Replying to Dorobo
A lot of people don't like the "linearity" of Zero Mission, since the statues just tell you where you need to go next. But I also personally prefer the progression in Zero Mission compared to Super Metroid much more, because like you said you don't get completely stuck nearly as easily. If you're interested enough by it Metroid Fusion is a very similar experience, though I don't like it quite as much as ZM.
I also had to use a lot of save states on my first playthrough, a lot of sections felt very unfair at first. I didn't end up using a single save state in this GOTM playthrough to give myself a challenge, and even with all my Metroid experience I struggled in a few spots. I completely agree with the Mother Brain and elite space pirates near the end of the game though, I think I had 3 deaths in my playthrough, two of which were to the Mother Brain. And for how awesome getting the power suit back feels in the final section of the game, the elite space pirates are just a party killer. I had pretty much the exact same thoughts after my first playthrough, I'm sure my love for the series has me a little biased nowadays.
Funny, everyone's perspective is different. It was my first Metroid/metroidvania game and I sometimes found the backtracking annoying. Especially towards the end I couldn't motivate myself to find all the items.
Late to the party but I finished it two days ago.I guess I'm still getting used to the metroidvania genre. I'm not sure I appreciate backtracking.
I liked the music tho. And it gave me a bit of a stargate feeling which is a plus :)
