After eight years, Samus Aran finally gets another game to star in. And she didn't get just one either, she got two. I'll be reviewing her recent appearance on the Game Boy Advance.
This Review is on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is sick and 10 is excellent.
Story: 8
I can't say the story is great, after all this isn't Final Fantasy. But I've got to say, it exceeded my expectations. It's a lot better than I originally expected. By this I mean the twists and turns of the lot, not the original story, which is bad in almost all games. The start of the story, in any case, is this: Samus Aran, the main character, is sent to planet SR388 provide assistance to some biological sample collectors since she already had experience of that planet's land (from Metroid 2). There, she was attacked by an unknown type of enemy that was later called the X Parasite.
Completely oblivious of what was going to happen, Samus got on a ship and went to the next collection point. Suddenly she fainted and her ship went towards an asteroid belt. The emergency auto-escape pod thing saved her from an untimely demise. The pod was recovered after that, but the X had completely infected her body and her power suit. The medics had to remove parts of her suit and she was given a very low chance of survival. Then someone found a cure. She had to be administered a vaccine from Metroid cells (saved from the baby Metroid from Metroid 2/Super Metroid). The Metroids were the X's only predator. The vaccine saved her and ensured that later contact with the X did not harm her.
Later, a distress call came from the research station because the X had overrun the place. It's your job as Samus to take care of 'em!
Ok, I made this longer than I should have, but hopefully you haven't fallen asleep by now.
Graphics: 9
These are some of the best graphics
on the system. Everything is very well done but it's not utterly
outstanding like some other titles,
namely Golden Sun.
Sound: 9
Again, some of the best music and sound
effects on the system. The music isn't totally awesome, but still
very good. It's always right for the
atmosphere. The sound effects are perfect. It's not like I'm an expert
on the subject, but with the headphones option the sound has some of the
best quality I have heard on the GBA.
Characters: 8
You only control Samus but that's fine,
and there are many enemies and interesting (but hard) bosses.
However, there are very few good guys
relevant to the plot. But maybe that's not a bad thing since it would deter
the feeling of "alone in a hostile place" too much.
Controls: 7.5
Most of the controls are very tight
and responsive, the basic controls, but some of the more advanced
moves are pretty hard to pull off.
This isn't a very big issue with most of the advanced controls since you
don't really use them much, but a power-up
you pick up to make you jump higher was really tough to control,
resulting in a lot of unnecessary damage.
It was only until after many, many deaths with a tough boss that
required extensive use of this jump
that I finally felt comfortable with it.
Difficulty: 9
Most of these bosses are insanely hard! They require strategy but most of all skill. But don't worry, the more you die from a boss, the better you get against him until you beat him. Depending on the boss, you could beat him without dieing once, or beat him after dying up to 30 times. The difficulty is sort of unbalanced too. After beating an extremely difficult boss, the final boss was way too easy.
Environments: 7
This relates to the variety of environments
that you go across throughout the game, or the theme of the
levels. Fusion has the bare essentials
of any videogame, fire, ice, grass, and water worlds, plus a few others
that aren't very imaginative but get the job done.
Secrets: 9
Oh yes, there are many secrets. You
need to get many (and I do mean many) Missile expansions (which raise
your max Missile-carrying capacity)
and Energy Tanks (which raise your max energy capacity) to be strong enough
to beat the game unless you're an unusually good gamer, and practically
all these are secrets. Not
to mention the secret endings, which
are sort of lame because it's just a different ending picture.
Length: 4.5
This game suffers the fate of almost all GBA games. It's way too short. You'll probably beat it in a few days.
Replayability: 6.5
There are bound to be secrets you missed,
but what's the use of getting more Missiles and energy if you
already beat the game? And some different
picture after getting everything just doesn't cut it. I raised the score
above average because you might want to replay it just because it was fun.
Fun Factor!: 9
Despite some minor control issues in the later half of the game and high difficulty, the game is still lots of fun!
Overall: 9
Overall, Fusion is really good. This game would qualify as a really good rental for gamers on a budget because you can beat it in a weekend. But it is clearly one of the best games on the GBA and deserves to be bought even though renting it is much wiser economically.
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