#project am2r

This time on Hard mode, and holy shit is it aptly named.

The wildlife’s a lot more violent than on Easy and Normal mode, as I learned when the “lay flat on the ground until your close and then jump straight up” enemies showed me when one of them flat-out divebombed me. Also, the Alpha Metroids I’ve seen so far are not only a lot more aggressive, but stingy as hell; neither one dropped any recovery items.

Both were a bit trickier to kill as well, seeing as the Missile/Super Missile/Power Bomb tanks are cheapkates this time around; instead of the usual 5/2/2 per tank, they’re down to 2/1/1.

At least the Energy Tanks still give a full payload. I recall Hard Mode on Zero Mission chopped them down to 50 Energy a piece.

As for the item randomizer? It got very random on me. Where I should have found the Bombs, I found...the Bombs. At first I thought maybe I’d clicked New Game+ instead of Random Game+, but when the Charge Beam and Spider Ball were replaced, respectively, with the Spazer and Space Jump, that theory went poof.

Anyway, saving and quitting for the night before I go up against the Guardian Statue when I try to leave. For the time being I’m thinking “skip the Metroids, get some powerups first.” In particular, getting the Screw Attack and making the sequence break for the Gravity Suit ASAP would be very nice in light of how everything’s apparently out for blood now.

Game Mechanics: You have 70 missiles right?

Me: Yeah, so? I can't hit their weak spot. They move too fast.

Game Mechanics: You know the missiles don't have any cooldown, right? This ain't Metroid Prime.

Me: Oh.

Me: Well.