The original Metroid is one of my all-time favorite games, so my feelings about Metroid: Zero Mission, Nintendo's 2004 remake, are predictably mixed. Zero Mission repairs some of the archaic aspects of the original, like wonky controls, an annoying password system and the obligation to refill your energy every time you return to the game. On the other hand, it diffuses the sprawling, almost Lovecraftian eeriness of the original with its aggressive handholding — a trademark fault of late-period Nintendo games. It also unforgivably bungles one of the greatest climaxes in videogame history — the slaughter, by the player, of a shrieking brain in a jar, followed by a slippery-thumbed ascent up an exploding escape shaft — by tacking on a painfully out-of-place stealth section.
In any case, Nintendo's obvious follow-up was a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, a game that arguably needed revamping more than the original. Metroid II introduced a host of new ideas, but in many ways it's the black sheep of the series. Here's a video showing some gameplay:
The screen size, as you can guess, is a problem; the Metroid series is set in vast, disorienting labyrinths, and having the extra disorientation of a small viewing window doesn't help. The structure of the game is also unusual for the series. Where other Metroid games allow organic progression — high-jump boots, for example, might allow you to explore new areas by jumping over large obstacles — Metroid II requires the player to kill all the Metroids in an area before proceeding past otherwise impassable lava pools. It's an odd and arbitrarily linear way to lay out the game, and it makes II feel more conventional than its siblings.
Unfortunately, no remake of II has been announced in the years since Zero Mission, and, unsurprisingly given how obvious the idea is, a number of fans have stepped in to fill the niche. None of these fan remakes has been completed yet — and given the general survival rate of most fan projects, it's possible that none ever will be. But there's some really impressive work going on. Perhaps most impressive of all is Metroid: SR388:
According to Kotaku, SR388 isn't an explicit remake of II, despite being set in the same location — the titular homeworld of the Metroids. Whatever it is, some beautiful work has clearly gone into it, with new abilities and beautifully enhanced animation based off the sprites from Super Metroid. With ice and fire caverns, it also looks to add some variety to II's samey landscape. (Hopefully not too much, though, since the oppressive monotony was part of the original's menace.)
Here's another project, cleverly titled Another Metroid 2 Remake:
This one's also quite handsome, and looks to hew a little closer to the original game. The multi-layered parallax scrolling backgrounds give a lovely sense of depth; the animation seems to be based, reasonably enough, off of Zero Mission's.
This one may or may not be defunct; I actually downloaded and played the demo some months back, and it felt a little awkward, though again, some of the graphics are well done. (Side note: notice how every remake uses the same graphic of that li'l SR388 denizen who appeared in the intro to Metroid Fusion. [This little rotter.])
Deceased.
This one might have the most beautiful background of all.
Will any of these projects make it to completion? Stay tuned. Making games is a total pain in the ass, and making them for free tends to be more work for less reward than most projects can sustain. Still, Metroid II deserves a makeover, and if Nintendo's not going to provide it, it's nice to see how much craft Metroid fans are putting into the effort.