Site Event Metroid Prime and Fusion 20th Anniversary Event (ENDED)

[Aurc]

Event's Conclusion

The Metroid Prime and Fusion 20th Anniversary Event has now officially ended. I'd like to sincerely and wholeheartedly thank everyone who participated by playing a Metroid game, and even all those who stopped by simply to post in the thread! I had fun every step of the way, from making (and awarding) the badges, to witnessing everyone engage in celebratory runs through the all-time great gaming franchise that Metroid is. Reading the various expressions of love for these titles, both from those revisiting them, and those experiencing them for the first time, was a real treat. Metoroido Omoroido, and may we finally see some Metroid Prime-related news this year!

What happens now?

We run the raffle outlined in the OP! First off, I'd like to tag all who participated in the event. I'll ask everyone to verify that the badges they're entitled to have been properly awarded, as I'd hate to have made a mistake somewhere. Please reference your own posts in this thread (easily done using the search function), in addition to ensuring your Energy Tank counts in post #6 are correct (provided you've earned some). These are your raffle tickets. Once you Yeah! this post, I'll take it as confirmation that everything looks correct on your end. I'll then be revisiting the entirety of the thread to double check as well, of course. If you'd prefer to be excluded from the raffle, please let me know.

Spoiler: Tags

@2B
@Barely Able
@Brock Reiher
@Catalyst
@chocolate_supra
@em
@Gabev
@Illusionary
@Irene
@IronTed
@Josh5890
@KilgoreWolfe
@KingOnion
@KraftVenture
@Laephis
@Legion of Primes
@Leica
@Luneth
@MissingNo.
@Paxie
@Red Monster
@Sheldon
@smoothies
@TheSpaceBetween
@VolcanicDynamo
@VorpalNonsense
@xghost777
@Yavga

I'm planning to conduct the raffle the old-school way: writing names on paper slips, and drawing them out of a container. I'll film this process, and post the video in this thread in the coming days. I had originally planned to impose a few restrictions, but settled on just one, to keep things simple and easy: no participant may earn more than two prizes, maximum. If your name gets drawn a third time, I'll simply discard the slip, and draw again.

Event Stats

Total Participants: 29
Total Badges Awarded: 384
Metroid Matriarch Badges Awarded: 1 (@IronTed)
First Badge Awarded: Brinstar Beginnings (@Brock Reiher)
Last Badge Awarded: Tallon Touchdown (@Barely Able)​

 

[Barely Able]

Event's Conclusion

The Metroid Prime and Fusion 20th Anniversary Event has now officially ended. I'd like to sincerely and wholeheartedly thank everyone who participated by playing a Metroid game, and even all those who stopped by simply to post in the thread! I had fun every step of the way, from making (and awarding) the badges, to witnessing everyone engage in celebratory runs through the all-time great gaming franchise that Metroid is. Reading the various expressions of love for these titles, both from those revisiting them, and those experiencing them for the first time, was a real treat. Metoroido Omoroido, and may we finally see some Metroid Prime-related news this year!

What happens now?

We run the raffle outlined in the OP! First off, I'd like to tag all who participated in the event. I'll ask everyone to verify that the badges they're entitled to have been properly awarded, as I'd hate to have made a mistake somewhere. Please reference your own posts in this thread (easily done using the search function), in addition to ensuring your Energy Tank counts in post #6 are correct (provided you've earned some). These are your raffle tickets. Once you Yeah! this post, I'll take it as confirmation that everything looks correct on your end. I'll then be revisiting the entirety of the thread to double check as well, of course. If you'd prefer to be excluded from the raffle, please let me know.

Spoiler: Tags

@2B
@Barely Able
@Brock Reiher
@Catalyst
@chocolate_supra
@em
@Gabev
@Illusionary
@Irene
@IronTed
@Josh5890
@KilgoreWolfe
@KingOnion
@KraftVenture
@Laephis
@Legion of Primes
@Leica
@Luneth
@MissingNo.
@Paxie
@Red Monster
@Sheldon
@smoothies
@TheSpaceBetween
@VolcanicDynamo
@VorpalNonsense
@xghost777
@Yavga

I'm planning to conduct the raffle the old-school way: writing names on paper slips, and drawing them out of a container. I'll film this process, and post the video in this thread in the coming days. I had originally planned to impose a few restrictions, but settled on just one, to keep things simple and easy: no participant may earn more than two prizes, maximum. If your name gets drawn a third time, I'll simply discard the slip, and draw again.

Event Stats

Total Participants: 29
Total Badges Awarded: 384
Metroid Matriarch Badges Awarded: 1 (@IronTed)
First Badge Awarded: Brinstar Beginnings (@Brock Reiher)
Last Badge Awarded: Tallon Touchdown (@Barely Able)​

Thanks for all the work you put in on this. Honored I could get the last badge!

 

[VorpalNonsense]

Wooooo
Thanks for giving me the extra motivation to play a bunch of Metroid last month!
I think the funnest part for me this time was playing Super Metroid on Analogue Pocket, that was neat playing it in that way.

My gaming confession: I can never bring myself to beat Metroid Prime 1! Even for this event, I got as far as the final boss room and then stopped.

When it first came out I was around 15, and it became my favorite game. I badly didn't want it to end, so once I got to the final boss I just...turned around. Left it there. Occasionally coming back to the save just to enjoy the scenery and explore some more with all areas open to me, never letting the game end.
It's sort of tradition at this point. Any time I start a new Prime 1 save, I stop before ending it! I thought this time I could convince myself to do it but after 20 years it feels wrong to break tradition.
Which is quite silly but it's hard to break the old habit. I have told myself that I must beat Prime 1 under two circumstances: If Prime 1 HD comes out, I will beat the game in that form. Or if that doesn't happen and Prime 4 is one month away from release, I will beat the game soon before it comes out. Only then will my 20 year mission be complete! Until then, my Prime 1 playthrough lives on in eternity!

I typically play on emulator these days but I still have my original gamecube and original memory card with my first save on it.

 

[Sheldon]

Now had time to read through the whole thread. Good times, everyone!

As a fervent fan of the series, I think one of the only things I'd change up is the look of the Metroid Suit. I find it ugly and cheap looking, and not really all that representative of a Metroid, but I know most of the fanbase seems to like it. I just would've preferred a more organic, unsettling look, closer to that of Dark Samus at the end of Echoes. Prime series art direction is tops.

My first thought was "Oh, she's wearing a generic insect-themed World of Warcraft raid armor now?" Like you, I wish they'd have gone for a more organic look. The translucent, deep-sea horror creature properties of Metroids give you so much better to work with than chitin and spikes. But as you also said, we're among the few who it bugs.

I also didn’t know that after the credits, Samus respawns at the start out of her suit, with all her upgrades. That was pretty cool!

And finally because I thought it was cool, I took a screenshot of “new game plus” even though it’s not for a badge.

I only learned today this is a thing. Vastly prefer that sprite to the one at the end screen. And not just because of the green hair. But bring back green hair Samus, anyway. Make it canon!

So far it seems like Metroid II fully embraces early Metroid style boss fights, the kind where the only viable strategy is to stand there and tank hits and hope that you last longer than the monster. It’s almost impossible not to get hit. I blame the small spaces that the metroids inhabit and Samus’ tanky movement. It really wasn‘t until Dread that that tanky aspect would go away.

You feel as though that tanky Samus movement factor was always a thing, up until Dread? She was quite nimble in Fusion, no? Even more so in Zero Mission though, which has some of the snappiest gameplay in the series.

When I describe my experience of playing Metroid Fusion as discovering the missing link between Super Metroid and Metroid Dread, this is one of the many aspects I have in mind.

My earliest idea of Samus Aran is as a human tank. The kind of warrior who knows fights are won not by the more skilled fighter but by the one with the better armor and the bigger gun. That approach plays into what dirty work it is hunting targets into extinction.

Fusion makes Samus squishier to regular enemies in exchange for greater agility. But it doesn't got as far into that direction as Dread even though it would have had the excuse of Samus being arguably at her most vulnerable, seeing as she just got over the X-infection, whereas by Dread her suit has regenerated. The game still delights in Samus' ability to take punishment and give back harder, best exemplified in the Ridley battle. Dread's philosophy is every hit can be avoided. In Fusion the best play sometimes is to get hit.

Somersaulting over enemies and styling on them is fun and fine. However the coolest thing in the world is saying "Screw worrying about getting grabbed in the claws of some building-sized dragon alien. To me it's just a free opportunity to launch missiles into its face."

And, what I remember the most, feelings of calmness, peace and tranquility: such as when the snow of Phendrana Drifts fell all around me for the first time, or when the small sea creatures in the Sunken Frigate Ship swam past me, accompanied by gorgeous, gorgeous music. Or, the most famous example, raindrops on my visor as I graced Tallon IV for the first time, knowing that from now on, it was only me and solitude, and nothing, absolutely nothing else.

These are the moments I remember the most from Prime, and what defines the series for me. Once you get through the dread, the stress, you're greeted with these beautiful places and sections, like air after a deep dive, making what meets you taste all the more sweet.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts throughout the thread and for the above especially.

If Satoru Iwata was still doing Iwata Asks and asked Mercury Steam, Retro, Yoshio Sakamoto or Kensuke Tanabe - like he would - what the essence of Metroid was ... there couldn't be a better answer.