Metroid prime is my favorite game of all time. It was the Super Mario 64 by Metroid, which brilliantly ushers in the 2D to 3D sci-fi platformer series. Naturally, I was thrilled to hear about Nintendo’s surprise release of Metroid Prime remastered, which you can now play. But I admit I was a little nervous about returning to the game, which I hadn’t played in years. Would it hold? In my first hour with Remasteredthe answer so far is definitely yes.

Waves of nostalgia hit me from the moment I started up the game. It’s glitchy, electronic and slightly creepy theme song is just as effective at setting the tone of the game as when I first played it Metroid prime in 2002 on the GameCube. So is the legendary main music menuwhat’s next you hear, and the marching band that plays just before you finally take control of Samuswhat a brilliant take on the marching band of the very first Metroid on NES.

Remastered’s first level, a mysterious space station, remains a master class of an introduction. The first thing it teaches you is how to use it Metroid Primes clear lock-on system that you can rely on throughout the game to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. Back in 2002, this was a critical time to demonstrate how a 2D series would play in 3D, and while most gamers today are probably more familiar with first-person shooters, Metroid Primes lock-on system is still so different I appreciated the refresher course.

And in Remastered, these early moments may also teach you something new: the game’s excellent new dual-stick control scheme. Don’t worry, you’ll still be locking a lot Remastered, but it’s now much easier to actually move while doing this. The original GameCube release left your turn And moving with just one control stick, and while I remember it working fine at the time, I’ve since become much more accustomed to dual-stick shooters. (Remastered does have a classic control scheme that mimics the older style. Tried it briefly, but I greatly prefer the dual-stick controls.)

The space station also teaches you to scan things, which in hindsight is a clever system. Yes, scanning forces you to slow down and examine the places around you, but that’s what Metroid it’s all about. Metroid Prime is no ordinary shooter, and this mechanic helps it channel the moody exploration of the 2D games. Only you need to scan a handful of things to really progress through the game, but taking the time to scan it all will give you a much better sense of the environments and enemies around you. It makes you feel like you are actually exploring and getting to know the mysterious places you visit instead of just moving from enemy to enemy.

Walk through the space station Remastered, I consciously realized how much scanning adds context – and fear – to what is already a grim picture. Many parts of the station are in ruins, and bodies of alien space pirates lie on the floor, sometimes dead, sometimes hanging on their last breath to try and kill you. I scanned one and the game told me that the space pirate had died from “severe lacerations to the abdomen”. Another was killed by “cranial trauma”.

As you move through the station, you can test much of Samus’ arsenal, such as the morph ball, missiles, and, briefly, the grappling hook. In Remasteredthey all feel just as good as when I first played Metroid prime, and it was nice to return to some of these familiar tools. Sure, in a now mundane trope you lose a lot of your equipment early on – in this case while trying to escape the station after defeating the parasite queen boss (who is one of the best boss themes of all time). But there’s a reason Metroid games have repeatedly used that trope to reel players in: it’s easy to get attached to Samus’ quest to recover the missing pieces and eventually become even more powerful. I’m already being sucked into the quest again, even though I’ve finished it Scoop many times.

Perhaps the best moments of the game’s opening take place when you finally escape the space station and land on Tallon IV. The space station is a tightly designed series of rooms and corridors, but the first area you see on Tallon IV is a lush, open biome with waterfalls in the distance. There’s a glowing door directly in front of you, but another one to the right and more behind you that are tantalizingly out of reach. The way forward is not obvious, but there is so much to discover even before you step off your ship. In Remasteredit all looks better than even my nostalgia-blurred glasses could have hoped.

I know I’ve only seen a very small portion of it Metroid prime. I’m not sure how everything will hold up Remastered. But if the start of the game is any indication, the journey will be as excellent as any other time I’ve played Metroid prime. And it will make the wait Metroid Prime 4 a little more bearable.