This is it; the last main Metroid game I had yet to play. Aside from First Hunt and Galactic Pinball, I’ve now experienced the complete saga. It’s odd of course, because not only were several of the games made anachronically according to the series’s timeline, I played them in a strange order too. Starting with the Advance games (the last and first in the timeline), I became accustomed to the controls there, which made Super too floaty and needlessly complex for me.

Metroid 2 is a bridge between the first and Super, and introduced many concepts that made their way to the console sequel. The larger Samus sprite, the Varia changing your appearance, ducking, as well as the ship and some of the abilities. From my memory, it also seems to be closer in feel to Super. Being simpler though, I found it easier to deal with. I should also note that I used savestates and a map throughout (MDB’s reconstruction of the Nintendo Power map, to be precise).

There’s not too much variety and it’s quite linear, as well as the numerous repeated level structure elements you’ll notice. But it’s quite short, ramps up nicely, and feels self-contained and the right length. I miss the days when these big franchises weren’t afraid to give us a little sidestory on a handheld. The consistent theme in tracking down those Metroids is a unique experience.

The music is largely unintrusive, apart from the fantastic “Main Caves” theme. The graphics look nice, but this is one of the more complicated games to get colours into. Usually you have to try it on a Super Game Boy and a Game Boy Color, not to mention the different options they’ll give you. I was happy with what I ended up with, nice contrast between enemies and background. The only problem is that the light blue level tilesets never changed, giving it an unfortunate uniform feel despite the different designs of those textures. Most likely my fault, but oh well. It’s too bad they never actually made the proposed DX version of this game for GBC.

I feel quite good about this game, allowing for the fact I used a map. There was a good amount of challenge, exploration, and not too much backtracking. I certainly had a better time than with Zelda 2, as this actually keeps and evolves the core gameplay of the series. And using that Spider Ball to just nip around any surface was so fun! The beam-switching mechanic was interesting too, with several instances of each littered around, and none being compulsory until the end.

I even got the best ending for finishing under 3 hours and with 100% items, although as I said I had my map and savestates. Metroid 2 is a fine instalment for the series, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for the final release of the fan remake AM2R. The baby! I actually like the baby now.