| I just beat hard mode on Metroid Zero Mission, after three attempts at the end boss and escape sequence. Notice that I include the escape sequence in there. Why? Because the actual escape is the hardest part of the game on hard mode. Yes, that's right, the end boss is totally wussy; easiest fight in the game, for me. You can take it out with six well-aimed Super Missiles, before it can ever get an attack off if you're quick enough.
But like I said, the escape sequence was rather difficult. Like I suspected, you only get three minutes to get out instead of five, but that's not a problem. I had about 1:20 left on the clock when I finally did it on my third try. The problem is that, as you're trying to get out, you've got Space Pirates -- a lot of them -- blocking your path. And the thing about Space Pirates is, they actually do more damage than the end boss. 100 energy per hit, whether by touching them or getting shot. The only way it takes less is if you're somersaulting with the Screw Attack. And since you only get six Energy Tanks on hard mode, that means you can get hit six times, and the seventh hit kills you.
But really, just the normal red Space Pirates aren't too much of a problem. They die with two blasts from the arm cannon -- one to freeze, the other to kill -- and the Screw Attack also kills them. So if you're just running and gunning with wild abandon, as you probably would be because of the time limit, you can usually get to the gate blocking the escape ship with about two or three hits left.
But now here's the hard part: Guarding that gate are two black Space Pirates, and it won't open until you've killed them. Black Space Pirates are much stronger than red ones, so they take a lot more hits, but at least they don't do any more damage. So why not just missile or Screw Attack 'em instead of using four charged up Plasma Beam shots? Well guess what...neither Screw Attack, nor Missiles, not even Super Missiles, can hit them. And they take four charged normal shots or who knows how many uncharged shots. And unless you're Screw Attacking, they do 100 energy per hit. And they jump and climb walls to follow you. And there's two of them.
Can you see why I consider this harder than the end boss, now? And I could be mistaken about this (I think Mother Brain might be an exception), but I don't think any other enemy, normal, mini-boss, or boss, does 100 energy per hit. And really, it's not just the sheer difficulty that I was getting annoyed at while dying twice in a row fighting those black Space Pirates, it was the fact that a pair of normal enemies could be harder than the end boss I had fought only two minutes earlier.
Personally, I think they didn't quite get the difficulty balance right on the bosses in hard mode. I never even came close to dying while fighting Kraid, Ridley, or the end boss (I'd name it, but I don't want to spoil anything for people). The only real boss I ever died on was Mother Brain. Yet, twice I came very close to dying on two of the mini-boss fights, and on another I did die. And then, like I said, twice against those two Space Pirates. Am I the only one that thinks that's more than just a bit screwed up, or what?
After actually playing through the whole thing, hard mode seems like it was just sort of tacked on, with several things changed to artificially increase the difficulty. Namely, powerups not giving you as much, and enemies (but not bosses) doing more damage with each hit. As far as I can tell, those are the only things changed, and it really seems to have screwed with the balance of the difficulty. But despite feeling a bit tacked on, hard mode was fun for the most part, and a decent reason to play through the game again if you were unsatisfied with normal mode's easyness.
As for a progress report, I beat the game with 74% at 2:42:57, I think it was, and unlocked another ending in the gallery. (Which makes three total now, though I don't think I'm going to bother trying to get the others since I have png images of them on my hard drive). Now I plan on getting 100% on hard mode so I can have two fully completed games: Samus A on hard, and Samus B on normal. And while playing through hard mode I've kind of been toying with the idea of using Samus C to try out easy mode, just to see what it's like. Maybe I'll go for three 100% files, one for each difficulty level. | |
