Taste-Test: Metroid Fusion

Rated: E for Everyone Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 Saving: 3 Slots

I’d like to start out by saying that I’ve been a huge Metroid fanatic since the original came out on the NES. I’m always catching myself going back to my Toploading NES, popping in my original copy of Metroid, and playing it until its been beaten for the millionth time. When Super Metroid came out on the SNES I was once again addicted, dispite my not owning a Super Nintendo. I’d go over to friend’s houses and we’d play the game for hours.

This being said, Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion have been my most anticipated games to come out this year. I had a Metroid Prime pre-order for nearly six months! I tried not to read a whole lot about the games ahead of time, simply for the fact that Metroid is one of the few series I refuse to have spoiled for me. What I had heard about made me leery about the games’ quality.

Metroid Fusion takes place after Super Metroid, picking up on the storyline quite nicely. For those of you who want to know the basic storyline, I have the opening commentary by Samus Aran included right here.

That introduction to the game truly shows how deep this game gets. I’m only an hour or so in and there have already been a few really interesting plot twists, which is one of the most appealing parts of this game. In the past, Metroid’s story was very subtle. It was there, but they didn’t push it as far as they do in Fusion.

The graphics are brighter then the other Metroid games, which takes away from the darker storyline, but then again it is also a plus because it makes the game a lot easier to play on the Game Boy Advance. Another detail that makes Fusion stand out from past Metroids is the more curved level layout. One thing I never really liked about the older games is that the sprites were very square. Super Metroid wasn’t near as bad as the original, and I guess it really couldn’t have been helped given the restraints of the 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. The new design adds a lot to the visual appeal to the game. The sprites are extremely detailed, especially during cut scenes. Enemies are also very well done. There are some new creatures to battle, along with a few old ones. Unlike Super Metroid, where many of the enemies in the game were exactly as they were in the original, just a little more color and detail added, the new creatures in Fusion are a nice change. Some of your favorite baddies are still in the game and look very similar to the past, but there is a lot of variety and new things to look at.

Fusion also has very similar controls to past Metroid games. A is used to jump, B to fire, R to switch to missiles, L to look diagonally, and start to pull up the map screen. The map screen is almost identical to the map in Super Metroid, as is the status screen (accessible by pressing R at the map screen). As you get new suit power-ups (and there are lots of them), the game explains how to use your new talent making it easy to move on without having to spend time perfecting new moves. One welcomed addition to the control style is the ability to grab onto edges. The one thing I always hated about the older Metroid games is the lack of this ability. I found it very irritating to spend 20 minutes climbing up a long tower, missing a platform by an inch, and falling all the way back down only having to climb up again. This minor annoyance was fixed in Fusion, allowing for a gamer to get from one place to another quicker, to continue with the destruction of harmful alien creatures.

By now I think you’re beginning to see a trend. Take all the past Metroid games, expand, perfect, and enhance them, and you get Metroid Fusion. However there are a few minor flaws that seem to take away from the appeal of the old Metroid games. One thing I loved about the original games is that you weren’t really told much of anything. You had to find your own way and figure it all out for yourself. This is where Fusion slightly falters. As Samus said in her introduction, she doesn’t like taking orders, and much of this game is spent obeying a computer and doing what it says. You are told where to go, when to go there, and a lot of what to do. You still have to figure a lot out on your own, but the exploring part of the original Metroids that I loved so much is pretty much gone. Fusion is not a game that you can really just roam around the levels and blow things up when you are bored, because the game follows a fairly strict storyline. The game is very linear, which may change as I advance in the game and I hope it does, but for the first little bit there isn’t a lot of difficulty nor exploring.

One last complaint I have so far is Samus’ new Power Suit. She seems to be a lot more muscular and bulky, missing some of those feminine qualities that she used to have. Also, it doesn’t look as much like a human wearing a Power Suit, as some strange alien creature with a space helmet on. I guess it’s supposed to look like that and you can call me old fashioned if you want, but I like the old Samus better. Another thing I didn’t like about Fusion is the lack of seeing Samus’ eyes. One thing I love about Super Metroid and about the screens for Prime is the ability to see through Samus’ visor, and Fusion is missing that. They could have easily put that in the close-ups during cut scenes, but it was left out. Who knows? Maybe the Fusion suit will look a lot better when you unlock it in Prime and my faults with it are just a restraint of the system.

Despite Metroid Fusion’s few flaws, some of which may disappear as you advance in the game, it’s still a very worthy addition to the series. This game follows in its predecessor’s footsteps very accurately and holds on to nearly everything we love about the series.

Matt Schraeder