Metroid

Dark Samus still seems to have some affinity for metroids, though.

I'm replaying Fusion. After Metroid 2, Fusion controls really well. Everything just feels right and fun, even if it's the 30th time I've played it. And most importantly, it's impossible to say Samus didn't have character before Other M. She shows plenty of character in her monologues.

And her suit makes sense.

Because, honestly, a space suit that stows itself if you fall unconscious strikes me as really bad design.

One of my favorite things about Fusion is the Ice-X. The X adept to combat Samus and try to infect Samus to kill her from the inside. Then she gets the Varia Suit, and that leads to two things. First, they try to infect her, only for her to calmly take them in, which is hilarious. Then they learn from that and always run away. It's a great moment showing that the X are intelligent and do learn from their mistakes, and it's done without any text.

Metroid has these moments of great non-verbal non-textual storytelling and that is one of them.

It's cool because right after you get the Varia Suit, there's this ladder long enough for you to be attacked by like 5 Ice-X. And by the time you reach the top, the last one has got the memo and flees.

I'm fond of the scientist in Sector 3. All their other faux humans came out as ugly blob monsters, but the scientist shows they finally learned to mimic humans, both their bodies and their minds.

The SA-X should have been proof of that.

Yeah, but look at its face.

Fusion and the Prime games are great examples of good storytelling in the Metroid series. I can also point to those (and Super, to a degree) for when anyone says that Samus had no personality before Other M. Seriously, if she had no personality then where did that jaunty wave at the end of Prime 2 come from?

Yeah. Not sure about Prime 2, but Super and specially Fusion had plenty narration from her part. It is not like she was a blank state.

Samus shows a lot of personality in the Prime games through her actions and her movements.

The way she tries to shoot down Dark Samus when it come for Ghor is...

Yeah, one thing I loved about Echoes was that all of the little movements Samus did in the cut scenes and elevator loading screens. Even though they seem insignificant, they showed a fair deal of her character.

That too.

edited 19th Apr '14 10:07:17 PM by Zelenal

You know what my favorite nonverbal bit is, actually? Omega Ridley showing just how Meta-Ridley managed to become organic Ridley in time for Super. I was kinda wondering how they'd do that.

Errr...Kind of, I guess? Omega Ridley still had a lot of Meta-Ridley metallic augments, and it's pretty implied that Omega Ridley exploded after the battle. So we have no idea how we got back to organic Ridley after Corruption.

Theory: Ridley clones.

Regarding movements; I loved the little slouching animation Samus had in Prime 1 and 2 when you entered a save station. It added quite a bit to the feeling of solitary exploration of a hostile environment, kind of like Resident Evil's famed save rooms.

Really, whoever makes the next metroid game needs to establish darn canon for the series :P I mean, even official sources keep making shit up all the time. "Ridley has regenation(sp?)! Ridley is being cloned! Ridley is being built as a cyborg! Space pirates are stupid grunts! Space pirates are mindless! Samus' energy tanks! Samus' concentration suit! Samus is stoic! Samus isn't stoic!" etc, the lore and games contradict each other so much that its not fun

edited 19th Apr '14 10:46:08 PM by SpookyMask

I think Retro should come back for one last game where they establish the series' canon and THEN had off the IP to other developers.

Ridley survived Corruption the same way Samus did. Bizzare biology able to adapt to Phazon, the best medical technology around (he was on the Pirate Homeworld after all), and sheer will power. It seems she didn't kill him hard enough, just like in Metroid 1, and Samus was too busy planet busting to make sure he stayed down. This gave him enough time to heal and survive Phaaze's destruction, which also regenerated his biological parts.

And better yet, have there to be ingame log book in Samus' ship that works as series bible(basically recapping all the previous games and info on various enemy species) so that if someone decides to do a midquel again, they don't screw up the canon again.

Its just so annoying that kihunters are supposedly intelligent species working together with pirates, but in Other M Samus is like "Huh, what are those? I think I saw them on Zebes"

Interesting note: Omega Ridley doesn't count for the ship record's kill count.

That might just be a bug though...

...Why did retro end Corruption with The Stinger anyway? I mean, seriously, why?

...BTW, has anybody else noticed that Other M has really large amount of bibedal enemy species?