Metroid: Samus Returns Reinvigorates a Classic
I’ve written a fair bit about Metroid: Samus Returns here already. I’ve noted how the parry technique noticeably changes way Metroid has handled combat for decades, slotted it in near the top of our ranking of every Metroid game, and added it to our list of the best games of the year so far. Despite all that, it still merits its own review. After all, I’ve had a copy for over six weeks, and I’m still finding time to play it.
Samus Returns navigates some pretty tricky territory. It tries to capture what made the old two-dimensional Metroid games so beloved back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, while also imprinting its own stamp on that basic Metroid design. It began as a remake of the original Game Boy sequel, 1992’s Metroid II: Return of Samus, and that still shines through in its basic structure. Like that game, you’re not just exploring and backtracking through this alien planet to gather enough weapons to take down a specific final boss; you’re hunting exactly 40 metroids strewn throughout the world’s various distinct areas. There are enough changes to make this feel like a new game, though, hence the “reimagining” tag regularly applied to it in Nintendo’s marketing (and pretty much every article that’s been written about it). The parry mechanic is the most dramatic alteration: if you hit a button at the right time, you can fend back almost every enemy in the game, momentarily stunning them and leaving most open for a single-shot kill. This parry even comes into play in the metroid battles that serve as de facto miniboss encounters throughout the game—you can take them down by patiently spamming missiles at them when their weak spots are unguarded, but if you can master the reflexes needed to parry their attacks, you enter a brief little interactive cut-scene where you can just unload missiles into them. It’s a short-cut, but one you have to earn, as there’s a very small window to effectively parry. If your timing is right, you can sail through most of the game on the backs of that one defensive maneuver.
