February
25, 2005
Metroid has been a beloved Nintendo staple for two decades among faithful
gamers, paving the way for many action-adventure games and killing
far too many hours. Super Metroid, which appeared on
the Super NES over a decade ago, largely set the gold standard
for this genre, and it's among the best videogames ever made.
The only problem is that its shadow is damn near inescapable. I
think I'm a little more forgiving about Metroid:
Zero Mission,
even though it is, for all intents and purposes, Super Metroid
all over again. There have only been two platform titles (both
on the Advance) in the past decade, as opposed to three Castlevanias.
So, at the very least, if you're going to have leftover turkey
for lunch, you could skip the tofu and go straight for the dead
bird. This
is the problem I'm having with a lot of these type of games,
and perhaps it's due to the industry's move into 3D. Traditional
2D games have becomed an endangered species. It's become so that
we no longer expect innovation or forward-thining; mimicking
the classics of the 16-bit era is more than enough to keep us
happy. This
results in a Metroid adventure that is entertaining and visually
accomplished, but after it's over you forget the game ever existed.
Goodness knows what's here is barely challenging. One of Super
Metroid's charms was its difficulty; you were literally dumped
into an endless maze of chasms and left on your own. Zero
Mission holds your hand from start to finish, literally pointing you
to the next vantage point. What
good is that? I'm sure there's a certain logic to this approach
from a design point-of-view, but you feel as though you're just
being shuffled along. Move along, kids, nothing to see hear.
Be sure to catch the next tour in ten minutes. Nintendo
couldn't even bother to cook up any new weapons or power-ups.
How lazy is that? Hooray, Samus Aran can cling to the side of
a wall. I'll be sure to send a letter to the editor on
that one. And come up with some new environments while yer at
it. The only difference from Super Metroid is that the designers
even more blatantly stole from Miyazaki's Nausicaa
of the Valley of Wind. It's got to the point where I'm starting to have an
ethical crisis when shooting insects. A
button for ice beam, a button for rockets...Is there a button
to make everyone get along? I know I'm causing an Ohmu stampede
somewhere. Studio Ghibli should be getting royalty checks for
this videogame. And
all this can be yours for three Hamiltons. It all comes down
to how hungry you are for turkey sandwiches. |
