Gaming Target - Game Boy: Metroid Fusion

Written by Ilan Mejer on September 10, 2002

First Impressions: The ass-kicking intergalactic bounty hunter femme-fatale returns!

It is about time! When the game first debuted at E3 2001, it was originally titled Metroid IV and hardly resembled the almost ten-year-old Super Nintendo game that preceded it. Most of what we knew was speculation, and the few vague details Nintendo did releasewere not too promising in the eyes of some old school Super Metroid fans. It was unclear, even, exactly which of Nintendo's teams was developing the title or if the original Metroid teams would be responsible for this follow up to the 16-bit cult classic or not.

By the time this year's E3 came, and Nintendo exploded into the minds of Americans anywhere by debuting a fully playable, and perhaps surprisingly incredible Metroid Prime for the GameCube, Metroid Fusion made a revealing, but unplayable video appearance. Discerning eyes noted that despite its underwhelming initial debut, Metroid Fusion had been recreated into a true successor to Super Metroid. When it was later reported that the original Metroid development team was reunited to produce this game, all doubts were laid to rest.

In the closing moments of Super Metroid III, Samus Aran was inches away from defeat at the hands of a respawned Mother Brain, her nemesis in the original game. The baby Metroid that Samus Aran УadoptedФ at the end of her Metroid extermination venture in planet SR-388 (Metroid II) sacrificed its own life to fuse its DNA into Samus, providing her with an influx of power that allowed her to end Mother Brain's threat forever. Metroid Fusion's story opens with researchers who have returned to the presumably dead world of SR-388, where, led by Samus Aran, they begin to excavate and explore the ruined depths of the subterranean world. Unfortunately, it turns out that the Metroids that once inhabited the planet kept a certain organism, called Parasite X, in check. With the Metroids extinct on this world, Parasite X has bred freely. The presence of Parasite X, which was previously undetected, made itself apparent by quickly decimating the research station there. Samus Aran barely escapes and survives due to the Metroid DNA that resides in her body.

The scientists that rescued Samus Aran had to construct a new bio-suit, as the old one was too infected with X to be of use to her. However, the infection still resides within Samus' body and she must seek out her answers within SR-388. Unfortunately, X is a sentient parasite, and it was able to utilize the remnants of Samus' old bio-suit and shreds of her own DNA to clone Samus Aran and inhabit her old suit with said clone. Since Samus' suit is brand new, all of the powers she collected in her old suit have been lost, left behind. The Samus Clone still has all of the abilities that fueled the old suit, making her a formidable foe, should her motives prove unfriendly. Samus Aran returns to SR-388 seeking a solution to her affliction, and finds a world filled with her enemies, dead enemies under the control of X. When these enemies are defeated, X will abandon the bodies briefly, before reinhabiting them and resuming their chase of Samus. However, Samus' exposure to both the Metroid genetic essence and the living parasite allow her to УabsorbФ free strains of X simply by touching it, once she forces them out of their dead hosts. Absorption will allow her to replenish missiles, life, or even gain new abilities, such as the classic Morph Ball.

Happily, at the recent Gamer's Summit, Nintendo showed off a fully playable version of Metroid Fusion, for just under an hour. Reporters on hand were able to experience a near final version of the game, and firmly attest that the aesthetic presentation of the game positively reflects its Super Metroid roots. Additionally, they claim that the moody and immersive near-ambient music from the classic games also makes a return. Finally, new to the series, the story will be furthered by highly detailed and animated cartoon cutscenes. Though her role in the story is unknown at this point, a few screens of one major cutscene star the Samus clone, and she truly does look identical to Samus Aran from Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. Overall, Metroid Fusion is shaping up to be just the game that Super Metroid fans around the world have been screaming for all these years, and will be a perfect companion to the GameCube's Metroid Prime. Though we know that the two titles, which will be released simultaneously, will link up and interact in a manner that Nintendo describes as Уcool,Ф just how the games will relate to each other is not clear at this point. We have much to look forward to this November.