Story: Well after the events of Super Metroid, Samus Aran is assigned to a small mission protecting a group of scientists back on SR388 (remember from Metroid 2?). Midway through the mission Samus is attacked by an alien spiecies she has never encountered before and is infected with an extremely deadly virus. The creature that attacks Samus is soon identified as the X-Parasite, a highly intellegent alien spiecies with the ability to copy skills and appearence the victim that it infects. The scientists trying to cure Samus also learn that the X-Parasites natural predator was in fact the Metroids and they quickly put together a cure using tissue samples from the last surviving Metroid Samus captured on SR388. Samus is cured but has taken on a whole new appearence and has lost all of her abilities. Just as she is leaving the station after recovery she recieves a distress signal from the nearby station that the scientists sent her infected suit parts to and Samus is ordered to go check it out. Overall it's a pretty solid story...+2 for originality and +3 for bringing back SR388 and the last Metroid. 18/20
Graphics: Not much different from Super Metroid, this game still has the basic side-scrolling features but uses the GBA to make Samus and her enemies move much more smoothly than in Super Metroid. There are also almost twice as many cut scenes as in SM, but they are fairly basic looking. 16/20
Sound: The sounds is very good for a GBA game, you can hear just about every step Samus takes as she walks around and shoots stuff. The monsters also make some cool noises as they are blown up by Samus. As you may know, the Metroid series has not been known well for its music...and Fusion is not much different, it basically just the same music as in SM. 12/20
Gameplay: Metroid is known for easy controls (Prime did not live up to this expectation) and Fusion is just as easy to control as any other Metroid game. With slightly easier controls than SM, Fusion beats out it's earlier titles in this department. 17/20
Replay Value: Super Metroid introduced the addition of multiple endings if you collected all of the items in the game, Fusion continues this tradition but with not as many items to collect as in SM. I'm planning to continue my second try at the game once Terry beats it for his first time. 18/20
Overall, Fusion lives up to its reputation and easily beats out Prime...I hated Prime, that had to be the WORST idea Muyomoto ever had (it part ONE of his plan to ruin all of his best titles). As for beating out Super Metroid, I would say they are both overall equal in the fun department.
FINAL SCORE: 81/100
