Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)

If you're a die-hard Metroid fan you've probably already got this game, if you've never come across the game before, this is still damn good fun to play even if you're just looking for a decent 2D platformer for your GBA, and well worth buying.

I own the original Metroid on the NES, and it was such a great game at the time, and hence leading onto the release of several excellent sequels through the years, it was exciting to finally have a modernised version of the original that could catch up with the rest.

The game itself plays smoothly and fast-paced. Samus has returned in her oldest body armour; a sleak, yellow and red simplistic suit that closely resembles the artwork shown in the original NES version game manual. The graphics are detailed and very colourful (even the dark dank cavernous regions of Brinstar) with a healthy number of baddies to shoot and evade. Items found throughout the Metroid series, more so regarding the 2D versions, i.e Metroid 2,3 and Fusion are back and the storyline itself is expanded in order to justify the storyline and plot in the later games. There are some newer areas and a whole new level welded onto the end of the game which will come as a surprise to the die-hard fans. You will even be able to eventually run around as Samus without her suit, and you're given a story that justifies why she's without it. In fact it's part of the story in general; you'll eventually find out just how Samus replaced her old suit for the bulkier, orange-tinted armour with the exaggerated shoulder-pads.

Ridley and Kraid are back, and typically their sheer sizes fill up your GBA screen when you fight them. They closely resemble the sprites found in Metroid 3, with some new menacing sound effects, (especially Ridley, who retains that powerful, spine chilling, blood curdling shriek that melts your GBA speaker from Metroid Fusion).

Some say the game might be a little short, especially if you've played Metroid games before, though maybe it's because you enjoy it so much that you forget how long you've been playing.
And also you get to fight the very creatures which the whole title is based on, the Metroids themselves and also the Mother Brain.

So overall, this game is what I feel amazing. I love the Metroid games and I'm glad they've finally modernised the original. The graphics are gorgeous, sounds are amazing, the musical score sticks to the original game (check out the awesome boosted Brinstar music) the bosses are big, the action is pacey and fast.

Well worth buying!!!!!!! Even if you've never heard of Metroid!


Fun, anyone?   May 1, 2004
Alexander Whiteside
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

Whether they're films or games, you've got to love remakes... or hate them. Sometimes a remake takes the idea at the centre of a classic and puts a new spin on it, satisfying new audiences while pleasing fans of the original. Sometimes, a remake regurgitates a much-loved project with horrible acting and no respect at all for what made it good in the first place.

Metroid: Zero Mission, however, rules. It's great, it's fun, it's hard to put down, and it still lives and breathes the things which made the game it's based on (Metroid for the NES) such a legend, while sprucing up the visuals, tightening the controls, and taking advantage of the lessons learned in the decade-or-so since Samus first faded onto the TV screen.

Anyone who's played Nintendo's last handheld Metroid (Fusion) will be right at home- the responsive controls are more or less identical, and you still wander through lonely catacombs blasting bizarre monsters and solving puzzles whilst obtaining new powers to let you reach lonelier catacombs with larger monsters and ever more infuriating puzzles. It's simple at heart, and easy to pick up (you do little more than move and shoot to start off with, and there's a gentle learning curve to the way you find new abilities), but it sinks its teeth into you and soon refuses to let go. It's hard not to respond in kind: the hope of finding a new ability and the surprise of each new area makes tightly grabbing the GBA and diving headfirst into the game impossible to resist (although you shouldn't try to dive headfirst into a GBA screen, it'll be painful and expensive, trust me).

The game isn't perfect- although the visuals and sound are great, they still have a bit of the blocky, repeating look and beepy, repeating sound of the 8-bit original (which you can try out in all its pixelley, low-fi glory after running through the game once). The game's a bit too easy, too- anyone who mastered Metroid: Fusion's aptly named Nightmare battle will storm through the game in less than a day, and there's only a couple of weeks' casual play here for newcomers.

However, those criticisms are minor ones- as easy as the game is, and as insistent as it is on its retro roots, it's constantly fun. Too few games these days manage to take their players on this sort of mystery tour, opting to pad themselves out with repeating tasks ("find the blue coins yourselves, you fat lazy sons of...") or half-hour movie sequences ("I don't care if the USA is run by evil robots, I want to shoot something"). Zero Mission made me smile and chuckle (and occasionally swear at my own mistakes) with each clever new twist and turn in its dark, damp catacombs, and I couldn't put the console down until I'd seen every nook and cranny, found and mastered every ability, and shot every boss in the face.

If you want a game which will eat up hundreds of hours of your time or which requires Karate Kid style dedication to get into, give this a miss. If you want to enjoy yourself, you owe it to yourself to get your hands on it.


Much more than it seems.   April 19, 2004
James O'Neill
5 out of 7 found this review helpful

The Game Boy Advance has over its short life developed something of a reputation for SNES re-releases, much of that reputation is due to Nintendo's own tendancy towards converting their older games to the console rather than developing new ones. Though an arguement could be made that these games do help to bring classic games to people who didn't manage to play them the first time around it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of more seasoned gamers who played all the system seems to have to offer more than ten years ago.

It is for this reason that Metroid Zero Mission (the previous Metroid Fusion being a rare example of a completely new game on the system) was met with a degree of hostility by fans of the series who feared a cynical cash-in which updated the graphics of the original and the antiquated password save system but brought nothing new to the series. However it seems that people were wrong to fear the worst as this game turns out to be less of the traditional 'advance' remake and more of a complete overhaul of the original, though the physical structure of the original game still remains it has been added to, incorporating new secret passages as well as completely new areas taken from Super Metroid, what's more the gameplay has been updated featuring similar gameplay mechanics as have been the series' staple since Super Metroid. Finally, the game adds on a second ending featuring a section featuring a suitless Samus which serves as an homage to both the infamous 'justin bailey' cheat in the original Metroid and the origins of the fusion suit design from Metroid Fusion.

To be honest though this game is far from perfect. Yes it may still be better than your average remake but it is still a remake meaning that the plot offers no surprises (hints at Samus' origin having already been extensively covered in the Metroid Prime instruction manual) even the new sequence whilst interesting to begin with soon descends into nothing more than a the token tedious stealth part, present in most games since Metal Gear Solid, and soon gets to be nothing more than an annoyance. Perhaps though the biggest fault is how formulaic the series has become since being revived, whilst the first three games in the series displayed a sense of steady evolution and as such offered radically different gameplay experiences each time, the Metroid games that have come after Super Metroid have simply used it as a template lifting all of the gameplay mechanics in order to make the next game rather than making any new innovations.

Ultimately this is a good game, especially when compared to most of the Game Boy Advance back-catalogue. However it does serve as a prime example of Nintendo's reluctance to move foreward.


Amazing rehash of an old classic   April 16, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This game is absoluteley brilliant, for any Metroid fan it is a must have. It has been completely changed from the original Metroid, though if you've played it you will notice there are basic similarities. It has the same style graphics as Metroid Fusion, and contains numerous weapons and upgrades from the whole Metroid series.
There are many new innovative areas and bosses, including a completely original part towards the end of the game where you play as Samus without her suit! There are many extras as well, there are 8 different endings, and when you complete the game you unlock a gallery mode and the original Metroid, so you can see the changes they have made. Also you get a great bonus if you link it up with Metroid Fusion!
Overall this is a great game, in my opinion the 3rd best Metroid game, beaten only by Metroid Prime and Super Metroid. If you love Metroid or action shooters, you need this game.


a classic remade   April 16, 2004
0 out of 5 found this review helpful

during the early 80's nintendo released a new game called metroid, an adventure shooter staring a blond femail called samius who's mission was to land on planet zebies and kill "mother brain" twenty years on the original metroid has been remade from the ground up and released on gameboy so all the people not old enough to even remember the NES and even people who played the original game can enjoy samius first adventure.
people who have played a metroid game before will know when you start the game your equipment is very basic and you go in search of upgrades for your suite such as morph ball bombs, ice and wave beams,power grip etc ond you will have to solve puzzels and defeat huge monsters in order to obtain the next vital part of your suite.although the game is a nes remake it playes and looks like metroid fusion with polished graphics and huge areas to explore but for people who have played the original it will look like a totaly new game with loads of extra areas and new twists in the story line.if you own a gameboy this must be at the top of your list as it is a top game the only down side is its quite short although after compleating the game there is a hard mode and also you unlock the original game and getting 100%of the upgrades will take you ages! go buy now and you will get the best game so far this year and after you finish with it it will be about 6 months and metroid prime2 will come out.