Welcome to Modojo, 
Metroid Zero Mission Review
Written by Matt Ryan on Monday, January 31, 2005
Jam packed gameplay and beautiful presentation.
May be a bit too easy for some.
...Continued From Page 1 The way the game plays is equally impressive. As a classic series that only once departed from the 2D realm, you can see the years of tweaking and honing the control in Metroid: Zero Mission. Everything just feels a lot tighter: missles are easier to get to, the morph ball is easier to manipulate, and Samus shows herself off as the best female heroine the video game industry has to offer.
And for those of you who think this is just another Nintendo remake, you're definitely in for a treat. This isn't just Metroid NES redone on the small screen with minor improvements. This is almost an entirely new game, even if you still have the original Metroid in your head.
This is one slick package that will have veteran gamers experiencing deja vu...but not quite. It's as if you start to remember the locales, but something happens to tell you things aren't quite what they used to be. Nintendo has taken Metroid and tweaked the location of items and the overall level structure to have the game flow a lot better, so things are consistently and surprisingly fresh.
They've also added locations not in Metroid NES, like Chozodia, which helps connect the stories of Metroid Fusion and Metroid Prime with the original. Unlike the others, the story is nothing to write home about. It seems they wanted the story told through visuals rather than words, but the high-quality storyboards are inconsequential. Don't expect too much insight into the Metroid series playing this one.
Metroid: Zero Mission is a huge leap in the right direction, but there are things that hold it back from showing Nintendo has completely turned over a new leaf. Still, you have to applaud the extra effort they've shown in taking yet another NES game and placing it on the GBA, but with so many improvements they could have packaged it as an original. If you're even remotely interested in the Metroid series, buy this game and enjoy the ride. Even in its short state, it's as good as gaming gets.
