While it lasts, Metroid: Zero Mission is a superb update of a classic game.
Professional space bounty hunter Samus Aran is sent on a mission to Planet Zebes to defeat the evil Space Pirates, as well as their leader, to stop them from continuing with dangerous experiments involving jellyfish-like creatures known as the Metroids, which can latch on to their prey and suck the very life from them. Metroid: Zero Mission follows the same story-line as the original Metroid, but this time around cutscenes were added to add more of a cinematic flare. Not only that, but the game includes a few new exclusive areas to explore and add on to the story.
Gameplay works as a mixture of both the original and Super Metroid. You will be exploring around a large, open-ended world full of various passageways and items to collect, as well as enemies to blast through.You will be traversing through these various areas in search of suit upgrades and to defeat bosses that dare stand before you. The game rewards you for exploring each area carefully by adding on to your arsenal of weaponry. This was certainly a more difficult task to do in the original Metroid since the game didn't give you any sort of guide and you didn't have much directional control when shooting, which made certain parts of the game more frustrating than it needed to be.
This time around, you have a map system and save system from the likes of Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion to keep track of your progress. Once you find certain Chozo statues, a point will be mapped giving you a general idea on where to go; and it can also give an indication of the location of a hidden item. How you find these is still up to you to figure out. Needless to say, this, combined with Samus' more agile abilities, makes this a much easier and shorter game by comparison. The game is actually a little shorter than Metroid Fusion, having you clock in at about 3 to 3-and-a-half hours on your first playthrough. The tamed difficulty makes it more suitable for beginners, while it's short length makes this a great game to speed run. You can make things a little more challenging by choosing the hard difficulty after you have beaten the game once, as well as playing an emulated version of the original Metroid, which is also unlocked after beating the game once.
While there are significant changes in this remake, the structure and progression stay very true to the original. Much of the same level designs are retained here, only this time each area has their own distinct look. The problem with the original was that areas felt very "samey", but here you are given more obviously enhanced detail (and backgrounds). As mentioned earlier, Samus is much more agile this time around, which makes traversing through some of the more frustrating sections found in the original much easier. The controls are just as spot-on as they were in Metroid Fusion. It's these added changes that help to make exploration all the more enjoyable. The game includes many of the same power-ups from the original, but you also get a few new items that were found in the previous two entries. The amount of items you collect add to your percentage rate at the end of the game. You also have a few more bosses to face, though the bosses you fight only look tough.
The same great attention to detail that went into Metroid Fusion is carried over into Metroid: Zero Mission. The environments are colorful and enriched with detail. The sprites look great and the animation quality is first rate for the GBA. The sound effects are great; and the music features remixes of original songs and they definitely add to the overall atmosphere.
To sum things up:
PROS:
-First rate graphics and sound
-Fun to explore each area
-Great controls
-Original Metroid unlocked
-Fixes pretty much every issue found in the NES original
CONS:
-Short...very short
Metroid: Zero Mission is certainly short lived, but it offers enough quality for one to be motivated to go through again and again. With the original game's previous gripes gone, this is definitely the definitive version of Metroid.