game boy advance

Like Minish Cap, Metroid Fusion is a GBA game I haven’t played for a very, very long time. Also like Minish Cap, I have it on my 3DS, also unplayed. But let me not talk of what I haven’t played, for this appeared on Switch Online and I did play it.

Metroid Fusion is a more linear than usual Metroid title. That’s not to say there isn’t any backtracking or hidden things, more that it’s very hand-holdy and you’re told where to go (usually exactly) frequently, and sometimes even how to get there, so random exploration isn’t really a part of it. What is a part of it, however, is often getting stuck somewhere with seemingly no way of getting out, and it is only by bombing and shooting everything in sight and trying to climb into walls which don’t obviously show they’re hollow, that you escape. Or at least, that’s what happened to me. A lot.

It’s also quite a lot easier than most Metroid games, and certainly easier than I remember it being. Apart from Nightmare, who was a right old pain and I’m pretty sure I fluked it past him. Oh yes, I knew how to hit him, but avoiding him seemed completely impossible to plan for and somersaulting around him (shades of one of the Dread bosses there) was tricky because of his erratic movement and the lack of space. Those Core-X things that come out after bosses that also need defeating caught me out a few times too.

I can never remember if it’s Fusion or Zero that is supposed to be the “good” one. I thought they both were, but one was more loved than the other? Well, this is certainly excellent so if Zero is better, I can’t wait for that to appear on the Switch Online service at some point.

Even though I owned this for the duration of my time with a 3DS as my primary form of handheld video gaming entertainment (it was free because I was a 3DS Ambassador), I never actually played it on there. I also have the original, for the GBA, which I did complete at the time (EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO!?) and very much enjoyed it, so no idea why I never played it again. Until now!

It’s another one of the GBA games that has appeared on the recently-released Nintendo Online Game Boy Advance service on the Switch, and so I thought I’d go through it. Mainly to see why so many people complain about it being rubbish. Spoiler: I couldn’t see why so many people complain about it being rubbish.

OK, so perhaps it’s very easy. Not one of the bosses was difficult, none of the dungeons had very tricky puzzles, I never died, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing at any point. But is that a bad thing? Is it just because I’ve played a lot of Zelda games in my time (and probably subconsciously remember some of it since last time I played Minish Cap)? Does it stop it being happy and fun? No, no it does not.

I forgot to check how long it took to complete, but I’m going to guess at about 15 hours or so. It didn’t feel that long, as I constantly felt like I was making progress and so zoomed through it. It looks incredible too, even blown up to however many inches my laughably oversized TV is compared to the tiny Game Boy Advance SP (or possibly even Micro) I played it on originally.

Metroid Fusion (Switch): COMPLETED!

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Switch): COMPLETED!