Ridley!

Whoo! Ridley is so cool. I just beat his ass. But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.

When I first started playing Metroid Prime 3 again after beating Super Mario Galaxy, it was as if my worst fears had come to life. You see, part of the reason I was so conflicted by the decision to pause my Metroid progress in favor of Mario is because I know what happens when I do shit like that. I have a long history of it. If I stop playing a game for a significant amount of time, and then try to go back to it, I find myself flustered and confused, like a lost little puppy in a chainsaw factory. I don't remember where I am or where to go or what I was supposed to do next, and this almost always leads to me turning the game off in disgust and self-loathing, and never touching it again.

And it seemed like that was happening with Metroid. Stepping back into that world, I was absolutely confounded and overwhelmed with confusion. Part of the problem was that, for some reason, I was positive that I had completely finished the Space Pirate Homeworld before I stopped playing, but the game was prompting me towards a location within the Homeworld. And when I tried to make my way to that location, I got pathetically lost. It's not a good feeling being totally lost on your way to a place that you're not even sure you're supposed to be going to anyway, and it led me to turn off the game. I was worried I'd never turn it on again.

The next day, I bit the bullet and put the game back on. This time I found my way to the location I was being prompted to - and lo and behold, it turns out I wasn't done with the Pirate Homeworld yet. Not by a long shot.

I made my way to that location, which was some kind of power generator for the shield that was covering the planet, and had to shut it down while fighting off hordes of pirates. Curse their reptilian hides. Then I met up with Admiral Something-or-other and I had to escort a crack team of demolition soldiers through a series of passageways densely populated with horrible space lizards. I was really nervous about this task, because generally I hate escort missions. I'll never forget my rage at a completely helpless Minnie Mouse when I had to escort her across ONE SINGLE FUCKING ROOM in Kingdom Hearts 2. Luckily these soldiers were a little tougher than Minnie and the task was actually fairly easy. I lost three men in the process, but hey - war is hell.

After that, I was able to reach the planet's seed, and that's where I met up with Ridley!! After battling him waaaaay earlier in the game, I sort of didn't expect to meet him again. I figured this game was downplaying his involvement by getting him out of the way quickly, but I guess I was wrong! Anyway, the battle with him was pretty shockingly easy. I did die once, but that was because I needlessly used up too much of my phaazon power trying to blast him. It turns out, that's unnecessary. He's a fairly simple boss, but really really fun. I thought I'd have more to say about him, but I guess I don't. Except this: Ridley for Brawl!

Anyways, after that I still wasn't done in the stupid Space Pirate Homeworld. I had to go find a battleship that could warp me to the Phaazon Planet or some shit. I found it, but I didn't have the code to activate it, so I was prompted to go to the Valhalla to find the code. I worked my way back to my ship, flew to the Valhalla, saved, and turned the game off.

I MUST be fairly close to the end now. Maybe by my next report, I will have this game licked. Stay tuned.