Metroid Fusion is the newest 2-D Metroid adventure. Unlike the other Metroid games, this one takes place on a space station instead of a planet. It all starts on Planet SR-388, where Samus and a crew are exploring the planet again. They discover something... Something deadly... That something is the X, a gelatious virus that can take over any living being. Samus gets infected by an X and later loses conciousness when piloting her ship. She gets rescued by the people in the carrier she was travling with. The X has completely infected her suit. That is as far as I'll go with the story but now Samus with out her power suit armor, must try and manage in the "Fusion Suit", with the power of the Metroid.
Fusion has some of the best graphics you'll see on the GBA. Great lighting, animations and colors all fill the space station. The space station is broken up into different areas, each with it's own theme. You'll see a frosty winter area, a boiling hot lava area, a jungle area, a tropical underwater area, and more interesting graphical themes. Samus is animated better than ever, with all new hanging and climbing animations. Samus's new suit looks good, with it bio-organic look. Fusion also puts some of the GBA's cooler effects to work in the X, when you shoot a enemy with an X inside(actaully all enemies have an X inside) it goes all mosaic and morphs in to the actual X virus. Overall a solid graphical package.
The controls of Fusion are pretty well exicuted, with B firing your blaster, and A jumping. The L and R buttons are used to aim at angles and turn on your missles and super bombs. Before I go on, that is one thing I don't like about the controls, is the fact that you have to hold the R button to keep your missles activated, it is very easy to let go of the R trigger when in the heat of a tough fight. It would of been just as easy to have a click on, click off, function instead. But other than that little quirk, the controls are solid. The gameplay of MF is very good, and continues on with the traditional Metroid gameplay mechanics. You still adventure around a huge map, looking for powerups and other items to help you get an advantage over your foes.
But in MF, there is one little difference... Actually it is a huge difference, you have this computer called "Adam" and 'he' basically leads you through the main part of the game by assigning missions to cirtain areas. You might have to recover a more powerful weapon or find a terminal that unlocks cirtain colored doors. You will never get lost, and do to this you may find the game ends very quickly, within 5 or 6 hours the first time (1, 2 or 3 the second), and you might have missed quite a few of the hidden powerups.
But just because the computer holds your hand through the game, you will still need to get there yourself, and it isn't easy. MF is probably one of the hardest Metroid games, and it is due to the fact that Samus no longer real has any armor on her suit. She takes a ton of damage, from even the basic enemies and can die very easily if you take to many hits. The Bosses are some of the toughest as well, but as with all the Metroids, there is always a weak-spot for you to find and exploit.
To make things worse there is one more obstacle to overcome, an X that has taken over Samus's old power suit, along with it all of it's powers, called SA-X. You can't fight it until way later in the game, so you'll have to run from it if it sees you, but even then it is tough because of earlier point about Samus's suit, she doesn't take very well to Ice, and more namely the ICE BEAM. Even at Samus's most powerful, the Ice beam will kill you in 6 or 7 hits. There are tons of powerups to collect and endings to recive, there is also a replay mode that tells how many of each powerup type there are in each area, so on your replay you know exactly where to look. In the end MF is a great new adventure in the old-school Metroid gameplay.
Metroid Fusion has a very solid musical score. With all new music tracks and remakes of old favorites, this game is an oral treat. The same goes for the sound effects side of things as well. The blasters, explosions, ambeient noises and other sound effect all sound great. Especially if you use head phones and the games, built in head phones option. If you do you'll hear some of the best music to ever grace a handheld. And by far the best on GBA.
Metroid Fusion is a fun game while it lasts, but that isn't long. Like I said 5+ hours if you just follow Adam, from place to place the first time, but it could be up to 8 or 10 if you try to hunt down all the hidden powerups. With the different endings, you'll eventually want to get everything in under 2 hours anyway. But I still reccomend it to GBA owners and of course all Metroid fans, especially the ones who maybe think that Prime doesn't do justice to the Metroid series, and want to go back to the Metroid roots. Solid gameplay, great music, a bit short, but deep down still a Metroid.
Metroid Fusion is the newest 2-D Metroid adventure. Unlike the other Metroid games, this one takes place on a space station instead of a planet. It all starts on Planet SR-388, where Samus and a crew are exploring the planet again. They discover something... Something deadly... That something is the X, a gelatious virus that can take over any living being. Samus gets infected by an X and later loses conciousness when piloting her ship. She gets rescued by the people in the carrier she was travling with. The X has completely infected her suit. That is as far as I'll go with the story but now Samus with out her power suit armor, must try and manage in the "Fusion Suit", with the power of the Metroid.
