But you're still hungry.

Metroid

I played Metroid: Zero Mission. A remake of the original Metroid, the game follows Samus Aran on a trip to Zebes to get rid of the Space Pirates and Mother Brain occupying the planet. After defeating Mother Brain, the developers added two more bosses and another (longer) escape sequence so that the game ends with Samus' successful escape from the pirates. The Good: The game looks and feels great (mostly, see below). Having a map is super helpful and the Chozo statues help you from getting completely lost. Looking for hidden items and false passageways is a lot of fun too – I always enjoy poking at the edges of the map. The game provides you with ways to cross some obstacles early on: for example, when you get the bomb, you can propel yourself directly upwards as a Morph Ball, helping you reach heights you would normally not be able to until the Hi-Jump or the Space Jump. You feel progressively cooler as you get more upgrades, even as enemies get harder. The environment designs are amazing – like, seriously, the space horror is real!! Getting the gravity suit at the end + music change is exhilarating, though I will admit that I also got hit a lot of times without noticing because for some reason I thought I was practically invincible at the start. The Meh: Space Jump and wall jump timing is hard and feels clunky at times. Also, I could not figure out how to shinespark in morph ball form, even after getting the Hi-Jump, so I gave up on getting the shinespark items. Probably a skill issue. Also, most bosses are vulnerable only to missiles. I found this fairly annoying because missile launching is two buttons while shooting is only 1, making for somewhat uncomfortable wrists especially when jumping and shooting a missile at a precise height.

Wikipedia says the game was criticized for its short length – while my run was about 4.5 hours (so I got the worst ending, lol), I felt like I spent way longer and enjoyed my time. However, I would not play it again, I don't feel the urge to try finding all the items, etc again, starting out with only the short beam and 5 missiles again...in fact, I think it would make me really annoyed. I would definitely recommend at least one playthrough, though.

Castlevania

I actually wrote very little for this game except that the controls were really precise and tight, and the game feels very rewarding when you make it through a section because it meant you pulled off some cool dodges and well-timed attacks. Looking back now, my main memories are spending an inordinate amount of time getting bonked by medusa heads and struggling to climb stairs without taking damage, which I hear are indeed hallmarks of the series. I also ended up using save states on the later levels. I think I never really got the hang of the sub-items, though.

Fantasy Zone

I picked this up because of the cute graphics. It is very cute, and the music is very catchy, but I have no idea how people managed to get through it without save states. The speed upgrades make your spaceship hard to control and you die in one hit with a pretty sizable hitbox. Nothing quite like tapping a directional button and whizzing straight into a bullet... Bosses also start out gentle, but later phases are indeed very bullet hell.