Retro Corner: Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy) Review · 5:46am Apr 2nd, 2022
There is another older review to show this time and it was when I went over the second Metroid on the Game Boy in 2016. Ever since the remake of the second game was remade on the 3DS, the series has regained what made it successful. No doubt Other M might have soured people even though those resentments are misguided. People can blame Samus’ portrayal all they want but that isn’t the reason the story was bad when it was simply poor writing in general. Even if they made Samus into a stoic statue who acted like a badass wouldn’t have saved the plot of Other M. Today, the series is moving in a nice progressive direction thanks to Dread and Prime 4. Even Dread has done some decent sales numbers in most places like never before so the fandom can celebrate that. The only thing missing from the latest 2D installment is Mercury Steam adding a randomize mode so here’s hoping they do that as the next free update.
As for the original Game Boy release of Metroid II, similar to its predecessor, time hasn’t been kind here either. The sequel shares outdated mechanics as the Original’s own such as the level design being developed after mazes. It also doesn’t help that the game is in a monochrome palette thus making this truly hard to enjoy. Unless you had Nintendo Power who gave an intensive guild with maps, any player would have been stuck on it for years. Fortunately, Nintendo released the Super Game Boy for the Super NES a couple of years later. Despite the game not being an SGB cart, this adapter made it playable for us without using the green monochrome color. You can even change four different shades of color to deviate from the default non-SGB games as soon as it boots up.
