Metroid Fusion

Metroid Fusion is a game designed around secrets: as Samus explores a dangerous space station, finding secret passageways and items, she is also uncovering the truth about the place, shedding new light on the hidden agenda of her employer. It’s a tense, suspenseful adventure, packed full of dark corridors, somber music, and a scary double with piercing, empty white eyes that hunts Samus down relentlessly.

Fusion begins with the protagonist, bounty hunter Samus Aran, recounting the general events of the previous games. The Galactic Federation hired her to commit genocide on SR388, killing all surviving metroids on the planet, since they’re dangerous creatures that suck the energy out of their prey. At the beginning of Fusion, however, Samus discovers the inherent problem of the extinction of an entire species: metroids were the natural predator of a parasitic lifeform called simply X, which means that these X parasites are now thriving on SR388. One of these parasites manages to infect the protagonist, who is then saved by a vaccine. Right after recovering consciousness, Samus discovers that an explosion rocked the space station to where the infected pieces of her armor were sent. Fearing the worst, she flies to this station, the Biologic Space Labs, while receiving orders from an AI developed by the Federation.

The story of Fusion focuses on the relationship between Samus and this AI, who she calls Adam, for it reminds her of her late commander. There’s an escalating tension between them: Adam works for the Federation and so Samus begins to suspect he’s withholding information from her on their orders. The Federation wants Samus to fly to the space station, get in, assess the situation, save what she can, and get out. The bounty hunter, however, eventually develops other plans.

Adam often talks with imperative verbs, (“start moving”, “investigate”, “proceed to Sector 3”), leaving no room for Samus to question his directives: he’s always firm, brief, and assertive. The protagonist, on the other hand, describes herself as the rebellious type, stating that she’s “someone who dislikes taking orders.” Samus, nonetheless, names this AI after her last CO, which reveals her desire to trust him: “The real Adam understood me well. He would end orders by saying, ‘Any objections, Lady?’ He knew I wouldn’t disagree. That was just his way of noting our trust.” It’s deeply ironic, then, that the element lacking in their relationship is precisely trust: Adam gives Samus orders and because she doesn’t know the true intentions of the Federation, she is not that eager to follow them.

She usually doesn’t have much choice in the matter, however, which immediately builds tension between them. Adam’s got control of the ship’s main functions, being able to both open doors and lock them up: he’s trying to make sure Samus doesn’t get off the intended path, allowing her access only to the necessary equipment and locations for her to complete her mission. She’s at his mercy, and this is reflected in the game’s structure.

Fusion doesn’t intend to follow Super Metroid’s footsteps, treading its own path instead. Super Metroid puts Samus alone on a planet that she can explore at her leisure, discovering new areas at her own pace, with no clear destination in sight. Exploration is more free-form as a result, allowing us access to new areas as we get new equipment, but also as we master the game’s mechanics and become capable of performing more difficult moves. Fusion, on the other hand, has a clear tension at play on its exploration aspect: Adam wants to guide Samus through the Biologic Space Labs step by step, since this would allow him the ability to keep track of her powers and whereabouts, controlling her actions, but the bounty hunter keeps going to places where she isn’t supposed to be, witnessing things the Federation would rather she didn’t.

Early on, there’s a great scene that illustrates the game’s overall structure. Adam points to the goal, but the way there is blocked, so the player just has to find another path, exploring the station. That’s Fusion’s formula: it shows the objective – the destination –but not how to get there. There’s usually just one way to the goal, so the challenge comes from the fact that it’s concealed from us. It’s not on the map provided by Adam. Consequently, we have to look closely at the rooms Samus passes through and study the map layout to try to guess where the secret passages are hidden.

Signposting in Fusion can be very subtle: the game wants us to trust that everything is there for a reason. If there are rails on the ceiling leading nowhere, for example, it’s actually indicating that Samus can use them to shoot at an inconspicuous part of the wall she couldn’t otherwise on the ground. Sometimes, we may find a passageway that leads back just to where we started at the beginning of the room… where there’s an item hidden behind some blocks: the game points at the secret, but disguises the arrow as a prank, making the unsuspicious player think the passageway was put there just to waste their time. There’s an unwritten rule: if there’s nothing in a room in Metroid Fusion, this means there’s certainly something concealed there. Even symmetry is used as signposting: if one of the sides of a room is bigger than the other or has an unusual shape, that’s the clue we need to investigate it thoroughly.

In other words, Fusion usually doesn’t point at its secrets with red arrows but tries to push the player in their direction nonetheless, making us suspect everything that seems off or useless. With its story, the game builds a conspiracy tone, even displaying the dark silhouette of a man asking Adam if Samus “suspects anything.” She indeed begins to suspect, and because of how the game is structured, so do we, but about everything around the protagonist, looking closely at each element in the environments.

Adam tells Samus what to do and where to go – even her upgrades must be authorized by HQ – but she begins to venture into dark places without his knowledge, acquiring new pieces of equipment, and opening locks on the station without his say-so. This means that each time Samus passes through a secret passage that we discovered by observing something off in the room, it’s a little act of rebellion on her part: progression in Metroid Fusion is tied to a sense of defiance. This all leads to the big climactic moment, when Samus comes across a suspicious doorway and a voice in the intercom keeps repeating, “Warning: no entry without authorization.”

Fusion keeps subverting expectations, playing with its formula. We learn early on that we have to get to data rooms to acquire new abilities. They’re usually safe places… but not always. We learn that absorbing parasites heals Samus, but the game eventually introduces a species that severely hurts the protagonist if absorbed, making the bounty hunter run for her life in certain areas. After she accomplishes an objective, Samus has to go back up to the main hub and then go down to the next sector but eventually, she discovers ways to move between sectors without having to backtrack – skipping Adam’s briefings altogether in the process.

The game also succeeds in building a tense atmosphere of horror. When Samus arrives at the station, there are bodies of dead scientists scattered on the ground, the lights are off in one of the first areas, and the music is somber and gloomy. Adam warns the protagonist that the “X can mimic its prey; any specimen could have hosted it,” and Samus finds out very soon that most creatures in the space station – which was itself designed to mimic the SR388 ecosystem – are the parasite in disguise. And Samus shares the same fate of the very creatures she used to fight, as she was also copied by the X when she got infected.

The first time SA-X appears, the music disappears so that we can focus on the thumping sounds of her footsteps. Then, there’s a sudden close-up on her ghastly face, and when she continues on her way, she blasts everything on her path. This is how Fusion builds up the confrontation with this ominous character: we always know SA-X has been in a certain place because it’s now completely destroyed; the doors are now barred by rubble and the monsters are dead, having been reduced to empty shells. The SA-X changes the map layout, blocking paths and creating new platforms, bending the station to her will. We are led to associate this monstrous character with sheer destruction even before she can actually shoot and kill Samus (while we try desperately to run away from her and escape).

A big part of the plot revolves around the X-parasite and its development: questions of how intelligent it is and how powerful it can become paramount to Samus. And there’s a constant source of tension linked to Samus’ progression: as she delves deeper into the Biologic Space Labs, she opens security doors, also allowing the SA-X to reach more places: as Samus gets stronger, so her double gets more dangerous.

Metroid Fusion can provide a very tense experience, which is also a consequence of how tight it is. The game is not afraid of pushing us from a difficult boss fight to an SA-X chase sequence and then to another boss battle in the span of just an hour – or just minutes if we somehow manage not to die – and without a single recharge station on the way to get Samus back to full health.

Finally, its late-game exploration is also fascinating. Metroidvanias tend to fall into the same pitfall near the end, when collecting the remaining items just amounts to busywork: the player has already acquired the right equipment and just needs to backtrack to get the remaining items, with no challenge involved or surprises in store. Fusion makes this process much more interesting by requiring not just the right equipment but also skill: the last items require the mastery of difficult techniques, such as maintaining a boost jump between different rooms.

Metroid Fusion is a brilliant sequel to Super Metroid, reinventing the series’ formula while providing a tense and tight experience.

November 30, 2021.