Metroid Fusion

Metroid: Fusion
Time Lapses: 0-2, 2-4, 4+ with less than 100%; 0-2, 2+ with 100%
Played Time: 3 Hours 40 Minutes Recorded, 6 Hours Total, 62% Items
Review:
The game came out on the Game Boy Advance and in all of its glory. The game's setting plays opposite of the original trilogy. You are on a space station, running through all the sectors, fighting off enemies as you try to retrieve data. Each area has checkpoints where you retrieve the map of the area, save, and retrieve maximum health and ammunition. You also converse with the computer as it gives you destinations and status updates. This makes the game a whole lot easier to manage as you venture through the sectors.

For some silly reason, the bosses posed the biggest threat. No matter how much health I had, I seemed to die at least once to about half a dozen bosses. The spider caused me the most grief. It would pick me up and take out about 3 bars of health and continue to pick me up before I had a chance to clear the area. Like him and many other bosses, learning the one trick to outmaneuver their attack patterns made the encounters trivial. In the case of the spider, morphing into a ball and touching the left wall will allow total freedom from any of his attacks.

Although linear in nature, there were many alternate routes that gave me pause. The infamous Sector 4 underwater section seems to be an issue for many people. You must fall down a specific way through an invisible wall to reach the red door access point. Then, you must follow the route to the right and freeze the balloon monster from a distance before it blows up. I grew very impatient near the end of this area that I was forced to look up the solution. Of course, that wasn't the only section. The computer tells you to defeat the robot in the section but doesn't tell you where to go. You must enter a secret area using your newfound ability, go all the way to the end where the computer denies you access, and then run back into the room and be surprised by the robot.

The game was different from its predecessors. It had good points and bad points. I neither liked it or disliked it.

 

8-20-2016