Hi Mr. Malstrom,
I am by no means a crazy Metroid fan, but your latest blog post left me feeling compelled to white-knight for Zero Mission momentarily since it’s probably my second-favorite of the 4 or so Metroid games I’ve actually played. I’m sure that a big part of my affection for it is due to my parents insisting that video games were bad for you throughout my childhood (meaning I never actually got to play through the original at my own pace and instead only got to play it in spurts at friends’ houses), but in my experience the added refinements like more discernable blocks, a helpful optional hint system, and most importantly the control tweaks which minimize the amount of pausing and switching weapons were a godsend. I noticed that you didn’t mention any of these in your blog post (and not without reason, since I guess they didn’t really have anything to do with creating the atmosphere [with the possible exception of the hint statues, although again those were purely optional]), but I’d be curious to hear about whether they contributed to your negative opinion of the game; if anything, I would have guessed that you would have appreciated the effort being put towards making the game more accessible to new players.
Thanks, and please keep up the good work on the blog!
I’ve gotten several emails on this. Let me ask you a question.
Why has there been no 2d Metroid for the Wii, DS, or WiiWare/DSWare? Even if something is announced at E3 2010, Nintendo is certainly dragging their feet. 2d Metroid would have a perfect fit on the Wii or especially on the DS with its SNES like button configuration and the second screen showing the map.
The reason why there is no new 2d Metroid is because of Zero Mission. Zero Mission did not do its job in the sales.
I remember the old Metroids and remember why they originally found fans. Zero Mission did not even get anywhere near the awe and wonder the older Metroids did at the time of their release. Worse, Zero Mission didn’t seem to be trying.
Zero Mission felt, to me, like a reboot to get the series in line with the “new vision of Metroid”. And as I watched the awful cutscenes (and they really are awful as seen below), the “new vision of Metroid” is not the surreal and trippy Metroid but the bad manga as Metroid.
Above: WTF is this shit? And why is this completely unnecessary and badly made cutscene injected into Metroid?
As I played through Zero Mission, I said to myself: “This is not the Metroid experience.” Why is Samus all ninja like? You have Samus grasping cliffs with her hands to the Zero Suit experience at the end that is more stealth than anything. The game just felt wrong.
When you talk of accessible, there is no more accessible Metroid game than Super Metroid as it is the easiest of all Metroid games. You don’t have to draw a map (as you did in I and II). You don’t have to navigate 3d arenas in the Prime games (which is difficult for new people).
Why was Metroid even remade in the first place? There has been a remake of Metroid. It is called Super Metroid. There was no reason for Zero Mission to be a Metroid remake at all. Why not make Metroid 5 instead of a reboot? Oh, that’s right. Sakamoto made a train wreck of the Metroid storyline in Metroid Fusion.
You know the anger you have when someone reboots a TV show or movie that you really liked? That is what Zero Mission feels like to me. Why not leave NES Metroid alone? Remember, NES Metroid didn’t have a story line so why in the world was it remade? Could Sakamoto be so vain to rewrite the series in his vision? At the time, I never knew about Sakamoto, but I definitely felt someone was injecting their ‘vision’ over original Metroid. And this ‘new Metroid’ really sucked. Where was the trippyness? Why all these horrible cutscenes?
I’m no fan of Zero Mission. But apparently, neither is the rest of the market. Despite NES Metroid being unlockable, everyone bought the GBA version of NES Metroid instead of Zero Mission. I can’t blame them. I wish I just stuck to the NES Metroid instead of playing the game through Sakamoto’s “vision”. It felt like I needed to take a shower afterward. Yech.