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is the fourth (fifth in North America) video game 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 set chronologically last in the series's fictional universe. Metroid Fusion represented somewhat of a departure for the series, as it scrapped the nonlinear adventure formula from earlier 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 in the game). , the second Metroid game to appear on the Game Boy Advance, uses a highly modified version of the Metroid Fusion game engine.
Graphics The graphics are very similar to those found in Super Metroid for the Super NES/Super Famicom and are rendered in 2D. The poses and colours displayed for both Samus and her enemies are a mark more detailed, however. The game is a side-scroller, so all of the action is displayed from a side-on angle. Plot and gameplay The player becomes Samus Aran, a galactic bounty hunter who must spelunk through artificially maintained habitats onboard 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 the special abilities and 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, the SA-X, which is mimicking Samus at her strongest. 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 some doors to ensure she achieves them before she can progress. These range from acquiring a certain powerup 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 Samus spends most of the game being stalked by the almost invincible SA-X, which appears unexpectedly in various locations, and Samus must either hide or escape until she is powerful enough to defeat it. As the monsters in the game are actually the X parasites copying other lifeforms, monsters 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 a timeline in the Metroid Fusion Instruction Manual that the Metroids were actually created by the Chozo to halt the spread of the X Parasites and that the name "Metroid" is Chozo for 'Ultimate Warrior'. This explains the hatred between Metroids and X Parasites. Bosses 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. Adam Malkovich Adam was Samus Aran's commanding officer during her days with the Galactic Federation Police. 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. Equipment Samus begins her mission 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 whole rooms. The Diffusion Missiles must be charged up before firing to obtain the full effect. The Spring Ball and High Jump abilities are now combined into one item. Her regular orange 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 Metroids X-Ray Scope. Samus does eventually recover her Ice Beam ability, but it is only in effect during the final boss encounter. 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 - 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. 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; with only one fightable Metroid, 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. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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