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Something weird about Metroid Fusion… it doesn’t let you get all of the items the first time through. The last powerup you get in the game is the screw attack (obtained through a very strange source) , and about 40% of the breakable walls in the game require said screw attack. And yet, once you get said screw attack, the plot leashes you into exactly one path and locks all other doors which might be a distraction to you. So all you can do is go forward and beat the game, essentially.

And so I wasted all of this time prowling around, flaunting my curiosity against the linear paths along which I was directed, expecting to be able to at least find all or most of the items if I wasn’t going to finish the game quickly enough. No, though. I take forever to finish and I’m only allowed to collect just over 60% of the items in the game. Hrmn.

One thing which might balance this out is that I now have a “complete” save that apparently unlocks all of the doors which should have already been that way and allows me to play from my last save point. Now my only problem is all of the blocks which are supposed to be broken with a dash attack yet which aren’t surrounded by nearly enough space to allow said dashing to occur. Not sure what to do about that.

But yeah. I’ve finished the game. I got the “Hi, I’m Samus. Admire my armour.” ending, as expected — but it does appear that the game leaves open the possibility for more.

The last portion of the game seemed somewhat unfulfilling to me. Things were just starting to get interesting, when the game merely… ended. There weren’t any really interesting showdowns or anything — at least in terms of boss mechanics. I’m not sure how thrilled I am by the choices for final bosses either, though. I mean, they were all either pretty much expected or… well. The last boss really fell pretty flat. It’s obviously intended as an homage to Metroid II, to which this game tries to be a sequel as much as it does to the third game. But… hum.

The endgame just feels rushed to me; a last-minute shuffle of Metroid elements from the past (there was almost literally nothing new here), plus the forced linear path. The plot was just beginning to pick up some steam. The tension was just starting to build. Things were just starting to get really difficult. The level design was just starting to fall together. And then that was it.

That said, the series now seems to have been kicked off again on a new path. Where Super Metroid did its part in ending things, Fusion finishes the job and then opens up some new threads for the future. This is… well, a decent bridge game. I guess. It had all of the elements to be something really momentous, but in the end this is just Chapter Four. It’s King of Fighters ’99. (Okay, ’99 was chapter five — but that’s also including ’94, which was more a prologue than a plot chapter.)

Hey, KoF began the same year that the last Metroid game was made. And now that it’s gone through two plot arcs, Metroid’s come back for what looks like it’s intended to be the beginning of its second arc. Hmm.

Fusion, for me, does more to raise questions about the next Metroid than it satisfies as a game on its own. Sure, it’s by leaps and bounds the best game on the GBA so far (since mine is still in the design phase). It’s captivating for as long as it lasts. There’s a lot of great stuff introduced here, and there’s more plot than in the other three Metroids combined (and probably Prime as well). But very little of that stuff is really exploited as well as it could be.

There’s not enough game here — and I don’t just mean that the thing is short, which it certainly is (albeit longer than Harmony of Dissonance). It feels more like a test run for a New-Style Metroid, to see how well it works out. It works just great! But… I’d like more than just a demo, y’know?

All three of the previous games felt satisfactory. If nothing else, there was a bunch more to explore, and they’d let you explore it rather than blocking off entranceways and locking doors whenever they felt the need to confine you for reasons of the plot. Once you got a new ability, you had a chance to use it for a while. I mean. What the hell is the use of the screw attack in this game? And why does… he give it to you?

Fusion is an experiment at making a linear Metroid. And… it succeeds to some extent, but it takes things too far. The level design is not constructed around exploration; it’s constructed as a cleverly-intertwined series of more or less direct paths from point A to B to C to D. There are some detours allowed, and a few confined bits of mandatory tile-searching thrown in attempt to appease the audience — but they’re all more or less scripted events within that linear framework. It’s got an interesting plot which falls into cliche near the end and then is abruptly cut short at what feels like the three-quarter mark (without really capitalizing on some of the tension and the setup established through the earlier portions of the game).

So. Hrm. How do I feel about this game? To be entirely honest, I think it thrills me the least of the four main Metroids so far. (Prime is another story, as I don’t even have a GameCube yet.) Some of this I know is just due to my expectations for what a Metroid game is supposed to be — as not all of them are met to my utmost satisfaction here. I came in anticipating one thing and then I was constantly pulled in other directions the entire way through, no matter how much I attempted to force the issue and to play the game like, well, Metroid. I didn’t want to rush through, and in the end this reluctance got me nothing. The game essentially gives you no good reason not to blow through it as quickly as you can manage. Then later it gives you the opportnuity to poke around for whatever you might have missed, after-the-fact.

So okay, let’s take it as a linear, plot-based action/adventure game. The plot is intriguing, but it doesn’t follow through on some of the major themes and tensions that it spends hours building up. The end doesn’t do much except serve as an ending by default of it being at the end. I really like the addition of plot sequences to Metroid, and the new action-based mechanics are terrific. But the bosses in the middle are astoundingly, overwhelmingly difficult while the last few bosses only took me a few tries in total to get past. That one boss requires nothing more than to stay away from him and to shoot missiles as quickly as possible. Compared to some of the earlier bosses in the game, this is just silly. As a linear game, Fusion feels incomplete. It feels like the beginning of the soap opera era of Metroid. Stay tuned for Metroid 5, where we might actually do something with all of these neat new ideas with which we’ve taunted you for the last ten hours or so.

And yet, aside from all of these complaints, it’s still Metroid. And it’s enjoyable, for what it is. And again, there’s a bunch of great stuff in here — including some pretty daring experiments with what Metroid can be.

Is Metroid falling into one of those odd/even sequences, like Star Trek and Final Fantasy? Metroids 1 and 3 are the “standard” games in the series. 2 and 4 are both experiments with the formula, and both introduced a bunch of plot elements, experiments with the game mechanics, and a redesign for Samus. Maybe Metroid 5 will do with what’s been created in Fusion what Super Metroid did with what was introduced in Return of Samus, sifting through for the best of the new elements and then threading them back into the traditional Metroid framework?

I guess that’s not a bad way to go. Make a safe game, then experiment. Use those experiments to make another safe game. Then experiment. And so on.

Maybe Fusion will grow on me if I spend more time with it. The only problem is that every time through the game, I’ll have to deal with the whole linear aspect again. When I replay the earlier Metroids, I’m left alone to do whatever I’m able and to explore in peace. I don’t feel like selecting “restart” without finding the rest of the items in my complete save, so I can’t test out how much the game will meddle with me the second time through or if it’ll leave everything unlocked (as it’s done for the moment).

One other thing — you get to see Samus’ eyes once in the course of the game.

So.

I guess I should write that review, now. Then maybe get started on that Sonic thing. But then I’ve got both homework to do and a test to study for in Physics. (I figure the one should suffice for the other, given that the test will be over the very same material that’s in the homework.) I also need to ask for help from a guy who doesn’t particularly like me. And there’s a bunch of stuff I’ve been putting off in concerns with the game.