Game of the Month #122 - Metroid Zero Mission

Metroid Zero Mission


Metroid: Zero Mission delivers a huge, action-packed adventure for real fans of platform-shooter gaming. It's a whole new experience based on the classic Metroid game from the early days of Nintendo. Relive Samus Aran's first battle with the Metroids in a completely new way! Beautiful graphics and an eerie soundtrack bring the dark world of the Metroids to life.
How long is Metroid: Zero Mission?
When focusing on the main objectives, Metroid: Zero Mission is about 4½ Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 8 Hours to obtain 100% completion.
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Genres: Scrolling, Action, Adventure
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo R&D1
NA: February 9th, 2004
EU: April 8th, 2004
JP: May 27th, 2004

This was the first Metroid I ever finished and one of the first games I ever recall finishing when I attempted to emulate games. I played Metroid Prime Hunters before that but that was back in the day when I tried to play games the more "traditional" way and I didn't get very far from what I remember.

However Zero Mission when I first played it, I really liked but after replaying it, I think it's just a "good" game. I like the soundtrack and controls but the level design is just bizarre. Like for example people complain about how the game "tells" you where to go when that isn't 100% true. You can run straight to where the game tells you but you actually need to backtrack to a part of the game where the game never told you where to go to get the ledge grab to progress but that ledge grab power up isn't marked on the map. There is also stuff like how lava damages Samus but there is an area where there is lava and Samus can actually go through that since it's just set dressing.

The sequence towards the end of the game with the stealth section can't decide if it wants to about avoiding detection or just be a scripted set piece.

I do prefer the game over Super Metroid due to ice beam not being as OP and the better controls but at the same time, it feels like I have to play the original Metroid on NES to fully appreciate it since apparently this version is a massive improvement over that game. I do think ZM is one of the better game remakes with that said.

I can't help but prefer Metroid Fusion over Super and Zero Mission when it comes to 2D Metroids pre Dread. Fusion has better controls than Super and it's level design isn't as "so THAT what was I supposed to do" as Zero Mission is. I still find it hard to get used to 2D Metroid without the scan pulse from Samus Returns onwards. It becomes a tedious game of morph ball bombing everything in sight and hoping you fight the right path, when you get the power bombs, I just start to activate it in every room I enter in. This was something Metroid Prime avoided since it's easy to tell what parts of the level can be destroyed.

ZM is "good" but I already said a lot regarding the game.

Metroid Zero Mission is one of my favorite games, and it's the game that got me into the Metroid series, it's a perfect entry into the series. There's a number of different "endings" which makes it very re-playable. Just for anyone interested in doing multiple playthroughs given it's a shorter game, endings are based on % of items collected, difficulty, and time. The endings can hardly be called endings, but you do get some unique artwork with them. Seeing as I've already completed it 3 times, with normal mode, normal 100%, and hard mode 100% sub 2 hours, I'll probably attempt to do hard mode with <15% of items collected since it's considered to be the most difficult ending. I'll probably get warmed up with a regular playthrough though since it's been a few years.

Yall have fun!

This is an excellent starting point for the Metroid series, and IMO is better than Fusion. Short and sweet! I highly recommend people check this one out!

I enjoyed what I played of Super Metroid, but ultimately got annoyed at all the backtracking with no hints of how to progress and the very hidden paths, so I set it aside. I don't want to write the whole series off yet though, so I'll give this one a shot.

Full disclosure: I misread the poll and gave a vote to Zero Mission being 100% sure I was voting for Metroid Fusion :D

I don't owne Zero Mission and I absolutely want to complete the original Metroid before that one, so I will miss the party this month, but this is a classic, I'm sure everyone will have a lot of fun. Enjoy :)

I didn't vote since I didn't know if I'd be able to get around to this one this month, but its definitely one I've been wanting to play at some point so I hope I can maybe get around to it this month!

I tried the original Metroid years ago and definitely felt it didn't age well and struggled to get through it so I retired it. I still have wanted to experience it in a way so have always wanted to give this remake a go! I got the Wii U Virtual Console version before they shut down the shop, but since its on the Switch GBA app now I think I might just play it that way if and when I do.

Full disclosure: I misread the poll and gave a vote to Zero Mission being 100% sure I was voting for Metroid Fusion :D

I don't owne Zero Mission and I absolutely want to complete the original Metroid before that one, so I will miss the party this month, but this is a classic, I'm sure everyone will have a lot of fun. Enjoy :)

It is available with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion subscription, FYI.

Only ever played through each of the Metroid games I've cleared one time and believe I need to revisit them to know how they stack up, but I can say that Zero Mission is a fantastic game even though I didn't quite like it as much as Super Metroid. Having recently visited Metroid on the NES, it strikes me even more how fantastic of a remake this was. They remade all the elements of this game and introduced movements from the later titles, with this game feeling amazing to control. Aside from that it obviously has the elements with Zero Suit Samus which changes gameplay in an interesting way and also develops Samus as a character. My first game was Super Metroid, but I think this game would be a fantastic place to start as a remake of the first game that represents a lot of the best elements of the franchise.

I have a weird relationship with the Metroid series. I'm very much a Nintendo fan, and Metroidvania is one of my favorite genres to play, but I've always been way more into the Vania part rather than the Metroid part.

For some reason it's very difficult for me to actually get into Metroid games. I've finished fusion, and Primes 1 and 3, and had fun, but none past those. I've tried the first Metroid and Super many times (I also tried Other M, but I don't need to talk much about that one), and never could get into them. I'll probably play Primes 2 and 4 (when it releases) sometime in the future, but they are definitely not priorities for me. To be honest, space and sci-fi are not very appealing to me, and I prefer when my metroidvanias have a bit more of a guide in where to progress I guess.

Will probably give this one a shot later on this month! Hopefully it clicks with me, and if not at least it will be another one to check off the list of games I still need to try

I have a weird relationship with the Metroid series. I'm very much a Nintendo fan, and Metroidvania is one of my favorite genres to play, but I've always been way more into the Vania part rather than the Metroid part.

For some reason it's very difficult for me to actually get into Metroid games. I've finished fusion, and Primes 1 and 3, and had fun, but none past those. I've tried the first Metroid and Super many times (I also tried Other M, but I don't need to talk much about that one), and never could get into them. I'll probably play Primes 2 and 4 (when it releases) sometime in the future, but they are definitely not priorities for me. To be honest, space and sci-fi are not very appealing to me, and I prefer when my metroidvanias have a bit more of a guide in where to progress I guess.

Will probably give this one a shot later on this month! Hopefully it clicks with me, and if not at least it will be another one to check off the list of games I still need to try

You should definitely give it a try. It's a very good retelling of the original game and it's very short (roughly five hours long).

I really like this one. I prefer Fusion, but this one is awesome. It's been awhile since I've played this one so I might get in on this month. Where does everyone vote at for the monthly game? I've seen some folks talking about voting. Good luck everyone

Man this game was awesome, played it and Fusion a ton when I was younger.

Finished this one yesterday. I still have some similar experiences that I have with other Metroid games I played. I can recognize it's a great game, and I have some fun with it, but it definitely doesn't vibe with me too hard. Beat it in a little less than 4 hours, and didn't do too much extra upgrade-hunting

The game controls feel very good to me, and I'd say this one is probably easier than other Metroid games I've played...? Didn't really have too much trouble, except maybe a bit in the Mother Brain fight (probably because I didn't do too much upgrade-hunting). I was never really bored while playing and wanted to continue, so that is always a good thing. Also, the highlight of the game for me were definitely the final sections that were added that weren't part of the original metroid. The stealth section with the Zero Suit felt very nerve wracking and were super fun, even more so when I got spotted I'd say. And claiming the power suit again and just blasting everything for a couple minutes was also great.

Still, my usual tepid thoughts about Metroid are still there. I don't really care about sci-fi/space/alien settings, and having to bomb/shoot around to find what block I need to break to progress doesn't sit right with me. Many times I had the urge to spend 5 minutes looking for a walkthrough instead of spending 30 seconds bombing yet another small room to see where the hidden block was. I also prefer melee combat to shooting in Metroidvanias, but that is not too big of a deal

All in all, I gave the game an 8/10 and I'm glad I played through it. Probably not gonna replay it any time soon, but I had my fill of fun and it didn't overstay its welcome. And I'm also glad to see everyone being super positive about it! Reading people enjoy a game so much makes me appreciate it so much more, even if it is just vicariously

Started the game tonight! Definitely liking it so far! Even though I’ve never beaten it I have played some of the original Metroid before so it’s been fun comparing what I remember to this one.

This one is definitely kinder so far thanks to the map and directional shooting. Although perhaps they go too far in some ways as they now direct you to an objective with the map too. Also they seem to restrict your freedom a bit at the start too making the beginning feel more linear, but now that I’m in Norfair I think it’s opening up again like the original maybe? I found some chozo ruins in the way opposite it was pointing me, which I think is new content.

I’m definitely looking forward to diving in more! Until I thought about I hadn’t realized it’s been forever since I’ve seriously really played a Metroid game, since I looked it up and I played Samus Returns on the 3DS back in 2018 😅.

Just finished a playthrough, it's pretty much just as I remember it. I forgot how big the game is in the Norfair and Ridley areas. Zero Mission is actually the very first Metroid game that I played and I hadn't replayed it since, so it was fun to go back and replay now that I've finished all of them. One of my favorite things about this game is the sequence breaking and speedrunning potential, I don't really care for speedrunning but I had a lot of fun getting all the items as fast as possible and sequence breaking to get items earlier than intended. In fact that's pretty much intended with the different endings you can get, completing it in under 2 hours almost requires it.

My favorite part of the game is actually the least popular part of it. The zero suit stealth section is awesome, Samus goes from being a powerhouse who single handedly took out Ridley and the Mother Brain, to being completely vulnerable in a massive alien ship after a failed escape attempt. Getting the gravity suit after that section feels incredible, backtracking through the ship blasting through all the sections you previously had to sneak through is great. I ended up having less free time this month than I expected so I didn't go for 100% completion, so I just did a mostly regular playthrough, and I probably won't do any more this month. You all have fun though!

I really like this one. I prefer Fusion, but this one is awesome. It's been awhile since I've played this one so I might get in on this month. Where does everyone vote at for the monthly game? I've seen some folks talking about voting. Good luck everyone

I am guessing you got replied to in the Discord, but the answer is that you do it in this thread: https://howlongtobeat.com/forum/thread/668/1

Never played it but I did it yesterday, was fun since Metroid on NES is one of my favorite game.
Not super fan of the stealth part tho

Just finished a playthrough, it's pretty much just as I remember it. I forgot how big the game is in the Norfair and Ridley areas. Zero Mission is actually the very first Metroid game that I played and I hadn't replayed it since, so it was fun to go back and replay now that I've finished all of them. One of my favorite things about this game is the sequence breaking and speedrunning potential, I don't really care for speedrunning but I had a lot of fun getting all the items as fast as possible and sequence breaking to get items earlier than intended. In fact that's pretty much intended with the different endings you can get, completing it in under 2 hours almost requires it.

My favorite part of the game is actually the least popular part of it. The zero suit stealth section is awesome, Samus goes from being a powerhouse who single handedly took out Ridley and the Mother Brain, to being completely vulnerable in a massive alien ship after a failed escape attempt. Getting the gravity suit after that section feels incredible, backtracking through the ship blasting through all the sections you previously had to sneak through is great. I ended up having less free time this month than I expected so I didn't go for 100% completion, so I just did a mostly regular playthrough, and I probably won't do any more this month. You all have fun though!

Oh, that was my favorite part as well. I usually hate stealth missions because older games force you to do it one way but I like playing tag lol.

But the section after was my worse. I got stuck for 4 hours so I had to put the game down and do anything else.

Has anyone else been utilizing the wall jumping mechanic? I remember it being a mechanic in Super so I gave it a try and was surprised to see it was in here too. At least from what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem mandatory to learn like in Super (which I’m thankful for since it is a pain to pull off sometimes) and the game doesn’t seem to ever teach you about it at least where I am currently. I’m glad they’ve included it though as a hidden mechanic since it does help me take short cuts and at one point I accidentally got a power up out of sequence thanks to it.

Beat the game! Enjoyed it overall but definitely had some mixed feelings on the end portion.

But first I have some thoughts on boss fights! Ridley definitely had me stressed at first since he’s usually pretty difficult in the other ones I’ve played, but once I figured out he didn’t have a weak point like every other boss and I could just spam missles at him he wasn’t so bad. The Mother Brain fight was rather annoying though and I definitely struggled with a lot of the projectile spam particularly from the turrets, so it took me a few tries. But on the last attempt I realized I could just stand on one of the turrets and not get hot as much and Mother Brain would leave her eyes open when u did that so it was like a double win there and really helped me.

The end stealth portion was definitely an experience though. It wasn’t the worst but was definitely very unforgiving and I was failing like every scenario 😅. It was sastifying though getting the suit back though and blasting your way back through it all. It definitely felt it lost momentum though once they threw harder pirates at you, but I guess it makes sense the power trip could only last so long. The whole segment definitely feels very artificially tacked on and like it was an entirely separate Metroid game. I get they probably put it in to add some extra content to the remake though, and it was certainly a neat experiment they probably couldn’t justify releasing separately.

I can easily say I’d still rank Super over this, and also that this game is superior to the original as well and definitely has remade it to age better. I think I prefer this over Samus Returns but not entirely positive there. I’m curious how it’ll continue to rank as I play more Metroid's eventually.

I'm late to the party - which is sad considering I nominated the game - but my gaming time was eaten up by a lengthy RPG all month. I started Zero Mission today and really enjoyed the first couple of hours. It doesn't seem to be falling into the same patterns of hiding essential progression too much the way I felt Super Metroid did when I finally bailed on that game. I hit my first wall in the Kraid area, but I finally figured out how to progress further and activate a switch that opened a bunch of areas up to me. Now I've reached Kraid himself and ended my play session by getting my butt kicked by him a few times. After a couple of phases the screen just feels like there are no safe areas and I get juggled mercilessly. I'll give it a fresh try tomorrow.

Edit: beat this boss on my second try when I loaded the game up again. It's amazing what coming to a game fresh can do.

Whew. Beat it tonight. It was quite good, but not what I'd personally label as great. That is almost surely because these kinds of games are entirely out of my strategy and story-driven RPG wheelhouse. I can recognize and appreciate that Zero Mission was a well made game, but precise platforming and bullet hells are definitely "stretch" experiences for me. I think it's good to get out of my comfort zone on a semi regular basis though, so I'm glad I was able to finish. I definitely feel encouraged enough to try at least one more installment in the series.

The Pros:

Zero Mission smoothed out the Metroid experience for a platformer scrub like me. I retired Super Metroid after a few hours despite appreciating it because I felt like the game rarely gave me so much as a sniff of where I was supposed to go next. I didn't mind the exploration at first, but when the game became all about backtracking and finding the exact tile you needed to explode in who knows what room in who knows what area I lost interest quickly. I feel that Zero Mission fixed this just about perfectly. ZM gave objective markers that at least indicated what zone I should be sniffing around in, but didn't hand hold so much that I never had to use my brain and approach things with a puzzle solving mindset. Finding statues to unlock powers, heal up, and get the next objective marker felt like a great in-game carrot as a result.

The music is great and the environments are cool given GBA capabilities. I'm into sci-fi, so space suit going pew pew to splat alien is a win for me usually.

The progression of powerups is really elegantly done and flows naturally, so I often got little bumps of feeling suddenly very powerful.

The catharsis of the segment where you get your full suit back after stealthing about in the pirate ship is phenomenal.

The Cons:

If I were to have attempted this on a GBA, there's just no way I would've beaten it. The tougher fights pretty much necessitated that I have access to the Switch suspend point features so I wouldn't have to keep returning to the fight from the most recent save point and lose my flipping mind and moving on to a different game. This is why I haven't ventured into the Fromsoft games yet lol.

Speaking of tough fights, Mother Brain and the two elite space pirates right at the very end can go pound sand. Both encounters felt unnecessarily awful. I got juggled like no other.

I am personally not a fan of stealth games. Thankfully it was a shorter section of ZM.

Whew. Beat it tonight. It was quite good, but not what I'd personally label as great. That is almost surely because these kinds of games are entirely out of my strategy and story-driven RPG wheelhouse. I can recognize and appreciate that Zero Mission was a well made game, but precise platforming and bullet hells are definitely "stretch" experiences for me. I think it's good to get out of my comfort zone on a semi regular basis though, so I'm glad I was able to finish. I definitely feel encouraged enough to try at least one more installment in the series.

The Pros:

Zero Mission smoothed out the Metroid experience for a platformer scrub like me. I retired Super Metroid after a few hours despite appreciating it because I felt like the game rarely gave me so much as a sniff of where I was supposed to go next. I didn't mind the exploration at first, but when the game became all about backtracking and finding the exact tile you needed to explode in who knows what room in who knows what area I lost interest quickly. I feel that Zero Mission fixed this just about perfectly. ZM gave objective markers that at least indicated what zone I should be sniffing around in, but didn't hand hold so much that I never had to use my brain and approach things with a puzzle solving mindset. Finding statues to unlock powers, heal up, and get the next objective marker felt like a great in-game carrot as a result.

The music is great and the environments are cool given GBA capabilities. I'm into sci-fi, so space suit going pew pew to splat alien is a win for me usually.

The progression of powerups is really elegantly done and flows naturally, so I often got little bumps of feeling suddenly very powerful.

The catharsis of the segment where you get your full suit back after stealthing about in the pirate ship is phenomenal.

The Cons:

If I were to have attempted this on a GBA, there's just no way I would've beaten it. The tougher fights pretty much necessitated that I have access to the Switch suspend point features so I wouldn't have to keep returning to the fight from the most recent save point and lose my flipping mind and moving on to a different game. This is why I haven't ventured into the Fromsoft games yet lol.

Speaking of tough fights, Mother Brain and the two elite space pirates right at the very end can go pound sand. Both encounters felt unnecessarily awful. I got juggled like no other.

I am personally not a fan of stealth games. Thankfully it was a shorter section of ZM.

A lot of people don't like the "linearity" of Zero Mission, since the statues just tell you where you need to go next. But I also personally prefer the progression in Zero Mission compared to Super Metroid much more, because like you said you don't get completely stuck nearly as easily. If you're interested enough by it Metroid Fusion is a very similar experience, though I don't like it quite as much as ZM.

I also had to use a lot of save states on my first playthrough, a lot of sections felt very unfair at first. I didn't end up using a single save state in this GOTM playthrough to give myself a challenge, and even with all my Metroid experience I struggled in a few spots. I completely agree with the Mother Brain and elite space pirates near the end of the game though, I think I had 3 deaths in my playthrough, two of which were to the Mother Brain. And for how awesome getting the power suit back feels in the final section of the game, the elite space pirates are just a party killer. I had pretty much the exact same thoughts after my first playthrough, I'm sure my love for the series has me a little biased nowadays.

A lot of people don't like the "linearity" of Zero Mission, since the statues just tell you where you need to go next. But I also personally prefer the progression in Zero Mission compared to Super Metroid much more, because like you said you don't get completely stuck nearly as easily. If you're interested enough by it Metroid Fusion is a very similar experience, though I don't like it quite as much as ZM.

I also had to use a lot of save states on my first playthrough, a lot of sections felt very unfair at first. I didn't end up using a single save state in this GOTM playthrough to give myself a challenge, and even with all my Metroid experience I struggled in a few spots. I completely agree with the Mother Brain and elite space pirates near the end of the game though, I think I had 3 deaths in my playthrough, two of which were to the Mother Brain. And for how awesome getting the power suit back feels in the final section of the game, the elite space pirates are just a party killer. I had pretty much the exact same thoughts after my first playthrough, I'm sure my love for the series has me a little biased nowadays.

When Super fans bash any Metroid for being too "linear" all they are really trying to say is that they want every single Metroid game ever made to be a clone of Super. I'm starting to think anything that pisses them off might be an indication of quality. I have seen some also say Zero Mission is "too easy" when the freeze beam in Super is most of the enemy roster's kryptonite.