First game in the Metroid series that I have played. Metroid Zero Mission is a wonderful action adventure platformer and remake of the original Metroid game for the NES. Though I have very minimal experience with the metroidvania genre first hand I feel like Zero Mission is close to what i imagine is the ideal game for the genre. The level design and progression through the world felt very fluid and natural to me. The movement felt good, I never felt to floaty or imprecise with the controls and each power up increasing the players ability to traverse the world never felt too early or late. I felt like I was always able to experience a thoughtful platforming section before receiving a new power up that would alter the way I moved through a section. About 95% of the game felt so well thought out and polished that its a real damn shame how horrid the bosses are here. These bosses rival real bad arcade games meant to eat children's coins in their design, with just a couple exceptions. A minor grievance in the grand picture but a grievance none the less. The final act (and zero mission original addition) was a very different yet really engaging act that I think really put all the power up mechanics to full use for a satisfying ending. Now lets see if I can expand on these thoughts. A problem I'm having when it comes to writing these reviews that its very hard for me not to talk about the game in a holistic way. A game is a sum of its parts so how do i speak on parts of a game without talking about how it complements and builds on other parts to make the finish product? This is probably why most videogame video essayists usually tackle their topics by walking you through a playthrough more so than trying to talk about separate parts of the games. Either way these reviews are for me and only me so we will endure.
First lets talk about the level design. As this was my first experience with the genre I had a worry that I would get lost in the nonlinear levels and throw my head into a wall until I admit defeat and shamefully look up a guide on how to navigate what ever area I was having problems navigating. Happy to say that was not the case. Though I'm sure the map helped me ALOT the where to go and how to go came about very instinctively. I rarely spent less than a minute contemplating what path to take and even when i did take longer there was usually some sort of visual cue that I missed. The visual cues are actually very clear so you'll feel extremely foolish when you miss them. Cracked and off colored blocks, clear 1 block indentions, fading out acid/lava pits and enemies freely moving in those pits. They even will help you a bit by letting you know exactly what kind of power up you can use to break blocks if you hit those blocks with a bomb or missile. One thought that struck me almost immediately about an hour into my playthrough is that there doesn't seem to be a way to soft lock yourself. If a player can get themselves somewhere they can also leave that somewhere. You may have to study your surroundings a bit more intensively and have some outside the box thinking but you can never get stuck. There's no soft failure state you can enter atleast from my playthrough and i find that impressive. The game also feels very efficient. Each room has something that will utilize one of your power ups and test your knowledge on how to use them. There is no wasted space. If you ever feel like your in a generic platforming sequence there probably be a shinespark opportunity you're not seeing.
Your progression can only really be bottlenecked by your problem solving and navigation skills. Each area of the game will test you on your platforming mechanics and with each power up you receive you are immediately thrown into a crash course on how to utilize the power ups. Just got the missiles? boss fight that needs 3 missiles in the eyes to die. Unlock the bombs? what happens if i place one by this clear indention in the wall. I also really enjoyed how they let alot of the power ups breathe. Outside of the simple crash course you will also encounter a section that will really test your know how on the power up. The 2 examples that come to mind is using the ledge grab to platform your way through a lava floor section having to ledge grab single block platforms on your way to the ice beam power up. And in a reversal of that, after unlocking the screw attack there is a super missile tank that you can reach by freezing an enemy and jumping on to it to then jump to the tank and If you are do a spin jump instead of a regular jump trying to get to the iced enemy you will destroy the enemy and lose your platform and have to try again. Figuring out how to not cause a spin jump so that you can use your enemies as a platform was somewhat annoying but a very rewarding movement puzzle. I would like to note that even though you start the game with zero power ups you do not feel helpless. Samus is a badass space bounty hunter and even in her base form she feels strong and capable and she only gets stronger as the games goes on. I appreciate that.
GBA games are fucking pretty man. I love pixels I love pixel art. 3D is my great satan. I absolutely adore the way everything looks in this game. Samus herself looks so much better in this remake than that jank ass sprite she has on the NES. The added background pixel art might take away from the eeriness of the black background of the original game but i appreciate them. Ugly eroded pillars of a bygone civilization, Dark damp caverns, huge glowing scifi columns. the bosses kraid and ridley look amazing and also dont look like little rubber duckies. 16bit pixel games are so goddamn pleasing to my eye. RETVRN \o/
Speaking of Kraid and Ridley lets talk about the dogshit bosses. There are 2 tiers of bosses in this game. "acceptable" and "how did this get green lit?" the 2 worms (Deorem and Mua) are acceptable as they are the earliest bosses you will face so their simplicity can be forgiven. Avoid their attack and hit their weak point.The Kiru Giru (caterpillar things) while not much of a fight was a fun little test of logic having to go into morph ball mode, dropping bombs and letting them move over the bombs to take damage.The Kiru Giru hanging on the ceiling was a fun little fight where you freeze an enemy to make him into a platform to shoot the tentacles keeping the Kiru Giru suspended. The Chozo Warrior Engraving exists and its passable. Kraid was a fine boss fight with 3 stages if youre not speed running and a sensible fight with clear stages that up the "difficulty" as you progress. Mecha Ridley was probably the most sound boss fight in the game, having to jump to and precisely fire your rockets to hit his chest orb while dodging or screw attacking 4 distinct attacks to avoid damage. These are the passable bosses and the only note is that they exist. Now onto DOGSHIT. First is Imago (Overgrown Wasp) whos boss fight is you hiding in a corner waiting for it to do a run and immediately trailing it and firing missiles into its butt until its butt falls off. it takes 2 or 3 passes so I feel like a dork for even complaining but i have to question why it even exist. Ridley isn't even a boss fight, you just have to not be behind him and fill him full of rockets and you win, at best youre just trading damage with him at worst hes a literal sponge. He technically does have moves but as long as you stay in front of him you can damage him. Mother Brain is a really bad arcade boss fight. There's these 2 one block platforms on top of lava that you have to stand on to shot motherbrain's eye full of rockets while the game trys to overwhelm you with projectile spam coming from every angle. You get hit fall into the lava then stuggle to get back on without falling back in by the rest of the projectile spam. the fight is still not hard but just really annoying in an unfair arcade game meant to take your coins kind of way. Dont get why anyone would like this fight.
Now lets talk about the final act of the game. An all original part added in Zero Mission. Where the original game would've ended after you made your escape after fighting Mother Brain in this remake you get shot down as you try to leave the planet. You get completely stripped of all your power ups and suit and are left with a auto charging pistols that get buy you a second or 2 by stunning enemies. This section FUCKS. I dont care if its all set pieces and youre fragile as paper mache. The game becomes this thrilling stealth and movement tech section of trying to avoid the pirates till you can get your upgraded suit. It doesn't last too long or end quickly and when it is time to suit up and feels very cathartic to terrorize the space pirates. Some of them even try to hide from you. At this point the whole game reopens to you and you are free to go wherever you please to try and complete that 100% item collection. and to get 100% the game will task you with some pretty hard movement puzzles. This is probably a good time to bring up movement. Mastering the movement tech of this game basically completely changes the way this game plays. This also isn't an oversight, the game was designed with 2 styles in mind. the regular way of crawling your way through the levels fighting enemies and just being a normal action platformer. Then there is this balls to the wall movement playstyle. Its basically becomes speedrunner bait. Knowing the movement mechanics to be able to pull off wall jumps, air jumps and shinesparks just completely changes the way the game is played and the developers rewarded the players handsomely for figuring it out.
Zero Mission is transformative and that is apparent way before the ZSS act. Other than being on stronger hardware and allowing for the player to traverse in a much more fluid manner. I actually went and checked out what a 100% play through for the NES would look like. 3 main things stick out to me. There is no map, so to properly get around you will either have a solid trap of a mind, notes or outside help (which I very much didn’t want to do for a first playthrough which is why I decided on zero mission). There is also no visual clues for exploration, you are just gonna have to shoot wildly to find secret rooms and areas which is a huge part of the game. And third the way you approach combat is very different since in the original you only had 3 directions to shoot (up left and right) while Zero Mission allows you to also shoot down and in the diagonals. This experience is much closer to super Metroid than the original NES game.
Overall a wonderful experience of a game and a very nice first impression to the metroidvania genre as whole. If you own or can emulate this game give it a shot. I dont know how it'll hold up the rest of the Metroid series but it should definitely be in your top rated games for the GBA.
← Back to Journal