Another Metroid 2 Remake

[DF]

*looks at Metroid: Samus Returns* Maybe later.

It's been almost three and a half years since the last time I went through AM2R, and since I was already on a Metroid kick, I decided to end it with this one. Oh, I'll get to MSR eventually, but I'd rather come back to it with some fresh legs after I play something different genre-wise.

My first run some years ago saw me finish the game at around 4h 47m with 84% items. This time, I did better and worse with a time of 3h 34m and items at 67%.

This review covers v1.5.2.

What is Another Metroid 2 Remake?

It's a fangame as opposed to a ROMhack or anything officially out of Nintendo. With the release of Metroid: Zero Mission, there was interest in updating Metroid II: Return of Samus much the same way with better graphics, new features, etc. Several projects were launched, and all but one died out. How appropriate the one jokingly named 'Another' due to all of the other fangames in the works at the time was the one to actually get finished. AM2R was released for maybe a full day before Nintendo put a Cease and Desist order out, removing the game from the hosted websites (but not before people managed to get their own copies). The game was later reverse-engineered by other fans and a group of them are still updating the game now. So, that aside, AM2R is a 2D sidescroller platformer Metroidvania like so many of the other games in the series.

With the threat of the Metroids having been demonstrated on Zebes during Samus' first mission, the Galactic Federation decides they're too dangerous to just let live. They sent her to their homeworld, SR388, with the mission to find all of the Metroids and kill every single one. But the little green jellyfish have the home court advantage and plenty of tricks up their sleeves!

What is Metroid II: Return of Samus?

It was a GameBoy game and as the name implies, the sequel to the NES Metroid. I've only played it once (still), and I only got to the end after like 10h 07m of wandering. M2 was kinda hard to play. This was before the advent of the auto map that's been a series staple since Super, and my younger self lacked the foresight and grid paper to make my own maps. This was also the game to make the arm cannon opening up to indicate Missile mode and the big shoulders of the Varia Suit upgrade started, as the limited GameBoy palette prevented color switching.

Gameplay

If you're familiar with the other 2D Metroids, then this game will be very similar. Samus lands on SR388 with a few abilities like Morph Ball and Power Grip already, and even 30 Missiles. You move through each area in sidescrolling platformer action, trying to find the Metroids to allow you to progress deeper into the planet. With each area cleaned out, the ground shakes and the lava in the central 'hub' area drains a little more, opening up a new region to explore. You still need the powerups and upgrades to aid in your traversal, but you're not getting through that lava without fighting.

AM2R gives Metroid II the Zero Mission treatment, not only with the upgrades to visuals and audio, but several upgrades that were added later in the series appear here, such as Super Missiles, the Speed Booster, and Gravity Suit. Even if you're quite familiar with the original M2, this will throw a number of curveballs at you. And eventually, I'll play Metroid: Samus Returns and compare the two.

]How I Played

I didn't really try to go off the intended path. I didn't feel the need to, and you actually get Space Jump fairly early compared to other titles so your ability to get anywhere is only hampered by lava or liquids. I know I didn't take time to explore and I really felt the pressure when I got to the Nest area with about three hours on the clock. I thought there was something to unlock when you finished the game under four hours, but I was wrong about that, or maybe I already unlocked it my first time through.

Controls

The startup screen recommends a controller and I used an X360 one. There are a few control options, such as using two-button aiming ala Super Metroid (one shoulder to aim up, another to aim down), or one button ala Fusion or Zero Mission, and I used the latter. Dpad to move, A to jump, X fires, hold RB to activate Missiles, Select to swap Missile/Super Missile. There's a dedicated Morph button on B and I actually used that a few times, like to morph in midair to have a better chance of sticking with Spider Ball. LB did aiming and activated Spider Ball too. There's no run/dash button and Speed Booster activates automatically after you move for a few seconds unimpeded, like in Fusion/Zero Mission.

Start brings up the map, but you can mark the map now and press B to access the four-way menu to either check Samus' status, look at mission logs/data logs, or access the system menu.

Gameplay Modes

There's quite a few for a Metroid game.

There's Normal Game, which is the standard AM2R experience. Explore the planet, eradicate each area's Metroids to lower the lava level.
There's New Game Plus, which as opposed to letting you start a second loop with all of your upgrades, instead starts a new game but sets SR388's lava to its lowest setting, giving you full access to the planet as far as your skills and upgrades can take you.
There's also Random Game Plus, where you have the full access to the planet as in NG+, but powerup and upgrade locations are randomized, determined using a numbered 'seed' that impacts the game logic when it comes to determining what goes where. There are different randomizer options, such as having only powerups but not upgrades be shuffled, to have powerups and upgrades shuffle in their own distinct pools, or to have everything be mixed together.

Difficulty

Overall, I'd say the game is pretty moderate for difficulty. I only Game Overed fighting Arachnus (several times) because I had no Energy Tanks or the Varia Suit, and after getting the idea to actually come back later, I had much less trouble with him. I came away from a few fights by the skin of my teeth, though! I found Metroids to be pretty difficult to fight. They have a hard shell on parts of their bodies so you can't just plug them with Missiles constantly as you could in original M2. Instead, you need to hit the green membrane on their body with Missiles, and good luck since the Metroids constantly move around. Some of the Alphas are even smart enough to try dodging out of the way!

Zeta and Omega Metroids could seriously count as boss fights. They're huge, they take a ton of punishment, and they deal it too. Trying to hit their little green spot is a good deal harder than with Alphas or Gammas, made harder with them not flying like they did in original M2. Trying to evade their big bodies is hard too given you don't fight them in spacious arenas, so pray you don't get cornered and comboed to death.

There are also difficulty levels, though I only played on Normal. There's Easy and Hard, and an unlockable Fusion difficulty that's harder than Hard and changes the gameplay slightly as well as Samus' Power Suit. Now instead of leaving the standard energy/missile pickups, some enemies will leave the X Parasites from Metroid Fusion when destroyed, and they behave as they did in their home game with trying to evade you and possibly reforming as another enemy if left alone. And some bosses will spawn a Core-X when defeated that you'll have to blast apart. Oh, and Samus takes a ton of damage compared to other modes, of course.

Saving

There are three save slots, and you're able to copy or erase them as normal. There are Save Stations scattered all over the planet, and each of them will save your game as well as fully restore your Energy and ammo. If you run out of Energy and die, you can either restart from the last Save Station or go to the title.

Graphics

Visuals are a good step above the GameBoy Advance in quality, with the various areas within SR388 presented in full color, with actual backgrounds too! Because original M2 didn't have any. Limited palette and all. Even the creatures that appeared in Metroid Fusion got new sprites. Destroying mechanical enemies sends all kinds of junk and clutter about the area, though it quickly disappears. There are a few cutscenes, like the recap of Samus' mission when starting a new game, and you're given a short scene with the camera wrested away from you when you meet a new type of Metroid, like when an Alpha erupts out of its molting shell. There are also some neat glowing effects in dark areas, like bioluminescent plants or your various beams emitting light.

Your energy readout is on the upper-left, with your Energy Tanks shown in squares near the big numbers. Your Missiles and Super Missiles and Power Bombs are shown to the right of this once you collect the relevant upgrades, with the icon being green to show which is selected and amber when active (at least under the controls I used). The minimap is in the upper-right. When you collect upgrades, you get a big text readout displaying what that upgrade does, with subsequent expansions having a smaller pause and a text popup on the bottom-right telling you what you picked up.

There are also some graphic filters to emulate the GameBoy experience, but I didn't play with them. There's also a feature to enable the display of the in-game timer on the HUD, or once you unlock the Fusion suit, control how its colors for different suits are displayed--either in original Fusion colors or the ones used in Metroid: Samus Returns.

The map screen has a button to show how many of the total Energy Tanks/Missile Tanks/Super Missile Tanks/Power Bomb Tanks you've collected versus the total of each, but it doesn't point out the ones you've collected already or where the others are hiding. There's also a count for how many Metroids are in the current area as well as the number left on the planet as a whole. There's a HUD option to change which number is shown on the screen too.

Audio

Metroid II didn't really have many songs from what I remember, so AM2R having a full soundtrack sure helped the experience. Quite a few songs take cues from Metroid Prime with the whistle-like sounds, whatever you'd describe those as. I liked the techno-sounding remix of Lower Norfair used in The Tower area, as opposed to its usual use in hot/hellish areas in other games. The only song that I didn't really like was the five-note loop when you're escorting the Baby Metroid back to your ship. There actually is voicework, but you hear it at the very end of the game.

Stability

I didn't notice anything in terms of glitches or bugs.

Replay Value

Like with most Metroids, there's the effort of getting a faster time, a better item percentage, or both. There are multiple ending Gallery images to unlock like with Fusion or Zero Mission. There's also the allure of playing through the game in New Game+ mode to see how well you can do things out of order with the primary obstacle out of the way, and Random Game+ can be a true test of your skill and flexibility. Fusion difficulty can be worth trying for a serious challenge too.

And while it's not a part of this fangame, there's a mod that allows you to play AM2R in multiplayer with synced health/missiles/upgrades/events. If Player 2 takes 30 damage, everyone loses 30 health. If Player 1 disables Morph Ball, nobody can morph until someone turns it back on. If someone grabs Wave Beam, now everyone's beam shots pass through walls. Etc. You can have up to eight people playing at once, helping or hindering everyone else as you all work together (or what passes for jolly cooperation) to eradicate the Metroid threat. Here's a video of Multitroid in action.

What Worked For Me

I actually liked the linear setup with the lava and the earthquakes. It wasn't as rigid as in Fusion, but you always knew that after you killed all of the area's Metroids, you should go back to the central column and see what's opened up. It doesn't directly tell you where to go like the way Fusion or the Chozo Statues in Zero Mission did, just you don't have to wander as much to find where to go next. You still will have to explore the local area to find the Metroids to trigger the earthquakes, though.

The new fights don't feel out of place, like they were added for the sake of just having something else for Samus to fight. Tester was pretty fun, as was the Space Jump guardian, and the Ice Beam one is an old friend too. Even the tank that ambushes you after the Power Bomb wasn't a bad fight, but it went down alarmingly fast compared to what I remember of my first time through the game. The Metroids got new attacks and strategies (from what I remember of M2), like the Alphas dodging, the Gammas' electric attack deflecting your missiles, or everything about the Zeta and Omega fights being different. "Float into you" is not at all on the table anymore, though all of them will still try to ram you all the same.

The Distribution Center is probably one of my favorite areas in all of the series, just because of some of the things in there. Apart from the great music, there are these floating mine things that, when shot, will start sparking and explode in a bullet-hell mess of blue-white energy, and every one of those pellets can hit you. Each one can hit another mine, triggering a deadly chain reaction if you have nothing to hide behind. So you get the idea that shooting these things is a very bad idea. You later activate the Distribution Center and send power cells throughout the planet, and now these round blue balls start appearing in the area. Your data log mentions that they're unstable and beams will cause them to rupture, so you might try it. Big blue-white explosion that strangely doesn't hurt you, but it shorts out your arm cannon and puts static on your screen. But it also causes anything mechanical in the blast to short out and collapse, those mines included. Some rooms are set up with this round emblem, and you're supposed to guide these power cells to them...by hitting them with Bombs and having them bounce like a rubber ball. There's a later area where you see these glowing hexagons in the background and standing in their area shorts out your gun, and then you have to figure out how to shoot open doors with this field in effect. Something about all of this just was fun to me.

The Tester fight was fun too. Having a tall room to dodge its multiple attacks as you try to blow away its armor and then its core was pretty exciting. I read that on hard and above, it'll regenerate the armor too!

What I Didn't Like

You could 'juggle' the Alphas and Gammas with the right angle of attack and Missile spam. Zetas and Omegas get revenge by having very brief mercy invincibility when you tag their bellies. It really sucks having a Super Missile tink right off because you fired them too frequently, especially because you're probably bringing your big guns due to their increased offense power...and because I didn't have very many to fire at that point!

A pointless complaint, but if you walljump underwater, you barely gain any height. There's only one area with enough water for this to actually matter, and there's nowhere to make use of underwater walljumps even there. I guess it matters when you fall in lava and are dying fast, but you can probably just grab a nearby platform instead.

Verdict - 5/5

Any Metroid fan deserves to play this, provided you can find v1.1 and then grab the auto-updater program (or find a pre-patched version). It's a nice little game and were it not for the name, the platform(s), the credits, the... Well, if you could ignore everything that makes it obvious it's not Nintendo-made, you'd be surprised to learn that it actually wasn't! It doesn't feel 'fangamey' if that makes sense. The new additions don't stand out things thrown in just for the sake of it and seem as organic as the new bosses in Zero Mission, same with the items and abilities from later games added here. Apart from the fun gameplay loop and the challenge of the Metroid fights, having a few built-in mods is a hell of a nice bonus too. Another Metroid 2 Remake deserves to stand with the greats of the series, canon or official or not.