A look to the past: How nostalgia can be done right!

Nostalgia is a powerful force, and judging by entertainment box offices its profitable too, but this can also easily be abused by those in charge of our beloved Independent Properties. The difference between "Captain America: The First Avenger" and "The Amazing Spiderman" can serve as a movie template; both time tested super heroes who have successfully transcended their original medium, yet their recent jump into moviedom contrast in quality to a similar extent as Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Ylvis' "What does the fox say?"

America! F*ck Yeah!

For the last half decade or so, video games have gone through something of a retro-revival. Classics of old are getting remakes, sequels and... its been a big old mixed bag. Don't get me wrong, I was as happy as anybody could be when they revealed Oddworld New'N'Tasty, but looking at it from a big picture standpoint, this is an interesting twist of the segmenting video game business.

Hello! Hello! Buy me! Okay!

Big gaming business has splintered this last decade: The first person shooter-sports-racing market remains as dominant as before, yet the retro movement (in conjunction with digital downloads and a symbiotic relationship with indie gaming) has become a lucrative opportunity to use those old licenses in hibernation.

Capcom lead the charge with the likes of Bionic Commando Re:Armed, Mega Man 9 and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, but it was not long before others from gaming's golden age saw new life. A new Blaster Master and Adventure Island were made for Wiiware, Punch Out got a Wii game, and Sonic finally got his fourth numbered installment.

I remember the excitement...

While always exciting for the nostalgic, it's rather cynical business when one is objective. Rather than asking for bigger and better experiences, we mourn for the days of gaming when it was our own special hobby, yet its grown in ways we find undesirable. Evil Electronic Arts continue to abuse our beloved franchises from Sim City to Dead Space, yet we just can help but get excited for Star Wars Battlefront. This brings me to today's example, two sequels to 16 bit classics, one retains the strengths of the original and one effectively destroyed the series.

Sequel to "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"

Sequel to "Super Metroid"

Anybody who knows me long enough as a gamer will know I have an undying love for Nintendo's Metroid games. A series where Space Bounty Hunter Samus Aran wages a one-woman-war against the Space Pirates, who are planning to use the titular Metroids for animal warfare for galactic conquest. The series began with a bang on the NES with the amazing innovation of moving left; feel free to laugh, but those humbler times were more exciting, new experiences coming thick and fast. The series' 2D culmination (in this writer's opinion) was with the third game in the series, 1994's Super Nintendo masterpiece, Super Metroid.

There aren't enough words to describe how much I love this game!

The improvements were profound and the level design was subtle; the music was haunting and the graphics were detailed. A simple story told as masterfully as it was silent, and it remains to this day one of the most finely crafted pieces of electronic entertainment ever conceived. Super Metroid took a full eight years to gain a follow-up, indeed it got two; Samus' 2D adventures continued on the Gameboy Advance with Metroid Fusion, while Retro Studios adapted the series into 3D on the Gamecube with the stellar Metroid Prime. Today focuses on neither follow-up, but a game released in 2010, a game marketed as a follow-up to Super Metroid; the first Metroid game to take place in 3D that wasn't first person, and the game to tell the mystery behind Samus' mysterious ex-commander Adam Malkovich. This game is of course, Metroid Other M for Nintendo Wii, developed by Team Ninja.

The combat was flashy, I'll give it that much.

The other game to be mentioned is the third game in The Legend of Zelda series, also released for the Super Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past set the standard which the series would follow for another 2 decades; the plot was more fleshed out, the world was varied and fun to explore, the dungeons contained a multitude of puzzles rather than simply being enemy-filled mazes and the music was gorgeous. There are very good reasons people consider this game's homebound successor, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, to be one of the greatest games ever, but many of those reasons were done first in A Link to the Past, and arguably done better.

The biggest leap forward a sequel made in gaming history? You're looking at a strong candidate.

The most recent LoZ game to be released at the time of writing this post is for the Nintendo 3DS, "A Link Between Worlds", marketed as a sequel to the seminal Super Nintendo game, returning to the top down perspective and using a very similar overworld map. Leading up to this game's release, I can't say I was unduly concerned, I had been burned before. I had sat through the mild disappointment of Sonic 4, I abandoned Paper Mario Sticker Star after a few hours in disgust, yet none of these compare to my sheer contempt for Metroid Other M, and I was worried ALBW would be the same way.

Awwww, look at that face, isn't she just the cutest thing?

The initial rush of reviews were able to partially break through my cynicism; IGN's reviewer Keza MacDonald gave the game 9.4/10 and said it was her favourite Zelda game since Wind Waker. GT's reviewer Michael Damiani said it's the most revolutionary Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, and gave the game 9.8/10. While the reviews for Other M had been positive at the time, I was intrigued; people outside of the video game industry might not understand, but one does not speak lightly about comparing the quality of Zelda games, or question the influence OoT bought with it. I decided to take the gamble and did a last minute pre-order, ensuring I got the game a day early.

Having finished the game yesterday, I can say I don't regret the purchase as I did with Other M, not at all. I want the opposite, I want this game to sell more, it deserves to sell more. I will go on record here; A Link Between Worlds is a phenomenal game, the best Zelda in over a decade and quite possibly the best 2D entry in the series. Yes, it really is that good. But what makes the difference? Why does ALBW thrive in a way that Other M died horribly?

That is some lovely concept art <3

While on paper, the cynical among us could say the answer is obvious. That ALBW is virtually a carbon copy of its predecessor, while Other M took a new direction for the series with a greater emphasis on narrative and cinematic combat. While I can agree that on the surface ALBW looks similar to 2D Zelda's of the past, to reject this merely as pandering would be tantamount to judging a book by its cover, but its the underlying reasons we play these games, the emotions they seek to invoke, and how they achieve them. That is the reason we care about these franchises, the emotions we felt from partaking in them, and we follow them because we want more.

Trust me folks, I'm barely going to scratch the surface of why Other M sucks.

Traditionally the Zelda and Metroid franchises were very similar. Both are Nintendo veterans from the late 80's with a focus on discovery, in 2 particular ways. The first was the exploration of the worlds they lived in; Hyrule and Zebes were huge maps for their time, and without a map to guide you, it was up to the player to find their ways around. The second was the mystery of what new ability was coming there way; Link gained a mighty arsenal of boomerangs, bombs, arrows and a magic wand, while Samus gained new Beams, Suits and a deadly forcefield attack. These carrots served as the fuel for looking in every nook and cranny for that last health expansion.

Once the Super Nintendo hit, the focus of the two series split; Metroid retained the lonely feelings of the original, focusing on exploration for the discovery, while Zelda's world became more welcoming, and the population, lore and abilities became a more intrinsic method of rewarding a players, as well as peppering the world with locations for extra heart pieces. Zelda games also had the differential of having 2 kinds of terrain, the dungeons being the main meat of the game where one gains new weapons and plot specific items, and the overworld which served as a bridge between the locations. This was unlike the Metroid games which almost always have one larger world interconnected at different intersections, a modern example would be Dark Souls.

That broom is not a rake! Your grandma's gone insane!

There's no two ways about saying it, Metroid Other M does not deliver on the core aesthetic of discovery, not at all. The three types of discovery mentioned so far (exploration, abilities and character/lore), all of which fall horribly flat in this misguided sequel. The freedom to explore in Metroid games prior is completely gone until you have already finished the story.

I can feel the emotions, David Cage would be proud.

There is no excitement for new abilities because we already have all of Samus' equipment available to her from Super Metroid; she is simply forbidden to use them until given permission by her ex-commander Adam Malkovich. Samus gains one new ability throughout Metroid Other M, and it was already in Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. There's no mystery about gaining a new ability because you aren't getting new abilities; moreover it turns to frustration because there are multiple instances where you need features the game withholds from you. It happens for the Varia Suit, the Wave Beam, Gravity Suit, Grapple Beam and Power Bombs just to mention a few. What's more is how unnecessary it is; even ignoring the fact that Samus no longer works under Adam, she should at least be able to activate her none-offensive features so she doesn't nearly burn to death in the lava area. Worse is when later in the story she self-activates features, but neglects to activate the rest of them to contrive a fake bit of dramatic tension later.

In case you were unable to infer from the previous statement, multiple major problems with this game stem from the games' plot. Invasive of the players' experience and detrimental to every "character" within. Story was pushed to the forefront with a director who didn't speak the language it was being recorded in. That's not a joke, Yoshio Sakamoto does not speak English but insisted on demanding lines be performed a certain way, and that way is monotone and lifeless. The story itself is no better, filled with one-note characters, many dropped subplots and character assassinations of Samus, Adam and Ridley (Space pirate general and Samus' nemesis).

Congratulations! Ridley evolved into an absolute joke!

But setting aside all that baggage, when looking at Other M as its own game, rather than a Metroid game, it is still mediocre. A linear action game with flashy-but-shallow combat and uninspired musical score, but to paint itself as a sequel to a nostalgic property held in such high regard as Super Metroid, and to miss the point so hard when looking at the reasons we love the series to begin with, it has left a scar on the entire franchise. There has not been another Metroid game since.

I want this on my wall!

So with this in mind, I was more than a little apprehensive at the thought of another beloved Super Nintendo classic gaining a sequel, and they were planning on using the "same" world map from its predecessor? It seemed like an obvious attempt at fan pandering, which I hoped would at least be better than the full de-pantsing Team Ninja delivered. Then I played it, and I was floored by just how wrong I was.

Since the story was such a large problem with Other M, it makes sense to start there. A young boy called Link is awoken by his friend Gulley, being told he needs to go to the Blacksmith; Link needs to deliver a sword (nice reference to Twilight Princess) to Zelda's captain of the guard, but when Link arrives, a villain called Yuga has sealed him in a painting, and proceeds to do so with several other characters. Its up to Link to stop Yuga and restore all those captured to their three dimensional forms (I see what you did there Nintendo!).

The painting ability was a stroke of genius!

The story and threat are established in 15-20 minutes including a mini dungeon, and then you're let loose into the world. You're given an indicator on the map, but you can go pretty much anywhere right away. While that may not seem like a big deal to many, ever since (the brilliant) Majora's Mask came out, the introductions of Zelda games have become longer and more drawn out. If I were to replay Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword, I'd be waiting a good 2-3 hours just to get to some decent gameplay. I appreciate the build up and can provide some nice world building, but it really hurts the replayability.

No, I don't want to show you how to thrust! I want to get to the first dungeon!

So the story is unobtrusive, but what about the actual discovery? Well, Nintendo had a moment of genius here; while the game retains a lot of the map of A link to the Past, this familiarity allows for them to play around with Zelda conventions in new ways. For the first time ever in a Zelda game, the dungeons don't provide a specific dungeon item. The traditional Zelda formula is as follows:

1. Overworld
2. Reach Dungeon
3. Explore dungeon until finding dungeon item
4. Use dungeon item ad nauseum to solve "puzzles"
5. Defeat dungeon boss with dungeon item
6. Repeat

While this formula has worked well, it's been so standard for over 2 decades, it has become tired and predictable. A Link Between World has bypassed this almost entirely by giving players access to almost every weapon in the game early on. They don't NEED to rent all of them, and renting does present its own risks, but you have the choice to do so. This also freed up the dungeon designers, who could assume the player would have a wider range of tools available early game, and not feel sick of an overused gimmick in an earlier dungeon.

Ravio renting items to you better return in later games!

Another clever change is the dispensing of the concept of consumable items, replacing it with a Dark Souls-style stamina bar (Dark Souls is getting a lot of mentions today). Until now, Link needed to conserve arrows, bombs, deku nuts and many other items for when they were needed, otherwise a frantic search would ensue just to finish this darned puzzle. While I'd argue this item management benefited the sense of tension in Majora's Mask, this streamlining allows the player to focus exclusively on the task at hand, and its not abusable in combat either, you only get 4 arrow shots before it needs to recharge, enforcing careful play. A comparable could be the regenerating health of modern First Person Shooters, while I'd argue it's not a perfect fit for every game in the genre, it allows for a consistent flow of action, rather than risking pacing and difficulty issues.

Stop! Hammer Time!

The exploration of the world map has been cleverly adapted from its predecessor; whenever there has been a tweak, veterans like myself will notice and play around with it. Perhaps finding a new Tomb Raider-style mini-dungeon for a rupee reward, or one of the 100 Maiamais (baby squids) hidden around the world. Nintendo made a similar system in Ocarina of Time with the Gold Skulltulas, but the Maiamais have two particular advantages. Firstly, you always know how many Maiamais remain in an area, and they make noises too, so you're never looking around for too long, and secondly, the rewards are consistent and player driven. In Ocarina, you could get a wallet upgrade or a rumble feature, the upgrades were kind of lame. In Worlds, you can upgrade any of the items you own every 10 Maiamais, and you get to choose based on the type of player you are, want to shoot more arrows at once? you can! want your bombs to have bigger explosions? you can do that too! While Metroid Other M stripped Samus and the player of all agency and choice, A Link Between Worlds revels in it, you can choose the dungeon order (mostly), which items to bring, which to upgrade and where to go.

Zelda games appear to be back on track, shame the same cannot be said for Metroid.

I'd better wrap this up because this is getting really long. In short, A Link Between Worlds is the best Zelda game is a long time because it understands why the series was great to begin with, while Other M misunderstood and neglected them. Will we see another Metroid game in the near future? My answer ranges from probably not to hopefully not, but at least we still have Super Metroid, and nothing can take that away.

May great design never fade.