Retro Review: Metroid Zero Mission

<p>I didn&&num;8217&semi;t have the pleasure of enjoying my first <em>Metroid<&sol;em> game until <em>Metroid Fusion<&sol;em>&comma; which is a great game in its own right but it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t until 2012 when I would be able to experience my favorite <em>Metroid <&sol;em>game to date&period; I received it as a Christmas gift from a friend who couldn&&num;8217&semi;t believe I hadn&&num;8217&semi;t played Metroid <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em>&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t go into detail too much on <em>Fusion<&sol;em> but my main complaint with that was the lack of freedom and having things spelled out for me&period; Other than that I loved it&comma; so you can imagine my long time <em>Metroid<&sol;em> loving friend&&num;8217&semi;s reaction when I told him I hadn&&num;8217&semi;t yet played <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em>&period; I completed it rather quickly during my work week&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d play it on my Game Boy Micro at work and then popped it into the Game Boy Player on my GameCube when I got home&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s now one of my favorite games and among the games&comma; I attempt to replay every year or two&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127808" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127808" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-127808" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;26152906&sol;first&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127808" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Metroid Zero Mission<&sol;em>&comma; Nintendo<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Metroi<&sol;em><em>d<&sol;em> has always been pretty successful but it hasn&&num;8217&semi;t received as much love from Nintendo despite having a very vocal community and normally commanding decent sales figures&period; With <em>Return of Samus<&sol;em> and <em>Prime 4<&sol;em> finally being announced I thought it&&num;8217&semi;d be time to revisit <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em> and other <em>Metroid <&sol;em>games throughout the year&period; Metroid <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em> is the first of a few different remakes Nintendo has done over the years and it&&num;8217&semi;s something I honestly hope they keep doing because they do a great job of retaining what made the original so special while also throwing in updates that help bring the game into the modern age&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll just say this right now&colon; I absolutely appreciate the original <em>Metroid<&sol;em>&comma; what it did for gaming&comma; and how surreal and incredible it was when it released&&num;8211&semi;but it&&num;8217&semi;s not my jam&period; I appreciate it for what it is but <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em> is the final word for me on Samus&&num;8217&semi; first video game adventure&period; It gets the details right and changes the right things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Metroid Zero Mission<&sol;em> opens with Samus appearing on a world being used as a hideout for space pirates&period; The Federation attempted to wipe them out but they retreated deeper into hiding&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ve been experimenting with Metroid life-forms and how to use them as biological warfare so it&&num;8217&semi;s extremely important they be stopped&period; The Federation having little luck decides to send in the bounty hunter Samus Aran&comma; who is considered one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy&period; You arrive on the planet and immediately get to work&period; Fans of <em>Twilight Princess&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;em>long intro or <em>Other M<&sol;em><em>&&num;8216&semi;s<&sol;em> nonsense would be appalled to see the player thrust directly into almost uninterrupted gameplay bliss&period; The gameplay is simple but addictive&period; In fact&comma; along with <em>Symphony of the Night<&sol;em> &lpar;which it also helped inspire&rpar;&comma; the two franchises helped coin the term <em>Metroidvania<&sol;em> which has luckily spawned dozens of incredible games that utilize this beautiful formula that Konami and Nintendo seem to forget they helped popularize in the first place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127809" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127809" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-127809" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;26152935&sol;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"600" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127809" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Metroid Zero Mission&comma; Nintendo<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As Samus&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll travel across the planet while you tackle common enemies&comma; dispose of larger and more difficult boss enemies&comma; further the story while accessing previously unavailable areas while getting more and more powerful every step of the way as you unlock new abilities&comma; weapons&comma; and increase your missile capacity and HP&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s beautiful and incredibly satisfying&period; <em>Zero Mission<&sol;em> is built off of <em>Fusion&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> engine and also adds tweaks that were not present in the original <em>Metroid<&sol;em>&period; The first thing players will notice is the graphics which look absolutely stunning in their 16-bit glory that just wasn&&num;8217&semi;t possible on the NES&period; However&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s plenty more tweaks but veterans need not worry as the original spirit and intentions of the game are fully intact&period; One of my favorite touches is that Samus can shoot in all directions now&period; In the original&comma; if you wanted to destroy an enemy low to the ground or at an angle it required maneuvering on Samus&&num;8217&semi; part&period; Samus couldn&&num;8217&semi;t shoot in certain directions but luckily she now can thanks to the power &lpar;and additional buttons&rpar; of the Game Boy Advance&excl; You also get a bit of a nudge on where to go next but don&&num;8217&semi;t worry&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s <em>not<&sol;em> at all like it was in <em>Metroid Fusion<&sol;em>&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll get a nudge as to which area you need to go next&period; You still need to figure out what to do and what needs to be done along the way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a perfect balance really because the exploration is still intact but the player has a general idea of where to go next&comma; which helps avoid completely avoidable frustration&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s more story this time around too&period; There are some cutscenes that help tell more about Samus&&num;8217&semi; beginnings&comma; her relationship to the Chozo alien race&comma; and there&&num;8217&semi;s even additional gameplay after the original final boss&period; Yeah&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s a lot in this package and it all works hand in hand to create the definitive version of a game that was already incredible when it released&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics are absolutely beautiful and help bring the world to life in ways that I&&num;8217&semi;m sure the original development team only imagined possible&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s so nice seeing additional details and touches on this classic adventure that came out so long ago&period; The modern controls and tweaks in that department also make the game more accessible without taking away any of the challenge or fun&period; I also really love what they did with the sound effects and music&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s every <em>Metroid <&sol;em>fan&&num;8217&semi;s dream and if you&&num;8217&semi;ve never played a <em>Metroid<&sol;em> game then I&&num;8217&semi;d absolutely recommend you start here as it&&num;8217&semi;s a great place of checking out Samus&&num;8217&semi; roots while also experiencing some of the best 2D gameplay in the genre it helped create&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;127810" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-127810" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-127810" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;07&sol;26153026&sol;3&period;gif" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"640" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-127810" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Metroid Zero Mission&comma; Nintendo<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>A lot of complaints about <em>Metroid Zero Mission<&sol;em> back when it released centered around the length but look&comma; this is an older game and a lot of the length stemmed from now knowing what to do and some difficulty spikes&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m okay with the creases being ironed out to create a much more satisfying experience&comma; even if it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t trim the length some&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s been thirteen years since the remake released and it&&num;8217&semi;s barely aged at all&comma; other than the graphics which are 16-bit and I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I need to explain how well those have aged&period; This experience may not be as long as other games but I&&num;8217&semi;ll absolutely take a well rounded two to four and a half hour journey filled with adventure&comma; excitement&comma; and polish every single step along the way&period; The little bow on this near perfect package is that the original version of the classic itself is available after you complete the game&period; Yeah&comma; Nintendo knows how to do a remake and I hope they never stop&period; Check out this cult classic that&&num;8217&semi;s among some of my favorite games and if you&&num;8217&semi;ve never played a <em>Metroid<&sol;em> game then start with <em>Metroid Zero Mission<&sol;em> and then jump on over to <em>Super Metroid<&sol;em>&comma; which will be one of my next retro reviews&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;