Secluded in a Varia Suit

Metroid. A series about being lost and alone, trying to find your place in the world. As you explore this alien world, you grow in strengths, powers and abilities. The usual hero story in other words. In Metroid, however, a lot of emphasis is put on making you uneasy about the setting. Lost, confused, disoriented. Most of my previous posts have been about this series, mainly because that is all I have been playing (with a few StarCraft 2 games in-between). Having recently cleared Zero Mission, Fusion, Prime 1 and 2 (as well as being 30-40% into Prime 3), I thought I would present my thoughts on these perticular titles, especially regarding the Hint System featured in these titles.

I will start with Metroid Prime. One of the great Gamecube games, Prime was the 3Dfication of Super Metroid. Beautifully realised by Retro Studios, it truly captured the feeling of isolation and desolation found in the previous titles. It also introduced the Hint System that would follow in the other titles. The hint system basically showed you where you were supposed to go next, but not as soon as you picked up the latest upgrade. The hints are very well timed and pop up usually when you've been spending maybe too much time walking around, grabbing Missile Expansion. Furthermore, the hint usually was a room in the middle of the map, isolated, with no connections to where you were.

To make your way to this room, you had to explore the environment, scan almost everything to pierce some of the mystery that surrounds Tallon IV, Phazon and the Space Pirates. It is a minimalist system, that you can turn off. Still, the environments being quite massive (especially when you consider their verticality), it is nice to have a little beacon telling at least in which direction you should go. All in all, the introduction of a hint system in the Metroid series was nicely done. Subtle, not too intrusive, and well, the game is not holding your hand.

Moving onto our second game, Metroid Fusion came out at the same time as Prime. It also features a hint system, but this time it is in the form of mission objectives. You do not have much in terms of choices when you enter or exit a section, you MUST access that Navigation Station, which will tell you more about the story as well as where you need to go next. Here, it is an integral part of the game and although the exploratory aspects of the game are not as interesting as those in Prime (it is a 2D game after all), at least it makes sense within the context of the story.

My gripe about Fusion is the difficulty. The boss encounters are mostly about blasting a big baddy as fast as possible with missiles, before he kills you. I will admit that there is definitely something old school about those encounters, but it doesn't mean that they have aged well. My memory of Fusion was distant and I am glad to have re-explored it, unfortunately it will most likely be a long time before I do so again.

Zero Mission, a retelling of the first Metroid game, is an interesting hybrid of Metroid 1 and 3. Sadly, it incorporates Chozo guides that tell you your next destination and the game lacks most of the sentiment of isolation found in its roots. It is still worth the few hours it takes to finish and the end should surprise you.

Speaking of end, I think I've typed enough about Metroid for one day. Next post, my thoughts on Prime 2 & 3 (which hopefully I will have finished by then). Until next time, grab those Missile Tanks!