Metriod Dread Announced for Switch, Launches October 8th

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Vodacixi said:

The original Metroid has a certain charm. It's the most open game in the entire franchise, allowing you go to anywhere you want and skip almost every power up. However, it's an absolute nightmare to play unless you are really into old clunky games. No diagonal or down aiming, no crouching, enemies can hit you even if you are going through a door, password saving, tons of clonic rooms with no other purpouse than to confuse you, no map, no way to refill your HP and ammo other than the painfully slow method of killing infinite enemies that come off pipes...

Honestly, I cannot comprehend how someone could say that METROID (NES) is better than Super Metroid. Other than being an interesting experience for a fan of the series that started the franchise with newer games or a nostalgia trip for those who played it on its time... it's not a very good game at all. Even by NES standards.

I agree with you that Super Metroid is better in the following ways: Diagonal/down aiming, no enemies hitting you in doors, no passwords.  It also has better graphics.  However, I consider all of these things to be small improvements.  None of those aspects make or break the game for me.  There are things that are much more important when it comes to making a good game.

These are the 3 big things that really matter for every game: 1) Freedom, 2) Challenge, and 3) Content (i.e. what the game is about, and the stuff that it has).  Minecraft is a very basic game made by essentially one person and yet it is the best selling game of the 21st century, because it gives people people a whole lot of options about how they want to play (freedom), there is plenty of stuff that can kill you (challenge) and it is in a huge world with lots of different things in it (lots of content).  These are the things that actually make a game fun (and also the type of content which is determined by a person's tastes).

So, the reasons why I like the first Metroid more is 1) it's less linear and there is less gatekeeping (more freedom).  There are a few powerups in there that you don't even need to beat the game.  2) It's more challenging.  I have died a whole lot in Metroid 1.  I'm not sure if I ever died in Super Metroid.  Instead I played for several hours and then gave up out of boredom.  3) Metroid 1 feels more like a horror game in space to me.  That is what I think the game is about (content).  A large part of that has to do with the challenge.  I think effective horror games kill you a lot.  I also like horror games that unsettle you a lot (in a kind of Hitchcockian way).  The lack of a map is a plus.  The cloning rooms that confuse you are a plus.  Slowly running out of ammo and health is a plus.  (Metroid 1 probably could have 1 refilling station somewhere, but Super Metroid has far too many.)  All of this stuff makes me feel the pressure and puts me on edge.  It's disorienting and alienating in a good way.

Metroid 1 is a hardcore game by NES standards.  That was the NES version of Dark Souls.  It's hard.  You will die a lot, and it doesn't hold your hand.  I personally like all of that.  If you take Dark Souls and make it easier, then it really isn't Dark Souls anymore.  That is what they did to the Metroid series.  It doesn't feel like Metroid anymore.  Super Metroid feels like a watered down and casualized version of the original game.