4.5/5 ★ – Bulky_Bob's review of Metroid Prime Remastered.

It’s 2003… my mother, as uninformed about video games as she is, buys me a GameCube for my 7th birthday with three games: Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and Metroid Prime. My obsession with these game series has never subsided to this day. With that, I never figured out how to beat Metroid Prime at the time. I was still pea brained and my access to the internet was limited. So when it came to hunting those ruins down, I was at a loss. Jump a few years later, I decide to come back to it on my old save. Once I popped in my purple Mad Catz brand memory card, I was immediately disheartened — my card was corrupted, my old Animal Crossing town and Metroid save were not spared. Everything was lost. So I played thru it again. But… at a certain point, I got distracted by my shiny new Wii console and Super Metroid on the Virtual Console. Never finished it, again… even after wasting the ink in the family printer for a 150 page strategy guide from Game FAQs. Now jump to my late teens, I pop the game back in. Tried to finish it yet again, my childhood disc is scratched to hell and back and stops working at about halfway through. Have to buy a new disc. While I was waiting for it, Minecraft peaks it’s head around the corner, I’m gone. No other game matters anymore. It sits. Mind you, I played halfway through Prime 2 and completed Prime 3 — completely disconnected from what had happened in the story up until that point, which didn’t feel very gratifying. I had looked up ending online. Surely that was the same… It never sat right with me. So when they shadow dropped this — I told myself it was time. To finally hunker down and get through this, no matter what. So 20 years later, I finally did. Costing me 11.5hrs at a 91% completion. I can lay the game to rest, and ACTUALLY say I beat Metroid Prime. That was more of a story than a review, so here’s the review portion. Overall, this game is beautiful, well designed yet a bit dated at times. Back tracking can be a chore and a lack of direction can lose some people. Perseverance is key here though, when you circle back with that upgrade you found and needed to progress, it’s feels earned. On the visuals, it’s impressive to me what was in the original that was enhanced here in the remaster. Seeing Samus’ face reflect off the inside of the visor when lights flashed close to her face, condensation building up on her visor in hot or steamy areas, the arm cannon cooling down with heat fumes coming out the front after shooting a lot, water droplets running down her suit in the rain. All things in the 2002 release, just given that visual update that makes it ever more sweet. The attention to detail is something I’ve always appreciated and I’m so glad they kept that here. Gameplay wise, its combat is simple, but can be a bit trying at times. The enemies aren’t particularly smart but they do catch you in some tricky situations. The boss fights are definitely the highlights here, and are always a blast to beat and work your way through. I thoroughly enjoyed the last few battles and it made me use everything I learned and gained up to that point to make it happen. And lastly, story. It’s subtle, but it’s there. Everything is told through some short cutscenes but mostly by using the scanning visor. You are taken back in time, seeing where things went wrong as they were being discovered and slowly unearthing what was happening underneath your feet… it added this layer of world building that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. I also enjoyed going through a particular part of the game and scanning the enemies computers, where they’ve logged a lot of their fear of Samus, as they’ve dubbed her “the Hunter”. It was a really nice touch, and super cool experience. The one thing I’ll say negatively about this though is that can be overlooked by the player, and that is a shame. That’s all I got, if you read all the way through, thanks so much for reading my ramblings! Much love, Metroid is GOAT.