Except for one glaring flaw, Metroid Fusion is the return of Samus to her 2D roots, and a worthy sequel to Super Metroid. While not an overly complex game, it keeps a good pace, and you can sit down for short periods of time to play it without losing where you are in the game. Of course this is benefitial for gaming on the go (and for those of us with less free time than we used to have, such as myself).

One of the great things about Fusion is the puzzles. I hate to use that term because they aren't really puzzles, but you figure out quickly to use bombs, missles, etc, everywhere to find hidden areas. Sometimes the only way to advance in the game is to find these places. A lot of them are obvious, but what it does is make you attempt to bomb different places to find a way forward, and in doing so, a lot of the time you find secret areas and items.

Of course this can work against the game as well. There are a couple areas where the secret you need to find to move forward isn't laid out well at all, without so much as a hint anywhere of what needs to be done to advance. Luckly these places are few and far between. Most of the time they're quite a joy to find.

It also seems that the game's difficulty level about half way through ratchets up very quickly. You go through the first half of the game fairly fast, without much opposition, and instead of slowly building the difficulty up, it seems to just all of a sudden slam into you all at once. This can be fairly jarring if you're not ready for it (and why would you be when you've been playing several hours at a fairly easy pace). Some of this can be attributed to the game controls. As you gain new abilities there are many different button combos for you to execute. Many of the bosses require you to use these different ablilities to their full potential, but in the heat of battle, many of them can be a challenge to pull off. Of course I'm not sure if this has more to do with my big hands on the little GBA buttons, or my lack of skill (probably the later).

I really enjoyed myself all throughout the game (except for that damn spider boss, for some reason I had a horrible time with him), which is something I rarely experience anymore with most games (yes, I'm becoming a jaded gamer). That is of course, until the last boss. I had pretty much cruised through the game, and while I did find a lot of hidden areas, I had only found half of the potential energy tanks that were there to be found. Of course, I was thuroughly trounced. Given the fact that finding all of this hidden stuff in the game is what makes it so fun I decided to proceed in finding the missing tanks. But alas, all the doors were locked!

This really ruined my feeling of the game at the end. It wasn't so much the difficulty in trying to beat the game with limited life reserves, it was the fact that they took away the exploration aspect of the game, when in fact that's what defines the game and makes it so much fun to play.

Except for that, it was quite a good experience. Not as good as Super Metroid, but a worthy sequel indeed. It's been a long while since I've played a 2D adventure and I must say I miss it. For everything 3D has brought us, I really miss the simple things you can do in 2D that can help make a game enjoyable.