I’m glad you said 2004, when Zero Mission came out, instead of 2002, when Fusion was released.
Fusion is the previous game in the mainline Metroid series, but…I never liked it. It felt slow and clunky compared to Super Metroid. The SA-X scenes were uncompromising and required memorization to get through. It was also more linear from what I saw, with seemingly arbitrary access restrictions instead of solid level design, but I never finished it so I cannot say for sure.
Zero Mission was “the original Metroid game, remastered with modern features and new content.” As a huge Super Metroid fan, it was exactly what I had desired when I bought Fusion.
Dread takes the “unbeatable adversary” mechanic from Fusion and greatly improves upon it. The EMMIs are smart and deadly, and they have killed me dozens of times, but it never feels unfair like the SA-X did. I haven’t finished it yet, but it feels like it’s taken the best parts of the best 2D Metroids, current gaming sensibilities and expectations, modern hardware capabilities, and rolled them into a great game.
Yeah, I liked Fusion for the story and bosses, but it was definitely much more linear and less replayable. Zero Mission is closest in spirit to a Super Metroid successor, and Dread like you said seems to be taking the best aspects of every game so far.
Fusion is the previous game in the mainline Metroid series, but…I never liked it. It felt slow and clunky compared to Super Metroid. The SA-X scenes were uncompromising and required memorization to get through. It was also more linear from what I saw, with seemingly arbitrary access restrictions instead of solid level design, but I never finished it so I cannot say for sure.
Zero Mission was “the original Metroid game, remastered with modern features and new content.” As a huge Super Metroid fan, it was exactly what I had desired when I bought Fusion.
Dread takes the “unbeatable adversary” mechanic from Fusion and greatly improves upon it. The EMMIs are smart and deadly, and they have killed me dozens of times, but it never feels unfair like the SA-X did. I haven’t finished it yet, but it feels like it’s taken the best parts of the best 2D Metroids, current gaming sensibilities and expectations, modern hardware capabilities, and rolled them into a great game.