Insert OOF.MP3 here

Happy Birthday 🎉🎉

Overall I still had alot of fun with this game, it has a lot of novelty that no other shooter is trying to pursue.

I hope now that they've set the foundation, Retro and Nintendo are going to have a much easier time making a sequel that can capitalise on this franchise.

I've also heard this pulls the same stunt as Fusion where, even if you get items out of order, the scripting won't let you use them. Which is just baffling to hear this late into the franchise.

My only big issue with them is that they set up a base camp in the first area and you are required to make multiple trips to hand in upgrades and I wish it was either moved to the centre of the desert or scrapped entirely.

As far as writing goes, they're fine. Miles needs to stop chiming in on the radio when there's already an option to ask him for help, but otherwise the discussion around them has been overblown.

It wouldn't even be that much different from the base game (There are already parts where you issue commands by scanning an object) but it would help make these NPCs feel like extensions of Samus even if they're still functionally a bunch of set pieces.

I also wish the NPC's were treated in a similar way.

When I first stumbled across these fed troopers I thought "No way! Are we gonna do a Republic Commando!?".

Like imagine a version of this game that had the command visor where you could issue orders to these guys?

Unfortunately it's almost solely exists to move you through the desert, having little to no presence in the actual dungeons. You don't even get a warthog escape sequence.

It's pretty disappointing especially since the open desert felt like such a poor fit for it.

My main disappointment was Vi-O-La. One of my favourite parts of Prime 3 was the Gunship and how they made it an extension of Samus with its own upgrades.

It played a big role in puzzles and set pieces throughout the game, and I was really hoping the bike was going to be a continuation of that.

I'm not in love with it either and the way it's meant to represent the game "opening up" doesn't hold a candle to other moments throughout the series.

I'm pretty neutral on the desert, it has plenty to do and the crystal hunt is pretty painless so long as you're not actively ignoring it.

There's an abundance of crystals and with the way dunes obscure them means you're always finding fresh crystal on every visit.

But yeah the bosses were all amazing, looking forward to trying them on hard mode.

The Sylux fights in particular were a treat. He easily tops the Dark Samus fights from the previous games. I have his theme imbedded into my brain at this point.

And maybe I'm being harsh, maybe I'm complaining that a game isn't something the devs clearly have no interest in pursuing.

But when I get to the bosses and they actually require me to use all my abilities in novel ways, it makes me wish this also applied to regular combat.