The original mission perfected
Honestly one of the better NES remakes out there, Zero Mission manages to bring life into the original entry with the quality of life and the improved tight controls that the series has gotten throughout the years.
The movement feels even more fluid than Fusion here and that might be because of the great level design and the controls itself feeling better. Zebes is a great and varied world that serves its simple layouts really well for what it is. The music is actually pretty great here with the title theme and Brinstar pumping you up for the rest of the game. It also brought the best of both worlds with Fusion's handholding and the earlier titles being more open ended with hints that can guide players that are easily lost and keeping nothing restricted so that the player can explore at their own pace.
I think the only thing that really held back this game is the ending segment where you're stripped out of your items for a bit and the way the bosses are handled here. The segment is actually a cool change of pace but it lasts a bit too long until it loses its appeal pretty fast but it is more of a nitpick if anything. Bosses were fun here but they were actually surprisingly easy to the point I almost feel like I was speedrunning this game at some point.
Zero Mission completely invalidates the original entry and shows how you can remake a game and improve on every single facet of it and to me feels more like the quintessential metroid experience along with Super Metroid.
Honestly one of the better NES remakes out there, Zero Mission manages to bring life into the original entry with the quality of life and the improved tight controls that the series has gotten throughout the years.
The movement feels even more fluid than Fusion here and that might be because of the great level design and the controls itself feeling better. Zebes is a great and varied world that serves its simple layouts really well for what it is. The music is actually pretty great here with the title theme and Brinstar pumping you up for the rest of the game. It also brought the best of both worlds with Fusion's handholding and the earlier titles being more open ended with hints that can guide players that are easily lost and keeping nothing restricted so that the player can explore at their own pace.
I think the only thing that really held back this game is the ending segment where you're stripped out of your items for a bit and the way the bosses are handled here. The segment is actually a cool change of pace but it lasts a bit too long until it loses its appeal pretty fast but it is more of a nitpick if anything. Bosses were fun here but they were actually surprisingly easy to the point I almost feel like I was speedrunning this game at some point.
Zero Mission completely invalidates the original entry and shows how you can remake a game and improve on every single facet of it and to me feels more like the quintessential metroid experience along with Super Metroid.