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Derpy Review #30: Metroid Fusion (spoilers, obviously)

Micro: When it comes to Nintendo and their games, many of their best games are usually in the consoles like the big titans that are Mario, Legend of Zelda, ect. But many other of Nintendo's best games are, not surprisingly, are also in their handheld systems, like the DS and 3DS, with the original Gameboy being the very pioneer that launch handheld consoles, and I mean functional handheld consoles that can play games that has more than two sprites. Such games like pokemon started in the Gameboy before long later the Gameboy's younger brother pop out and soon became houses to a bunch of great games. And one of these great games is another game of the Metroid marathon we have been doing, and that is Metroid Fusion.

Gwen: Huh, look at that, a beginning intro that's short and sound like part of a overdue college homework.

Micro: Shut up.

Smushy: ba ha ab ha

Shekra: Moving on, Metroid Fusion has had a rather interesting developement and release to say. After the success of Super Metroid, the Metroid series has gone rather quiet between Super and Fusion with no signs of games coming out any time soon while teased projects were brought up and canned almost immediately. The time span between Super and Fusion was more than eight years before Fusion was released.

Micro: Jesus Christ, and I thought Pikmin fans had it rough in waiting for a new game that's impossible to tell if the series is breathing or dead for a while.

Gwen: When was the last the game?

Micro: Eight years and still counting, and no, no one counts that 3ds game.

Gwen: Sweet Christ

Shekra: There was talk of a Metroid for the N64, but that too I believe was canceled as well. Development for Fusion didn't began till 2001 where the whole game apparently used a heavily modified version of an engine that was used for Wario World 4, with the game coming out in November 2017, 2002, a day after the release of another Metroid game, Metriod Prime for the Gamecube.

Gwen: Sheesh, that sounds like it was pinning two games at each other.

Micro: Maybe, considering that I think it was a different studio that did Metroid Prime where I don't think Sakamoto was entirely involved for that one, but that's something we can discuss later whenever we decide to look at Metroid Prime. For now, let's focus on Fusion, cause after this one, there is only one game to talk about for this marathon, so let's get started on Metroid 4, Metroid Fusion.

Shekra: Spoilers are abound!

Smushy: Baba ah ba

Story:

Micro: The story is rather meaty to talk about compare to previous Metroid games, in that there's more a narrative story in this game than one mini paragraph to summarize everything.

Gwen: Great, just when I was hoping we would breeze by this review.

Micro: After some time after Super Metroid, the Galatic Federation asked Samus to be a bodyguard for the Biological research team of the Biological Space Laboratory space station, or the B.S.L station, as the team heads to planet SR388, the very same planet that Samus eradicated most of the Metroids and took in the baby Metroid, and is the one place so far that hasn't blown yet by Samus. Samus encounters one of the local animals and quickly kills it, but as she does, the creature transform into a weird jelly blob that not only ignore Samus's missiles, but immediately flung itself into Samus. Not feeling anything weird, Samus returns to her ship, and soon realizes that was a bad mistake as the blob starts to attack Samus's nervous system that caused her to crash her ship into a asteroid. Thankfully, Samus got out of the ship and was taken to medical care, where the medical crew had discover the creature that attack Samus is a parasitic organism that they call X, and to make it worse, they can't remove the parasite even after surgically removing Samus's power suit off her just to try to examine her. Which looking at the suit Samus has on in this game makes me really wonder if the weird blue gooey looking suit was always under the power armor or was something the federation gave her to temporarily replaced the power armor.

Gwen: Not even five minutes in the game and this girl is having a terrible day, sheesh.

Shekra: With the chance of survival for Samus extremely low to the point she might as well be consider dead in a minute, the doctors decide to whip up a vaccine to eradicate the X parasite, a vaccine that used a preserved cell culture of the same Metroid that Samus tried to rescue back on Planet Zebes.

Gwen: Even in death, that little jelly boy is saving Samus. Well. short story short, the vaccine worked, it killed off the parasite in Samus's body, but it also alter her DNA to make her part Metroid, which also means she also has the same weakness as the Metroid, cold. By the way, just saying this now, that's is not even remotely how vaccines works, that is more closely related to something call Crispr. I know Crispr wasn't exactly a thing till years later after this game, but figure to mention this part.

Micro: While Samus manages to survive being a corpse thanks to the baby Metroid, things don't get better as it turns out that the B.S.L. station had an explosion and Samus is sent there due to the fact that the research team brought in plenty of species from SR388 to the station, and there is a large chance of more X parasites are involve. The reason why Samus is sent despite her near death encounter with the deadly blob is because it turns out that thanks to her body now being part Metroid, she can now absorb the X parasite.

Gwen: As it turns out, in case you haven't beaten Samus Return and 100% the areas to get the Chozo memories or had the manual to this game, the Chozo were in fact the very ones that made the Metroid for the sole reason of dealing with the X parasite upon their discovery of the creatures and seeing the danger the parasite has to the galaxy and to the Chozo still on the planet. Seems that Samus's mission to eradicate the Metroid in hindsight may have been a horrible idea on paper, but keep in mind that nobody outside the Chozo knew of the X parasite's involvement, not even Samus apparently, she was raised on planet Zumbaba after all. It didn't help that the Metroid themselves were not only a threat to the galaxy as well, but turn on the Chozos which was why they were sealed up in SR388 in the first place.

Shekra: As Samus is going to the station, having to take a new ship cause her old one crashed into a rock, she is now accompanied by an AI, giving her orders throughout this mission. During the game, Samus nickname the AI after a CO she once had when she served the federation, Adam Malkovich, a rather stern yet respectable commander that Samus seems to look up even if Adam somewhat sarcastically ends mission briefing to Samus with, "Any objections, Lady?" We'll be referring the AI as Adam.

Micro: Adam order us to head to the quarantine bay to seek out to see if the X parasite is here and out. Good news, the X parasites are out, bad news, they pretty much took over the whole station and will be the enemy Samus will be facing about 99% of the time, as it turns out that the parasite can mimic the DNA of all the prey they consume and make themselves look like the creatures they consume but without the soul, reproducing asexually at a rapid pace as later reveal. And things were not going to get better as Adam reports that the X parasites are seemingly in location and Samus needs to investigate the area, but not before getting missiles thanks to federation as she has to go to a data room and download the missile, after all, she lost all her stuff when the medical crew had to remove her armor to try to save her.

Gwen: Download? What is this, she 3D downloading the thing, how does that even make sense?

Micro: I don't know, science I guess.

Gwen: Well, at least they made a good reason why she doesn't have her stuff in this game this time. Though, any reason why the federation didn't give her stuff back?

Shekra: Oh, you'll see why very soon. With the missiles collected, Samus heads to the area where the parasites are and encounters.... Arachnus?

Gwen: Ok, either Samus didn't actually got the spring ball power up from her first trip to the SR388, or the X parasites can somehow still mimic the DNA of something that should be long dead. What are these things, the love child of the Blob and the Thing?

Micro: That might not be a far comparison considering we do get to meet an old friend again later in the game, but that's for later. After dealing with the rather very easy armadillo guy and getting the morph ball ability from the X core that morphs from Arachnus's body, Samus is then instructed by Adam to head to sector one Breeding environment to stop x parasite from spreading any further than they have already. However, as Samus leaves, we get to meet a rather unexpected guest that wishes to say hi to Samus, and the guest is.... Samus herself , the SA-X being perfect copy replica no thanks to the X parasites infecting her suit and is now running around the station with all of Samus's equipment, including the power bombs, screw attack, and ice beam.

Gwen: Oh, that explain where everything went....

Shekra: Yup, and because of this souless clone is hunting us, Adam instruct Samus to run away from the deadly blob after she fix the air filters clogged with X parasites, telling her that she is no match for the SA-X.

Gwen: Yeah, no kidding, guy has all of Samus stuff and Samus is part Metroid, all it needs is one good ice beam a missile to the face on Samus and she's toast. Anyways, Adam tells us to get to Sector 2 so we can get the morph bombs to deal with getting around areas as well as opening up level one locks, and after getting the power up and dealing with a.... is that a motherf$%king space condom?

Micro: And she was riding my rear to hold back the language. Dealing with the... space condom... Samus gets the high jump boots and makes her way back to Adam, though not before hiding from the SA-X until it leaves.

Shekra: Adam reveals that maybe opening the locks wasn't a good idea as the X parasites are spreading to areas that were sealed off, with areas of Sector 4 now already infected from the parasites, though it was a necessary evil for Samus to get everything she needs to deal with the deadly blob. Things not getting better as it turns out that a creature call Serris that inhabits Sector 4 is running rampant and Samus needs to stop it before it destroys the area or worse, the X parasites gets their bloby hands on it. After having to make some detours to get to the containment area of Serris, we find Samus. Unfortunately, that's the good news. The bad news is next door where you have to deal with the X version of the serpent.

Gwen: After dealing with the bullet train snake from Atlantis, Samus gets the speed booster and helps fix the sector a bit by draining the water. Adam is surprise to hear the parasite beating Samus to Serris so quickly, but then states that since the X cores Samus has been dealing with has been giving her abilities thanks to the parasites taking in the special DNA traits of their prey, Adam thinks that Samus will eventually get back to her peak strength as she was before she got infected by the X parasite and might have a chance with the SA-X, but that's still far away of a chance. With that, Samus is sent to Sector 3 to get her super missiles upgrade after unlocking the level 2 locks.

Micro: Samus gets the missiles, but then has to deal with my least favorite boss in this game, B.O.X, or tombstone as I'm going to call the metallic jerk cause this guy loves to give me hell and bury me six feet under. We'll talk more about this guy later, but for now, the rogue security robot decides to high tail it out of the area and gets away before Samus can destroy it. Anyways, with the level 2 locks open, Sector 5 and 6 are open, but unless we want to freeze to death in sector 5, we need to get the Varia suit in Sector 6 as previous data rooms seems to have been destroyed no thanks to the X parasites. However, as Samus leaves the area, we get a small scene where it seems that Adam is talking to somebody in the federation that doesn't want Samus to know what is going in this station, seems suspectious, but we'll talk about that little part later.

Shekra: Samus has to travel around Sector 6 to get to the data room that has the suit upgrade, all while having to be careful of the X parasites as some of them mutated to make themselves cold to injure Samus a lot. Still, Samus finally makes to the data room.... only to find a giant X core sucking the data out of the room as apparently these gelatin monsters can organically download data.

Gwen: Ok, how the hell that makes sense? I know this is supposed to be more of a scifi adventure series or whatever the series is, but that sounds more like witchcraft than science.

Micro: I don't know, all I want to know is who's bright idea was it to make the Varia suit puke green once you get it from the giant X core. Well, got the upgrade so now we can handle cold, but because we are still part Metroid, the federation has to sent a substitute weapon for Samus to use ice attacks, so the idea they come up with is ice missiles that is store in sector 5 after we open up the level 3 locks.

Shekra: However, after getting the ice missiles and making her way back to Adam, the main boiler in sector 3 has gone to metldown and Samus has to rush there to fix the situation or else the station will blow up. Samus manages to get there in time to see a X parasite morphed into a human researcher and kills it before restoring the boiler back to safety levels. Adam questions why would a self preserving organism would want to kill themselves, thinking that maybe the X parasite finds Samus such a dangerous threat to them that they would be willing to blow themselves up to take out Samus if it means protecting the X parasite that is somewhere else.

Gwen: Well, considering how many bodies Samus has racked up with everyone trying to kill her, can't entirely blame the parasites except yes I can. Though I do like the small foreshadowing. However, another thing that Adam thinks that makes the X parasite a rather terrifying creature is that the possibility that the X parasite can not only mimic their prey's DNA, but their memories as well as it would the only thing that makes sense as to how they activated the meltdown for the boiler. With that said, Adam has reported that possible survivor are discover in the habitation deck in the main deck, so Samus is sent there to find the survivors. Sadly, yet also very fortunate, the only survivors in the area are in fact the very same monkey and bird aliens that Samus encounter on planet Zebra. Showing her gratitude to space animals, she frees them before reporting to Adam, with Adam saying that it is very likely that everyone in the station is dead and are being consume by the X parasite.

Shekra: With the X parasite growing stronger, Samus is sent back to the data room in Sector 5 to get her power bombs to help fight back the parasites, getting a very close death encounter from the SA-X as it tries to hunt her down and kill her. Adam asked Samus to return to her ship for a quick breather, but she had to take a force detour cause the elevator shut down mid way. As she does, Samus manages to enter a room that houses.... Ridely?

Gwen: How? We blew this reptilian monster in Super, how does he keep coming back?

Micro: Beats me, but from the way it looks, Ridley is still a corpse, but that might not last long as a X parasite soon comes out of him and flies away. If Ridley was somehow still alive while he was sitting in place, he's now no more than a hollow husk of his former self when we encounter him in the future. Anyways, Samus manages to get to her ship where Adam briefs her of the X parasites shut off the silo reactor in the main deck that Samus has to deal with, while also notifying Samus that the animals boarded the ship and are thankfully not infected of the X parasite. Which begs the question as to why that is the case, are they immune to the parasite like say the Metroids were kind of design to be or did the X parasite let them live cause they see no value to the animals or keeping them as backup for something? Who knows but for now, Samus has to make her way to the reactor where she has to deal with a giant.... spider... name Yakuza.

Shekra: Oh god, I knew you not finishing Yakuza 5 was going to bite you in the ass, Micro. Keep away from any giant cones and motorcycles in case he has heat action up to max.

Gwen: You two are a bunch of dorks, you know that right.

Smushy: Ha bah ah ba.

Gwen: Dealing with the spider, and getting the space jump back, Samus restore some of the power, but she'll have to go through sector 2 again, and run from the Saxophone again, to encounter another X parasite that tangling up the whole area of plants and preventing power throughout the whole station. The creature that is blocking power turns out to be a Chozo statue, similar to the gold one you fought in Super. There was another Chozo statue boss earlier in the game that we didn't mention cause it really isn't that important, but it does make me wonder that if the X parasites are mimicing organic creatures, or the organic components of the creature, is the Chozo statues alive in some ways? This game is making me ask more questions than giving me answers.

Shekra: After destroying the parasite, Samus gets the plasma beam upgrade, something that shocks Adam as he wasn't expecting Samus to get the upgrade, considering that the federation was supposed to sent the upgrade earlier but couldn't. Still, there's another problem to be had and that is there is an explosion back in sector 5 where a bioweapon name the Nightmare, capable of not only warping gravity that the federation was planning to use for combat but destroying the frame rate of the game to make things feel so painfully slow, is running rampant and destroying the area.

Gwen: Who the hell was the federation was going to send this science experiment at that requires gravity manipulation? It can't be the space pirates.

Micro: Don't know but that doesn't change the fact it needs to be stop. And after meeting the Nightmare, and struggling to not puke from the sight of his second phase, you get the gravity suit, allowing Samus to take a force detour to Sector 4 and having to unlock level 4 locks, something Adam was not happy of seeing, on top of surprise of Samus getting the final missile upgrade, the Diffusion missiles, something we'll talk about later. Anyways, Samus is sent to Sector 6 to deal with the tombstone again as the robot is rampaging everything there no thanks to the X parasite corrupting it. With Adam ordering Samus to destroy the robot and return back to the navigation room and nothing else, Samus destroys the robot, getting the wave beam.

Gwen: Ok, I know that each ability we get from the X parasites is based on a special attribute they can do, like Yakuza spinning around or Serris having sonic speed, but how does getting the Wave beam from B.O.X. makes sense? It only fires missiles and that's it.

Shekra: Honestly, your guess is as good as mine, I think its more that they ran out of ideas of where to put the wave beam and shoved it inside the robot. Maybe it has to do with the fact with you can't hurt the robot unless you hit the squishy center of it?

Micro: Whatever the case is, with the wave beam, Samus decides to take a small detour and venture into a restricted area, somewhere that Adam as well as the federation that Adam was talking to didn't want Samus to go to. With that, I think its time to take a small break from talking of the story.

Gwen: About time, this is more story than I was thinking this game was going to give considering the last few games.

Shekra: Oh don't worry sis, its only going to get worse in some of the later games.

Gwen: Great, just what I want to hear....

Smushy: ha ba.

Gameplay:

Micro: For the sake of once again making things quick, gameplay in Fusion is the same as Super, Samus having every ability as she had in the last game while the same type of power ups from the last game returning as we mentioned from the story, minus the grapple beam and the rather useless x ray scope. However, Fusion has change the mechanics of the game that both simplify and streamline it for the sake of the fact that we are playing a Game boy Advance game. Samus automatically runs in the game as there is no run button, missile are toggle by holding the right bumper of the GBA and letting go to go back to firing beams which makes combat rather a bit more fast past, the high jump boots not only allows Samus to jump higher but also allows Samus to jump while in morph ball form so you don't have to look for the spring jump. With missile upgrades, the devs made it where that once you get the super missiles as well as the ice missiles, you won't have to switch to any other missiles as the three types, including the diffusion missiles, which we'll talk about very shortly, stack on top of each other. The same thing with beams, except I think the charge beam is possibly better than missiles to use on enemies as the beam is rather ridiculously powerful in this game and it only gets stronger with each beam upgrade, which makes dealing with some bosses as a joke. Power bombs also are tinker a bit to exploded faster and I think has a wider range of blast. There are two mechanic changes I think might rub people the wrong way and they are the wall jump and morph ball. For morph ball, the devs made it where the blast time is a little longer, which makes sequence breaking impossible to do in this game, though, I'm more bother of some level design that requires the bombs that takes a lot longer than I want for it to blow up only for me to realize that I as off by one pixel. As for wall jump, the devs made it where you can simply immediately swing yourself in the air back to the wall you jump from to do another wall jump, you have to go one direction before you can do another wall jump or you're falling like a rock. Otherwise, mechanics is the same in this game.

Shekra: As for the newer stuff that Samus gets as well as some things that's different in this game compare to Super, Samus gets two different power ups, both missiles upgrades that are the ice missiles and diffusion missiles, both easy to explain. Ice missile substitutes the ice beam where you fire a missile at enemies and can freeze them in place, either to shoot at them more or use them as platform. The diffusion missiles is a bit more unique in that its a more wider range ice missile, where you have to hold the right bumper before you can fire the diffusion missile, which creates a massive ice blast that can hit multiple enemies in the blast's range. However, that seems to be about it as I don't think the missiles destroys enemies, just makes it easier for puzzle solving and traversing shortcuts you can find in the game. In replace of not having the grappling beam, but also due the fact that Samus doesn't have a ton suit of armor on her, she is able to grab ledges and even morph ball into vents as well as climb and hang on ladders, a very useful ability to have right off the bat. Another thing to note is that Samus gets access to maps far faster and easier in this game, with each navigation room she enters the first time per sector giving to her, which also makes it easier to traverse the area as the map does a better job telling you what wall and door leads to what, with secret areas still needed to be discover on your own. Recharge station are also changed to where they not only refill your health back up but missiles and bombs as well, with normally a save room and navigation next door to it.

Gwen: With the game being a handheld, the devs made each area feel a little bit more pack and smaller than what was on planet Zoom in Super, making traversing the area feel like you are going faster in the areas. Puzzles are still the same in the game as the last one, where you either need power ups to get upgrades or use power ups or skills on enemies before you can get the power up, which means that some of the same headache are still the same in this game as they were in the last game.

Micro: Except I argue and say that some of the puzzle solving in this game is significantly worse than Super, mostly with the stupid Shine spark, the ability I think we mentioned with the speed booster in the last game where you run for a certain distant before pressing down and then can launch yourself to a direction like a cannon ball. I swear, whoever made the shine spark puzzles in this game was an absolute jerk with how you had to work with the stupid abilities just so you can get either mostly power bomb upgrades or missile upgrades. One best example is this one room where you have to shine spark against a wall to get a power bomb, but to do that, you need to have hold the shine sparks after jumping to a higher ledge and then immediately shine sparking into a slop just to keep running at sonic speed before having to hold another shine spark and repeat the previous process several times before you can get the upgrade. There were many upgrades that took me like ten or twenty minute each before I figured out what to do or look it up just so I can stop banging my head against the wall only for me to still take forever to get the power up, and its always with the stupid shine sparks. And keep in mind, the game doesn't tell you that you automatic run at sonic speed if you shine spark into a slop, unless its mentioned on the manual, in which case, god I hate buying used games that doesn't have manuals and figuring this stuff out myself. And here's also the thing about this game, you are going to need these upgrades, mostly the e tanks, just to survive the X parasites.

Shekra: Good God, does the enemies do so much damage to Samus in this game even with all the suit upgrades. If the devs' goal was to make the player feel nervous at smacking into enemies, they did a great job as enemies hit like a semi truck and can knock so much health just by bumping into them. The enemies are fast with some of them having some armor that you can't hit their weak spots directly while there are some enemies that are just extremely mean and unpleasant to kill no matter what. The worst examples are gold space pirates and kihunters. Yes, space pirates are in this game, but they are nothing more than X clones that will give you a hard time as you try to kill them with the gold pirates having such thick armor that you can only kill them by firing missiles at their backs, or by using a glitch where you fire a missile at them and immediately face away from the pirate and they take hits. As for the kihunters, they are possibly worse than the gold pirates, as you hardly have to face more than maybe three gold pirates. Kihunters may no having invincible armor like the gold pirates, but they do so much damage, are almost everywhere in sector 2, and will snipe you in the worst ways by ramming into you while you have very little space to jump around them. Honestly, this might be one of the more difficult games of Metroid we have played as of yet for the reviews and of the series mainly due to how fragile Samus is in the beginning of the game. Thankfully, that's what having the X parasites is for with Samus's ability to absorb them. Defeating the parasites and absorbing them will either heal you or restore your missiles, similar to how regaining stuff in Super was, with four type of color in this game to tell you what you'll get, orange give you petri dish amount of health, blue is significantly better, green gives you missiles, and red is the rarest but gives you full heal and missiles. While the X parasites are both trying to kill you and can you stuff to stock on, they are also use for puzzles, and I don't mean to ice missile them. At some points in the game and due to how the X parasites function, you have to kill the parasite, wait for the blob to reform itself to another enemy and then kill them again before either you can absorb them or wait for them to amalgamate to another creature to transform into something else to solve the puzzle in the room or area. A prime example is in this one area in sector 5 i believe it was where you had to shoot down an enemy twice and let it get absorb by some weird vine tower thing so you can freeze it then use it to speed booster your way to the next area you need to progress. Honestly, I do like the creativeness of using the X parasites as puzzles if it means to get everything in the game.

Gwen: Not that I would recommend doing that on the account of what Micro said about the shine spark puzzles alone. Getting everything in this game is a massive pain to the rectum, back tracking in later part of the game can be absolutely more tedious than Super, and you can get screw at getting everything in one go after a certain point of the game and have to wait until you beat the game before you can resume at getting everything. And getting everything isn't worth it honestly, unless you consider getting the 100% complete image of seeing Samus wearing sport shorts and shirt worth it, Micro, don't you get any ideas...

Micro: Too late.

Gwen: You honestly don't need to get everything in this game to survive the game, as honestly, if you go from point a to be, you should be ok, minus the part that enemies hurt and you should probably get every E tank you can find. Besides, its rather ridiculous to get everything in this game when the charge beam is more than capable of dealing with enemies while you have enough missiles and power bombs to level an army and a moon. Seriously, what the heck is anyone going to do with 250 missiles and 74 power bombs, you don't need that much even for the bosses.

Bosses:

Micro: Bosses in the game function the same as the previous games, shoot the weak spot and hope it dies first before you do. But at the same time, these bosses have a lot unique design and has something that you'll remember most of them for one reason or another.

Shekra: Personal favorite boss is probably with Ridley, in case it wasn't obvious enough already in the review that we'll be fighting him. Guy is going nuts with his attacks as he feels far more aggressive than he was in Super, despite having the same move sets as in Super. Ridley's attacks hurt and he moves rather fast, but at the same time I like this fight a lot as you deal with this hollow husk returning from the grave to have another fight with Samus. Now if only his screech of pain wasn't so painful to my ears, why did I had to be a bat anthro.

Gwen: Personal favorite is Arachnus, short, easy to kill and move so I can leave.

Micro: Why not the space condom boss then, he's just as easy to deal with.

Gwen: You really think anyone is going to remember that thing other than how questionably weird that thing is and try saying its their favorite with a straight face?

Micro: Nope. Anyways, personal favorite for me might have to be the Nightmare. This creepy thing is so weird and and disturbing that despite the fact his attack are rather simple to understand and he can alter gravity to make it feel like you are jumping in water, I can't help but like the guy, even after you destroy his face plate and try to not puke from the sight of his face. Which brings up my least favorite boss and that is the tombstone that is know as B.O.X. This big tin can drone is absolutely annoying to destroy, he has one weak spot and that is his center part of his body, but you can only hit by being above him and firing missiles at him. However, he is a quick little bugger that doesn't give that much of a window to hit, he loves to bounce around, and in his first time fighting him, he likes to throw fire bombs at you while his second encounter has him firing missiles at you while you have to hang on ladders over a pool of electrify water that hurts. This guy sucks to fight and has way to high of a skill ceiling to be honest. Only tip I can give is that he is rather easy to manipulate, so once you can find a sweet spot to fire missiles at him, you at least know what to do I guess. Is the tombstone the hardest boss? I did died to him more than times I want to admit, so yes. But hopefully after the first encounter, you already got a hang of the mechanics and will be skill enough to breeze by the second enocunter. Speaking of after dealing with the stupid robot....

Ending:

Shekra: With B.O.X destroyed and Samus having the wave beam, she enters the restricted area and make one hell of a discovery as to why Adam and the federation guy didn't want Samus here. The area is one big cloning facility of Metroids, dozens can be seen with some growing to already the size of zetas metroids.

Gwen: Great, nice to know that the federation is trying to bring back another problem. But it should be note that all of this work that the federation is supposedly doing is actually all done by a rogue unit. If you look up Fusion's Japanese version, there seems to have been some dialogue that didn't got transfer here so there is a part that left out one key detail that the rogue unit is the reason why the BSL station was conducting the cloning idea in the first place.

Micro: Well, not that it matters as before Samus can wonder if maybe she can see about if any of the metroids might have traces of the baby metroid personality so to be adopted, the area is under attack no thanks to the SA-X blasting the area to kingdom come, not even glancing at Samus as it gets devour by the cloned Metroids.

Shekra: Ha, serves the jerk right for trying to kill us like a Metroid, but the destruction it made forces Samus to leave the area before the whole place blows up, with Adam not liking this at all. Though, with next to nothing to lose at not telling Samus what she probably already guess, the federation, or just rogue unit as I'm going to refer to them as, made the cloning project, insisting that it was for peaceful purpose, sure let's go with that. Though, the cloning project is somewhat hinted upon reflecting back on the breeding environment as it was the exact breeding environment as on SR388. And while Adam inform Samus that her action will have consequences, he tells her that she only killed one SA-X, there's ten in the station.

Gwen: Oh sweet merciful Christ....

Shekra: Adam tells Samus to pack up and get the heck out of station. Samus reflects on the mission and thinks to herself that real Adam would have said the same thing, just with a little bit more compassion.

Micro: Huh, sounds like a swell guy, can't wait to see what he's like in another game..... ugh.... Oh, also, its this part where you fight Ridley, use the charge beam if you want the fight to go by quickly and get the screw attack. Also, this is part where if you go to the next navigation room that its the no point of return until after you beat the game, so try to get everything you can get if you want.

Gwen: Well, things aren't so simple as Adam tells Samus that the federation are sending ships to the station with the vain attempt to try to capture the X parasite. Samus knowing how increadibly stupid that idea sounds, tries to get out of the room so she can activate the self destruct sequence to kill the remaining parasites and herself if she has to, only for Adam to lock her in the navigation room until the ships arrive. Samus knowing that the parasite are just waiting for the ship to come by so they can have an all you can eat idiot buffet, Samus demands to be let out, accidentally referring the AI as Adam, which confuses the AI, understandably. Adam questions who the CO was to Samus with the bounty hunter giving some tidbits of what the real Adam did for her, with Adam criticizing the real Adam for sacrificing himself to save Samus just so Samus can blow herself up in a attempt to kill the X parasite, pointing out that she would be doing nothing but just wasting her life and no doing much in eradicating the threat. Adam tells Samus that if she really wants to destroy the X parasite, she would be better off altering the station's orbit so it can crash straight into SR388 so it not only destroy the parasites on the station but on the planet itself too.

Sherka: Yeah, it is at this point that I think the game heavily implies, if not states, that this AI is actually the real Adam Malkovich with his mind being digitally transfer to a computer. Adam even end his final mission briefing to Samus by saying, "Any objection, Lady?" without Samus even mentioning that part. Which really begs the question just how they manage to do that, was it by Adam's choice, and who's idea was it to transfer his mind to a AI system, the federation or the rogue unit?

Micro: Well, whatever the case, this is rather a neat scene as Samus realizes this is Adam and follows his order to change the the station's orbit. Unfortunately, but surprisingly, before Samus could get to the orbit navigation room, the SA-X makes it appearance as Samus is force to fight the monster one on one. The fight is rather easy to deal with while the SA-X can feel rather underwhelming if you were expecting a very harsh challenge, but don't be so reckless as the SA-X can still do harsh damage to you and won't hesitate to ram itself to you just to damage you with screw attack. After damaging the Samus clone, the SA-X transform into a rather hideous monstrosity that is sadly pathetically easy to beat before the parasite manages to fly off before Samus could absorb it. Still, with the SA-X gone, Samus alters the station's orbit and has three minutes to get the hell out of the station and back to her ship before the whole place crashes into the planet. Sadly for Samus, by the time she gets there, not only is the ship missing, but she is then ambush by a Omega Metroid that managed to not get stuck in the restricted area before it blew up.

Gwen: Shouldn't this thing be friendly, Samus is part of them now.

Shekra: Before the Omega Metroid could finish Samus off, the SA-X comes back and starts attacking the Omega Metroid using ice beam, which doesn't make sense since these things were immune to ice beam in the original game. Probably the rogue unit's attempt of mutating the metroid to make it easier to control it. Whatever the case, the omega metroid strikes at the SA-X and Samus waste little time absorbing the parasite, now completely at full strength and armed with ice beam. After a rather tense minute of trying to blast the metroid's chest, the Omega Metroid is defeated and Samus's ship returns just in time to pick her up and leave the station just as it crash lands into the planet, destroying the both the station and the planet.

Gwen: So Samus is two for two on how many planets she destroy, I'm afraid to know how many worlds she visits in this series. Still, with the X parasite seemingly gone for good, hopefully, Samus reflects on the mission, her being now the last Metroid in the galaxy thanks to her DNA being alter, her reunion with Adam, all while wondering how the hell Adam piloted the ship if it can only be activated manually. Well, the answers is rather simple, Samus saved the animals.

Conclusion:

Micro: Metroid Fusion has been a rather entertaining game for me to play for this review, even despite it kicking my rear in more times due to how much the enemies hurt. In all honestly, if you were to ask me if I like Super or Fusion more, I would say that I like Fusion more. While the game sacrifices exploration to have more of a narrative story this time, the game was still fun to play with it providing plenty of challenges that I did enjoy mainly with the bosses, minus tombstone, that robot can rust in robot hell for all I care. I enjoy the controls of the game, enjoy how much more simple the power ups were while the game still asking you to have the skills to move around and blast stuff in order to knock get treated like a rag doll every two feet. Overall, I fun and I think fusion might be my favorite game of the series so far.

Gwen: That's not to say that it doesn't have problems. We already mentioned some of the problem in the gameplay, but the main issue so far that I think Micro has with the game is the whole backtracking and getting everything in the game, certain puzzles being more a pain to deal with than they honestly should, and shine spark puzzles being a real hassle to work with. Still, even I can't say much to criticize the game too much. Though, I was more busy at just trying to get more rear out of each room to stay alive so that may have something to do with it.

Shekra: With some discussion of what we thought of the game, we decided to give the game a gold rank for the review. The game provides a rather decent story with some rather great gameplay and challenges, but the whole process of getting every collectible can be a rather hassle.

Gwen: I'm noticing that these conclusions are getting shorter and shorter.

Micro: Look, we can only say so much without sounding like we are repeating stuff we went on detail with both this review and the last reviews of the other Metroid game.

Gwen: Fair point.

Micro: With that, its high time to end this marathon of the Metroid series that you guys have been waiting a month for, with our final destination of the marathon being Metroid Dread. See you guys hopefully very soon, and hope you all have a good day.

Micro and Shekra: Bye.

Gwen: Choa Choa

Smushy: Bo ba ba

Description

Derpy Review #30: Metroid Fusion (spoilers, obviously)

Micro: When it comes to Nintendo and their games, many of their best games are usually in the consoles like the big titans that are Mario, Legend of Zelda, ect. But many other of Nintendo's best games are, not surprisingly, are also in their handheld systems, like the DS and 3DS, with the original Gameboy being the very pioneer that launch handheld consoles, and I mean functional handheld consoles that can play games that has more than two sprites. Such games like pokemon started in the Gameboy before long later the Gameboy's younger brother pop out and soon became houses to a bunch of great games. And one of these great games is another game of the Metroid marathon we have been doing, and that is Metroid Fusion.

Gwen: Huh, look at that, a beginning intro that's short and sound like part of a overdue college homework.

Micro: Shut up.

Smushy: ba ha ab ha

Shekra: Moving on, Metroid Fusion has had a rather interesting developement and release to say. After the success of Super Metroid, the Metroid series has gone rather quiet between Super and Fusion with no signs of games coming out any time soon while teased projects were brought up and canned almost immediately. The time span between Super and Fusion was more than eight years before Fusion was released.

Micro: Jesus Christ, and I thought Pikmin fans had it rough in waiting for a new game that's impossible to tell if the series is breathing or dead for a while.

Gwen: When was the last the game?

Micro: Eight years and still counting, and no, no one counts that 3ds game.

Gwen: Sweet Christ

Shekra: There was talk of a Metroid for the N64, but that too I believe was canceled as well. Development for Fusion didn't began till 2001 where the whole game apparently used a heavily modified version of an engine that was used for Wario World 4, with the game coming out in November 2017, 2002, a day after the release of another Metroid game, Metriod Prime for the Gamecube.

Gwen: Sheesh, that sounds like it was pinning two games at each other.

Micro: Maybe, considering that I think it was a different studio that did Metroid Prime where I don't think Sakamoto was entirely involved for that one, but that's something we can discuss later whenever we decide to look at Metroid Prime. For now, let's focus on Fusion, cause after this one, there is only one game to talk about for this marathon, so let's get started on Metroid 4, Metroid Fusion.

Shekra: Spoilers are abound!

Smushy: Baba ah ba

Story:

Micro: The story is rather meaty to talk about compare to previous Metroid games, in that there's more a narrative story in this game than one mini paragraph to summarize everything.

Gwen: Great, just when I was hoping we would breeze by this review.

Micro: After some time after Super Metroid, the Galatic Federation asked Samus to be a bodyguard for the Biological research team of the Biological Space Laboratory space station, or the B.S.L station, as the team heads to planet SR388, the very same planet that Samus eradicated most of the Metroids and took in the baby Metroid, and is the one place so far that hasn't blown yet by Samus. Samus encounters one of the local animals and quickly kills it, but as she does, the creature transform into a weird jelly blob that not only ignore Samus's missiles, but immediately flung itself into Samus. Not feeling anything weird, Samus returns to her ship, and soon realizes that was a bad mistake as the blob starts to attack Samus's nervous system that caused her to crash her ship into a asteroid. Thankfully, Samus got out of the ship and was taken to medical care, where the medical crew had discover the creature that attack Samus is a parasitic organism that they call X, and to make it worse, they can't remove the parasite even after surgically removing Samus's power suit off her just to try to examine her. Which looking at the suit Samus has on in this game makes me really wonder if the weird blue gooey looking suit was always under the power armor or was something the federation gave her to temporarily replaced the power armor.

Gwen: Not even five minutes in the game and this girl is having a terrible day, sheesh.

Shekra: With the chance of survival for Samus extremely low to the point she might as well be consider dead in a minute, the doctors decide to whip up a vaccine to eradicate the X parasite, a vaccine that used a preserved cell culture of the same Metroid that Samus tried to rescue back on Planet Zebes.

Gwen: Even in death, that little jelly boy is saving Samus. Well. short story short, the vaccine worked, it killed off the parasite in Samus's body, but it also alter her DNA to make her part Metroid, which also means she also has the same weakness as the Metroid, cold. By the way, just saying this now, that's is not even remotely how vaccines works, that is more closely related to something call Crispr. I know Crispr wasn't exactly a thing till years later after this game, but figure to mention this part.

Micro: While Samus manages to survive being a corpse thanks to the baby Metroid, things don't get better as it turns out that the B.S.L. station had an explosion and Samus is sent there due to the fact that the research team brought in plenty of species from SR388 to the station, and there is a large chance of more X parasites are involve. The reason why Samus is sent despite her near death encounter with the deadly blob is because it turns out that thanks to her body now being part Metroid, she can now absorb the X parasite.

Gwen: As it turns out, in case you haven't beaten Samus Return and 100% the areas to get the Chozo memories or had the manual to this game, the Chozo were in fact the very ones that made the Metroid for the sole reason of dealing with the X parasite upon their discovery of the creatures and seeing the danger the parasite has to the galaxy and to the Chozo still on the planet. Seems that Samus's mission to eradicate the Metroid in hindsight may have been a horrible idea on paper, but keep in mind that nobody outside the Chozo knew of the X parasite's involvement, not even Samus apparently, she was raised on planet Zumbaba after all. It didn't help that the Metroid themselves were not only a threat to the galaxy as well, but turn on the Chozos which was why they were sealed up in SR388 in the first place.

Shekra: As Samus is going to the station, having to take a new ship cause her old one crashed into a rock, she is now accompanied by an AI, giving her orders throughout this mission. During the game, Samus nickname the AI after a CO she once had when she served the federation, Adam Malkovich, a rather stern yet respectable commander that Samus seems to look up even if Adam somewhat sarcastically ends mission briefing to Samus with, "Any objections, Lady?" We'll be referring the AI as Adam.

Micro: Adam order us to head to the quarantine bay to seek out to see if the X parasite is here and out. Good news, the X parasites are out, bad news, they pretty much took over the whole station and will be the enemy Samus will be facing about 99% of the time, as it turns out that the parasite can mimic the DNA of all the prey they consume and make themselves look like the creatures they consume but without the soul, reproducing asexually at a rapid pace as later reveal. And things were not going to get better as Adam reports that the X parasites are seemingly in location and Samus needs to investigate the area, but not before getting missiles thanks to federation as she has to go to a data room and download the missile, after all, she lost all her stuff when the medical crew had to remove her armor to try to save her.

Gwen: Download? What is this, she 3D downloading the thing, how does that even make sense?

Micro: I don't know, science I guess.

Gwen: Well, at least they made a good reason why she doesn't have her stuff in this game this time. Though, any reason why the federation didn't give her stuff back?

Shekra: Oh, you'll see why very soon. With the missiles collected, Samus heads to the area where the parasites are and encounters.... Arachnus?

Gwen: Ok, either Samus didn't actually got the spring ball power up from her first trip to the SR388, or the X parasites can somehow still mimic the DNA of something that should be long dead. What are these things, the love child of the Blob and the Thing?

Micro: That might not be a far comparison considering we do get to meet an old friend again later in the game, but that's for later. After dealing with the rather very easy armadillo guy and getting the morph ball ability from the X core that morphs from Arachnus's body, Samus is then instructed by Adam to head to sector one Breeding environment to stop x parasite from spreading any further than they have already. However, as Samus leaves, we get to meet a rather unexpected guest that wishes to say hi to Samus, and the guest is.... Samus herself , the SA-X being perfect copy replica no thanks to the X parasites infecting her suit and is now running around the station with all of Samus's equipment, including the power bombs, screw attack, and ice beam.

Gwen: Oh, that explain where everything went....

Shekra: Yup, and because of this souless clone is hunting us, Adam instruct Samus to run away from the deadly blob after she fix the air filters clogged with X parasites, telling her that she is no match for the SA-X.

Gwen: Yeah, no kidding, guy has all of Samus stuff and Samus is part Metroid, all it needs is one good ice beam a missile to the face on Samus and she's toast. Anyways, Adam tells us to get to Sector 2 so we can get the morph bombs to deal with getting around areas as well as opening up level one locks, and after getting the power up and dealing with a.... is that a motherf$%king space condom?

Micro: And she was riding my rear to hold back the language. Dealing with the... space condom... Samus gets the high jump boots and makes her way back to Adam, though not before hiding from the SA-X until it leaves.

Shekra: Adam reveals that maybe opening the locks wasn't a good idea as the X parasites are spreading to areas that were sealed off, with areas of Sector 4 now already infected from the parasites, though it was a necessary evil for Samus to get everything she needs to deal with the deadly blob. Things not getting better as it turns out that a creature call Serris that inhabits Sector 4 is running rampant and Samus needs to stop it before it destroys the area or worse, the X parasites gets their bloby hands on it. After having to make some detours to get to the containment area of Serris, we find Samus. Unfortunately, that's the good news. The bad news is next door where you have to deal with the X version of the serpent.

Gwen: After dealing with the bullet train snake from Atlantis, Samus gets the speed booster and helps fix the sector a bit by draining the water. Adam is surprise to hear the parasite beating Samus to Serris so quickly, but then states that since the X cores Samus has been dealing with has been giving her abilities thanks to the parasites taking in the special DNA traits of their prey, Adam thinks that Samus will eventually get back to her peak strength as she was before she got infected by the X parasite and might have a chance with the SA-X, but that's still far away of a chance. With that, Samus is sent to Sector 3 to get her super missiles upgrade after unlocking the level 2 locks.

Micro: Samus gets the missiles, but then has to deal with my least favorite boss in this game, B.O.X, or tombstone as I'm going to call the metallic jerk cause this guy loves to give me hell and bury me six feet under. We'll talk more about this guy later, but for now, the rogue security robot decides to high tail it out of the area and gets away before Samus can destroy it. Anyways, with the level 2 locks open, Sector 5 and 6 are open, but unless we want to freeze to death in sector 5, we need to get the Varia suit in Sector 6 as previous data rooms seems to have been destroyed no thanks to the X parasites. However, as Samus leaves the area, we get a small scene where it seems that Adam is talking to somebody in the federation that doesn't want Samus to know what is going in this station, seems suspectious, but we'll talk about that little part later.

Shekra: Samus has to travel around Sector 6 to get to the data room that has the suit upgrade, all while having to be careful of the X parasites as some of them mutated to make themselves cold to injure Samus a lot. Still, Samus finally makes to the data room.... only to find a giant X core sucking the data out of the room as apparently these gelatin monsters can organically download data.

Gwen: Ok, how the hell that makes sense? I know this is supposed to be more of a scifi adventure series or whatever the series is, but that sounds more like witchcraft than science.

Micro: I don't know, all I want to know is who's bright idea was it to make the Varia suit puke green once you get it from the giant X core. Well, got the upgrade so now we can handle cold, but because we are still part Metroid, the federation has to sent a substitute weapon for Samus to use ice attacks, so the idea they come up with is ice missiles that is store in sector 5 after we open up the level 3 locks.

Shekra: However, after getting the ice missiles and making her way back to Adam, the main boiler in sector 3 has gone to metldown and Samus has to rush there to fix the situation or else the station will blow up. Samus manages to get there in time to see a X parasite morphed into a human researcher and kills it before restoring the boiler back to safety levels. Adam questions why would a self preserving organism would want to kill themselves, thinking that maybe the X parasite finds Samus such a dangerous threat to them that they would be willing to blow themselves up to take out Samus if it means protecting the X parasite that is somewhere else.

Gwen: Well, considering how many bodies Samus has racked up with everyone trying to kill her, can't entirely blame the parasites except yes I can. Though I do like the small foreshadowing. However, another thing that Adam thinks that makes the X parasite a rather terrifying creature is that the possibility that the X parasite can not only mimic their prey's DNA, but their memories as well as it would the only thing that makes sense as to how they activated the meltdown for the boiler. With that said, Adam has reported that possible survivor are discover in the habitation deck in the main deck, so Samus is sent there to find the survivors. Sadly, yet also very fortunate, the only survivors in the area are in fact the very same monkey and bird aliens that Samus encounter on planet Zebra. Showing her gratitude to space animals, she frees them before reporting to Adam, with Adam saying that it is very likely that everyone in the station is dead and are being consume by the X parasite.

Shekra: With the X parasite growing stronger, Samus is sent back to the data room in Sector 5 to get her power bombs to help fight back the parasites, getting a very close death encounter from the SA-X as it tries to hunt her down and kill her. Adam asked Samus to return to her ship for a quick breather, but she had to take a force detour cause the elevator shut down mid way. As she does, Samus manages to enter a room that houses.... Ridely?

Gwen: How? We blew this reptilian monster in Super, how does he keep coming back?

Micro: Beats me, but from the way it looks, Ridley is still a corpse, but that might not last long as a X parasite soon comes out of him and flies away. If Ridley was somehow still alive while he was sitting in place, he's now no more than a hollow husk of his former self when we encounter him in the future. Anyways, Samus manages to get to her ship where Adam briefs her of the X parasites shut off the silo reactor in the main deck that Samus has to deal with, while also notifying Samus that the animals boarded the ship and are thankfully not infected of the X parasite. Which begs the question as to why that is the case, are they immune to the parasite like say the Metroids were kind of design to be or did the X parasite let them live cause they see no value to the animals or keeping them as backup for something? Who knows but for now, Samus has to make her way to the reactor where she has to deal with a giant.... spider... name Yakuza.

Shekra: Oh god, I knew you not finishing Yakuza 5 was going to bite you in the ass, Micro. Keep away from any giant cones and motorcycles in case he has heat action up to max.

Gwen: You two are a bunch of dorks, you know that right.

Smushy: Ha bah ah ba.

Gwen: Dealing with the spider, and getting the space jump back, Samus restore some of the power, but she'll have to go through sector 2 again, and run from the Saxophone again, to encounter another X parasite that tangling up the whole area of plants and preventing power throughout the whole station. The creature that is blocking power turns out to be a Chozo statue, similar to the gold one you fought in Super. There was another Chozo statue boss earlier in the game that we didn't mention cause it really isn't that important, but it does make me wonder that if the X parasites are mimicing organic creatures, or the organic components of the creature, is the Chozo statues alive in some ways? This game is making me ask more questions than giving me answers.

Shekra: After destroying the parasite, Samus gets the plasma beam upgrade, something that shocks Adam as he wasn't expecting Samus to get the upgrade, considering that the federation was supposed to sent the upgrade earlier but couldn't. Still, there's another problem to be had and that is there is an explosion back in sector 5 where a bioweapon name the Nightmare, capable of not only warping gravity that the federation was planning to use for combat but destroying the frame rate of the game to make things feel so painfully slow, is running rampant and destroying the area.

Gwen: Who the hell was the federation was going to send this science experiment at that requires gravity manipulation? It can't be the space pirates.

Micro: Don't know but that doesn't change the fact it needs to be stop. And after meeting the Nightmare, and struggling to not puke from the sight of his second phase, you get the gravity suit, allowing Samus to take a force detour to Sector 4 and having to unlock level 4 locks, something Adam was not happy of seeing, on top of surprise of Samus getting the final missile upgrade, the Diffusion missiles, something we'll talk about later. Anyways, Samus is sent to Sector 6 to deal with the tombstone again as the robot is rampaging everything there no thanks to the X parasite corrupting it. With Adam ordering Samus to destroy the robot and return back to the navigation room and nothing else, Samus destroys the robot, getting the wave beam.

Gwen: Ok, I know that each ability we get from the X parasites is based on a special attribute they can do, like Yakuza spinning around or Serris having sonic speed, but how does getting the Wave beam from B.O.X. makes sense? It only fires missiles and that's it.

Shekra: Honestly, your guess is as good as mine, I think its more that they ran out of ideas of where to put the wave beam and shoved it inside the robot. Maybe it has to do with the fact with you can't hurt the robot unless you hit the squishy center of it?

Micro: Whatever the case is, with the wave beam, Samus decides to take a small detour and venture into a restricted area, somewhere that Adam as well as the federation that Adam was talking to didn't want Samus to go to. With that, I think its time to take a small break from talking of the story.

Gwen: About time, this is more story than I was thinking this game was going to give considering the last few games.

Shekra: Oh don't worry sis, its only going to get worse in some of the later games.

Gwen: Great, just what I want to hear....

Smushy: ha ba.

Gameplay:

Micro: For the sake of once again making things quick, gameplay in Fusion is the same as Super, Samus having every ability as she had in the last game while the same type of power ups from the last game returning as we mentioned from the story, minus the grapple beam and the rather useless x ray scope. However, Fusion has change the mechanics of the game that both simplify and streamline it for the sake of the fact that we are playing a Game boy Advance game. Samus automatically runs in the game as there is no run button, missile are toggle by holding the right bumper of the GBA and letting go to go back to firing beams which makes combat rather a bit more fast past, the high jump boots not only allows Samus to jump higher but also allows Samus to jump while in morph ball form so you don't have to look for the spring jump. With missile upgrades, the devs made it where that once you get the super missiles as well as the ice missiles, you won't have to switch to any other missiles as the three types, including the diffusion missiles, which we'll talk about very shortly, stack on top of each other. The same thing with beams, except I think the charge beam is possibly better than missiles to use on enemies as the beam is rather ridiculously powerful in this game and it only gets stronger with each beam upgrade, which makes dealing with some bosses as a joke. Power bombs also are tinker a bit to exploded faster and I think has a wider range of blast. There are two mechanic changes I think might rub people the wrong way and they are the wall jump and morph ball. For morph ball, the devs made it where the blast time is a little longer, which makes sequence breaking impossible to do in this game, though, I'm more bother of some level design that requires the bombs that takes a lot longer than I want for it to blow up only for me to realize that I as off by one pixel. As for wall jump, the devs made it where you can simply immediately swing yourself in the air back to the wall you jump from to do another wall jump, you have to go one direction before you can do another wall jump or you're falling like a rock. Otherwise, mechanics is the same in this game.

Shekra: As for the newer stuff that Samus gets as well as some things that's different in this game compare to Super, Samus gets two different power ups, both missiles upgrades that are the ice missiles and diffusion missiles, both easy to explain. Ice missile substitutes the ice beam where you fire a missile at enemies and can freeze them in place, either to shoot at them more or use them as platform. The diffusion missiles is a bit more unique in that its a more wider range ice missile, where you have to hold the right bumper before you can fire the diffusion missile, which creates a massive ice blast that can hit multiple enemies in the blast's range. However, that seems to be about it as I don't think the missiles destroys enemies, just makes it easier for puzzle solving and traversing shortcuts you can find in the game. In replace of not having the grappling beam, but also due the fact that Samus doesn't have a ton suit of armor on her, she is able to grab ledges and even morph ball into vents as well as climb and hang on ladders, a very useful ability to have right off the bat. Another thing to note is that Samus gets access to maps far faster and easier in this game, with each navigation room she enters the first time per sector giving to her, which also makes it easier to traverse the area as the map does a better job telling you what wall and door leads to what, with secret areas still needed to be discover on your own. Recharge station are also changed to where they not only refill your health back up but missiles and bombs as well, with normally a save room and navigation next door to it.

Gwen: With the game being a handheld, the devs made each area feel a little bit more pack and smaller than what was on planet Zoom in Super, making traversing the area feel like you are going faster in the areas. Puzzles are still the same in the game as the last one, where you either need power ups to get upgrades or use power ups or skills on enemies before you can get the power up, which means that some of the same headache are still the same in this game as they were in the last game.

Micro: Except I argue and say that some of the puzzle solving in this game is significantly worse than Super, mostly with the stupid Shine spark, the ability I think we mentioned with the speed booster in the last game where you run for a certain distant before pressing down and then can launch yourself to a direction like a cannon ball. I swear, whoever made the shine spark puzzles in this game was an absolute jerk with how you had to work with the stupid abilities just so you can get either mostly power bomb upgrades or missile upgrades. One best example is this one room where you have to shine spark against a wall to get a power bomb, but to do that, you need to have hold the shine sparks after jumping to a higher ledge and then immediately shine sparking into a slop just to keep running at sonic speed before having to hold another shine spark and repeat the previous process several times before you can get the upgrade. There were many upgrades that took me like ten or twenty minute each before I figured out what to do or look it up just so I can stop banging my head against the wall only for me to still take forever to get the power up, and its always with the stupid shine sparks. And keep in mind, the game doesn't tell you that you automatic run at sonic speed if you shine spark into a slop, unless its mentioned on the manual, in which case, god I hate buying used games that doesn't have manuals and figuring this stuff out myself. And here's also the thing about this game, you are going to need these upgrades, mostly the e tanks, just to survive the X parasites.

Shekra: Good God, does the enemies do so much damage to Samus in this game even with all the suit upgrades. If the devs' goal was to make the player feel nervous at smacking into enemies, they did a great job as enemies hit like a semi truck and can knock so much health just by bumping into them. The enemies are fast with some of them having some armor that you can't hit their weak spots directly while there are some enemies that are just extremely mean and unpleasant to kill no matter what. The worst examples are gold space pirates and kihunters. Yes, space pirates are in this game, but they are nothing more than X clones that will give you a hard time as you try to kill them with the gold pirates having such thick armor that you can only kill them by firing missiles at their backs, or by using a glitch where you fire a missile at them and immediately face away from the pirate and they take hits. As for the kihunters, they are possibly worse than the gold pirates, as you hardly have to face more than maybe three gold pirates. Kihunters may no having invincible armor like the gold pirates, but they do so much damage, are almost everywhere in sector 2, and will snipe you in the worst ways by ramming into you while you have very little space to jump around them. Honestly, this might be one of the more difficult games of Metroid we have played as of yet for the reviews and of the series mainly due to how fragile Samus is in the beginning of the game. Thankfully, that's what having the X parasites is for with Samus's ability to absorb them. Defeating the parasites and absorbing them will either heal you or restore your missiles, similar to how regaining stuff in Super was, with four type of color in this game to tell you what you'll get, orange give you petri dish amount of health, blue is significantly better, green gives you missiles, and red is the rarest but gives you full heal and missiles. While the X parasites are both trying to kill you and can you stuff to stock on, they are also use for puzzles, and I don't mean to ice missile them. At some points in the game and due to how the X parasites function, you have to kill the parasite, wait for the blob to reform itself to another enemy and then kill them again before either you can absorb them or wait for them to amalgamate to another creature to transform into something else to solve the puzzle in the room or area. A prime example is in this one area in sector 5 i believe it was where you had to shoot down an enemy twice and let it get absorb by some weird vine tower thing so you can freeze it then use it to speed booster your way to the next area you need to progress. Honestly, I do like the creativeness of using the X parasites as puzzles if it means to get everything in the game.

Gwen: Not that I would recommend doing that on the account of what Micro said about the shine spark puzzles alone. Getting everything in this game is a massive pain to the rectum, back tracking in later part of the game can be absolutely more tedious than Super, and you can get screw at getting everything in one go after a certain point of the game and have to wait until you beat the game before you can resume at getting everything. And getting everything isn't worth it honestly, unless you consider getting the 100% complete image of seeing Samus wearing sport shorts and shirt worth it, Micro, don't you get any ideas...

Micro: Too late.

Gwen: You honestly don't need to get everything in this game to survive the game, as honestly, if you go from point a to be, you should be ok, minus the part that enemies hurt and you should probably get every E tank you can find. Besides, its rather ridiculous to get everything in this game when the charge beam is more than capable of dealing with enemies while you have enough missiles and power bombs to level an army and a moon. Seriously, what the heck is anyone going to do with 250 missiles and 74 power bombs, you don't need that much even for the bosses.

Bosses:

Micro: Bosses in the game function the same as the previous games, shoot the weak spot and hope it dies first before you do. But at the same time, these bosses have a lot unique design and has something that you'll remember most of them for one reason or another.

Shekra: Personal favorite boss is probably with Ridley, in case it wasn't obvious enough already in the review that we'll be fighting him. Guy is going nuts with his attacks as he feels far more aggressive than he was in Super, despite having the same move sets as in Super. Ridley's attacks hurt and he moves rather fast, but at the same time I like this fight a lot as you deal with this hollow husk returning from the grave to have another fight with Samus. Now if only his screech of pain wasn't so painful to my ears, why did I had to be a bat anthro.

Gwen: Personal favorite is Arachnus, short, easy to kill and move so I can leave.

Micro: Why not the space condom boss then, he's just as easy to deal with.

Gwen: You really think anyone is going to remember that thing other than how questionably weird that thing is and try saying its their favorite with a straight face?

Micro: Nope. Anyways, personal favorite for me might have to be the Nightmare. This creepy thing is so weird and and disturbing that despite the fact his attack are rather simple to understand and he can alter gravity to make it feel like you are jumping in water, I can't help but like the guy, even after you destroy his face plate and try to not puke from the sight of his face. Which brings up my least favorite boss and that is the tombstone that is know as B.O.X. This big tin can drone is absolutely annoying to destroy, he has one weak spot and that is his center part of his body, but you can only hit by being above him and firing missiles at him. However, he is a quick little bugger that doesn't give that much of a window to hit, he loves to bounce around, and in his first time fighting him, he likes to throw fire bombs at you while his second encounter has him firing missiles at you while you have to hang on ladders over a pool of electrify water that hurts. This guy sucks to fight and has way to high of a skill ceiling to be honest. Only tip I can give is that he is rather easy to manipulate, so once you can find a sweet spot to fire missiles at him, you at least know what to do I guess. Is the tombstone the hardest boss? I did died to him more than times I want to admit, so yes. But hopefully after the first encounter, you already got a hang of the mechanics and will be skill enough to breeze by the second enocunter. Speaking of after dealing with the stupid robot....

Ending:

Shekra: With B.O.X destroyed and Samus having the wave beam, she enters the restricted area and make one hell of a discovery as to why Adam and the federation guy didn't want Samus here. The area is one big cloning facility of Metroids, dozens can be seen with some growing to already the size of zetas metroids.

Gwen: Great, nice to know that the federation is trying to bring back another problem. But it should be note that all of this work that the federation is supposedly doing is actually all done by a rogue unit. If you look up Fusion's Japanese version, there seems to have been some dialogue that didn't got transfer here so there is a part that left out one key detail that the rogue unit is the reason why the BSL station was conducting the cloning idea in the first place.

Micro: Well, not that it matters as before Samus can wonder if maybe she can see about if any of the metroids might have traces of the baby metroid personality so to be adopted, the area is under attack no thanks to the SA-X blasting the area to kingdom come, not even glancing at Samus as it gets devour by the cloned Metroids.

Shekra: Ha, serves the jerk right for trying to kill us like a Metroid, but the destruction it made forces Samus to leave the area before the whole place blows up, with Adam not liking this at all. Though, with next to nothing to lose at not telling Samus what she probably already guess, the federation, or just rogue unit as I'm going to refer to them as, made the cloning project, insisting that it was for peaceful purpose, sure let's go with that. Though, the cloning project is somewhat hinted upon reflecting back on the breeding environment as it was the exact breeding environment as on SR388. And while Adam inform Samus that her action will have consequences, he tells her that she only killed one SA-X, there's ten in the station.

Gwen: Oh sweet merciful Christ....

Shekra: Adam tells Samus to pack up and get the heck out of station. Samus reflects on the mission and thinks to herself that real Adam would have said the same thing, just with a little bit more compassion.

Micro: Huh, sounds like a swell guy, can't wait to see what he's like in another game..... ugh.... Oh, also, its this part where you fight Ridley, use the charge beam if you want the fight to go by quickly and get the screw attack. Also, this is part where if you go to the next navigation room that its the no point of return until after you beat the game, so try to get everything you can get if you want.

Gwen: Well, things aren't so simple as Adam tells Samus that the federation are sending ships to the station with the vain attempt to try to capture the X parasite. Samus knowing how increadibly stupid that idea sounds, tries to get out of the room so she can activate the self destruct sequence to kill the remaining parasites and herself if she has to, only for Adam to lock her in the navigation room until the ships arrive. Samus knowing that the parasite are just waiting for the ship to come by so they can have an all you can eat idiot buffet, Samus demands to be let out, accidentally referring the AI as Adam, which confuses the AI, understandably. Adam questions who the CO was to Samus with the bounty hunter giving some tidbits of what the real Adam did for her, with Adam criticizing the real Adam for sacrificing himself to save Samus just so Samus can blow herself up in a attempt to kill the X parasite, pointing out that she would be doing nothing but just wasting her life and no doing much in eradicating the threat. Adam tells Samus that if she really wants to destroy the X parasite, she would be better off altering the station's orbit so it can crash straight into SR388 so it not only destroy the parasites on the station but on the planet itself too.

Sherka: Yeah, it is at this point that I think the game heavily implies, if not states, that this AI is actually the real Adam Malkovich with his mind being digitally transfer to a computer. Adam even end his final mission briefing to Samus by saying, "Any objection, Lady?" without Samus even mentioning that part. Which really begs the question just how they manage to do that, was it by Adam's choice, and who's idea was it to transfer his mind to a AI system, the federation or the rogue unit?

Micro: Well, whatever the case, this is rather a neat scene as Samus realizes this is Adam and follows his order to change the the station's orbit. Unfortunately, but surprisingly, before Samus could get to the orbit navigation room, the SA-X makes it appearance as Samus is force to fight the monster one on one. The fight is rather easy to deal with while the SA-X can feel rather underwhelming if you were expecting a very harsh challenge, but don't be so reckless as the SA-X can still do harsh damage to you and won't hesitate to ram itself to you just to damage you with screw attack. After damaging the Samus clone, the SA-X transform into a rather hideous monstrosity that is sadly pathetically easy to beat before the parasite manages to fly off before Samus could absorb it. Still, with the SA-X gone, Samus alters the station's orbit and has three minutes to get the hell out of the station and back to her ship before the whole place crashes into the planet. Sadly for Samus, by the time she gets there, not only is the ship missing, but she is then ambush by a Omega Metroid that managed to not get stuck in the restricted area before it blew up.

Gwen: Shouldn't this thing be friendly, Samus is part of them now.

Shekra: Before the Omega Metroid could finish Samus off, the SA-X comes back and starts attacking the Omega Metroid using ice beam, which doesn't make sense since these things were immune to ice beam in the original game. Probably the rogue unit's attempt of mutating the metroid to make it easier to control it. Whatever the case, the omega metroid strikes at the SA-X and Samus waste little time absorbing the parasite, now completely at full strength and armed with ice beam. After a rather tense minute of trying to blast the metroid's chest, the Omega Metroid is defeated and Samus's ship returns just in time to pick her up and leave the station just as it crash lands into the planet, destroying the both the station and the planet.

Gwen: So Samus is two for two on how many planets she destroy, I'm afraid to know how many worlds she visits in this series. Still, with the X parasite seemingly gone for good, hopefully, Samus reflects on the mission, her being now the last Metroid in the galaxy thanks to her DNA being alter, her reunion with Adam, all while wondering how the hell Adam piloted the ship if it can only be activated manually. Well, the answers is rather simple, Samus saved the animals.

Conclusion:

Micro: Metroid Fusion has been a rather entertaining game for me to play for this review, even despite it kicking my rear in more times due to how much the enemies hurt. In all honestly, if you were to ask me if I like Super or Fusion more, I would say that I like Fusion more. While the game sacrifices exploration to have more of a narrative story this time, the game was still fun to play with it providing plenty of challenges that I did enjoy mainly with the bosses, minus tombstone, that robot can rust in robot hell for all I care. I enjoy the controls of the game, enjoy how much more simple the power ups were while the game still asking you to have the skills to move around and blast stuff in order to knock get treated like a rag doll every two feet. Overall, I fun and I think fusion might be my favorite game of the series so far.

Gwen: That's not to say that it doesn't have problems. We already mentioned some of the problem in the gameplay, but the main issue so far that I think Micro has with the game is the whole backtracking and getting everything in the game, certain puzzles being more a pain to deal with than they honestly should, and shine spark puzzles being a real hassle to work with. Still, even I can't say much to criticize the game too much. Though, I was more busy at just trying to get more rear out of each room to stay alive so that may have something to do with it.

Shekra: With some discussion of what we thought of the game, we decided to give the game a gold rank for the review. The game provides a rather decent story with some rather great gameplay and challenges, but the whole process of getting every collectible can be a rather hassle.

Gwen: I'm noticing that these conclusions are getting shorter and shorter.

Micro: Look, we can only say so much without sounding like we are repeating stuff we went on detail with both this review and the last reviews of the other Metroid game.

Gwen: Fair point.

Micro: With that, its high time to end this marathon of the Metroid series that you guys have been waiting a month for, with our final destination of the marathon being Metroid Dread. See you guys hopefully very soon, and hope you all have a good day.

Micro and Shekra: Bye.

Gwen: Choa Choa

Smushy: Bo ba ba