tommy_lop's Full Review: Metroid Fusion for Game Boy Advance (GBA)
I bought Metroid Fusion a few months ago because I liked Metroid Prime and wanted to try the portable one. It also didn’t hurt that you could unlock the original Metroid on Metroid Prime by linking them up. I plugged this in, played it, and was a bit disappointed. While Metroid Fusion is no means a terrible game it fails to live up to Prime, or any of the Castlevania games on the GBA.
Story.
What do all the names in my title have in common, they all have fragged planets when there in a really bad mood. Last time Samus was on planet SR388 she eliminated all of the Metroids except for one Metroid larva but she left the planet alone. Later the larva was captured by pirates from planet Zebes. Samus battle the pirates but in the fight against the mother brain the Metroid Larva died to protect Samus. Samus was able to beat the mother brain and totally frag planet Zebes.
Several years have passed and now she's back on SR388 seeing how she can blow this planet up (to lead some biological exhibition team yeah right she's hear to nuke the planet and you know it). When she encounters an unknown lifeform and gets sick off of it. So sick she gets flown back to HQ with less then a 1% chance of living. The life form she encounters is known has X and it has the ability to invade the central nervous system of it's host. Samus is so infected she has to have her power suit surgically remove and the pieces sent back to the space station near SR388 for study. To cure Samus the federation uses a sample of DNA from the Metroid Larva to create a vaccine. The vaccine turns Samus power suit into a humanoid Metroid. Meanwhile an explosion has happen on the space station where Samus suit has been sent and she's off to investigate. What she finds is the Metroids where the X natural enemy and since she oblirated all the Metroids the X have spread over the planet and are now on board the station. To make matters worse the X have the ability to mimic everything they touch. And since they touched Samus there is an X running around has her at full power wrecking the place. I guess the envormentlist where right about tampering with ecosystems
Graphics.
The graphics in this game are great, the best on the GBA no doubt. There easy to see even on the original GBA and the animation is smooth. There is no slow down no matter how many X appear on the screen, and Samus sprite is good size. That said the graphics still aren't nearly impressive has Super Metroid has Samus seems to be smaller and a bit more hunch back. The backgrounds are good going from a space station to a plant like environment in the tropic, to the dark room in the nocturnal region all look fantastic.
There are some problems when moved on to the Gameboy Player on the Cube though. In some area's like the NOC the darkness doesn’t accur like it should and you can see everything. Samus light that she has so you can see here looks like a white outline around her.
Sound.
The sound is all right the blaster and shooting sounds that come from Samus aren't bad, and they sound like there Metroid. The music is OK there isn’t anything that will get your toes tapping because it's all subdued. But then this gives the creepy hunter getting hunted feeling that you get in a Metroid game. So the sound is good.
Gameplay.
Now this is where the game comes unraveled a bit, and why I laugh at people who will criticized Prime for not being a classic Metroid game, while Fusion is the perfect example of a classic Metroid game. If your only doing 2d shooter, to a 3d first person shooter then Fusion is like classic Metroid. However if your doing everything else that made the classic Metroid games great like, non-linear exploration, small non existent storyline, and exploration over beating enemies then Fusion is anything but a classic Metroid game.
The game has a story mode and a pretty much a stage layup. While there is no castle with a white flag at the end of it, and your pretty much allowed to go anywhere you please in a stage, it's still a stage lay up. When you enter an area the doors lock and you can't leave in till you complete the mission. While this may seem a simple get in and get out, follow the map to complete the mission. It's not really that simple because once completed the SA-X (the X mimicking Samus) will blow something up and block your way out. And you'll have to find secret path's not marked on the map. About the only thing that encourages any type of exploring.
Each stage you'll learn a little bit about what's going on, who the X is and what it's after, and what was going on in the space station before Samus arrived. Has well has dealing with Samus computer CO Adam (all I know is if this thing starts calling me Dave I am blasting it.) who gives her the orders and mission objectives.
While I don't mind the linear game play or the story elements of the game. These aren't what make this game not live up to it's potential. What I found made it hard to play was the challenge level. Now Super Metroid was a bit on the easy side, so Nintendo decided to up to challenge level on the two latest Metroid games. Metroid Prime got the challenge thing right, Metroid Fusion didn’t.
Starting halfway through the game Samus starts taking a ridiculous amount of damage when she gets hit by an enemy. She looses about 2 energy tanks (that's 200 hit points) for getting hit by a single enemy. No this isn’t the boss or an SA-X, this is a simple mutated house fly hitting you does 200 damage. I feel like I have more hits per life on a game of Contra then I do on Metroid Fusion.
The bosses aren't that much easy either, they do has much damage and take more hits. To make matters worse once you beaten a boss it isn’t refill your power and grab a power up, NOOO you have to fight a stupid core X. The core X has to be hit by missile until you can absorb it, it does leach out power up's but it still does a lot of damage. You know how frustrating it is to be a tough boss only to get beaten by the stupid Core X it makes this game incredibly frustrating.
Has frustrating has this game is it isn’t very long, it will only last 6 or 7 hours that would be 4 hours on the clock in the game but it doesn’t count time when you die)
Nintendo at least did one thing right to increase the replay value by having different ending picture of Samus at the end of the game. But it's so frustrating I doubt beginning Metroid players will want to play it again.
Final Recommendation.
This one is an odd one to rate while it is fun to play, it gets so frustrating in the later half I doubt beginning Metroid players will want to finish it, and the frustration will probably drag some of the fun out of it for the experts has well. You can also count that we have three Castlevania games on the GBA that mimic the series. The two I have Circle of the Moon and it's much more inferior but still good sequel Harmony of Dissentice is still a better game then Metroid Fusion doesn’t help this game out either. I am still going to recommend it though mainly because it unlocks the original Metroid on Metroid Prime with the gameboy link up cable. And while I do knock the original Metroid for being an overated classic it’s still is a classic and I do think some of the young whipper snappers should see where this series started from.
While destroying the Metroid threat, Samus' body picked up the X-Parasite, a nasty little bug that will end her life -- unless she returns to the plan...More at Amazon Marketplace
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