I was already playing the game for one of those "works in progress" I mentioned before and I figured I should try and see how many items I could get without succumbing to the temptation of using the internet. To my surprise I found that the more items I found the more adept I became at finding the others, no matter how ridiculous the game designers got with some of them(I'm looking at you shinespark puzzles). By the time I was finished I felt a sense of accomplishment quite unlike anything I had felt in recent memory after completing any game.
Why is this important you ask? Ever since the internet became the omnipresent entity that connects our lives sites like gamefaqs and what not have spoiled the average gamer with the knowledge that the answer to any difficult challenge a game might present is only a click-away. Now I'm not about to suggest that walkthroughs are the worst idea since sun drying fruit(don't ask) but it has taken away a big part of the experience of one too many games. Unlike cliffnotes with books or reading a movie plot, a real part of the experience is completely lost whenever we succumb to a walkthrough to get that 100% completion.
Some of you will probably argue that Metroid Fusion makes things really easy by indicating which squares on the map, that the player has visited, have items but I disagree. I think it is meant more as a balancing mechanic and it really doesn't take anything away from figuring out where exactly in the room some of these items are.
Hopefully I'll be updating this blog more often from now on.
