Andy’s Rating: One notch above Really Liked It (11/13)
When we last left Samus, she had just wiped out the Metroids on the planet Zebes and defeated Mother Brain. Oh, and she revealed that she is a woman. With that mission complete, she now proceeds to planet SR-388, the home of the Metroids, in order to wipe them all out.
And when we last left me, I was complaining that the original Metroid was too open, and it was hard to tell where to explore next. Also, many of the secret areas had to be found by trial and error, and when starting from the last save, Samus would begin with a minimal amount of energy, forcing the player to go through a tedious process of recovering health before continuing.
Thankfully, Metroid II: Return of Samus solves all of these issues, primarily by introducing a more linear level design. Luckily for Samus (and me), the Metroid were very considerate when designing SR-388. Instead of making it a huge, open world, they mapped out a series of caverns, with deadly lava blocking access to the next area. When the lava blocks your way, it is because you have Metroids that you still need to find and kill in the current area. Once you finish them off, there is an earthquake, the lava recedes, and you are free to explore the next area. It is a very handy system that keeps you generally focused on where you need to search next. And in a welcome change to the previous Metroid game, you will occasionally find spots that completely recharge your shields or missiles. And since your shields and missiles are stored when you save the game, you no longer have to spend time tediously recharging every time you start.
That is not to say that Metroid II has less exploring than Metroid…oh heavens no. While Metroid had corridors that were either vertical or horizontal, Metroid II has no such restrictions. The tunnels wind around, back and forth, and up and down. In some areas, you will find a gigantic cavern with a huge vaulted ceiling, and in the center lies an abandoned city of alien origin. There were times when I would drop from the ceiling, fall for a minute, and then land with no idea where I ended up. And since all of the caverns look generally the same (yes, I played in black and white), it make mapmaking that much more important. My map for Metroid was one side of one page; by comparison, my maps for Metroid II covered both sides of three sheets of paper. So while the caverns are more complex and expansive, they are also more enjoyable to explore, because there is a lot more to discover.
The gameplay itself is very similar to the first Metroid, except the boss battles have been replaced with mini-bosses in the form of mutated Metroids. As you first start exploring, you stumble upon the discarded husks of traditional Metroids. You soon discover that they are mutating into new and more-powerful forms: Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega Metroids. And if you’ve seen Aliens, you can deduce what you’ll find at the very end of the game.
To combat these new threats, Samus has even more weapons and gadgets at her disposal. The traditional items make their return: missiles, High-Jump Boots, the Screw Attack, Ice Beam, Wave Beam, the Varia Suit, and bombs. (Samus starts off with the Long Shot and Morph Ball.) But in addition to those weapons, Samus can also find the Spazer Beam and Plasma Beam, which are even stronger weapons than the Wave Beam. Samus also gets the Space Jump, which allows her to perform a mid-air jump, and thus reach areas that she could not otherwise reach. But the best new item has to be the Spider Ball. With the Spider Ball, Samus can morph into ball form, then proceed to scale any wall or ceiling. You may pass by a ledge that is seemingly there for no reason, but then you realize that you can hop up to it, switch to Spider Ball form, and climb along the ceiling to find a hidden passage. The beauty of this ability is that it forces you to look at exploration differently, and you will find yourself revisiting earlier areas to discover new secrets.
As for the final boss fight, I suppose I need to either trust myself, or stop feeling guilty when I peek at a walkthrough. I made it all the way to the final boss without reading any walkthroughs or hints, but I was unable to beat it. After trying it for several days, I figured that I must have missed an energy container or some missiles. After firing every single missile I had into the boss without defeating it, I decided to look and see if there was a trick. Sure enough, there is a trick to defeating the final boss. Now I wish I would have tried for a few more days before giving up, because I think I could have figured it out myself.
So, in short, I found Metroid II to be much more fun that the original Metroid. The controls are more responsive, Samus has more weapons and abilities, and the Spider Ball makes you look at exploring much differently. You have actual save points in the game, and your shields and missiles don’t reset to a low amount when you start from your save. Plus, if you end up low on missiles or energy, you can backtrack and find a recharge station for each. The gameplay benefits from some forced linearity, but Metroid purists might miss the open-ended nature of the original. But overall, Metroid II adds more of what made the first game great, while fixing a lot of the shortcomings.
