I have been a huge fan of the Metroid series since Fusion and have played them all over the years. The 2D ones have always been really great.
Prime 1 is one of my top games of all time. I never enjoyed Prime 2, when I was a kid or more recently as an adult. I only played Prime 3 a bit as I did not care that there were other people.
Metroid has always been about being alone and surviving.
I have been playing Metroid Prime 4 recently and It is very much the opposite of a Metroid style game. In fact, it feels quite linear and there is a lot of help telling you where to go pretty frequently.
The gameplay is not bad, but it is more like a generic shooter than a Metroid game.
What are your thoughts on the Prime series and Prime 4?
Speaking of hacks, there are ones to turn off the limited ammo mechanic of the light and dark guns. A lot of people seem to think that improves 2 a lot.
Edit: And using primehack to play it with mouse and keyboard would definitely go a long way towards making it feel more generic by giving it a more generic control scheme.
The limited ammo was one thing I hated about that game. But the level design was boring and I think many areas looked the same so it was too easy to get lost.