I wasn’t sure if we’d ever see the day, but after years of waiting, the top hits from the Game Boy Advance are steadily trickling onto the Nintendo Switch. Metroid Fusion joins the Switch Online Expansion Pack library next Wednesday, perfectly timed for everyone who just beat Metroid Prime Remastered and is still itching to shoot through some creepy underground test facilities.
Metroid Fusion sees bounty hunter Samus Aran charged with investigating an explosion in the Biologic Space Laboratories station on a dark and stormy planet, only this time she’s infected by the X Parasite and rocking a new teal suit to compensate. Oh, and she’s being hunted, Terminator style, by a relentless clone of herself, called the SA-X. On the upside, she can absorb additional parasites to restore health, ammunition, and gain new abilities. The 2002 GBA release is one of the most linear in the series, but what it lacks in open-ended exploration it more than makes up for with cool boss encounters, good storytelling, and an incredibly eerie vibe.
Prior to 2023, Nintendo had made trying to revisit Metroid’s past a huge pain in the ass. If you didn’t have a Wii U or the ambassador’s program on the 3DS, there was no way to access Metroid Fusion. This was particularly frustrating since 2021’s Metroid Dread is a direct sequel. In the span of just a couple weeks, however, Nintendo has finally brought both Fusion and another classic, Metroid Prime, to the Switch. It now contains:
- Metroid
- Metroid II: Return of Samus
- Super Metroid
- Metroid Fusion
- Metroid Prime
- Metroid Dread
Not too shabby, especially considering that the GBA’s Metroid: Zero Mission, a remake of the first game, and Metroid Prime 2 and 3 also now appear destined to eventually get added. The only Metroid Switch owners aren’t likely to get their hands on any time soon is Metroid: Samus Returns, the 2017 3DS remake of II. In fact, most 3DS games seem unlikely to ever make the jump to a modern platform. Is there a Metroid I’m forgetting? Nope, can’t think of any others.
I only have one gripe: I wish the Switch Online games could also be purchased separately like in the old days of the Virtual Console. While Sony has been slow to add PlayStation 1 classics to PS Plus, the ones that have arrived are also sold separately, letting you hone in on the exact ones you want and not rely on an indefinite paid subscription for access. Maybe Switch (or the Switch 2) will get there one day. Baby steps I guess. For now, inject the Parasite X directly into my eyeballs like it’s 2002 all over again.
