#701 Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS) – Fall 2017
Not a fan of the MercurySteam Metroid games. It is what it is. Metroid 2 is one of my favorite games from when I was a kid, and needed a remake. So this was 50/50 for me. On one hand, I could definitely recognize that it was Metroid 2 under the redesign. They added some really interesting new elements that made the game feel a lot more modern and streamlined, but also the difficulty went up considerably from the original and it lost some of that 1991 Gunpei Yokoi charm. I think me and a lot of other folks were really just hoping for a Zero Mission 2.
Favorite Tune: The remix of the main overworld theme might be the best tune on the entire 3DS...
Favorite New Element - Being able to grab onto ledges like in Metroid Fusion makes the game instantly faster-paced and more fun.
Best Part: The surprise final battle against Ridley. Him showing up in Metroid 2 isn't something I ever thought I'd see, and it was a great new final battle (especially after how scripted the Queen battle is in this version).
Worst Part: The surprise postgame battle against Ridley. Well, not really him so much as the entire postgame. After you beat the Queen Metroid, the "exit the planet" sequence is full of enemies like a normal escape sequence. The original Metroid 2 had some of the most peaceful, striking final few minutes I've ever seen in a game; they stood out so much, and this remake ruined that part. I kind of resented it for that. It didn't "get it" when it came to why the original ending was so special.
Oddball game here. Works in most ways, not as good as the previous game in general. They give Blaskowitz a new, normal-guy body and he goes from being Wide Blaskowitz to being Slim Blaskowitz. Lots of terrible things happen to him, like the previous game. The villain is an excellent one, a female general who is scarier than pretty much any male general.
Where the hell is part 3?: There was clearly going to be a third and final part to this new reboot saga, putting the new story to rest. Well, it probably got lost in the mail because instead we got a short VR game and a spinoff with his annoying daughters that felt more like a DLC. Haven't heard a peep about it, so it seems like it's a dropped idea.
Favorite Tune - Ubersoldat, one of the boss themes. It is criminally underutilized, only playing for a couple of battles in the entire game. Can't even find a link for the track.
The big restart of the series, of sorts, this moves the games into the realm of first person gameplay and more visually-stunning environments. While RE6 was the first PS4-generation game in the main series, it was also cross-platform and didn't feel next-gen the way this one did. Kinda reminds me of how Gen 6 Pokemon was the one that leaped to 3DS, but Gen 7 was the one that FELT like the leap.
Anyway...I don't particularly like RE7. Yeah I said it. It's a gross, creepy game. Which is probably the point. Folks that like Texas Chainsaw Massacre will get more out of this. I prefer the action stylings and gothic castles of RE8 by a mile over the wandering around lost in boiler rooms of RE7.
It's a Battlefront game. With Star Wars. You play as a high ranking imperial who turns against the establishment. Has a solid single-player campaign, unlike the first game which completely lacked one.
The most futuristic CoD has ever gotten. Has levels on the moon Europa. Jon Snow is the villain. Unfortunately the campaign is kinda generic futuristic and the multiplayer seemed to let everyone down.
Lame Story: My mom, who dislikes over the top extreme violence in games, was pretty excited when I said Jon Snow was the bad guy in a game. So when I went to play this, I made sure to bring it over so she could see the intro cutscenes with Jon Snow and Europa and so forth. Well, the very first scene is a guy getting knocked on the ground and having his head squashed by a robot foot. That was it for my mom watching this game. Kinda soured the game in general for me after that.
Most Memorable Moment: Being on the ice moon of Europa, and in a realistic near-future way, was still really cool when it came down to it.
No Lasers?: t's got futuristic weapons yeah, but they still totally downplay the importance of lasers. Like pretty much every other futuristic game from the last couple decades, it barely has any and what it does have are more like ballistic ammo than futuristic beams. All in all, CoD's trip to the future was on the lame side.
Probably the best single-player campaign in the series, this is a high-quality, respectful journey through the European theater of the war from D-Day onward. The level of accuracy for actual events here is commendable. Was happy to do more in the past after that last game. CoD is probably better off sticking to following real-world conflicts, or at least staying rooted in real-world eras.
Most Memorable Moment: Trying to take down Tiger-II tanks, the Ground HK of WW2. Took coordination and teamwork among a bunch of Shermans and infantry.
The series leaps to PS4 and higher-def visuals. I was interested to see how good this would look, given the budget of these games. While it did look pretty solid for early-era PS4, unfortunately on a gameplay level most folks really weren't into this game.
Musuo game...with FE characters! If you like playing musuo games as sexy women, this is basically an all you can eat buffet and an embarrassment of riches. Just nonstop sexy FE women running around in their hot little outfits. The kind of game that makes you really respect The Gays for sticking to their guns.
A game I'll always praise, this is a love letter to Final Fantasy fans. From a gameplay perspective, it's a very simplistic game on par with something like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I wouldn't rank it at the top of any lists, but it has a wistful and magical design to it that evokes deep feelings of nostalgia. The soundtrack is similarly wistful, and pretty great overall. It re-creates some areas from the series and embellishes them into these grand dioramas of what those places might have looked like in your imagination once upon a time.
Favorite Areas: Gilgamesh's Big Bridge, and Figaro Castle, both stand out to me as larger than life, huge locations that felt particularly magical in their FFRK versions.
Favorite Tunes: Have a few.
The Coliseum - Really just the kick-in, I can take or leave all the buildup. This takes almost two minutes to kick in the first time (less on successive kick-ins) but it's a good kick-in.
Battle Theme 2 - Fun fact, if I made an RPG, this would probably be the main battle theme in it.
Boss Theme - Probably my favorite boss theme in the history of RPGs, or close to it.
Desert Caravan - The soundtrack of this game is one of the extreme few things I'm nostalgic about in gaming, not even sure why. This tune in particular, I could probably listen to for hours on end.
Toughest Boss: I remember having a really hard time with Lich, who had a lot of instant death moves...if I'm thinking of the right game.
The formula was wearing thin by this point. The previous two games were both pretty exceptional, so this one had a lot to live up to. Well, the Midwestern American setting with a cult leader as the antagonist didn't work that well compared to the island and Himalayan settings of the last two. A much more ordinary environment to traverse with a more ordinary set of characters, this game simply existed. At least it wasn't bad or anything. If you want to play a Far Cry game in the Midwest, this is your game.
A nice little Metroidvania. Don't remember too much about it. I really wish I did, instead of drawing such a blank on so many of these.
A bigger and better version of Shadow of Mordor. In my view, at least. This one shows you a lot more of Mordor itself, including seeing Barad-Dur in the distance (which is under construction at this point in time). Just being able to run around a large portion of Mordor made this worth playing. I've always wanted to play a game where you can fight your way through Mordor and places like Barad-Dur and Minas Morgul that we never saw the inside of. Well, the games have generally left all of that unexplored for lore reasons. The only way an RPG for example could really give us some major Mordor Content would be to have it take place in the Second Age with Morgoth. Well...the interiors of these mythical dungeons - Barad-Dur might be the most legendary "dungeon" in all of fantasy - will have to remain mythical.
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