Metroid Fusion

"A perfect blend of 2D platforming, shooting, and storyline"

Metroid Fusion is the fourth installment in the Metroid series and makes for one of the finest 2D Metroid games out there. It's got the graphics updated (slightly) to suit the Game Boy Advance, and every beam upgrade you get is cool to look at. But enough of that. I'll separate this review into seven primary sections: Plot, Graphics, Sound and Music, Gameplay, Replay Value (I'm so sick of calling it "Aftermath Fun"), Control Ease, and Game Length. After that comes the total score, then any flaws or other negative qualities in the game you should know about, and finally the conclusion.

PLOT: 9/10. Probably the best plot of a Metroid game I've ever seen to date. Other Metroid games follow a very loose plot; stop the Space Pirates. Then nothing happens in between. All throughout the game, new bits of story are being added, through either Samus thinking to herself or her computerized commander telling her what to do next and updates on what may be happening. The plot starts with Samus escorting some scientists down to planet SR388 to capture the indigenous wild life to study it. After wounding one such creature, it sprouts into an odd, gelatin-like parasite which infests her. Not thinking much of it, Samus returns to the docking bay in her gunship when the X Parasite--as that is what they are called--infests her central nervous system and begins eating away at Samus. Samus is near death and is given a very small chance of survival (0.873%), until someone finds a cure using Metroid DNA. It seems Metroids were the main predators of the X. However, Samus wiped the Metroids out in earlier games, so the X ran wild. Samus's suit's appearance is drastically altered, looking less metallic and more smooth and ordinary. Her suit is changed to look something like a Metroid. Also, plenty of the creatures brought in from the recent collection were also infested with X. Before you know it, the entire B.S.L. research station is infested, with no survivors (except for a few familiar animals to Samus), and Samus is sent to investigate. Meanwhile, a mysterious saboteur is hunting Samus...an X Parasite copy of Samus, called the SA-X. (X Parasites kill the host, then continue splitting by using asexual division.) So you've got plenty of mystery and plenty of suspense. Furthermore, ever wonder why all those weapons in other Metroid games were there? How, in Metroid Prime, Samus lost all her weaponry and mysteriously finds some more of it--and some--on planet Tallon IV? That mystery is gone now. It's explained that some of Samus's abilities were stolen by X Parasites that had multiplied inside her. Other abilities have to be downloaded to Samus in Data Rooms by having the Galactic Federation send it there. See? It gets explained here.

GRAPHICS: 8/10. For a Game Boy Advance game, they're pretty good. I especially like to watch beam shots--they just look so cool, when you've got the Plasma Beam or Wave Beam upgrades. Up-close shots of Samus don't look so hot, as they make Samus look like she's got a huge, muscular body and a small head. From the usual faraway look, though, Samus looks pretty good. Her suit upgrades look even better. The enemies themselves are nice-looking, too, especially the bosses for which plenty of detail is usually put in. The backgrounds you'll see are actually pretty neat. You'll see the back of the wall or behind a giant glass window. Not something you really notice, but like a small instrument in an orchestra of many, it really adds to the effect.

SOUND AND MUSIC: 8/10. The sound itself is really amazing. The music's okay--you really don't notice it--but the sound of your latest beam upgrade will have you shouting, "Cool!" when you hear it. Enemy shrieks are kind of cool, too. The only problem I have with the sound is Power Bombs. When you drop a Power Bomb and it explodes, the sound is ANNOYINGLY LOUD. Like I said, the music's mediocre. The SA-X theme is pretty neat, though. It happens when you fail to hide from the prying eyes of the SA-X and it starts chasing you around. The music really does have you thinking, "Oh, gosh! I'm gonna die!!!"

GAMEPLAY: 9/10. Aah, finally to the best part of the game. Basically, Metroid Fusion is a game taken from a 2D perspective from the side. You jump up from platform to platform. There are ten bajillion enemies along the way, too. So what do you do? You blast them to smithereens. With each beam upgrade, your beam grows stronger and gets some sort of neat "side-effect," like being able to go through walls or being wider than the average beam. When you've got all the beam upgrades, you'll feel like you're invincible. You also get other upgrades, like better suits--they allow you to run freely in water, stand up to extreme heat or cold, that sort of thing. They also slightly reduce the damage you take. And then you've got upgrades like the Morph Ball, which allows you to get into small spots, the Speed Boost, which can have you running at really high speed to shred enemies and break certain blocks, and other cool stuff.

Okay, let's put upgrades aside (cool as they are). You might notice in the game that you take more damage than in other Metroid games. An enemy that normally would have taken 10 out of your health meter would take out 30. So you'll have to be even more careful. However, this is balanced out with the fact that there are nearly twice as many Energy Tanks to extend your life meter (each one gives you 100 more health points). So by the time you're done collecting 'em all, you'll have about 20 Energy Tanks.

The difficulty for beginners is rather tough. Bosses will often require several tries to defeat, even the ones that seem simple. As the player plays through the game again and again, the game will become simple enough to where you don't need to break a sweat, but I still remember trying to defeat that one mechanical spider boss about sixteen times before I finally beat it. Now, that boss is so easy to me, I can beat it taking minimal damage. Sometimes you'll be killed just by ordinary enemies; like I said, they do a lot of damage. As you progress through the game, though, you'll develop strategies, like using the Morph Ball to duck and roll under enemy attacks.

REPLAY VALUE: 2/10. Well, oops. There isn't much to do after beating the game. You can "start over" a beaten game file as opposed to erasing it. What does this do? All it does is show you how many Missile Tanks, Energy Tanks, and Power Bomb Tanks you currently have in that file you "started over." That's about it. You can't even unlock and play the original Metroid game without linking up to Metroid Prime to unlock it. Enough linking already! Not everybody's got Game Boy Advance/GameCube Link Cables!

CONTROL EASE: 9/10. The controls are pretty simple, and pretty simple controls are often necessary for a good game. Press A to jump. Press B to shoot/drop bombs in Morph Ball mode(considering you've unlocked them. Push on the Control Pad left or right to run in that direction. Press down on it to crouch, and press up to aim up (when running, you'll aim diagonally up in the direction you're running). Hold R to be able to shoot missiles by pressing B (once you've unlocked missiles) or drop Power Bombs while in Morph Ball mode. Hold L to be able to aim diagonally up or down. So it's pretty simple. You should get the hang of the controls very, very quickly, in about twenty minutes or less.

GAME LENGTH: 6/10. Another lacking element in this game would be the game length. If you know what you're doing and where to go, the game only takes around 2 hours to beat. If you don't know what you're doing, it can take anywhere between 2 to 5 hours (I would estimate). The game length is pretty short, so Metroid Fusion is a game best saved for boring days or long car trips. But it does come in handy, and blasting aliens to smithereens remains fun even after a while of playing the game.

TOTAL SCORE: 51/70. 19 points away from perfection. Obviously, it's not perfect, due to the game length and the near-non-existence of replay value.

FLAWS: The game length, like I said, is rather short. Also like I said, I'd recommend it for boring days, long car trips, or if you're just in the mood to blow X Parasites to bits. That, to me, is the only real flaw in it. I will say, though, that if you don't enjoying hopping up platforms in Sector 1 and continuing to hop up more platforms in Sector 6, then taking an elevator back to Sector 1 to explore more of it and kill the next boss, pass up on this game. It's Metroid tradition to hop around and shoot like crazy, but if hopping around and shooting is not your thing, you might not like Metroid Fusion.

CONCLUSION: Sorry for the long review, I have a problem making my reviews almost annoyingly long. But it's better to get every last bit of info out of everything than to read a couple words just to get it done with. So anyway, Metroid Fusion's probably the best 2D Metroid game to date, taking its place right beside Metroid Zero Mission. Metroid Fusion is ideal for vacations, where there will be a lot of driving around and, in some cases, boredom, so having this game along for those rides is great.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/08

Game Release: Metroid Fusion (US, 11/17/02)