Dark Moon felt like a better game than LM1 from moment to moment, but I find myself agreeing that the designed-for-portable mission structure left it with an excessive, fragmentary guidedness that made it too much of a Metroid Fusion for people who thought of LM1 as a promising prototype for a methodical, puzzle-box answer to Metroid. And the comparison here is not accidental. While much of the furious reaction to Federation Force wondered why on earth something like that would exist, and why anyone would think it was a good idea, I always thought from day one that the best explanation for FF was Dark Moon: a case where Next Level proved they could redesign a contiguous, exploratory game around a broken-up mission structure and co-op multiplayer and not only sell it, but in what might have been a first for a western partner, sell it all over Japan (a market where Metroid has always struggled).
What gets me about both of those titles, Dark Moon and Federation Force, is that the character art was such a dramatic step down from what we knew the studio was capable of in games like the Punch-Out!! remake. I certainly hope, after LM3, that we can look back on this and blame the 3DS. But if they are indeed the ones on LM3 (which I don't think has been at all confirmed, but is a reasonable guess), that's one of the biggest question marks, and one that has not been assuaged by the little footage they have shown.
As far as LM3 goes, there's nothing I'm looking forward to more than the HD Rumble. This is a game, more than any other coming down the pipe, that has immense potential as an HD Rumble showcase. The central mechanical satisfaction of Luigi's Mansion was always the sense of a tug-of-war resistance that came from pulling against enemy movement, followed by relief and calm as the Poltergeist confirmed your capture with a pop. It's one of those games that really encourages you to lean into the tactility of the controller and apply more force than you should. (Dark Moon outright wrecked my Circle Pad.)
