| As some of you may know, I bought Metroid Zero Mission on February 12--and promptly beat it on February 14. As with all Metroid games, it's not incredibly long (it took me about four hours to beat it), so that's why I beat it so quickly. However, getting 100% is going to take considerably longer. I only had 67% when I beat it, and now I'm up to about seven hours of play time after getting a bunch more powerups. Metroid Fusion took me about ten hours to get 100%, and I expect Zero Mission to take about the same amount of time. And then after I do get 100%, I get to play through again on hard mode.
About the game, it's turned out to be a lot of fun. While it doesn't top Super Metroid or Metroid Fusion, in my opinion, it's still very entertaining. It delivers on what I expected from it, plus it has a few things that really surprised me. To balance that out, though, there were also some parts that I didn't especially like. But overall it's a solid Metroid game that I think fans of the series should like.
One thing I don't really like is that there are different difficulty levels. (Easy and Normal are open from the start, and you unlock Hard once you beat the game). Until Metroid Prime's unlockable hard mode, no Metroid game had varying difficulty levels, and I think it should've stayed that way. I mean, being able to play through a harder version after you beat the game isn't too bad, but an easy mode just seems ridiculous, especially with Zero Mission. I played through on normal mode and it was even easier than Super Metroid which, until this, I considered to be the easiest game in the series. Hopefully hard mode will provide a decent challenge, though.
Another thing that I'm really liking, though, is the puzzles in the game. Yes, puzzles; not something you'd really expect in a Metroid game, but they are there nonetheless. What I mean by this is that figuring out how to get some of the powerups really takes some effort, and it forces you to come up with new ways of doing things. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll just say that I never thought you'd be able to use the Shine Spark (flying with the Speed Booster) in some of the ways you do.
For actual gameplay, Zero Mission feels like a cross between the original Metroid and Super Metroid. Obviously it feels like the original because the areas, enemies, and whatnot are based heavily on the original's, but the gameplay mechanics themselves feel almost identical to Super Metroid (with a bit of Fusion's improvements). This isn't bad, because what was caried over from the original is good and what's taken from the other two games makes it better, but the problem is that there's almost nothing new. The only new suit upgrade is the Power Grip, which just lets you grab onto edges--something that you could do from the start in Fusion. The only real additions are Morph Ball launchers, which pretty much act like you're doing a Shine Spark straight up, and zip line things on ceilings which you can grab onto and have them carry you to the other side of its little track. Basically, a substitute for the ceiling rails that you could hang from in Fusion. So don't expect anything new if you're looking to buy Zero Mission, because except for one part of the game, it's all been done before. | |
