review. MercuryStream’s side-scrolling revival is a great game and a good Metroid, and we’ll have an “official” review of it up some day soon, but there’s one little thing about it that needs to be discussed in isolation and at length. That’s the game’s pacing, which can be so weirdly, annoyingly off that it threatens to undermine the essential Metroid-ness of the whole thing.
The heart of a good Metroid has always been open-ended exploration marked by heavy backtracking. Its design encourages you to explore, rewards you with a steady drip of new power-ups and abilities, and then requires you to retrace your steps to visit areas that are now accessible with those new abilities.
That can seriously hamper the game’s flow. The excitement you feel when you first explore an area in Metroid hinges on the freedom you have to take your time; the confidence and determination with which you charge through that same area later on, when you know exactly where you have to go and what you have to do to move on to the next part of the game, isn’t as empowering when the game throws up a series of stop signs.
Similarly, finding new abilities in quick succession also diffuses the sense of accomplishment and relief you should experience whenever you power up. Metroid has always doled its abilities out, making each discovery seem genuinely significant. When you find a Chozo statue clutching on to one of those orbs, you know it’s a reward, and you know you’ve earned it.
, and one of the better games for the Switch. And fortunately this poor pacing only impacts a small part of the game’s runtime, which should take between seven and 10 hours, or so. It happens just enough to stand out, though; it’s the most un-Metroid-like part of the game’s design, and doesn’t come off as an attempt to expand on what a Metroid game can be, like the similarly unique E.M.M.I. encounters that are found throughout.
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