The GBA Metroids were fine and fun, but I think they lost something fundamental from Super Metroid. Something amazing about Super Metroid is that it has a narrative without any dialogue and almost without any cutscenes. And the environmental storytelling isn't stuff like graffiti taking the place of expository dialogue. It's just that the gameplay, graphics, level design, and a tiny seasoning of cutscenes (all of which incorporate symbols/structures from larger scifi genre) manage to give what I would call like the "key frames" of a compelling narrative.* The player's mind then tweens the rest. Likewise, the world has all these paths through it and secrets, but the player isn't being like told he should sequence break or do a completionist run. In some respects the true paths feel no less serendipitous than the shortcuts, and the need to gather powerups is fueled less by gotta-catch-em-all and more by the inherent challenge.
The GBA Metroids are more like guided recreations of the Super Metroid experience. Maybe there was only one good story that could just be totally implied from the setting, art, etc., so they couldn't just do another game like the first. But to me, the addition of the dialogues, increased scripted sequences, and the level design -- all of it feels like, "Remember that time in Super Metroid when X happened and it felt like it was emergent? Now it's scripted." Super Metroid repeated/refined stuff from Metroid (like the biomes, the overall gameplay, etc.), but Super Metroid didn't feel like it was following a formula. The GBA ones do. Hard to describe. Like there are lots of rails, some hidden, but that in some respect it's still on rails.
The same is true of SOTN -> GBA sequels, though I think SOTN is quite overrated compared to Super Metroid. At some point, both franchises just had a series of tropes and boxes to check. The core gameplay is fun, and the formulaic approach in a certain sense distills the fun factor, but lost a lot of the sense of wonder.
I've played some of acclaimed indie "Metroidvanias." They're very good, but they also feel very much like they are operating within a set of genre conventions, rather than just experimenting into an awesome form of action-exploration-adventure as with Super Metroid. To be honest, Cave Story might've been the only one that still felt super fresh. Hollow Knight and Ori are very well made, beautiful games and I had a ton of fun with them, but it just feels like I'm always talking to someone, grinding some resource, getting some familiar powerup or what have you. I'm not sure it's possible any longer to recreate the old charm. But I'd like to see a modern Metroidvania that didn't use dialogues, NPCs, shops, etc.
(* The mirror antagonist of Prince of Persia is a rare example that comes to mind from another game of that approximate era.)
I am a little less 'harsh' towards the Metroid games on the Gameboy Advance, but I really understand your viewpoint on this.
How the journey and the world is more used for 'story telling' rather than cutscenes and dialogue.
Very likely the GBA titles tried to emulate Super Metroid too much. Perhaps the time between the releases played a role, the designers maybe feeling that they had to remind the players of Super Metroid's content. Those gamers who perhaps never played Super Metroid.
Or perhaps they are indeed stuck in a certain approach or mindset of what they think makes up a Metroid game.
I have seen it in other games, and even other media.
This idea that something depends or recurring elements.
I also get you regarding dialog, shops, grinding, etc.
Perhaps that is also a reason why I sometimes don't want to replay a certain Metroid game so soon again.
Sorry, but I can't give you any suggestions now on what could give a really fresh approach to a Metroidvania game.
Prime 4 is in dev hell. If Dread underperforms I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s quietly cancelled.
In other news almost done with Zero Mission (just finished the zero suit sequence) and holy fuck is there a MASSIVE difficulty spike in the game from Tourian on. The game goes from being really fucking easy to pretty damn difficult. Maybe I’m just old and have slow reflexes now,but it’s very noticeable to me on this replay.
I honestly hope (I hate that word, hope is a lie) that Prime 4 is not cancelled as I would really like one more title, perhaps serving as a sort of 'closing chapter'.
Perhaps this time a more personal adventure. There would still be a threat to the Galactic Federation, but things don't get to the scope of Metroid Prime 3 with big space ship battles, multiple space hunters, 'epic storyline'.
Rather it is just Samus doing a mission of her own during which Metroids happen to appear.
Its been a while since I played Zero Mission. I hated some of the shine spark segments, but I think the stealth section should not give me much trouble.
Does this make me a hipster? Fusion is crap, though. Has too much Other M DNA in it, and the series is still recovering from that disaster.
Probably already mentioned here but Fusion was before Other M, and did the same plot threads much better.
Other M was the bad repeat and was really not required.
Prime 1 > 2 >= 3
My main complaint about Echoes is the overall layout of the game world. The world in Prime 1 has an organic feel to it. Echoes looks like it was designed by an algorithm with a checklist. The big temple in the center of the map with 3 linear paths that each lead to one of the 3 big areas that you have to clear in order. And each area has to have a shortcut to every other area that you can unlock later in the game. I don't know, it feels so artificial. Prime 1 also has better flow. Gameplay is only interrupted by elevators. The game handles loading times pretty well. Doors will usually open without delay when you get close to them, the door to the Crater being that one big exception. When I replayed the series a few years ago I noticed more longer load times in Echoes. And there are also extra loading cutscenes when you jump between light and dark world that slow the game down further. Even the Boost Ball has a longer cooldown now. They also "fixed" rocket launcher cancelling. Everything feels slower, like it's holding me back. But the game has a great atmosphere. The high-tech fortress is among my favorite areas in the series. And it's also more challenging than the first game.
Corruption focuses too much on story and characters with more cutscenes and dialogue that have no place in a Metroid game. And Hypermode is broken. Exploring the individual planets is still fun, though.
My main frustration with Echoes was that the game felt unfinished sometimes such as the Dark World, and that a lot of assets seemed to be recycled from Prime 1.
I also found the Dark World somewhat unimaginative.
Based on some of the concept art I think the Dark World equivalents of the locations could have been more interesting, the Ing Hive that serves as the counterpart to Sanctuary Fortress really being this organic living structure for example, with pieces of technology sticking out.
Giving the player the feeling as if they are in a creature rather than a building.
I agree with what makes Corruption different, but I did not dislike it. As long of course that Prime games are not going to focus more and more on those parts.
