Haven’t been able to play since Saturday as I sliced my left thumb pretty badly. I’m so close to the end, and I wanted to see it through lol. I’ll probably have to wait a few more days unfortunately until this heals up.
@NintendoByNature Oof, that sucks. As someone whose finger was nearly split in half by a lawnmower accident one time, I'll just say I sympathize and wish for your fast recovery.
@JaxonH You know, my favorite game in a given year is rarely one that wins the plurality of awards, either, or scores the highest on Metacritic. You could probably pick ten different gamers off the street and get ten wildly different answers about what the best games released in a given year were, with everyone feeling like they're justified in their answers. In terms of the games you feel strongly about sometimes not scoring amazingly, I guess I'd say enthusiasts and nerds like us often have different priorities for our entertainment than what the general populace values, and that will impact our subjective evaluation of how good a given game is.
I think, once people settle down, most will agree it's better than Other M. The internet is in a particularly anti-Nintendo mood as of late, so the knives are coming out for any game from them that has a flawed or controversial element that can be attacked and meme'd on.
Yeah, I'll have to give Prince of Persia a go sometime. Especially since it goes rather cheap in sales (lol Ubisoft), and Rayman Origins/Legends are, frankly, some of my all-time favorite platformers. Just a pity it sold poorly and that team was disbanded.
I would actually second giving The Lost Crown a try. I wouldn't necessarily say its the best metroidvania I've played in recent years, but it is a surprisingly distinct and interesting one. It basically doesn't play like the common flavors, while also having its own setting. The standout part being the boss fights, which really sell the "Ancient Persian Superheroes" creative vision of the game.
As for the bizarre strain of Other M apologia. . . well, nothing ever only has one simple reason, and "a general environment of anti-Nintendo hostility" is certainly part of it. But well before this, I've been seeing occasional bursts of apologia for Other M. I think there are at least two notable sources:
1. An ideology of "Story is meaningless in video games". Which, since the rejection of Other M is first and foremost about its terrible story, must mean that Other M is "actually" good, or at least better than commonly accepted. Because its condemned for its story, and that "isn't actually a valid reason to judge a game".
2. A low media literacy viewpoint that refuses to acknowledge a different between creative intent versus creative execution. Other M being ambitious in its objectives in a lot of ways, so a person not able or willing to see past that goal judging very positively. . . not the game, but the dream image of what the game could have been.
Oh, and my own story of underrated gems? Alpha Protocol. One of the best western RPGs to this day, and easily the best spy themed video game. Yes, it has bugs and kludge, but no moreso than countless other games rated much more positively, even just by the same developer. My own theory is that, because the game superficially looks like an action game? Way too many review venues handed it off to their action game reviewer, rather than their RPG reviewer. Thus negative reviews from critics penalizing it for being a bad action game, who didn't bother to engage with its RPG design and mechanics. Or, in at least one case I vaguely recall, never even spending any skill points during their review playthrough.
Finally got into the mines. Dang, this is great. I’m down to the third level/layer. Oh wow, so many emotions as I keep going through it.
This had me thinking…there are so many incredible set pieces throughout this game. It’s awesome. I feel like it’s similar to Uncharted at times (or what I think is like Uncharted, only played a small amount of the first game). But, it has scripted events that are so cool…I am surprised that more people haven’t been bringing this up (outside of forums like this). Hope to have the mines beat tomorrow…and yeah, they get pretty tough.
@Ralizah ahh yea thanks. It’s pretty rough. Can’t even put pressure on it at the moment. You don’t realize how much you use your thumb until you can’t 😂. Soon enough lll be back on MP4
As the guy who predicted that it would score about the same as Other M, I'd like to point out a couple of things in its defence.
Firstly, there's been a fair amount of grade deflation over the years with review scores and it's much harder to get the high scores of the trilogy era. Prime Remastered is the one game that bucked the trend, but I'd think that reviewers cut it a lot of slack for being an old game with updated graphics and controls. They probably wouldn't have been nearly so friendly if a new game played similarly to it.
Secondly, Other M isn't nearly as bad as its reputation suggests. Sure, it's one of the weaker games in the series, but Metroid fans are a demanding bunch and prone to going in with sky high expectations that are difficult to meet.
@Matt_Barber
My issues with Other M were not anything to do with the game itself, but rather, the abomination of a control scheme it enforced.
D-pad for 3D movement and changing position of the controller in hand any time you shoot missiles... how did that ever get past the suits at Nintendo and end up on store shelves?
If Other M had normal controls (remaster when?) I'd think it a great game, from what portion I've played. I couldn't stick with it cause ya, that control scheme.
I don't know if there's been score deflation so much as there's been a paradigm shift in the culture where more and more, games are judged according to a different set of criteria than in the past. Such as marks against games wherever they don't conform to expectations of what is believed to be "allowed", as well as a desire to conform opinions to whatever direction the cultural current is perceived to be flowing. If a game has some controversy before release, that signals to many they should harp on that aspect critically because that's what will be expected of them. I think many reviewers are less independent than they used to be in their assessments. And I think there's more rogue review outlets nowadays that abuse their position to enact agendas- if they're upset with a company for which we see ebb and flow be it against EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo, etc, they tend to take it out on their games.
I think Ubisoft has been the biggest victim of this. At least 2 of their games are on my all time faves list, both of which are severely underrated. And released at a time when it was popular to hate Ubisoft for everything they did.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
Other M felt like if you took bayonetta, made all but 1 combo functionally useless, and made the movement even stiffer. You're watching over an hour in cutscenes which were all just assassinating samus's character (maybe if this was samus's first re-encounter with ridley her having a ptsd moment would make some sense but... seriously? Other M takes place after the primes and super metroid) and the highs of the game are parallel to it's lows cause the entire gameplay loop is dodge-charge beam-release, dodge-charge beam-release, with some missiles once in a awhile but not because you want to but because the game requires you to inorder to deal with some obstacle.
As a plot, it didn't fit. As for gameplay, it wasn't unplayable but it was certainly not among the greatest and there's plenty of examples of just how much better they could've handled it. It was cool seeing samus Supplex some enemies or jumping on them and point blanking with a charge shot but it ain't like there was much to it to really feel rewarding.
My personal theory remains: A good chunk of the story problems with Other M are the result of it having started life as a prequel. Samus being weirdly subordinate, and having an exaggerated response to meeting Ridley, would make a lot more sense if this is Samus whose a relatively inexperienced 20 year old Federation Marine. Likewise, you wouldn't have the "adjacent duplicate of Fusion" issue with the larger plot.
Obviously, I have no proof. But between the earliest teasers only showing scenes from the "flashbacks", and the sheer amount of stuff that would work better if this were set pre-Zero Mission? I'll continue to believe that it was intended as a prequel at least for part of its development, and only got reworked into post-Super later on.
Been able to do some light gaming and basically just doing crystal farming and energy tank finding. Should be all good to finish off the game by the weekend
@NintendoByNature
Let us know when you beat the game, or make notable progress worth sharing. I wanna hear your thoughts.
We are blessed to have access to the following on Switch 2:
Metroid [NES]
Metroid II [GB]
Metroid Fusion [GBA]
Metroid Zero Mission [GBA]
Metroid Dread [NS]
Metroid Prime Remastered [NS]
Metroid Prime 4 [NS2]
Here's to hoping we see Metroid: Samus Returns ported to Switch (an easy release to throw a bone to Switch owners while providing 4k 60fps on NS2), as well as Metroid Prime 2, Metroid Prime 3 and Metroid Prime Hunters. Then we'll be eating like champs. All the food in the kitchen. Even the ice cube trays will be left empty.
@JaxonH will definitely keep you posted. I’m at the point where I can head to crono tower and I saved it for the night. I’ll try to jump back in later.
I’ll be replaying zero mission, fusion and maybe even firing up the old 2ds to play some Samus returns in a replay. Such a fun game. Ngl though, I think I’m more of a 2d Metroid guy if I’m being honest. Dread might be my favorite in the series. It’s just so good, easy 10/10
Well I finished it last night. Kicking myself a bit cos I got 100% items, but somehow only 92% logbook scans. And I REALLY made a thing about scanning every little thing I could, so what I missed I'm not totally sure but I have a feeling it might have generally been in early game somewhere.
I'm still processing the ending. In some ways I feel it was rushed a bit, or at least, there used to be a lot more that was cut out, and maybe that lends credence to the idea the game was much bigger before being split up, which maybe will turn into Prime 5.
Besides that though there are surprisingly deep things I found about that final area of the game in terms of story, in regards to the Lamorn, that I appreciated. Don't know how to post spoiler tags here so I won't go into it, but for anyone that has played all the way through you probably know what I'm talking about and how melancholic it is.
Overall I enjoyed the game a lot. While I dont think I can quite go the perfect 10/10, its easily enough a 9/10 for me.
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Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
I think I just liked the music and level design more, and the movesets. The bosses were also A-tier, though Dread's bosses were S-tier. I especially liked the medallion badge thingies that you could equip with 1, 2 or 3 slots required, mixing and matching for your playstyle.
Psalms 22:16 (1,000 yrs before Christ)
They pierced My hands and feet
Isaiah 53:5 (700 yrs before Christ)
He was pierced for our transgressions
@JaxonH no doubt. I just beat the game. Not the ending I expected, that’s for sure. I’m assuming you have to teleport out with your allies holding back sylux yea? I’m almost didn’t press it but once I heard all the beeping and red flashing lights I quickly hit ‘a’ 😂. Definitely sets up for a return of sylux. Overall I liked it better than prime 1. I’d give it a solid 9/10.
@NintendoByNature yeah I refused to hit the teleport button the first time thinking I could save my friends... Nope, whole place went bang and I had to re-do the Sylux fight from the wormhole section xD
Ok I'm like 3 hours into the game (actually 3 hours since it seems like the in-game time works on "dialogue and menus don't count" mode). Real quick thoughts:
-Unless the later areas prove this wrong, very linear start.
-Also unless there's a better way to deal with this, best AND worst use of gyro. When it works, its really good and fits more naturally than even Splatoon (in that gameplay is built in very specific ways around it), but there's no easy way to auto-fix it if I move my arm that I know of which means I have to manually switch control schemes back and forth if I want to point at the screen and have it only move when I actually move it right or left. I miss pointer controls so badly either way, giant mistake throwing it away. Not as bad, but I am reminded of how I couldn't move my head or neck at all if I wanted to see 3D on my regular 3DS.
-Maybe best looking game I've played on Switch, and I played Alien: Isolation recently.
-Music is very good so far, which unfortunately is a notable thing to bring up for a modern, new Metroid game.
-Myles' first scene is awful but he is otherwise semi-tolerable. It is annoying that this sort of thing is considered Marvel writing when it is closer to a specific type of "bad nerd character writing" that you can find in movies from the 90s. More interesting is that between the more linear parts and the obligatory talky, helpful character, it feels like this part of the game is straight out of the Xbox 360 era more than anything. It's like the developers didn't know From Software games and BOTW exist so you don't need to do this anymore. I half expect the game to re-teach me my moves with on screen text while playing every time I load my save file. This aspect isn't good but for the most part my reaction is more "...huh :/" than anything.
Like most of the game is a semi-expected follow up to Prime 3 and so it is very good, like Prime 3, but one too many of its notable differences from past games is less than ideal early on.
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