metroid fused

finished metroid fusion a week ago. i know these recaps tend to get long, but for once i don’t have too much to say about this one, although once again i disagree with popular opinion. i haven’t played the much-revered super metroid yet so i don’t have any comparisons there, but compared to the original NES game i found this one to be an experience that was designed to be rushed and not savored. the game element that most people seem to complain about is the fact that there’s a computer character who at every point directs you to the next task, although the great metroid prime featured a similar, although slightly more subtle, setup. i wouldn’t have had a problem with that here so much if the areas hadn’t felt so straightforward. the original had a slower and much more atmospheric pace, with a much larger emphasis on exploring, whereas in this game i felt i could sprint through every area. there were some moments near the end where the pace felt slower which were much more enjoyable, and which made the rest of the game pale that much more in comparison. overall a fairly solid game with an interesting story line, but rather too easy and not much opportunity to linger over any of it. i’m definitely interested in where the story goes after this chapter, though, which is more than you can usually say about nintendo franchises.

not a whole lot else to say. if you’re reading this and you haven’t finished the game, be aware that after you get the last powerup you shouldn’t go into a navigation room b/c then all the doors to all the areas become locked, forcing you to finish the game. post-win the doors unlock and you can explore any areas you missed, but it would be much more fun to explore them before you beat the last boss (which incidentally is much harder than the rest of the game).

one other thing that i wish the game had was the ability to see all of the places on the map that have hidden items. i think i got all the open circles on the maps but i was still at only 67% or so completed, so either there are a lot more rooms w/ multiple hidden items (in which case that would also have been nice to know) or not all of them are showing up on the map. since i hate using walkthroughs i’m not really motivated to search through every room to find the rest, but maybe one of these days if i’m really bored and i’ve finished the other games in the series i’ll give it another shot.

here be links!

– best game site, at mdb.classicgaming.gamespy.com w/ maps, guide, and more
– pretty good walkthrough at ign
– vgmuseum.com has screenshots of the american version endings as well as the japanese version endings.
– coupla wallpapers at the official site
– tricks and sequence breaking at metroid2002.com
– list of games nintendo’s R&D1 has developed at wikipedia.org

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