Thanks for waiting! This is our secret treehouse. Over the next few issues, we’ll be reporting on our experiences with the Metroid series. Everyone, are you familiar with Metroid?
Nintendo’s Metroid series is a popular action game alongside Mario and Zelda that have been sold on the NES (Disk System), GB and SNES.The other day, the fourth game in the Metroid series, Metroid Fusion, went on sale alongside the Game Boy Advance SP. Recently there have been a lot of commercials for the game on TV, so there must be a lot of people wondering what it is. If I were to put it in one word, I might call it a hardcore action game.It’s unique among Nintendo’s games and rather different from Mario and Zelda. The protagonist is a woman for example. Therefore, we’d really like to let everyone know how interesting this series is! We’ve entrusted this report to Takabashi as he’s most well-versed in Metroid at Hobonichi.
Metroid Fusion is just the start; we’re also planning to report on the GameCube game Metroid Prime! Incidentally, the official Metroid webpage
has also gone live, so check it out if you’re interested! Here’s our first Metroid Fusion Report, please take a look!
Reporter Takabashi (He finally got a GBA SP!)
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It brings back the excitement from 15 years ago! |
This is Takabashi, a reporter for Hobonichi. It’s been about two weeks since I went to the GBA hands-on experience event with everyone from Hobonichi. We were finally able to get our hands on the long-awaited Metroid Fusion! I’ve written about this before, but Metroid is a game that I played at a friend’s house on their NES 15 years ago.
Metroid isn’t just a simple action game; it features puzzles where you make use of various weapons and abilities to progress. For me, who was in Elementary School at the time, it felt like an absurdly difficult game. For example, you can use the ice beam to freeze an enemy and then use them as a foothold to climb up an area, this sort of free-thinking is required. At that time, I was just going around beating the crap out of enemies and it felt like I couldn’t make any progress. Of course, I couldn’t beat it. Towards the end of our session, I ran out of missiles, got a game over and I think that’s where we stopped.
In the years that followed Metroid II on the GB and Super Metroid on the SNES continued the story with Metroid Fusion being the fourth chapter in the storyline. It also won’t be much longer before the much-anticipated Metroid Prime comes out for the GameCube!
Now it’s February 2003, 15 years after I first played, I wonder how far I’ll be able to get? This time I’m going to beat it! Such was the level of my enthusiasm as I opened Metroid Fusion’s box.
The story this time is…
Our protagonist Samus investigates a mysterious explosion at the BIOLOGIC Space Biology Laboratory while fighting off an infection from an unknown X parasite.
Hmm, there are two mysteries that appear in this summary. Even though it’s an action game, I still get to enjoy this kind of storyline. Way to go Metroid!
Anyway, if I don’t start playing, I won’t solve the mysteries! It takes about 30 minutes on the train to get home from our office, the SP was made for times like this! I could barely contain my excitement as I turned the system on!
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Let’s start off with a close look at the opening animation |
The words Metroid 4 fade in.
It was so cool, just like the opening to a movie. Then all of a sudden Samus’ spaceship crashes into an asteroid and explodes! Let’s get right to it and play. Let’s go! Or so I’d like to say… If you’re a long-time fan, or rather, even if you’re a newcomer to the franchise you have to watch the opening animation. When the ‘Press Start’ text appears, if you wait without pressing any buttons the opening animation will start to play. This opening video is actually pretty important as it’ll show you the techniques that you’ll need to progress in the game. It seems we’ll be using the ‘freeze enemies and turning them into platforms’ technique as well as the wall-jump. I see. Now that we’ve had a brief look at this, we can now start the game!
As the game starts there’s a movie that outlines how Samus is infected by the X parasite and is saved by a vaccine created from the cells of a Metroid. Got it, the name fusion comes from how Samus is fused together with a Metroid. That has to be it.
First of all, it appears that we have to obey the orders of the ship’s computer, Adam (by the way, I believe that the name comes from an old acquaintance of Samus’). Our first goal is to get to the navigation room so that we can receive our orders. We’re told that Samus has lost most of her abilities due to the infection by the X parasite. Adam says that we can use 10% of our usual ability. My heart was pounding as I progressed.
Well, even with that said Samus is still quite nimble. It’s just so fun moving around. Woah! swoosh (jump), pew pew (beam). I got so carried away that I forgot to get off the train! It seems it’s possible to get too absorbed in the game. At times like this the sleep mode is quite convenient. If you want to keep your progress and save on battery life,
you can press the start button to bring up the map and then press L to enter sleep mode. This turns off the screen and saves on power. I have a feeling that since I use the train to commute every morning I’ll be using this feature a lot. This means that anything I do in these 30 minutes is meaningful.
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Starting to understand the X parasite |
I’ve started to realise that the enigmatic X parasite might have something to do with the mysterious explosion. And that the X is hostile towards Samus. And what’s more, it seems that the X parasite is able to read the genes and memories of the host organism and ‘mimic’ them.
Put simply, it can create a fake copy of them. Ooh, it’s scary. It looks like a fake Samus might show up, or maybe even some of the metroids we’ve fought up until now… While I’ve been thinking about this I’d gradually been getting more and more items so Samus was getting stronger. It’s kind of like, I learn a new ability or I get a new item and feel relieved.
When I was in elementary school, each time I’d get an item I’d get excited but I wonder why it feels different now? I’m sure that when I was in elementary school I’d compete with my friends in the neighbourhood to see who could make progress and get ahead. But anyway I’d get new items quickly and have fun using them. Now when I get new abilities I analyse them as I’m playing and have some peace of mind that I’m opening up new paths.
Well, in order to beat the game I have to get stronger anyway! I dodge the enemies attacks with a jump and shoot them with my beam. That’s the basics! The timing is important!
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I… I got stuck! |
Just as I was steadily getting stronger, I got stuck!! I just can’t seem to progress…
I want to press on but the door won’t open and there’s no other path. Even if I kill the enemies nothing happens. I think I’ve gone to a place where I shouldn’t have yet, so maybe I should head back.
Ahhh, I just don’t know!
But as soon as I thought that… Huh? I’ve got a feeling that there’s something about this that’s just like the old Metroid’s… If I try using a power bomb there… There’s a hidden path! Ah man, it was that easy to progress? I finally remembered.
Phew, I’m glad that I didn’t have to go all the way back. I’ll need to try using the power bombs to try and find other hidden passages. Damn, there were a surprisingly large number of them. They were hidden in places similar to this one.
I’m starting to understand the quirks of these hidden passageways. Zelda’s sort of like this too. That’s just like Nintendo, man it’s fun. There were lots of places that I thought I could go, but couldn’t. If you get new items or power ups you can go to them.
The foreshadowing is truly brilliant!
The next signature trait of Metroid that I experienced was…
The creepiness of the enemies!
Insect-like enemies turn into chrysalis, then fly around with a rustling sound. It grosses me out. I guess it’s because I don’t like insects to start with, I was so nervous I had goosebumps. It was tough.
But when I defeat these creepy enemies I feel great. It’s sort of like “You bastards! Son of a bitch!” haha.
If I didn’t hear the sounds it might not have been so bad, but it’s much better if you keep it on. Although I think I should maybe turn it off when playing on the train…
After four hours of struggling I finally beat it. Hoo boy, that final area was tough. I had so many game overs. When you clear the game it shows your item percentage alongside the clear team, I got 50%. Honestly I’m disappointed. This means I only saw half of the game.
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I’m going to beat it again! |
This time, the game is on the GBA so there are loads of save points and it’s easy to regenerate health. I think beginners should be able to beat the game.
With that aside, the story was great. Even if you’re not good at action games, I hope that you’ll enjoy it and see it through to the end.
If you haven’t played Metroid on the SNES and GB, I think you’ll want to play them if you beat the game. It’ll also get you interested in the events of Metroid leading up to this point. If I recall correctly, if you could beat the old Metroid in under 3 hours you could get an ending with Samus in a swimsuit (The main character Samus is a woman. And apparently a beautiful one).
I’m not sure if there’s a bonus like that in Metroid Fusion, but maybe there is… No. I want there to be one. So I’ve set myself the goal of beating the game again in under 3 hours with a 100% item rate before Metroid Prime comes out! I’m gonna do it!
Incidentally a friend of mine who is a self-proclaimed Metroid fanatic is trying to beat the game with a 1% item rate… Is that even possible? Or rather, what’s the point?
Having said that, people are able to enjoy Metroid in all sorts of different ways. I take my hat off to the depth of Metroid.
Metroid Prime is going to be released on the GameCube on February 28th. It’s a 3D shooting game in a first person perspective unlike anything we’ve seen from Metroid before. It seems like it’ll be tough for me.
It’s on the GameCube so the visuals will be great, so with that and the creepiness of the enemies it’s bound to be scary. I can already imagine myself freaking out in front of the TV. What’s more I get motion sickness with 3D games so I’m not very good at them (I wonder how many people are like this?)
But the graphics this time are beautiful so I feel like I’ll be able to play it. The story takes place between Metroid and Metroid II. I can’t wait to see how the story unfolds. I’m so excited!
All right, time to get working on improving my motion sickness.
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Thanks for your hard work Reporter Takabashi! Next up is Metroid Prime coming out on February 28th.
We’d like to have a go at it and then tell you all about it as soon as possible! Look forward to it!
(C)2002,2003 Nintendo
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