This week saw a major anniversary for the Metroid franchise. It was eighteen years ago yesterday when Metroid Fusion debuted on the Game Boy Advance in North America, serving as the grand return of Samus Aran following 1994’s Super Metroid on the SNES. It’s a big milestone, and plenty of fans took the opportunity to celebrate it.
Metroid Fusion was released alongside the GameCube title Metroid Prime, which brought the series into 3D for the first time, but while Fusion stuck with the series’ trademark 2D action-exploration gameplay, it found ways to innovate. For starters, the game expanded on series lore by introducing a Samus infused with Metroid DNA, the shapeshifting X parasites, and Samus’ former commanding officer, Adam Malkovich.
But what truly made the game memorable for a lot of fans was its creepier atmosphere punctuated by the SA-X, a parasitic clone of Samus that would stalk her through multiple sections of the game, armed with all of her usual abilities. This made the SA-X one of Metroid’s scariest bosses, and gave Fusion a tense, almost survival horror-esque vibe at times that’s still fondly remembered by fans to this day.
While it’s nice to see fans looking back on the game, it serves as a sad reminder that there hasn’t been an original 2D Metroid game since Fusion. Granted, Nintendo did follow it up with Metroid: Zero Mission in 2004 and Metroid: Samus Returns in 2017, but those were remakes of the first two games. At this point, most fans would agree that it’s time for Nintendo to make a brand new 2D Metroid, especially since it seems like the wait for the next 3D game, Metroid Prime 4, won’t be ending anytime too soon.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply