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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Metroid Soars!, February 21, 2004
Remakes of classic games are a risky endeavor. On the one hand, you're working with a classic game recognized by possibly millions of people around the world, most of whom are fans. This means that you start with an existing fan community, but the flipside is that these fans are likely to be far more critical of a remake treading on hallowed ground. Deviate too far from the formula of the original, and you risk alienating the fans who put the source game on the map in the first place. Go to far in the other direction and don't change things enough, and the game will suffer -- presumably the whole reason for the remake in the first place was to address issues in the original game that are no longer up to the standards of modern titles, thereby giving fans a modern-day version of a classic. Fail in this, and the most likely response will be an apathetic shrug from the gaming community, followed by predicable but merely mediocre sales.Taking this into account, a Metroid 1 remake seems like a great idea that will should fall flat. The Metroid series was groundbreaking for Nintendo, and was a truly remarkable step sideways for the kid-friendly company. Metroid was, and remains, one of the few truly dark Nintendo games, throwing players into a maze of subterranean monster lairs and secret passages. It was a futuristic game with a massive sense of mystery about it, creating the feeling of exploration in an alien world that has become the series' trademark. However, what worked in '87 doesn't necessarily hold up today. Metroid's backstory has since been fleshed out to a substantial degree, shedding light on many of the mysteries that actually propped up the original game. Half the reason to explore Metroid was just to figure out what all this stuff was about. Now, with games like Metroid: Fusion, the players have been given a much clearer window into the life of the game's protagonist, as well as all the events and occurrences surrounding her. If you go back and play the original game, there are hints of the direction the series' plot would take in future installments, but for the most part it's too full of holes to be considered cannon; it feels like more of a suggestion than a real reference point. While the aesthetics are certainly cool, to be honest, there's not much of a plot to speak of in Metroid 1. At the same time, if a remake were to go back and try to cram what we now know of the game's origins into a setting that was never particularly meant to hold it, you're going to wind up with a different game entirely -- not exactly a remake. So...What to do? Well, I'm not sure how they managed it, but they did. This game not only sidesteps every bullet I've mentioned above, it plucks them right out of the air, Matrix-style, and tosses them back without breaking a sweat. This game, as far as what one would hope to achieve with a remake, is absolutely PERFECT. True to the original game, Metroid: Zero Mission eschews any real narrative style in favor of visual cues. The plot remains the same: Penetrate the defenses below the planet and kill the space-pirate ringleader, Mother Brain. Really, that's it, both in the original and in the new version. However, now, all the unseen stuff that was merely implied in the original is actually present in the game proper. Kraid's been updated to his official size (i.e. freakin' huge). Ridley actually lands his ship (yes, Ridley can fly a ship) partway through the game to intercept Samus as the game wears on. Hey, he apparently wasn't just waiting around for her to show up and kill him that whole time. Who knew? Really, the whole game has been updated to the point that it's exactly what one assumes the original would have been, had it been made in 2004. All the original layouts, powerups, enemies, and tricky hidden rooms are in there, but they've been streamlined and slightly altered to remove much of the obtuseness of the original game. Of course, as a result, the remake is far easier, but it comes together so well that the difficulty amounts to what it would be if the player was already intimately familiar with the original game. That is, if you know the entire map of Metroid 1 like the back of your hand, the game isn't particularly hard. Metroid: Zero Mission just adds that sort of familiarity artificially by means of a true in-game map and a waypoint system to alert the player where they need to go to advance. If it sounds like hand-holding, it is, but it doesn't serve to make the game genuinely easier. Rather, it takes the frustration level down, which is a perfect tradeoff as far as I care. On the technical side of things, the graphics have received an obvious overhaul, and the game looks fantastic. Control is spot on, and the music consists of well-done updates of the original MIDI tunes. Metroid had a particularly memorable soundtrack, and the remake keeps everything wonderfully intact. You'll be humming the Brinstar theme for hours, guaranteed. Lastly, it's worth pointing out that the Original Metroid opens up as a bonus feature once the game is beaten once, so those who want to make a direct comparison can do so right on the same cart. It's a very nice little bonus that rounds out what really is the definitive 2D Metroid experience. All in all, this game is as good as I ever could have hoped for. Fans of the original are really in for a treat -- especially AFTER the Mother Brain fight. A few things were added, to tie up some loose ends, you might say... Highly, highly recommended.
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