WEBVTT 00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:11.280 Earlier this month, Nintendo and MercurySteam released Metroid: Samus Returns, on Nintendo 3DS. 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:15.500 The game is a complete remake of the Game Boy game Metroid 2. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:21.500 Coincidentally, Samus Returns comes almost exactly one year after the release of AM2R, 00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:26.430 or Another Metroid 2 Remake. That one was made by fans, and was the target of a legal 00:00:26.430 --> 00:00:28.949 takedown request by Nintendo. 00:00:28.949 --> 00:00:33.570 Now it’s not surprising that Metroid 2 has seen multiple remakes. This game is an important 00:00:33.570 --> 00:00:37.620 part of the Metroid story, after all, because the plot - which sees Samus on a mission to 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:43.050 wipe out the entire Metroid species - reverberates into Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and even 00:00:43.050 --> 00:00:44.500 Metroid Other M. 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:49.700 But it’s also a, let’s say, challenging game to play in 2017. 00:00:49.700 --> 00:00:54.210 For one, it’s different to pretty much every other Metroid game. Instead of zigzagging 00:00:54.210 --> 00:00:59.141 back and forth across an interconnected, maze-like map, the game opens up, more linearly, in 00:00:59.141 --> 00:01:04.390 great big chunks. In each area, you find and kill a certain number of Metroids before the 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:09.250 lava retracts and you go to the next area - with no real reason to ever return. 00:01:09.250 --> 00:01:13.250 This is probably due to the handheld nature of the game. There’s no real need to make 00:01:13.250 --> 00:01:17.880 your own map, as with Metroid 1, and you can explore a single area of the game in one sitting 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:22.200 and then safely turn the Game Boy off, without being hopelessly lost the next time you boot 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:23.290 up the game. 00:01:23.290 --> 00:01:27.910 But Metroid 2 generally feels subservient to the technical limitations of the Game Boy. 00:01:27.910 --> 00:01:32.580 The tiny screen reduces your visibility, the black and white palette is drab and confusing, 00:01:32.580 --> 00:01:36.530 and the game’s got limited controls - though, Samus does have more moves than she did in 00:01:36.530 --> 00:01:37.530 Metroid 1. 00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:40.750 So there’s plenty of stuff here for these remakes to tackle. And it’s interesting 00:01:40.750 --> 00:01:46.280 to see the different, and sometimes similar ways that Samus Returns and AM2R chose to 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:50.049 address Metroid 2’s shortcomings. 00:01:50.049 --> 00:01:55.260 Look at Samus’s movement. Both games dramatically improve her agility, they both give her the 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:59.610 ledge grab move introduced in Metroid Fusion, and they both have a dedicated button for 00:01:59.610 --> 00:02:05.149 rolling up into a morph ball. But Samus Returns drastically increases Samus’s combat abilities, 00:02:05.149 --> 00:02:10.049 and adds a melee counter and drops the diagonal aiming from classic Metroid in favour of full 00:02:10.049 --> 00:02:12.569 360 degree aiming. 00:02:12.569 --> 00:02:17.040 The bosses are also an aspect that both games sought to change. In Metroid 2 you’ll fight 00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:22.329 the same simple bosses over and over again, with the only change being the layout of the 00:02:22.329 --> 00:02:26.769 place where you fight them. AM2R makes the bosses a bit more interesting to fight with 00:02:26.769 --> 00:02:32.299 new patterns, smaller weakpoints, and by giving the Metroids additional attacks in later fights. 00:02:32.299 --> 00:02:36.579 Samus Returns does the same, actually, but the fights are even more elaborate and have 00:02:36.579 --> 00:02:39.469 more traditional boss-like patterns to learn. 00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:44.769 And if the repetition gets to you, both games also have extra bosses - like a Torizo from 00:02:44.769 --> 00:02:49.180 Super Metroid, a door guardian, and a bullet hell weapons trainer in AM2R, and a very difficult 00:02:49.180 --> 00:02:51.900 mining robot in Samus Returns. 00:02:51.900 --> 00:02:56.499 Other new additions include new power-ups. Samus had quite a formidable set of tools 00:02:56.499 --> 00:03:01.599 in Metroid 2 but both games add the Charge Shot, Super Bomb, Super Missile, and Gravity 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.129 Suit, and AM2R adds the speedboost, with all the shinesparking goodness that comes with 00:03:06.129 --> 00:03:09.260 it, while Samus Returns instead goes for the grapple beam. 00:03:09.260 --> 00:03:14.310 Oh, and that game also has four entirely new Aeion powers, which come with their own energy 00:03:14.310 --> 00:03:18.449 meter. These are powers that increase your attack and defence, one that slows down time, 00:03:18.449 --> 00:03:22.909 and another that reveals the map around your current location. Which makes secrets and 00:03:22.909 --> 00:03:25.109 hidden rooms pretty easy to find. 00:03:25.109 --> 00:03:30.549 In general, Samus Returns is just less interested in letting you get lost. The Metroid indicator 00:03:30.549 --> 00:03:34.739 flashes red as you get closer to the bosses, the map screen is very detailed, and these 00:03:34.739 --> 00:03:38.479 teleporters let you zip around within individual areas. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:43.669 In terms of level design, both games capture the map of Metroid 2 in the broad strokes. 00:03:43.669 --> 00:03:48.600 One area from Metroid 2 will look largely the same in both remakes. But they have 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:50.859 different ways of filling in the details. 00:03:50.859 --> 00:03:55.540 AM2R’s philosophy is to generally keep what’s already there, right down to placement of 00:03:55.540 --> 00:03:59.879 the item pick-ups and the layout of most of the rooms. But, the fans added new stuff on 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:04.400 top - like an all new section where you control a robot, and a tense escape sequence from 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:05.919 a weapons labs. 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:10.359 Samus Returns doesn’t add much new, but makes huge changes to the current layouts 00:04:10.359 --> 00:04:13.297 - with so much added density of pathways and obstacles, that many 00:04:13.300 --> 00:04:17.660 locations are practically unrecognisable. 00:04:17.680 --> 00:04:22.260 Both games choose to add more obstacles and locks that can’t be opened until you 00:04:22.270 --> 00:04:27.229 find a new ability somewhere else in the current area - making the games feel more like the 00:04:27.229 --> 00:04:31.560 other Metroid titles. Though, it’s much more pronounced in Samus Returns, which has 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:35.960 all sorts of weird obstacles that force you to get specific items and even beams. 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:39.960 AM2R, on the other hand, is fine with you missing a fair few items, and is more open 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:40.960 to sequence breaking. 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:45.150 Oh, and while neither game messes with the overarching structure of the game - you’re 00:04:45.150 --> 00:04:49.669 still killing a number of Metroids to open up new areas after all. Unlike the original, both remakes 00:04:49.669 --> 00:04:53.560 provide a method and a reason to return to previous areas. 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:58.210 Samus Returns is dotted with teleport stations that can ping you around the entire planet, 00:04:58.210 --> 00:05:02.560 while AM2R reveals a distribution centre, later into the game, with pipes that send 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:07.240 you back to previous places. Once there, you can use your new powers and abilities to get 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:09.729 goodies you couldn’t access earlier. 00:05:09.729 --> 00:05:14.271 We can also look at the two games’s interpretation of what Metroid 2 was originally going for. 00:05:14.271 --> 00:05:19.169 For a clear example, the unnamed and uncoloured liquid that fills the chambers in Metroid 00:05:19.169 --> 00:05:26.090 2, was seen as lava by the creators of AM2R, and as purple acid by those behind Samus Returns. 00:05:26.090 --> 00:05:30.479 And we can look at the backgrounds, too. AM2R looked for interesting tiles in the original 00:05:30.479 --> 00:05:35.230 game, and went from there. In the second area, these pipes inspired the developers to turn 00:05:35.230 --> 00:05:39.901 the zone into a water treatment plant. And in an area with loads of beam pick ups, they 00:05:39.901 --> 00:05:44.340 dressed it up as a weapons testing facility. Samus Returns is a lot less interesting in 00:05:44.340 --> 00:05:49.901 this regard. Everything’s just various types and colours of crumbling ruins. AM2R is 00:05:49.901 --> 00:05:54.550 more interested in telling a coherent background story about the Chozo - which is the ancient 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:57.629 race that built everything on SR388. 00:05:57.629 --> 00:06:02.300 And finally, another big change is to how health, ammo, and saving works. 00:06:02.300 --> 00:06:06.729 In Metroid 2, you recharge your health and ammo at different stations, and save points 00:06:06.729 --> 00:06:08.650 are just save points. 00:06:08.650 --> 00:06:14.330 In AM2R recharge stations are gone, because save stations now replenish ammo and health. 00:06:14.330 --> 00:06:17.340 Plus, Metroids drop lots of goodies upon death. 00:06:17.340 --> 00:06:21.440 And in Samus Returns, we’re back to recharge stations and save points, but Metroids now 00:06:21.440 --> 00:06:28.380 drop pick-ups and there are also invisible checkpoints before and after every boss battle. 00:06:28.380 --> 00:06:33.160 Now, it’s easy enough to talk about how these decisions have changed how Metroid 2 00:06:33.160 --> 00:06:38.009 works. Both remakes sought to make Metroid 2 work more like the other Metroid games, 00:06:38.009 --> 00:06:41.910 they both made the boss fights more involving, and they both filled in the blanks left by 00:06:41.910 --> 00:06:44.330 the original game’s monochrome palette. 00:06:44.330 --> 00:06:49.319 But it’s just as important to talk about how they change how Metroid 2 feels. 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:53.350 Take that last thing about health, ammo, and saving. In Metroid 2, you can find yourself 00:06:53.350 --> 00:06:57.830 battered and bruised by a Metroid fight, and then staggering back to a save station with 00:06:57.830 --> 00:07:01.729 a small amount of health. It feels tense, and distressing. 00:07:01.729 --> 00:07:06.409 AM2R makes life a bit easier with the post-fight pick-ups, and it neatly streamlines things 00:07:06.409 --> 00:07:11.240 by rolling recharge stations and save points into one - but the same anxious sensation 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:12.940 is just about there. 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:17.509 But in providing checkpoints immediately after every Metroid fight, Samus Returns completely 00:07:17.509 --> 00:07:22.150 removes that feeling. That stressful journey back up through the level and to a save point 00:07:22.150 --> 00:07:23.749 is just gone. 00:07:23.749 --> 00:07:28.259 So when judging these remakes, it’s important to consider the actual experience of playing 00:07:28.260 --> 00:07:33.320 Metroid 2. Not just what the different mechanics and design decisions were in that game, but 00:07:33.320 --> 00:07:36.580 how they contributed to a specific feeling within the player. 00:07:36.590 --> 00:07:42.419 And for me, playing Metroid 2 invoked feelings of dread and unease. It was darker and scarier 00:07:42.419 --> 00:07:47.440 than most other Metroid games. It gave me the feeling of invading someone else’s space. 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:51.449 Where the other Metroid games almost feel like a big puzzle for the player to solve, 00:07:51.449 --> 00:07:53.639 Metroid 2 felt invasive and alien. 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:57.159 And you can point to a lot of reasons for this. The lack of backtracking made you feel 00:07:57.159 --> 00:08:01.340 like you were always descending deeper and deeper into the Metroid’s lair. And unlike 00:08:01.340 --> 00:08:06.000 Super Metroid, you won’t return to the safety of your ship until the very end of the adventure. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.659 And then there’s the tiny screen space which means you can only see a few metres in front 00:08:09.659 --> 00:08:14.219 of you, like you’re pointing a torch into a pitch black room. And where the giant caverns 00:08:14.219 --> 00:08:18.180 are difficult to grasp through the microscopic viewpoint of the Game Boy screen, making you 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:23.129 feel small and insignificant, the narrow, winding paths make other parts of the game 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:25.580 feel cramped and claustrophobic. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:29.620 But ultimately Metroid 2 was something of a horror game. A frightening journey into 00:08:29.620 --> 00:08:34.840 an uncharted planet. A tense dive into an alien’s nest. And, if you ask me, neither 00:08:34.840 --> 00:08:39.000 remake really captures that because so many of the factors that contributed to Metroid 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.950 2’s feeling were seen as issues to fix. 00:08:41.950 --> 00:08:46.380 So claustrophobic screens get zoomed out and feel less constricting. Colourful backgrounds 00:08:46.380 --> 00:08:50.300 and whirring machines make the planet feel more welcoming and alive. Classic Metroid 00:08:50.300 --> 00:08:54.300 backtracking sends the player up and down the planet’s spine. And the more traditional 00:08:54.300 --> 00:08:59.240 level design can come across as artificial, instead of alien. Which is never more apparent 00:08:59.240 --> 00:09:04.040 than in Samus Returns where you make the acidic liquid go down by plugging Metroid DNA into 00:09:04.040 --> 00:09:07.300 a giant lock mechanism. 00:09:07.300 --> 00:09:11.430 Now, you might say that I’m reading too much into Metroid 2, and that most of these 00:09:11.430 --> 00:09:15.810 things were just due to the unavoidable limitations of the Game Boy. But I want to argue that 00:09:15.810 --> 00:09:18.010 most of this stuff was probably intentional. 00:09:18.010 --> 00:09:23.510 I mean, the game was made by Nintendo R&D1 - the same studio and much of the same team 00:09:23.510 --> 00:09:28.760 behind Metroid 1, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion. So it wasn’t some weird spin-off. 00:09:28.760 --> 00:09:32.910 And the game’s producer, the late Gunpei Yokoi, was the inventor of the Game Boy and 00:09:32.910 --> 00:09:35.800 so was very aware of the console’s limits. 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:40.380 I think the team took those limits and made a game that would suit them - something more 00:09:40.380 --> 00:09:43.060 intimate, claustrophobic, and foreboding. 00:09:43.060 --> 00:09:47.930 And I think you can tell that the designers were trying to freak you out. Look at the 00:09:47.930 --> 00:09:51.940 Metroid husks. They don’t just work as a good navigational tool to let you know that 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:56.300 a boss is near, but they also act like a warning. They can leave you with a pit in your stomach, 00:09:56.300 --> 00:09:58.480 because you know that you’re about to face a Metroid. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:04.320 And then Nintendo used these husks to surprise you. After always finding husks before fighting 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.320 Metroids, the game suddenly surprises you with a Metroid midway through a corridor… 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:10.970 and then reveals the husk in the next room. 00:10:10.970 --> 00:10:15.990 The game’s not afraid to break its own patterns, after all. The repetitive act of killing Metroids 00:10:15.990 --> 00:10:20.380 to drop the lava level is shattered towards the end of the game, where the lava actually 00:10:20.380 --> 00:10:25.400 goes up, forcing Samus to go back and find a new type of Metroid. 00:10:25.400 --> 00:10:30.110 The music is very telling, also. Of course, there’s this hopeful, exciting tune that 00:10:30.110 --> 00:10:32.960 plays through the main column of caves that links back to your ship. 00:10:38.660 --> 00:10:44.040 But it gives way to quiet, spooky, and discordant tunes when you descend into the different 00:10:44.050 --> 00:10:48.860 lairs. Where most retro games are filled with catchy, hummable tunes, including a lot of 00:10:48.860 --> 00:10:54.529 great Game Boy games made by R&D1, Metroid 2 sometimes just uses silence, some weird 00:10:54.529 --> 00:10:58.600 electronic sound effects, and Samus’s footsteps, to throw you off. 00:11:01.580 --> 00:11:05.940 I should point out that Samus Returns mostly does a good job of this, with surprisingly 00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:08.600 faithful remixes of the original music. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:18.540 When it’s not just re-using music from other Metroid games, that is. 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:23.560 AM2R is also a mixed bag when it comes to music, and a lot of the tracks have been replaced 00:11:23.560 --> 00:11:27.040 with jazzy, upbeat, Prime-style music. 00:11:32.300 --> 00:11:38.300 Metroid 2 also had some quiet, evocative storytelling, used to construct a certain, foreboding mood. 00:11:38.310 --> 00:11:42.139 Like, towards the end of the game, you start to notice that the number of normal enemies 00:11:42.139 --> 00:11:46.730 is going down. Where the early parts of the cave, near the surface, are bristling with 00:11:46.730 --> 00:11:50.970 alien life, the lower bowels of the planet are practically empty. And when you get to 00:11:50.970 --> 00:11:55.839 the area just before the Queen Metroid, there are no normal enemies at all. Just a quiet, 00:11:55.839 --> 00:11:58.259 eery climb up to the final area. 00:11:58.259 --> 00:12:03.070 You’ve either gone deeper than any non-Metroid life form has gone in a very long time, or 00:12:03.070 --> 00:12:07.470 the Metroids have systematically wiped out every other animal, powerfully asserting their 00:12:07.470 --> 00:12:09.709 spot at the top of the food chain. 00:12:09.709 --> 00:12:14.230 And then you get to this room. Where all the other Chozo statues in the game have been 00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:18.940 kept preserved, and sealed away from pesky Metroids behind impenetrable blast doors, this 00:12:18.940 --> 00:12:24.230 one - deep inside the Metroid lair has been smashed to pieces. It’s head is down here, 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:29.089 it’s body is up there, and its item - the ice beam, the only weapon capable of stopping 00:12:29.089 --> 00:12:33.209 the normal Metroid, has been pushed aside. Yikes. 00:12:33.209 --> 00:12:37.959 AM2R captures this part quite well. There’s sadly no ice beam because you get it much 00:12:37.959 --> 00:12:42.260 earlier, but the statue is still there. And the lower areas are devoid of enemies. 00:12:42.260 --> 00:12:46.740 But it’s Samus Returns that really didn’t get it. I don’t think the final Chozo statue 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:51.860 is even in the game, I couldn’t find it, and the enemies never let up. Right there, 00:12:51.860 --> 00:12:55.819 in the path leading to the Metroids lair, you’ll be fighting dozens of standard enemies 00:12:55.819 --> 00:12:59.760 In a noisy, messy gauntlet. 00:12:59.760 --> 00:13:03.550 Back to the Game Boy game. After this area and a final boss fight - did you know, by 00:13:03.550 --> 00:13:07.460 the way, that Nintendo suddenly removed the ability to pause during Metroid 2’s final 00:13:07.460 --> 00:13:11.699 boss fight? Friggin’ Dark Souls up in here. Uh, after that fight, Metroid 2 has one of 00:13:11.699 --> 00:13:16.860 the most surprising and low key endings of just about any game from this era. 00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:20.839 After finishing off the boss, Samus comes across this baby Metroid who assumes Samus 00:13:20.839 --> 00:13:25.620 is its mother. Instead of killing this final creature and finishing the mission, Samus 00:13:25.620 --> 00:13:29.529 decides to spare its life and the two leave the planet together. 00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:34.240 One of the most isolating games you can play suddenly gives you a companion. And as you 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:39.331 leave, the Metroid gobbling up walls that block your path, this strange, calming, and 00:13:39.340 --> 00:13:41.460 evocative music starts to plays. 00:13:47.040 --> 00:13:51.520 Over those last few minutes in the game - there are no enemies or puzzles to deal with - you’re 00:13:51.529 --> 00:13:55.819 given time to reflect on everything that has happened. Maybe consider Samus’s final act 00:13:55.819 --> 00:13:59.779 of mercy and compassion, which will be revisited in Super Metroid. 00:13:59.779 --> 00:14:04.360 Or maybe you’ll reconsider the ethical ramifications of your, frankly, genocidal mission to kill 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:09.509 a non-space-fairing species that was only used as a biological weapon by the space pirates. 00:14:09.509 --> 00:14:13.530 A genocidal mission which would be brought back up in Metroid Fusion, where it’s revealed 00:14:13.530 --> 00:14:18.370 that by wiping out almost all of the Metroids, Samus wrecked the ecosystem and let an even 00:14:18.370 --> 00:14:21.040 more dangerous species come to bear. 00:14:21.040 --> 00:14:25.120 And maybe this gives a new meaning to the discomforting feeling of the rest of the game? 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:30.600 It’s a dark and disturbing game for a dark and disturbing chapter in Samus’s life. 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.339 As S.R. Holiwell wrote in the terrific Metroid 2 defence piece A Maze of Murderscapes, “Games 00:14:36.339 --> 00:14:40.850 about killing should probably make you uncomfortable. They shouldn’t be carefully crafted to be 00:14:40.850 --> 00:14:47.980 pleasant. Metroid II is openly about killing. It makes me uncomfortable with wordless specificity”. 00:14:47.980 --> 00:14:52.410 Samus Returns on the other hand is very comfortable about killing. The game puts a tremendous 00:14:52.410 --> 00:14:58.120 focus on combat with that 360 aiming, multi-phase boss fights, ridiculous Aeion powers, and 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:02.970 these goofy cutscenes where Samus does ninja moves on Metroid bosses. Why Nintendo is so 00:15:02.970 --> 00:15:07.420 obsessed with turning Samus into Bayonetta is beyond me, but there we go. 00:15:07.420 --> 00:15:12.230 And, so, that final escape sequence with the baby Metroid contains yet more combat, not to mention 00:15:12.230 --> 00:15:16.759 an unnecessary additional boss fight. So much extra combat, actually, that you can hardly 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:21.870 hear that the Game Boy game’s final music, which was given a subtle update in AM2R’s 00:15:21.870 --> 00:15:27.040 completely faithful recreation of the ending... has now been given a strange high tempo electronic 00:15:27.040 --> 00:15:28.420 remix in Samus Returns. 00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:36.430 And if there was any doubt that Samus Returns just didn’t get Metroid 2’s themes, well, 00:15:36.430 --> 00:15:40.610 this is a game about travelling to an alien’s home planet to viciously wipe out the entire 00:15:40.610 --> 00:15:45.319 race, with a primary mechanic, the melee counter, which is about acting in self defence and 00:15:45.319 --> 00:15:47.000 only killing when first provoked. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:48.660 I’m half joking with that one. 00:15:48.660 --> 00:15:53.089 But this ending stuff absolutely boggles my mind. Samus Returns doesn’t just accidentally 00:15:53.089 --> 00:15:57.600 fail to capture the feeling of Metroid 2 by updating things, but it specifically undermines 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:02.460 the original game in boorish, bone headed ways. 00:16:02.460 --> 00:16:07.899 Now. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to hold up Metroid 2 as some perfect game. 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:11.910 There’s much more to it than most critics seem to realise, but it does have shortcomings 00:16:11.910 --> 00:16:14.050 that any remake should seek to update. 00:16:14.050 --> 00:16:18.579 So I’m disappointed that these remakes had the opportunity to use modern game design 00:16:18.579 --> 00:16:22.779 to deliver the same experience as Metroid 2, but in a different form - not the same 00:16:22.779 --> 00:16:24.970 form but with a different experience. 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:28.500 Because what does it matter if these games have largely the same level design if not 00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:33.189 the same disorienting feeling of exploring those levels? The same Metroids, if not the 00:16:33.189 --> 00:16:37.550 same dread of facing another one in a dark corridor? And so on. 00:16:37.550 --> 00:16:43.480 Both remakes attempt to retcon Metroid 2 into more familiar Metroid design, so AM2R brings 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:47.819 the game up to the same standards as Zero Mission and Super Metroid, while Samus Returns 00:16:47.819 --> 00:16:51.110 feels like a mix of classic Metroid games and Other M. 00:16:51.110 --> 00:16:55.680 But maybe those other types of design didn’t fit Metroid 2? Maybe the game’s themes and 00:16:55.680 --> 00:17:00.449 intended experience required a different set of mechanics? The closest analogy I can think 00:17:00.449 --> 00:17:05.470 of is remaking the oppressive Far Cry 2 to be more like the action movie playgrounds 00:17:05.470 --> 00:17:08.060 of Far Cry 3 and 4. 00:17:08.060 --> 00:17:12.560 So, yeah. This doesn’t make these remakes into bad games and I really enjoy both of 00:17:12.560 --> 00:17:17.970 these titles on their own terms. AM2R is a terrific accomplishment for a fan project 00:17:17.970 --> 00:17:21.800 and lots of fun to play, and Samus Returns has plenty to enjoy also. 00:17:21.800 --> 00:17:25.920 But, you know what happens to remakes. One of these games will be become the defacto 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:31.390 way of playing Metroid 2, and the original - already maligned and misunderstood - will 00:17:31.390 --> 00:17:35.200 become even less popular. 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:39.340 Well, that was a bit of a bummer to end on. But, hey, there we go. Thanks for watching and 00:17:39.340 --> 00:17:44.340 thank you for your patience in September - I’ve been unable to make stuff for half the month 00:17:44.340 --> 00:17:48.630 due to a nasty cold, which hopefully explains my slightly weird voice in this one. 00:17:48.630 --> 00:17:55.170 But I’m back now! And a special thank you to all my Patrons who keep the lights on at 00:17:55.170 --> 00:18:01.190 GMTK. 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