Chozo Art Collection Enrico Pucci [JoJo's Bizarre Adventure // Stone Ocean] non scale from Medicos Entertainment coming February 2024.

Metroid: Other M Review (NonSpoiler)

I wanted to start with my score of 7/10 to show that this isn't such a bad game, I actually had a lot of fun with it but it doesn't come without its flaws and I think I can pinpoint where people may have had problems with it. When I see people saying "You're better off not playing it." I think that's kind of unearned because it's not as bad as people say, the fanbase is a bit whack though, has made them bitter.

STORY - I know this is sometimes considered a prequel of sorts but you need to know Super Metroid to get it, it actually takes place afterwards but then has Samus lamenting on her past in the cutscenes.

This has a lot of previous material but one trope that I didn't really see were Space Pirates, I was actually quite relieved because they're considered extinct after Super and I feel like they should remain that way. It also doesn't pay homage to the Chozo in much way at all.

In some ways, I do believe this should've been a prequel to all the games and then maybe I wouldn't hold as much problem with it but other than the little differences, it plays out like an Americanized version. It has the formula of a Hollywood sci-fi movie.

I also felt it necessary to urge you to stick around until after the credits because that ending beforehand is barely even an ending, it left kind of a bad enough taste in my mouth to sour the whole game. There IS another boss. There is another ending so be patient. All in all the story ends up kind of plain and average, a 5/10.

GAMEPLAY - It was quite unexpected the way it plays because you DON'T use the nunchuck, you hold the remote sideways. Now this actually came across pretty good in translation but there are times where you have to have the remote upright to do certain things. But there are separate low-pressure sections where you don't have to be quick about it so you don't have to flip-flop all the time. The one exception are missiles and while it is annoying to switch just for that, I didn't find it that bad.

Speaking of combat, it's quite different, shooting auto-locks enemies so obviously that comes with a few misfires here and there but it still has a lot that the series is known for. You can dodge attacks similar to the parry system in SR/Dread and have finishing melee moves that have these crisp and unique animations. The wall kick is back and I can actually do it this time, you only have to hold the direction towards one wall. So believe it or not, I think there are some things that originated here that carried over into the later games because they were so good.

Beating enemies doesn't give you health but save points do so it's a trade off. You do slowly gain your items back but not for the reasons you might imagine. You see because you're with the federation, you need to follow orders, which means that you have your weapons but they're not authorized to be used by your officer yet. Sometimes it's kind of dumb though because you have this whole section of extreme heat to get through before the commander's like "Oh, yeah, you can activate your Varia suit. I'll allow it." It's a defense, I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed. Since there's no collecting random bits from enemies, you can just reload your missiles anytime, the expansions are just for as much you can hold which is really cool.

The art is pretty good too, seeing Samus clash against these white matte backgrounds and contrast the bright colors of her armor to the dark environments, all the little pieces glow. Sometimes lush. The plasma beam is really satisfying with its green lightning approach. It pushes the Wii to its limit, I had times where it seemed like it couldn't keep up and pop a loading banner at the bottom. That was really only when I was moving faster than it wanted so it wasn't detrimental to the experience, in fact, I was proud. It might not mean anything for today's standards but it still looks pretty good today especially for being a little over 12 years old already.

What I didn't like are the "investigate sections" where it forces you into a first person pov and you have to spot what it is that you're supposed to be looking at. The thing is, there's no real clue most of the time, even the very first one is this little emblem on the spaceship that shows the federation logo but I never would've guessed that unless I looked it up.

In fact, that was where most of my difficulty came from, just figuring out "what" to do rather than where to do because it shows you where to go a lot more than the other games in my personal opinion. A stark contrast to Super Metroid with doors in your way that you just can't get through. Some people will like that, some people won't. Backtracking is interesting because it's not traditional. In Prime 2, they had those main sections and then a hub connecting them all. This kind of has that with "Sectors", a lot of the time you're not expected to go through the same corridors to get back though, there's usually a new route that just circles around. I didn't collect all the items (missile and health etc) though because it tends to limit where you can't return to. You can't just wander around at any given time, you're normally closed off to just that sector until you finish it. You do revisit sectors but I never felt like I got the chance to collect EVERYTHING until after the game but I didn't really feel I needed to because I felt like I had quite enough already to thrive. So what happens if you do collect everything then? Secret ending? Nope, just a hard mode unlock.

I suppose I was expecting more crazy arcade shooter moments like Prime 3 and while there are a few, I want more! I think there's still an untapped 3rd person Metroid with a 3D environment. But this is a perfectly good game, it has some of the best bosses, some of the best use of its mechanics, it's polished, it doesn't deserve quite as much flack as people make out.

PERSONALITY - It reads like a book and Samus actually talks which is something that Metroid hasn't attempted before. I think a lot of people took problem with this because the series is known for its subtlety and to suddenly thrust it into a narrative driven experience is going to jar people especially when the main just straight up tells you what she's thinking about everything. The slow parts probably threw them off just as well. I don't really fault Nintendo for this because they were probably going to receive some sort of backlash for even straying away in the first place but Metroid hasn't always been the most successful franchise and I feel it was the right call on paper.

Now one of the problems with switching to this is the depiction of Samus. Let's start with her voice. In the Prime days, Samus was apparently voiced by Jennifer Hale. You can look up a clip of her narrating the intro and it sounds quite good, pretty much what I'd expect her to sound like. In this game she is voiced by Jessica Martin however. Now I'm not exactly trying to throw Jessica Martin under the bus but Samus seems very monotone and stiff, I looked up some of her other voice roles and it turns out…she's only done two video game roles, the other was ReCore and she sounded pretty decent in that. But that's beside the point because I actually blame the direction.

I checked out the Japanese voice for her, Ai Kobayashi and she actually voiced Ovilo from the Cowboy Bebop movie so I think she could pull off a bad-a performance if she wanted to but she also seemed monotone in the game, it's deliberately Samus' personality and everything the game shows matches up. But this bleeds into her as a whole because in the previous games, she's set up to be this big famous bounty hunter that everybody looks up to and she doesn't take crap from anyone.

But here, they don't reinforce that at all, it almost does seem like it should be a prequel because they acknowledge that she has done stuff in the past but they don't treat her any differently. In fact, I almost felt a sort of hostile vibe from the feds like "Oh, you're too good for us. You defected and are a bounty hunter now." There are some cool moments mind you but I feel like it's matched with powerlessness. There are points where she squeals and that just completely threw me off because she takes hits like a champ in any other game. I know we don't really get to hear a lot of her in those but I think everyone image of the female bad-a is just kind of nerfed for this game.

I didn't find any of the supporting characters all that compelling either, they give you very few reasons to care about them but the ones that they do give stick out like a sore thumb because they hammer them in. Higgs is probably the only exception to this, I feel like he could've been an actual character from Samus' past, we just don't get enough of him.

Ange le Carre from “Princess Principal” comes floating in to Medicos’ Chozo Art Collection with her gravity manipulating C-ball and an optional silk hat!

Chozo Art Collection: Ange (Princess Principal) by Medicos

This time on miscellaneous Metroid Prime trivia: dead things and/or molluscs, moth attraction strategies, and the crunge.

Incidentally, I updated the theme and added a tags page. If you’d like something tagged lmk.

Prime

Y’all seem to be super into Prime 1 specifically, so I wish I had more to say about it, but... I don’t. Sorry!

I’m sure someone else has noticed this, but... the eponymous Metroid Prime has more eyes than I thought she did. They’re kind of silly-looking, honestly? Like conch eyes. (Please google “conch eyes” if you’ve never seen them, they’re ridiculous.)

You can catch a faint glimpse of the crashed Frigate through the small cracks in the walls in Temple Transport C (which connects an elevator from Chozo Ruins to the Frigate Crash site.) Well...

Rather than painstakingly calculate what the player could and could not see out of the cracked walls, the good folks at Retro decided to put just a whole lotta environment out there. Everything outside the red is just set dressing. It doesn’t look like they put a ton of effort into it (which is good), but I kinda wonder about how it affects performance.

Echoes

A friend reblogged this post by @tallon-underworld​ about how the Torvus Catacombs aren’t named that for no reason. I figured I’d take another look at the “coffins” ingame.

Yep, there sure are some dead bodies in there. Based on size comparison with our handy Flashlight Forme (~1 meter diameter), these appear about the right size to be Luminoth. Maybe a little small? The legs might be curled up. The shape is certainly right - each larger end must be the head and torso.

Quick look inside. I wonder if there’s a different cultural meaning to shrouding the departed in silk, given that the Luminoth likely spin coccoons in adolescence...?

Speaking of Flashlight Forme, moths find it irresistible. This applies to the moths in a lot of different rooms.

If left alone, U-Mos will generate an orb of light in his hand, which also attracts them. If you can’t become a glowy orb, homemade is fine too.

Anyway, back to the catacombs. This save file I’m using is already at 100% item collection. And... and yet...??? There... sure is a missile expansion there!

I did it... I got 101% in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve...

Missiles are nevertheless capped at 255, so it does absolutely nothing. Thanks, Echoes!

Quick comparison of grapple beam from intended perspective, and from...

...the side. It’s just a bunch of flat circles, plus the beam effect... I mean... Sure. If it works...?

Also note that it layers under the gun. I think the gun model has priority over everything except the HUD.

This hollow under the save station at the entrance to the catacombs looks pretty deep, right?

Nope, just pointy.

Deep??? Right???

Pointy. I think it’s safe to assume most deep things in these games are actually just pointy. If it works!!!

Corruption

Just to hammer home the titcam thing, here’s the biohazard scanner in the ship (like I said, this ship has a lot of buttons), which you are ostensibly looking straight into...

...from the PED. OK.

The pirates have put up some cool art of Ridley on the wall in Command Station, presumably as a reminder of what will eat them if they fuck up.

A couple views of the cargo-carrying critters that flit about the landing sites on the Space Pirate homeworld.

Well. “Critters” is... Not... Uh, correct, technically speaking. I...

Ok look, there’s no easy way of saying this. This... is... a Space Pirate. See the head inside? Looks just like the standard Pirate Militia in this game. Yeah... yeah.

The exact scenario here is unclear. Is this is a standard Pirate Militia member surgically implanted into a drone? Or, was she grown that way from the start?. To me the entire thing looks like it could be carapace, but... who knows. Either way, uh, this is happening, and it’s weird!

Anyway. Bryyo has these chains holding the spiky round things in the background, right? (The chain links have surprisingly detailed textures because of course they do...)

They get incredibly thin and distorted in the distance. This looks like a shit photo but it’s impossible to get a decent one because they’re so tiny. I imagine this is to sell the illusion of greater distance without taxing the poor Wii even harder by actually making the background that big.

You might have noticed that this shot of Bryyo has rain. Bryyo has a weather cycle; if you idle in a room long enough, it’ll start raining. This never happened to me while playing, but it takes me a while to set up a shot sometimes, so... yeah. Seems to reset when you change rooms.

Hunters

Did you know that Metroid Prime Hunters is a real video game for the Nintendo DS that you could even play? (Whether or not you should is another matter.) I don’t post pics of it on this blog often, but I do have a soft spot for it and it doesn’t look bad.

Well, it doesn’t look bad when you view things at full resolution, anyway. Above is a screenshot of the single-player version of this room, on emulator.

Now, those of you who have never played Hunters might be asking, “Wait, is this screenshot for real? Is your computer trash? Is the emulation bad? Why does it look so terrible?” WELL,

There’s no error. It looks like that because it’s Metroid Prime Hunters for the Nintendo DS and there just aren’t enough pixels on that tiny screen. Above is an approximation of this shot on 3DS - which looks a little nicer imo, but still. You know. Crungy.

The point is, don’t be fooled into thinking anything posted on this blog is accurate to The Real Metroid Prime Hunters Experience, TM. I do bump up the resolution quite a bit for all games I post, but the improvement with Hunters is massive.

Bonus picture of Sylux that I think is funny. (The green dot in the background is their back. I promise.)

Wii U: From Me To You

I recently came into the possession of a Nintendo Wii U and I wanted to talk about the games I have been playing on it.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

This is the game I have been putting the most time in. I got through the first two major dungeons in the game. I like the puzzles, characters, and atmosphere but dislike the motion controls in combat and the inventory system. The real big test of how I feel about this game is whether or not I would jump straight to Wind Waker or Twilight Princess (#1 and #2 on the list of Wii U exclusive experience in 2021, the order of which is subject) before beating this game. While I have toyed with the idea, I at least want to dive in in to the third major area of the game before shelving the title. I do, however, dread the next Girahim fight...

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

A cute, fun title but I am going to need a lot more Mario before I need a different 2D platformer on this system.

Super Mario 3D World

I've played it before, but it's a great coop title. I probably won't play it alone though.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

An excellent collection of obstacle courses. I am nearly at the end of the first world, so not as far as I got last time I played but I am getting close. I will likely continue to play this as my go-to "pick up and play" title.

Metroid Prime Trilogy

Despite beating the whole Metroid series almost exactly a year ago, I will likely continue my trek through the Chozo Ruins. Metroid is a series with a lot of backtracking and potential for optimizing speed, so replaying the game almost just feels like picking up where you left off. As if I needed evidence that enough time has passed to warrant a replay, I got stuck on a stupidly easy "puzzle" early on that required the player to shoot a mushroom to reveal the hidden switch to open a door. I haven't played with motion controls before, but they work amazingly here. I especially look forward to playing Metroid Prime 3 with real motion controls, as intended.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

How neat that this is even on the Wii U! I have already played this game to death, but it is very novel to play on the Wii U. I beat my first and only run on the console thus far. Having the map on the gamepad is kind of neat.

Freedom Planet

I have this game on PC already but never gave it a fair shake. I have much more context after beating all the Sonic games since then! I found it a bit frustrating but I will have to give it another shot.

Wii Party U

It is just Mario Party with Miis, but that isn't so bad! A surprising amount of content to be had and lots of fun themed outfits for the Miis.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Adorable art style, jury is still out on the gameplay. Further testing required.

Splatoon

This has been a ton of fun! I am surprised to see anyone still playing, but it is quite a lot like the sequel. I also want to play more of the campaign and maybe even complete the amiibo challenges to unlock the special outfit. I am impressed by how good it looks on the Wii U. The motion controls work really well too. Lots of fun (when I can actually get a match)

Game and Wario

Cute minigames, good uses of the gamepad. Hit or miss. I want to at least play all the games once.

Nintendoland

See above.

Star Fox Zero

Only completed the tutorial, but I am curious to play more and see if it ever "clicks" with me. I hear this is a real love or hate game.

NES Remix

I have already played the 3DS version but I love the concept and I want to see if I can unlock some of the exlcusive games.

Super Mario Brothers Advance 4: Super Mario Brothers 3

I only played a couple of the e-reader levels, but that is the whole reason I got this and I would like to explore them all because it fascinates me that Nintendo had the stupidity to make Mario content locked behind physical trading cards but then the genius to preserve them for all time in the Wii U Virtual Console release. I got frustrated and quit quickly but I plan on returning.

I fully recommend buying any game for the nine cents (well, nine Club Nintendo gold points) I paid for Elliot Quest. Any game, that is... except Elliot Quest.

This game feels like it should be a home run. It’s an indie metroidvania with an overworld inspired by The Adventure of Link, complete with several distinct areas, a couple of towns, and roaming enemies that lead you to little battle stages. Elliot Quest feels like it was specifically designed for Zelda 2 fans, expanding on basically all of the elements in that game and adding a more in-depth RPG-style progression system. Unfortunately, just like something from the NES era, it’s tough as nails... and suffers because of it.

Well. I suffered because of it, anyway.

As you defeat enemies, you earn experience points, and once you’ve leveled up you earn a skill point that you can put into one of five attributes. These unlock things like the ability to fire arrows (your standard attack) farther or more quickly, the chance for a heart to replenish twice as much health, and automatic regeneration of your magic meter. This is all incredibly helpful... but you earn XP painfully slowly, and when you die or fall down a bottomless pit, you lose a big chunk of it. You can never go down a level, but it’s disheartening to find yourself locked into a difficult platforming section, failing over and over, and seeing your XP bar being completely depleted.

I feel like I’m not properly conveying how frustrating this is... every time you die, you lose several dozen enemies’ worth of experience, and when you respawn at the last save point you passed, it’s re-activated and saves automatically. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve died, quit to the Switch home screen, then closed and re-opened the game just to prevent myself from losing experience. I’d be shocked if it was under fifty. That’s how severe of a punishment this is.

Ahem. The spells and items you collect are well-utilized, for the most part... but a fireball that can light torches, an ice ball that can freeze enemies, and literally just a rock that you throw and bounces around a bit aren’t exactly the pinnacle of innovation. I do like the tornado spell, though... You can use it to draw items towards you, suck in small flying enemies and projectiles, and, for some reason... quickly travel across hedgerows that are floating in mid-air? Yeah, I dunno man.

The game does have a few things going for it. The art is okay, if a bit static (for some reason, all of the screenshots I took happen to be some shade of brown), and the level layouts aren’t terrible. You’ll occasionally find areas that connect to an area you’ve been through before, allowing you to create shortcuts... but the only points of reference any of the area maps give are your current location and the location of the boss room, so it’s easy to get lost. It’s also a huge pain in the butt just to get around the world map, even with shortcuts, as the only fast travel is an expensive item that warps you to one of the towns.

The game has a couple references to the games that inspired it, which is always a nice touch. In the screenshot above, you can (kinda) see a Chozo statue from Super Metroid, and at one point there’s a lone statue in a long room full of columns right at the start of a dungeon. I shot the statue in the head, because I’m kind of a nerd and you get a free potion by doing the same thing in a similar section of Zelda 2... and wouldn’t you know it, the statue dropped a potion.

The story is... eh?  Throughout the game you’ll get a handful of flashbacks to Elliot mourning his wife, who was killed by some kind of entity called the Satar... you’re never really given specifics. It’s also revealed that Elliot tried to kill himself but can’t die, resurrected by the last blue-eyed statue (save point) to see him. He also talks to Rasa, a character implied to be important but who I only ever saw in these flackbacks. Aside from a hooded rogue trying to get you to join sides with him a few times, that’s pretty much all there is to the story... nothing ever really happens in real time, you just get flashbacks to this one scene where Elliot mourned his wife, jumped off a cliff, and talked to Rasa.

There seems to be a morality system in the game... presumably you can be considered to be good or evil, but in my playthrough, it never moved from Neutral. It feels like there are a few things you could do to affect it... for example, early on you have the choice to keep a useful item or return it to its owner... I returned it, but you could also just never talk to them, and the moral dilemma would never present itself. Joining forces with the rogue or disobeying the wishes of a goddess would probably affect it as well, and maybe there are different endings depending on your alignment, but as far as I can tell this feature doesn’t really add anything to the game.

The final boss was an... interesting, experience for me. On my first attempt, he executed a well-telegraphed move that would obviously kill me instantly, but I flubbed a jump and ended up smooshed between two huge stone blocks. On my second attempt, I started the fight by jumping and firing off two arrows, both of which missed the target... and the boss just immediately collapsed. I was wary, unsure what kind of attack this was, and inched towards him... only to find that he was defeated after taking zero damage, and I had beaten the game. Huh.

I really have no idea what happened there. Did I happen to pull off the correct series of button presses to enter a debug cheat to instantly kill the boss? Did I shoot an arrow into the perfect spot at the perfect time while his hitbox was spawning and it built up enough damage that he went down in under a second? Really, nothing I can think of makes much sense... but hey, I just wanted to check the game off of my Backloggery and be done with it as quickly and frustration-free as possible, so I’m not complaining.

Also, I just realized... the enemy from this official art for the game? Which I’ve seen dozens and dozens of times as I’ve tried to avoid draining my XP bar because the artwork is used as the home screen image for the game? Yeah, that enemy isn’t the Satar. I’ve always assumed it was, but now that I’ve finished the game, I recognize it as... just a normal enemy from a couple late-game areas. Not an important character, not a boss or mini-boss, not even a common enemy you see all throughout the game... just a random spear-throwing knight you see four or five times. Weird.

[[Samus being a friend to nerds is an amazing headcanon that I support 100%. I'm just picturing some GF soldiers giving some research team a hard time until certified-BAMF Samus walks over and gives them a verbal smackdown. Does she mostly hang with the history nerds 'cuz of Chozo research, or is she friends with geeks in other fields as well?]]

it’s definitely a mixed pot! samus herself is very multidisciplinary, and that extends into the academics she interacts with. i would say that those in the history and anthropology fields geek over her the most; not only is she the last of the chozo, but she’s a human as well, and being a child of two worlds makes her more aware of certain details a native chozo would overlook or neglect to mention because they’re so normalized in their culture or history to the point of being ignored. those specializing in ancient civilizations both living and dead get excited by her a lot, as references to the chozo tend to pop up in the relics of other precursor races across the universe.

those with expertise in xenobiology and adjacent fields like her a whole lot too, some organizations or teams will put ‘bounties’ on specimens or samples they want her to collect for research, or will pay for her to run experiments in the field. it’s reassuring for some of them to know that their work is being handled by someone who understands it well enough where it won’t be mistreated. she has her own rules for what she will and won’t do ( no sentients, for example ), but she also collects her own samples and data as she explores planets and there are those who are eager to get their hands on that information, too.

there’s a sort-of cult that’s formed among academics from many different fields that would give literally anything to get their hands on samus’ powersuit. bio-mechanical engineers, particle physicists, nano engineers, quantum programmers, even some art historians... the list goes on. this group isn’t to be mistaken for those who have actually tried to capture samus for study or steal her suit, but rather they just tend to hover around her and ask questions, because they all know the chance of actually being able to run some tests on it is next to zero. probably got a group chat / forum somewhere where they all debate various theories of her suit, and share new ‘information’ they’ve gleaned. samus’ open nature with her own research and work does not extend to her powersuit, and much of the details about it remain a mystery.

More Metroid fangames

Back on Zebes and Metroid: Between Worlds are a couple of Metroid fangames I’ve worked through in recent weeks. They share the same engine, made personally by the lone developer, so it’s not surprising they share several faults, but overall I’m fairly impressed.

Back on Zebes is the less impressive of the two, which isn’t surprising given it came first. It’s reasonably accurate to think of it as a cut-down, simplified version of Super Metroid. The simplistic plot is pretty much ‘Samus has to go back to Zebes again, because Mother Brain and company are up to their prior plots again’, with no attempt made to explain why the planet literally exploding hasn’t made this plot impossible from the start. That’s okay, because Back on Zebes is more like a test run or prototype than anything else; it shows that the creator can assemble a game-like program successfully, and anything beyond that is gravy.

Most of the power-ups are familiar, though the exact physics are generally different from what you’re used to. Particularly notable is that unlike official Metroid games, enemies and projectiles that are off-screen are fully-functional/existent, which once you’re aware of it makes many of the game’s long corridors a bit of a joke: just fire blindly ahead and everything will die without you ever being in danger. As for the actually new power-ups, you’ve got a ‘magnetic shield’ that makes you immune to most sources of damage, but which is disabled if you fire a Missile or go into Morph Ball -surprisingly, firing your beam is fair game, though your ability to abuse this is limited by your invulnerability having an ‘ammo’ supply that drains quite quickly. The game uses this invulnerability for the fairly obvious ‘you’re supposed to turn invincible and walk across these spikes’ quoteunquote ‘puzzles’ common to games that include such a concept, but more unusual and creative is that a few rooms require you use it so you can activate the Speed Booster. It’s a nice little twist on two familiar concepts!

The other new thing is a fire beam or flamethrower, which has a short range but rapid fires, and more importantly some blocks can only be destroyed by it. This isn’t particularly inspired, but... well, it’s not like Metroid Prime did any better with its own flamethrower, aside the looks department. Nor is it like the main games have done a lot to experiment with the beam space. There’s certainly room for creativity in the Metroid beam set, but it’s genuinely difficult to find it. So hey, fair enough.

Back on Zebes generally attempts to approximate, rather than recreate, bosses and minibosses, and in one notable case a Super Metroid miniboss is outright replaced with one patterned after a Zero Mission miniboss. Crocomire, for example, has a regular health meter, and merely steps back as his health drops, instead of shoving him back being how you kill him. The first Torizo instead jumps you in the corridor just outside the Bomb room, instead of the Chozo Statue shedding its stone shell to attack you. For the most part, the results are unsurprisingly lackluster, with Draygon in particular being underwhelming for how exploitable his pattern is. (Admittedly, Super Metroid’s Draygon isn’t actually not exploitable) Kraid also stands out in a bad way, but instead for the fact that the game forces you to consistently ride Kraid’s spikes -an idea that is okay by itself, but made instantly horrible by the fact that the engine has no mechanics for you riding the spikes, instead having them magically slide right out from under you. This makes the fight much, much harder than it would otherwise be.

Ridley and Mother Brain are notable oddities. Ridley is an aerial duel on a timer, where you’re forced to Space Jump indefinitely because the solid ground is all under super-lava that hurts you through your Gravity Suit. This is probably the most challenging fight in the game -it’s also the one that most bluntly illustrates that the game assumes you’re using a controller, as only a portion of the keyboard controls can be edited, and doing the boss with a keyboard is quite literally physically painful. That issue aside, it was reasonably enjoyable and an interesting realization of an unusual possibility that’s long existed in the Metroid series but never been explored.

Mother Brain actually has a weird fake-out element. You fight her brain-in-a-jar form, it works out roughly as you’d expect, only once you’ve defeated that form... the self-destruct starts. Okay, the engine is clearly not suited to form changes for bosses and whatnot, that’s a little disappointing but not terribly surprising-

-and then partway through your (timed, remember) escape you stumble into Mother Brain on her body. Surprise!

Overall, Back on Zebes isn’t a game I’d recommend playing unless you’re wanting more context on the development process that lead to Metroid: Between Worlds. I enjoyed it for that aspect, but the actual core gameplay is fairly lackluster; enemies are quite sparse past the first third or so of the game, and non-boss enemies are almost never a real threat. Bosses themselves are generally simplistic, and not an elegant simplicity. Instead, the simplicity of bosses is often what makes them extraordinarily threatening: there’s not a complex pattern that once understood can be mastered reasonably readily. There’s just Phantoon constantly trying to ram you, his wonky flight physics making it very difficult to consistently avoid being hit, with periodic plasma eyeballs thrown out to make things even harder. The graphics and music aren’t going to pull you in, being primarily reused assets from Super Metroid, with a little bit of Zero Mission and Fusion thrown in. The narrative is barely there, and the creator clearly doesn’t speak English as their first language. I could go on for longer, but I think you get the point.

Still, there’s glimmers of an awareness of what a good game looks like, even if this particular game isn’t a strong implementation of this awareness.

Which brings us back to Metroid: Between Worlds.

As noted earlier, Between Worlds has a lot of the faults of the prior game due to having the same engine. It’s still a game that assumes you’re using a controller, to your physical detriment if you insist upon a keyboard, such as because you don’t have a controller compatible with a PC. The animations are less-than-great, with many enemies having no animation at all beyond their sprite sliding around, and Samus still doesn’t animate properly when firing while running. (She goes into her firing pose for literally one frame and then goes right back to pumping both arms)

Even so, it’s vastly improved on virtually every level.

The plot is a bit more sensical and fleshed-out. Samus is returning to SR388 because it turns out the Metroid problem wasn’t properly dealt with during her original trip in Metroid 2; while the game doesn’t give an explicit timeframe, it’s not difficult to guess this is meant to be occurring sometime after Super Metroid but before Fusion. That’s reasonable, even if it would probably be wonky if you tried to insert such a game into the canon timeline.

For the first half-ish of the game, that’s really all there is to the story. I’ll come back to that in a minute, though.

The gameplay in the first half is more polished than Back On Zebes. Enemies are more consistently existent, and more consistently relevant. Save points all fully restore you, which makes the process of hunting Metroids much less tedious than it might otherwise have been. There’s a fairly steady stream of microbosses in the form of Alpha and so on Metroids, which while simplistic in a broadly similar way to the Back On Zebes bosses that simplicity is much closer to elegance. As bosses were probably the strongest part of Back On Zebes, this is distinctly a good thing!

The first half-ish does drag a bit. It’s reasonably enjoyable, but I was starting to wonder if it was worth the effort to actually complete the game a good half hour or so before things picked up, because new things were being doled out at a slow pace and if it weren’t for the Metroid counter I’d have thought I was about to hit the endgame.

Then things picked up.

You pick up a power-up deep in SR388, and a self-destruct timer starts up. Okay, a little abrupt, but not completely unprecedented in a Metroid game. You keep running, and you hit Spore Spawn. O...kay. Sure, timed boss fight. If you played Back On Zebes first (I hadn’t, but whatever), this isn’t even surprising. Okay, just... kill Spore Spawn and then get out.

Oh.

Um.

Its HP is dropping... really slowly. Was I supposed to collect more Missiles first? Am I missing some trick in how to damage it even when its core isn’t exposed? Do I need to restart?

Boom, everything explodes.

And instead of a Game Over screen, you get some narration from Samus. The Space Pirates have stolen your armor, and it’s time to escape and get a replacement.

Yes, a Zero Suit Samus sequence ensues. I was fairly impressed. It hadn’t seemed likely to be within the technical ability of the creator from what I’d seen up to that point. It’s not anywhere near as good as the similar sequence from Zero Mission, but the basics of sneaking through a Space Pirate ship are kind of there. No alarm for being caught, but you’re stuck stunning Space Pirates and running. The Paralyzer even has a cooldown period, if a clearly kludged-together one.

But it gets better, as you take some sort of teleporter or something and it turns out the game has more twists. In addition to the map you’ve been running through so far, there’s a whole other map area, a dark mirror to the one you’ve been operating in, a Phazon dimension. And that notion of it being a Phazon dimension isn’t a simple recoloring of art assets: your HP actually ticks down so long as you’re wandering this place!

This part is actually a much more effective stealth sequence than the Space Pirate ship area. The game may not have any kind of ‘you’ve been spotted!’ mechanic, but it doesn’t really need one when you’re on a fairly strict timer and can’t waste time on enemies, let alone risk them hurting you.

You eventually find a Phazon Zero Suit, which is of course a black version with a distinct resemblance to one of Zero Suit Samus’ alternate costumes in the Smash Bros games. That’s a pretty clever allusion! Just don’t think too hard on why SR388′s dark doppleganger happens to have a Zero Suit that perfectly fits Samus. (Though, if we’re going there, one has to start questioning Samus’ power-ups in general, so is it really fair to hold this against this fangame?)

Anyway, this Phazon Zero Suit is not complete immunity. This makes narrative sense -for starters, Samus is still wandering around with her head exposed- and mechanically it’s used to lessen the urgency of your exploration of Dark Phazon SR388, not remove the threat of Phazon entirely. That’s pretty good design! It’s especially impressive when you consider that one of the wonky elements of Metroid Prime and especially Echoes is how your final suit upgrade is the mandatory removal of the omnipresent threat of the Hostile Environment. In Echoes’ case getting the Light Suit outright makes Dark Aether the safer place to be, since you still get to benefit from Light Crystals healing you! That’s exactly the sort of subtle problem I’d expect a fangame to faithfully recreate, not sidestep.

It is possible to eventually get a Phazon Suit that does render you completely immune to Phazon, but it’s a hidden, technically-optional bonus. I wouldn’t want to try to complete the game without it, but it is possible, at least in theory, and that makes a world of difference in the experience, especially if, like me, you actually end up not finding the Phazon Suit until you’re already through a fairly significant portion of Dark Phazon SR388.

On the topic of Samus’ actual Power Suit, this is a non-trivial misstep with the game. When you transition to the Zero Suit sequence, Samus makes an allusion to going to the ‘Golden Temple’. If you happen to regularly pause to look at your map and pay attention to map names, you’ll know that’s the Chozodia-esque place you had to pass through. If you don’t do one or the other of those things, you’re going to have to flail somewhat blindly.

Fortunately, while this is a misstep, the game is actually surprisingly careful in minimizing the damage. I actually ended up reloading a save after a bit of exploring regular SR388 when I managed to find my way back there as Zero Suit Samus, convinced I’d gotten myself into an unwinnable situation and the actual answer was back in Dark Phazon SR388, but it turned out that was unnecessary and my belief incorrect; the world is actually carefully constructed to funnel you toward the Golden Temple, with a particularly blatant example being a horizontal line of bombable tiles that seem to serve no purpose when first passing through in a Power Suit. (Unlike in Zero Mission, Zero Suit Samus can’t break bomb blocks in Between Worlds) This prevents you from haring off into completely the wrong area and potentially getting trapped.

It’s possible there is a way to get stuck permanently in this sequence, but it’s not nearly as relevant a concern as I’d have expected from a basically-one-person game.

Getting back the Power Suit of course involves a fight against the Zero Mission ghost statue mirror... thing... which is actually a pretty enjoyable fight! How you go about doing it is completely different from the Zero Mission fight, but once you’ve wrapped your head around the mechanics at work it’s an interesting twist on things. Certainly, it’s a lot less frustrating the Zero Mission’s version of the fight.

The rest of the game from there is largely focused on hunting down the myriad Metroids hidden in Dark Phazon SR388, with a few actually hidden away in regular SR388 in places you couldn’t previously access, but while the game would probably have benefited from somewhat reducing the sheer number of Metroids to kill, it starts making an effect to actually make different Metroids challenge you in different ways. Zetas that have spikes interrupting their floors, complicating the fight. Other Zetas where the ceiling is low, giving you less time to get under them to attack them. Etc. It’s all a bit primitive -it would’ve been nice to have some new attacks or other behavioral variation in later Metroids- but it’s reasonably functional all things considered.

Also, the game has a fair few non-Metroid bosses to fight. If you’re coming at it from Back On Zebes, you’re going to recognize several of them, with a cringe being merited for Kraid returning and still having his spikes slide right out from under you while you have no ground to stand on aside said spikes. Most of them are better-tuned now, though: I actually quite enjoyed fighting Phantoon in Between Worlds, for example, because his flight physics were a lot less janky. When he killed me, I came away feeling like the death was very much on me and I should refine my skills and understanding for next time, which is how a player should basically always feel when dying in a video game.

Ridley remains a timed aerial-only battle, but this time it’s fairly obvious the room is slowly getting smaller, instead of there being an explicit timer in one corner. It’s still a fight that makes it ridiculously obvious the game was tested first and foremost on a controller, and is still a great concept with a reasonably solid execution.

The endgame is also put together surprisingly well! It’s actually decently atmospheric. The final boss itself probably should’ve been tuned a bit differently, but overall Between Worlds manages to do a fairly good job of a Metroid-like largely-silent story being told through the game environment and so on.

If you’re looking for something as polished as, say, AM2R, you’re probably going to be disappointed, but all things considered... Between Worlds is actually a pretty good game in its own right, and I’m genuinely interested in seeing what the creator makes next, be it another Metroid fangame or something original using their engine.

See you next mission.

I just had a thought and it was does Samus' suit have anything to enhance her strength at all? Her shoulders are for life support and anything else is probably for missile storage so before she gets any boosters shes jumping all over in a heavy suit with just her own strength

Even without her suit, Samus is still much stronger than the average human. She has increased strength, dexterity and stamina due to her Chozo DNA. On top of the dna, people always seem to forget that Samus also has cybernetic implants which increase her strength further and also have something to do with how the Power Suit is literally a part of her being and how she is able to summon it.

On top of this Samus’ Power Suit most definitely multiples her strength! One of my favorite pieces in my collection is the Other M Art Portfolio. The art is beautiful and to top it off each card has Samus’ own thoughts and writing on the backs! Thanks to this we can see how Samus describes her Suit in her own words: 

“My Power Suit is my greatest weapon. Designed by the Chozo, it boosts all of my natural athletic abilities while providing an array of offensive and defensive attributes. Boasting full armor capable of sustaining ballistic damage, life-support systems, my upgradeable arm cannon and, morph ball capabilities, it is truly a part of me.” - Samus Aran

I’ve actually posted a few of my favorite cards from the portfolio along with the writings on them! You can see this particular card where Samus describes her suit here: https://crazysamusfangirl.tumblr.com/post/173425738464/it-is-truly-a-part-of-me-samus-aran 😊

So when I made my first post for Samus Returns I mentioned I’d come back and talk about the Chozo memories, and I’ve finally gotten around to doing that. These images are unlocked through item collection and while most of them are just curiosities, a few are spoiler-ish, so those have been hidden behind the “read more” link. That’s enough warnings, so on to the actual material.

Memory 1 is pretty simple, depicting the Chozo’s arrival on SR388. It’s pretty interesting if only because this is our first glimpse of Chozo spaceships, outside of Samus’s Chozo-Federation hybrid gunship.

Memory 2 shows more of their exploration into SR388. Apparently a few Hornoads thought they’d make a nice snack, and are now having their corpses harvested for what seems to be Aeion energy. The other Chozo in the background appears to be studying it, which raises some questions. Is Aeion energy just naturally occurring on SR388 and they’ve never seen it before? If so, what happened here that makes it unique? Is it related to the X Parasites somehow?

Memory 3 shows they’ve moved on from exploration from colonization. This might look like an invasion force, but those robots are for excavation and mining, making this the equivalent of alien building contractors. On the other hand the diggernaut is in the background, and that thing has a laser weapon built into its eye and dedicates itself to hunting down and murdering Samus after its code degraded, so maybe this isn’t that harmless after all.

Also that one Chozo in the foreground is analyzing an alien slug. Not sure what they find so interesting about it, but it’s nice to see they’re doing what they love.

Memory 4 is where it starts getting interesting. This would be the Chozo’s first encounter with the X Parasites, the amorphous parasites that mutate, kill, and copy anything they encounter. The image sets an interesting scene, where the Chozo break into an unexplored cavern whose ceiling is swarming with strange bioluminescent creatures, only for awe at the beautiful sight to change into horror as the X descend to make monsters out of common animals.

Did you hear that? It was the sound of a fanfic one-shot crying out to be made, only to be silenced by all the others I have stacked up in my “to write” list.

Memory 5 is their reaction to the previous image, a Chozo bio-lab creating the first of the titular metroids. You’d think discovering a voracious super-parasite wouldn't immediately inspire the creation of another, but I’m not a space bird, so what do I know. Well, besides how not to run into clean windows.

Memory 6 is the first strike. Not sure if those are opened containment units by the Chozo or shields, but the second one is a much better idea when releasing untested nightmare beasts created through mad science. Speaking of which, I seem to have gotten too used to seeing those things through the eyes of a premium badass, because those metroids look a lot more intimidating than I remember. Or maybe it’s just because the art shift gave them a lot more teeth.

Memory 7 is that period in every horror movie involving a monster made in a lab where the monster exists but hasn’t yet gone on its murder spree. The Chozo have their science up and running without interruption again, the mining robots are all ready to get back to work (with the diggernaut pulling off the “photo of the slasher killer as a child” pose in the background), and the metroids are obedient little guard dogs.

Memory 8 is the next scene in the aforementioned horror movie where the monster decides not killing everything just isn’t working for it. Frankly, this raises questions too. Either the Chozo gave the metroids an entire elaborate life cycle completely on accident, or they didn’t expect it to happen this fast/without specific stimuli provided by them. I’m not entirely sure which is worse, because one indicates a truly magnificent series of coincidences and accidents and the other is just really bad planning.

Memory 9, the heroic final stand as the Chozo lay down their lives to stop the monsters they’ve created. Pretty cool scene, not much to add. But if the Chozo weren’t aware of the Metroid life cycle (unlikely, but possible), does that mean they didn’t know Queen Metroids existed? Interesting idea if they didn’t, maybe the acid was a temporary measure until the metroids ate everything in the caves and starved themselves. Drones go in, collect the material from the number of metroids they know existed, as they didn’t know there could be more, and unlock the areas once there’s none left.

Here’s where it gets into spoilery territory, so back out now if you want.

Memory 10. Those Chozo on the left are the ones we’ve been following through the rest of the memories. They’re the scientific, peaceful ones we usually hear about, similar to the ones that raised Samus or the ones that eschewed advanced technology on Tallon IV in favor of a simple lifestyle.

The other one, in the cape with simple armor and a dark mask/helmet? That one’s new. No ornamentation like the others, just simple pragmatic dress with a few traditional features. Maybe they came in response to a distress beacon, maybe the other Chozo called them specifically, maybe they just showed up out of the blue with no explanation, but they’re being greeted with outstretched arms. Their reaction?

Not great. The other Chozo are dead, and they’re holding a literal smoking gun. Giving orders to a group of Chozo soldiers over the still cooling corpses and at least one that hasn’t died just yet is just icing on the “I’m bad news” cake this Chozo is bringing to the table.

So what does this mean? It’s not entirely clear. Maybe these Chozo are eradicating the SR388 group because they consider them a threat to the galaxy for being so skilled and careless as to create the metroids (frankly, not entirely incorrect). Maybe they want to seize the metroids for their own use, as they’re clearly more militaristic than the other Chozo. Maybe they have no real stake in this, but are just a small contingent hired by a third party. Whatever the truth is, I’m excited to see it play out in future games.

Princess Principal Medicos Chozo Art Collection 1/7 Scale Figure : Ange [PRE-ORDER]

https://www.hype.tokyo/products/princess-principal-medicos-chozo-art-collection-1-7-scale-figure-ange

Release Date : Early-Mid April 2018

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HYPETOKYO REWARD PROGRAM

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Chozo Art Collection Jolyne Cujoh [JoJo's Bizarre Adventure // Stone Ocean] non scale from Medicos Entertainment coming November 2023.

Samus Returns! Is a very good game of The Kind That It Is and I recommend it. As a remake it expands on the source material... mostly rather well? Scattered thoughts:

The control scheme is great, free aiming is great, I love the weapon switch controls. Pity we’re losing the touch screen.

Spider Boost is sweet but I wish it had been explained in game somewhere. Maybe it is and I missed it? I’m pretty sure I went everywhere though so it’s not like I missed a Dachora/Etecoon situation.

I know everyone likes Lower Norfair but busting it out so early in the game feels Wrong, somehow. Especially given how the first game was all creepy beep boop shit outside the main tunnel.

I maintain that the autoscrolling sequence has no place in Metroid, period. Yes, we’ve had the lava rooms and the SA-X bits and the escape sequences, but none of those are nearly as precise. Switching movement modes in Metroid is awkward and normally that’s fine - the games encourage a careful, deliberate pace until you get the hang of things, while the high skill ceiling (and bonus endings) encourage replay. Just... putting such a demanding skill gate on the movement and platforming in the middle of the game feels terribly off to me. If it wasn’t so long I’d probably hate it way less tbh.

Diggernaut as a boss and as a remnant of the Chozo presence on SR388? Fantastic. Glorious. Yes, please. Probably my favorite boss in the series thus far. I even really like, thematically, that you have to plink its face to proceed and then it starts following you around and screwing with you. Like, it’s cheesy and a genre staple but running facefirst into unforseen consequences is kinda Samus’s thing so y’know, I dig it.

...wait. fuck. um. >_>

The teleporters are pretty tacked on but kinda necessary if they wanted to add backtracking for powerups to SR388. I just hope if they come back to side scrolling Metroid in future that they don’t use fast travel as a crutch to avoid having to worry about good map design.

The ruins are distinguishable places now! Chozo genetics lab! Unlockable Chozo art!

Holy shit the Chozo have zero chill!

That little first person shot when you meet the hatchling was a really nice touch.

I really liked the quiet, enemy-less walk back to the ship from the original. adding enemies and gating backtrack collectibles (including literally pointless Missile upgrades why.) behind the hatchling broke up the pace and feel of that little contemplative moment for no real gain. Doubly annoying because that quiet walk would have been a better lead-in to the Proteus Ridley fight, too, so it’s a loss either way.

Everything about the fight with Proteus Ridley is pure, medical grade fanservice and... whatever. It’s fine. I feel like this is one of those “I’d probably feel differently if I had been waiting seven years for this game” kind of things.

It goes fwee. Why is the baby head-engulfing parasite so cute help.

So... yeah. That’s it for official side-scrolling Metroid titles. I’m still feeling the bug so it’s on to AM2R next.

Metroid: Samus Returns Thoughts

This is just going to be a short (not short) write up for what I do and don't like about the NEW Metroid Samus Returns for the Nintendo 3DS. I really wanted to air out what I think of the game but didn't want to do a whole review for the game, so here goes.

Pros: Visuals: The new look for Samus Returns is sleek and futuristic. It's exactly what should be expected from the Metroid universe and art style. The recreation of old Metroid 2 enemies being brought up and given 3D models is worth so much praise. The animations and level of detail given to them and Samus is a great look for the 2D entries. Particular shout outs to the 3D implimentation which is probably some of the best 3D on the system. Not only does it give the backgrounds depth but it also brings them to life by giving areas an added layer with creatures jittering around doing whatever. It's a great level of detail that I think is worth experiencing even if you normally don't use the 3D on the 3DS. Controls: Initially a hurtle, the controls took some time to get adjusted to with 2D metroid now being on what is essentially a joystick. MercurySteam did a lot to make the joystick work well with 2D Metroid. The degree ratio that reads you either wanting to go forward or backwards has been drastically increased so you don't have to worry about it misreading an awkward upforward or downback motion as anything other than forward or back. Samus also does not have a standard walk speed, she's constantly running no matter how forward or back you press. Morph ball can now be transformed into by tapping the map screen as well as quick weapon selection. Initially I didn't like weapons being selectable by the touch screen due to my tendency to forget to switch to what I wanted but by the end of the game, it became second nature, especially in fights that required multiple types of weapons, to swap to the weapon needed. The new aeon items being tied to the d pad also adds to the idea of quickly selecting what I want and when I want. The Parry: I love the new parry. I think it's something that should've worried people but in practice I really do think it works. It's quick enough and adds a new layer to the combat that's been sorely missing from the more combat oriented entries like Metroid Fusion that I definitely feel like it was a worthwhile addition. Parrying becomes second nature like the rest of the controls and it just flows well into the rest of the games overall control scheme. The Difficulty: Samus Returns is kind of a hard game. Not a really hard game but like a game that demands you learn patterns and dodge them successful. It sort of stands in opposition of the rest of the series where if you had enough health and items, you could kind of tank hits and still make it out of boss fights. The game features a check pointing system now which I was wary of at first of but in the later levels where you're dying somewhat often due to the damage output of bosses, the quick retry nature of the check pointing system saves the games pacing from falling into Metroid Fusion levels of frustration. Exploration and Level Design: We're back to a Super Metroid style set up...sort of. You're contained to a "small" (some are gigantic and you'll spend whole hours in them) segmented areas. What differentiates this from something like Metroid Fusions' segmented levels though is there's multiple items and objectives for you to discover. There's a genuine sense of freedom about how you tackle each objective along with how you get each crucial item. A Metroid might be right next to where you're heading but if you explore you might find an item to help with the fight. It's stuff like this that makes the moment to moment exploration incredibly fullfilling and crucial to the core experience. Thank god these environments then are some of the most confusing but engaging to explore areas in the franchise. Even with the scanner showing how to get an item, there's a level of execution to obtaining most items. It makes for a rewarding kind of "YEAHHHH" feeling when you get a hard to get item.

Boss fights: Most of this game you'll be fighting different stages of the Metroid larva. It's a sort of blessing then that all four stages of the Metroid are INCREDIBLY challenging. Each has their own set of moves and you'll struggle with each fight until you learn the ins and outs of every form. This is what keeps the formula of Samus Returns fresh. For a game with 40 bosses, they all feel like threats due to how many ideas they put into these monsters. Along with the Metroid comes a unique set of bosses (most from the original game) that have all been reimagined and work well to be a breath of fresh air. Outside of one of these bosses, they all are great additions. All these bosses together also follow my favorite design mentality that the game kind of bleeds. There's a genuine sense of "however you want to tackle them" nature to these fights and plenty have exploits or secret ways to taking down each of them. While there's raw execution to each fight, there's also a level of knowledge that comes into play that'll either make a boss fight a living hell or something where you feel like you've actually outsmart the game itself. Added content from M2 to MSR: *SPOILERS* Similiar to Zero Mission, this remakes adds some new content to help differentiate it from it's original incarnation The added segments of control where the baby Metroid follows you around to assist in getting items is a GREAT way to build up the relationship between Samus and her squishy child. If you save a lot of the item collecting to the end, you'll have a significant portion of game spent with the baby Metroid just helping you do whatever. There's also a new added final boss (sorry Metroid queen) in the form of Ridley and I feel like it's the best boss in the entire game. It's such a specticle of a fight that really just shows how much Samus anf Ridley have it out for another. They want to kill the SHIT out of each other and this fight succeeds in showing that. Similiary, the Chozo Memories that display the story of how the chozo came to populate SR388 and create the Metroid is great and the twist from unlocking 100% of them is a nice way to hint at a potential new game plus maybe showing the chozo aren't everything they were made out to be. *END OF SPOILERS* Cons:

Music: It's a DANG shame that only like two songs were recreated from the original game. Most of the remixes are songs found in Super Metroid and while I don't dislike the OST outright, I do think just kind of going EHH the M2's soundtrack sucks some of the fun of what you can do with remixed OST.

Enemy Variety: There's like 6 enemy types and they get recolored and reused over and over again with every new area. It sometimes starts to feel samey at times and for a game that took me 13 hours to beat, it can make the experience drag.

Amiibo: Fusion Suit difficulty being locked behind a dumb plastic toy that's hard to get now sucks. End of story.

Tldr: It's a good game and if you've been wanting a new 2D Metroid, I'd say give this game your time cuz it's rad. MercurySteam have made a fantastic game and it feels like they poured a bunch of love into it.

by Miyagawa Chozo via Asian Art

Medium: Stoneware with polychrome enamels

Gift of Florence and Herbert Irving, 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/667248

New "Galaxy Express 999" Figure Recreates Final Moments of Film

The Chozo Art Collection, creators of highly detailed Bakemono no Ko and Dragon Ball figures, are reimagining one of the most memorable classic anime scenes in 3D: Maetel’s farewell kiss to Tetsuro Read More http://dlvr.it/NB0DDC