I'm a super-passionate Metroid fan so I have a lot of conflicted feelings about Fusion. After replaying it yesterday I'm reminded of what makes Fusion good (and bad).
THE GOOD
Fusion's an interesting game because it takes a completely different tone than the first three. Instead of you by yourself on an alien planet, you have a robot assistant who barks orders at you (and quickly hints that it's evil). So you feel kind of trapped, trying to eliminate the escalating X threat while following the orders of someone suspicious. It's a good premise! And the moment when you start "sequence breaking," as in finding items when you're not "supposed to," feels oh-so-good.
In addition, I think the overall plot is the best of the Metroid games - but that's to be expected when there's so much dialogue and exposition.
I also found the movement and combat to be quite fun, for the most part. Nightmare is a goated Metroid boss.
THE BAD
From a beginner's players perspective Metroid Fusion's #1 problem has been, as Videogamedunkey coined them, "Metroid moments". While Super Metroid only has one or two (remember that one wall in Lower Norfair?), Fusion is chock-full of way-too-hidden secrets required for progression. The most obvious one is when you first visit TRO and have to bomb a completely random spot on the floor. It sucks a lot, and if you don't know that you have to bomb there you can spend a lot of time trying to find the "obvious way". Another one that sucks is when you revisit NOC and have to refight the BOX.
A lot of the bosses are also pretty bad - the spider, the chozo statue, and the Varia suit boss are really boring to fight.
As a veteran Metroid player, however, my primary problem lies with the item collection. As I beat my most recent Fusion playthrough, I ended up with 61%, a LOT less than I thought I would've had. Metroid Fusion's item collection has two problems: how cryptic it is, and how much endgame "cleanup" there is.
The majority of Metroid Fusion's item placement is, for lack of better words, bullshit. I applaud whoever found all of these items by themselves without Power Bombing every single room in the game or using a guide. I don't have much issue with the puzzles, though.
Secondly, the endgame item cleanup is just... annoying. While I didn't 100% the game this time I've done it before, and remember not being fond of it. Unless you want to backtrack to a sector for an item or two, you're going to end up getting a majority of the items right before the end of the game. It doesn't help that the game builds a (false) sense of urgency, making most casual players skip the endgame item cleanup.
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In conclusion, Fusion is a pretty good devitation from the traditional Metroid formula and, ignoring some of the weird ways forward, provides a good experience for first-time players. The item cleanup still sucks, though.
THE GOOD
Fusion's an interesting game because it takes a completely different tone than the first three. Instead of you by yourself on an alien planet, you have a robot assistant who barks orders at you (and quickly hints that it's evil). So you feel kind of trapped, trying to eliminate the escalating X threat while following the orders of someone suspicious. It's a good premise! And the moment when you start "sequence breaking," as in finding items when you're not "supposed to," feels oh-so-good.
In addition, I think the overall plot is the best of the Metroid games - but that's to be expected when there's so much dialogue and exposition.
I also found the movement and combat to be quite fun, for the most part. Nightmare is a goated Metroid boss.
THE BAD
From a beginner's players perspective Metroid Fusion's #1 problem has been, as Videogamedunkey coined them, "Metroid moments". While Super Metroid only has one or two (remember that one wall in Lower Norfair?), Fusion is chock-full of way-too-hidden secrets required for progression. The most obvious one is when you first visit TRO and have to bomb a completely random spot on the floor. It sucks a lot, and if you don't know that you have to bomb there you can spend a lot of time trying to find the "obvious way". Another one that sucks is when you revisit NOC and have to refight the BOX.
A lot of the bosses are also pretty bad - the spider, the chozo statue, and the Varia suit boss are really boring to fight.
As a veteran Metroid player, however, my primary problem lies with the item collection. As I beat my most recent Fusion playthrough, I ended up with 61%, a LOT less than I thought I would've had. Metroid Fusion's item collection has two problems: how cryptic it is, and how much endgame "cleanup" there is.
The majority of Metroid Fusion's item placement is, for lack of better words, bullshit. I applaud whoever found all of these items by themselves without Power Bombing every single room in the game or using a guide. I don't have much issue with the puzzles, though.
Secondly, the endgame item cleanup is just... annoying. While I didn't 100% the game this time I've done it before, and remember not being fond of it. Unless you want to backtrack to a sector for an item or two, you're going to end up getting a majority of the items right before the end of the game. It doesn't help that the game builds a (false) sense of urgency, making most casual players skip the endgame item cleanup.
--
In conclusion, Fusion is a pretty good devitation from the traditional Metroid formula and, ignoring some of the weird ways forward, provides a good experience for first-time players. The item cleanup still sucks, though.