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[jetpacks was yes]

Good game, and I loved the SA-X aspect of it, but the guided progression really bothered me. I also really missed the catchy tunes of the previous games.

 

[Toxi]

A good game that gets worse every replay. The Adam AI is a fucking terrible idea that ruins much of the pacing and atmosphere. For example, the mysterious reveal of the SA-X is undermined by Adam blandly describing it to Samus afterwards. The game is also a slog to 100% because you can't get so many items until you beat the game.

1%/0% run is funny, but man is it painful beating Ridley and Nightmare.

The SA-X feels like wasted potential when you realize how all the encounters are scripted and there are so few of them. The only one that fills me with dread is the second TRO encounter, since she 1-shots you in 1% runs.

Other M has well designed and high production value cutscenes but are wasted in a by the numbers anime plot.

Other M's cutscenes are terribly directed as well. Unnecessary shaky cam, unnecessary slowdown, flashbacks to events that happened 5 minutes ago, awkward cuts between real life and inner monologues, you name it. It's not just the plot and dialogue that are bad about the cutscenes, everything is outside the quality of the CG.

 

[VDenter]

Probably my least favorite 2D Metroid. The hype for this game was huge. A sequel to Super Metroid and a game that acknowledges itself as Metroid 4. It was a a let down in pretty much every single way. Back before both Prime and Fusion came out i was certain that Prime would be the one to be the disappointing game out of the two but it turned out to be the exact opposite. The heavier focus on story really hurts the games structure and hurts repeat playthroughs. The game does not even have a interesting story to begin with not to mention the game also laid out a bad foundation for Other M and suffered from allot of the same problems. Zero Mission was basically what Fusion should of have been.

 

[Mael]

The thing that saved Fusion in the end was that Prime existed.
You had the experimental title and the more normal take at the same time.
I loved the concept of SA-X but absolutely hated how it was scripted to hell and back.
It should have been a random encounter on top of the scripted sequences forcing you through alternate passages.
Resident Evil 3 did the whole unbeatable enemy chasing you better anyway.
The story was shite but at least the level design was nice and the sequence where you open up the map was great.

I like the game...just less than pretty much all of the other Metroid bar MZM and Hunters.

Spoiler

M:OM is not a Metroid game and certainly not a good game.

 

[Refreshment.01]

Fusion succeeded where Other M failed. It might not be a "traditional" Metroid game but it's still one of my favorites and will always hold a special place in my heart. Narrative-focused Metroid done right.

How relative things are... Other M elevated Fusion's narrative to the point is now considered done right by some.

i don't think characterization and narrative is done right in Fusion or in Other M, one been worse than the other doesn't excuse any of them. The impact it has in the game's flow and gameplay is not justified by it's typical anime story and characters.

Other M's cutscenes are terribly directed as well. Unnecessary shaky cam, unnecessary slowdown, flashbacks to events that happened 5 minutes ago, awkward cuts between real life and inner monologues, you name it. It's not just the plot and dialogue that are bad about the cutscenes, everything is outside the quality of the CG.

Relative speaking, they are better than any of the ones in the rest of the series. The action choreography in some of them is rather impressive.

i can't even imagine what you think of Retro works in Prime them, specially in the 3rd entry, some times it looks like the machinima popularized in youtube XD

The story is very similar to Alien though. Anime lol

And Sci Fi anime can be heavily inspired by American movies such as Alien/Aliens?

The characters and art style reminded me of anime that's why i made that connection.

I'm not saying Fusion's narrative is only good because Other M's wasn't. I enjoyed it back then and I enjoy it now.

Ahhh!.. if you said this first i would have not replied. It's great that you enjoy it as that is pretty subjective. "Done Right" implies other thing.

There's plenty of post already in this very thread on issues the narrative had.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

How relative things are... Other M elevated Fusion's Narrative to the point is now considered done right by some.

i don't think characterization and narrative is done right in Fusion or in Other M, one been worse than the other doesn't excuse any of them. The impact it has in the game's flow and gameplay is not justified by it's typical anime story and characters.

The story is very similar to Alien though. Anime lol

 

[eXistor]

I don't have much love for Fusion, it's certainly designed well enough, but I never cared much for the setting and linear-feeling progression. It's where things started to go wrong for the series imo. I liked Zero Mission a lot better, but that too suffered for being overly handholdy. I remember getting the game in the mail only to beat it the very same afternoon, mere hours later. That's not a good sign. I hope they can finally recapture the magic of the earlier games up until Metroid Prime.

 

[HvySky]

How relative things are... Other M elevated Fusion's Narrative to the point is now considered done right by some.

i don't think characterization and narrative is done right in Fusion or in Other M, one been worse than the other doesn't excuse any of them. The impact it has in the game's flow and gameplay is not justified by it's typical anime story and characters.

I'm not saying Fusion's narrative is only good because Other M's wasn't. I enjoyed it back then and I enjoy it now.

 

[bjork]

What were your thoughts on this game?

Great game to play, Zero Mission too, but I'll always prefer the earlier games due to the lack of guidance.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Great game to play, Zero Mission too, but I'll always prefer the earlier games due to the lack of guidance.

You can ignore the chozo guidance completely, because unlike Fusion, they are not required to access other areas. Zero Mission is a really good, and classic metroid game.

With bomb jumping, and wall jumping you can reach late game areas really fast. Like very early varía suit and screw attack.

 

[Ogodei]

Fusion is mostly very good, but it has some weaker elements. I'd say it's on the weaker end of the series, but it's still an enjoyable game.

The absolute best part of the game is the sense of fear and paranoia you get from the SA-X. On a blind run, there's so much amazing atmospheric build-up to the game that it practically turns into a horror game. This is further bolstered by additional twists like the security robot becoming another thing that hunts you down, seeing Ridley's corpse, Nightmare flying around in the foreground, areas getting destroyed, the power outage, the meltdown, and most importantly the moment where you realize "it's been 15 minutes. The SA-X isn't leaving. I have to run for it." These beats all show how effective a guided story can be for Metroid because they seriously add a lot to the experience.

The other side of the coin, these story beats make the game almost excessively linear at some points, giving you little room or reason to try exploring. Along with this, after replaying it recently the game does an awful job of making Adam likable. The bit where he "redeems" himself is just abrupt and doesn't feel earned nor consistent with how he is the entire game. Dude helps drive the story but he's hardly a character until Samus literally calls him Adam and suddenly he's entirely different, he goes from cold with a bit of hostility to your only ally in seconds.

As an aside, man they did a horrible job of fitting this game into the timeline when they made Other M. The story is retroactively made completely terrible when you take into account Other M being Fusion's prequel. Not only does it make Samus look like a goddamn idiot (replace the X parasites with an assassin, and there you go. You've changed Fusion into Other M, they literally have the same twist of the government cloning Metroids, why does Samus trust them in Fusion???), it makes Adam even more unlikable and unbelievable in Fusion because of how godawful he is in Other M. Ah, you're indebted to this computer because he was a huge asshole and then there's that entire moronic sacrifice sequence. But I digress, I don't wanna get too into shitting on Other M here, just a sidenote on how Fusion makes no sense when you consider Other M's occurring before it.

Fusion is definitely an interesting experiment, at least. If they insist on adding a story to Metroid, I think it's a good first attempt. Just give us a bit more freedom and I think it could be great, even if that freedom is as simple as having some alternate ways to get to your destinations. And if we're gonna have characters, please make them way better than Adam was.

The fact that Other M's story was redundant is one of the more baffling things about it (a lot of the badness in Other M is understandable: you can see what they were going for they just botched it horribly, but the fact that the story is almost a shot-for-shot retread of Fusion is much more of an unforced error than the game's other problems).

 

[TheDinoman]

A good game that gets worse every replay. The Adam AI is a fucking terrible idea that ruins much of the pacing and atmosphere. For example, the mysterious reveal of the SA-X is undermined by Adam blandly describing it to Samus afterwards. The game is also a slog to 100% because you can't get so many items until you beat the game.

Zero Mission has literally the same exact issue. There's a whole bunch of items throughout the game that you can't access until you get the fully powered suit at the end of the game at Chozodia, so if you're looking to 100% it, you have to travel all the way out of there and back to the main Zebes map. Fuck that, at that point I always just go straight to Mecha Ridley all while picking up a few missile/bomb upgrades along the way.

It seems that Super Metroid is the only game out of Sakamoto's series that makes collecting all the items naturally woven into the game's structure. Fusion, Zero Mission and Other M basically make it into some end game quest. I fear Samus Returns might be the same way too.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

It's the best 2D Metroid. Yes, they tell you where to go, but not how to get there. The room to room level design, enemies, boss battles, and overall challenge are all superior to ZM and Super. Love the music, aesthetic, and story too.

 

[bjork]

You can ignore the chozo guidance completely, because unlike Fusion, they are not required to access other areas. Zero Mission is a really good, and classic metroid game.

With bomb jumping, and wall jumping you can reach late game areas really fast. Like very early varía suit and screw attack.

That's great, but I still feel how I feel about it.

 

[Novocaine]

SA-X scared the shit out of me.

Fusion was rad. Is it on the eshop? I wanna play it again.

 

[TheFuzz]

Personally, it might be one of my favorites. I know it strays from the Metroid formula but the whole survival/horror asthetic with the SA-X is a really clever idea. And the bosses are some of my favorite.

 

[Falchion]

I'm playing through it for the first time now and while it's certainly fun, I hate how progress through the levels sometimes comes down to bombing on particular section of a room that has no contextual clues that I can see.

 

[VDenter]

I'm playing through it for the first time now and while it's certainly fun, I hate how progress through the levels sometimes comes down to bombing on particular section of a room that has no contextual clues that I can see.

Yep that is a problem with all the 2D Metroid games and a problem that Nintendo never really addressed.

 

[roknin]

Fusion is so freaking great, absolutely love it.
It wasn't even that guided like someone says because between you and the target there always was an unexpected event that made you change routes.
Controls are perfect and should be what a 2d Metroid should always control from now on, suit looks fantastic (aside the Varia one... ugh), it gives a new meaning to the title of the franchise, the self narrated parts were awesome and last but not least SA-X was scary as heck.

Echoes my feelings on it as well.

I still have trouble deciding if I Ike Super or Fusion more. Both are damn-near perfect.

And yeah, for all the talk of heavy guidance, there are actually plenty of parts in the game where you are forced to find suit on your own, even Adam is like "yo I don't know where the hell it is", or when it starts purposely not telling you things and you find them on your own, surprising Adam. There's also a ton of secrets, and to 100% Fusion you have to really dig for stuff off the beaten path.

Man Fusion is so good.

 

[Ryouji Gunblade]

I love its uniquely horror aesthetic and the OST is my favorite in the series.

 

[TheDinoman]

Yep that is a problem with all the 2D Metroid games and a problem that Nintendo never really addressed.

I think Samus Returns might be addressing that, kind of. It's going to have a special ability that exposes any destructible blocks within a room.

 

[Thud]

One of my favorites.

It has the right amount of tension that SA-X builds up.

 

[cireza]

Favorite Metroid game. Even if the game prevents all kinds of Sequence Breaking, it's construction is incredible. The way all the areas connect in the end is mind-blowing. Very impressive level-design.

I also liked the setting and universe a lot, because it added a ton of new things to the Metroid series.

Great boss battles, good difficulty. Very well balanced game overall. Love it, one of my favorite games ever.

 

[night814]

It's a good game, but a terrible Metroid.

Too linear, too limited movement, too much damn text, too cartoony.

Would easily be my favorite Metroid game ever if it wasn't for all the hand holding. Otherwise, it's a fantastic game, right behind Metroid Prime and Super Metroid.

Good game, and I loved the SA-X aspect of it, but the guided progression really bothered me. I also really missed the catchy tunes of the previous games.

These posts echo my thoughts exactly. Fusions biggest problem is it's awful OST.

The guidance wouldn't be such an issue if it didn't also play into the Adam/Samus arc they tried to do. Adam is and will always be a major low point in the series. The narrative scenes with Samus would be much better if what she was thinking about was more about the atmosphere and the pressing threat of the SA-X, instead at least half are "this computer reminds of this dude I used to know"

 

[Weiss]

IT's basically Metroid crossed with The Thing. It's awesome. The comparitive linearity was a fine sacrifice for excellent set pieces.

Locking the station in the endgame is unforgivable, though.

 

[ZombiePlatypus]

As someone that hasn't dabbled in metroidvania genre too much, this sounds like the best of both worlds.

 

[eXistor]

Yep that is a problem with all the 2D Metroid games and a problem that Nintendo never really addressed.

It's one of my favorite aspects of Metroid actually. Progress isn't random, they always leave visual clues, you just have to pay attention to the environments. I always found that so exciting; to know that behind every small hidden passageway could possibly be the path to the next big thing, be it a new area or a new upgrade. It's exploration and mystery done right.

 

[abstract alien]

It's a great game on it's own, but coming from Super Metroid, Fusion irritated the hell out of me. The best part about the game was SA-X and how much sense it. The rest of it was a bit of a letdown to be honest. Great piece of work, but it's not what I'd really like from Metroid, as it's so limiting, non exploratory, and narrated in a way that lessens the character as well as the gameplay of it's predecessor. Probably sounds like I'm trashing it, but I'm really not. It's a great title, but not what captures Metroid for me personally. It gave up some core identity elements, yet didn't replace them with anything.

 

[eXistor]

As someone that hasn't dabbled in metroidvania genre too much, this sounds like the best of both worlds.

It's really not. I'd much rather a game fully commit to full-on exploration or be fully linear. In the hands of a good developer, one isn't necessarily better than the other. Either commit to one or the other. If you try to please all sides you end up being a jack-of-all-trades, no one wants that (though reading this thread, many people really liked this watered-down Metroid so maybe we deserve whatever we get).

 

[Squishy3]

If they got rid of the idea of "adam" entirely (make it the actual computer or a fellow bounty hunter or something), cut out about 80% of the dialogue (some of it *is* necessary to ramp up tension) and made it a bit less linear it'd be amazing.

The actual baffling idea is they told the entirety of the story with Adam in Fusion (You get an idea of the character without ever actually meeting said character as Samus knew them) and none of it really needed to be elaborated on.

And then Other M happens.

 

[abstract alien]

The actual baffling idea is they told the entirety of the story with Adam in Fusion (You get an idea of the character without ever actually meeting said character as Samus knew them) and none of it really needed to be elaborated on.

And then Other M happens.

That game seemed like it was more about showing the vulnerabilities of Samus...or something. I'm not really sure. I wanted to say it was more about demoralizing her character, but maybe I'm jaded.

 

[Dr. Buni]

By far the best Metroid game.

 

[Remembrance]

If you appreciated Fusion's linearity, watch for Iconoclasts later this year (whenever it actually releases).

It will be a linear, story-driven Metroidvania. The developer mentions Fusion's influence basically every time he talks about the game.

 

[JusDoIt]

If you appreciated Fusion's linearity, watch for Iconoclasts later this year (whenever it actually releases).

It will be a linear, story-driven Metroidvania. The developer mentions Fusion's influence basically every time he talks about the game.

That's a little disappointing to read. I was looking forward to Iconoclasts because the sprite work is gorgeous.

 

[MoonFrog]

I'm in a better mood wrt Fusion in the current climate so I'll avoid speaking ill of it .

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

If you appreciated Fusion's linearity, watch for Iconoclasts later this year (whenever it actually releases).

It will be a linear, story-driven Metroidvania. The developer mentions Fusion's influence basically every time he talks about the game.

Hadn't heard of this. Not digging the artstyle at all, especially the character designs. I'll keep an eye on it though since Fusion is the GOAT 2D Metroid game.

 

[Tarextherex]

Best in the series after Prime and Super imo

It just does everything it is set to do very well. The world being segmented in sectors might sound unnattractive for Metroid but there is more that meets the eye, the game has great pacing overall. Some die hard fans like to paint this as the downfall of the series when it's simply a great game in a different structure. Other M is even more unnecessary when a GBA game did basically everything it tried to do way better. Also things like dialogues and guiding were way less intrusive than in say, Prime 3. You were told where to go but that's it, game offers a lot of surprises on that aspect. Dialogue was nice too, it felt more like MGS conversations in terms of providing context rather than your average stilted videogame dialogue that you mash through

 

[Big Nikus]

So happy to see so much love for Fusion here. I'm gonna play it again then.

 

[yyr]

It will be a linear, story-driven Metroidvania.

That's not possible.

The genre is defined by action, freedom of movement, exploration, and the player needing to figure out where to go next, even if the actual path to complete the game is somewhat linear.

Metroid Fusion is not a Metroidvania. It is a linear action game with story sequences and some hidden items. That's why it was a major disappointment to folks like me...folks who were expecting an actual Metroid game, and who did not enjoy it for what it instead was. I know it's a well-made game, and that it has its fans, but personally, I didn't want to play a linear action/horror/sci-fi hybrid; I wanted to play Metroid.

So it sounds like Iconoclasts will be something that Metroid Fusion fans will enjoy playing, but not necessarily fans of Metroidvania-style games.

 

[Boss Doggie]

That's not possible.

The genre is defined by action, freedom of movement, exploration, and the player needing to figure out where to go next, even if the actual path to complete the game is somewhat linear.

but that's literally Fusion

it's linear in its story, but it's still up to you on what to do to get to a certain area, especially midway in the game where you're only given a vague area and you end up going to an area you're not supposed to go to "in the direction given to you".