Metroid: Zero Mission

Date Acquired: 2.8.2004

Date Completed: 9.16.2010

Thoughts: This game is exhibit A as to why I am challenging myself to finish games and post about them. I own so many incredible games that I played halfway through and then stopped for no obvious reason. It bothers me. And leaving a 2D Metroid unfinished REALLY bothers me. It is a coincidence that Metroid: Other M was released less than a month ago. That's not what got me thinking about revisiting this game. Actually it was my August deadline that really got me thinking about it. I needed a game, and started looking at games I thought I could finish quickly. I decided this game needed to be restarted from the begining (AGAIN, I have literally started this game from the begining at least 4 times now. I always got stuck midway, or distracted and moved to something else. But not this time.) So this game was added to the short list of August candidates. Obviously I went with Wario Ware instead. Most of my portable gaming time was going to DQ9, and I just didn't want to distract myself from it.

Pros:It's 2D Metroid! Haven't we been over this already? But more than that, it's a remake of the original Metroid game. But rather than just take that short game and improve the graphics, Nintendo added updated play mechanics (Now I can duck AND shoot!), a save system (which means no Justin Bailey code), Super Metroid Weapons, and whole new levels, including the post-Mother brain level. In Metroid Zero Mission, Mother brain isn't your final nemesis, giant robot Ridley is. That final level by the way, is incredible. A great addition to the series, and something completely different. You get to run around as Samus, sans her armor, armed only with a stun gun as you try to avoid detection while you make your way through the ship. It's a little bit of Metal Gear Solid in my Metroid, but it works. Eventually you get a suit of armor, and get all your old weapons back and get to pay those space pirate bastards back for messing with you when you were weak and frail. Another cool addition is the inclusion of the original NES Metroid game. It's not available at the begining, but becomes available after beating the game. (there's my Justin Bailey code!)

Cons: Cons. Cons. Cons. You mean I have to say something bad about this game? Hmmm, well I guess I would start by comparing it to other 2D Metroids. It's not as good as Fusion, in my opinion. It just can't stack up to that game's awesomeness (and that's despite the pink and purple armor that Samus is forced to wear throughout most of the game). It may be technically better than Super Metroid, but it's not by much, and SM came first, so SM still comes in ahead. So it's the 3rd best 2D Metroid of all time. That's obviously still a hell of a thing. It's a great game that probably everyone who wants to play already has. If not, well good luck, it's not getting any easier to find at this point. Other minor gripe would be that I didn’t appreciate waiting until that last level to finally get the power bomb, letting me go back all the way through the entire game again to finish trying to unlock things. At that point I was ready to fight the final boss and move on.

To Do: Probably not much. I could go back and find some of the other power ups I didn't get, but why? If I do anything with this game, it will be play the original Metroid, but since GBA games don't work on the DSi, I probably won't do that. (That's right, I had to whip out the SP to play this thing. At least I didn't have to use my micro)