How AM2R and Samus Returns remade Metroid 2 | Game Maker's Toolkit

Earlier this month, Nintendo and MercurySteam released Metroid: Samus Returns, on Nintendo 3DS.

The game is a complete remake of the Game
Boy game Metroid 2.

Coincidentally, Samus Returns comes almost
exactly one year after the release of AM2R,

or Another Metroid 2 Remake. That one was
made by fans, and was the target of a legal

takedown request by Nintendo.

Now it’s not surprising that Metroid 2 has
seen multiple remakes. This game is an important

part of the Metroid story, after all, because
the plot - which sees Samus on a mission to

wipe out the entire Metroid species - reverberates
into Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and even

Metroid Other M.

But it’s also a, let’s say, challenging
game to play in 2017.

For one, it’s different to pretty much every
other Metroid game. Instead of zigzagging

back and forth across an interconnected, maze-like
map, the game opens up, more linearly, in

great big chunks. In each area, you find and
kill a certain number of Metroids before the

lava retracts and you go to the next area
- with no real reason to ever return.

This is probably due to the handheld nature
of the game. There’s no real need to make

your own map, as with Metroid 1, and you can
explore a single area of the game in one sitting

and then safely turn the Game Boy off, without
being hopelessly lost the next time you boot

up the game.

But Metroid 2 generally feels subservient
to the technical limitations of the Game Boy.

The tiny screen reduces your visibility, the
black and white palette is drab and confusing,

and the game’s got limited controls - though,
Samus does have more moves than she did in

Metroid 1.

So there’s plenty of stuff here for these
remakes to tackle. And it’s interesting

to see the different, and sometimes similar
ways that Samus Returns and AM2R chose to

address Metroid 2’s shortcomings.

Look at Samus’s movement. Both games dramatically
improve her agility, they both give her the

ledge grab move introduced in Metroid Fusion,
and they both have a dedicated button for

rolling up into a morph ball. But Samus Returns
drastically increases Samus’s combat abilities,

and adds a melee counter and drops the diagonal
aiming from classic Metroid in favour of full

360 degree aiming.

The bosses are also an aspect that both games
sought to change. In Metroid 2 you’ll fight

the same simple bosses over and over again,
with the only change being the layout of the

place where you fight them. AM2R makes the
bosses a bit more interesting to fight with

new patterns, smaller weakpoints, and by giving
the Metroids additional attacks in later fights.

Samus Returns does the same, actually, but
the fights are even more elaborate and have

more traditional boss-like patterns to learn.

And if the repetition gets to you, both games
also have extra bosses - like a Torizo from

Super Metroid, a door guardian, and a bullet
hell weapons trainer in AM2R, and a very difficult

mining robot in Samus Returns.

Other new additions include new power-ups.
Samus had quite a formidable set of tools

in Metroid 2 but both games add the Charge
Shot, Super Bomb, Super Missile, and Gravity

Suit, and AM2R adds the speedboost, with all
the shinesparking goodness that comes with

it, while Samus Returns instead goes for the
grapple beam.

Oh, and that game also has four entirely new
Aeion powers, which come with their own energy

meter. These are powers that increase your
attack and defence, one that slows down time,

and another that reveals the map around your
current location. Which makes secrets and

hidden rooms pretty easy to find.

In general, Samus Returns is just less interested
in letting you get lost. The Metroid indicator

flashes red as you get closer to the bosses,
the map screen is very detailed, and these

teleporters let you zip around within individual
areas.

In terms of level design, both games capture
the map of Metroid 2 in the broad strokes.

One area from Metroid 2 will look largely
the same in both remakes. But they have

different ways of filling in the details.

AM2R’s philosophy is to generally keep what’s
already there, right down to placement of

the item pick-ups and the layout of most of
the rooms. But, the fans added new stuff on

top - like an all new section where you control
a robot, and a tense escape sequence from

a weapons labs.

Samus Returns doesn’t add much new, but
makes huge changes to the current layouts

- with so much added density of pathways and
obstacles, that many

locations are practically unrecognisable.

Both games choose to add more obstacles
and locks that can’t be opened until you

find a new ability somewhere else in the current
area - making the games feel more like the

other Metroid titles. Though, it’s much
more pronounced in Samus Returns, which has

all sorts of weird obstacles that force you
to get specific items and even beams.

AM2R, on the other hand, is fine with you
missing a fair few items, and is more open

to sequence breaking.

Oh, and while neither game messes with the
overarching structure of the game - you’re

still killing a number of Metroids to open
up new areas after all. Unlike the original, both remakes

provide a method and a reason to return to
previous areas.

Samus Returns is dotted with teleport stations
that can ping you around the entire planet,

while AM2R reveals a distribution centre,
later into the game, with pipes that send

you back to previous places. Once there, you
can use your new powers and abilities to get

goodies you couldn’t access earlier.

We can also look at the two games’s interpretation
of what Metroid 2 was originally going for.

For a clear example, the unnamed and uncoloured
liquid that fills the chambers in Metroid

2, was seen as lava by the creators of AM2R,
and as purple acid by those behind Samus Returns.

And we can look at the backgrounds, too. AM2R
looked for interesting tiles in the original

game, and went from there. In the second area,
these pipes inspired the developers to turn

the zone into a water treatment plant. And
in an area with loads of beam pick ups, they

dressed it up as a weapons testing facility.
Samus Returns is a lot less interesting in

this regard. Everything’s just various types
and colours of crumbling ruins. AM2R is

more interested in telling a coherent background
story about the Chozo - which is the ancient

race that built everything on SR388.

And finally, another big change is to how
health, ammo, and saving works.

In Metroid 2, you recharge your health and
ammo at different stations, and save points

are just save points.

In AM2R recharge stations are gone, because
save stations now replenish ammo and health.

Plus, Metroids drop lots of goodies upon death.

And in Samus Returns, we’re back to recharge
stations and save points, but Metroids now

drop pick-ups and there are also invisible
checkpoints before and after every boss battle.

Now, it’s easy enough to talk about how
these decisions have changed how Metroid 2

works. Both remakes sought to make Metroid
2 work more like the other Metroid games,

they both made the boss fights more involving,
and they both filled in the blanks left by

the original game’s monochrome palette.

But it’s just as important to talk about
how they change how Metroid 2 feels.

Take that last thing about health, ammo, and
saving. In Metroid 2, you can find yourself

battered and bruised by a Metroid fight, and
then staggering back to a save station with

a small amount of health. It feels tense,
and distressing.

AM2R makes life a bit easier with the post-fight
pick-ups, and it neatly streamlines things

by rolling recharge stations and save points
into one - but the same anxious sensation

is just about there.

But in providing checkpoints immediately after
every Metroid fight, Samus Returns completely

removes that feeling. That stressful journey
back up through the level and to a save point

is just gone.

So when judging these remakes, it’s important
to consider the actual experience of playing

Metroid 2. Not just what the different mechanics and design decisions were in that game, but

how they contributed to a specific feeling within the player.

And for me, playing Metroid 2 invoked feelings
of dread and unease. It was darker and scarier

than most other Metroid games. It gave me
the feeling of invading someone else’s space.

Where the other Metroid games almost feel
like a big puzzle for the player to solve,

Metroid 2 felt invasive and alien.

And you can point to a lot of reasons for
this. The lack of backtracking made you feel

like you were always descending deeper and
deeper into the Metroid’s lair. And unlike

Super Metroid, you won’t return to the safety
of your ship until the very end of the adventure.

And then there’s the tiny screen space which
means you can only see a few metres in front

of you, like you’re pointing a torch into
a pitch black room. And where the giant caverns

are difficult to grasp through the microscopic
viewpoint of the Game Boy screen, making you

feel small and insignificant, the narrow,
winding paths make other parts of the game

feel cramped and claustrophobic.

But ultimately Metroid 2 was something of
a horror game. A frightening journey into

an uncharted planet. A tense dive into an
alien’s nest. And, if you ask me, neither

remake really captures that because so many
of the factors that contributed to Metroid

2’s feeling were seen as issues to fix.

So claustrophobic screens get zoomed out and
feel less constricting. Colourful backgrounds

and whirring machines make the planet feel
more welcoming and alive. Classic Metroid

backtracking sends the player up and down
the planet’s spine. And the more traditional

level design can come across as artificial,
instead of alien. Which is never more apparent

than in Samus Returns where you make the acidic
liquid go down by plugging Metroid DNA into

a giant lock mechanism.

Now, you might say that I’m reading too
much into Metroid 2, and that most of these

things were just due to the unavoidable limitations
of the Game Boy. But I want to argue that

most of this stuff was probably intentional.

I mean, the game was made by Nintendo R&D1
- the same studio and much of the same team

behind Metroid 1, Super Metroid, and Metroid
Fusion. So it wasn’t some weird spin-off.

And the game’s producer, the late Gunpei
Yokoi, was the inventor of the Game Boy and

so was very aware of the console’s limits.

I think the team took those limits and made
a game that would suit them - something more

intimate, claustrophobic, and foreboding.

And I think you can tell that the designers
were trying to freak you out. Look at the

Metroid husks. They don’t just work as a
good navigational tool to let you know that

a boss is near, but they also act like a warning.
They can leave you with a pit in your stomach,

because you know that you’re about to face
a Metroid.

And then Nintendo used these husks to surprise
you. After always finding husks before fighting

Metroids, the game suddenly surprises you
with a Metroid midway through a corridor…

and then reveals the husk in the next room.

The game’s not afraid to break its own patterns,
after all. The repetitive act of killing Metroids

to drop the lava level is shattered towards
the end of the game, where the lava actually

goes up, forcing Samus to go back and find
a new type of Metroid.

The music is very telling, also. Of course,
there’s this hopeful, exciting tune that

plays through the main column of caves that
links back to your ship.

But it gives way to quiet, spooky, and discordant
tunes when you descend into the different

lairs. Where most retro games are filled with
catchy, hummable tunes, including a lot of

great Game Boy games made by R&D1, Metroid
2 sometimes just uses silence, some weird

electronic sound effects, and Samus’s footsteps,
to throw you off.

I should point out that Samus Returns mostly
does a good job of this, with surprisingly

faithful remixes of the original music.

When it’s not just re-using music from other
Metroid games, that is.

AM2R is also a mixed bag when it comes to
music, and a lot of the tracks have been replaced

with jazzy, upbeat, Prime-style music.

Metroid 2 also had some quiet, evocative storytelling,
used to construct a certain, foreboding mood.

Like, towards the end of the game, you start
to notice that the number of normal enemies

is going down. Where the early parts of the
cave, near the surface, are bristling with

alien life, the lower bowels of the planet
are practically empty. And when you get to

the area just before the Queen Metroid, there
are no normal enemies at all. Just a quiet,

eery climb up to the final area.

You’ve either gone deeper than any non-Metroid
life form has gone in a very long time, or

the Metroids have systematically wiped out
every other animal, powerfully asserting their

spot at the top of the food chain.

And then you get to this room. Where all the
other Chozo statues in the game have been

kept preserved, and sealed away from pesky
Metroids behind impenetrable blast doors, this

one - deep inside the Metroid lair has been
smashed to pieces. It’s head is down here,

it’s body is up there, and its item - the
ice beam, the only weapon capable of stopping

the normal Metroid, has been pushed aside.
Yikes.

AM2R captures this part quite well. There’s
sadly no ice beam because you get it much

earlier, but the statue is still there. And
the lower areas are devoid of enemies.

But it’s Samus Returns that really didn’t
get it. I don’t think the final Chozo statue

is even in the game, I couldn’t find it,
and the enemies never let up. Right there,

in the path leading to the Metroids lair,
you’ll be fighting dozens of standard enemies

In a noisy, messy gauntlet.

Back to the Game Boy game. After this area
and a final boss fight - did you know, by

the way, that Nintendo suddenly removed the
ability to pause during Metroid 2’s final

boss fight? Friggin’ Dark Souls up in here.
Uh, after that fight, Metroid 2 has one of

the most surprising and low key endings of
just about any game from this era.

After finishing off the boss, Samus comes
across this baby Metroid who assumes Samus

is its mother. Instead of killing this final
creature and finishing the mission, Samus

decides to spare its life and the two leave
the planet together.

One of the most isolating games you can play
suddenly gives you a companion. And as you

leave, the Metroid gobbling up walls that
block your path, this strange, calming, and

evocative music starts to plays.

Over those last few minutes in the game - there
are no enemies or puzzles to deal with - you’re

given time to reflect on everything that has
happened. Maybe consider Samus’s final act

of mercy and compassion, which will be revisited
in Super Metroid.

Or maybe you’ll reconsider the ethical ramifications
of your, frankly, genocidal mission to kill

a non-space-fairing species that was only
used as a biological weapon by the space pirates.

A genocidal mission which would be brought
back up in Metroid Fusion, where it’s revealed

that by wiping out almost all of the Metroids,
Samus wrecked the ecosystem and let an even

more dangerous species come to bear.

And maybe this gives a new meaning to the
discomforting feeling of the rest of the game?

It’s a dark and disturbing game for a dark
and disturbing chapter in Samus’s life.

As S.R. Holiwell wrote in the terrific Metroid
2 defence piece A Maze of Murderscapes, “Games

about killing should probably make you uncomfortable.
They shouldn’t be carefully crafted to be

pleasant. Metroid II is openly about killing. It
makes me uncomfortable with wordless specificity”.

Samus Returns on the other hand is very comfortable
about killing. The game puts a tremendous

focus on combat with that 360 aiming, multi-phase
boss fights, ridiculous Aeion powers, and

these goofy cutscenes where Samus does ninja
moves on Metroid bosses. Why Nintendo is so

obsessed with turning Samus into Bayonetta
is beyond me, but there we go.

And, so, that final escape sequence with the
baby Metroid contains yet more combat, not to mention

an unnecessary additional boss fight. So much
extra combat, actually, that you can hardly

hear that the Game Boy game’s final music,
which was given a subtle update in AM2R’s

completely faithful recreation of the ending...
has now been given a strange high tempo electronic

remix in Samus Returns.

And if there was any doubt that Samus Returns
just didn’t get Metroid 2’s themes, well,

this is a game about travelling to an alien’s
home planet to viciously wipe out the entire

race, with a primary mechanic, the melee counter,
which is about acting in self defence and

only killing when first provoked.

I’m half joking with that one.

But this ending stuff absolutely boggles my
mind. Samus Returns doesn’t just accidentally

fail to capture the feeling of Metroid 2 by
updating things, but it specifically undermines

the original game in boorish, bone headed
ways.

Now. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying
to hold up Metroid 2 as some perfect game.

There’s much more to it than most critics
seem to realise, but it does have shortcomings

that any remake should seek to update.

So I’m disappointed that these remakes
had the opportunity to use modern game design

to deliver the same experience as Metroid
2, but in a different form - not the same

form but with a different experience.

Because what does it matter if these games
have largely the same level design if not

the same disorienting feeling of exploring
those levels? The same Metroids, if not the

same dread of facing another one in a dark
corridor? And so on.

Both remakes attempt to retcon Metroid 2 into
more familiar Metroid design, so AM2R brings

the game up to the same standards as Zero
Mission and Super Metroid, while Samus Returns

feels like a mix of classic Metroid games
and Other M.

But maybe those other types of design didn’t
fit Metroid 2? Maybe the game’s themes and

intended experience required a different set
of mechanics? The closest analogy I can think

of is remaking the oppressive Far Cry 2 to
be more like the action movie playgrounds

of Far Cry 3 and 4.

So, yeah. This doesn’t make these remakes
into bad games and I really enjoy both of

these titles on their own terms. AM2R is a
terrific accomplishment for a fan project

and lots of fun to play, and Samus Returns
has plenty to enjoy also.

But, you know what happens to remakes. One
of these games will be become the defacto

way of playing Metroid 2, and the original
- already maligned and misunderstood - will

become even less popular.

Well, that was a bit of a bummer to end on.
But, hey, there we go. Thanks for watching and

thank you for your patience in September - I’ve
been unable to make stuff for half the month

due to a nasty cold, which hopefully explains
my slightly weird voice in this one.

But I’m back now! And a special thank you
to all my Patrons who keep the lights on at

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