Yeah, we’re late. This game came out about two years ago. This is hardly the most punctual review, I know. We don’t all get advance copies of games send directly to us in perfumed Jiffy bags from Shigeru Miyamoto, man. Sometimes we just have to review what we could pick up cheap on eBay. Get off my case. Oh, speaking of cases, here’s the case…
The NES Classics range for the Gameboy Advance is a chance for gamers old and new to experience legendary Nintendo titles in their original formats. Resurrecting with them the first appearances of the Mario, Zelda and Metroid characters, it’s an opportunity to see Nintendo’s most popular franchises cutting their teeth and stepping out into the world for the first time, shining in early Eighties retro colours and dreadful save game options. Now that Gameboy Advance titles are being heavily reduced in price (due to the gradual extinction of the system and, dare I blaspheme, the Gameboy name), many of these games can now be picked up for a handful of change and a cheeky wink, and it’s your responsibility to explore these historical wonders once more. The time for relying on your rose-tinted specs is over. Let’s get back to basics.
Before Metroid Prime hit the Gamecube and took the series over, the Metroid series was simply that – Metroid, a side-scrolling platform-cum-shoot ‘em up that played like a futuristic, Geiger-touched Castlevania. Wow, you like that? “Futuristic, Geiger-touched Castlevania”. That’s good, that. I’m going to stop the paragraph here so I’m ending on a high.
The original was viciously difficult, which is still an issue in this version, twenty years later. Still, the basic gameplay will keep you hooked even when your alien opponents keep you six feet under. The blank screens and flat colours may seem pretty sparse and dull in the light of today’s all-guns-blazing shooters, but it all retains a quiet sense of paranoia and trauma, wafting the scent of Ripley Scott’s Alien out of the screen. The sheer struggle to keep your character, Samus Aran, alive while taking out alien armies and solving troublesome puzzles outweighs the primitive graphics and wide, open spaces.
The flaw is not so much with the game itself, but rather its NES Classics incarnation. Technically, there are no issues – it’s a pocket-sized port of the original, copied 100% accurately. If you liked the original, you’ll like this. The problem lies in the opposition on the market today. The Metroid series, and Nintendo itself, are guilty of stabbing themselves in the back here. Metroid: Zero Mission, a graphically enchanced and expanded version of this very game, was released on the GBA moons ago and is preferable to this release. Heck, it’s got Metroid locked away as a bonus, and it’s even going for roughly the same price nowadays. Unless you’re a real sucker for the old school, invest your cash in Zero Mission’s added bonuses. Even if you’re a retro fanatic, this isn’t the best of Samus’ older adventures – that praise should be awarded to Super Metroid. So, while this is an enjoyable experience, it can’t be recommended when superior versions are readily available.