A remake of the original Metroid that looks pretty, sounds mediocre, and controls like an actual video game this time around.
I completed Zero Mission almost on accident; A quick peek at the game for me turned into commiting to a complete run after being surprised at how quickly I had already progressed compared to something like Super Metroid.
Zero Mission, being a Metroid game still does have its crypticisms, but refreshingly feels like a tight experience that doesn't waste too much of your time. Finally! A Metroid that's straight to the point.
Some of this is probably due to the waypoint system, but even that doesn't give the player all the answers. Likely, the scale of the original NES title is just not as daunting when its actually fun to play, and so committing to exploring new chunks of map is an easy pill to swallow. (Not to mention, much more reasonably challenging task.)
Zero Mission's weaker points seem to stem from being a remake - None of the music reaches the heights of Super Metroid, and the NES tracks translated into the GBA's signature crunchy sound is underwhelming at best, and grating at worst. A lot of the game's map also doesn't do a good job at making themselves feel distinguished: You can feel the effort put into the different environment tile sets and music, and there are noble efforts like duct taping new gimmicks in a few pockets of the different zones, but it could have gone further.
The game's stronger points for the most part trended towards being the highlight - New cutscenes and the aforementioned "pocket gimmicks" were all very nice, but the biggest addition to the game was the game's Epilogue.
After making my Zebes escape, my impression of the game was that it was a super tight Metroid experience with some signature cryptic annoyances, but otherwise had excellent presentation and great control, resulting in the best Metroid I had played yet.
The epilogue's presentation is also still on point here and could have been something really special - The first half of the epilogue feels just a tad too gimmicky, and way too trial-and-error for my tastes, but it wouldn't be so bad if the second half's map didn't feel like it was purposefully designed to waste my time and be irritating to traverse through - Which by the end of the game, it clearly is.
So the end product is something that while I think is pretty close to surpassing Super Metroid, it doesn't quite stick the landing on everything it does. If nothing else, Space Jumping in this game isn't a nightmare, so it's a solid enough recommendation.
I completed Zero Mission almost on accident; A quick peek at the game for me turned into commiting to a complete run after being surprised at how quickly I had already progressed compared to something like Super Metroid.
Zero Mission, being a Metroid game still does have its crypticisms, but refreshingly feels like a tight experience that doesn't waste too much of your time. Finally! A Metroid that's straight to the point.
Some of this is probably due to the waypoint system, but even that doesn't give the player all the answers. Likely, the scale of the original NES title is just not as daunting when its actually fun to play, and so committing to exploring new chunks of map is an easy pill to swallow. (Not to mention, much more reasonably challenging task.)
Zero Mission's weaker points seem to stem from being a remake - None of the music reaches the heights of Super Metroid, and the NES tracks translated into the GBA's signature crunchy sound is underwhelming at best, and grating at worst. A lot of the game's map also doesn't do a good job at making themselves feel distinguished: You can feel the effort put into the different environment tile sets and music, and there are noble efforts like duct taping new gimmicks in a few pockets of the different zones, but it could have gone further.
The game's stronger points for the most part trended towards being the highlight - New cutscenes and the aforementioned "pocket gimmicks" were all very nice, but the biggest addition to the game was the game's Epilogue.
After making my Zebes escape, my impression of the game was that it was a super tight Metroid experience with some signature cryptic annoyances, but otherwise had excellent presentation and great control, resulting in the best Metroid I had played yet.
The epilogue's presentation is also still on point here and could have been something really special - The first half of the epilogue feels just a tad too gimmicky, and way too trial-and-error for my tastes, but it wouldn't be so bad if the second half's map didn't feel like it was purposefully designed to waste my time and be irritating to traverse through - Which by the end of the game, it clearly is.
So the end product is something that while I think is pretty close to surpassing Super Metroid, it doesn't quite stick the landing on everything it does. If nothing else, Space Jumping in this game isn't a nightmare, so it's a solid enough recommendation.