I, like most reasonable and decent people, have been longing for a new main series Metroid for close to a decade now. prime 3 was released nine and a half years ago, and Zero Mission, the most recent 2D Metroid, is 13 years old. Even if you liked Other M, the current hiatus is roughly on par with the one that came after Super Metroid.
But for some reason, I can't find myself being THAT angry with Nintendo about it. I want to be, but when I get down to it, I don't know what I want from anew Metroid game. Especially a classic styled sidescrolling one in the vein of Super Metroid.
Let me try to explain.
Metroid, at it core, is a sci fi series where you explore a mazelike world, platforming and shooting in order to gain new abilities (both for utility and combat) and thus explore more of the world. You can go off the beaten path to find rewards and even sequence break. In a way, its the same formula as Zelda, just with platforming. And most of the series has followed this formula fairly closely, even in the first person Prime trilogy and the more linear Fusion.
The original Metroid was ahead of its time, basically establishing a genre, but aged badly. The Game Boy sequel made some strides forward in terms of level design, gameplay, and atmosphere, and Super Metroid perfected the genre by including its map system, game mechanics that encouraged sequence breaking, well designed enemies, etc. But after Super Metroid, Nintendo had to start reaching for ideas on how to evolve the formula.
Prime emphasized the exploration, atmosphere, and bosses over regular enemies and platforming, but ultimately wasn't that much of a departure. Metroid Fusion, though sometimes berated as being the prelude to Other M, seems to have been a game about Corruption, both in terms of story and gameplay. Many of Fusion's best elements, like the intense SA-X chases, Samus's ability to absorb the energy of enemies like a Metroid, and the claustrophobic atmosphere, are due to deliberately turning Super Metroid on its head. But neither of these games, nor their successors, actually changed the base formula.
Heck, even other developers haven't done much to change the genre. Looking at games like Castlevania, Cave Story, Shadow Complex, Shantae, and Guacamelee, they have provided fairly little material for Metroid to rip off. Sure, they may add interesting twists with RPG mechanics, an emphasis on melee combat, a focus on environmental puzzles, and so on, but nothing that makes the Super Metroid format obsolete.
Why do I care? Because of this:
Yoshi's New Island is what happens when you revisit a beloved classic without bringing anything new to the table. Sure, the gameplay works and all the things you remember are there. But its so damn familiar, one spends most of the game remembering when the original did the same thing better. And even when it lived up to the original, your memories of the original would drown out these new ones as soon as you stopped playing. Say what you want about Yoshi's Story on the N64, at least people can remember it.
I'd love to have a new Metroid, but only if that means Nintendo presented something that could stand out as being worth laying for its own merits. If they announced New Super Metroid, I wouldn't be excited. I would yawn. And I'd rather play Other M 2 than be bored playing a new Metroid.
Love and tolerate.
