1. This is supposedly a remake of the original NES Metroid game but playing it feels so different that you wonder why they didn't just make an all new game as sequel to 2002's Metroid Fusion. Regardless, Zero Mission stands on its own and as a bonus it makes old Metroid nerds mad because it's less obtuse and more fun to play.
2. The biggest difference between the two version is Zero Mission has considerably less aimless exploration. This is not necessarily good. Keeping the player a bit in the dark is how the original game builds tension. It is an essential part of how Metroid works. It is also frequently frustrating and occasionally tedious. Partly removing that element in Zero Mission is a compromise and you can take it or leave it.
3. The one change that is unequivocally for the worse is when the main title screen pops up, the theme music heard does not start w/ that throbbing single note bass line pounding ominously away. It is the same theme but they just start at a prettier part later in the song. I will assume whoever made this decision has already been executed.
4. The music otherwise is excellent. The Game Boy Advance, for however much I love it, has a miserable sound chip but the developers did well w/ what they have to work w/.
5. Similarly, the graphics do everything they can do right w/ the GBA's hardware. 2004 was well before the indie-driven re-birth of 2D platformers and pixel art so at the time this just looked like some shitty old Super Nintendo game. W/ the benefit of hindsight, the artwork looks great, each area is distinctive and all the information you want to get through your eyeballs, you can get through your eyeballs. Zero Mission has a very effective presentation overall.
6. The controls are also updated to take advantage of the new hardware. The GBA still doesn't quite have enough buttons to map your more powerful but limited missiles to a separate button from your regular gun though. As a compromise, you switch to missiles by holding the R shoulder button. This will give you some cramps fighting bosses.
7. And Zero Mission does feature some epic boss battles--or, rather they are boss battles that look epic. You fight huge bosses w/ lots of animations that look great and are interminably easy. Of four main bosses, I beat three on the first try--and I am not good at anything.
8. Really, death is not much of a threat throughout most of the game. There's a few tricky bits here and there but mostly you will not be in too much danger. Save points are copious so even if you do meet an untimely end, you will not lose too much progress.
9. Before playing Zero Mission, I'd have said Nerfing the difficulty of exploration in a Metroid game would ruin it but that is not actually the case. Again, we are looking at a compromise. You lose that thrilling tension where you are pushing into previously unexplored territory low on health far from a save point. You also don't have to retread the same areas before that moment over and over when you fail.
10. Overall, I'd say Zero Mission is less tense than the original but more exciting moment to moment. You get that thrill of finding something brand new more frequently but w/ less effort. It is less of a roller coaster and more of a high speed chase.
11. You also get a whole new area to explore that subverts series norms and has you squaring off against some of the games toughest enemies w/o the powerups you'd earned up to that point. This one of the more challenging sections of the game and one more thing that has me wishing Zero Mission had been a whole new game rather than a remake so they could have expanded on this idea more.
12. If nothing else, if you just cannot stand they did anything but a tile by tile remake of the original, you get the NES version as a bonus after beating Zero Mission. If you like, you can start your own game review blog and compare the two.
13. I could never completely shake the feeling Zero Mission was training wheels Metroid but neither could I put it down once I started playing it. As a fan of the series, I found it interesting just to see what they chose to do differently. As a random internet dipshit who plays at being a game critic, I enjoyed analyzing how the new design choices affected gameplay. As a gamer, I just had a good time playing it. To me, this seems like a little something for everyone so go ahead and play this. If you don't like it, you'll at least find it interesting.
Great review dude! ;)
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