Metroid Fusion has arrived on Nintendo Switch Online, as one of the most anticipated titles of the Game Boy Advance games on the service. Originally released back in 2002, this is the predecessor to Metroid Dread, also made by the same team. It’s an underrated GBA title, and Metroid fans who missed this game should be rushing to Nintendo Switch Online right away.
You play as Samus Arran, the deadly bounty hunter responsible for fighting off hoards of Space Pirates and destroying their weapons of mass destruction – The Metroids. Samus heads to the Metroid home planet SR388 with some scientists with the intention of investigating the planet, but as soon as they land they are attacked by the X Parasite, a newly discovered dangerous enemy. Samus falls unconscious while flying her spacecraft, falling out the sky and cashing onto th esurface of the planet. Luckily, she’s unharmed, although she’s overrun by X Parasites. Her Power Suit is removed and she’s injected with cells from the last Metroid, saving her from death, but ultimately transforming her into something new. Samus has little time to recover after the procedure, and a huge explosion rocks the lab where they are all staying, and it’s down to Samus to investigate the new mystery Space Station.
The opening of the game is a throwback to Super Metroid, where Samus went through a similar explosive and escape sequence. That’s not the only callback to the SNES title, as Samus wonders where the material for the Metroid vaccine came from, deducing it could only come from the baby Metroid featured in the same game. She learns that Metroids were bred for the purpose of destroying the X Parasite, therefore she’s now able to withstand the attacks of the new virus. The throwbacks and connections to previous games are definitely appreciated. As well as the original Super Metroid, there’s also callbacks to Metroid II: Return of Samus, with the events in that game leading to the story in Metroid Fusion (Good news, that game is also available on Nintendo Switch Online, as well as the original Metroid, Super Metroid and Metroid Prime).
In terms of the gameplay it’s a great feeling game. Samus feels quick and she has all her signature attacks you’d expect like ball rolling, spinning jumps. Quality of life improvements like grabbing ledges and climbing have been added to make Samus feel a little more flexible and responsive compared to her environment. As always, at the start of the game Samus has been stripped of her power ups and has to regain them throughout the game.
Metroid Fusion is a little smaller and more linear than other Metroid games in the series. This was largely rectified in Metroid Dread, and you can see here the developers probably wanted to go down the Dread route, and they have come out and said Dread is the game they wanted to make back then, but the tech wasn’t inline with their design ideas. Metroid Fusion is more constrained, given it’s a GBA title they didn’t have very much to work with. Progression is more linear, Samus speaks to her ship she calls “Adam” who helps her out with restoring her suits capabilities. Fusion has a story to tell and through the story it leads you on a very single minded path through the game. There is less deviating form the main path, and more focus on story beats and upgrades to progress.
It can be a little frustrating going from Super Metroid to Metroid Fusion, where in the former you are pretty much free to explore your path, and in Fusion you are restricted by locked doors and blockers that deviate from your main objective. Fusion is shorter, and perhaps the player at the time played in shorter bursts, given the game released on a hand held device, so Fusion is designed with the medium in mind (as it should be), but it’s noticeable when the game comes to a platform where you can sit back on your couch and play. It’s a small frustration in the grand scheme of things though, as the story is compelling and well-told.
The environment is dangerous, and there’s a unique feeling to the game given Samus has her power suit removed. The environment is dark and gives you that classic Alien-like tension. There are also lots of different enemies to fight, varied enemy designs and attacks to keep you and Samus on your toes. X Parasites are they star of the show, and there are plenty of varieties – small, quick, and some big ones too.
The main attraction for me in Metroid Fusion is SA-X, the copy of Samus Arran, given her Power Suit was infected at the start of the game. This clone hunts Samus throughout Fusion, plus has her full array of abilities. Metroid Dread would return to this concept of being hunted in the future, but this is where that concept originated and its gripping, tense and exciting when you can escape SA-X.
Metroid Fusion was a GBA game, therefore it’s full of beautiful pixel artwork, and full of colour, showing off the full colour palette the Game Boy Advance had to offer. It’s an improvement from the dark, atomospheric tones of Super Metroid, and once again, designed for a specific platform in mind. The colour palette sets it apart from other similar sci-fi tales, all set against a backdrop of darkness.
Overall, Metroid Fusion is a very good version of Metroid, and arguably one of the most anticipated titles to release on Nintendo Switch Online. It’s not very long, coming in at around 6-8 hours for a normal play through, and it’s a very good additional to Nintendo Switch Online. We now have Metroid, Metroid II, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, Prime and Dread on Nintendo Switch. I was late to the Metroid series, but if you haven’t played much of these great games, then I would definitely recommend jumping in, and Fusion isn’t a bad place to start.