ACX Headquarters

I’ll admit it: I’ve flipped at the moment I saw that trailer last year. As soon as I saw Adam Malkovich and his infamous quote “Any objections, Lady?”, I knew this was something special. Of course, seeing it up close and noticing that it’ll take the same story-driven approach as in Metroid Fusion tells me that not only we’ll finally be able to see what happened to Adam before his eventual “return”, but also learn a bit more of our favorite female bounty hunter, Samus Aran. As Project M shows off promise (Team Ninja, hello), I can’t help but be hyped with this title.

Yet for some reason, when the game was released, reviews poured down on the game and started blaming it as the stain that ruined the once venerable franchise. People were saying that this would be the next Sonic the Hedgehog, or that Samus’ character was ruined. As a huge fan of Metroid I couldn’t help but feel a bit concerned about this, but I’ve decided to buy the game anyway – I was already deciding to do so anyways. Well, what do I think of it now? Let’s see.

I remember very fondly the first time I played a Metroid game. It was in a Gamestop, where the newest Game Boy Advance SP model was showcased with Metroid Fusion as its title. While I was blown away with the back-lit screen and the responsiveness of the new button design, it was the game itself that really got me intrigued. It was a singular robot, in a clad-in-blue armor who received orders from a computer, and does missions all around some space station. Of course, I couldn’t play the whole game, but it did made me realize how badly I wanted a game like that. Since this was a time when old games were still sold, I bought the $15 NES Metroid cart for me to have a head start before delving into other territories. Yup, this was my first relationship with a completely-not-a-robot woman called Samus Aran.

Fast-forward to around May 2004, which was the time when my Mom bought me my GBA SP. I already knew what game I wanted. Nintendo Power was already hyping it with strategy guides and sneak previews. It was Metroid Zero Mission, a game just recently released about 3 months ago and that I was already salivating on the sight of playing through such a beautiful-looking journey. Did I make the right decision? From the day I first bought it and started playing it inside my parents car to today which I now play it occasionally on my DS Lite? Absolutely yes.