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Metroid Fusion
Posted by Lazlo Falconi
Posted on 6 September, 2016 at 9:21PM ↑ 2 ↓ 0
Metroid Fusion

Originally Metroid IV, now Metroid 8(ish), Metroid Fusion marked a dramatic change in the style of Metroid games. Prior to this, the Metroid series had been pretty minimalistic, with just a spattering of story to tell you why Samus was exploring this alien world. During gameplay, the only narrative was the one you supplied yourself. Metroid Fusion brought in ideas like other characters, a railroad plot, and, most obviously, changed the look of Samus. This game also released side-by-side with Metroid Prime, and had the ability to connect through the GameCube-GBA link cable.

 

Samus arrives on BSL...

Samus arrives on the BSL

The story in this game is... Well, it's interesting, but it's hardly great. It's enough to keep you going, though, and if you love Metroid, it's just fine. Nintendo tried to do something new with this one, going in a completely different direction. Despite being called Metroid, this game really only features a cameo by the titular species, the story being mostly about the X Parasites infecting the Biologic Space Laboratories (BSL) space station. Samus's suit is infected by the X, and as such has to be surgically removed from her. Unfortunately, complications arise and to save Samus' life, she must be fused with the DNA of the species she once eradicated. Kind of makes that whole genocide thing seem kind of ironic, huh? Thank God for the baby!

It turns out that, while the "scourge of galactic life", Metroids actually were a vital link in the SR388 food chain, keeping the population of the much more deadly X Parasites down. Huh, a creature that naturally (I guess) evolved on a planet... Who'da thunk it would be part of an ecosystem?

Biologic Space Laboratories

The rest of the story is pretty fair to speculate on, standard Metroid stuff. Samus rushes to the scene, kills all of the enemies and after confronting a mindless--no, seriously, she's stupid--clone of herself, must rush out of the space station in an exciting escape sequence. I make fun, but you should know that whenever I play a Metroid game for the first time, I think of that escape sequence as kind of a treat.

Regardless of anything else though, you do have to admit that this game had some pretty amazing visuals. You can say Fusion lost the Metroid Way, but it kept that foreboding spookiness that makes the series such a wonderful treat. Toward the end of the game, you start to realize that things may not be exactly as they seem, and there's a bit of a twist that, at least when I was a little girl, I didn't see coming. 

Isn't she spooky?

Isn't she spooky?

The music in this game is good, but nothing really memorable. It has a lot of callbacks to other Metroid scores, and definitely sounds good when you're playing the game, but even moments after I stop playing, I can't remember any tunes in particular. The Meta Ridley remix was actually pretty good, but by now we've heard much better.

All in all, I think Metroid Fusion is a good, solid Metroid game, that adds an interesting twist on the story, and has solid gameplay. I think most of my affinity for the game is due to how excited I was when it came out, but I clearly consider it Quality enough to add here.

The end!

Comments
Swifto
6 September, 2016 at 10:06PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I fuggin' love Metroid Fusion. It ain't no Super, but I definitely dug the change in tone.

But then, I'm a fan of horror games, and the SA-X parts were tense as hell to me. The footsteps, the music, that part where you're in a tube and it powerbombs... I loved it.

I also really like Samus' Fusion suit look. The blue and kinda shark-ish flairs look really cool to me.

Billy
7 September, 2016 at 06:53AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I loved using the Fusion suit while playing Metroid Prime (unlocked by default in Trilogy)

Lazlo Falconi
7 September, 2016 at 7:52PM ↑ 2 ↓ 0

I agree quite heartily, Samus' new look is cool, and I would really welcome some new games taking place with Fusion Samus. And when I played Fusion with Naomi, she got horribly spooked any time SA-X showed her face. It left such an impression on her, that whenever I'm playing any Metroid and things look like they're getting creepy, she asks me if SA-X is coming.

Swifto
9 September, 2016 at 12:34AM ↑ 1 ↓ 0

But does she pronounce it "Ess-eh-ex" or "Sax"?

'cuz I know which is funnier in my head.

GamersTavern
8 September, 2016 at 02:27AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I was a bit disappointed back when I first played Metroid Fusion due to its linearity and constant hand holding, but I still had a good time with it. It's definitely one of my favorite games on the GBA. Now if only Nintendo made another 2-D Metroid game...

Lazlo Falconi
8 September, 2016 at 9:22PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I mean, there was Zero Mission, and honestly, despite the super weak story and rail-roady game play, Other M played mostly like a 2D Metroid.

GamersTavern
9 September, 2016 at 1:54PM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I love Zero Mission! It has been over 12 years since that game came out, though... and it's technically a remake. As for Other M, I never thought of that one as a 2-D Metroid, but that's probably the closest we'll get for now.

Billy
21 April, 2017 at 03:56AM ↑ 0 ↓ 0

I have now actually played this game. I gave up on it two times before because of the railroading, but when I re-contextualized it as a portable game, I got over it. I was also worried about the characterization of the Adam computer given what I had seen in Other M, but he's actually interesting here. Plus the gameplay was smooth as hell. I really enjoyed it.

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