Metroid Fusion
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| Metroid Fusion | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo R&D1 |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Yoshio Sakamoto |
| Release date(s) |  November 17, 2002 November 17, 2002 November 22, 2002 February 14, 2003 March 2, 2006 |
| Genre(s) | Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone ELSPA: 3+ OFLC: G8+ |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Media | 64-megabit Cartridge |
Metroid Fusion (メトロイドフュージョン Metoroido Fyūjon?) is the fourth (fifth in North America) video game released in the Metroid series, and it is the first Metroid game to appear on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance portable video game system. It is the direct sequel to the critically acclaimed Super NES game Super Metroid and currently set chronologically eighth in the series's fictional universe.
Metroid Fusion represented somewhat of a departure for the series, as it scrapped the semi-nonlinear adventure formula from earlier Metroid games and introduced a non-playable computer character to direct the player where to go and what to do there (thus making it significantly harder to sequence break and explore freely in the game).
Metroid: Zero Mission uses a highly modified version of the Metroid Fusion game engine.
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[edit] Graphics
The graphics are very similar to those found in Super Metroid for the Super NES and are rendered in 2D. The overall graphics and animations are a bit more detailed, however. The game is a side-scroller, so all of the action is displayed from a side-on angle.
[edit] Plot and gameplay
The player plays as the main protagonist, Samus Aran, a galactic bounty hunter who must explore artificially maintained habitats on board a space station run by Biologic Space Laboratories, which, along with Samus, has been infected with a parasitoid species known as the X Parasites, or simply the X. She must regather her special abilities and her weapons she has lost, as well as some new ones, to neutralize the threat to the station. Along the way she encounters various obstacles and enemies, including a highly dangerous X Parasite which acts as the main antagonist, the SA-X, which is mimicking Samus and her Power Suit.
Unlike other games in the series, Samus is in constant contact with her Galactic Federation "employers" by way of an intelligent computer, her commanding officer. This computer, which she names "Adam" in honor of her former CO, gives Samus a series of objectives throughout the game, and is capable of locking and unlocking doors and hatches to ensure she achieves her objectives before she can progress. These range from acquiring a certain power up, to defeating a certain enemy, or getting to a specific room. However, these objectives usually require a solution which is not immediately obvious, giving the player room to explore and experiment with the game's environment as in previous titles.
Metroid Fusion's environment also changes throughout the course of the game in much more radical ways than in previous Metroid games. Some examples include corridors becoming blocked off permanently by explosions, parts of the research station being jettisoned into space, and new creatures that appear in previously explored areas. However, the wall jump from Super Metroid has been 'fixed' as to prevent the climbing of a single wall, however single wall jumping is possible underwater, and Samus can only use four bombs in succession, eliminating the ability to bomb jump while in the air. These changes limit Samus's versatility and help to prevent sequence breaking.
Samus spends most of the game being stalked by the SA-X, which appears unexpectedly in various locations, and Samus, who is much weaker than the SA-X due to her having the Fusion Suit and the SA-X mimicing her and her Power Suit, must either hide or escape until she is powerful enough to defeat it.
Most the creatures in the game are actually the X parasites mimicking other lifeforms, creatures are reduced to floating X cells when they are destroyed. Samus can absorb these to replenish her lost energy and missiles. However, if Samus does not absorb them, they will eventually re-form into their original host's form, or even an entirely new creature. Some monsters can also absorb additional X parasites, evolving into newer, more powerful forms.
It is stated in the timeline in the Metroid Fusion Instruction Manual that the Metroids were actually created by the Chozo to help stop the spread of the X Parasites. The name "Metroid" is Chozo for 'Ultimate Warrior'. This explains the hatred between Metroids and X Parasites.
[edit] Bosses
- Arachnus - Main Deck (Possesses the Morph Ball)
- Charge Beam Core-X - Sector 1 SRX (Disguised as a Chozo Statue; Possesses the Charge Beam)
- Zazabii - Sector 2 TRO (AKA Giant Choot; Possesses Hi-Jump and Spring Ball)
- Serris - Sector 4 AQA (Possesses Speed Booster)
- B.O.X. - Sector 3 PYR (Not destroyed at this time)
- Mega-X - Sector 6 NOC (Possesses Varia Suit)
- Wide Beam Core-X - Main Boiler Room (Disguised as a scientist; Possesses Wide Beam)
- Yakuza - Power Silo (Possesses Space Jump)
- Nettori - Sector 2 TRO (Possesses Plasma Beam)
- Nightmare - Sector 5 ARC (Possesses Gravity Suit)
- B.O.X. Mk. II - Sector 6 NOC (Possesses Wave Beam)
- Ridley-X - Sector 1 SRX (Possesses Screw Attack)
- SA-X - Operations Deck (Possesses Ice Beam, which is released after Omega Metroid destroys SA-X)
- Omega Metroid - Docking Bay (acts as the final boss)
Note that like most other X-infected organisms, the X versions of many bosses are distinct from the entities as they once existed. For example, the skeletal remains of the Serris creature can be seen in a water tank a few rooms before the boss is encountered. Ridley's cryogenically preserved body is also observed to shatter when a Core-X escapes from within; this X parasite later becomes Ridley-X. Exceptions include the Nightmare, which is an infected cybernetic biological weapon, and B.O.X., a security robot with biological components including a large organic brain.
[edit] Adam Malkovich
Adam was Samus Aran's commanding officer during one of her assignments with the Galactic Federation. Little is known about this mission or about Adam himself, but Samus seems to have great respect for him. At some time during this mission, Adam died in order to save Samus. She stated in Fusion that Adam called her "Lady" on her missions and if any one else had said it, it would have sounded sarcastic.
Unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, Adam's mind was uploaded into a computer following his death, but most likely does not remember anything of Adam. At the beginning of the game Metroid Fusion, Samus is given a computer CO. She is not aware that the computer's artificial intelligence was in fact Adam Malkovich's digitized mind. Because of the similarities she noticed between the computer and her former CO, she started privately referring to the computer as "Adam."
Later, when Samus questions her official orders and accidentally addresses the computer as "Adam," her old CO reveals himself and helps Samus devise a plan to destroy the X-infected research station, thereby extinguishing the threat posed to the universe by the X Parasites.
[edit] Equipment
Samus begins her mission almost completely stripped of the abilities she acquired in Super Metroid. She must retrieve them through either downloading the data from terminals scattered throughout the station, or through absorbing certain powerful X parasites using her newly acquired Fusion Suit.
She recovers the following items:
Morph Ball, Charge Beam, Missiles, Super Missiles, Plasma Beam, Wave Beam, Wide Beam/Spazer, Bomb, Power Bomb, Speed Booster, High Jump Boots, Spring Ball, Screw Attack, Space Jump, Varia Suit and Gravity Suit.
She also gains the entirely new Ice Missiles and Diffusion Missiles.
Because of the Metroid DNA used to combat the X parasite, Samus now has the Metroids' weakness to cold. Because of this, she can be frozen by the SA-X's Ice Beam until she gets the Varia Suit. Also, she cannot use her old Ice Beam, and must use Ice Missiles instead, which have essentially the same effect as the beam. These can be further upgraded to Diffusion Missiles, which have the same function but a have an extremely large blast radius which encompasses the whole screen. The Diffusion Missiles must be charged up before firing to obtain the full effect.
The Spring Ball (Jump Ball) and High Jump abilities are now combined into one item. Her regular orange power suit is now the organic-looking yellow and blue Fusion Suit. Each type of missile will simply replace the last rather than being a separate kind of weapon, and regardless of what kind of missile is being fired - normal, super, ice or diffusion - it will only ever use up 1 missile. Power Bombs now reveal what kind of weaknesses certain blocks have, their larger blast radius making up for the absence of Super Metroid's X-Ray Scope.
Samus does eventually recover her Ice Beam ability, but it is only in effect during the final boss encounter.
[edit] Special features
Owners of both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion can unlock new features in Metroid Prime using the Nintendo GameCube-Game Boy Advance cable. If the player completes Metroid Prime, they can unlock Samus's Fusion Suit for use in Prime; if they complete Metroid Fusion, they can, depending on the game version, unlock an emulated version of either the original FDS version or the NES port of Metroid. There is also a bonus to be had by linking to Metroid: Zero Mission - the entire Fusion gallery of pictures is unlocked in Zero Mission, including the extra ending images from the Japanese version of Fusion which chronicle Samus's early years, and some additional concept art.
[edit] Praise and Criticism
Metroid Fusion received some criticism for departing from the system's slightly open-ended gameplay, but still received high reviews overall. Some criticized the lack of Metroids in the game; the amount was significantly less than the other games in the series; it has the least amount of them of any of the games except for Metroid Prime: Hunters, which has none at all.
However, the game has a complex, cinematic storyline second possibly only to the Prime sub series. Previous Metroid games didn't explain much of the story except for the beginning of Super Metroid, and some feel that the game "explains too much", such as that the computer tells you what item to get, which route to take, and which boss to kill (although most of these are complicated at least sometimes by various circumstances leaving some open-ended gameplay).
The game's technical merits are among the highest quality compared to many other GBA games, a feat made even more impressive by it being an older game on the system.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Gamespot's Metroid Fusion Review. CNET Networks, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-10-21.
- IGN's Metroid Fusion Review. IGN Entertainment, Inc.. Retrieved on 2006-10-21.
[edit] External links
- Metroid Fusion official site
- GameFAQs entry for Metroid Fusion
- Metroid Fusion at Nintendo.com
- Metroid Fusion at the Internet Movie Database
- Metroid Fusion at MobyGames
- Metroid Fusion at Gamestyle
- Metroid Prime & Fusion Original Soundtracks (disc 2) at MusicBrainz
