Metroid Topic

[Jetronic]

What difficulty setting are you playing on? I found Echoes impossible to complete on the hardest difficulty mode, I simply couldn't do it - this from the guy who easily polished off its predecessor and successor on their hardest difficulty settings. Well, no, Prime 3 was a pretty big-ass nightmare on its hardest mode, truth be told - its final world and bosses, so awfully linked up with no save spots or checkpoints to break things up, took hours for me to beat. The final run of that final bit, during which I did finish it, took in excess of 90 minutes. 90s minutes of frustrating treks into the last world, followed by sheer mad bosses.

Speaking of difficulty (and because I know that the Euro version is more difficult than the American version according to some) is Hyper mode on the Trilogy version of Prime 2 unlocked from the start? And does it compare in anyway to the difficulty of the Euro version? Or are people spewing crap about the difficulty all together?

[Emmett L. Brown]

Speaking of difficulty (and because I know that the Euro version is more difficult than the American version according to some) is Hyper mode on the Trilogy version of Prime 2 unlocked from the start? And does it compare in anyway to the difficulty of the Euro version? Or are people spewing crap about the difficulty all together?

The Prime Trilogy version definitely lowered the difficulty. I've never played the original Echoes released in Europe, but Spider Ball Guardian in the Trilogy version was a farily easy boss for me and I've heard it's got a reputation for being maddeningly hard.

 

You also have to beat the game once to unlock Hypermode difficulty. I don't know if you have to beat it on Veteran or not, because I've never beaten the game on anything else.

[Spin Attaxx]

Y'know, I prefer the original NES game to Zero Mission. I mean, the look of all the areas look great, and that black background has a charm to it. And Zero Mission's Norfair theme isn't very good - I liked how the original was laid back, not like EPIC CHURCH CHOIR!!!... actually that sums up most of ZM's soundtrack.

 

BTW, does Ridley's Lair theme on the NES sound like the SMB castle theme slowed down?

 

And what are those places where Kraid and Ridely are found in the NES game called? I've heard several names for them: Mini-Boss Hideout I/II, Kraid's/Ridley's Lair, Lower Brinstar/Norfair...

[Semi-colon e]

Phaaze on Hyper difficulty in Prime 3 is beyond ridiculous. It would have been nice to have a save point, or have the whole health bar perma-hyper mode thing be for the bosses only.

 

Dark Samus has a hell of a lot of attacks though, it must have at least ten of them. It's pretty fun but on Hyper it's just completely nuts. AU is just shit.

 

With Prime 2, I find it more backtracking tedious than outright Nintendo Hard, with a few bosses being the exceptions. By the end of the first two Primes you can essentially tank almost everything that isn't a boss quite easily. Prime 3 isn't quite the same because you'll find yourself using Hypermode a lot and losing energy that way, but at least you're invincible during that time.

 

I also can't stand the original Metroid, Zero Mission is fun though.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Kuzu]

The Prime Trilogy version definitely lowered the difficulty. I've never played the original Echoes released in Europe, but Spider Ball Guardian in the Trilogy version was a farily easy boss for me and I've heard it's got a reputation for being maddeningly hard.

 

 

It's not maddening, but it can get pretty fucking annoying with the bomb timing. It's more tedious than hard honestly.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Phaaze on Hyper difficulty in Prime 3 is beyond ridiculous. It would have been nice to have a save point, or have the whole health bar perma-hyper mode thing be for the bosses only.

Aren't you allowed to restart with full "health" on Dark Samus if you die during the boss fights? I've never cleared Phaaze without dying at least once before, and getting a checkpoint with full health before the bosses is a huge relief.

[Yoko/葉子]

Anyone a fan of sequence breaking in Zero Mission and Super?

[Spin Attaxx]

Yep. Hated it when I found that the killjoys at Retro stopped the first Prime game from doing that and them going out of their way to say "NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GO THIS WAY!!!"

[Semi-colon e]

Aren't you allowed to restart with full "health" on Dark Samus if you die during the boss fights? I've never cleared Phaaze without dying at least once before, and getting a checkpoint with full health before the bosses is a huge relief.

 

 

Yeah but it doesn't save the game. If you ragequit and turned the console off, you have to redo Phaaze all over again, which requires you to essentially do it all in one sitting ANYWAY.

 

Also I like ZM and Super sequence breaking a bit, but I don't mind the games like the Prime ones or Fusion where you essentially can't. Saying the games are worse because you can't do things the developer didn't intend is kind of backwards to me. Other M deserves it's ire for being so depressingly linear though.

 

Intentional ways to sequence break are pretty awesome too, ZM is crafted nicely in this regard. I love getting the Screw Attack by destroying the missile blocks above me in a room and wall jumping straight up to it rather than waiting until after Ridley. And in Super I already use wall jumps and bomb jumps to beat Kraid before getting the High Jump Boots, because it's just quicker to get them on your main visit to Norfair anyway.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[Yoko/葉子]

If Other M had different endings based on sequence breaks (if it was possible), that would be interesting.

I also liked how in Prime 1, you had a choice between getting the X-Ray Visor or Grapple Beam first after getting Power Bombs.

[Patticus]

Yep. Hated it when I found that the killjoys at Retro stopped the first Prime game from doing that and them going out of their way to say "NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GO THIS WAY!!!"

I too would much rather they embraced the sequence breaking community, rather than try to put a stop to its fun.

[Solkia]

Well, if sequence breaking is that big of a deal to them, they could just get an early version of the game. I'm sure it's not that hard to find.

 

Wasn't sequence breaking in Prime largely based on glitches rather than actual skill?

[Blue Wisp]

The Prime Trilogy version definitely lowered the difficulty. I've never played the original Echoes released in Europe, but Spider Ball Guardian in the Trilogy version was a farily easy boss for me and I've heard it's got a reputation for being maddeningly hard.

... Spider Guardian?

 

 

Haha, this son of an Ing was tough as nails in the Gamecube version. But in the MPT version, the Spring Ball addition really made it easier.

...

Still annoying though.

 

EDIT:

Well, if sequence breaking is that big of a deal to them, they could just get an early version of the game. I'm sure it's not that hard to find.

 

Wasn't sequence breaking in Prime largely based on glitches rather than actual skill?

Well you could skip the whole Crashed Frigate Orpheon section with timed Morph Ball Bomb Jumpings, and you could get the Plasma Beam or the Space Jump Boots earlier which in turn gave you other upgrades earlier.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Natalie Wisp

[Yoko/葉子]

Well, if sequence breaking is that big of a deal to them, they could just get an early version of the game. I'm sure it's not that hard to find.   Wasn't sequence breaking in Prime largely based on glitches rather than actual skill?

Thou art correct, almost all the bugs for sequence breaks in Prime 1 can be found on metroid2002.com

[Emmett L. Brown]

To be fair, glitches that enable sequence breaking are glitches nonetheless. You can't really blame Retro Studios for polishing their product. I happen to know of a certain video game series that gets a lot of flak for hardly ever fixing any glitches when they port or re-release old games. Scroll all the way to the top of the page for a clue as to which series I'm refering to.

 

TOP SECRET HINT: It's sonic.

 

The answer:

It's Sonic

[Jetronic]

Ok so here's my thing, I want to play prime 2 on the hardest difficulty that there is, should I shoot for the Euro version? Or would the Trilogy's hyper mode difficulty do that for me as well?

[Solkia]

I can't imagine the wii version being difficult.

[SuperStingray]

Prime 2 was easily the hardest Prime game.  I remember I put off the Emporer Ing for about 6 months before I finally got around to beating it.

[Tori Himemiya]

What difficulty setting are you playing on? I found Echoes impossible to complete on the hardest difficulty mode, I simply couldn't do it - this from the guy who easily polished off its predecessor and successor on their hardest difficulty settings. Well, no, Prime 3 was a pretty big-ass nightmare on its hardest mode, truth be told - its final world and bosses, so awfully linked up with no save spots or checkpoints to break things up, took hours for me to beat. The final run of that final bit, during which I did finish it, took in excess of 90 minutes. 90s minutes of frustrating treks into the last world, followed by sheer mad bosses.

I've been playing it on the normal difficulty and yet I get lost a lot. And I haven't played it on hard mode nor have I picked up Prime 3, at least until I beat Echoes. But that sounds hard. D:

/late

[D-Metal X]

The only boss I had particular trouble with in any of the Prime games on Hyper Mode was Mogenar, but even then it just takes practice of the instant-invincibility mode (Hyper Mode in game) to beat anything in Prime 3's Hyper Mode.

And wow was the Spider Guardian made much easier with the addition of the Spring Ball. XD

Edited December 29, 2012 by D-Metal X

[Yoko/葉子]

I have a theory about Other M, I get the feeling Sakamoto might have been severely depressed when making all those parental puns. Started playing Zero Mission again.

[Old dead account]

I wonder if Sakamoto was having marital problems at the time?

Anyways, As of just this past november, Metroid Prime is now 10 years old. How does that make you feel? Amazing game that has hardly aged a day IMO

[Solid SOAP]

So I bought Metroid II on the 3DS VC and... I really do not like it. The lack of a map and lack of memorable looking environments to make traversing the planet easy made this a very frustrating experience for me. I have no real desire to play it at all, anyone else agree with me? I was always under the impression this was a Metroid game many liked, am I wrong?

[Emmett L. Brown]

So I bought Metroid II on the 3DS VC and... I really do not like it. The lack of a map and lack of memorable looking environments to make traversing the planet easy made this a very frustrating experience for me. I have no real desire to play it at all, anyone else agree with me? I was always under the impression this was a Metroid game many liked, am I wrong?

It hasn't aged well. At the time of release it was a huge improvement over the NES Metroid, but today it's a taxing, confusing, exhausting experience that isn't for everybody. It really depends on whether or not you like mazes, because due to the samey graphics all over the place I think Metroid II is the easiest game in the series to get lost. Also apart from the Metroids you're hunting, there's no bosses at all in the game.

 

If you ask me, Metroid II is most worth playing if you simply want to experience the roots of the series. The intro to Super Metroid pretty much sums up the entirety of the game, so anyone doing a timeline playthrough is free to skip from Zero Mission to Super Metroid and not miss anything.

[Spin Attaxx]

Aren't Arachnus and the Queen Metroid boss battles?