Metroid: Zero Mission
Remaking a game (especially a classic one) is a very risky endeavor.
On the one hand, designers don’t want to ruin what made the game a classic to begin with, usually just releasing an almost perfectly designed clone of the original and adding new and improved graphical polish here and there to keep things interesting. But is this visually enhanced approach too boring? Why remake a game just to make it a little bit prettier?
On the other hand, in the fear that the new version will be too similar to the original, developers will sometimes change way too much, turning the remake into an almost unplayable mess, with sloppy updated controls and pointless new missions. Why fix what wasn’t broken in the first place?
Basically, remaking a classic is, in most cases, a lose-lose situation.
So, is it even possible for a remake to be a better, more fulfilling experience than the original? In the case ofMetroid: Zero Mission(a Game Boy Advance remake of the original, unbelievably classicMetroid), the answer is a resounding (and surprising) yes!
The next Memory Card inductee is a remarkably unexpected gaming moment near the very end ofMetroid: Zero Missionthat only benefits from the player’s strong memories of the original game. Read on for the perfect example of a remake done (oh so) right.
The Set-Up
As mentioned before,Metroid: Zero Missionis a remake of the originalMetroid, this time with a nice, fancy Game Boy Advance shine! While the bulk of the game is the same, some maps, enemies, and weapons were changed to offer the player a slightly new experience.
Everyone knows what goes down in the firstMetroid: players control main character and intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran as she (hopefully you all know that Samus is a she by now) travels around the planet Zebes in the hopes of seeking out and destroying the villainous Mother Brain.
Many different beams, missiles, bombs, and energy tanks later, Samus arrives at her final destination, Mother Brain’s chamber in Tourian (one of Zebes’s sub-levels).
The battle with Mother Brain is as furious and chaotic as it was in the original game, with bullets and projectiles flying towards Samus from all directions.
Like in the firstMetroid, defeating Mother Brain involves breaking open her glass case with your missiles and firing away until she is finally defeated. Instead of being rewarded with an immediate victory celebration, though, the entire chamber around Samus starts a self-destruct sequence and Samus is forced to climb up a huge, towering silo in a matter of minutes to safely escape in her ship.
This is where the angels of well-made remakes begin to sing their glorious song of awesomeness! The next Memory Card moment occurs as the “ending” ofMetroid: Zero Missionis playing out.
The Moment
In the firstMetroid, after the player defeats Mother Brain, ascends the crumbling chamber, and escapes in Samus’s ship, the game is over and the credits roll. Not only were players treated to the satisfaction of beating a huge, pretty challenging game, they were also shocked to discover that Samus was actually a woman.
InMetroid: Zero Mission, as Samus flies away in her ship, the ending is very similar to the first game (but with a much improved comic book style). This time, though, a new kind of shocking moment occurs.
Of course, players are treated to the nostalgic reveal of Samus removing her suit and exposing her “assets” to the world, but instead of the game ending, the sequence continues on …
As Samus is flying through space, a massive battalion of Space Pirate ships surrounds her. All of a sudden, and without warning, the war machines start firing on poor, exhausted Samus.
Because she is pretty much the coolest woman in the entire universe, Samus quickly avoids the attacking fire and zooms away towards the distant stars, the Space Pirates in full pursuit.
Just as Samus thinks she has miraculously escaped what could have been certain death, a giant laser beam shoots out of nowhere, piercing the bounty hunter’s ship and sending Samus crashing back down to the surface of Zebes.
Although her ship is destroyed, Samus, luckily, is not killed, only temporarily knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she realizes that she has been stripped of her Power Suit (and all the weapons and upgrades that come with it) and left completely defenseless, with only her weak emergency pistol in hand.
Surprising the player even more, the game now becomes fully playable, with Samus in her “Zero Suit,” completely unable to do anything except basically run, jump, and shoot her puny pistol (Pew! Pew! Pew!).
Samus is then forced to have to sneak into the Space Pirate’s lair to attempt to figure out a way to retrieve all her belongings and find a way off the alien planet. And this lair is not a small, quickly finished add-on to the main game. It is a huge, massive structure that offers hours of extra play time to an already deep, full game.
Using all the stealth tactics she can muster (that’s right, stealth!), Samus eventually discovers all of her lost items, defeats an even more difficult and intimidating final boss (the towering Meta Ridley), and procures a Space Pirate ship, finally escaping back into space.
It is after all of this that that game finally ends, sealingMetroid: Zero Missionas arguably one of the greatest remakes in the history of videogames.
you’re able to watch the surprising “ending” to the game right here:
… and check out the first minutes of “stealth” gameplay with Samus stripped of her Power Suit right here:
The Impact
Even after replaying this gem of a game today, I really don’t think the originalMetroidcould have been remade any better. Seriously,Metroid: Zero Missionis as close to a perfect remake as a game could ever get. Everything is wonderfully familiar, but with just the right amount of adjusted maps, bigger bosses, and added items, making everything feel perfectly fresh and endlessly playable.
And that new, twist ending? Oh, how I could wax poetic about it forever!
I can’t say it enough, but it helps immensely that this risky, genius extension was added on to a game as memorable and classic asMetroid. Think about it: if a smaller, lesser-known game was remade with a new and much improved ending, yeah, it would still be cool, but would it have the same impact? The answer is definitely no.
The ending of the originalMetroidis one of the most remembered endings in the history of videogames. Who doesn’t remember defeating Mother Brain, racing off of planet Zebes, and discovering Samus was actually a girl? By taking this iconic moment and adding a huge twist, the player is thrown for a mind-bending loop.
And the designers were far from lazy when incorporating this extended ending sequence. Instead of easily adding on a simple extra boss fight or a retread of an early part of the game, the innovative element of stealth is introduced for the first time in aMetroidgame. This addition is shocking unto itself, but to have it work so successful in a 2D side-scrolling game is nothing short of impressive.
Very reminiscent of the classic gameFlashback, the stealth sequence at the end ofMetroid: Zero Missionis wonderfully designed (dodging lasers and playing a veritable cat and mouse game with the Space Pirates is amazing!), a breath of fresh air in aMetroidgame, and, most importantly, a blast to play. Seriously, I get giddy just thinking about how new and different it was to play this part of the game for the first time.
Gameplay aside, the originalMetroidwas not known for its deep, genre-defining story (bounty hunter defeats giant brain on alien planet – that was pretty much it), but the extendedMetroid: Zero Missionending sequence actual goes so far as explaining the origins of Samus herself and establishing a firm connection to the mythology in the GameCubeMetroid Primegames. While exploring the Space Pirates lair to retrieve her Power Suit, Samus discovers that she was raised by the Chozo (a bird-like race with strong ties toPrime) on the same planet she had been exploring all along, Zebes.
When I first playedMetroid: Zero MissionI really did not know much about it, other than the fact that it was a remake of the originalMetroid. Heck, even the release of the game was a little quiet, with brand spanking new iterations of the series,Metroid PrimeandMetroid Fusion, stealing the spotlight from the “simple” remake.
I will never forget finishing the game and truly thinking the game was over once I escaped Zebes after defeating Mother Brain. I think I even set the Game Boy Advance down in my lap to watch the credits roll.
Needless to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised to experience not only a twist ending, but a whole, surprisingly huge, playable addition to an already amazing game.
Metroid: Zero Missionreally raises the bar for what can be accomplished in a remake and, in particular, the moment the originalMetroidtale ends and the additional story begins is one of the greatest surprises in videogame history: one that I will fondly remember for the rest of my life.
