without offering any elaboration, so how can you honestly take exception when I call MP1's mechanics "worse?"

It's not a nuanced thing, how mechanics work. It's the difference between a bunch of old PC games where the guns "pew pew" and make enemies lackadaisically fall over in death, and something like a modern Halo game where plasma grenades and needler shots satisfyingly burst when they kill an enemy.

Even setting the controls aside, which were obviously worse back on the gamecube when Prime was a Z-targeting shooter, Prime 3 greatly improved the combat mechanics. Grappling enemies to disarm or overcharge them with phazon energy added a whole new dimension to the combat, greatly improving the flow. Similarly the X-Ray visor lets you see weak spots and even one-shot some boss monsters. But the most important change is the enemies: They just feel better to shoot. Skytown drones, huge bosses, and beasts on Bryyo all die in more satisfying ways than in previous games.

And, in addition to some less dramatic combat improvements, Echoes just gives you more puzzle mechanics to play with than Prime 1. It was simply fun to wall jump with the screw attack and the spider ball was used more and more elaborately in places like the Sanctuary Fortress.

I think the problem is that it was just more annoying to get through until you really knew what you were doing and it has no mercy for newbies. Also doesn't help that me and everyone else didn't take advantage of the charged dark beam.

Torvus Bog is easily the worst section of any Prime game, also. That didn't help.

And I can proudly say Prime 2 is blatantly the most difficult game in the series regardless since I should know. I went through that game 10 years ago on hard mode without even getting all the pickups. It kicked my *** a ton before I finally beat it that way.

This I can most certainly agree with, especially the bossfights part. Some of the best I've seen in an action game.

Torvus Bog is a dope area, though. It's surely more interesting than Magmoor or the crashed ship. You can get lost when you have to go to Dark Torvus in the swamp area, but once you get to the hydro-ring it's a really unique place. There's a lot of unique puzzles as well as those amazing beats where you descend to fight the Alpha Blogg and follow Dark Samus through a tunnel.

The gravity boost is really well executed because it's exactly what a Metroidvania game is at its best. You encounter a new challenge that you're initially unprepared for, and this time it's not a colored door, but simply water. You can't move vertically under its weight. Then, you're equalled to the task and can jump underwater.

Oh, so that explains everything. You know they actually changed some things about Metroid Prime 2 to make it less obnoxious? Especially in those bossfights you mentioned? The Boost Guardian was not "a royal pain", it was the thorn in every player's side, and caused a lot of rage quits for people, myself included. It probably took me 30 tries over a span of a decade before I finally beat that damn thing.

And then the Metroid Prime Trilogy released on the Wii U VC, and the rest is history.

Huh, I quoted the wrong person, then...anyways, I'll agree with kkslider on the difficulty issue here. It wasn't "impossible", but it felt like it since it required a completely different mindset that most (myself included) took a lot longer to adapt to than it probably should've been had it been paced better.

I partially agree but I think Prime 2 and Prime 3 had some boss fights that were worse than anything from Prime 1 (closest to an annoying boss fight is if you go back to a Chozo Ghost room and fight that again (though that one robot from your first Phazon Mines trip is pretty bad on a first playthrough considering what you have to go through to get there)). Prime 1 was more consistent ultimately whereas Prime 2 and 3 were more all over the place.

Shenanigans! I call shenanigans!

I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Metroid Prime vs Metroid Prime 3. Right now. Throw out your nostalgia, dispense with your generalizations, and actually look at the bosses we're talking about here: http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_bosses_in_the_Metroid_s...

You know what one of the bosses in Metroid Prime was? It was this:

A literal fire stick. Plus wasps. And it wasn't even the only wasp boss, either. What's more, another one was a beetle. Corruption tends more toward intricate mechs, giant beasts, and phazon abominations. Unfortunately it doesn't have wasps, though. #NoBeesNoBuy

...I think you forgot that you're on a Nintendo fansite...

I was under the impression getting grabbed and spamming missles at point-blank was the intended strategy for the Ridley fight in Super Metroid. In every official cinematic in the series, that's always how its shown to work. And I'm pretty sure the Ridley fights in Metroid Prime 3 also mimic that to a T.

@Canis Wolfred Are you being sarcastic?

No. That's how I remember them all, at least...am I wrong? I'll admit I haven't played through a Metroid game in at least 6 years...

Nnnnooooooo... I'm pretty sure all of the Ridley fights, even back to Prime 1, are about weak points. Corruption's Meta Ridley elevator shaft fight is more of an early game set piece than a boss and it still has points you're supposed to target.

Ridley in Metroid: Zero Mission is one of the most bizarre boss battles. While Zero Mission is the easiest Metroid game (which I feel is almost clever, considering it's a remake of the first game that is also the first game chronologically), at least the other boss fights are usually actual boss fights. Kraid is still Kraid, Mother Brain is still Mother Brain. Ridley is missile spammy in the 2d games but in both Super and Fusion, it still takes long enough to spam those missiles that you need to dodge some attacks! There's still effort involved. Zero Mission Ridley is almost like a joke boss, except they forgot the joke. Whispy Woods I think takes longer to beat in most Kirby games.

...I'm aware of that. I just mean...attacking those parts was usually easiest when he grabbed you. But I'll admit that I've only played through Super Metroid once, so maybe it was harder in that one and I just forgot. Metroid Fusion I've played through twice, but not recently, and I barely remember any Ridley fight in that one, and I could've sworn it was near the beginning, and requires very little effort. Nevermind, it was the one near the end. That one was tough, just like every single boss in that game.

I never beat the original Metroid, but I got far. That one I remember being tricky, but mostly because getting hit in that game is a royal pain at any point, since you can't easily recover it at save points like you can in the rest. I don't think Ridley ever showed up in Metroid II, but I got majorly lost near the end last time I played and I could never beat it...

I don't recall them being very complicated in the Prime games, but I could just be remember it wrong. Obviously MP3 was the most recent one I played, so...

@DarthNocturnal But Nintendo needed to take down AM2R so that they can release their own Metroid II remake that's nowhere near as good .