I feel like it's bold of a sequel to at least sort of admit it can never be "Super Metroid", so Fusion here doesn't even try to be. It refines the movement to give Samus a little more finesse and the ability to be a little more mobile and makes things like wall jumps and space jump a little more consistent, but to make up for it, it cranks up the difficulty a lot. Samus in Super is a freight train of pain, Samus in Fusion is comparably VERY fragile, which really works for the horror-lite angle of this game. Even the health and ammo drops are trying to kill you in this game.

Speaking of horror, SA-X is a very interesting antagonist, getting to essentially be Samus in her prime but as a much colder, animal-like killer that you absolutely do not stand a chance against for most of the game. In execution, she turns up at set moments in the story and only one chase sequence is forced and is even all that difficult, so SA-X just isn't that scary to me. Though maybe I'd sing a different tune there had I played this when I was a kid and this game was new.

It's comparably very linear to other Metroids, very little being able to be sequence-broken, but it serves multiple story purposes, both in how there's a very set sequence of events to go through in the story and how it's reflective of the Federation keeping Samus under their thumb. It's claustrophobia but from a completely different angle, which then makes it gratifying when you get Screw Attack and can finally freely explore the station on your whim. To which they include a lot of tricky puzzles to practice. This does inevitably mean it has a "lap around the world" issue unlike Super, but I'm not sure how else they could've done it.

I do like this game, but I've never been able to fuck with it as much as Super or Zero Mission. The atmosphere and narrative are the strongest aspects, in my view. They streamlined the controls down to two buttons, owing to its platform, so well that I think it's better than Super Metroid, which over-complicated itself with redundant functions like the run button.

My main gripe with it is how railroaded it can get, it being linear wouldn't necessarily bother me as much if it didn't arbitrarily block you from backtracking in some of the sectors for seemingly no reason beyond denying you a second chance to get a missile expansion or energy tank you might have missed the first time through, the game often does this and it gets on my nerves whenever it happens as it just blocks any sense of freedom you get, I've seen some people argue this reinforces the theme of Samus not being in control this time around and being the one getting hunted as opposed to the hunter herself, but most of the time the blocks aren't from Adam but just convenient changes in the sector which stop you from properly exploring them unless you get everything possible on the first visit.

You might also think that it's not too big of a deal to wait till later to get all the items, but that's really where the big tedium in Fusion lies, going for 100%. Unless you're consulting a guide, it is not at all well communicated where the hidden paths and areas are to get a lot of the end-game powerups, unless you're spamming power bombs in every other area, the player on a first playthrough CANNOT use the elevators or go into a navigation room as that locks you into the endgame scenario where Adam forcibly locks all doors except the ones that go to the self destruct trigger, on subsequent playthroughs of the same file that restriction is removed, I have no clue why they did that, as the objective marker for the self destruct room is marked at all times, so it's unlikely any player is going to get lost even if they did put the game down for a time. In addition, most of the challenges to get the last few items are often very tricky, like shine spark puzzles or precise jump puzzles that require near pixel-perfect accuracy, or else you need to start over. Simply put, it's not very fun to do and can take up a fair bit of time in what's otherwise a brisk adventure.

Overall, I respect what this game was going for with its tighter hub-based level design and a greater focus on narrative and storytelling than any prior Metroid title, but I do think it loses some of the sense of isolation and piecing together events through what is shown rather than made explicit through an AI telling you everything. The changes to the level design make sense in context of its being a handheld game with a more bite-sized pick-up and play philosophy; that said, it does get a little too handhold-y for my tastes. I don't think the game's major themes would be hurt too badly if they made it a bit more open to at least letting the player backtrack through previously explored areas without arbitrary blocks at your expense.

Despite these flaws, it's still a well-made action game worth playing on its own merits and as a blueprint for where the series will go.

Pros: Captures the gameplay of Super Metroid in many ways, and in some ways, does things better, with improved mechanics like grabbing onto ledges and climbing certain walls, where you can even fire your arm cannon blaster while hanging on, feels pretty good too. And in general, this game has the staples of a finely crafted Metroid adventure, with an interesting new storyline involving X parasites, where you're trapped on a spooky space station, with various sectors, hatches, and biomes to make your sci-fi journey a memorable one.

(also, I adore those little animal buddies, the Dachora and Etecoons. They're so cute!! There's even a baby Dachora in this game, d'awww! Honestly, probably my favorite part of this whole adventure, haha!)

Cons: I didn't care for the story much, well, I didn't care how it was told, its presentation rather. Near the second half of the game, we start to get dialogue and a lot of personality with Samus, which, was a hint of things to come with Other M, Sakamoto's next Metroid project. I'm of the crowd that would rather Samus be more of a blank slate protagonist, and not speak so much, in order for me, the player, to fill the role of the character, which strengthens the immersion of the adventure, especially when isolation is involved. I felt Super Metroid and especially Metroid Prime did this perfectly, but here, it was a bit of a step backwards.

Also, not exactly a fan of the setting. The space station pales in comparison to a full blown planet to explore, it just never felt like a natural world I was discovering and trekking through, even with the various biomes in each sector on the map. It felt more confined, more artificial, and also unfortunately, linear, as the game railroads progress in such a way where instead of feeling like I'm making discoveries on my own, the game is simply telling me what to do... And that backstory for Samus, sorry, I just couldn't care. The X-parasite stuff was cool, provided plenty of scary fun moments, like whenever the SA-X showed up, it was a thrill, but those moments where they did were disappointingly few and far between. Little aspects here and there of the game bugged me, like an instance where you had to find an invisible opening through a wall, one without bombs, to progress, or the fact that there's no single imposing villain, just "the system" and "the virus", was something that compelled me through this adventure less than other Metroid games.

And lastly, I don't much care for the aesthetic of Samus's new suits. It's kind of Nickelodeon Gak lookin, which, that's fun, but feels very weird for how serious the game tries to present itself in other areas... I dunno, just didn't work for me.

What it means to me: I tried to pick this game up throughout the years, in an attempt to beat it, but time and time again, lost interest partway through for some reason or another. And only just recently beat it in full... It's alright, solid Metroid mechanics, smoother than Super in some ways, like in the way movement works, but still not as smooth as Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and especially Metroid Dread. But y'know, it's cool that 2D Metroid returned in such high quality the way it did here, this was a revival game for the series alongside Metroid Prime after all. But when all's said and done, this is maybe my least favorite 2D Metroid, well, I've still yet to finish Metroid II/Samus Returns, we'll see after that. This wasn't the big glorious revival for the series anyhow, we had Prime for that, and boy was it ever!!

Genuinely a pretty incredible portable-ization of the Metroid formula. It never crossed my mind that this game would feel so linear and mission based, but the story really pulls everything together in a super interesting way, which is something I haven't been able to say about a Metroid game really. Sure, the atmosphere and aesthetics are usually on full blast with this series, but this really brings the entire thing to a full on space epic, with character motivations, backstories, and plot. Plot! In a tiny GBA cartridge meant to be played on a handheld without a fucking backlight! The game is also just gorgeous. Nintendo did their absolute damnest to make the colors and art direction of each area pop, and feel unique. The conceit that this entire station was a galactic nature preserve is such a fascinating concept, and the infestation of the X parasites leads to some genuinely incredible and horrifying enemy design. It's also the snappiest set of controls the series has had yet. Something as simple as grabbing onto ledges became instantly gamechanging, with traversal and discovery finding new avenues and still feeling fresh after 4 games. The upgrades themselves feel much more organic with their depiction in this game, and pacing of upgrades is especially excellent. Previous games felt a little bit like each weapon or method of movement was put on full blast before moving to the next, at least if you always sought out the items at your earliest convenience, which I would always do. Oddly enough, having less player freedom (which I usually advocate against), completely turns this system on its head.

Is it better than the series bastion of creative inspiration and quality, Super Metroid? No, probably not. That game still has the absolute best all around presentation of this formula, which is rare for an entry that basically cements the formula itself. The fact that it was Nintendo's first real go with all of these ideas, and the fact that it ended up being the crown jewel of the Super Nintendo puts it pretty solidly above Fusion for me. Fusion is still a triumphant effort though, and one I definitely see myself returning to.

This one feels like a game I should have played so long ago. I mean, I'd like to say I'm a fan of the Metroid games and I've been aware of Fusion since it first came out so I really don't have any excuses for waiting over 20 years before I finally played through it. Honestly, having now played it I sort of regret having waited for so long. Not because Fusion is this incredible game, but because later games sort of just improved upon most of its USPs, and I unfortunately played those before this.

Metroid Fusion is certainly a good game, definitely above average, but it also feels stuck between two different schools of Metroid; the more exploratory of the past, and the more action focused of the future, and while it does both fairly well, it feels very much like a first experiment in trying to move the series beyond Super Metroid's large shadow and lacks the refinement of something like a Dread that feels so much more confident in what it wants to be.

But I really do like Metroid Fusion! It looks great and has a killer atmosphere and soundtrack that feel more horror than anything the series has ever done before or after. The space station is a fun locale that offers mostly familiar, but slightly different habitats for Samus to traverse through, and the linearity of the game lets the developers really change up locations for revisits to show how everything is just falling apart more and more as the X Parasites keep multiplying and replicating monsters. The Metroids, as dangerous as they could be, never really seemed to pose much of a threat to anything other than Samus, but I really buy these new creatures as a threat to everything and everyone they come close to, despite them looking like some sort of candy.

Samus hunted creatures before, but now she's the one being hunted, which is really felt throughout the game not only because the X's aforementioned station demolishing, but also because she's so weak in Fusion, which is a good thing. It can definitely be annoying how much damage enemies will do throughout the entire game, but it really sells how Samus has been severely weakened by her Power Suit being removed from her, and having to sort of re-learn how to be Samus Aran over the course of the game. It's not exactly survival horror, but creates some tension with every new enemy since it takes so little to die. In previous Metroid games, you could plow through a lot of enemies and not really care too much about how much damage they do for quite a while, so this is completely different from what either we or Samus are used to, and I really appreciate how the gameplay puts us in her shoes in a way. I guess there's also some kind of irony in Samus now being hunted ("hunted." It really doesn't show up more than a handful of times throughout the game and those sequences are very scripted) by SA-X, the parasite that copied her at her strongest so now she gets a taste of her own medicine.

At the same time, I feel like Fusion plays a bit too much like an old Metroid for all of it to really work. There is something quite loose about how older games in the series feel, and I personally would have preferred something a bit heavier for Samus here since the game is so much about combat and being careful of what's ahead. The combat in, for example, Super Metroid was always that game's biggest flaw, being a bit too flimsy for my tastes and making a lot of boss fights just feel like spamming missiles before they can kill you, but that game was more about exploration and bosses were more of a "you're going the right way!" than anything else, and fairly rare occurrences, while enemies were mostly very weak and just there to give some friction here and there.

Fusion is a very linear game with barely any exploration, with a lot of boss fights, a lot of mandatory combat with regular enemies, and I just feel like for what it is, it sticks too close to Super Metroid. With this much fighting, the combat really needed to have felt better than this Super Metroid tier that it sits at. I mean, this game has so many boss fights, and most of them just amount to shooting about a million missiles at them since they all have either way too much health or are invulnerable a good while before exposing their weak point for a second. These fights are not interesting, they're not particularly hard (I think my only death in the game came against Ridley), and for a game that is so focused on Samus being told "go fight this thing" over and over again, I wouldn't have minded if they were given more interesting patterns, less HP but doing more damage. Fights that stand out in my memory for more reasons than "wow, that sure took a while." You know, like the amazing boss fights of Metroid Dread.

I don't really mind the linearity of Fusion all that much, though. It doesn't make for the most stimulating experience at all times and traversal can be a bit annoying since there are Naughty Dog levels of "oh shit, guess this path is closed down/destroyed, better take an even longer route there" at times, but like I said before, the game is very good at creating a sense of tension and despite me always knowing where the room I'm supposed to get to is, the way there isn't always as obvious as one might think. This does unfortunately result in a lot of invisible walls during the second half of the game which is a bit annoying, but the level design as a whole feels much more fair than previous games could at times be, without completely letting go of the series staple of just shooting wildly at blocks and hoping one of them will blow up and lead you down a new path.

I don't know where I would put Metroid Fusion in a ranking of the 2D games (probably above Samus Returns, but below Super Metroid), but despite my issues with some of its aspects, I did enjoy my very short time with it. It's not some fantastic game that I'll always cherish or probably even the best Metroid on the GBA, but it certainly does a lot of interesting things and does those things very well. It's just let down by some of its gameplay and not being able to let go of the past while trying to step into the future, which creates kind of a funky experience that I wish I could have enjoyed just a bit more than I do.

For every reason this game is dragged, it picks itself up for me. It having constraint, giving you little control in the first half, deemphasized exploration, with points of no return and frequent save points. These parts of the game are considered flaws, but they are deliberate design choices that make it so the game gradually opening up closer to the end feels more earned. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Stay with me here, but it abides by the ludic contract it signs. Striking the gauge of player engagement in ways that games from turn of the century and the sensibilities that came from it don’t live up to. Metroid Fusion is masterful at utilizing gameplay to tell the story, as well as enriching it.

Whether it’s the best Metroid game or not is up in the air, every Metroid game shares enough to make it so any one of them could be the linchpin of the day. Being as consistent as the series is, that is if we don’t talk about Federation Force or Other M… cough, that means that no one game toughs the other out. They all have merit and are of equal footing even if they do things slightly better than the others. Metroid (1986) setting motion what we would come to know now. Metroid II: Return of Samus underpinning the baseline for what makes Metroid what it is. Super Metroid revolutionizing the industry. Metroid Fusion interlocking each one of its strands and offering the most cohesive narrative experience. Metroid Dread doing literally everything right the rest did, but I guess it has the weakest soundtrack and atmosphere or something. That is patently incorrect but those happen to be recurring points against it for some reason. They are all masterpieces basically.

Metroid Fusion is, or wait no, it was my favorite because of the above. Metroid Dread came and cleaned house but Metroid Fusion still reserved its special place in my heart. Outdoing the active threat that is the SA-X, which packs the same arsenal that you do, coming across all manner of grotesqueries, uncovering the secrets of the B.S.L. Research Station, and coming out the other end saving the galaxy once again. It was an unforgettable experience. Oh, and it only came in underpowered pocket form when technical advancements in the console space were the craze, on the SAME DAY AS METROID PRIME! It’s like they wanted to kill 2D Metroid man what the hell.