Metroid Fusion Review

Metroid Fusion Review | January 27, 2015
Nintendo Virtual Console

Metroid Fusion is a 2D action shooting platformer. It is the fourth game in the series and was released on the Game Boy Advance in 2002 but technically it takes place after 2010’s Wii game Metroid other M. Metroid Fusion is a Nintendo exclusive and is only available for download on Virtual Console. Under orders from Galactic Federation Samus is sent to a Biologic Space Laboratories. She encounters the X parasite, a virus that can take over a person’s body and copy them perfectly. The parasite can even copy their memories but the host is killed afterwards. She gets infected by the virus unknowingly, losses consciousness and crashes into an asteroid belt. She is retrieved but her suit is so damaged by the parasite it has to be surgically removed and a vaccine had to be made using a sample of a Metroid creature to save her. The removed suit is sent back to the BSL space station when an explosion happens and the X parasite invades the entire station. With Samus now being immune to the virus thanks to the Metroid vaccine she return to the station to save any survivors and stop the X parasite before in spreads.

Metroid has turned into a very successful and well like 1st person shooter for Nintendo. But, the Metroid series roots started as a 2D platformer and the classic original style is loved by old school and new school gamers. Metroid Fusion so far is the last 2D platformer version of Metroid and being able to get the game as a download on Virtual Console with better graphics and on our TV and not the GBA screen has added something to it. It looks great, the controls are almost perfect and it does not feel dated at all despite being released in 2002. Metroid Fusion has a great level design with half of the areas being hidden so you must search around for secret doors and ways to use your new power ups to unlock parts of the station. It is also filled with several very challenging boss battles all through the game. They are not easy at all but they are fun to figure out and will take more than one try most of the time.

The feature we love the best is the ability to save you game at any time anywhere. So if you are in a section that you are not sure if it is the right way to go you can just save and make a choice and reload if you are wrong. The music changes a lot right before you are about to walk into an area where a boss battle is going to happen, so once again save your game. We also like the recharge stations filling up your missiles, bombs and energy packs. We are all lifelong gamers at this company. We remember the time spend trying fighting the same creatures over and over to get enough energy to fill up our power packs and get enough missiles to go forward. You do not have to worry about that for the most part in Metroid Fusion.

Metroid Fusion took us between 8 to 10 hours to beat the game the first time through. We found a lot of the secret stuff but did not get a 100% item find rate. Replay value is very high. This game is just so much fun and even though we had some problems figuring out how to defeat the bosses we would still do it time and time again. This is only one real problem and that is the space jump. This power up lets you keep jumping over and over to climb to the top of areas that have no platforms. It is very inconsistent and it is used a lot. The controls are very frustrating and we never seemed to get it right even after we play the whole game. You start to figure it out but it still does not work very well half of the time, we have no idea why. Worth spending the money and we still hope to see more 2D games from Metroid because Nintendo has yet to make a bad one.

9.5 out of 10
You Will Love This Game