Stanley

So I started this at long last having just completed Metroid Dread this week. First of all it looks much better than I expected from the videos I’d seen, the art atyle suits the remaster well and it all moves silkily smoothly. Started out with motion controls and straight away having free movement of the camera is a game changer, to the point I was struggling a bit in handheld mode using buttons only, you just have so much more freedom with motion controls I’m finding. The game itself is a joy to play, nice and chilled and relaxed, and it’s great to be back in these dungeons again, they really are excellent. Is it me or is the first boss a lot easier now? Maybe it’s just the camera improvements but I remember struggling with him in the Wii version. Does any Amiibo work with the fast travel thing or is it the Zelda and Loftwing one only (which is currently fetching quite a high price ?) The music is gorgeous too

Yeah the last boss

I would very much enjoy those if you did

Ah yeah, took me a good few tries before I nailed it!

Which boss?

Takes me right back to when I played Super Metroid on the SNES in the 90’s. I bought the big box version that came with the guide book, and it cost me £14.99. I remember seeing it on sale in WH Smith week after week, just sitting there like some bargain bin reject, next to reduced Rick Astley cassettes with broken cases and other such shite. Super Metroid! I didn’t know much about it, I’d read reviews but didn’t take a great deal of notice, just thought it was yet another 16-bit side scrolling platformer, of which there were too many at that time. But it was Nintendo and I liked all their other stuff, and I seem to remember Edge giving it a favourable write up. I mean the concept of a Metroidvania wasn’t even a thing of course, it was just Metroid. Anyway I didn’t stop playing it from the moment the cartridge went in the console, completing it over a couple of days. The impression that made on me has never gone, Metroid and Zelda have been the cornerstone of game design ever since then, to this day really. But there’s something about Metroid, that drip feed of abilities that is so perfectly timed, the atmosphere, and the shooting. I love the shooting, and morph ball bomb etc. You feel powerful as Samus Aran, like you actually feel like you have the kind of abilities an intergalactic bounty hunter would possess. Sorry, long vague post about nothing. TLDR Metroid Dread is a fine, fine game, and more importantly it’s a fine Metroid.

Finished, what a game. The music on the end credits is lovely.

Yeah I can do that ok, but get caught by a couple of his moves.

The last boss. I can do phase one easily now, but the 2nd is killing me.

I’m not gonna lie the bosses are tough, at first, but it’s possible to learn them and beat them without ninja like reflexes.

The reason Kotaku were on shaky ground with that article is because they appeared to be condoning the piracy of a brand new game mere days after its release, so I have no sympathy for them. And whilst I agree with some of Jim’s points he conflates one thing with another in that video, and then tries to mask it all forcefully by going into full shouty mode. It’s a complex issue and we won’t reach any kind of agreement or understanding just by shouting louder.

the bundling of Animal Crossing DLC is a bizarre decision. Asking you to pay for something you can’t even access unless you’ve bought the full game outright is one thing, but also making that the only way you can play N64 games is just ridiculous. And I don’t care about licensing costs or whatever the claim for it being expensive is, either soak it up or don’t do it - it’s not like they’re being forced to offer Megadrive games or whatever.