Ridley Prime

After four Normal, two Hard and a Dread Mode run, I now have gotten all the unlocks for the game. Practicing in the Boss Rush got me warmed up to go for the elusive Zero Suit Samus ending that I've been wanting for a while. Hard Mode was first as I figured if I got under the best time condition there it should be no problem to repeat for Normal Mode. My best times are above for both difficulties. Metroid Dread isn't in the sweet spot that both Hunters and Super are in, usually ending runs in around or less than 90 minutes, but it's also still relatively new. My eighth run is going to be in Rookie Mode, which really is the only aspect of the game I haven't gone through yet. Started the run last night to get to the Quiet Robe cutscene which I feel clarifies the Kraid timeline. 
 
 
With the way the bosses went in Dread Mode, I was worried that I was going to struggle more than I did in Dread Rush. In Dread Mode, had Bombs and Screw Attack for Kraid and Escue respectively, but they are not in Samus's arsenal for Dread Rush. In spite of being the biggest obstacle, I really liked the Escue encounter without the Screw Attack under Dread difficulty conditions. That, Golzuna and Twin Robot Chozo Soldier got a lot more appealing as I completed Dread Rush and went for new personal records in Boss Rush. 
 
Regarding how natural the environments are on ZDR, not every region freezes up from the system block in Cataris. Dairon, Ghavoran, Elun, Ferenia and Hanubia don't show the impacts that occur to Artaria, Burenia and Cataris during that event when viewing them via the global map. It seems that Ghavoran, Ferenia and Hanubia do have naturally developed ecosystems or are located within such areas of the planet, and they trickle down to Dairon which is where it seems most of the experiments on ZDR occur. Experiments from Dairon and whatever may be not native (not sure what is and isn't) then go down to the artificial environments of Artaria, Burenia and Cataris. 
 
 
The Mawkin have Kraid bound on ZDR before the Mawkin-X crisis begins, which occurs after their return from SR388. They have Kraid before the events of Metroid II/Samus Returns, so if the Mawkin did go to Zebes for Kraid or a sample of it wasn't during the events of Super Metroid. I still believe that Kraid's origin is ZDR, specifically from the Ghavoran region and was moved down to Cataris as an experiment. The alternative is that the Mawkin had an arrangement with Mother Brain and the Space Pirates on Zebes. That requires more mental gymnastics, because I don't see the two groups working together...but it could explain somethings from Super Metroid that we encounter. The Torizo for instance and the dead body outside of Kraid's room could be a Mawkin soldier. If they did work with Mother Brain though, it would need to be before Raven Beak decided to...basically have the same idea of having Metroids as a bioweapon and during a period when the Metroid operations weren't active on Zebes (it's implied that Raven Beak saw SR388 as his only option for Metroids until Samus's successful vaccination). I don't think the two groups would work with each other, and think it's easier to imagine Kraid being native to ZDR while Mother Brain also has data on the species as to create the ideal ruler for Brinstar. 
 
Federation Force's take on Sylux is very interesting to me and sets up a very deadly antagonist for Prime 4 even without the newly hatched Metroid, which itself should be larger than usual. I'm glad that Federation Force only showed a part of the overall model in-game, enough to draw the conclusion that it is Sylux. If they had gone with the full model, it would be the mystery ship from Corruption all over again...and I think the mystery ship has a stronger association with Sylux than the Federation Force model. Initially when I saw the model, I didn't believe what I was seeing due to the helmet. I'm so use to Sylux's helmet design in Metroid Prime Hunters, but after thinking about the model design I love it because of the potential being set up. I do hope Prime 4 uses that for the character to an extent, both that Federation Force model and the potential that it further sets up. 
 
 

Seeing another Dread analysis video, a thought occurred. At one point in the game, everything freezes over due to the lava heating system being blocked off. Which begs the question, are most if not all of the lifeforms on ZDR not native? Because apparently it seems that ZDR is more of an ice planet in its natural state, and it was only due to bringing up magma from the planet's core that the subterranean environments became warm enough, and is doubtful such a system had been in place nearly long enough for the myriad of ecosystems to evolve naturally after such a change.
 
If the Chozo went to Zebes before it blew up for like Kraid though as well as other creatures from other places, why didn't they find traces of Metroid DNA to work with like in Tourian to deal with the X problem on ZDR? Not like SR388 was the only place that had Metroids.

Now people are wanting the Pokemon Stadiums on NSO, but without the Game Boy game integration of using your own Pokemon, would be pretty weak, leaving you with only rentals to use.
 
Come on Game Boy NSO.

Now people are wanting the Pokemon Stadiums on NSO, but without the Game Boy game integration of using your own Pokemon, would be pretty weak, leaving you with only rentals to use.
 
Come on Game Boy NSO.

Okay, that’s funny. Wonder what causes it.

I did find it odd how the "Omega Cannon" when used outside an EMMI zone (say you leave the zone without depleting it on an EMMI), just did regular damage to ZDR natives and wasn't overpowered or anything. Either they figured no one would leave an EMMI zone without destroying an EMMI once they had the Omega Cannon, or the technology of that weapon was designed to be lethal to pretty much only the EMMI's kind of armor specifically.
 
Since you changed your profile icon to Federation Force Sylux @Ithrak Utopia, I will its model struck me as surprisingly cute when I first saw it, especially with some of the fan art that was quickly made in response to it. Saw that some purple Samus jokes were made too (with Dark Samus being "blue Samus" and purple Samus being Dark Samus's successor for Prime 4), but that aside, we were never meant to see this model to begin with since the FF ending only intended to show Sylux's arm when it was approaching that Metroid egg. It was one of those less is more kind of scenes where you had enough an idea of who it was just off the arm that was shown, and didn't really need to have a detailed model for the rest of him like in Hunters. I suppose too he may have not had his hunter suit there so he could easily go undercover within the Federation when it came to getting that area. I don't know, but leaves some interesting implications as to what to expect of him in Prime 4.

I had a very vague memory of the original trilogy for Star Wars....I'm not entirely sure if I fully watched A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back before this week, but did have a better memory of Return of the Jedi. In my opinion and watching the versions available on Disney+, none of the three films feel like they've aged much. That was something I was concerned about watching content like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels and going back to the franchise's foundation. In general, it makes sense as I see the connection and expansion from this trilogy. I don't think any of these three really stand out in the same way I currently feel Episode III is the best of the prequels (feel like I should rewatch them at some point again). They are all very solid films...If I had to rank them, probably Empire Strikes Back would be my favorite just a tiny bit above A New Hope and Return of the Jedi which are about even. 
 
I decided to watch A New Hope after watching Part III of Kenobi, noticing that currently there's some conflict in the overall story that Kenobi should address. After watching Part IV, I definitely wanted to wash that away by watching the rest of the original trilogy. For the rest of Kenobi, I think I'm going to watch it as entertainment associated with Star Wars rather than as Star Wars content...The fan service has lost its magic for me and the bullshit has been cranked up, but since there are only two episodes left for Kenobi I'll go ahead and finish it out. At this point, the more Star Wars a person has watched, the less I would recommend the Kenobi series. Going forward, if the Kenobi writers are associated with a project, I may skip the content unless there is clear indication that improvement has occurred and has had a fair amount of recommendation. I won't let the Kenobi series completely turn me away from the franchise's new content to the extent The Last Jedi did, because there is content done under Disney that has had slam dunk potential that they actually delivered on (i.e. Season 7 of Clone Wars). Oh well, two more weeks to go. 

Please tell me Richter is keeping his current voice actor.
 
I wanna hear David Vincent say fuck!

Finally, a release date.
 
 

Finally, a release date.
 
 

With how much the theme is used, if I wanted to make an interpretation of that theme in Super Metroid, it would be a theme for Samus in those situations rather than the bosses themselves. Now it's definitely associated to Ridley, so a remake would need to change up in that regard. I'm conflicted if I want original tracks or remixes on Ridley's theme. Draygon having a remix with hints of Maridia could be great as a reference even though I personally generally prefer hearing original tracks than remixes...I could understand a remix for a remake of the game that featured the track originally. I don't want to hear any remixes out of the Prime Series for a Super remake for instance like they did having a Lower Norfair remix for lava rooms for SR388 in Samus Returns, unless there happen to be references to make the link beyond environmental themes. 
 
Dairon needed a Kraid easter egg in one of its labs more so than it needed to stir speculation on Draygon which turned out to be nothing in the actual game. I think it's more believable that the Mawkin Tribe had access to the DNA of Kraid's species, than they had access to get the corpse of Kraid from Zebes while Samus's hunt and Mother Brain's operations were active. Ghavoran could have been another great area to flesh out Kraid as well with references. For instance, in a couple rooms, have a creature that resembles Kraid's original Metroid concept art be active in the background...serving as an infant stage. Little things to suggest that ZDR could have been the homeworld of Kraid's species. I find it odd that they didn't do more with Kraid's return in lore considering what they did for Ridley in Other M following his demise on Zebes. 
 
Dread could have used a Sound Test as an unlock....I feel the audio director might have been right on initial response. Dread's OST, in some ways like Other M's, is hard to really enjoy and appreciate in-game because it is generally so quiet. Beyond that, in terms of sound effects, Dread is fantastic and could be the best in the series in that regard. Don't know if it's still possible or if it has been patched from the game, but speedrunners were going through a stretch of Artaria for early Screw Attack purely on audio. The game has to be given credit there just based on what the community had been doing. 
 
By the way, I know this is a nitpick, I hate that Dread has an Omega Cannon configuration. It would've been better if it was kept at Omega Blaster and Omega Stream. I still love using the mechanic and find it satisfying to annihilate the E.M.M.I.s, but it's the Fraud Cannon to me. 

I haven't played Code Veronica but have seen gameplay vids so I agree with a remake. I guess since I never played it before I am not seeing the vocaliness of this game being remade.  I don't really recall ppl thinking the remake of the 2nd M&L game was vocal but I recall ppl saying remaking the 3rd entry was not necessary. It really makes me wonder when RE 4 release that will happen. Similar to Majora's Mask 3D, the remake of the 3rd M&L didn't make a game that was already great better so I get the worry for RE 4 remake but I just have  feeling it's gonna be alright.
 
I always felt RE 4, 5, and 6 were trilogy of games when it comes to the end of Umbrella Corps. Like 4th the best, 5 was meh to be and despite how ppl look down in RE 6 I appreciate what the set to do even if what bogged down by so many different methods of play. It was refreshing to me. Remake for RE 5 yes, I wouldn't even know how you remake the multiple campaigns conclusion arc of Umbrella Corps that is RE 6. Leave that alone, not that it's fine the way it is but there's no way to remake or make better to me in how the game breaks up how play certain parts.
 
Yeah, that's obvious with Mercs that its asset dumps of small pieces of the games location. You would think with how Merc first came to be that no matter the re-release there's time cause there's not much to it. Who knows Capcom, do operate like Nintendo pulling features out of nowhwere. It's expected to some degree when Japanese gaming companies decide on a whim to taketh than giveth.

I played the original 3 but oddly enough 2 was the only game I had never played until the Remake, which I loved. Sad to hear the remake of 3 was shit...
 
 
Also, despite the trailer showing only PS5, this IS coming to the XBox Series and Steam.

Oh, my jimmies being rustled with the update content aside, I guess I should congratulate Dread on becoming the highest selling Metroid game, but we all knew it was gonna reach that point sooner or later. At the end of the day, Dread selling better than the other games happened because Nintendo pulled their heads out of their asses and actually made an effort with promoting and advertising a Metroid game. Of course it also helps that it was a new game and not a remake, a sequel that people wanted since 2002, on the best selling Nintendo console, and was hyped up more than the entire Metroid series combined. It had no such hurdles like any previous game in the series.
 
While Dread itself isn't a kind of favorite that tops Super Metroid for me or something, that level of effort still brings great tidings for the series going forward with Prime 4 and whatever else we get, and I'm nonetheless happy for those who rate Dread higher than me, seeing it become the highest grossing Metroid. The Metroid Prime ceiling had to be broken eventually.
 
Metroid may never be an A-lister like Mario or Zelda, and Dread still didn't do all that well in Japan (mostly sold in the West like every other Metroid), but this breakthrough is still one of the best things to happen to a B-tier selling series such as it, and hopefully it can only continue growing from here. Any of the previous games being on the Switch in some form aside from Metroid 1 and Super Metroid on NSO would still help with that said, but I stopped getting my hopes up for that despite any rumors.

To be honest, Corpius was as far as I made it in Dread Mode. I'm sure I could have eventually got past it if I kept trying, but my limited attention span with how invested I still was in other games and TV shows kept me from going back to it. Having to be more patient and cautious with every regular enemy just wasn't fun as it already was; nevermind fighting any boss that can kill you in one hit. While I guess Dread Mode one-ups Other M's Hard Mode in a sense, the latter was more reasonable even though you couldn't get any energy tanks. 99 health gave plenty room for error compared to having what's essentially just 1 unit of health.
 
If the other games ever had their own Dread Mode equivalent, I'm not sure if I would've enjoyed the experience much more either. At least with the other games though you don't have to worry about every trivial enemy charging right at you for you to counter; not to knock MercurySteam who otherwise gave some solid games, but any low % run or something that's the equivalent of Other M Hard Mode is as far as I would go with some inflated difficulty setting, not any one hit = death bullshit.
 
I already gave similar opinions on the Boss Rush mode in that it didn't really enhance the experience the way I thought it would, but to add to that, will say the boss attack RNG really makes getting getting a new record against any boss or even just getting fast times in general with them inconsistent. I felt that frustration when I was trying hours one night to beat my posted boss run time from the previous page, but every time I changed up my strategy some to try and accommodate for a faster time, the boss would end up doing a different attack in a different order the next time I fought them, making me have to restart again and again, until I just decided I had enough and put down the game.
 
That happened often with Kraid and even Corpius. 2 minutes for like Corpius seems to be an average time unless you get really lucky, and Kraid, you have to watch out whether he does the punch you have to avoid by jumping or the one you can parry, and in Boss Rush he doesn't always do the same punch in the same order. Practice and player adaptation can get you past things like that though, but it's the consistency that's the problem, more so with other bosses. At least I have a faster time with Escue though despite it being my most disliked boss. Nice time you got on the Robot Chozo Soldier, definitely had me beat there. I wanted to beat my previous time on it by sliding under its charge shots and countering, but the other bosses gave me too much frustration with time that I didn't end up doing another full fun as mentioned.
 
Guess I'm more thankful now that Boss Rush didn't have a leaderboard, because a lot more people would be trying to beat other players' times, only to frustrate themselves with the inconsistency of the ability to beat their previous times.

I've been slowly making my way through Dread Mode since beating Hard Mode earlier last month...I think it's ridiculous that Dread Rush is unlocked from it, which for a new player would be three completions of the game to access that form of content. Dread Mode in concept is all right, and do still think it is more interesting than the standard hard mode this series has generally had. I do wish though work was done to checkpoints for the mode to make them more common. My run so far has been a mix of being more rewarding to make it through a segment of areas, but also more frustrating and tiring with others. It would've felt better to me if each room was is its own puzzle to traverse through. The Kraid checkpoint for instance should be right outside of the falling blocks and not in a separate room that has lava as an obstacle before making the short trek back to his lair. I imagine the checkpoint is there as that was where the "boss door" creature was located. I just think it's an unnecessary time waste to not have the checkpoint directly by the falling blocks. In general, I would say that has been my frustration with Dread Mode, wasting unnecessary time due to the checkpoints not being adjusted for the one hit kill change (or ONE CONTACT KILL!). 
 
I hate that Samus Returns and Dread allow an enemy to be melee countered, but have those same enemies do contact damage. If an enemy can be knocked back with the counter, they cannot do contact damage. I really want that change in the future, and until then I might just go ahead and rate these games below Other M, which got interactions right. It takes me out of these games, and I'm noticing it more now in Dread Mode with some questionable, off-screen enemy placement in a few areas. 
 
Currently in the Dread run, I'm at the Kraid boss, but may decide to try to go for Bombs first for the quick kill as I don't want to deal with the gut ball's RNG when I do manage to get through the first phase of the boss. I have a couple of issues with the first phase that have stood out in the circumstance of a one hit kill and both involve his rock/fire breath. 
 

My first issue is that it feels off to have the attack phase through Kraid's lower jaw to have the attack cover the whole spread of the platform. Before this wasn't something I had noticed or rather had to notice, but it seems sloppy for an otherwise great boss encounter. 
 

My second issue is that the hit boxes during this attack seem like that they can be a bit wonky. Most of the deaths I've experienced I've felt like they've been my fault; however, I took a clip of one death that I questioned and realized that when I died Samus was not being touched by the shattering rock that the game had registered as a kill. This too has made me reconsider how I want to approach the boss as I'm considering getting Bombs beforehand for the first time while playing Dread, as it seems more luck may be involved than I thought just getting to the second phase. Again, not something I picked up on playing Dread before, but under the penalty and time being spent in consequence in Dread Mode the veil is being lifted. 
 
The overall update hasn't made as much of an impact as I thought it would earlier in the year. The Boss Rush does offer a different feel, but not really a different experience, certainly not in the same way as Blast Ball for Federation Force and bot-player for Hunters. It's still single player content, rather than feeling like its own experience. If they had allowed upgrade customization for the boss rush, allowing situations unique to the boss rush to be possible, it would have made more of a difference. If it weren't for my continued dislike for the Counter-Contact nonsense, this mode was enough for me to consider Dread over Super, but not quite in the conversation with Federation Force and Hunters like I had thought initially. 
 
As of today, these are my Boss Rush times below and my current record for Survival Rush is 5. That mode is pretty difficult, and I think it's a shame that Dread Rush's unlock wasn't tied to that mode. How the unlocks are handled in Dread in general is an issue. 
 

Yep, one of the guards Rey was maneuvering around, their weapon just conveniently disappeared mid fight.
 
From what I just looked up of said episode of Visions, I can believe it was done better there. Also, while I normally don't care much for lego games, I have to say the recent Lego Star Wars game that covers all three trilogies did The Last Jedi much better than the film did. Just looking at a video of the gameplay, you get to even play as Luke while fighting off Kylo Ren during their encounter on Crait. I think that was my favorite planet aesthetically out of the sequel trilogy, despite the disappointing climax TLJ had. Anyway, they actually have a duel there where Luke can take damage and deals damage to Ren, which was how it should've been in the film.
 
Battlefront 2's story did Luke and pretty much everyone better than TLJ as well. Despite the initial controversy that game had at launch in 2017, it easily became one of my favorite Star Wars games as it got better over time with the updates, especially after its final update in 2020. Kylo Ren was probably my most played dark side character in the game aside from Grievous and Vader. Ren and all the sequel characters had good gameplay and unique abilities like everyone else, which gave me more attachment to them than I would've gotten from the films alone.
 
 
To be honest, I was already having dwindling interest in mainline Pokemon games as time went on, and definitely not $60 interested for one now. Things that happened like Dexit only made me feel I jumped ship at the right time. I'm sure I could play Pokemon Sword/Shield or any mainline game after (the Diamond/Pearl remake, etc) and enjoy some aspects of them, but why would I when there's other games and stuff out there I know I'd enjoy and come back to much more during my free time?
 
With Pokemon games though, you know what you're getting at least. I wouldn't of saw The Last Jedi in theaters if I had known it would be as bad as it was, though I think I still would've been curious enough to see it sometime after on TV. TLJ was one of the only times I had a regretful theater investment, and came out happy from TROS in comparison.

I agree, and I think I've seen that throne room battle broken down before. Didn't one of the guards suddenly lose a weapon between frames? I couldn't compare Pokemon to anything from TLJ though, because I do still enjoy the recent Pokemon games. The best scene from TLJ inspired a scene in Star Wars: Visions in the episode "The Twins", and I felt the moment there was so much better than what I experienced in theaters because it wasn't surrounded by disappointment. 

The Last Jedi still had the worst choreography by far.
 
 
Even seeing the the film like a 2nd time some years ago, I was more annoyed at how bad the choreography and editing was with the fight scene against Snoke's guards than I was there not being an actual lightsaber duel itself. Outside of cinematography in some other scenes, TLJ just had no redeeming qualities.
 
TROS's choreography, while not the best, still felt like a step up for me in comparison. Honestly though, Ray Park as Darth Maul gave probably the best lightsaber choreography by far out of any live action Star Wars fight scene. Suppose it's not saying much given how infamous he is for his fight work compared to the other Star Wars actors, but still.
 
 
As far as the Pokemon and Star Wars comparison, I guess I have similar distaste towards Junichi Masuda and Kathleen Kennedy as the heads of modern Pokemon and Star Wars respectively. I feel the latter's improvement on Disney+ after the sequel trilogy wasn't really because of her, but in spite of her. We still got a mess of a trilogy because of her at the end of the day which won’t be so easily forgotten/forgiven even with current great shows… But it’s a start.
 
Oh, I didn't have that much left to say from our current PM conversation, but after looking it up when you asked about it, found that the thing about Darth Vader killing Watto was clickbait that I had been tricked by with a youtube video thumbnail implying it. Watto's fate from what I looked up and could tell, was more ambiguous, although I don't doubt Vader would kill him if they had crossed paths again.

Any old Star Wars release can be easily found on eBay, but there was never any purely unedited release.  The only official home release where the original movie just says, "STAR WARS," (without, "Episode IV: A New Hope,") were the 2006 bonus discs, and those use the later sound mix cuz they just took the 1993 masters of the trilogy and spliced a 1977 opening crawl film reel to the beginning of episode 4.  And, besides, as someone who owns and is trying to get rid of that set, it's awful.  It's so zoomed out that you can barely see it.  I bought a Blu-Ray set of the despecialized trilogy that I'm a thousand times happier with, not just is the quality amazing, but it's far more accurate than any home release there's ever been of the trilogy ever, including the 2006 set.

So does that mean there’s going to be a Harley Barbie toyline?

So does that mean there’s going to be a Harley Barbie toyline?

It occurred to me if the DS line was ever on the table for NSO, that they'd have to bring back the online play of said DS games for people to give a damn, which I think they'd do given the online play that the other multiplayer games of SNES/SNES, etc have had on NSO. Metroid Prime Hunters online being back would be much rejoiced.
 
As far as GBA NSO is concerned, Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission (particularly Fusion) would get me to sign up day 1, depending on the price of the new service tier. Beyond my usual Metroid favoritism though, how the GB/GBA library overall looks from the start would determine how soon I'd invest in it if it was a reasonable price. The N64 library was pathetically small with the games it started out with, especially for the price it demanded. The emulation/online issues brought up didn't help either, but Game Boy games would be easier to emulate by nature.
 
And yeah, potential pricing aside, my biggest concern is whether Nintendo ever ups the features or quality of their online. With Sony and Xbox you get what you pay for in terms of value, but Nintendo's still in the stone age in comparison when it comes to good & stable online, which is another reason I find the $50 for N64 online outrageous aside from the 64 and Genesis alone not matching the value of $50 for many people. If they become even bolder with the pricing while still giving very little in return, I'll continue giving them the middle finger.

First, I don't own a PS or a XBX so I am not very knowledgeable about the tiers and pricing of XBX and PS for Live, +, GamePass, and whatever else they offer for online play, game access, and other content as part of their services.  I do know they are considerably higher than Nintendo's alternative.
 
Strictly speaking on Nintendo offerings of the past and current I have thoughts:
 
1) I think I still prefer the WiiVC model over the NSO model in terms of games to play and how to get them, obviously the NSO online multiplayer upgrade and save state upgrades make the gameplay itself better.  I prefer buying games I want versus a flat rate for streaming and they can come and go at will.
 
2) The NSO model is only as good as the game releases and release frequency.
 
3) How could I get the gifting game ability on the Wii but not since?
 
4) How could I get Miiverse on the WiiU but not since?
 
5) Why is it so hard for Nintendo to get voice chat going in a "good way" versus their competitors?  That said, I don't see how parental tools, and basic blocking users tools can't be implemented to keep the "predators" away.
 
6) If you dig deep into what is being offered by Nintendo, it seems like you are merely paying for a game streaming service ONLY not an online infrastructure upgrade.  There have not been any online service quality enhancements.
 
7) Nintendo's pricing structure comes off as a "we need a service too" model...  And as of right now, the price for what you get matches up so far...  but again, as the price goes up more has to be offered... and if its content options only and not online infrastructure upgrades (connections, communication, and other things) they can't price themselves up to the others even if they want the money.