“Metroid Fusion” is the latest Metroid game, being the fourth in the Metroid series. Metroid Prime, as it turns out, is less a sequel, and more of “Metroid 1.5”. The Metroid Fusion manual gives a LOT more background information than the Metroid Prime manual. The story makes a lot more sense now, so, even though I gave a bit of a history lesson in the Metroid Prime review, I will recap for the newfound info given in Metroid Fusion.

Ok, the basic story remains the same: Samus was orphaned by a Space Pirate attack and was rescued by the Chozo. The Chozo gave her weapons, a powered suit, and equipment and told her to go wipe out the Space Pirate menace. The Space Pirates had been trying to use Metroids, hovering energy organisms that suck the energy from other creatures, as their secret weapon. Then Samus was hired by Galactic Federation to wipe out the remaining Metroids after an entire Federation platoon was wiped out.

Later, during her mission, Samus found the last Metroid egg. The egg hatched while she watched, and the Metroid saw her, and imprinted a “mother” figure on her, much like a baby chick will do. She took the creature to the Galactic Space Academy, where it was studied for various energy-based benefits. However, the Space Pirates weren’t finished. They stole the Metroid and went back to Zebes. Samus followed them, determined to save the last Metroid. In Samus’ final battle with Mother Brain, the hatchling sacrificed itself to save Samus, destroying Mother Brain, but also destroying any hopes of using the Metroids for the side of goodness.

Later, Samus went back to SR388, home of the Metroids, on an expedition with a research company, Biologic Space Labs. On the planet, she was attacked by a parasite later classified “X”. She thought nothing of it at the time, and boarded her ship. However, while on her ship, she seized up and could not move. Her ship drifted toward an asteroid field, where it would surely be destroyed. Luckily, her ship had an auto-eject sequence, and her pod was ejected safely while the ship was destroyed.

She was rescued by a Biologic Space Labs ship, which took her back to Galactic Federation Headquarters. The onboard medical unit predicted she had about a 0.873% chance of survival. Surgery was complicated. Samus’ suit had several biological components and was connected with her body, so Federation scientists were prevented from removing the suit from her while she was unconscious. They had to surgically remove the parts of infected suit and sent them to the BSL research station. However, the X parasites were still in her body, and destroying them would be a problem.

The cure came when a scientist realized that they had a Metroid cell preserved from the last Metroid that they could make a cure out of. The scientists administered the cell to Samus, whereupon the X parasites were destroyed. Apparently, the Metroids were created by the Chozo to counter the X Parasites. With the Metroids extinct, the X parasites, which work by infecting a host and taking over the nervous system, took over at the top of the food chain.
No sooner had Samus awakened then a siren blared, announcing a Distress call from the research station. Samus, with her new suit, made from the few remnants of the old one, and new ship, supplied by the Federation, flew to the aid of the station, hoping to destroy these evil parasites.

Metroid Fusion’s gameplay is more like the earlier games: side scrolling, high jumping, and bosses that are invulnerable except at one tiny little spot. Samus’ moves are still very much like those of the earlier games: she can shoot, turn into a ball, and do super-acrobatic somersaults in the air. Not that this is bad. If you have a good recipe, sometimes it’s best not to change it. The only thing that really changed is Samus’ suit, being all blue and odd and such. Also, her new ship is slightly different, but that’s not that much of a change. The graphics are pretty good, and the sounds are pretty good. Nothing is really new or unusual. The controls are still the same. However, there is one gameplay annoyance: now that Samus has X-negating Metroid cells in her body, she can collect the X in its floating, gelatinous form for energy and missile ammo. However, if you don’t collect the parasite fast enough, it goes off and reforms into a new enemy, which is INCREDIBLY annoying. Between that and the new suit (which I STRONGLY dislike), this game gets a 6.5/10.


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Metroid Prime Review