Metroid Fusion
Webpages concerning "Metroid Fusion"
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Wikipedia-Article "Metroid Fusion"
| Metroid Fusion | |
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| Developer(s) | Intelligent Systems |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Yoshio Sakamoto |
| Engine | |
| Latest version | {{{version}}} |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 2002 (NA) November 22, 2002 (EU) February 14, 2003 (JP) |
| Genre | Action Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB:  Everyone |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Media | 32-megabit Cartridge |
| System requirements | |
| Input | |
Metroid Fusion is the first video game in the Metroid series to appear on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance portable video game system. It is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Super NES game Super Metroid and set chronologically last in the series's fictional universe.
Metroid Fusion represented somewhat of a departure for the series, as it scrapped the nonlinear adventure formula from earlier games and introduced a non-playable computer character to direct the player where to go and what to do there. It has been regarded as significantly harder to sequence break in this game. After nearly three years, only two "sequence breaks" have been found, and they are both extremely difficult to execute. (One of them, the shinespark in AQA, is deliberately programmed into the game, and the secret message can be gained by the Missile of Insane Accuracy (freezing a puffer on the left of the Data Room in AQA))
Metroid: Zero Mission, the second game to appear on the Game Boy Advance, uses a highly modified version of the Metroid Fusion game engine.
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Graphics
The graphics are very similar to those found in Super Metroid for the Super NES/Super Famicom and are rendered in 2D. The poses and colours displayed for both Samus and her enemies are a mark more detailed, however. The game is a side-scroller, so all of the action is displayed from a side-on angle.
Plot and gameplay
The player becomes Samus Aran, a galactic bounty hunter who must spelunk through artificially maintained habitats onboard a space station run by Biologic Space Labs, which, along with Samus, has been infected with a parasitoid species known as the X Parasites, or simply the X. She must regather the special abilities and weapons she has lost, as well as some new ones, to neutralize the threat to the station. Along the way she encounters various obstacles and enemies, including a highly dangerous X Parasite, the SA-X, which is mimicking Samus at her strongest.
Unlike other games in the series, Samus is in constant contact with her Galactic Federation "employers" by way of an intelligent computer, her commanding officer. This computer, which she names "Adam" in honor of one of her former COs, gives Samus a series of objectives throughout the game, and is capable of locking and unlocking doors to ensure she achieves them before she can progress. These range from acquiring a certain powerup to defeating a certain enemy or getting to a specific room. However, these objectives usually require a solution which is not immediately obvious, giving the player room to explore and experiment with the game's environment as in previous titles.
Metroid Fusion's environment also changes throughout the course of the game in much more radical ways than before. Some corridors can become blocked off permanently by explosions, pupa-like creatures which block some areas off hatch after a certain point, raising and lowering water levels, parts of the research station that are jettisoned into space, and new monsters that appear in previously explored areas.
Samus spends most of the game being stalked by the almost invincible SA-X, which appears unexpectedly in various locations, and Samus must either hide or escape until she is powerful enough to defeat it.
As the monsters in the game are actually the X parasites copying other lifeforms, monsters are reduced to floating X cells when they are destroyed. Samus can absorb these to replenish her lost energy and missiles. However, if Samus does not absorb them, they will eventually re-form into their original host's form, or even an entirely new creature. Some monsters can also absorb additional X parasites, evolving into newer, more powerful forms.
Equipment
Samus begins her mission stripped of the abilities she acquired in Super Metroid. She must retrieve them through either downloading the data from terminals scattered throughout the station, or through absorbing certain powerful X parasites using her newly acquired Fusion Suit.
She recovers the following items:
Morph Ball, Charge Beam, Missiles, Super Missiles, Plasma Beam, Wave Beam, Wide Beam/Spazer, Bomb, Power Bomb, Speed Booster, High Jump Boots, Spring Ball, Screw Attack, Space Jump, Varia Suit and Gravity Suit.
She also gains the entirely new Ice Missiles and Diffusion Missiles.
Because of the Metroid DNA used to combat the X parasite, Samus now has the Metroids' weakness to cold. Because of this, she can be frozen by the SA-X's Ice Beam. Also, she cannot use her old Ice Beam, and must use Ice Missiles instead, which have essentially the same effect as the beam. These can be further upgraded to Diffusion Missiles, which have the same function but a have an extemely large blast radius which encompasses whole rooms. The Diffusion Missiles must be charged up before firing.
The Spring Ball and High Jump abilities are now combined into one item. Her regular orange suit is now the organic-looking yellow and blue Fusion Suit. Each type of missile will simply replace the last rather than being a separate kind of weapon, and regardless of what kind of missile is being fired - normal, super, ice or diffusion - it will only ever use up 1 missile. Power Bombs now reveal what kind of weaknesses certain blocks have, their larger blast radius making up for the absence of Super Metroid's X-Ray Scope.
Samus does eventually recover her Ice Beam ability, but it is only in effect during the final boss encounter.
Special features
Owners of both Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion can unlock new features in Metroid Prime using the Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance cable. If the player completes Metroid Prime, they can unlock Samus' Fusion Suit for use in Prime; if they complete Metroid Fusion, they can unlock an emulated version of the original NES/Famicom Disk System Metroid. There is also a bonus to be had by linking to Metroid: Zero Mission - the entire Fusion gallery of pictures is unlocked in Zero Mission, as well as bonus pictures which chronicle Samus' early years along with what's apparently some concept art.
The SA-X
The SA-X is an X Parasite that infested Samus Aran's Power Suit at the beginning of the game, incapacitating Samus before a medical team surgically removed the primary components of the siut and sent them to quarantine. The X Parasites remaining within Samus's body were then destroyed by a Metroid vaccine, and the infected Power Suit was sent to a B.S.L. (Biologic Space Labs) Space Station. But soon after Samus awoke, she found out that a mysterious explosion had occurred in the station's Quarantine Bay.
After Samus investigated, she found out the SA-X was responsible for the explosion. The SA-X is a clone of Samus that formed itself from the surgically removed pieces of her Power Suit. The SA-X's main weapon is the Ice Beam, which hurts Samus massively and can kill her. The SA-X also uses Power Bombs and Super Missiles, which she often destroys doors with. It is later revealed that due to the X Parasites' asexual reproduction, there are many SA-X and the space station has to be destroyed to kill them all. The second-to-last boss encounter is with one of these SA-X, after which the Core-X escapes. The defeated SA-X makes a final, brief appearance when it attempts to destroy the final boss, the Omega Metroid. After it is defeated by the Omega Metroid, Samus absorbs it, finally regaining her Ice Beam, letting her destroy the Omega Metroid.
Biologic Space Laboratories
- SRX: This sector is a recreation of the subterranean environment of the planet SR388. Enemies here are largely from SR388, and it is an ideal habitat for breeding Metroids.
- TRO: This jungle habitat is home to some creatures previously found in Brinstar in Super Metroid. This sector is home to many plants, and even Kihunters appear later in the game.
- PYR: This sector is a heated environment, containing areas that cannot be entered without the protection of the Varia Suit, as well as scalding pools of lava. This sector contains many strange, sphinx-like creatures, as well as iron-like Sidehoppers.
- AQA: This is the Aquatic sector. Initially, all the water is electrified due to X Parasite activity. Samus discovers that Serris, a creature resembling Botwoon from Super Metroid, has become infected by the X, and Samus must stop its rampage and recover her Speed Boost ability. Samus returns here later for more exploration of the deepest portions, which resemble Maridia from Super Metroid.
- ARC: The Arctic sector cannot be explored until Samus acquires the Varia Suit, which protects her from the damage caused by the sub-zero temperature. Samus finds enlarged, blue X Parasites here, which have adapted cold as a weapon against her. Wavers and Aqua Pirates are other common enemies.
- NOC: The Nocturnal sector is home to puffers and many other wall crawlers. Samus also finds X parasites from the Arctic sector in this dark, damp area, so she has to be extremely careful. In this sector, Samus recovers her Varia Suit.
- Quarantine Bay: A room where Samus's infected suit was sent after being removed. This is where the SA-X forms and then escapes using a Power Bomb.
- Command Deck: This area contains the main controls for the entire station. Samus must travel here first to acquire her missiles, and later to change the orbit of the station. The SA-X is encountered here for the last time.
- Habitation Deck: Later in the game, Samus goes up the to top floor in search of life signs Adam detected there. Instead of human crew members, however, she finds her old friends from Super Metroid, the Etecoons and Dachoras.
- Restricted Area: Samus inadvertently stumbles into this area after recovering her Wave Beam and becoming trapped in the lower area of the NOC Sector. Within, she discovers the Galactic Federation's secret Metroid cloning/breeding program, where they have successfully recreated all of the Metroid's SR388 life cycle stages. The SA-X invades this area after following Samus, and after she does significant damage to it, it is automatically jettisoned into space. Some of the Metroids escape into the main station, however, as is evidenced by shed Metroid exoskeletons that Samus finds throughout the SRX Sector afterward.
See also
External links
- Metroid Fusion official site
- Metroid Fusion professional review
- GameFAQs entry for Metroid Fusion
- Metroid Fusion at Nintendo.com
- Metroid Fusion at the Internet Movie Database
- Metroid Fusion at MobyGames
| Metroid series: |
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| By chronology: Metroid (Zero Mission) | Prime (Prime Pinball) | Prime 2: Echoes | Return of Samus | Super | Fusion |
| By release order: Metroid | Return of Samus | Super | Prime | Fusion | Zero Mission | Prime 2: Echoes | Prime Pinball |
| Upcoming: Hunters | Prime 3 | Dread | Film |
| Universe: Samus Aran | Characters | Chozo | Dark Samus | Gunship | Ing | Items | Kraid | Locations | Luminoth | Metroid species | Mother Brain | Phazon | Ridley | Space Pirates |
| Community & People: Metroid Metal | Satoru Okada | Relics of the Chozo | Gunpei Yokoi |