/vr/ - Retro Games

defend this

inb4 somebody claims bumping into enemies constantly somehow "enhances" the atmosphere

>>4938586

Another strange sentiment I've been hearing recently is that Metroid II is somehow, supposedly, a better game than Metroid 1.

>>4260974
>This is either a meme, or the people complaining about it are just making shit up

keep telling yourself that.

What >>4207561 said, it's not bad and did some innovative things, like introducing saving stations, the spider ball and the current Varia suit design, but it really suffered from the systems limitations (or rather, being an early title, the inexperience of developers in working with those limitations).

Biggest drawbacks (in my opinion) are the way they utilized screen space, the repetitive gameplay and environments (M1 suffered from this too, but at least you could see the entire width/height of the room and they were in different colors) and the music. The tunnel main theme is great and I know some people go out of their way to defend the cacophonous rest of the soundtrack, but to me it's just really unappealing.

>>4112731
Enjoy your "soundtrack", lack of atmosphere, linear level design, and repetitious gameplay.

Why do people even argue for this except for being contrarian?

>>4106614
Hardware limitations.

>>4106629
>I never got past the 5th Zebetite

>>4085639
>preferring Metroid 2 over 1
>tiny screen and soundtrack that makes your ears bleed

OK.

I don't remember, but I think I had been spoilered by Super Metroid by then.

How did you feel about the utilization of screen space/"viewing distance"?

Regarding Screen use in Metroid 2 vs 1, here's something I threw together quickly. It's a representative screenshot from 2 overlaid onto 1, scaled to Samus' height.

What's interesting here is that the sprites are roughly the same height - 32px for M1 and 36px for M2. Sprite size is not nearly as "overblown" as it appears. It's mostly the Game Boy's lack of resolution/screen estate that results in the relative viewing area being reduced to almost one fourth of that in M1 (also taking into account the status bar here).

The mistake was keeping the sprites the same size without adjusting to the limitations of the new system. (Although some argue that the zoomed in view fits the jarring atmosphere of being trapped in a maze, I think the vast emptiness and ample use of black in Metroid 1 emphasize the feeling of being lost and alone far better.)