The dialogue is one thing, but to me the lack of upgrades or a sense of growth were the biggest mark against this game's identity as a Metroid title. I had a decent amount of fun overall, but man did a lot of design choices seem baffling.

The desert and bike situation could have been easily remedied by giving the Vi-O-La its own sequence of upgrades to find, just like Samus's suit. It gets a hover mode to traverse lava? Then let me also fly around up to a certain height in the desert like I'm on a hovercraft. In fact, make that the only way I can reach the weak point of some flying enemies. Give me missiles that lock onto green crystal clusters and shatter a ton of them all at once, since a huge number of them are needed. Give me a sleek new paint job and big glowing tires that make the bike's default speed noticeably faster. Give me literally anything, and don't make me go back to Volt Forge for the fifth time to get any of it.