Much better than I thought it would be. Lot's of action and intense battles.
Instead of finding expansions to weapons and armor, you would only be able to use certain weapons once given permission by Adam, who is the commanding office on this mission. It was a nice change of pace to the normal searching around for hours just to find the Grapple beam to use. Instead, when the game called for it, permission was granted and use was immediate. This mostly happened when faced with Boss creatures or impassable areas of the game. However, you still needed to search around for Missile packs, Acell packs, Energy tanks and energy parts. These items were sometimes clearly visible or you really had to search hard for them. This was a nice challenge to the game and also enabled you to go back through previous areas to get more items and face new enemies. Most times you couldn't get some items until permission was granted to use certain weapons or armor upgrades.
The action sequences were intense and always kept you on your toes. even though your map would flash red if enemies were present, not always being able to see them or know where they came from still left you cautious. Some enemies were simple to kill but some needed further action to defeat. Mastering the charge beam was essential to survival as it was mostly used to kill enemies or at least stun them so other weapons can be used. In order to use missiles or grapple beams you had to point the controller at the screen and go into FPS mode. The transition was very easy to master and it never was a burden. It was easy to fire up charge beam, then point controller and lock onto enemies to fire missiles or super missiles. After playing for a while, this transition became easier and easier to use.
Boss creatures were fun to battles as they all possessed a different challenge each time and usually were never easy to defeat. However, the best thing in this game was the Sense Move. Pressing the direction button just as you are attacked will make Samus dodge out of the way and be able to counter attack tough to hit enemies. Plus there is a Lethal attack option that allows you to jump onto enemies and fire a close range charge beam attack that kills most enemies instantly.
The game is different from the previous Gamecube versions but it is still a great game and tons of fun to play. The action is intense and some enemies are really tough and require quick thinking. This would be fun, not only for Metroid fans, but for all fans of action games. The only negatives in my opinion would be that enemies do not drop health as in all previous versions of the game and on some rare occasions, the camera angle can be bad but this happened only in extremely rare parts.
I finished the game, and the bonus mission that takes place after the credits are done, with 100% item collection.