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

I’m very close to the end of Sanctuary Fortress since I’m just missing the middle key. Far and away my favorite level with amazing aesthetics and some of the coolest puzzles and rooms to clear.

Very excited to face off against Quadraxis and maybe wrap up the game next time if I can get another lengthy chunk of time to play.
 
Great to see a Metroid-focused challenge! Let's take this one game at a time - so starting with Metroid Dread, for:

Artaria Ascent
Dread Domination
Mawkin Militancy


plus Zebesian Zoomer and 1/3 towards Kraid Killer



 
Kraid Killer
PMFDiZh.jpg

3f5ZRNW.jpg

JZ2J1CI.jpg
 
Well I won’t be beating Metroid Prime 2 tonight anyway. I have all the scans and the keys to the final battle, but I’m missing four missile expansions and have no clue at all where they could be after sweeping every area again. Playing this over a longer period while juggling Pokemon didn’t help compared to my very quick Prime playthrough. Probably going to have to bust out my old Nintendo Power strategy guide.

The Quadraxis battle was very cool and more involved than I remembered. Boost balling up to the head is my favorite part.

Edit: looking at maps in my strategy guide helped immediately. I was actually missing a power bomb too. Two of them I just forgot I had to come back to, the other three items I would have kept skipping over. They weren’t at all where I expected lol. I saved at my ship, so I’m good to go tomorrow. Funny this is exactly how my Prime replay ended with me having to save the final boss for another day.
 
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I actually have the official Nintendo Power guide for Metroid II that I used for clean up after beating the game, only to learn it is missing 5 or so missile power up because they were too well hidden lol
 
Loving everyone rocking and rolling in this fantastic event, love reading you all's impressions!

I too will be breaking out my Nintendo Power Metroid Prime 2 Official Player's Guide to make my first entry, super excited to get into the darker cousin of the GOAT PRIME.
 
I had a ton of fun 100% completing Metroid Prime 2 Echoes!

Prime 2, especially in Dark Aether, demands much more of you than Prime which I really appreciate even if it slows your approach and can be a bit draining. I mentioned in a prior post, but the more measured pace I took here (15 hours ultimately for Prime 2 versus 10 for Prime) more closely matched my memories of the usual Prime experience which I was happy to experience again. An interesting thing to note is how much it builds off the original Prime. I always noticed the beam cannon appearances were pulled from Prime, but several enemies like the Ing Smashers for example, have direct analogues to Prime (in this case the elite pirates). Still there’s plenty of interesting new enemies and obstacles. The Quad tanks (mini Quadraxis enemies) have a very cool dynamic for example where you have to boost ball into them when they go on a rampage and to ultimately destroy the lower body. The barrier shields in Dark Aether are such a simple concept, yet get great use throughout the game especially as you can charge them with different beams. A few other quick things to note: the morph ball and spider ball get some really great puzzles throughout, juggling ammo is mostly fun, I’m still happy to see the screw attack in 3D, and the final boss fights with the Emperor Ing and Dark Samus were a great finale (was nervous I was going to die on the Emperor Ing, but the annihilator beam helped a ton).

I once again got 100% of scans and 100% of items so that’s every Prime 2 badge @Aurc ! Here are my pictures:

qKbCAt5_d.webp



yRNoynx_d.webp


Excited to move right into Metroid Prime 3!
 
I started Metroid Prime 3 tonight and completed the extended prologue of sorts. I’m playing on the Trilogy so no dramatic control shift for me, but you can tell this was the game designed for it with much more aggressive enemies. Opening doors and ripping off enemy shields with the grapple lasso is still super fun as are enemies where you lock on, but have to aim for specific weak points. The extended prologue features two big new elements, actual English voice acting and NPCs to talk to! I like this to an extent here as it is a bit dragged out and conversations repeat, but it does make the greater universe feel bigger and does answer yes we could have radio conversations in Metroid games, it works well enough! I do think the start of the game is funny in that it feels like a huge Halo ripoff with the ship getting invaded and Admiral Dane standing in for Lord Hood. Some very cool stuff here though like escaping from the swarm with the morph ball and ejecting and reentering the ship. Once you land on Norion, it starts to feel more Metroid-ish again even though it’s still more cinematic with cutscene interruptions. I’m very curious what Prime 4 will look like on this front.

There was a thread earlier today on the site about the best Switch game boss fights and I picked Raven Beak from Dread. After Aurc made a post saying it was the best in the series, I did start to wonder if that was true since the Meta Ridley fight in Prime wasn’t exactly as great as I remembered. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect fight, but wow I was super happy with the Meta Ridley fight in 3 where he falls with you down the generator shaft. It’s an extremely rad fight conceptually and blasting him back down and preventing him from clawing/chomping on you when he grabs you is super rad. While you do have enough time, the steadily decreasing number adds proper tension. So while Raven Beak might be the best fight in the series, I think this Meta Ridley fight is one of the ones I’d say is more enjoyable. It’s so cool!

I believe this is only my third time playing Prime 3, so I’m very excited to revisit this one. Looking forward to playing more soon!
 
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The bridge down!
Brain evaporated!
And uh.... Uh oh, I had all items by following a guide but I have no idea how to show it in-game, last savefile is the timed challenge so have that and I'll hope it suffices 😅

It was a nice game to play but I have no idea how I would have been able to find all these secrets without a guide but that's the NES era for you.

On to the next one!

I hope we will have a challenge like this for every new Nintendo game that releases, if Non-tendo refuses to do a proper Achievement system I'll follow the Fami route instead and enhance my gaming to the next level that way!
 
Meant to post last night, I cleared all of Bryyo in Prime 3! The music when you land is so good and the more traditional Prime gameplay is fully back here. In my head I remember being disappointed with Bryyo with the layout feeling more simple than the past Prime games and the starting area feeling so small. After playing these games so quickly back to back, I don’t think Bryyo is all that unusual really and some of the rooms in it are very dense with puzzles and have some cool new obstacles for the series (the ice missiles in particular are awesome!). Bryyo actually feels quite large too if you view your spaceship as essentially a door to connect to the rest of the map rather than being split into two separate areas, though that is a weird way to view it.

One interesting thing I didn’t talk about in my last post are the item sets you start each game with. Prime 1 and Prime 2 both start you with some powers before taking them away, but I want to focus on examining the sets after that. For Prime 1, you get nothing but the power beam and scan visor which really feels limited. For Prime 2, you keep the morph ball (no bombs) and charge beam which is great. For Prime 3 you get the morph ball with bombs, the charge beam, and the space jump which I think is excellent. You have all the essential tools, minus the missile launcher right from the start which you get very quickly. Speaking of items, I think it’s pretty wild how early you get the traditional grapple beam as that’s usually one of the later items in Metroid games. I mentioned how cool ripping off stuff with the grapple lasso is in my last post, but being able to aim and fire while grappling is awesome too!

I’ll save talking about combat more for another post, but I have to say the Wii Remote pointer controls are so engaging in this game with the more aggressive and complex enemies. My next few days are a little up in the air for free time, but I’m very excited to head into Elysia soon! It’s my favorite Prime 3 level!
 
Breaking out the Wii U to continue the 2D Metroid mini-marathon, here's Metroid Zero Mission and Super Metroid:



So that should be:

Brinstar Beginnings
Pirate Pacifier
Pray for a True Peace in Space!
Ultimate Warrior

Crateria Commuter
Rescue Ranger
Baby's Cry
Super Specialist


Plus:
Kraid Killer (2/3), (3/3)
Ridley Ravager (1/3), (2/3)
 
Wonderful to see your continued participation in the event, everyone! Badges have been awarded, and post #6 has been updated. As always, if I've failed to award a badge, or I've reflected an incorrect Energy Tank count, just @ me and let me know.

@xghost777, the detailed impressions on your revisitation of the Prime games have been an absolute joy to read, and I'll definitely have my own responses to make, once I go through them myself. I've been slow, but after achieving 100% in AM2R, I decided to go back and play Zero Mission as my version of Metroid 1, rather than continuing via the Zebeth campaign in Planets. I just wanted more of that quick and snappy style of gameplay. Nearly done with my playthrough, and though a couple of these Speed Booster / Shinespark item puzzles have been challenging, they're not quite on the level of those featured in Dread, I'd say. I'm playing on hard, and was surprised with the extent to which the Zero Suit segment at the end was a ball-buster. It actually started to annoy me!
There was a thread earlier today on the site about the best Switch game boss fights and I picked Raven Beak from Dread. After Aurc made a post saying it was the best in the series, I did start to wonder if that was true since the Meta Ridley fight in Prime wasn’t exactly as great as I remembered. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect fight, but wow I was super happy with the Meta Ridley fight in 3 where he falls with you down the generator shaft. It’s an extremely rad fight conceptually and blasting him back down and preventing him from clawing/chomping on you when he grabs you is super rad. While you do have enough time, the steadily decreasing number adds proper tension. So while Raven Beak might be the best fight in the series, I think this Meta Ridley fight is one of the ones I’d say is more enjoyable. It’s so cool!
I've thought on it a bit more since making that post, and yeah, for me personally, I think I'd still consider Raven Beak to be the overall best fight in the series! Cool design, direct narrative and thematic relevance, multiple phases that constitute tests of skill, a wide variety of moves the player has to learn to respond to, and a really cool end to the fight, with Samus's Metroid powers fully awakening, and her vanquishing Raven Beak and the X for good. 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.
There are a lot of viable contenders for best boss in the Metroid series though, so I don't blame anyone for having a different pick. In the same game alone, Experiment No. Z-57 is very much noteworthy. Then there's Metroid Prime, Dark Samus, Ridley at the end of Samus Returns, and Meta Ridley in Corruption, as you've noted. If we can count fan games, AM2R's Torizo, The Tester, and Queen Metroid are amazing too.
 
I would say best boss fight in the series so far from what I've replayed here is Queen Metroid in II, just a perfect thrilling end to the game. But I remember SA-X being the best fight so looking forward to seeing if that is still the case!
 
Meant to post last night, I cleared all of Bryyo in Prime 3! The music when you land is so good and the more traditional Prime gameplay is fully back here. In my head I remember being disappointed with Bryyo with the layout feeling more simple than the past Prime games and the starting area feeling so small. After playing these games so quickly back to back, I don’t think Bryyo is all that unusual really and some of the rooms in it are very dense with puzzles and have some cool new obstacles for the series (the ice missiles in particular are awesome!). Bryyo actually feels quite large too if you view your spaceship as essentially a door to connect to the rest of the map rather than being split into two separate areas, though that is a weird way to view it.

One interesting thing I didn’t talk about in my last post are the item sets you start each game with. Prime 1 and Prime 2 both start you with some powers before taking them away, but I want to focus on examining the sets after that. For Prime 1, you get nothing but the power beam and scan visor which really feels limited. For Prime 2, you keep the morph ball (no bombs) and charge beam which is great. For Prime 3 you get the morph ball with bombs, the charge beam, and the space jump which I think is excellent. You have all the essential tools, minus the missile launcher right from the start which you get very quickly. Speaking of items, I think it’s pretty wild how early you get the traditional grapple beam as that’s usually one of the later items in Metroid games. I mentioned how cool ripping off stuff with the grapple lasso is in my last post, but being able to aim and fire while grappling is awesome too!

I’ll save talking about combat more for another post, but I have to say the Wii Remote pointer controls are so engaging in this game with the more aggressive and complex enemies. My next few days are a little up in the air for free time, but I’m very excited to head into Elysia soon! It’s my favorite Prime 3 level!

Yeah, combat is by far the best in Prime 3. It's so fun to just point and shoot at everything. Of course, with the Trilogy version you can also do this in Prime 1 and 2, but unlike those games, everything in Prime 3 is designed with those controls in mind, so it naturally just feels better. This extends to the puzzles as well. Even something as simple as shooting a series of buttons to unlock a door feels really great.

I also think Bryyo is a great first "main" area. Great music, really unique visual style with the giant thorny mushroom things, and an amazing fight with Rundas. Have fun in Skytown, such an awesome area!
 
Been falling a bit behind lately, work has been hellish, and it’s like, coming home all tired means that you’re not always in the greatest mood of exploring a treacherous bog. But will try to get some hours into it this weekend!
 
Been falling a bit behind lately, work has been hellish, and it’s like, coming home all tired means that you’re not always in the greatest mood of exploring a treacherous bog. But will try to get some hours into it this weekend!
Plenty of time left in the event!
 
I haven't gotten around to playing any Metroid lately either. Tons of new games have been released over the past couple months that I've been looking forward to so they've been occupying my time, combined with the fact that I just did a series replay of Metroid in the months between Dread's announcement and release, and completing Dread itself numerous times over the last year.

The one game I didn't replay last year was Samus Returns (I went through both OG M2 and AM2R), so I'll go through that at least as part of this celebration after I finish other stuff. Maybe I'll bust out the Wii U and go through Metroid Blast as well. I actually have not ever played it despite getting the Wii U at launch with Nintendo Land.

I've really enjoyed following this thread though, reading everyone's impressions and seeing you all kicking ass with these challenges!
 
Had a ton of time and energy tonight that I focused fully on Metroid Prime 3. I set foot on the Valhalla today, got the screw attack and did the big ship puzzle on Bryyo, and wrapped up Elysia. You obviously can’t repeat the initial impact of the Valhalla, but it’s very cool to see this almost haunted destroyed ship unexpectedly in the middle of your journey and find out what’s going on. I don’t remember how this section fully plays out (I think it’s ultimately required?), but I remember there being some boss creatures ultimately. I actually ended my time today landing back here with more power cells so I’m eager to poke around again soon. Incidentally, I knew there was one randomly on the floor at the entrance, but I missed it walking in so I had to go back outside and head back in on my first trip lol.

As for Bryyo, I remembered the gist of the ship puzzle, but I did ultimately do the order backwards. I also remembered the screw attack location and remembered there was a cool Phendrana Drifts remix, but I forgot exactly how super cool it was! If they were going to pick one song to call back to when wrapping up the trilogy, I think they made the right call.

Elysia I always thought was my favorite level in the game and yup it delivered. The music and atmosphere is thoroughly excellent and I love the steambot robots all over. You also get some cool Chozo lore here about how they built Skytown and gave birth to the Elysians. Incidentally, while the Luminoth in Prime 2 were somewhat equals with the Chozo, I like we get some different dynamics in Prime 3 from them between the people of Bryyo and Elysia. Not on the same level, but I also liked learning the Chozo were responsible for the design of blue doors throughout the series. It’s a bit much, but I like it anyway lol.

I went off on a tangent there, but yes Elysia is pretty cool. The limited amount of ground makes for treacherous traversal and the indoor puzzles are great throughout. Aside from the awesome sights, I also like Elysia has some cool set piece moments. I remembered the collapsing bridge, Ghor’s fight, the Metroid lab of sorts and the general plan of dropping a bomb on the seed, but I totally forgot the defense sequence with delivering the bomb. There’s nothing else like it in the series and the flying ships make tricky targets to aim for especially when they send so many other robots and pirates after you. Again I forgot the repair sequence as well which incidentally repairing stuff with the plasma beam is so rad. The motion control legacy for Nintendo lives on in Switch Sports, but games like Metroid Prime 3 and Skyward Sword really delivered on the potential of motion controls in a traditional game and I definitely miss that. Finally to wrap up here, Helios is a great boss, much better than Bryyo’s, with many unique phases and interesting attacks to overcome. Retro really improved with boss design over the course of the series.

Ok I wrote a lot, after checking out the Valhalla again, I’m looking forward to heading to the Pirate Homeworld next time! I’m definitely in the home stretch with already 60% of the items!
 


Well, after getting about halfway through Fusion I figured I would go back and try to finish up Zero Mission because I dislike starting games and not finishing them haha.

But yeah, I did just that and finished Zero Mission for the first time. It wasn’t my favorite game in the series, I think some design elements from the NES original are still apparent and it probably had my least favorite bosses in the series. Mother Brain in particular was just more frustrating than fun. That was one of those bosses where I didn’t feel accomplished when I beat it, more that I got lucky and avoided a chunk of all the ridiculous elements on screen at once. But overall it was enjoyable! I think I was just not in the best headspace when I started playing it originally. One other issue I had was that the zero suit was cool in theory and made sense why it was weak in-game, but some of those runs in Chozodia were ridiculous.

All that being said, I’ll get back to Fusion and then I’ll plan on making my way through Dread as well.
 
Yay! Eat that, Alpha Blogg! Completely decimated it this time around. Those Super Missile windows are very, very small - and timing is essential. I have to say that there are few things in video game combat that are quite like just nailing that perfect Super Missile shot.

Grapple Guardian and Chykka down as well. Grapple Guardian was easier than I remember, you just have to, again, nail that timing. Chykka is an amazing boss battle, dang, I can go on and on about Prime 2's bosses.

With that being said, Torvus Bog done. Need to rest my legs for the rest of the night, but excited to finally grace Sanctuary Fortress tomorrow.

I had a ton of fun 100% completing Metroid Prime 2 Echoes!

Prime 2, especially in Dark Aether, demands much more of you than Prime which I really appreciate even if it slows your approach and can be a bit draining. I mentioned in a prior post, but the more measured pace I took here (15 hours ultimately for Prime 2 versus 10 for Prime) more closely matched my memories of the usual Prime experience which I was happy to experience again. An interesting thing to note is how much it builds off the original Prime. I always noticed the beam cannon appearances were pulled from Prime, but several enemies like the Ing Smashers for example, have direct analogues to Prime (in this case the elite pirates). Still there’s plenty of interesting new enemies and obstacles. The Quad tanks (mini Quadraxis enemies) have a very cool dynamic for example where you have to boost ball into them when they go on a rampage and to ultimately destroy the lower body. The barrier shields in Dark Aether are such a simple concept, yet get great use throughout the game especially as you can charge them with different beams. A few other quick things to note: the morph ball and spider ball get some really great puzzles throughout, juggling ammo is mostly fun, I’m still happy to see the screw attack in 3D, and the final boss fights with the Emperor Ing and Dark Samus were a great finale (was nervous I was going to die on the Emperor Ing, but the annihilator beam helped a ton).

Congrats on finishing it! It is indeed a more demanding game, and fittingly so - it goes hand in hand with its premise. You mention a lot of things about the game that I also like. Was beyond psyched to see the Screw Attack realised in full 3D glory, and it works. So. Damn. Well.
 
I like how small Fusion feels. The space station is a great location that matches the scope of the game. They knew they didn't need another new planet.

I feel like this game is the main reason to own an Analogue Pocket. The less saturated visuals really capture how I remember the game looking in 2002, it really improves the atmosphere when everything isn't hyper neon and when you can actually see the spotlight in Area 6. There's a mod that attempts to do this but from what I remember it has lots of other weird changes and additions so I don't like it.
 
Welp, I should be here posting the finishing screen of Fusion, but I died to the Omega Metroid and lost all desire to continue on. I love Fusion, I greatly enjoy the atmosphere and sense of dread(heh) that the game has, the space station really feels like a dangerous place. So kudos for that. I know Fusion gets a bad reputation for being more linear than the others but I can’t say I really had a problem with it.

On to the bad, and it really does mostly boil down to the last 30 minutes or so. The final SA-X fight is just too much. More than 10 fully charged hits for the first phase when they are jumping all over the arena absolutely sucks, full stop. I’m not the greatest player, but you’ve gotta be perfect on that fight or it’s game over. But hey, I did finally manage to finish it only for…None of the save-rooms being active! So you go from an extremely frustrating fight to the final boss with no save in-between. And then finally, Omega Metroid has the weirdest hurtbox I’ve encountered. I managed to damage him twice before I died and…Sent all the way back to the SA-X fight. I was completely deflated at this point and I think I have to call it quits there.

I love these games and I think this challenge has been more fun than not, but playing the games back to back has made me realize that I don’t think I really truly enjoyed a single boss fight. My favorite aspect of the games is the exploring and fighting the basic enemies.
 
Metroid Fusion up next, for:

B.S.L. Blastoff
Fusion Fearless
Fusion Flawless
Ridley Ravager
(3/3)

Fusion.png


And completing the 2D set with AM2R for:

SR388 Surveyor
Aeion Anniversary
Look at Me, I'm the Mother Now
Thoha Tenacity

AM2R Adventurer
AM2R Adept
AM2R All-Star


AM2R.png


All the 2D Metroids holding up just as well as I knew that they would - but AM2R in particular is absolutely stunning for a fan game. I'll have to see about investigating Metroid Planets, as I wasn't actually aware of it previously.
 
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Fusion going really well. Trying to get the ending I want but SA-X final fight definitely as good as I remember. The whole last stretch of this game is great. What I didn't remember being as good as it is is the Ridley X fight. Very satisfying just unloading missiles.

Ridley Ravager
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Really wish my screenshots did Fusion justice. It looks so good with proper saturation and so so bad without lmao

edit: Done! Will go back for 100% later. I thought I found a lot but I guess not...

Fusion Fearless
JENtVk7.png
 
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Metroid Prime 1

I finally got time to join in the fun. Tonight, I finished Metroid Prime 1. This was the first time I played the game in ~12 years and it is as playable now as it was back then. The Wii controls were pretty smooth once I got used to switching between weapons. I definitely did more backtracking than I probably needed to, but that didn't bother me so much. There is something beautiful about traveling through levels with Samus, both in 2D and 3D.

My one complaint with the game is that it gets really hard to see in some areas with how dark the rooms are, and that is when I am in a barely lit room. Granted that is a big problem with games from the 2000's, but I hope that the eventual Metroid Prime HD fixes that.

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Yea there was no way I was getting 100%. I actually hit all of the Chozo lore and research. I missed one of the pirate data things and I had probably 85% of the creatures. Items though, I know I left a lot on the map. I've always sucked with getting the hard to find ones (also a problem in Zelda lol)
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So what are my plans for the rest of the event? I've never played Prime 2 or 3 so those will definitely happen. I want to do another run with Dread and probably Super so I will try to get those done as well. Either way, I'm on my way!
 
Amazing stuff as always, everyone! Love reading all your posts.
Welp, I should be here posting the finishing screen of Fusion, but I died to the Omega Metroid and lost all desire to continue on. I love Fusion, I greatly enjoy the atmosphere and sense of dread(heh) that the game has, the space station really feels like a dangerous place. So kudos for that. I know Fusion gets a bad reputation for being more linear than the others but I can’t say I really had a problem with it.

On to the bad, and it really does mostly boil down to the last 30 minutes or so. The final SA-X fight is just too much. More than 10 fully charged hits for the first phase when they are jumping all over the arena absolutely sucks, full stop. I’m not the greatest player, but you’ve gotta be perfect on that fight or it’s game over. But hey, I did finally manage to finish it only for…None of the save-rooms being active! So you go from an extremely frustrating fight to the final boss with no save in-between. And then finally, Omega Metroid has the weirdest hurtbox I’ve encountered. I managed to damage him twice before I died and…Sent all the way back to the SA-X fight. I was completely deflated at this point and I think I have to call it quits there.

I love these games and I think this challenge has been more fun than not, but playing the games back to back has made me realize that I don’t think I really truly enjoyed a single boss fight. My favorite aspect of the games is the exploring and fighting the basic enemies.
Hey, there's nothing wrong with preferring the aspects of the game that aren't to do with the last couple boss fights! I'm glad you otherwise enjoyed Fusion. I've gone ahead and very slightly bent the rules, awarding you Fusion Fearless anyway. If you made it as far as the Omega Metroid, you were literally like a minute away from finishing the game, so I'm gonna count that as a clear. Props! This event should be about having fun, not getting frustrated.
All the 2D Metroids holding up just as well as I knew that they would - but AM2R in particular is absolutely stunning for a fan game. I'll have to see about investigating Metroid Planets, as I wasn't actually aware of it previously.
AM2R is impeccable. So polished, and so enjoyable. All of the non-Metroid boss fights are a real highlight for me. The soundtrack as well, of course. I can't believe Ancient Power is purely original, and not an arrangement of an existing Metroid track. It fits the series so well! It alone is superior to each and every one of Dread's original compositions, if you ask me. Then there's the amazing renditions of the OG Metroid II tracks, such as Golden Temple. Turns a (imo) really rough and grating tune into something pleasing and memorable.

Metroid Planets is of a similarly high quality. I promise you, it's very much worth playing. See this post for an explanation of what it is, plus a few neat gifs. If I can get even a single person to play it, then I'll count that as a win.
 
Time for my second to last post on Prime 3 and my Metroid Prime Trilogy replay as a whole. I’m sitting outside Omega Ridley with only ten items left so I only have a small, but decent chunk left. I’ve been waiting to talk about each planet until I finished it, but I feel good to talk about the Pirate Homeworld. Namely, this level isn’t as hot a finale as the Phazon Mines or Sanctuary Fortress. It is an interestingly laid out level in how it invites you in and twists around itself (the acid rain is also cool), but I think what drags it down is a lack of cool item pick ups as they all feel like keys and combat losing its luster as you have more than enough resources by now to Hyper Mode through every stretch coupled with a lack of real new enemies outside of Gandraya. You do get the back story here which I do like even if it isn’t terribly deep and the switch in writing between the pirates you’ve known throughout the Trilogy to the corrupted pirates of Dark Samus is amusing. I had forgotten most of this level, including the escort mission, which makes sense now. It’s mostly just ok.

A few quick other things, the best log in the game is perhaps the final Elysian log with their tragic end covered. You missed saving them by only two weeks which feels bad considering their huge history. The amazing first spider ball track in Elysia had made such an impression in prior playthroughs I was surprised to find how little there are throughout the game. I did encounter the now infamous “Experiment status report update. Metroid project “Dread” is nearing the final stages of completion.” message. I want to peek into the alternate timeline where it actually came out relatively soon after lol. That also again got me thinking the last time I played all of the Prime games was before Other M released. For better or worse, I keep thinking about “Remember me?” every time I interact with an NPC lol.

Anyway yeah just Omega Ridley, the last rooms of the Valhalla, a very short final clean up (Elysia’s observatory will help a ton), and Phaaze left to go. Excited to see this through!
 
Amazing stuff as always, everyone! Love reading all your posts.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with preferring the aspects of the game that aren't to do with the last couple boss fights! I'm glad you otherwise enjoyed Fusion. I've gone ahead and very slightly bent the rules, awarding you Fusion Fearless anyway. If you made it as far as the Omega Metroid, you were literally like a minute away from finishing the game, so I'm gonna count that as a clear. Props! This event should be about having fun, not getting frustrated.

AM2R is impeccable. So polished, and so enjoyable. All of the non-Metroid boss fights are a real highlight for me. The soundtrack as well, of course. I can't believe Ancient Power is purely original, and not an arrangement of an existing Metroid track. It fits the series so well! It alone is superior to each and every one of Dread's original compositions, if you ask me. Then there's the amazing renditions of the OG Metroid II tracks, such as Golden Temple. Turns a (imo) really rough and grating tune into something pleasing and memorable.

Metroid Planets is of a similarly high quality. I promise you, it's very much worth playing. See this post for an explanation of what it is, plus a few neat gifs. If I can get even a single person to play it, then I'll count that as a win.
Well you didn’t have to do that, but I do appreciate the rule bending anyway! I made a real dumb mistake of saving at the point of no return in Fusion so I couldn’t go back to get more energy tanks to help give me more room for error with Omega and I feel like a bozo for that haha. Oh well! This challenge has reinforced my love for the series (issues with bosses aside) so maybe if I’m bored on a weekend I’ll try to speed through it again to finish it.

Outside of that, I’ve been working my way through Dread and I’m always so impressed with how good it looks to feel and play! Just a truly wonderful game and I’m really glad that it exists, Mercury Steam did a phenomenal job I think. I hope that we can get a Switch port of the 3DS Return of Samus one day because that game would really benefit from 60 fps if possible.
 
Well you didn’t have to do that, but I do appreciate the rule bending anyway! I made a real dumb mistake of saving at the point of no return in Fusion so I couldn’t go back to get more energy tanks to help give me more room for error with Omega and I feel like a bozo for that haha. Oh well! This challenge has reinforced my love for the series (issues with bosses aside) so maybe if I’m bored on a weekend I’ll try to speed through it again to finish it.

Outside of that, I’ve been working my way through Dread and I’m always so impressed with how good it looks to feel and play! Just a truly wonderful game and I’m really glad that it exists, Mercury Steam did a phenomenal job I think. I hope that we can get a Switch port of the 3DS Return of Samus one day because that game would really benefit from 60 fps if possible.
This is definitely where the benefits of emulation and save states come into their own, though I'd make a case for Zero Mission's pair of grey Space Pirates - after Mecha Ridley - being more of a troll.
 
I had to reinstall all my emulation stuff on my deck. That was hell. But once I get it all set up ans I beat one game since my hand is better, I am starting this challenge with fusion. I’m back at it with games again.
 
Metroid: Zero Mission 100% on hard all finished up!

Mecha Ridley was a total dickhead. Goodness. What's usually a fairly quick, trivial encounter became a drawn out affair where Samus can only survive one claw swipe, because two is enough to kill her. I kept getting stunned by the beams, at which point, the mech would seize the opportunity to bring its claw down, and take out half my health. Easily the most (the only, really) annoying boss in the game, much like how the nearby Energy Tank with the laser security system you have to Space Jump through is what I consider to be the most annoying pickup in the game. I was wondering what was up with the sudden difficulty spike, and then read this on the Wiki, which I previously had no idea about, lol:
If Samus enters the fight with 100% of all items acquired, Mecha Ridley's offensive power will be doubled and total health tripled, making for a longer and more difficult battle than normal.
At least it made for a formidable final boss!

Pirate Pacifier, Pray for a True Peace in Space!, Ultimate Warrior:
I figured instead of jumping into Super just yet, I'd finish up with the GBA games first, so I've started up Fusion, and am making my way through that now.
Well you didn’t have to do that, but I do appreciate the rule bending anyway! I made a real dumb mistake of saving at the point of no return in Fusion so I couldn’t go back to get more energy tanks to help give me more room for error with Omega and I feel like a bozo for that haha. Oh well! This challenge has reinforced my love for the series (issues with bosses aside) so maybe if I’m bored on a weekend I’ll try to speed through it again to finish it.

Outside of that, I’ve been working my way through Dread and I’m always so impressed with how good it looks to feel and play! Just a truly wonderful game and I’m really glad that it exists, Mercury Steam did a phenomenal job I think. I hope that we can get a Switch port of the 3DS Return of Samus one day because that game would really benefit from 60 fps if possible.
No problem, and I totally agree! Dread is just so good, from a sheer gameplay standpoint. Easily the best gameplay across the whole series, if you ask me. MercurySteam did an excellent job of refining the framework they'd previously laid out with Samus Returns. I'm hoping Metroid 6 isn't too far out, assuming they're the ones set to develop it.

And yes, absolutely, a Switch port of Samus Returns would be very much welcome. As far as the 3DS family goes, I only own a 2DS, and playing it on that uncomfortable hunk of plastic brought down the overall experience a bit.
This is definitely where the benefits of emulation and save states come into their own, though I'd make a case for Zero Mission's pair of grey Space Pirates - after Mecha Ridley - being more of a troll.
I was so thankful to best them on my first escape attempt. I really didn't wanna have to beat Mecha Ridley again, lmao. If you jump up to the ledge above the escape vessel, they'll go after you one at a time, and it's easy to score free hits as they're climbing up. That pretty much trivialized 'em.
 
I’ll make a proper post and upload my pictures tomorrow, but I beat Metroid Prime 3 100% tonight! I bitterly only missed four scans! It was awesome!
 
I wrapped up Prime 3 last night and I have the time now so here are my final thoughts and some pictures! I started last night with the Omega Ridley battle which was excellent. He has some aggressive, but reasonably dodge-able moves and I liked having to switch to the underutilized X-Ray visor to damage his weak point. While missiles aren’t terribly important, this is the fight having a big energy tank supply matters for. When it came time for the killing blow, I only had one energy tank for hyper mode and just two energy points extra. The only knock against the fight is really that the arena isn’t terribly memorable otherwise this is a much better showdown than Prime 1’s. Afterwards, final clean up went well. Only tracking down the final scans I could still get took a while.

In my last post I mentioned in the Pirate Homeworld the combat was losing its luster. Thankfully the final section of the game, Phaaze, was way cooler than I remembered. Here your energy tanks are swapped out for a constantly filling bar that when filled will kill you and you are always in hyper mode which has different behaviors from regular charge shots and morph ball attacks specifically. This section does a great job of upending your entire approach to the game as you rush through the planet and bosses with little opportunities for relief or recovery. It’s easy too to get disoriented during the exploration phase which makes the challenge even more frantic. I like both final boss battles, though I do wish they swapped the order of the two since you have less attachment to the AU unit than Dark Samus herself. Phaaze is definitely the best final section of the trilogy all things considered despite the AU unit not being as cool as Metroid Prime or the Emperor Ing.

Final thoughts here, yeah Metroid Prime 3 Corruption was a blast and the one I might have had the most fun playing. The motion controls are astounding which makes me sad Nintendo moved away from IR entirely. Elysia and the Valhalla are especially amazing levels and I’m very impressed overall with the boss battles here. I had this thought walking in, but for the trilogy overall I think anyone could make a case that any of the three are the best in the series and I could be convinced. All three are similarly awesome experiences at heart that are a joy to play and they each have their own quirks that make them special and engaging in their own way.

The event is still going and I might return for more later, but I want to say thanks already to @Aurc and the rest of the organizers for putting this event together. This was an awesome excuse to replay some of my favorite games of all time. Here are my pictures for 100% item completion and showing a near 100% log book. I only ended up missing four enemy scans as two of those short lived Pirates got me! I also missed two Phazon enemies I incorrectly thought would be on Phaaze. No idea where they were. If you want more pictures for the research list let me know and I’ll upload more, it is 100% full.

Mission Complete:

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Creatures:

UuUN9rI_d.webp


Lore:

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Research:

Wy3chZC_d.webp
 
Time for my second to last post on Prime 3 and my Metroid Prime Trilogy replay as a whole. I’m sitting outside Omega Ridley with only ten items left so I only have a small, but decent chunk left. I’ve been waiting to talk about each planet until I finished it, but I feel good to talk about the Pirate Homeworld. Namely, this level isn’t as hot a finale as the Phazon Mines or Sanctuary Fortress. It is an interestingly laid out level in how it invites you in and twists around itself (the acid rain is also cool), but I think what drags it down is a lack of cool item pick ups as they all feel like keys and combat losing its luster as you have more than enough resources by now to Hyper Mode through every stretch coupled with a lack of real new enemies outside of Gandraya. You do get the back story here which I do like even if it isn’t terribly deep and the switch in writing between the pirates you’ve known throughout the Trilogy to the corrupted pirates of Dark Samus is amusing. I had forgotten most of this level, including the escort mission, which makes sense now. It’s mostly just ok.

A few quick other things, the best log in the game is perhaps the final Elysian log with their tragic end covered. You missed saving them by only two weeks which feels bad considering their huge history. The amazing first spider ball track in Elysia had made such an impression in prior playthroughs I was surprised to find how little there are throughout the game. I did encounter the now infamous “Experiment status report update. Metroid project “Dread” is nearing the final stages of completion.” message. I want to peek into the alternate timeline where it actually came out relatively soon after lol. That also again got me thinking the last time I played all of the Prime games was before Other M released. For better or worse, I keep thinking about “Remember me?” every time I interact with an NPC lol.

Anyway yeah just Omega Ridley, the last rooms of the Valhalla, a very short final clean up (Elysia’s observatory will help a ton), and Phaaze left to go. Excited to see this through!

I actually like the Pirate Homeworld quite a bit. As you said, it's kind of interesting level design as a claustrophobic, jumbled mess of awkwardly shaped rooms that twist and unfold on each other. Nothing is layed out in a way that makes any logical sense and is very disorienting. I like how the X-ray visor is utilized, especially in conjunction when you get the Nova Beam and can zoom in and one shot Metroids, and even the annoying as fk Metroid Hatchers can be dispatched in a single shot! The Gandrayda battle is my favorite boss in the entire Prime series (that theme slaps!). The final mining area is really cool as well, but way too small, but I love the use of the Crateria remix there. I'm in the minority of people that liked the escort mission quite a bit... It was different than anything Metroid had ever done before so it was a fun surprise, culminating in a fun battle with the Elite Pirate, or whatever he's called. I love that cutscene of him knocking Samus on her ass. I remember being like oh hellll no and getting up and destroying him with phazon. Overall I'd rank it there with Phazon Mines, but ofc neither of those touch the Sanctuary Fortress as a final major area.
 
I actually like the Pirate Homeworld quite a bit. As you said, it's kind of interesting level design as a claustrophobic, jumbled mess of awkwardly shaped rooms that twist and unfold on each other. Nothing is layed out in a way that makes any logical sense and is very disorienting. I like how the X-ray visor is utilized, especially in conjunction when you get the Nova Beam and can zoom in and one shot Metroids, and even the annoying as fk Metroid Hatchers can be dispatched in a single shot! The Gandrayda battle is my favorite boss in the entire Prime series (that theme slaps!). The final mining area is really cool as well, but way too small, but I love the use of the Crateria remix there. I'm in the minority of people that liked the escort mission quite a bit... It was different than anything Metroid had ever done before so it was a fun surprise, culminating in a fun battle with the Elite Pirate, or whatever he's called. I love that cutscene of him knocking Samus on her ass. I remember being like oh hellll no and getting up and destroying him with phazon. Overall I'd rank it there with Phazon Mines, but ofc neither of those touch the Sanctuary Fortress as a final major area.
Wow I totally forgot you could snipe Metroids with the X-Ray visor (I definitely did it in past playthroughs) and never knew you could with the Metroid Hatchers! It makes sense since they mention Phaazite plating on them iirc. Aiming for them is annoying, but I do like ripping off the tentacles lol. Knowing it has more purpose makes me feel better about the X-Ray visor.

Yeah I glossed over the Gandraya fight, but it’s a very good fight as she remixes a bunch of prior enemies, has her own unique attacks, and copies yourself! Also I love when the arena opens up. I glossed over the escort mission too since it didn’t really change my opinion of the level, but yeah it’s another interesting new gameplay style for Metroid to explore even if I don’t necessarily need it to return. I should have mentioned though, I really dug battling on the railway for the train. It only happens once or twice I believe in the first room, but it’s such a cool moment seeing the train rush by right in front of you.
 
@xghost777 immediately putting on the last of their 100% Prime Trilogy badges like:

thanos-avengers-infinity-war.gif


I love it! 😁 🤣 Looking cool with that set of badges displayed. Glad you had fun replaying three awesome games, bud! Thanks a bunch for your participation in the event. 😊 Your posts were wonderful to read!
 
@xghost777 immediately putting on the last of their 100% Prime Trilogy badges like:

thanos-avengers-infinity-war.gif


I love it! 😁 🤣 Looking cool with that set of badges displayed. Glad you had fun replaying three awesome games, bud! Thanks a bunch for your participation. 😊 Your posts were wonderful to read!
I must have sensed it was coming then since you were awarding them right when I was hopping back on lol. They are an awesome set of badges I will wear proudly :)

I had a ton of fun sharing my progress here and getting to dive in deep with y’all. Wish I could have done it for Prime too, but I just flew through that one lol.
 
Upon replaying Zero Mission, I couldn't help but take notice of this track. Even despite having finished the game many times, this is the first time I actually stopped to listen to it. It plays in only one room with no enemies in it, during the Zero Suit sequence, just before Samus enters the room with the Ruins Test. It's easy to pay little mind to, since you're in that room for merely a few seconds, but man... even some of the more obscure Metroid tracks are good. This is so evocative.

 
Looking at the badges, Prime 3 had a really good varia suit design (to the point where it was the 'default' Samus until Other M came around). Shame it's not actually in the game that much.

Do we know if there will be Other M badges or not? I want to replay but I'll push it back if necessary to make sure I don't miss a picture of Anthony or Little Birdie or whatever.
 
Looking at the badges, Prime 3 had a really good varia suit design (to the point where it was the 'default' Samus until Other M came around). Shame it's not actually in the game that much.

Do we know if there will be Other M badges or not? I want to replay but I'll push it back if necessary to make sure I don't miss a picture of Anthony or Little Birdie or whatever.
Isn't the Corruption Varia Suit the same one from Echoes? I know there was a design update, going from Prime 1 to 2, but then they kept it the same, going from 2 to 3.

And yes, there will absolutely still be Other M badges! So sorry for not putting them up sooner. Don't feel like you can't start playing the game already, because they'll be retroactive. One badge for an early game accomplishment, one for a clear, and one for 100%, as is the case for the other games.
 
Isn't the Corruption Varia Suit the same one from Echoes? I know there was a design update, going from Prime 1 to 2, but then they kept it the same, going from 2 to 3.

And yes, there will absolutely still be Other M badges! So sorry for not putting them up sooner. Don't feel like you can't start playing the game already, because they'll be retroactive. One badge for an early game accomplishment, one for a clear, and one for 100%, as is the case for the other games.
Great to hear! And I think the design is the same, but the colors look a little different to me on the new console. I like the shade of orange it's hard to say.
 
Upon replaying Zero Mission, I couldn't help but take notice of this track. Even despite having finished the game many times, this is the first time I actually stopped to listen to it. It plays in only one room with no enemies in it, during the Zero Suit sequence, just before Samus enters the room with the Ruins Test. It's easy to pay little mind to, since you're in that room for merely a few seconds, but man... even some of the more obscure Metroid tracks are good. This is so evocative.



Yeah, great track. Another similar situation was the Metroid Xenoresearch pod on Skytown. It's a track that only played in that small area, but everything about that sequence was absolutely perfect, and the music was a big part of that.

 


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