Metroid 2 for the original Game Boy may have been an important game for the lore of the Metroid series, but as a game it hasn’t aged as well as some of the other games in the franchise.
Metroid 2 has also been remade twice: once by fans with AM2R: Another Metroid 2 Remake, and once by Nintendo with Samus Returns. So how did both groups approach the challenge of updating the game?
The latest episode of Game Maker’s Toolkit looks at the original game as well as its two remakes to compare and contrast their different approaches to the same basic ideas, you can watch the video above.
Both of the later versions of the game tried their best to bring Metroid 2 closer to the Metroid ideals now that the game has been freed from the limitations of its original hardware, but both remakes handle just about everything in different ways. This video is a fascinating look at what happens when three very different teams take a crack at a single game. One got to set the stage, and the other two were able to expand on what came before.
This is an 18-minute video that goes into probably a bit more detail than is strictly necessary for anyone but the hardcore fans, but I found it interesting enough to stick around until the very end. Enjoy!
