It is interesting to see how history kind of repeated itself with Metroid Dread. MercurySteam not only had to live up to both Super AND Fusion, they also had to work with a 19 year gap since Fusion, come up with a satisfying continuation of the narrative and of course deal with the lofty expectations of the fandom surrounding the rumored "Dread" name.

There are so many parallels to Fusion: Controls feel better than ever before. The constant threat of the EMMIS and other bosses makes you feel powerless and keeps you on your toes. The final fight against Raven Beak is a tour de force of pattern recognition. The story surprises you more and more the further you get. And while it may not feel as linear as Fusion does, it still gives you a very clear path to follow.

The fact that it worked out so well for them is still a miracle to me.

The fact that Fusion was a GBA game also had an impact on the story: you could not really suspend the GBA and until the GBA SP you couldn't plug it in if the battery was low, you had to pop the batteries out and replace them. The game is more bite-sized because of this, it needed to be playable in short bursts.

For several months in middle school I carried around metroid fusion in my gba and spent every day after school playing prime. I eventually beat prime (yes prime) in the locker room with my best friend because we had a weird half day at school and our parents worked there. I had brought my gamecube to school on purpose to make the empty half day not so boring.

I absolutely love how Fusion tells its story through mechanics. The restrictions and linearity and hand-holding of Samus for most of the game comes through as a player, so when [spoilers below]















…near the end of the game, when Samus goes rogue and starts breaking levels and getting upgrades against the Federation’s wishes, it feels awesome. Samus is breaking the rules, and you’re doing it with her in the most Super Metroid kind of way, finally getting her sense of agency back again. It’s beautiful. Such a great game and the perfect sequel in just the right way.

One thing that strikes me about Fusion is how ironic it is to see Samus be hunted the same way she hunted Metroids. You kind of point to another layer to this where SA-X symbolizes the perfection of Super, and Samus (the devs) must fear it and find different ways to accomplish their goals.

Thanks for sharing your perspective! This game tends to get better the more I think about it

Fun fact: Fusion's engine is a heavily modified Wario Land 4 engine

you're right about "linear" not being a bad word for metroid. pretty much all metroid games have a set sequence of events you need to do in order to complete the game. How guided you are on that sequence is what really differs (and still, the guiding in fusion works)

“How do you follow up what many consider to be perfection?” I agree, Wario Land 4 IS perfection ;)

Fusion was my first Metroid game; I was around 10, had only ever owned a PS1 with Tony Hawk and a GBA and I think it was the first time I experienced a story that intriguing. The common sci-fi slow reveal of the seemingly mindless X actually being very intelligent and very dangerous along with growing paranoia that there's something your AI buddy isn't telling you; genuinely well written stuff so constantly having to visit Adam didn't bother me as a kid cause I was invested in the narrative.

And stand out parts of the game I never hear mentioned, and that tie into the conspiracy twist even, are the sections of the game when Samus ends up somewhere she isn't supposed to be and the game starts expecting you to figure stuff out without your AI buddy's help. And the fact that Adam chastises you for getting whatever upgradsles were found in those areas will clue the player in that something's up

Metroid Fusion is a special game , the developers took the risk of creating a more linear and story driven game compared to previous entries and they succeeded. Expanded the lore with the inclusion of a new threat , the X parasite (with also changed the purpose of the Metroids) and changed Samus design and her DNA (now she is also part Metroid), very bold decisions and very well executed.

I never caught the meta-narrative of SAX acting as a proxy for an imagined perfect predecessor. On a similar note, it’s interesting that the narrative of Dread is then so full of father figures, both nurturing and parasitic, from whom Samus needs to break free from in order to live

10:54 the boss does lag on original hardware when you fight Ridley with Missiles. All the additional sprites being spawned from using missiles causes lag. It CAN lag when using a charge beam (which you should do anyway as it's WAY more powerful than you missiles at this point) but not as much as it will when using missiles.

Metroid Fusion, in the form of Fusion Suit Samus, is constantly being haunted and pressured by their perfect past success of Super Metroid, which can be represented by the SA-X. How poetic.

the fact Metroid Fusion wasn't an direct linear upgrade with an new map with some powers here and there is honestly what I really liked about it. the linearity and strong narrative focus is an brilliant lens to reshape Metroid under the context of an handheld game that can be digestible in small doses and it takes the series overall narrative to some wild places. the level design is also still really good and the X invaded BSL station is an haunting setting. Super is still better but not being as good as it still puts it in the running as one of the greatest games period in my opinion. it was also the blueprint for Zero Mission later down the line which besides being an remake of the original Metroid also figured out how to fit the structure of Super into an handheld format and even almost surpasses it. it also informed an lot of Dread which was more of an mix of what Fusion did well and the more traditional Metroid structure as well

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is a very notable GBA title, and the second installment of the Mario RPG series in spirit. I had a ball with it, and the over-the-top sense of humor it projects throughout just makes it a great time.

I really think the whole point with the navigation was since it was on the Game Boy Advance, a handheld system, so people were more likely to play a little bit at a time and it was like a nice reminder.

This is such a beautiful way to look at this absolute masterpiece, it's shocking how I've never thought of it this way but now that you mention it it's so obvious

Remember when SAX showed up and was like “Samus Aran”? “Samus Freaking Aran”?  “Thats a save room over there”!  “ might want to check it out”!

my older cousin gave me metroid fusion, but i didn't like it because it was hard and i didn't really know how to read. so i tried to give it back to him because i felt bad about taking his game... but he made me keep it, and promised me that i would like it when i was older.

when i did eventually pick it back up again, i would keep playing it nonstop, excited to get through and see the next boss. stuff like... the sax🎷 that randomly appears and chases you, and the part where you break away from the constant orders to get stronger also helped make it feel like my own little adventure.

i still have that very same cartridge he gave me, just no gba or ds to play it with (my sister snapped my ds in half)

The lag with the ridley fight happens on emulators but didn't happen on the original GBA. I've seen a lot of people comment about the lag before, assuming that it was a part of the original game, but it was not lol