AM2R shouldn’t exist, and as far as Nintendo is concerned, does not exist. Yet it does, and Milton “DoctorM64” Guasti would probably appreciate some credit where it’s due.
Metroid is a Nintendo series with a long history, though that history has been cut short recently through mediocre-to-terrible recent entries spaced years apart, making people wonder if Nintendo is even interested in Metroid anymore. It would be a real shame if they weren’t, as the series stars one of the best female protagonists in video gaming, Samus Aran, and is well-known for its gameplay loop of exploring new and alien landscapes to find items to open up paths where you could not tread before. Metroid, of course, coined half of the name of the platformer subgenre “Metroidvania” to describe this incredibly satisfying gameplay loop, and people have been clamoring for more from the original source.
In particular, some people really wanted an updated version of the very second Metroid game, the Game Boy one.
Apparently, for a while, there were a lot of fans chomping at the bit to remake Metroid II: Return of Samus, a unique entry in the series that tasked Samus with the job of exterminating the predatory Metroid species on their homeworld of SR388. Most of those projects died out one by one. The only one that survived is, ironically, the one that made fun of the fact that it was just “another Metroid 2 remake.”
But it is hardly just that. Another Metroid 2 Remake began development in 2006 with the intention of being for the original Metroid 2 what the excellent Zero Mission was for the very first Metroid - Zero Mission 2, if you will. The idea was to not only remake the game with modern graphics, but provide updates to the setting, plot, and gameplay to bring things more in alignment with the current canon. The game was finally released in August 2016 after a looooong development process with several different contributors from around the globe and was widely hailed as one of the best fangames to ever exist, let alone make it to completion.
A little too widely, unfortunately, and Nintendo’s lawyers caught on. After a series of DMCA takedown requests aimed at the sites that hosted the game, development and distribution ceased entirely. The only way to obtain the game now is through discreet channels. But seriously it’s not that difficult to find.
But it does still exist, and it’s a great Metroid game. Which is kind of a rarity in the year 2017.
There’ll be a couple of runs here. One is a 100% collect-every-item and explore every nook and cranny of planet SR388 kind of run. One will be an attempted speedrun to get the best ending image under two hours and will probably be a bonus video at the end of the LP. More than likely I’ll try streaming my attempts, if I can figure that out. Maybe don’t hold out hope for that because so far I have been unable to actually get close to a sub-2:00 time.
With that all out of the way, let’s play.
Episode 1: Metroids 55-51
Episode 2: Metroids 50-46
Episode 3: Metroids 45-42
Episode 4: Metroids 41-39
Episode 5: Metroids 38-27
Episode 6: Metroids 26-21
Episode 7: Metroids 20-15
Episode 8: GFS Thoth
Episode 9: Item Roundup
Episode 10: Metroids 14-1
