Metroid Musing: Would You Like The Ability To Arc Your Shinespark?
The Speed Booster is no doubt one of the most popular upgrades you can get in a Metroid game. In fact, our good friend Kiwi Talkz did a poll in late 2022 asking people to rank their favorite items, and the Speed Booster far surpassed the others. It’s understandable; since the days of Sonic, people love to go fast. Combine that with the added bonus of the Shinespark and you get one heck of an upgrade.
The Speed Boost and Shinespark have seen some nice improvements over the years. Fusion greatly expanded its longevity by allowing you to store your Shinespark via ramps, whereas Dread went a step further by allowing you to carry your Shinespark forward with momentum and wall jumping. It’s a blast seeing how far you can bring a Shinespark with you, but in the grand scheme of things, the ability itself hasn’t changed much. You eventually release the energy in a one-directional blast, destroying most objects and enemies along the way.
But what if you could slightly arc as you flew through the air? By utilizing the Gravity Suit during a Shinespark, perhaps you could manipulate gravity, allowing you to arc around well-rounded corners. You could even take this further by creating puzzles where you need to “Shinearc” around a large turbine to create a centrifuge of sorts. It would be akin to those Boost Ball puzzles found in Corruption where you boost in a small circle to power something nearby.
Overall, I think an expanded ability like the Shinearc could make for some interesting puzzles. The Shinespark puzzles are already some of the most popular in the series. There’s just something so satisfying about blasting through blocks and enemies at high speeds to ultimately reach a prize.
What do you think? Would the Shinearc be a welcome addition to Samus’ arsenal? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Daniel is a Website Reporter for Omega Metroid and an avid fan of the Metroid series. You can find me most places as AFallenApple.
