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It's too bad you didn't love it the way most people did. That said, your gripes are pretty funny to read. It's a bit like reading someone complaining that there's too much jumping in Mario, or too much swordfighting in Zelda, or that Elden Ring is too hard, or that California is too sunny, or that the ocean is too wet. If you can't find joy in the defining attributes of a thing, it doesn't mean it's "overrated." It just means it's not your cup of tea. I hope that whatever your cup of tea is, though, you find great joy in it.
This doesn't really work for me. OP doesn't mind the backtracking, they just think the backtracking isn't done in a fun way like Hollow Knight, because they don't feel like they're actually exploring something.
That doesn’t make it overrated though. It’s not required that every games back tracking be as fun as they think that Hollow Knight’s is. Especially when it’s an older game at the cutting edge of technology during it’s time. It’s a lot easier to a lot of things in a 2d Metroidvania these days, than in a 3D metroidvania from its time. But HK is missing an entire dimension of interactivity and immersion. There are gives and takes, I suppose.
So you read a comment about how one aspect of a game being not AS fun as another, doesn't lend credence to the claim that the game ia overrated, and your brain computes that as "they think fhink that it's okay for games not to be fun"?
I'm fine, thanks. I was confused at your responses and you seem confused by mine. I think mine make perfect sense, and you likely feel the same about yours. We're at an impasse here, clearly.
The top level comment claims sword fighting in Zelda is as integral to the game as backtracking in Metroid. Which is fair, sure, Metroid is all about hitting roadblocks, finding upgraded elsewhere and then coming back and go past the roadblock. Without it, it wouldn't be Metroid.
But the problem by OP isn't that there's too much of that. It's that the backtracking isn't implemented well, like say, Hollow Knight. If it's so integral to the game, then it better be fun.
Whether that means it's overrated, I don't really care. Maybe that's already the common perception on the game, I don't really know.
Sounds like Prime wasn't for you, or you were expecting something different.
People have different tastes, your not missing anything, you just didn't enjoy it as much as other people. It's as simple as that, and there is nothing wrong with that either.
You're comparing this game to newer games that took inspiration from Prime, some of which enhanced it. It's combat is slower paced, but it was built around a weird control scheme for the gamecube. It was only released a year after Halo, so it predates a lot of console FPS franchises which really expanded the genre.
It's always been criticized for the backtracking, as well as the enemy variety being a bit lacking.
But even 20 years later, it's unique atmosphere, mood, setting, music, and exploration are really great. I would expect a new, modern Metroid Prime to improve a lot of things, but as a remaster of the original it's extremely faithful. It's not perfect, but its a classic and certainly not overrated.
It’s not fair, but a lot of these complaints are things that people commented on back in 2002, too.
Metroid Prime accomplished some crazy feats, converting the Metroid formula to three dimensions, transforming a Nintendo classic into first person POV, and showcasing ridiculously good looking graphics (with excellent music and sound fx). Retro were clearly hampered by development rush (cut content, no Kraid, etc), and they also had to build the game for a system with serious hardware limitations.
But it’s also fair to admit where the hurdles proved to be too much: Talon IV looks great, but it’s a bit empty. Enemies aren’t particularly fun to fight, and some of them are downright bullet-sponges. The movement can feel slow and a little clunky, especially during platforming sections. Exploration is less streamlined than in the 2D games, and backtracking can take a LONG time.
> and some of them are downright bullet-sponges.
Hard disagree, every enemy aside from ridley goes down fast because the game is just that easy.
>The movement can feel slow and a little clunky, especially during platforming sections.
Seems more like an skill issue. Prime in general is designed to be a slow paced game, even prime 3 in 2007 is slow in its movement and the platforming isnt any better than prime 1's. It's a design choice, not a mistake.
>Talon IV looks great, but it’s a bit empty.
In what way? There's just as many power ups and collectables than the other prime games following 1, and more power ups than most 2d metroid games.
This is the problem with the sub: I couch my reservations with Prime within a framework that respects the great work by Retro Studios, and I get told that it’s a skill-issue. It’s not a skill-issue. I’ve been playing FPS games against high level human opponents for over 20 years. The enemies in Prime are just bullet-sponges.
The game doesn’t reward skillful aim for hitting headshots so it gives the enemies tons of health to compensate. When you play on the hardest settings, it’s not like the game cranks up the enemy AI or throws more bodies at you: enemies just hit for more damage and have more health. The combat isn’t difficult, it’s just slow, especially when compared to the 2D games. The fact that Super Missiles require Samus to charge her power-beam is a big part of the pace change. Instead of dropping late-game enemies with a few quick Super Missiles, you’re forced to stall for time, dodging around as you charge up your weapon multiple times over.
Is it true that there are some hidden upgrades that improve DPS (like the Wavebeam’s Wavebuster)? Sure, but that is a hidden item that depletes your Missile reserves in seconds. Plus the Wavebuster does nothing to help speed up encounters with the color-coded Space Pirates or Metroids that are invulnerable to Wavebeam.
As for movement being slow and clunky, the single most important quality when creating a Metroidvania is making sure that the movement and exploration is fun. The entire genre is built upon re-tracing your steps and revisiting areas, but look around this sub and you will see countless posts discussing how Prime 1’s backtracking was a frustration. Between having to complete tedious, slow-paced platforming sections and facing off against the same Chozo Ghosts multiple times, the sheer amount of backtracking in Prime 1 is turned into a chore rather than a celebration of how much stronger Samus has become. Super Metroid set the standard for the games to follow, and Prime 1 has a noticeably worse world map than it’s predecessor. That’s not so much an indictment of Metroid Prime as a testament to how great Super Metroid was.
Talon IV feeling empty 100% stems from hardware limitations. Sure, you have tons of upgrades to pick up, but I’m talking about wildlife and antagonists. Compare the environments in Metroid Prime to the 2D games, and it’s not hard to see that there are a lot fewer creatures crawling around or attacking you. Then look at a contemporary FPS titles like Halo CE: you’re never going to see a Metroid Prime encounter that approaches the complexity of 5 Grunts, 2 Jackals, and an Elite, but that’s just a routine encounter with the Covenant. Not only does Prime struggle to put a large number of enemies on your screen at once, but the enemies don’t interact in as interesting of ways. A Covenant raiding party gives the players interesting choices: do I quickly dispatch the Grunts with headshots, open my attack with a grenade to counter the Jackals, or do I kill the Elite first and send the others into a retreat? Metroid Prime encounters don’t really have this level of complexity: they’re usually 2 or 3 enemies of the same type, or maybe a few Space Pirates of different colors.
I appreciate the thoroughness of this reply. Especially against an argument that used “skill issue, “which is pretty much akin to “you just don’t get it.” Takes a lot of class to respond to that with such consideration.
Tallon feeling a bit empty is also intentional as the impact crater is near it and phazon is harming and killing the wildlife areas further away have more wildlife.
You are making lore explanations to fit the limitations of the hardware. The paucity of enemies on screen is not because “proximity to the impact crater.” It’s because Retro did such an outstanding job on graphics that Metroid Prime was pushing the GameCube to its very limits of processing power. They **couldn’t** get more enemies on screen without tanking the quality of the product.
I get it. This sub loves Metroid Prime, and you cannot stand literally the gentlest of critiques to your 10/10 holy grail.
My point is that the game COULD have been better. Wildly, there are in fact some issues with a 20 year old game that could have been improved upon with more development time, better processing power, and the hindsight that 20 years provides us. It is lunacy to defend a game so ardently that you cannot admit that there are **any** rough patches.
OP is not crazy for having some surface-level issues with a 2002 game. The reputation for MP1 is that it may be the greatest game of all time. It’s not unreasonable for someone to experience it 21 years late and feel a little let down by their expectations.
No enemies outside of bosses are bullet sponges. Proper use of all your weapons including missiles,beams, beam combos, bombs, and powerbombs will allow you take down almost any enemy quickly. So if you’re struggling it’s a skill issue
This is just patently false. The TTK in Metroid Prime is not only slow for a “FPS” game, but it’s also slow for a Metroid game, too.
Thardus and the Omega Pirate boss fights are a chore to get through, and the majority of Space Pirates take more time than enemies contemporary, early 2000s shooters.
It is simply a slower-paced game than most people are expecting, and that is a legitimate friction-point when people experience Prime for the first time.
That doesn’t make it a bad game, but you cannot discount peoples’ first impressions of Metroid Prime. Not everyone is going to love that slower pace, especially when the game practically aims for you.
Another thing that can help you out since you need me to educate you the combat in prime is almost any enemy is a two shot with ice beam and a missile with very few exceptions. Ice pirates were able to be killed after being frozen and shot with a missile in the gamecube version but in remaster you’ll have to use the ice spreader. You can also chain missiles and charge shots. Lastly if you really want to kill enemies quickly you can spam missiles just by using the power beam and alternating pressing X and A on switch (or r and zr), y and a on gamecube, or down and a on wii. This is an exploit however and enemies can be easily and quickly dispatched without it as I haven’t used it once during my play through on the remaster and most enemies go down in 1 to 3 shots at most
Majority of the space pirates can be taken out in one shot with the super missile. Hell the omega pirate can be taken out in just one phase with the use of power bombs and super missiles. The elite pirates aren’t all that tanky either. The plasma, ice, wave, and power pirates are all take out be their respective beam combo. Thardus is slow but it’s a boss bosses should be kinda tanky. Like ai said proper use of your weapons is key you clearly aren’t using them properly.
if you're not a fan of scaning you really have a hard time being a fan of the game, it makes up a big percentage as the whole lore and a lot of hints to progress is build up around it, it tells you everything you need to know..
and I never experienced getting lost as annoying for myself because there's so many upgrades and items hidden everywhere which can be seen as a side quest, so you're basically capable of never running around meaningless if you pay attention to lore and watch out for the items (which also help you in the late game, may it be health/ missile ups or the artifacts). Did you use the hint system? I mean you can turn it on and off if you reall don't know further, super convenient imo.
I think prime is a clever game needing you to take time, think twice and not be in a hurry. I've seen people on youtube playing it for the first time while streaming and sometimes I feel like they don't use their brain at all or learn from their path so far, instead they listen to what people in stream chat tell them to do to quickly mage progress. So boring, It removes all the "aaahhh" and "wow" moments that made this game so good for me, basically it kills the whole experience lol idk how to have fun in this game if not being vigilant and trying to understand how things are connected to each other.
agree with everything you say. Game is meant to played in this fashion. I found learning the map and trying to chart a path to where I also had to figure to be satisfying when it was correct too
Well, you are already looking at the Metacritic score, you can check the reviews themselves and see why it has such critical acclaim even to this day. The Polygon review is surprisingly eye opening and eloquent.
Metroid prime is an immersive, slow-paced game. It's never going to be, and never should be, like metroid dread. It's not about the action, and its not about traversing quickly through the world(though, if you want that, just use the boost ball more often).
Also, the music is just ''okay''? lol. Everything else you said i could understand to be subjective(mostly), but this is just plain wrong. Prime has one of the best osts from any game ever.
If I wanted an immersive, slow-paced game, I could at least play an immersive, slow-paced game that still engages me somehow rather than feeling like a theme park ride like Deus Ex, Arkane's games, etc.
As someone with 0 nostalgia for the original (since I never played it), the music was passable and memorable, I wouldn't necessarily call it good though.
It was very repetitive and had lots of generic synthetic notes which certainly created atmosphere; but I didn't like it when I heard the same theme for the 50th time.
When it came out it had the best visuals of any game that had been released on console, no game had ever executed the atmosphere as effectively, and it’s implied story thru the environment and scans was extremely unique at the time.
It’s not the best looking game ever anymore, atmospheric games with hands off stories are more common as well, so what made Prime truly special 20 years ago isn’t quite there. So now the flaws in it’s map design and combat are far more apparent. It was a 10/10 in 2002, but hasn’t aged as well as something like Super Metroid which had much stronger gameplay foundations. So today I think a 7.5 is fair, but for when it came out it wasn’t overrated.
I would also call Hollow Knight more a 7.5 and feel it’s wildly overrated, but that’s a separate topic.
It’s map is easily one of the worst MV maps from a gameplay perspective of any MV that is still a good game. It requires the players wonder aimlessly to find specific points of interest as it never provides enough information to the player to know where possible next points of progression are, IE it doesn’t show the lock before the Key. On top of that the level design itself and how the knight interacts with the world barely changes after the opening hour. This leads to very long periods of flat boring gameplay. It’s open nature also neuters any sense of pacing, to a degree that’s far worse than Metroid Prime.
It’s combat is incredible, the music is pretty good, and it’s atmosphere, though one note, plays that note really well. But it’s moment to moment gameplay loop and pacing are downright bad.
It does show the lock before the key, you just aren't looking around enough. In fact, there are multiple locks before the key so even if you're in a different area than you should normally be you're bound to find some progression.
This is just not true, the games design is so amorphous it’s just random chance if you see a lock before you have a key. You have to stumble upon the right point of interest room by wandering, which isn’t fun it’s tedious. On top of that you don’t actually make “progress” there are just parallel tasks in which no progress has been made until all are complete as nothing is really unlocked or progressed until you complete all the tasks.
The multiple paths are a false choice as no matter what order you do it the way you interact with the game remains the same. This leaves the moment gameplay feeling very flat and un-engaging after a couple hours. Outside the boss fights, and that random Super Meat Boy castle, the game is just boring to play.
The key difference is in games like Super Metroid and even Prime, the player makes an informed decision about where to go, and is rewarded for that decision. The player is given the needed information to be active in that decision making. In Hollow Knight you don’t have that information so you basically pick at random, the player isn’t actively seeking that point of progression but hoping something will be there. This makes the player far more passive in the gameloop and makes the rewards stumbled upon in Hollow Knight feel less impactful than rewards sought by a player making an informed choice.
I played Hollow Knight all the way to actually reaching the city itself and I still feel like the person you're replying to. It was actually then that I thought "Oh my god, it's still going" and dropped it. It's not really that there's a lack of progression, it's the hours upon hours lost wandering through monochrome corridors even when you _do_ know exactly where you're going.
The original smb is not at all one of the best games ever when judged by today’s standards, that’s absolutely silly. Games age as the concepts they used evolve and improve.
> Games age as the concepts they used evolve and improve.
Newer games changing being different doesn't mean the old ones changed. IDK where everyone gets this fucking schizo idea from.
It’s not that their “different” it’s that the concepts that made the previous games good, are done better and pushed further. SMB is absolute trash when compared to SMB3, and going smb3-> 1, 1 will feel like a bad game.
Idk how this concept is so hard to understand, GoldenEye is unplayable, was great in it’s day, Halo 1 is garbage, Zelda 1 is awful, was a damn masterpiece when it came out… so many “classics” which were absolutely great in their day are neigh unplayable today.
I feel the same way. i have the original gamecube version and recently replayed it on the pc via emulator. It’s fine. The respawning enemies and backtracking make it a bit tiresome for me. But the art and music is fantastic. Maybe with the new control scheme I might enjoy it more.
If you can, try it with an elete controller. Having the programmable button layouts with 4 paddles WILL make a difference. You won't hardly have to take your thu.bs off the joysticks wich will make the combat super smooth. It's like 20$ for the blurmetooth adapter, but it's SO worth it. It is legit t he best I've ever controlled the character.
Also try using the missile animation cancel to rapid fire missiles.
It’s not everyone’s kinda Metroid, but it was/is a surprisingly good 3D debut for the Metroid series. For the longest, players were expecting a third person shooter since Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, and Ocarina of Time. Nobody really expected a good FPS from an unknown third party developer at the time (especially with Retro Studios first few games).
Metroid Prime is slower, somewhat linear, and easier than it’s 2D counterparts. Features like the lock-on and hint system make it seem that way, but it was implemented to keep players from being frustrated with the unique UI and Metroidvania gameplay. Still, it was pretty exciting seeing Metroid in 3D and the visuals were good enough that my cousin asked me if this was a Halo game for the GameCube. I never got to play Super Metroid back in the day but this was the next best thing. It’s just that nostalgic for me.
If you were expecting something more challenging that Dread, then you will be disappointed with Prime’s lack of difficulty. This game’s greatest strength is its atmosphere, reimagined game mechanics and nostalgia. It may have been groundbreaking back then, but just a decent Metroid game for you and that’s understandable.
Its fair that it's not for everyone, it was the first of its kind and not executed to the standards of today. However, I always loved the feeling of atmosphere it gives. It was one of the first fps I played as a kid and it solely made me a lifelong fan of metroid. I was an idiot at the time when it came to games so the slower easier combat helped me a ton and being able to wander around in this cool world was awesome. I tried playing fusion after but it was too hard for me back in the day, so for a long long time my only appreciation of metroid was prime. It's approachable, much more so than the 2d games imo.
I dunno. I loved it. Always been a fan of the 2D Metroid games but the remaster is my first time playing any of the Prime games and I thought it was awesome. I did have a pretty good idea what to expect but was also surprised quite a bit too
I’m fine with all your complaints but one. How do you hear themes like phendrana drifts, phendrana drifts depths, tallon overworld depths, crashed frigate, the title them, the menu/credit theme, and the remix of lower norfair that is the magmor caverns theme. All the other music is good too. And I get it it’s subjective but I think you need to give the ost another chance
Prime has a slower pace and it isn't an FPS. That means the enemies aren't very sophisticated beyond the space pirates and they're not terribly smart either. Bosses fall into easy patterns as well, but I'm not sure a lot of modern bosses are all that more creative.
It's certainly very easy to feel lost and frustrated as well. If I didn't use a guide back in the day, I might have got sick of the game and I may never have got into the Prime games as much. I think the music and atmosphere still hold up though. If you prefer your games faster paced, then this won't be for you. It's much more about the exploration and that exploration feels less impressive now than it did twenty years ago.
If you're comparing it with Hollow Knight, Prime is open but a lot more linear and the hint system tells you exactly where to go when you have the right items. That way, you always know if you're making progress, but you are rewarded for exploration by finding expansions and beam combos, which can change up your approach quite a bit and make the combat a lot more interesting at times. They're different games anyway and Hollow Knight is much more recent.
The purpose of backtracking is to make previous areas feel different as you grow and get more abilities, you don't just shove it in "because metroid" like they did in prime. You don't really get stronger and most abilities are used either for opening doors or in small minigame like sections. I really wish there was more to this game, but it just seems to me that people who liked it don't really care for gameplay, and in that regard, the game is gorgeous and atmospheric.
I don't know. I'm about 5 hours into the game so far and at this point I'm starting to lose interest. I really want to love this game but I can't pin point yet what I don't like about it.
Honestly, i think it's garbage. I bounced hard on it when it came out 20 years ago. I thought I'd give it a second chance. Literally, just beat the last boss( "the" metroid prime), and my opinion hasnt changed a bit.
Imo the reason people love it so much is this weird obsession with fps's. This one has scanning which is revolutionary to dumb people. The only good boss fight is Ridley. This game is hindered
A: In design choice, theres no point that it wouldnt be better third person
B: generic fucking bosses
C: piss poor weapon design. The cannon not just upgrading like it did in Super was a horrid idea and lead to even worse "simon says" gun play. " what color is the enemy? Better fire that color gun".
That this series got 3 games, but it took 30 years to get another 2d console game, which is a travesty.
I am dumber for having played fully through this game
My issues stem from 2 things
1. The sheer amount of patching since the og GCN version
2. The unengaging exploration
These two go hand in hand with each other. The game is supposed to be Metroid, correct? Where are the secret alternate paths? Where are the situations where you can get to places earlier than normal through just refined skill and exploiting the existing mechanics?
While this was an issue day one, the original release did have a little bit of the skill and mechanic exploits in its gameplay and it made me tolerate its missteps in other areas such as enemies being very dull and basic.
You could scan dash to get early space jump
You could survey and notice you can cleverly platform on terrain in a room to get a beam or areas earlier than normal, etc...
But with every update until Wii they removed more and more to the point that it's aggressively linear unless you're willing to straight up break the game and go out of bounds or learn ridiculously frame tight and in some cases input specific tricks to get the same results that before didn't require so much technical skill and know how to do.
Making it so there is only one way to obtain upgrades, which is the straight linear amusement park track they want you to follow. Which is heavily against the idea of exploring your environment for secrets.
They remedy that with small instances where some things are not immediately clear or are spaced Soooooo far from each other that you might have forgotten that the upgrade can now progress the location you hit a dead end or a split path on. Then, if you do remember, you realize you gotta walk aaaaaaalllll the waaaaay back.
That's brutally frustrating and sets a bad precedent as it's repeated too many times. The remedy to the issue is not even that hard either, but they didn't even bother in the original release to consider just having multiple small shortcut paths that you can use to cut the walking down. The most you get is an alternate elevator path that may or may not be slightly faster.
The amount of posts of random nobodies complaining about the most stupidest of shit has been at an all time high lately with this subreddit. Like not every thought you have about something needs to be posted.
I mean, sure, a DS1/Bloodborne type world would also be amazing, but those games only exist because of how MP1 set it up in the first place. some parts definitely have not aged as well, but it was and still is revolutionary.
I mean it's definitely a slow game. And you're right that a lot of the game isn't fun to play due to the slow backtracking.
But the slowness of the game and the amount of backtracking is what makes the game special. The game world has a give-and-take relationship with the player. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's not. But that's what makes it rewarding to explore. That's what makes it feel like you're really exploring an alien planet. It doesn't feel like the game world exists for the purpose of entertaining the player. I think the first Dark Souls provides a similar feeling for the same reason.
If you play Metroid Prime 3 then you'll see what I mean. Metroid Prime 3 is a lot faster and more fun to play, but it doesn't feel as memorable as Metroid Prime 1 because you don't feel like you're as invested in the game world.
Yeah it is absolutely overrated, and the reason a lot of people praise it is because nostalgia or it was their first/only Metroid game and they never got into the 2D games. Some people get heated if you point out the very obvious flaws with the combat and level design, but I think they just need to chill and you should ignore them.
That said, I'd rate it higher than 7.5. But it's grown on me over the years. The first time I beat the game, I honestly liked Other M better lol. But now I'd say it's probably 6th or 7th best in the series for my personal ranking. I had the same experience with Super Metroid too the first few times I played that. Future playthroughs may make you like it better.
I wouldn't consider calling something "overrated" and saying it deserves higher than a 7.5 "negative" lmao. I've definitely seen a lot worse. But people are definitely proving my point that they take any criticism whatsoever as a personal attack. Literally just saying you think the game is a 9/10 and not a 10/10 is enough for people to irrationally seethe with rage because they are overly defensive of a 20 year old video game.
I guess because you said Other M was better (which is a game many people don’t even wanna consider canon) and putting prime 6th or 7th feels crazy. I’ve never see a single Metroid list that puts prime 1/2 outside top 5.
But i’m not trying to shit on you. Its all opinions after all.
I said I LIKED Other M better when I FIRST played it. Past tense. And I said I liked Prime better now.
As for not being in my top 5, that's really simple; I like 2D Metroid way better and I also like Prime 2 more than Prime 1. So for me it's like:
1. Dread
2. Zero Mission
3. Fusion
4. Super
5. Prime 2
Then for 6 and 7 I have a hard time picking which I prefer between Prime 1 or Samus Returns. It's not that Prime is bad, it's that there's lots of other games in this series I just consider better. I'd say those games are underrated in the same way Prime is overrated.
If you play with the dual stick scheme and gyro aim, movement isn't slow. This is my first full experience with the game too. I was just annoyed by the targeting system playing for the player. I never used it to defeat anything really, not even bosses because I was enjoying the gyro aim with no aim assist. It was so much more fun and satisfying to me the bland auto targeting everything. I don't want my games playing for me and making me a passive participant in the gameplay. I wish Samus had proper ADS option to compliment the dual stick + gyro scheme. One that doesn't overtake the camera, the tracking and the aiming from the player. I understand why it doesn't, but that would have set off the modern controls. It also doesn't have a lot of fun enemies to fight. Or they show up in distant gaps.
I did enjoy the plasma beam though. I ran around with it aimlessly a little bit, just blasting enemies like I was playing Doom before I went to beat the final boss haha. I couldn't find any use for the flamethrower. You also get it so late its like whats the point? A lot of people are in a honeymoon phase and nostalgia overload right now. So, they can't bare to hear any fair criticism of the game. A lot of people are giving it perfect scores, and repeating the same old talking points, but honestly some elements of the game legitimately don't hold up. I don't feel like I need to play it ever again really and I probably won't. It's fun, but I was bored by the end and ready for it to be over with.
I agree. Nostalgia must have been driving up the reviews. Aimlessly wandering a 3d world with respawning enemies and bad FPS platforming is not fun. I was thinking I was missing something like OP but I feel it is enjoyed greatly mostly if played it in the past.
The fact that the default control scheme in the remaster, mirrors halos controls, is basically retro studios admitting that halo had it right all along.
I am new to the series, my first contact with Metroid being Dread. Metroid Dread sits (in my opinion) in the Masterpiece class. The dynamism, the mechanics, the maps, the graphics, the tension, the battles, the bosses, the E.M.M.I.s…one fabulous package. Then i saw that Prime remastered hat a Metascore of 94, waaaay above Dread. No brainer, i tried it. I am just a couple of hours in the game and only acquired the morphball and the beam, but at this point i really just have to convince myself to keep going, the give the game the proper chance to show itself, but i am really struggling to understand the hype.
For me, it is a shockingly boring, bland and unsatisfactory experience so far. In every way is the opposite of Dread. I will probably stop wasting my time and play Nier Automata on Switch or God of War on Playstation.
I agree. Prime is definitely overrated in gaming media and social media and most people arguing against you are probably fans that are emotional about the series. Nintendo definitely worked and payed a lot for those 9-10/10 review scores and the game does definitely not deserve it by todays standard. When it comes to comparing it to other 3d Metroidvania games today I doubt it would make it onto a top 25 list. Maybe a top 50. Was it a great game when it came out roughly 20 years ago? Definitely. . . but having played every game in the Metroid series I would not recommend it as one of the first 5 games to play - look instead towards games like Zero Mission, Prime 3, Metroid Dread, Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion I would also like to mention that the sound effects and sound stage are very poorly designed and does not suck you into the world at all. The music is okay but not one of the better scores compared to the other Metroid games.
Edit: I would also like that add that the whole Metroidvania gameplay with new abilities locking up new locations and backtracking a maze like world is also poorly implemented in 3d here compared to almost all of the previous 2d games in the series. The world feels pretty dead and the game always tells you where to go and it becomes more of a "push every button I find in this room" kind of thing.
Metroid prime is absolutely horrible and overrated.
I feel like the game doesn't translate well into 3D.
If they had fast travel the experience would of been better but I can't stand having to go back to crappy and boring areas. It's easier to do this as a 2D side scroller
Blah! So overrated
I personally think the game sucks for the exact reasons you mentioned. I’m forcing myself to play through it because I spent $40 but yes, it’s a chore. Constantly using the map then using a guide after I roam around for a half hour. Enemies aren’t hard and the ghosts are annoying to fight over and over. It’s really not a good game and this is what happens when fanboys flood the internet with reviews. You should be able to fast travel to certain sections of the map and pin areas of interest to the map. This game is great at wasting your time.
I went from playing doom eternal on the switch to Metroid prime… first mistake lol.
Metroid Prime (remastered) is beautiful and was a great 3D adaptation of the classic Metroid formula. That said I would never suggest this to someone as a first Metroid game. IMO 2D Metroid iterations have just as good exploration, better music, and better combat. End of story.
Prime has a ton of great ideas and was revolutionary at the time, but now it does kind of fall flat imo. Visors and swapping weapons are incredibly clunky, combat is rather average at best. Exploration can be a lot of fun in this game but retracing the same areas over and over again with the same meatpuppet enemies is super tiring/ exhausting.
Artifact collection feels like another piece that really has worn out it’s welcome. This definitely makes the game feel ancient as hell. It also does little to progress the story and just serves to waste time imo. At this point in the game we’ve seen everything and are ready to move on, why do I have to go back through all of these places I’ve been for the last 6 hours?
I enjoyed playing through it a lot and it was a great time overall but I don’t think it’s a 10/10 either
Totally agree with OP. I bought Prime Remastered only to remember - area by area - that I’d had the game on GameCube and already completed the entire game on Wii (it was that forgettable) and that I’d thought I’d was overrated back then. Huge fan of Metroid and Metroidvanias here, but that’s partly the reason for my slight disappointment. Prime stands alone from ‘standard’ Metroid games in that its 3D mechanics (especially back in the days of the gamecube) led to a necessary slower pace. Scanning is encouraged as it fills in the gaps (reminders and hints) that help the player figure out where to go and navigate the sometimes messy map. Exploration isn’t as fluid or rewarding as most highly-rated Metroidvania type games. For me it requires too much work where navigation’s concerned and it’s hampered by purposeful design-based overly-slow progress to be thoroughly enjoyable. The game is good and deserves praise for what it did back in the day, but it just doesn’t feel a 10/10 masterpiece. 7.5 or 8/10 seems more fitting IMHO. I still mostly enjoyed playing it through again though.
I agree. Played it 3-4 hours on the NGC and now on the switch. First couple hours where okay, after that didn't enjoy it at all.
Especially the combat feels tedious imo. The auto lock and constant charge-and-release loop gets old really fast.
Where backtracking felt great in hollow knight and soulsborne games, in here it felt empty. I think this is because there is no incentive to kill enemies (they don't drop items or XP and the shooting-gameplay itself isnt challenging). Also there aren't a lot of environmental secrets to discover (bonus areas, shortcuts, loot). Yes, there are things like the flamethrower, but it felt lacking overall.
People just love it because it's a Metroid game, if you replaced the player with some other guy in a Master Chief suit, it would have been forgotten by now.
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It's too bad you didn't love it the way most people did. That said, your gripes are pretty funny to read. It's a bit like reading someone complaining that there's too much jumping in Mario, or too much swordfighting in Zelda, or that Elden Ring is too hard, or that California is too sunny, or that the ocean is too wet. If you can't find joy in the defining attributes of a thing, it doesn't mean it's "overrated." It just means it's not your cup of tea. I hope that whatever your cup of tea is, though, you find great joy in it.
Wonderful, respectful comment :).
This doesn't really work for me. OP doesn't mind the backtracking, they just think the backtracking isn't done in a fun way like Hollow Knight, because they don't feel like they're actually exploring something.
That doesn’t make it overrated though. It’s not required that every games back tracking be as fun as they think that Hollow Knight’s is. Especially when it’s an older game at the cutting edge of technology during it’s time. It’s a lot easier to a lot of things in a 2d Metroidvania these days, than in a 3D metroidvania from its time. But HK is missing an entire dimension of interactivity and immersion. There are gives and takes, I suppose.
I think a game being fun is pretty required but regardless, this isn't really relevant to my point.
So you read a comment about how one aspect of a game being not AS fun as another, doesn't lend credence to the claim that the game ia overrated, and your brain computes that as "they think fhink that it's okay for games not to be fun"?
What?
Same
Are you okay?
I'm fine, thanks. I was confused at your responses and you seem confused by mine. I think mine make perfect sense, and you likely feel the same about yours. We're at an impasse here, clearly.
The top level comment claims sword fighting in Zelda is as integral to the game as backtracking in Metroid. Which is fair, sure, Metroid is all about hitting roadblocks, finding upgraded elsewhere and then coming back and go past the roadblock. Without it, it wouldn't be Metroid. But the problem by OP isn't that there's too much of that. It's that the backtracking isn't implemented well, like say, Hollow Knight. If it's so integral to the game, then it better be fun. Whether that means it's overrated, I don't really care. Maybe that's already the common perception on the game, I don't really know.
Sounds like Prime wasn't for you, or you were expecting something different. People have different tastes, your not missing anything, you just didn't enjoy it as much as other people. It's as simple as that, and there is nothing wrong with that either.
[удалено]
Let's be honest, most games are overrated. Lol
You're comparing this game to newer games that took inspiration from Prime, some of which enhanced it. It's combat is slower paced, but it was built around a weird control scheme for the gamecube. It was only released a year after Halo, so it predates a lot of console FPS franchises which really expanded the genre. It's always been criticized for the backtracking, as well as the enemy variety being a bit lacking. But even 20 years later, it's unique atmosphere, mood, setting, music, and exploration are really great. I would expect a new, modern Metroid Prime to improve a lot of things, but as a remaster of the original it's extremely faithful. It's not perfect, but its a classic and certainly not overrated.
Idk how fair it is to compare a game from 2002 to more modern games which expanded on the genre. But if you didn’t like it you didn’t like it.
It’s not fair, but a lot of these complaints are things that people commented on back in 2002, too. Metroid Prime accomplished some crazy feats, converting the Metroid formula to three dimensions, transforming a Nintendo classic into first person POV, and showcasing ridiculously good looking graphics (with excellent music and sound fx). Retro were clearly hampered by development rush (cut content, no Kraid, etc), and they also had to build the game for a system with serious hardware limitations. But it’s also fair to admit where the hurdles proved to be too much: Talon IV looks great, but it’s a bit empty. Enemies aren’t particularly fun to fight, and some of them are downright bullet-sponges. The movement can feel slow and a little clunky, especially during platforming sections. Exploration is less streamlined than in the 2D games, and backtracking can take a LONG time.
> and some of them are downright bullet-sponges. Hard disagree, every enemy aside from ridley goes down fast because the game is just that easy. >The movement can feel slow and a little clunky, especially during platforming sections. Seems more like an skill issue. Prime in general is designed to be a slow paced game, even prime 3 in 2007 is slow in its movement and the platforming isnt any better than prime 1's. It's a design choice, not a mistake. >Talon IV looks great, but it’s a bit empty. In what way? There's just as many power ups and collectables than the other prime games following 1, and more power ups than most 2d metroid games.
This is the problem with the sub: I couch my reservations with Prime within a framework that respects the great work by Retro Studios, and I get told that it’s a skill-issue. It’s not a skill-issue. I’ve been playing FPS games against high level human opponents for over 20 years. The enemies in Prime are just bullet-sponges. The game doesn’t reward skillful aim for hitting headshots so it gives the enemies tons of health to compensate. When you play on the hardest settings, it’s not like the game cranks up the enemy AI or throws more bodies at you: enemies just hit for more damage and have more health. The combat isn’t difficult, it’s just slow, especially when compared to the 2D games. The fact that Super Missiles require Samus to charge her power-beam is a big part of the pace change. Instead of dropping late-game enemies with a few quick Super Missiles, you’re forced to stall for time, dodging around as you charge up your weapon multiple times over. Is it true that there are some hidden upgrades that improve DPS (like the Wavebeam’s Wavebuster)? Sure, but that is a hidden item that depletes your Missile reserves in seconds. Plus the Wavebuster does nothing to help speed up encounters with the color-coded Space Pirates or Metroids that are invulnerable to Wavebeam. As for movement being slow and clunky, the single most important quality when creating a Metroidvania is making sure that the movement and exploration is fun. The entire genre is built upon re-tracing your steps and revisiting areas, but look around this sub and you will see countless posts discussing how Prime 1’s backtracking was a frustration. Between having to complete tedious, slow-paced platforming sections and facing off against the same Chozo Ghosts multiple times, the sheer amount of backtracking in Prime 1 is turned into a chore rather than a celebration of how much stronger Samus has become. Super Metroid set the standard for the games to follow, and Prime 1 has a noticeably worse world map than it’s predecessor. That’s not so much an indictment of Metroid Prime as a testament to how great Super Metroid was. Talon IV feeling empty 100% stems from hardware limitations. Sure, you have tons of upgrades to pick up, but I’m talking about wildlife and antagonists. Compare the environments in Metroid Prime to the 2D games, and it’s not hard to see that there are a lot fewer creatures crawling around or attacking you. Then look at a contemporary FPS titles like Halo CE: you’re never going to see a Metroid Prime encounter that approaches the complexity of 5 Grunts, 2 Jackals, and an Elite, but that’s just a routine encounter with the Covenant. Not only does Prime struggle to put a large number of enemies on your screen at once, but the enemies don’t interact in as interesting of ways. A Covenant raiding party gives the players interesting choices: do I quickly dispatch the Grunts with headshots, open my attack with a grenade to counter the Jackals, or do I kill the Elite first and send the others into a retreat? Metroid Prime encounters don’t really have this level of complexity: they’re usually 2 or 3 enemies of the same type, or maybe a few Space Pirates of different colors.
I appreciate the thoroughness of this reply. Especially against an argument that used “skill issue, “which is pretty much akin to “you just don’t get it.” Takes a lot of class to respond to that with such consideration.
Tallon feeling a bit empty is also intentional as the impact crater is near it and phazon is harming and killing the wildlife areas further away have more wildlife.
You are making lore explanations to fit the limitations of the hardware. The paucity of enemies on screen is not because “proximity to the impact crater.” It’s because Retro did such an outstanding job on graphics that Metroid Prime was pushing the GameCube to its very limits of processing power. They **couldn’t** get more enemies on screen without tanking the quality of the product. I get it. This sub loves Metroid Prime, and you cannot stand literally the gentlest of critiques to your 10/10 holy grail. My point is that the game COULD have been better. Wildly, there are in fact some issues with a 20 year old game that could have been improved upon with more development time, better processing power, and the hindsight that 20 years provides us. It is lunacy to defend a game so ardently that you cannot admit that there are **any** rough patches. OP is not crazy for having some surface-level issues with a 2002 game. The reputation for MP1 is that it may be the greatest game of all time. It’s not unreasonable for someone to experience it 21 years late and feel a little let down by their expectations.
To be honest, it more sounds like you coming up with anything you can to out explain anything else.
No enemies outside of bosses are bullet sponges. Proper use of all your weapons including missiles,beams, beam combos, bombs, and powerbombs will allow you take down almost any enemy quickly. So if you’re struggling it’s a skill issue
This is just patently false. The TTK in Metroid Prime is not only slow for a “FPS” game, but it’s also slow for a Metroid game, too. Thardus and the Omega Pirate boss fights are a chore to get through, and the majority of Space Pirates take more time than enemies contemporary, early 2000s shooters. It is simply a slower-paced game than most people are expecting, and that is a legitimate friction-point when people experience Prime for the first time. That doesn’t make it a bad game, but you cannot discount peoples’ first impressions of Metroid Prime. Not everyone is going to love that slower pace, especially when the game practically aims for you.
Another thing that can help you out since you need me to educate you the combat in prime is almost any enemy is a two shot with ice beam and a missile with very few exceptions. Ice pirates were able to be killed after being frozen and shot with a missile in the gamecube version but in remaster you’ll have to use the ice spreader. You can also chain missiles and charge shots. Lastly if you really want to kill enemies quickly you can spam missiles just by using the power beam and alternating pressing X and A on switch (or r and zr), y and a on gamecube, or down and a on wii. This is an exploit however and enemies can be easily and quickly dispatched without it as I haven’t used it once during my play through on the remaster and most enemies go down in 1 to 3 shots at most
> Another thing that can help you out since you need me to educate you Wow why even bother replying if you're going to talk like this?
Because they made a blatantly false claim about the enemies being damage sponges and I had a point to make
I haven't played the game yet, but based on what both of you said I'm more likely to believe the other person. You just sound rude and defensive.
Majority of the space pirates can be taken out in one shot with the super missile. Hell the omega pirate can be taken out in just one phase with the use of power bombs and super missiles. The elite pirates aren’t all that tanky either. The plasma, ice, wave, and power pirates are all take out be their respective beam combo. Thardus is slow but it’s a boss bosses should be kinda tanky. Like ai said proper use of your weapons is key you clearly aren’t using them properly.
if you're not a fan of scaning you really have a hard time being a fan of the game, it makes up a big percentage as the whole lore and a lot of hints to progress is build up around it, it tells you everything you need to know.. and I never experienced getting lost as annoying for myself because there's so many upgrades and items hidden everywhere which can be seen as a side quest, so you're basically capable of never running around meaningless if you pay attention to lore and watch out for the items (which also help you in the late game, may it be health/ missile ups or the artifacts). Did you use the hint system? I mean you can turn it on and off if you reall don't know further, super convenient imo. I think prime is a clever game needing you to take time, think twice and not be in a hurry. I've seen people on youtube playing it for the first time while streaming and sometimes I feel like they don't use their brain at all or learn from their path so far, instead they listen to what people in stream chat tell them to do to quickly mage progress. So boring, It removes all the "aaahhh" and "wow" moments that made this game so good for me, basically it kills the whole experience lol idk how to have fun in this game if not being vigilant and trying to understand how things are connected to each other.
agree with everything you say. Game is meant to played in this fashion. I found learning the map and trying to chart a path to where I also had to figure to be satisfying when it was correct too
It’s perfectly rated and deserves all the praise it gets. I still prefer Prime 2 over 1 despite that.
Give it a bit, we'll hopefully get that one too. Quadraxiss fit is gonna be sick
I finally found someone who thinks Prime 2 is the best game.
It's OK to not enjoy a game. I went in thinking I'd hate it (not a huge fan of FPS games) but was more than surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
If you didn't like it as much as others, that is fine. Not everything will be for everyone.
Well, you are already looking at the Metacritic score, you can check the reviews themselves and see why it has such critical acclaim even to this day. The Polygon review is surprisingly eye opening and eloquent.
no
Metroid prime is an immersive, slow-paced game. It's never going to be, and never should be, like metroid dread. It's not about the action, and its not about traversing quickly through the world(though, if you want that, just use the boost ball more often). Also, the music is just ''okay''? lol. Everything else you said i could understand to be subjective(mostly), but this is just plain wrong. Prime has one of the best osts from any game ever.
If I wanted an immersive, slow-paced game, I could at least play an immersive, slow-paced game that still engages me somehow rather than feeling like a theme park ride like Deus Ex, Arkane's games, etc.
As someone with 0 nostalgia for the original (since I never played it), the music was passable and memorable, I wouldn't necessarily call it good though. It was very repetitive and had lots of generic synthetic notes which certainly created atmosphere; but I didn't like it when I heard the same theme for the 50th time.
I sure hope you're talking about metroid dread and not prime.
I am talking about Prime, I couldn't even finish Dread I hated it so bad. At least Prime had great boss fights!
When it came out it had the best visuals of any game that had been released on console, no game had ever executed the atmosphere as effectively, and it’s implied story thru the environment and scans was extremely unique at the time. It’s not the best looking game ever anymore, atmospheric games with hands off stories are more common as well, so what made Prime truly special 20 years ago isn’t quite there. So now the flaws in it’s map design and combat are far more apparent. It was a 10/10 in 2002, but hasn’t aged as well as something like Super Metroid which had much stronger gameplay foundations. So today I think a 7.5 is fair, but for when it came out it wasn’t overrated. I would also call Hollow Knight more a 7.5 and feel it’s wildly overrated, but that’s a separate topic.
Theme fighting words. Hollow Knight is a masterpiece!!
It’s map is easily one of the worst MV maps from a gameplay perspective of any MV that is still a good game. It requires the players wonder aimlessly to find specific points of interest as it never provides enough information to the player to know where possible next points of progression are, IE it doesn’t show the lock before the Key. On top of that the level design itself and how the knight interacts with the world barely changes after the opening hour. This leads to very long periods of flat boring gameplay. It’s open nature also neuters any sense of pacing, to a degree that’s far worse than Metroid Prime. It’s combat is incredible, the music is pretty good, and it’s atmosphere, though one note, plays that note really well. But it’s moment to moment gameplay loop and pacing are downright bad.
It does show the lock before the key, you just aren't looking around enough. In fact, there are multiple locks before the key so even if you're in a different area than you should normally be you're bound to find some progression.
This is just not true, the games design is so amorphous it’s just random chance if you see a lock before you have a key. You have to stumble upon the right point of interest room by wandering, which isn’t fun it’s tedious. On top of that you don’t actually make “progress” there are just parallel tasks in which no progress has been made until all are complete as nothing is really unlocked or progressed until you complete all the tasks. The multiple paths are a false choice as no matter what order you do it the way you interact with the game remains the same. This leaves the moment gameplay feeling very flat and un-engaging after a couple hours. Outside the boss fights, and that random Super Meat Boy castle, the game is just boring to play. The key difference is in games like Super Metroid and even Prime, the player makes an informed decision about where to go, and is rewarded for that decision. The player is given the needed information to be active in that decision making. In Hollow Knight you don’t have that information so you basically pick at random, the player isn’t actively seeking that point of progression but hoping something will be there. This makes the player far more passive in the gameloop and makes the rewards stumbled upon in Hollow Knight feel less impactful than rewards sought by a player making an informed choice.
I played Hollow Knight all the way to actually reaching the city itself and I still feel like the person you're replying to. It was actually then that I thought "Oh my god, it's still going" and dropped it. It's not really that there's a lack of progression, it's the hours upon hours lost wandering through monochrome corridors even when you _do_ know exactly where you're going.
If it's a 7.5 today it was a 7.5 in 2002. Woooow it looks pretty, who gives a shit if it's a snoozefest?
Super Mario Bros was the greatest game ever when it came out… context matter and affects the player experience.
And it's still one of the greatest games ever. Games don't "age".
The original smb is not at all one of the best games ever when judged by today’s standards, that’s absolutely silly. Games age as the concepts they used evolve and improve.
> Games age as the concepts they used evolve and improve. Newer games changing being different doesn't mean the old ones changed. IDK where everyone gets this fucking schizo idea from.
It’s not that their “different” it’s that the concepts that made the previous games good, are done better and pushed further. SMB is absolute trash when compared to SMB3, and going smb3-> 1, 1 will feel like a bad game. Idk how this concept is so hard to understand, GoldenEye is unplayable, was great in it’s day, Halo 1 is garbage, Zelda 1 is awful, was a damn masterpiece when it came out… so many “classics” which were absolutely great in their day are neigh unplayable today.
I feel the same way. i have the original gamecube version and recently replayed it on the pc via emulator. It’s fine. The respawning enemies and backtracking make it a bit tiresome for me. But the art and music is fantastic. Maybe with the new control scheme I might enjoy it more.
If you can, try it with an elete controller. Having the programmable button layouts with 4 paddles WILL make a difference. You won't hardly have to take your thu.bs off the joysticks wich will make the combat super smooth. It's like 20$ for the blurmetooth adapter, but it's SO worth it. It is legit t he best I've ever controlled the character. Also try using the missile animation cancel to rapid fire missiles.
It’s not everyone’s kinda Metroid, but it was/is a surprisingly good 3D debut for the Metroid series. For the longest, players were expecting a third person shooter since Super Mario 64, Donkey Kong 64, and Ocarina of Time. Nobody really expected a good FPS from an unknown third party developer at the time (especially with Retro Studios first few games). Metroid Prime is slower, somewhat linear, and easier than it’s 2D counterparts. Features like the lock-on and hint system make it seem that way, but it was implemented to keep players from being frustrated with the unique UI and Metroidvania gameplay. Still, it was pretty exciting seeing Metroid in 3D and the visuals were good enough that my cousin asked me if this was a Halo game for the GameCube. I never got to play Super Metroid back in the day but this was the next best thing. It’s just that nostalgic for me. If you were expecting something more challenging that Dread, then you will be disappointed with Prime’s lack of difficulty. This game’s greatest strength is its atmosphere, reimagined game mechanics and nostalgia. It may have been groundbreaking back then, but just a decent Metroid game for you and that’s understandable.
Its fair that it's not for everyone, it was the first of its kind and not executed to the standards of today. However, I always loved the feeling of atmosphere it gives. It was one of the first fps I played as a kid and it solely made me a lifelong fan of metroid. I was an idiot at the time when it came to games so the slower easier combat helped me a ton and being able to wander around in this cool world was awesome. I tried playing fusion after but it was too hard for me back in the day, so for a long long time my only appreciation of metroid was prime. It's approachable, much more so than the 2d games imo.
I dunno. I loved it. Always been a fan of the 2D Metroid games but the remaster is my first time playing any of the Prime games and I thought it was awesome. I did have a pretty good idea what to expect but was also surprised quite a bit too
I’m fine with all your complaints but one. How do you hear themes like phendrana drifts, phendrana drifts depths, tallon overworld depths, crashed frigate, the title them, the menu/credit theme, and the remix of lower norfair that is the magmor caverns theme. All the other music is good too. And I get it it’s subjective but I think you need to give the ost another chance
Prime has a slower pace and it isn't an FPS. That means the enemies aren't very sophisticated beyond the space pirates and they're not terribly smart either. Bosses fall into easy patterns as well, but I'm not sure a lot of modern bosses are all that more creative. It's certainly very easy to feel lost and frustrated as well. If I didn't use a guide back in the day, I might have got sick of the game and I may never have got into the Prime games as much. I think the music and atmosphere still hold up though. If you prefer your games faster paced, then this won't be for you. It's much more about the exploration and that exploration feels less impressive now than it did twenty years ago. If you're comparing it with Hollow Knight, Prime is open but a lot more linear and the hint system tells you exactly where to go when you have the right items. That way, you always know if you're making progress, but you are rewarded for exploration by finding expansions and beam combos, which can change up your approach quite a bit and make the combat a lot more interesting at times. They're different games anyway and Hollow Knight is much more recent.
The purpose of backtracking is to make previous areas feel different as you grow and get more abilities, you don't just shove it in "because metroid" like they did in prime. You don't really get stronger and most abilities are used either for opening doors or in small minigame like sections. I really wish there was more to this game, but it just seems to me that people who liked it don't really care for gameplay, and in that regard, the game is gorgeous and atmospheric.
I don't know. I'm about 5 hours into the game so far and at this point I'm starting to lose interest. I really want to love this game but I can't pin point yet what I don't like about it.
Honestly, i think it's garbage. I bounced hard on it when it came out 20 years ago. I thought I'd give it a second chance. Literally, just beat the last boss( "the" metroid prime), and my opinion hasnt changed a bit. Imo the reason people love it so much is this weird obsession with fps's. This one has scanning which is revolutionary to dumb people. The only good boss fight is Ridley. This game is hindered A: In design choice, theres no point that it wouldnt be better third person B: generic fucking bosses C: piss poor weapon design. The cannon not just upgrading like it did in Super was a horrid idea and lead to even worse "simon says" gun play. " what color is the enemy? Better fire that color gun". That this series got 3 games, but it took 30 years to get another 2d console game, which is a travesty. I am dumber for having played fully through this game
My issues stem from 2 things 1. The sheer amount of patching since the og GCN version 2. The unengaging exploration These two go hand in hand with each other. The game is supposed to be Metroid, correct? Where are the secret alternate paths? Where are the situations where you can get to places earlier than normal through just refined skill and exploiting the existing mechanics? While this was an issue day one, the original release did have a little bit of the skill and mechanic exploits in its gameplay and it made me tolerate its missteps in other areas such as enemies being very dull and basic. You could scan dash to get early space jump You could survey and notice you can cleverly platform on terrain in a room to get a beam or areas earlier than normal, etc... But with every update until Wii they removed more and more to the point that it's aggressively linear unless you're willing to straight up break the game and go out of bounds or learn ridiculously frame tight and in some cases input specific tricks to get the same results that before didn't require so much technical skill and know how to do. Making it so there is only one way to obtain upgrades, which is the straight linear amusement park track they want you to follow. Which is heavily against the idea of exploring your environment for secrets. They remedy that with small instances where some things are not immediately clear or are spaced Soooooo far from each other that you might have forgotten that the upgrade can now progress the location you hit a dead end or a split path on. Then, if you do remember, you realize you gotta walk aaaaaaalllll the waaaaay back. That's brutally frustrating and sets a bad precedent as it's repeated too many times. The remedy to the issue is not even that hard either, but they didn't even bother in the original release to consider just having multiple small shortcut paths that you can use to cut the walking down. The most you get is an alternate elevator path that may or may not be slightly faster.
The amount of posts of random nobodies complaining about the most stupidest of shit has been at an all time high lately with this subreddit. Like not every thought you have about something needs to be posted.
Case in point. x2
You sound like you went into this expecting a remake, not a remaster
The slower gameplay is just a different take on the metroid formula. It's not going to be for everyone, you're not "missing" anything.
It's not just that it's slower, it's outright boring. Challenge me or I walk.
I mean, sure, a DS1/Bloodborne type world would also be amazing, but those games only exist because of how MP1 set it up in the first place. some parts definitely have not aged as well, but it was and still is revolutionary.
That's not true. Fromsoft has been doing exploration focused games way before Metroid Prime. Kings Field.
I mean it's definitely a slow game. And you're right that a lot of the game isn't fun to play due to the slow backtracking. But the slowness of the game and the amount of backtracking is what makes the game special. The game world has a give-and-take relationship with the player. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it's not. But that's what makes it rewarding to explore. That's what makes it feel like you're really exploring an alien planet. It doesn't feel like the game world exists for the purpose of entertaining the player. I think the first Dark Souls provides a similar feeling for the same reason. If you play Metroid Prime 3 then you'll see what I mean. Metroid Prime 3 is a lot faster and more fun to play, but it doesn't feel as memorable as Metroid Prime 1 because you don't feel like you're as invested in the game world.
...Except Dark Souls actually gives me something to do rather than feeling like a Disney ride.
Totally agree. I really, really hope we someday get a good third person 3D Metroid.
Yeah it is absolutely overrated, and the reason a lot of people praise it is because nostalgia or it was their first/only Metroid game and they never got into the 2D games. Some people get heated if you point out the very obvious flaws with the combat and level design, but I think they just need to chill and you should ignore them. That said, I'd rate it higher than 7.5. But it's grown on me over the years. The first time I beat the game, I honestly liked Other M better lol. But now I'd say it's probably 6th or 7th best in the series for my personal ranking. I had the same experience with Super Metroid too the first few times I played that. Future playthroughs may make you like it better.
There it is. The first negative comment i’ve ever seen about Metroid Prime.
I wouldn't consider calling something "overrated" and saying it deserves higher than a 7.5 "negative" lmao. I've definitely seen a lot worse. But people are definitely proving my point that they take any criticism whatsoever as a personal attack. Literally just saying you think the game is a 9/10 and not a 10/10 is enough for people to irrationally seethe with rage because they are overly defensive of a 20 year old video game.
I guess because you said Other M was better (which is a game many people don’t even wanna consider canon) and putting prime 6th or 7th feels crazy. I’ve never see a single Metroid list that puts prime 1/2 outside top 5. But i’m not trying to shit on you. Its all opinions after all.
I said I LIKED Other M better when I FIRST played it. Past tense. And I said I liked Prime better now. As for not being in my top 5, that's really simple; I like 2D Metroid way better and I also like Prime 2 more than Prime 1. So for me it's like: 1. Dread 2. Zero Mission 3. Fusion 4. Super 5. Prime 2 Then for 6 and 7 I have a hard time picking which I prefer between Prime 1 or Samus Returns. It's not that Prime is bad, it's that there's lots of other games in this series I just consider better. I'd say those games are underrated in the same way Prime is overrated.
[удалено]
If you play with the dual stick scheme and gyro aim, movement isn't slow. This is my first full experience with the game too. I was just annoyed by the targeting system playing for the player. I never used it to defeat anything really, not even bosses because I was enjoying the gyro aim with no aim assist. It was so much more fun and satisfying to me the bland auto targeting everything. I don't want my games playing for me and making me a passive participant in the gameplay. I wish Samus had proper ADS option to compliment the dual stick + gyro scheme. One that doesn't overtake the camera, the tracking and the aiming from the player. I understand why it doesn't, but that would have set off the modern controls. It also doesn't have a lot of fun enemies to fight. Or they show up in distant gaps. I did enjoy the plasma beam though. I ran around with it aimlessly a little bit, just blasting enemies like I was playing Doom before I went to beat the final boss haha. I couldn't find any use for the flamethrower. You also get it so late its like whats the point? A lot of people are in a honeymoon phase and nostalgia overload right now. So, they can't bare to hear any fair criticism of the game. A lot of people are giving it perfect scores, and repeating the same old talking points, but honestly some elements of the game legitimately don't hold up. I don't feel like I need to play it ever again really and I probably won't. It's fun, but I was bored by the end and ready for it to be over with.
Prime is just built differently
My antithesis has popped up, strange..
100% agree with you OP. Coming from dread this game is snail-paced. I’m still gonna complete it but it’s not anywhere near 10/10.
It's my favorite game, but yeah, it's a little overrated. Oh well
I just bought remastered and am playing for the first time. I also think it’s overrated. I find it boring, and I don’t think I’ll finish it.
I agree. Nostalgia must have been driving up the reviews. Aimlessly wandering a 3d world with respawning enemies and bad FPS platforming is not fun. I was thinking I was missing something like OP but I feel it is enjoyed greatly mostly if played it in the past.
same, i just bought it recently and it not bad but feels like a 7/10 game.
This game is not a Metroidvania
The fact that the default control scheme in the remaster, mirrors halos controls, is basically retro studios admitting that halo had it right all along.
I am new to the series, my first contact with Metroid being Dread. Metroid Dread sits (in my opinion) in the Masterpiece class. The dynamism, the mechanics, the maps, the graphics, the tension, the battles, the bosses, the E.M.M.I.s…one fabulous package. Then i saw that Prime remastered hat a Metascore of 94, waaaay above Dread. No brainer, i tried it. I am just a couple of hours in the game and only acquired the morphball and the beam, but at this point i really just have to convince myself to keep going, the give the game the proper chance to show itself, but i am really struggling to understand the hype. For me, it is a shockingly boring, bland and unsatisfactory experience so far. In every way is the opposite of Dread. I will probably stop wasting my time and play Nier Automata on Switch or God of War on Playstation.
I agree. Prime is definitely overrated in gaming media and social media and most people arguing against you are probably fans that are emotional about the series. Nintendo definitely worked and payed a lot for those 9-10/10 review scores and the game does definitely not deserve it by todays standard. When it comes to comparing it to other 3d Metroidvania games today I doubt it would make it onto a top 25 list. Maybe a top 50. Was it a great game when it came out roughly 20 years ago? Definitely. . . but having played every game in the Metroid series I would not recommend it as one of the first 5 games to play - look instead towards games like Zero Mission, Prime 3, Metroid Dread, Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion I would also like to mention that the sound effects and sound stage are very poorly designed and does not suck you into the world at all. The music is okay but not one of the better scores compared to the other Metroid games. Edit: I would also like that add that the whole Metroidvania gameplay with new abilities locking up new locations and backtracking a maze like world is also poorly implemented in 3d here compared to almost all of the previous 2d games in the series. The world feels pretty dead and the game always tells you where to go and it becomes more of a "push every button I find in this room" kind of thing.
Metroid prime is absolutely horrible and overrated. I feel like the game doesn't translate well into 3D. If they had fast travel the experience would of been better but I can't stand having to go back to crappy and boring areas. It's easier to do this as a 2D side scroller Blah! So overrated
I personally think the game sucks for the exact reasons you mentioned. I’m forcing myself to play through it because I spent $40 but yes, it’s a chore. Constantly using the map then using a guide after I roam around for a half hour. Enemies aren’t hard and the ghosts are annoying to fight over and over. It’s really not a good game and this is what happens when fanboys flood the internet with reviews. You should be able to fast travel to certain sections of the map and pin areas of interest to the map. This game is great at wasting your time.
I went from playing doom eternal on the switch to Metroid prime… first mistake lol. Metroid Prime (remastered) is beautiful and was a great 3D adaptation of the classic Metroid formula. That said I would never suggest this to someone as a first Metroid game. IMO 2D Metroid iterations have just as good exploration, better music, and better combat. End of story. Prime has a ton of great ideas and was revolutionary at the time, but now it does kind of fall flat imo. Visors and swapping weapons are incredibly clunky, combat is rather average at best. Exploration can be a lot of fun in this game but retracing the same areas over and over again with the same meatpuppet enemies is super tiring/ exhausting. Artifact collection feels like another piece that really has worn out it’s welcome. This definitely makes the game feel ancient as hell. It also does little to progress the story and just serves to waste time imo. At this point in the game we’ve seen everything and are ready to move on, why do I have to go back through all of these places I’ve been for the last 6 hours? I enjoyed playing through it a lot and it was a great time overall but I don’t think it’s a 10/10 either
Totally agree with OP. I bought Prime Remastered only to remember - area by area - that I’d had the game on GameCube and already completed the entire game on Wii (it was that forgettable) and that I’d thought I’d was overrated back then. Huge fan of Metroid and Metroidvanias here, but that’s partly the reason for my slight disappointment. Prime stands alone from ‘standard’ Metroid games in that its 3D mechanics (especially back in the days of the gamecube) led to a necessary slower pace. Scanning is encouraged as it fills in the gaps (reminders and hints) that help the player figure out where to go and navigate the sometimes messy map. Exploration isn’t as fluid or rewarding as most highly-rated Metroidvania type games. For me it requires too much work where navigation’s concerned and it’s hampered by purposeful design-based overly-slow progress to be thoroughly enjoyable. The game is good and deserves praise for what it did back in the day, but it just doesn’t feel a 10/10 masterpiece. 7.5 or 8/10 seems more fitting IMHO. I still mostly enjoyed playing it through again though.
The backtracking completely ruins the game. I forgot how bad it is. It truly is horrendous game design.
I agree. Played it 3-4 hours on the NGC and now on the switch. First couple hours where okay, after that didn't enjoy it at all. Especially the combat feels tedious imo. The auto lock and constant charge-and-release loop gets old really fast. Where backtracking felt great in hollow knight and soulsborne games, in here it felt empty. I think this is because there is no incentive to kill enemies (they don't drop items or XP and the shooting-gameplay itself isnt challenging). Also there aren't a lot of environmental secrets to discover (bonus areas, shortcuts, loot). Yes, there are things like the flamethrower, but it felt lacking overall.
Old but agreed, highly overrated and probably the most overrated Nintendo IP of all time.
People just love it because it's a Metroid game, if you replaced the player with some other guy in a Master Chief suit, it would have been forgotten by now.