Just finished it. I did finish the original 100% back in the day, i only managed 96% now, i guess i don't have the same patience.
It's still the best Metroid after Super IMO. There are a few things that could be changed to make it perfect:
- Changing beams is not very fun. I prefer the system other Metroid games have (even Super, which is older), where they add elements in the main beam, making it better and better, instead of having multiple different beams. I feel like the only reason they did this was for the fights where you have to change beams (like the beam specific pirates). I'm not sure if those fights were fun enough to make this system worth. They could make it so those pirates could still be killed by any beam but they could be tougher and after you had, say, the ice beam, it would kill the Ice themed ones faster.
- If they had to keep the changing beams mechanic, they could at least not use it for the doors? There is no point changing beams to open doors that you have already unlocked. Use the Ice beam to break the Ice lock once, then just let the door open with any beam. That was the most annoying part of the game IMO, having to change beams over and over, just to open doors while re-exploring areas i had already opened.
- I was never a fan of "battle music" themes. I prefer having the main music theme play as i fight. The Research labs and upper mines were annoying with that loud, obnoxious music playing every time a bunch of space pirates were around. And the ghost areas were even worse because the music was even more obnoxious. A solution would be to use these themes the first time you meet those areas for the dramatic effect. But after re-visiting them for item hunting, or just passing by to reach other areas, there's no reason to do it again since there's no drama anymore, i just want to find some items i'm missing. Or, the game could detect that you have a certain number of upgrades and energy tanks, so you are too strong for those battles to pose any threat, thus stop playing that music afterwards.
- Some of the spider ball puzzles were annoying because of the fixed camera angles. I couldn't see a shadow under me so i had no idea where i will land, causing lots of frustration in a certain puzzle.
- The last few bosses aren't really that hard. They are very easy actually (especially if you have a lot of upgrades). But they are literal bullet sponges and the fights last way too long. The final boss lasted 3X more time that it should.
- There should be a final upgrade that lets you traverse around easier. Like a jetpack or something. There's no reason to re-do the grapple beam stuff or do the same platform jumping over and over again as you try to find the last 4 or 6 artifacts you missed. Other Metroid games do this with the space jump/screw attack upgrade. After that you can skip most of the platforming and speed run through the areas you already cleared. Metroid Prime doesn't really have that, the only thing it has is a double jump and you are stuck with it forever. I get it's a first person game and that would be harder to do but Powerslave did something similar before Prime with the "float" upgrade that you needed for later stages, but you could use for breezing through earlier ones.
www.thejimquisition.com
