Metroid Fusion 20th Anniversary Review
For Metroid Fusion's 20th anniversary I take a look at an important and pivotal moment in the Metroid series.
Developer: Nintendo R&D 1
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 22nd November 2002 (EU), 17th November 2002 (US), 14th February 2003 (Japan)
Platform: GameBoy Advance
The Metroid series had been stagnant after 1994’s Super Metroid with nothing released on the Nintendo 64 save only for an appearance by Samus in Super Smash Bros. But then, in March of 2001 Nintendo announced a new Metroid game was coming out for the GameBoy Advance and later at E3 that year Metroid IV was shown.
Metroid was finally coming back after 8 long years and our first glimpse was in its very early stages, only a prototype build of the game. In this build they showed new beam types, Samus with a darker suit, the ability to walk on ceilings and walls and playing with gravity in this way. Some of these concepts didn’t make it to the final release and the idea of walking on walls and ceilings was changed to climbing, but what did stay the same, however, was the idea of fusion, particularly Samus becoming fused with Metroid DNA. The game was built on the Warioland 4 engine and a year and a half later it was released the day before Metroid Prime. Everyone was spoilt the middle of November 2002 with Metroid. A direct sequel to Super Metroid on the GameBoy Advance and the next day a whole new entry for Samus exploring a fully 3D world and in first person for the first time.
Taking place after Super Metroid, Samus investigates SR388 again, the former homeworld of the Metroids. There she finds that the Metroids were there for a very good reason as they were the main predator of the consuming parasite called the X Parasite, and without the Metroids around to stave them off they have run amok and consumed all life on the planet. Upon escaping, Samus becomes infected with the X Parasite and while returning to base crashes into nearby meteors. To save Samus, the Galactic Federation had to surgically remove parts of her suit, including abilities and weapons, having become too biologically fused with her and with the X Parasite too embedded into her nervous system they had to improvise. Using recovered DNA from the Metroid they had at the start of Super Metroid, they synthesized an antidote. The serum removed the X Parasite from her body but it had forever altered her DNA with that of a Metroid.
While in recovery, her removed suit parts and captured creatures from SR388 were transported to a Biological Space Labs (B.S.L.) station where they were to analyse the X Parasites. However, after regaining consciousness, an explosion on the station prompted Samus to investigate further, complete with a new ship, where she would find the X Parasite overunning the station consuming everyone on board and, worse still, her suit having come to life by the infecting X Parasite now known as the SA-X bent on destruction.
Metroid Fusion is much more linear than previous Metroid games in both gameplay and story. You can still explore around as freely as you are able, but some areas are restricted early on and specific moments and also seem to get locked off and cannot be accessed again later on, so it’s best to explore all you can while you can, though you will have some backtracking to do later once you get the required items. The station is also very nicely designed in general with 7 sections, the main center of the station and 6 sectors surrounding it each with different environments and habitats ranging from tropical, to icy, fiery, aquatic, nocturnal, and one simulating SR388. The function of that alone has a lot going on behind it with what the scientists were studying and working on. Each area has nicely compacted save, recharge, and navigational rooms of which gives you the immediate map of the area and your objective for the sector. It’s nice having that convenience all in one spot. There are also data rooms which provide you with your first missiles, morphball and beams.
The story is told mostly through Samsus’ new computer A.I. Adam, reminiscent of an older CO of Samus’, who seems rather suspicious at times, but otherwise it is told greatly through environmental storytelling. You see icy blue X Parasites try to attack you but when you get the Varia suit they find when attacking you they just get absorbed now and learn to fear and run away from you. You see strewn bodies of the scientists about the place, husks of creatures, and there’s depth to the backgrounds as well of other creatures scurring about. You even get to see some old friends, the Dachoras and Etecoons! Set them free and they will hide out safely on your ship and luckily untouched by the X. You see shadows of future bosses passing by in the background and shrieking. And then there are the encounters with the SA-X.
Fusion feels like it goes full on survival horror this time around, which makes me wish sometime in the future they do so properly for a Metroid game. You’re so much weaker in this game compared to the previous entries which makes sense considering how fragile your Fusion suit is. It’s nowhere near as armoured as the Varia suit, it’s nowhere near as weaponised either save for a basic beam and eventually missiles, morphball and bombs. As you have Metroid DNA, not only do you have its ability to absorb X Parasites for health and ammo, but you have also inherited its weakness for ice. And for that it makes facing enemies that much more difficult. Thankfully you find missile tanks in abundance so use them. Use them all against every enemy you see to quickly dispose of them. But even then they’re all useless against the SA-X, who hauntingly patrols the station while you explore and there are a great handful of tense moments where it blows an entrance up and stalks the halls searching for you, knowing you’re there. Your A.I. Adam advises you to run when you encounter the SA-X, and run you should because you will not surive facing it as it is as fully powered as you were near the end of Super Metroid. At times you will be hiding in a vent in a morphball or behind a wall as things suddenly go quiet save for the looming stomps of the SA-X, hunting you down like the Terminator. And as simple as these moments are they are so horrifyingly effective that if for a moment you’re caught, the music blares and you need to run fast as the SA-X shoots at you with its ice beam, which given your new weakness will mess you up fast. And in that panic it makes it difficult trying to get away when you hit a deadend and you’re trying to figure where you need to bomb a part of a wall or shoot to find a way through. Things get tense. It is as terrifying as facing Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 and for that it makes the SA-X an incredible villain for Samus.
There are a ton of great, challenging and memorable bosses here as well, such as Yakuza, a horrible spider that shoots fire and spins all around the room and if you’re caught it saps the life out of you then slams you back down to the ground making you lose two energy tanks (did I mention you’re physically a lot weaker here?), and another standout, Nightmare. An autonomous, biomechanical creature who also haunts the station as you’re running around Sector 5 destroying everything as much as the SA-X is. Nightmare has one of the more challenging boss battles in the game and as horrifying an appearance as the SA-X itself as in its final moments its faceplate is broken and melting and changing colours from a sickly, toxic green to molten red as it oozes out more. It’s nasty.
And of course, Ridley has to make an appearance here, but how he is here is much more interesting. Early on you will find in cold storage something locked behind a door, and as the camera pans left you see the frozen remains of Ridley. What the hell are the B.S.L. doing with him? What are they planning? It immediately sets up worry because after having facing him twice before you know how terrible a foe he is. Then, later on in the game as the station’s power core is interferred with and stops all elevators from moving, coming out of some vents you land in his frozen cell where an X Parasite comes along, absorbs it and races away leaving the icy husk of Ridley to crumble. Then, much later on, you find alone in a room his husk once again but it warps and turns into Neo-Ridley and screeches the most infamous screech to come out of a GameBoy Advance’s speakers. That bastard just won’t stay dead! Except after waves of missles, Neo-Ridley and its host X finally, FINALLY die! Good riddance you stupid purple dragon!
Fusion plays just as good as past Metroid games, although the wall jumping feels a bit stiffer compared to Super Metroid, which itself was tricky too. But Fusion comes with some new additions to controls which would then be reused in Zero Mission and Dread, such as you can now grab hold of ledges. Due to the nature of the Fusion suit there’s been some changes with weapons. Due to your weakness to ice you can’t use the ice beam but you can use ice missiles and later on you get diffusion missiles. It feels like the missiles got a huge boost in power here, so use them wisely. You also get returning items such as the morphball, power bomb—of which now blows everything up on screen to reveal hidden blocks in the absence of the x-ray visor, wave beam, speed booster, charge beam, plasma beam, hi-jump and screw attack. Along the way you get better upgrades for your suit, the Varia (also deprecatingly known as the clown suit) to help you to deal with icy and fiery environments, the Gravity suit to help with traversing through water, and once you beat the SA-X the Omega Fusion suit. A majority of the items you get are obtained by defeating the bosses who revert to their X forms and once shattered you can absorb their core obtaining the ability or item within.
Otherwise the game plays pretty solid. Movement for Samus is nice and nimble, the items are effective enough. The low defence is deliberate and you do feel stronger the more you get along in the game and more items you obtain, so by the time you face the SA-X at the end you’re set. Things can feel rather limited in gameplay and exploration, and even the story can feel compact, but I believe that is due to the nature of it being on the GBA. Short and compact experiences work better there (and yet Pokemon, I know), plus I would reckon memory and hardware limitations as well. However, its limitations doesn’t detract from how great a game this is or story it tells. Fusion shines brightly and works very strongly on the GBA.
So you’ve fought all through the station, you’re fully powered up, and now you’re finally ready to face down the SA-X. No longer are you at risk of getting crushed by the parasite impostor. It is such a unique battle too. Never have you faced yourself in Metroid. Link’s beaten his shadow self a couple of times already, even Mario in Sunshine (sort of). But for Samus to come face to face with just how deadly she is without her moral compass makes for a difficult fight trying to beat your worst self, a perverted mirror reflection. And once you knock it down to its knees and think it’s all over it mutates and explodes into a hideous growth echoing the monster in Carpenter’s The Thing. But you shoot it down, destroy its core and just when you think you can grab a hold of it, it runs away. So pursue it you must! However, not before you set the station’s self destruct sequence to stop anything from this station escaping. Because what good is a Metroid game without an explosive escape?
So with 3 minutes to spare you dash all the way back to your ship, but you see everything is ravaged. Your ship is gone and in its place is the husk of a giant Metroid… Then, exploding from the side comes an Omega Metroid. An actual Omega Metroid too. You shoot at it with everything you have but what you have doesn’t affect it and swipes you away down to one health. It all seems lost— and with very nice echoes of Super Metroid’s final battle— until the SA-X comes swooping in and shoots the Omega Metroid with its ice beam, clearly affecting it, but it cannot beat a Metroid as another devastating swipe and the SA-X is reduced to its core. Samus quickly absorbs it and now she’s back to the way she was before in her Omega Fusion suit allowing her to use the ice beam without harm. Then you unleash a barrage of ice beam blasts eventually killing the Omega Metroid. But how are you supposed to escape? You have no ship and only seconds to spare! But then from the background comes your ship. But who’s piloting it? Doesn’t matter, there’s no time! You hop on and you’re out free and you find it was the Dachoras and Etecoons who piloted the ship helping you escape. Such good little creatures.
I first played Fusion in the new year of 2017 on the Wii U. It wasn’t until a few years ago I got it on the GBA itself but I remember being surprised at how different it was from Super Metroid, Zero Mission and the direction it was going. I had known of Fusion from playing Metroid Prime learning that you can link the two games after completion to unlock the use of the Fusion suit in Prime and seeing brief glimpses of Fusion in the Prime strategy guide I knew it was something particular. So finally getting to play it after starting to get really into the series I was enamoured with it. I love the premise of it with Samus starting her journey to literally becoming the ultimate Chozo warrior, a Metroid. I appreciate the difficulty, the linearity of the game and chances of doing something different. I like how creative the use of the X Parasite as enemies can be, how later on in the game fusions of enemies can occur like aquatic Space Pirates. I like the music and how crunchy it can sound on the GBA with its boss themes. I love the character designs and graphics, and despite its darker story and horror influences it’s still got great bright colours.
I think Fusion is one of the best games in the Metroid series and easily one of the top 5. It took Samus somewhere very boldly and it paid off extraordinarily in Dread. There’s been talks of Fusion getting a remake for the Switch, which was how Dread’s hastened development even came about, so maybe one day from Mercury Steam we do get that remake. But 20 years on Fusion is still a remarkable game and important point in the Metroid series for its daring changes to Samus as a character and her abilities. They could have easily done something formulaic like the previous three Metroids but they were sure to do something bigger and more daring with Samus. Fusion may not have been as genre defining as Super Metroid, but it is still an oustanding achievement in the Metroid series nonetheless for doing something risky with Samus and seeing it paying off splendidly.
Where to Purchase:
eBay: £35- £150/ $50- $2,249
Cex: £38-£90
Nintendo EShop: £6.29/$7.99/60 gold points