Fusion was an interesting entry in the Metroid series because of its interesting story. Yes, it was short and far more linear than most Metroid games, but since this is just a Gameboy game the duration seemed perfect - especially for me since I bought it to occupy my time on a cross country flight.
But praise is boring, so let's get on with the complaints! First off, I just never liked the Fusion suit. It looks like a blue and yellow wetsuit and not a highly advanced power suit built for fighting. I guess this can be explained because the Fusion suit is just a portion of the power suit, but Samus always has those goofy looking fins in all the artwork. Since this is just a low-res 2D game the player won't really notice this during actual gameplay, but it is unfortunate due to the graphical power of the current and upcoming Nintendo console system. These systems are finally powerful enough to show these suits with a lot of detail, and now Samus no longer wears her awesome looking power suit! Eventually the consoles should advance the storyline beyond Fusion, so it will be a shame to be stuck with this fusion suit in future games. Bring back the Varia suit! Second, the challenge level in this game is fair and sometimes seems too easy but this game has one mini-boss that is an absolute nightmare because of the cheap tactics of that boss. The spider boss can snatch you up and is nearly impossible to avoid. Once grabbed you are completely at its mercy. You cannot free yourself and each grab robs you of a lot of energy. Defeating this boss is mostly a result of pure dumb luck, and if memory serves me right there's not even a place to save your game for a while after the fight. I like challenging boss characters (The Omega Pirate in Prime is a perfect example), but when a boss is cheap it really angers me. This boss is the reason I never play through this game anymore. Fortunately cheap boss characters like this have become largely extinct since the 8bit era.
Aside from those small flaws this is an enjoyable game. Just prepare yourself for possibly minutes or hours of pointless gameplay against the spider boss because there's really no telling how long it could take to get past that cheap point in the game.
But praise is boring, so let's get on with the complaints! First off, I just never liked the Fusion suit. It looks like a blue and yellow wetsuit and not a highly advanced power suit built for fighting. I guess this can be explained because the Fusion suit is just a portion of the power suit, but Samus always has those goofy looking fins in all the artwork. Since this is just a low-res 2D game the player won't really notice this during actual gameplay, but it is unfortunate due to the graphical power of the current and upcoming Nintendo console system. These systems are finally powerful enough to show these suits with a lot of detail, and now Samus no longer wears her awesome looking power suit! Eventually the consoles should advance the storyline beyond Fusion, so it will be a shame to be stuck with this fusion suit in future games. Bring back the Varia suit! Second, the challenge level in this game is fair and sometimes seems too easy but this game has one mini-boss that is an absolute nightmare because of the cheap tactics of that boss. The spider boss can snatch you up and is nearly impossible to avoid. Once grabbed you are completely at its mercy. You cannot free yourself and each grab robs you of a lot of energy. Defeating this boss is mostly a result of pure dumb luck, and if memory serves me right there's not even a place to save your game for a while after the fight. I like challenging boss characters (The Omega Pirate in Prime is a perfect example), but when a boss is cheap it really angers me. This boss is the reason I never play through this game anymore. Fortunately cheap boss characters like this have become largely extinct since the 8bit era.
Aside from those small flaws this is an enjoyable game. Just prepare yourself for possibly minutes or hours of pointless gameplay against the spider boss because there's really no telling how long it could take to get past that cheap point in the game.
