Metroid 2 Hack

[Shawana Kallhoff]

Asidefrom the controls, the big addition to Metroid Prime Remastered is a complete overhaul of the graphics, which never lose sight of the art style that made the original so pretty. Water ripples, steam occludes, insects light the way and cast shadows like lanterns, metal reflects and shines (except for the mirrors; you can no longer see yourself in those for some reason); it all looks exquisite, as beautiful as any modern Switch game.

In the two decades since the original release of Metroid Prime I\u2019ve had no problem giving it my highest recommendation, along with one nagging reservation: The controls take some getting used to. Thanks to the outstanding updates in Metroid Prime Remastered, I can finally drop that caveat: Metroid Prime Remastered is one of the best first-person shooters ever made, full stop. This updated version goes above and beyond the typical coat-of-paint remaster by adding modern controls along with fabulously improved models and textures \u2013 it\u2019s a perfect example of how to both honor a lauded classic and bring it up to code. Replaying it feels almost entirely new, evoking that same fresh feeling as the Dead Space remake or Resident Evil 2 and 3 despite not actually being such a drastic remake itself \u2013 and it\u2019s a far cry from the disappointing treatment that the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on Switch received.

What makes Metroid Prime obviously different from other legendary FPS campaigns like Halo, Half-Life, Titanfall 2, and Wolfenstein is its solitary nature. There\u2019s not a single conversation to be had, no radio or AI assistant voices chattering in your ear, and, just for the record, no multiplayer. This is a game about a lone hunter \u2013 Samus Aran \u2013 on a hostile world, and Prime revels in that setup. Like other great Metroid games (e.g. Super Metroid, Metroid: Zero Mission, and the most recent Metroid Dread), Metroid Prime\u2019s spareness in its storytelling makes for a uniquely moody magnificence. It\u2019s more horror than space opera, no doubt owing to Metroid\u2019s key influence, Ridley Scott\u2019s 1979 masterpiece movie, Alien.

The planet, Tallon IV, has as much or more development than any character, told in its geology, technology, flora, fauna, and \u201cother\u201d \u2013\u00a0 and yes, in much of the encyclopedic lore you acquire via a HUD scanning function. In this way the story is told through experience with your environment alone, and despite the narrative methods not getting any sort of update, it still feels revolutionary and modern compared to all the very talky games we play today. (It must be noted that attempts at adding a bunch of characters hasn\u2019t been great for the Metroid series, specifically, with Metroid: Other M and Metroid Prime: Hunters being especially goofy in their world-building.)\u00a0

There are so many things to laud in Metroid Prime, but its biggest accomplishment is Tallon IV itself. Each room has a purpose and a name, with details that make no two places quite alike. A flowing fountain babbles down the side of a sunny sanctuary hall; a furnace chamber pumps heat through conveniently morph-ball sized vents to other areas; a lab deep underground holds experiments in tubes that act as jump-scare time bombs. It\u2019s all logically laid out to reflect the story and setting, but the world mirrors your progress in a brilliant way: Rooms that once took toil and grit to get through can soon be zipped through with the help of a newly obtained skill or weapon.\u00a0

Originally the controls for Metroid Prime on GameCube were so clumsy and awkward that its fans had to argue it was not an FPS at all, but something else, such as a first-person puzzle game. You had to lock onto a target and shoot, instead of allowing full, dual-joystick movement, and trying to go from any other shooter to this was like having to learn to walk again. Since then we\u2019ve seen options to use the Wii-like motion controls established in the Metroid Prime Trilogy collection, or a variant of the original controls on the GameCube controller, but none made it something that was easy for most people to pick up and play. The new dual analog stick controls are indistinguishable from modern shooters, though, and actually make some battles a bit easier. You can strafe, jump, dodge, and control your view with so much more dexterity.\u00a0

The way you experience the ruins, caves, and laboratories of Tallon IV is through a visor, set in a helmet in your suit, which is a perfect setup for immersion in first-person. The visor\u2019s HUD gives you all of your basic info, like many games have come to do since, but it also acts like a real, hi-tech glass dome: it steams up when blasted with flame, muffles Samus\u2019s cries, and in flashes of bright light it\u2019ll even reflect her own surprised eyes for an instant. These are all brilliant little tricks that cause the barrier between you and the world on your TV or Switch screen to melt away, allowing you to meld dreamily into it \u2013 which is why it is all the more jarring (in a good way!) when you pop out into the third-person Morph Ball view.\u00a0

You can enter your Morph Ball mode at any time, and when you do, the camera flies outward so you can watch as Samus collapses into a knee-high ball and performs a number of rolling, Tony Hawk-like maneuvers to solve puzzles, get through cramped areas, or just zoom really fast while backtracking. Many rooms have a feature that requires you to switch forms, ranging from a simple hidden passageway to a maze-like physics-based contraption you must navigate with precision rolling; it challenges your dexterity in an entirely different way than the first-person shooting or platforming. You\u2019ll get occasional looks at Samus in the third person when she\u2019s not in ball form, such as in the rare (high frame rate, completely and gorgeously remodeled) cutscenes, but sometimes you also get a glimpse of her as the camera rushes back into her helmet, a rare flash that reveals the complexity of building a game around what\u2019s basically a first-person shooter / pinball machine mash-up.

Aside from the third-person Morph Ball, Metroid Prime Remastered has you doing a lot of things a side-scrolling Metroid would: jumping across precarious platforms, swinging from a grappling hook, and ascending huge, vertical spaces, littered with hostile critters. This was all quite novel in 2002 but feels standard today: Clever implementation of a double-jump gives you an extra period of mid-air adjustment to solve so many precision-jumping and grappling issues, and Prime is forgiving with what\u2019s under your feet so there isn\u2019t a lot of replaying areas due to frustrating falls. You can definitely miss a platform, but it\u2019s nothing that wouldn\u2019t happen in Super Mario Bros. as well. What\u2019s interesting is how much better I am at platforming in first-person after 20 years of Halo games, because modern shooters just all do this now and it's in my FPS muscle memory. The Metroid Prime Remaster still sticks the landings \u2013 and the jumps.

And while I mostly played on a Pro Controller, the fact that Metroid Prime is portable is still mind-blowing, if less novel six years into the Switch\u2019s life. Of course, all shooters that use triggers are less comfortable on the Switch\u2019s Joy-Con-attached setup, and Prime does have one odd quirk in its default controls that make you hit both the trigger to charge a shot and the shoulder button to fire it. That\u2019s not ideal on either controller setup, but it\u2019s especially cumbersome on the Joy-Cons because those buttons are so small and close together. Wii-style pointer controls using a detached pair of Joy-Cons are included as well, emulating the controls used in the Metroid Prime Trilogy on Wii. They work just as they should, which is a nice addition, but the new dual analog controls are the way to play Prime Remastered.

Of all the beautiful moments exploring Tallon IV, nothing is ever recycled. There are hundreds of rooms, hallways, pools, and arenas, and none of them are alike \u2013 as evidenced by the intricate 3D map. Pan out from the map and you can see the insane geometry of Tallon IV. One of my favorite things to do in Prime is to pause, and, while the background music throbs, spin the map and look for tiny outlets that shouldn\u2019t be there, a depression that could hint at a new path, or a door of a color I can\u2019t access yet \u2013 those virtually always yield a secret when I investigate. I spend a good amount of playtime planning my routes on that map, too; there\u2019s no fast travel in Metroid Prime, so if you want to be efficient, you need to think carefully about how you\u2019re going to get from point A to point B. This makes collectible runs a blast, because knowing that once you get a new pickup that allows you to blast, roll, or grapple in a different way, you can plan a loop to revisit promising-looking areas with new gear to collect power ups. Of course there are elevators and other shortcuts to unlock, but the real power you amass in Metroid Prime is the ability to move freely over its pitfalls.\u00a0

One thing that surprised me was that, 20 years on, first-person shooters are still largely built around flat planes, straight corridors, and ballooning arenas. But Metroid Prime does something different: The world is molded and organic, with twisted tree roots, curvy mushrooms, and jagged ruins that interrupt deep pools; and that\u2019s fun because a secret could be hidden anywhere. Whether you are scanning the room with your visor for clues, trying different ammo types on odd-looking textures, or attempting to roll up an apparent slope perfectly crafted for Morph Ball tricks, you have to actually feel your way around Prime. It\u2019s the most tactile game I\u2019ve ever played outside of VR.

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