You wait ages for a Metroid game and then two come along at once. That was the situation back in 2002, only I wasn't waiting for a Metroid game. I'd never played one at that point in my life - didn't know what people were desperately waiting for. Nintendo gave the fans something, though, and the 1001 list says we should play them both, starting with Metroid Fusion.
Described as the forgotten middle child, Fusion was released on the Game Boy Advance as a sequel to Super Metroid. Eight years had passed since the last release. Entire consoles had come and gone. Were players that hungry for the next part of the story?
I'm looking forward to finding out.
Fun Times
Metroid 4 begins with some lovely looking graphics. It's dawning on me that I bought no good looking Game Boy Advance titles when I had the system all those years ago. I've missed out on some superb looking titles that I'm now very thankful to be discovering.
But we appear to have crashed into an asteroid, which isn't the greatest of starts. What's going on here then, Samus?
Well, that's a little wordy, but damn, how much cartridge space does all this take up? Talk about sticking all the attention-grabbing stuff at the start. I know precious little about Fusion, but from what I've seen, I'm pretty pumped up to play it. It's a looker, this one.
We are finally given control of a stripped-down Samus. She couldn't keep hold of her suit upgrades if her life depended on it, and for a bounty hunter or whatever she is, her life seems to depend on it an awful lot. Danger isn't too far away - heck, we're investigating an explosion in a quarantine room. If that's not dangerous, what is?
A puny little laser bolt is our only attack, but we're nice and nimble, running and flipping through the corridors of this space laboratory. It plays like all the other 2D Metroid titles, except...
... except I know where I'm heading, because my computer buddy likes to point out my objectives on the map. No more hunting around looking for possible progress, no more inexplicable dead-ends, no more grabbing things out of order - at least, that's the impression I get from this story-heavy start, and from what I've heard about Fusion.
This, I like. You might call it hand-holding, or dumbing-down the Metroid formula, but I call it approachable. There will be a time for exploration and problem-solving, but for now, just point me in the right direction.
I will admit that text dumps on map screens aren't as fun to look at as seeing things in-game. Here I've been given some back story on how parasites work, and how I'm now immune to them and can absorb them to regain health. It's basically explaining 'walk into floaty things to regain health', which could have been done in any number of ways. Limitations of the cartridge, I suppose.
Once the words are out of the way, we can get back into the action.
Frustrations
Oh for the love of-- lemme play. Explain things to me, yes. Point me in the right direction, double yes. But could we go through a minute or two of platforming gameplay before the next text dump? Just a minute. A couple of jumps, some running. That's all I want. Missiles are great, don't get me wrong...
Now that we've downloaded the ability to use missiles (sadly we can't download anything else right now), we get to use them in true Nintendo fashion: immediately. The lift we just used is broken, but our missiles have found an alternative path down towards our objective.
Further Fun Times
We've not seen many different locales in this lab yet, but every pixel looks perfectly placed. We move behind and between various structures, and lighting effects simulate our progress through the darkness. One of the main reasons I am interested in playing this game is for its looks. The plot - the usual thing I care about - could turn out to be trash, but when it looks this good, I'll take it.
Further Frustrations
Metroid Fusion gradually opens up, and step by step, you learn new things about its world. You'll find out how to deal with enemies in safety before they start to appear together to give you more trouble. You'll spot locked doors and tunnels that you know you're going to come back to at some point, but who knows when - I'll probably be told about them a minute into another text dump.
But this door. This... fecking door. I've never had so much trouble with a door. Don't believe me?
I still don't know the trick to open it.
We're near the target point we've been told to investigate. Signs of life, if I recall, but first, some pull-ups. Bouncing off and up the walls looks silly, but flipping into ledge grabs looks fine, apparently. We work our way through this strange little room and drop down into the middle of a mini-boss.
That went well. I think I'll have to grab some more ledges...
Amazing.
If memory serves, I swore a bit at this point and closed the emulator in frustration. Well, more disappointment, because I wanted to enjoy Metroid Fusion, but getting smashed and burnt by the first mini-boss... am I really that incompetent? Is Fusion unusually hard or something?
Twenty minutes later, I glanced around and had an idea. I was using an Xbox 360 controller because that's what I leave plugged in these days. But there's an iBuffallo SNES pad right there. I wonder if I'll have more luck with that D-pad...
Further Fun Times
It wasn't pretty, and I didn't know how to deal with him when he was a spikey ball zipping around the screen, but I did it. I can squish into a ball of my own, now. Excellent. Now we can progress to the next-
First, we save the state, and then we progress to the next bit of Fusion.
More comfortable with this controller, my only quibble with the controls was coming out of the morph ball. Jumping doesn't do it, nor does your attack. Pushing Up on the D-pad is the answer I was looking for, but doing that in a bit of a flap while an enemy got up in my face caused yet another silly loss of health that will inevitably cost me.
The controls aren't complicated, I just find myself misjudging distances and putting myself in worse positions because of it.
Oh. Ah. Is that... me? Only better? With, like, all the weapons I've not downloaded yet? That could be a problem.
The solution, it seems, is to ignore it and carry on with whatever it is that we're doing. Running, flipping, shooting, morph balling... exploring more of the lab. Fusion is opening up at a pace that suits me.
I think I found one. Look at the environment it's in. How can you not be drawn towards this game? Why is the Game Boy Advance so good?
Oh, come on.
Final Word
I'd very much prefer Metroid Fusion to be a tad easier on my health, but that's because I'm a cranky old bastard who doesn't want the hard life. Challenges are a fact of life, but a challenging game is optional.
But I do want to play it more. The artwork is striking; bright, colourful, full of life, even if it depicts the husk of a spaceship or whatever. A large amount of text isn't always as striking, but it is at least displayed over the top of a detailed, colourful map. Following it is a breeze, even if you can't work out how two rooms connect because of hidden tunnels or breakable walls. "Something links these places, I just know it. So does the map. What is it?"
As you would expect, the answer is very Metroid-y - you'll need to get the right piece of equipment or upgrade from elsewhere and come back here to try it out. The exploration is still here, even if it is more linear than other titles in the series. Is it a crime to be linear? Nearly a decade of gaming has taken place between Super Metroid and Fusion, the landscape is different, as are the players.
I don't know much about the Metroid series' overall plot, themes, or even characters, so I don't know what is or isn't getting 'butchered' according to what goes on in each game. As far as I can see, Fusion doesn't butcher, but brilliantly paints a new Metroid game before our eyes. The Game Boy Advance packs a punch, and if you want Metroid on the go, why wouldn't you try Metroid Fusion.
Difficult, but dazzling, it's easily worth playing.
Fun Facts
The same team worked on both Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, but a remake was not in their interests, wanting to develop new ideas for the series, regardless of how the public would view them.
Metroid Fusion, developed by Nintendo R&D1, first released in 2002.
Version played: Game Boy Advance, 2002, via emulation.