Another Metroid 2 Remake/Areas

This is a list of areas in Another Metroid 2 Remake. Aside from the addition of new aesthetics, rooms, and three original areas, the overall layout remains largely faithful to the original Metroid II: Return of Samus.
==Surface==
The surface area of SR388, where Samus lands her Gunship and later returns with the Metroid Hatchling. As with the original game, Space Jumping too close to the atmosphere results in Samus taking damage. The first Metroid, a Metroid larva that metamorphoses into an Alpha Metroid, is encountered here.
The time of day on the surface changes over the course of the game: when Samus lands on SR388, it is daytime; after Samus explores the Research Site, dusk occurs; and when Samus returns from the Genetics Laboratory, it is nighttime.
==The Golden Temple==
The first set of Chozo ruins, which has been updated with an architectural and visual style similar to Chozodia in Zero Mission. The Bombs, Charge Beam and Spider Ball can be acquired in the Golden Temple. In the demo versions, the Ice Beam was also present, which has since been moved to the Distribution Center.
4 Alpha Metroids are fought here. The Ancient Guardian also appears after all the Metroids in the area are killed, after Samus tries to leave the area.
The Log entry states that it stands at the base of a hollow mountain. It was built as a sanctuary, possibly a religious one, and has not fallen into disrepair like many other Chozo ruins. All of the robotic entities found here operate autonomously, with no control signals to be found, placed at strategic points within the temple.
===Breeding Grounds===
Similar subareas of the Golden Temple, Hydro Station and Industrial Complex, engineered for the cultivation and breeding of Metroids. These areas are rife with corrosive tendrils, which are explained in the Log Book as synthetic lifeforms that absorb nutrients from dead matter. Predating and scavenging animals often take advantage of the terrain here, feeding on carrion.
==Hydro Station==
As the name implies, these ruins have been redesigned as a water filtering and pumping facility. The Chozo used this area to filter clean water through complex pipelines into further cave systems. Despite it being abandoned, most of the technology is still functional.
6 Alpha Metroids and the first Gamma Metroid are fought here, as well as Arachnus.
Items that can be collected here are the Wave Beam, Spring Ball (guarded by Arachnus), Varia Suit, High Jump Boots, 8 Missile Tanks and 2 Energy Tanks.
There are Morph Ball transit tunnels that connect to The Tower, Distribution Center, and Genetics Laboratory which Samus can access much later in the game.
Area 2 in Metroid: Samus Returns also features a hydroelectric power plant aesthetic.
==Industrial Complex==
A factory that assembles Chozo drones, which run autonomously to supply SR388's facilities with replacement parts. The facility has remained remarkably intact and operational considering its age, although robotic workers have begun to malfunction and show signs of aggression.
8 Gamma Metroids and 2 Alpha Metroids are fought here, as well as a Torizo after Samus loots the Space Jump in its hands.
One segment in this area has Samus take control of an Autoad (dubbed "Skippy") to pick up stray Super Missiles and drop them onto Super Missile Blocks in order to create a passageway. The sequence where "Skippy" is controlled was added as a means of breaking up the game's pace, although it was harder to implement than Guasti initially thought. Skippy was also a crane at one point, and although the puzzle mechanics worked, it was boring, hence the change to the Autoad.Kiwi Talkz. "#127 - DoctorM64 Interview (AM2R, Skippy The Bot, Game Design, Programming, Composing etc.)" YouTube. March 5, 2022. Retrieved August 31, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po7Wc5OOQfI
The Super Missiles, Spazer Beam and Speed Booster are also acquired here.
The Metroid: Samus Returns version of Area 3 also features an industrial complex aesthetic.
==Research Site==
This is where the Galactic Federation research team made their base and were killed by Metroids. After the Power Bombs are acquired, they can be used to clear an elevator shaft just outside the Research Site leading to the G.F.S. Thoth. The Log entry reveals that the access tunnel leading to the research vessel has collapsed, and their equipment is no longer functional.
Two Alpha Metroids, which may have been responsible for their deaths, ambush Samus here simultaneously.
===G.F.S. Thoth===
The G.F.S. Thoth (parsed as GFS Thoth in the Log Book) and Anhur-class patrol ship carrying the two ill-fated Galactic Federation teams mentioned in the Metroid II: Return of Samus manual are found here. To access this area, a Power Bomb is required to remove Power Bomb Blocks just outside of the Research Site to reveal an elevator. No evidence of either team could be found in Return of Samus.
No Metroids are present here.
The Log Book entry reveals that the Thoth originally escorted Olympus-class battleships, before it was converted into a research vessel. The crew has explored many planets and studied ancient civilizations and species across the cosmos. To this end, it carries portable drilling machinery for its excavations. There are three levels in the ship. Upon entering the ship, the entry is expanded with information from the display of the ship's motion sensor monitor system. The first level contains the storage area and ship lobby, the second level contains the communications room and west wing, and the third level contains only the east wing and a Save Station. All rooms except the east wing have no signals, while movement is detected in the east wing, revealed to be Genesis who fights Samus as a miniboss after acquiring an Energy Tank in the room with it.
In keeping with Federation starship-naming customs from the official series, the Thoth is named after the Egyptian deity of the same name, who was known as the god of knowledge, and was credited as the inventor of writing and all kinds of science, and he was often depicted by artists as man with a bird head. These features bear striking similarities to the Chozo, who used to travel through the galaxy sharing their knowledge and technology with underdeveloped civilizations.
The room where Samus is infected by an X Parasite prior to Metroid Fusion can be visited here; the room contains a Hornoad, the same creature that the X which infects Samus spawns from.
==Mining Facility==
The Mining Facility is a long and winding set of old mining tunnels. Two mining drills can be found here; one of them is non-functional, while the other is used by Samus to get further into the facility. Cordite, a substance from Metroid Prime that is destroyable with Super Missiles, is found here, but in a raw, green, crystalline form, and is presumably what the Chozo were mining on SR388. The Log Book states that Cordite is among the most durable and naturally forming crystals in the galaxy, and a more malleable resource than diamonds. The Chozo found uses for Cordite in constructing both machinery and art. The Mining Facility supplies Cordite and other materials to the Industrial Complex.
1 Gamma Metroid and 1 Alpha Metroid are fought here.
==The Tower==
:"The Tower" redirects here. For other uses, see Tower (Disambiguation).
The Tower is a weapons R&D factory, and is guarded by aggressive combat drones using advanced shield plating. These robots are programmed to fire at any living target and seek to quickly eradicate any organic matter that may enter the Tower. The logbook writer reveals the robots' goal behind the severe cleansing is to prevent an organism (alive or dead) to be present and become an X host, an incident that would allow the parasites to multiply within the Tower and manipulate/sabotage the otherwise fully sterilized area.
3 Zeta Metroids and 3 Gamma Metroids are fought in here.
Within the Grand Cavern, at the very top of the Tower is a massive statue of two warrior Chozo holding a planet, possibly SR388, in their hands.
Upon first arrival, the facility will have no power and some of its rooms will be inaccessible. Samus finds a Morph Ball slot further into the Tower that will turn the power back on. A boss, The Tester, is also battled in a very tall shaft, guarding the way to the Plasma Beam. The simple Dark Chamber has been expanded into a much more complex maze. After the Metroids have been killed and the lava subsides, the Power Plant becomes accessible.
===Power Plant===
A new area not in the original game as a sub-area of the Tower, where geothermal power is generated to power all facilities within the complex cave system of SR388. Water from the Hydro Station is transported into the system via insulated pipes, while sophisticated turbines use the environment's heat to ensure efficient power with minimal usage of water. No Metroids are present here.
At its heart is a chamber with power cells; one of them is structurally unsound while the rest are inactive. After Samus uses a Power Bomb acquired in the same chamber to escape, the power cell ruptures, the Plant begins to melt down, and she is forced to escape. This countdown is both timed and scripted, meaning that the "power cell temperature" bar that appears during the countdown will fill both over time and as Samus progresses back towards the exit. The Tank Prototype is battled during the escape. As Samus reaches the entrance of the Power Plant, she is stuck behind slowly-unlocking gates; the power cell temperature suddenly reaches critical levels and the Plant explodes, blasting her through the gates, knocking her down, and reducing her energy to a very low 5 units.
Part of the ruined Power Plant can still be explored after its destruction; doing so yields a Chozo Statue holding an Energy Tank that survived the destruction, allowing Samus to recover her energy, as well as one hidden Missile Tank.
==Distribution Center==
An entirely new area added to the game. The Center's main purpose is to serve as a backtracking hub which connects to prior areas using fast-traveling pipes. In addition, a Morph Ball slot distributes drones carrying energy cells across the entire planet; these energy cells must be guided to sockets, unlocking doors that allow Samus to progress through the Distribution Center or access hidden power-ups in previous areas. These energy cells are also volatile and will explode when shot with beam weaponry, creating an electrical field similar to an electromagnetic pulse that renders Samus unable to shoot unless she has the Gravity Suit; Bombs and Missiles will not cause them to explode, and can be used to move them around. The explosion from these cells will also cause mechanical enemies to shut down, which makes clearing rooms easier.
New enemies called Robo MinesLojemiru (Lojemiru). "Not Sabre [230, a graphic designer for AM2R] but I can confirm that's their name in the game files." 7 June 2024 9:43 p.m. Tweet. https://x.com/Lojemiru/status/1799255949108036049 are present throughout the area; when touched or shot at without the Ice Beam, they explode and release waves of electrical energy that will damage Samus severely. The best ways to dispatch these mines is to shoot the power cells, which disable the mines with their explosion, or use the Screw Attack or Ice Beam or make contact with one and stand over it, this will make the robo mine release just one electrical orb instead of multiple ones. The Screw Attack and Ice Beam are now exclusively located inside this Center, and the Gravity Suit is found in a subarea above it, with numerous rooms containing an electrical field similar to that created by the destabilized energy cells.
8 Metroids are battled here: 1 Zeta Metroid, 5 Alpha Metroids at once, and 2 Gamma Metroids at once. Serris is also fought here, intercepting Samus after she acquires the Ice Beam. The Distribution Center's flooding is suggested to have been caused by Serris.
According to DoctorM64 in the April 2017 developer's livestream, the Distribution Center was originally more of an Atlantis-style sunken temple. He added this area to AM2R to test the players, since by this point they have almost every ability in the game. The unstable energy cells near the Gravity Suit were inspired by Rezbits in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which temporarily disable Samus's Power Suit functionality if their attacks hit her.
==S&R Hideout==
 
The area where the Search and Rescue team made their base. At first, the area seems empty save for a lone Alpha Metroid; after killing it, Samus attempts to return to the tunnel system only to find the exit blocked. Returning to the Metroid's chamber, Samus finds a newly uncovered passage leading upwards; exploring it, she hears gunfire and discovers the Search and Rescue team still alive, battling a Zeta Metroid. However, the Zeta Metroid then metamorphoses to an Omega Metroid and slaughters the remainder of the Search and Rescue team. Besides the Metroids, the only thing found here is a Super Missile Tank.
==The Nest==
The penultimate area of the game, where the (supposedly) final Metroids are fought before the Queen. Three Omega Metroids are battled here, each in rather small corridors. According to the Log Book, the Nest is composed of "thick, globe-like masses composed mostly of crystallized carbohydrates", and only the most adaptable bioforms can thrive in its ecosystem.
==Genetics Laboratory==
The final area of the game and the location of the Queen Metroid and the egg from which the last living Metroid hatches. It now features stasis tubes and organic matter coating the background. The logs and several visual decorations in the Genetics Laboratory serve to hint at the Chozo being responsible for the creation of the Metroid species.
8 Metroid larvae are fought here as in Metroid II.
The Ice Beam is no longer found here due to the inclusion of Beam stacking, although the broken Chozo Statue where it was found in Metroid II is still present in AM2R.
During the Queen battle, she will destroy the walls behind Samus and chase her, extending her chamber in the original game into a corridor. In addition, the small shaft where Samus can escape from during the Queen battle has been removed in AM2R. With the final update to the game, a transportation pipe is added that connects the Laboratory to the Hydro Station.
A fan update added a floating hologram to the broken Chozo Statue. After standing next to it for a few seconds and having acquired all items held by other Chozo Statues, the Log Book will receive an unknown entry containing Chozo glyphs. Once Samus returns to the surface, the entry will automatically translate and update the entry, revealed to be a final message from the Chozo that created the Metroids.
==References==
Category:Lists