Nostalgia: Metroid Fusion

The Fourth

       
        Metroid Fusion for the Gameboy Advance is the fourth installment in the fantastic Metroid series. It is the sequel to Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo, and is considered by some to be the best in the series. Released in 2002, this and Metroid Prime, which released on the same day as Fusion, were the sparks that started the creation of a line of splendid Metroid games after an eight year hiatus.

        Like in every Metroid game, the player takes the role of Samus Aran, a bounty hunter commissioned by the Galactic Federation to help fight off the Space Pirates and their biological weapons. While helping out some scientists, she becomes infected by a species known as the X Parasite, and like in every Metroid game, she loses parts of her suit. Samus is given an antidote to cure the infection created from a metroid hatchling, which are natural predators of the X Parasite. Samus now has to destroy all of the X while being chased by a parasite mimicking her named the SA-X. 

        Metroid Fusion is very different compared to the standard Metroid formula. First, despite the namesake, there are not any metroids for Samus to fight, except for one Omega Metroid at the end. Healing items take the form of the X,  which take the form of whatever they attaches themselves to, so there is a potential for them to fly around and heal you or reshape into another enemy right after defeating the enemy it came from. This adds an interesting sense of urgency to collect the X before they reshape into another monster. Also, there is a Samus duplicate roaming around the space station that Samus occasionally runs into and cannot be defeated until Samus collects all of her suit attachments. 

        Metroid Fusion might be somewhat difficult to find today since it's a nine year old Gameboy Advance game, and they haven't really gotten around to remaking those games, but hopefully in the future these kinds of games will make there way to the Nintendo 3DS's version of the Wii's Virtual Console. Until then, borrow it form a friend like I did, see if Gamestop or EB Games has it used, or you can always look at eBay or Amazon. Whatever you do be sure to check this game out as it is a must-play just like almost every Metroid game (except for maybe Other M, I don't know yet, because I haven't played it).