Metroid Fusion
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| Metroid Fusion | |
| Missing image Metroid_Fusion_box.jpg Box art of Metroid Fusion | |
| Developer(s) | Intelligent Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 2002 |
| Genre | Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
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Metroid Fusion is the first game in the Metroid series to appear on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance portable video game platform. It is the sequel to the highly critically acclaimed Super NES game Super Metroid. Metroid Zero Mission would be the second one to appear on Game Boy Advance. Metroid Fusion is chronologically set last according to the fictional universe that the Metroid series takes place in.
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. It has been regarded as significantly harder to break sequence in this game.
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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
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The player becomes Samus Aran, a galactic bounty hunter who must spelunk through artificially maintained habitats onboard a space station, B.S.L. 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 she named Adam in honor of one of her former commanding officers. Adam gives Samus a series of objectives throughout the game, and is capable of locking and unlocking 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.
Fusion's environment also changes throughout the course of the game in much more radical ways than before. Some corridors can become blocked off permanently by explosions, pupa-like creatures which block some areas off hatch after a certain point, water levels raise and lower, parts of the research station are jettisoned into space, and new monsters appear in previously explored areas.
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 Parasite copying another lifeform, 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 either their original host's form, or an entirely new creature. Some monsters can also absorb X parasites, evolving into newer, more powerful forms.
Equipment
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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 called the Core-X.
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, 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 cannot use her old Ice Beam, and must use Ice Missiles instead, which have essentially the same effect as the Ice Beam. These can be further upgraded to Diffusion Missiles, which have the same function but a have an extemely large blast radius which encompasses whole rooms. The Diffusion Missiles must be charged up before firing.
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 Metroid's X-Ray scope.
Samus does eventually recover her Ice Beam ability, but it is only for 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 GBA-to-Gamecube cable. If the player completes Metroid Prime, they can unlock Samus' "Fusion Suit" for use in Prime; if they complete Metroid Fusion, they can unlock an emulated version of the original NES/Famicom Disk System 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, as well as bonus pictures which chronicle Samus' early years along with what's apparently some concept art.
The SA-X
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The SA-X is an X Parasite that infested Samus Aran's Power Suit at the beginning of Metroid Fusion for Game Boy Advance and was then surgically removed. The X Parasites remaining within Samus's body were then destroyed by a Metroid vaccine, and the infected Power Suit was sent to a B.S.L. (Biologic Space Labs) Space Station. But soon after Samus awoke, she found out that a mysterious explosion had occurred in the station's Quarantine Bay.
After Samus investigated, she found out the SA-X was responsible for the explosion. The SA-X is a clone of Samus that formed itself from the surgically removed pieces of her Power Suit. The SA-X's main weapon is the Ice Beam, which hurts Samus massively and can kill her. The SA-X also uses Power Bombs and Super Missiles, which she often destroys doors with. It is later revealed that in fact there are many SA-X and the Space Station has to be destroyed to kill them all. The second-to-last boss encounter is with one of these SA-X, after which the Core-X escapes. The defeated SA-X makes a final, brief appearance when it attempts to destroy the final boss, the Omega Metroid. After it is defeated by the Omega Metroid, Samus absorbs it, finally regaining her Ice Beam, letting her destroy the Omega Metroid.
Biologic Space Laboratories
- SRX — Standing for SR388, this sector is a recreation of the subterrainean environs of the planet SR388. Enemies here are largely from SR388, and it is an ideal habitat for breeding Metroids.
- TRO — Standing for Tropic, this jungle habitat is home to some creatures previously found in Brinstar in Super Metroid. This sector is home to many plants, and even Kihunters appear later in the game.
- PYR — Standing for Pyro, this sector is a heated environment, containing areas that cannot be entered without the protection of the Varia Suit, as well as scalding pools of lava. This sector contains many strange, sphinx-like creatures, as well as iron-like Sidehoppers.
- AQA — This is the Aquatic sector. Initially, all the water is electrified due to X Parasite activity. Samus discovers that Serris, a creature resembling Botwoon from Super Metroid, has become infected by the X, and Samus must stop its rampage and recover her Speed Boost ability. You return here later for more exploration of the deepest portions, which resemble Maridia from Super Metroid.
- ARC — The Arctic sector. Samus must put off exploration of this sector until she acquires the Varia Suit, even though it can be entered before that, since she requires protection from the sub-zero temperatures. Samus finds enlarged, icy X Parasites here, which have adapted cold as a weapon against her. Wavers and Aqua Pirates are other common enemies.
- NOC — Standing for Nocturnal, this sector is home to puffers and many other wall crawlers. Samus also finds X parasites from the Arctic sector in this dark, damp area, so she has to be extremely careful. In this sector, Samus recovers her Varia Suit.
- Quarantine Bay — A room where Samus's infected suit was sent after being removed. This is where the SA-X forms and then escapes using a Power Bomb.
- Command Deck — This area contains the main controls for the entire station. Samus must travel here first to acquire her missiles, and later to change the orbit of the station. The SA-X is encountered here for the last time.
- Habitation Deck — Later in the game, Samus goes up the to top floor in search of life signs Adam detected there. Instead of human crew members, however, she finds her old friends from Super Metroid, the Etecoons and Dachoras.
- Restricted Area — Samus inadvertently stumbles into this area after recovering her Wave Beam and becoming trapped in the lower area of the NOC Sector. Within, she discovers the Galactic Federation's secret Metroid cloning/breeding program, where they have successfully recreated all of the Metroid's SR388 life cycle stages. The SA-X invades this area after following Samus, and after she does significant damage to it, it is automatically jettisoned into space. Some of the Metroids escape into the main station, however, as is evidenced by shed Metroid exoskeletons that Samus finds throughout the SRX Sector afterward.
See also
- Metroid II: Return of Samus
- Super Metroid
- Metroid Prime
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
- Gunpei Yokoi
- Metroid (video game species)
External links
- Official Site (http://www.metroid.com/fusion/)
- Metroid Fusion (http://www.games-online.ca/r/index.php/mod/article/id/29) review
- GameFAQs entry for Metroid Fusion (http://gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/data/31657.html)
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