This Week In Retro: Metroid Fusion & Metroid Prime (Patreon)

November 17/18, 2002: Bounty hunter business booms

by Diamond Feit

Desire is a hell of a drug. If I want pizza, then I want pizza, and no amount of delicious curry, sushi, or chocolate will placate me. I think making up your mind and figuring out the things you like are important steps towards developing your own identity and feeling comfortable in your own skin. Taking an interest in hobbies or art that isn't popular with others can make things hard if you're a teenager still finding yourself, so as an adult in my late-40s, I'm proud to like what I like and I feel no need to apologize for that anymore.

Seeking out and consuming media that we've already recognized as appealing can deliver both comfort and escape; I've spent the last few years taking full advantage of having all the classic Star Trek episodes available on my television at the push of a button, an impossible convenience that I never could have imagined even 12 years ago. Since I've seen them all before, they make perfect background entertainment while I exercise, do the dishes, or just need to get off my feet for a while and relax.

Yet when my whims and my entertainment fall out of sync, I can get a little grouchy. Recent Star Trek programming hasn't won me over the way that the older shows once did, fewer selections at cinemas gives me fewer excuses to see a movie on the big screen, and it's not easy to crave pizza in a country where pies can cost twice as much yet taste half as good as what I grew up eating. Yet the problem is even more acute when it comes to video games due to their interactive nature. I have found my patience for discomfort in games to be quite short; if a character's jump doesn't feel right or I struggle with basic features like moving the camera, I may pass swift judgment and stop playing altogether.

20 years ago this week, in an unprecedented move, Nintendo released two completely different Metroid games on consecutive days. The first, a 2D title for the Game Boy Advance, sought to continue Samus Aran's story from Super Metroid. The second, a prequel set in-between Metroid and Metroid II, would be Samus' first ever 3D adventure. Despite my fanaticism for the series at that point in my life, I would spend less than an hour playing either game, dismissing them for years as lesser efforts until giving them a second chance only recently.

While it arrived eight years after Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion (aka Metroid 4) directly follows Samus' experiences on Planet Zebes where she destroyed the Mother Brain once and for all thanks to the sacrifice of the last living Metroid. The game opens with Samus paying a second visit to Planet SR388, the original home of the Metroid before she wiped all but one of them out. Serving as security for a scientific mission, Samus discovers that eradicating the Metroid allowed a new lifeform to proliferate on the planet, a parasitic creature dubbed X by Galactic Federation scientists. X infests Samus, both her body and her power suit, and she only survives thanks to radical surgery and a vaccine derived from data taken from the last Metroid. As she puts it, "I owe the Metroid hatchling my life twice over."

With Samus now fused (get it?) with alien DNA, she flies off to investigate an emergency situation aboard a scientific research center orbiting SR388, as ordered by her new AI-fitted starship, a gift from the Galactic Federation. As directed by this sentient cybernetic personality, Samus explores the station and encounters X parasites running throughout the main bay and working their way into the simulated environments which house dozens of different life forms. She alone stands between the X and the rest of the universe, although she soon discovers she is not the only heavily-armed hunter walking the halls of the space station.

Metroid Fusion features a far larger narrative component than any previous title in the series, with a lengthy opening cinematic and frequent updates regarding the status of X infestation from Samus' AI commander. After three games where Samus Aran blasted her way through crumbling alien worlds all on her own, Fusion has her checking in with her handler non-stop. The AI even decides where Samus needs to go next, marking her map and opening the necessary doors for her to reach her goal. There's still room for exploration—I managed to get lost a couple times when I finally played the game to completion—but the inclusion of AI-guided mission objectives makes Fusion much more linear than its beloved predecessor Super Metroid.

Linearity is not a dirty word, and by exercising strict controls over where Samus can go in Metroid Fusion, the game manages to create some powerful scripted moments. The reveal that Samus' infected power armor is actively patrolling the station's corridors in pursuit of her comes across as genuinely frightening, as does each subsequent encounter Samus has with her much stronger nemesis. These tense run-ins, along with other plot details only possible due to the inclusion of Samus' chatty cybernetic commander, all add up to make Fusion one of the stronger games in the series, but that comes at the expense of free exploration which came to define the franchise in the first place.

Debuting just one day after Fusion, Metroid Prime does more than introduce 3D graphics to the series: The game places players directly in Samus Aran's steel shoes as if the player is viewing the game through her visor. Prime treats the usual heads-up display of a first-person shooter as a diegetic feature of Samus' suit, offering the player a real-time account of Samus' remaining energy and ammunition. The screen also fogs up with steam or frost when Samus passes through areas of extreme heat or cold, adding to the illusion that the so-called fourth-wall is a transparent panel in front of the player's face.

Similar to Metroid Fusion, Prime opens with Samus boarding a distressed vessel orbiting a planet, though in Prime's case the ship belongs to an escaped band of space pirate scientists from Zebes. Samus finds the pirates and their frigate in bad shape, with evidence suggesting the scientists and their experiments engaged in a fierce battle. She ends up finishing off a large captive creature but not before it cripples the ship's reactor, forcing Samus to flee to her own craft as she sees her old enemy Ridley escape to the planet below.

The bulk of Metroid Prime takes place on the planet of Tallon IV as Samus searches through ancient ruins in pursuit of Ridley and any remaining pirates. Despite the change from a 2D side-scrolling perspective to a first-person view, Prime plays much like classic Metroid games, with Samus free to explore the environment as best as she can, fighting wildlife and regaining her lost powers in order to delve deeper into the planet's core. While an optional hint system can offer advice regarding where to go next, no authoritative voice directs the player to any location. The game occasionally nudges players by notifying them that they lack the means to open a door or interact with a device needed to proceed, but it's entirely possible in Metroid Prime to go the "wrong" way and end up overmatched.

Two Metroid games in the space of two days—the latter of which being my birthday—should have been cause for celebration in 2002. Yet I had played and replayed Super Metroid so much since 1994, I found both Fusion and Prime disappointing in different ways. Fusion looked like Super Metroid but the constant AI chatter drove me nuts. Part of the fantasy of being Samus Aran is answering to no one; having a running dialogue with a disembodied commander detracts from that experience. I also wasn't thrilled that Fusion debuted on the GBA, as I lived alone in 2002 and didn't play many handheld games; why was such gorgeous pixel art exiled to a pocket-sized screen when I wanted it on my full-size television?

Metroid Prime and I got off on the wrong foot through no fault of its own, for I bristled at the larger game industry trend at that time of taking popular 2D games and "improving" them with 3D graphics. I had devoured Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Nintendo 64, but in my eyes, the Metroid formula necessitated side-scrolling action. I certainly had not enjoyed the early attempts to translate Castlevania into 3D, and Samus Aran's distinctive somersault required finesse that I couldn't imagine working in a first-person view.

The whole situation reminded me of Metallica's drift from heavy metal to hard rock in the mid-90s, as something distinct that I really loved turned into an imitation of something different—even if I liked that other thing, I lamented the absence of what was lost. I enjoyed GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, but if I wanted to play a first-person shooter, I already had plenty to choose from. In 2002, games like Metroid weren't just rare, they seemed downright endangered, so I viewed Metroid Prime as nothing less than a betrayal.

20 years later, removed from the very specific circumstances in which they launched, I have revisited both Metroid Fusion and Prime and found they exceeded my expectations. I still fume over Fusion's hand-holding but the action doesn't disappoint, and in the late game the entire station opens up and lets Samus go wherever the hell she wants. If anything, I wish Nintendo had been more forgiving when balancing the boss battles, as I struggled to defeat most of the larger foes in the game with their gigantic sprites and tiny weak points.

It's harder to appreciate Metroid Prime in our current era, as Nintendo and Retro Studios designed the inputs for the GameCube controller and its lone analog stick. All movement and aiming requires adjusting what we now call the "left" stick, with lateral strafing or precision aiming requiring players to hold one of the shoulder buttons. Prime uses a lock-on feature that helps a lot, allowing Samus to focus her attention on a single foe and quickly hop from side-to-side, but handling multiple targets when she's surrounded is quite challenging. If the long-rumored Switch port of the Metroid Prime games ever comes to pass, one would hope for an improved control scheme to make use of both sticks. In the meantime, there are fan-made emulator hacks on the internet that attempt to incorporate twin analog sticks and even keyboard & mouse controls into Metroid Prime, should you seek them out for your legitimately owned copy of the game.

I shall not apologize for turning up my nose at Metroid Fusion and Prime 20 years ago just because I later found myself in the right headspace to enjoy them. Whatever my reasons were at the time, these games weren't what I wanted to play back in 2002. Besides, it's not like I alone forced Nintendo to put the series on the backburner. Plenty of other people must have enjoyed Metroid Prime, as Nintendo would publish two sequels and to this day maintains that a fourth title remains in development. I'm happy to look forward to this release now that I've discovered the series has merit after all.

Fusion, on the other hand, likely underperformed as Nintendo wouldn't make another 2D Metroid game for decades. Thankfully, the Castlevania series picked up the slack on the Game Boy Advance and later the DS, and today every single console and PC storefront is drowning in quality 2D games with heroes exploring a large interconnected space. As for Samus Aran, her return to the limelight in 2021's Metroid Dread wowed millions of Switch owners, and while I have my own issues with that game, I'm glad that Samus and the Metroidvania genre seem well and truly alive today.

…unlike that last Metroid.

Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but is forever online, sharing idle thoughts on Twitter and playing games on Twitch.