This review contains spoilers
Zero Mission was the only Metroid I had played prior to starting this marathon, so I was really excited to revisit it and see how it feels within the wider context of the series. Turns out a good ass game is still a good ass game, although I do think I have a greater appreciation for why that is now. It’s a really seamless blend of Super Metroid’s power and exploration with the speed and movement of Fusion, leading to Samus’s most comfortable, accessible adventure yet. This is such a fun game to pick up and just GO, you can really blast through it and it’s incredibly satisfying to do so. I definitely see why this was the Metroid that initially got me hooked.
There really isn’t a ton I have to say about Zero Mission on its own. It’s a pretty baseline Metroid, all the features and iconography you’d expect are here, wrapped up in a lovely high-contrast art style and some excellent controls. It’s simple, but sometimes that’s all you need. It’s a bit easier and more handhold-y than I’d prefer (aside from the Mother Brain fight, which is still dookie ass 18 years later) but considering that this is clearly intended as an entry-level Metroid, it’s the kind of thing I can easily look past. Short, sweet and engaging all the way through.
If I did have any gripes it’s that while I still think Zero Mission is a great game, I’m not sure it’s a great remake. The tone here is just too fun and bombastic to feel like a suitable replacement for the harshness of the NES original. That was a very punishing, often unintuitive game, but that’s precisely what lent it such an oppressive feel. You felt genuinely outmatched on a hostile alien world, something Zero Mission’s heightened player empowerment and abundance of Chozo-signposting can’t replicate. The bright backgrounds and adventurous score lend the game a compelling atmosphere of its own, but it’s not the same atmosphere as the stark black voids and unsettling chiptunes that surrounded the Zebes of old. Not to mention than in its attempts to tie more closely to Super Metroid, it ends up spoiling a lot of what that game does (most obviously with Samus’s final upgrades, but more upsetting to me being how it totally botches Super’s tiny Kraid fakeout). Zero Mission is a much more enjoyable, less tedious game than its 1986 predecessor and for most that will be enough. But for me, this is just not an equivalent replacement for that original experience, janky though it may be.
Oh yeah, before I forget: Chozodia rocks! From what I understand that section is pretty love-it-or-hate-it among fans but I think it rules. Works for all the reasons the SA-X encounters worked, just more fleshed out. Glad to see that even a game as action-packed as this has room for something so uncomfortable and tense. It’s the one area of the game that captures a similar feeling as the NES classic, and I think it kicks ass. The whole game kicks ass. Fuck yeah, Zero Mission!
There really isn’t a ton I have to say about Zero Mission on its own. It’s a pretty baseline Metroid, all the features and iconography you’d expect are here, wrapped up in a lovely high-contrast art style and some excellent controls. It’s simple, but sometimes that’s all you need. It’s a bit easier and more handhold-y than I’d prefer (aside from the Mother Brain fight, which is still dookie ass 18 years later) but considering that this is clearly intended as an entry-level Metroid, it’s the kind of thing I can easily look past. Short, sweet and engaging all the way through.
If I did have any gripes it’s that while I still think Zero Mission is a great game, I’m not sure it’s a great remake. The tone here is just too fun and bombastic to feel like a suitable replacement for the harshness of the NES original. That was a very punishing, often unintuitive game, but that’s precisely what lent it such an oppressive feel. You felt genuinely outmatched on a hostile alien world, something Zero Mission’s heightened player empowerment and abundance of Chozo-signposting can’t replicate. The bright backgrounds and adventurous score lend the game a compelling atmosphere of its own, but it’s not the same atmosphere as the stark black voids and unsettling chiptunes that surrounded the Zebes of old. Not to mention than in its attempts to tie more closely to Super Metroid, it ends up spoiling a lot of what that game does (most obviously with Samus’s final upgrades, but more upsetting to me being how it totally botches Super’s tiny Kraid fakeout). Zero Mission is a much more enjoyable, less tedious game than its 1986 predecessor and for most that will be enough. But for me, this is just not an equivalent replacement for that original experience, janky though it may be.
Oh yeah, before I forget: Chozodia rocks! From what I understand that section is pretty love-it-or-hate-it among fans but I think it rules. Works for all the reasons the SA-X encounters worked, just more fleshed out. Glad to see that even a game as action-packed as this has room for something so uncomfortable and tense. It’s the one area of the game that captures a similar feeling as the NES classic, and I think it kicks ass. The whole game kicks ass. Fuck yeah, Zero Mission!
Brintendo
4 months ago