Last week was very busy in the land of Nintendo with a new Direct and all sorts of announcements including a new batch of Switch Online titles. One of the releases happened to be the Game Boy Advance classic Metroid: Zero Mission.
If you weren't already aware, this game comes with a special Metroid Fusion gallery. As highlighted by multiple sources, the original version required players to have access to both Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion as well as a link cable and two GBA. Fortunately, this latest digital release now has this feature unlocked.
This isn't the first time Nintendo has done something like this for select games available on the Switch Online service. When Mario Tennis for Game Boy Color was added to the service, fans were surprised to discover the Nintendo 64 characters were already unlocked.
If you've not played this particular outing in the Metroid series before, this remake is based on Samus' first adventure. You can learn a bit more about it in our original Nintendo Life review. This game was added to Nintendo's Switch Online retro library alongside The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Four Sword, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Perfect Dark.
Have you tried out Metroid: Zero Mission on the Switch Online service yet? Did you play it back in the day? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 40
Seems a bit cheeky, like the butt of a joke.
Interesting. And yet, Metroid Prime Remastered didn't include the OG NES Metroid nor the Fusion Suit that the GC version had...
That was a big mis-step for me there. Another reason I preferred the GC ver. of Metroid Prime.
Great easy metroid game. Just started it on normal and set on cruise control.
I still have my GBA link cable in a box. Sadly the GBA has long since been lost. I do have a gamecube with the GBA player still attached though.
@Truegamer79 like a truegamer should, wax on and party on dude
@rvcolem1
Be excellent to eachother! 😉
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Each version of Metroid Prime had their own exclusive features and contents. The GameCube version had the Fusion suit and NES game, the Wii version had motion controls and better graphics, and the Switch version had HD graphics and multiple control options. Technically if you bought Metroid Prime Remastered and subscribe to NSO you basically get almost the same content as the GameCube version anyways since NES Metroid is already on NSO.
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Know it didn't matter much, but I always rocked the fusion suit. Still my fave to this day, wish it was a legit smash costume.
Oh good. I'm playing through Zero Mission now so that's something to take a look at next time I boot it up.
Another game that they do this for was Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 where all the e-Reader levels got unlock for both the Wii U and NSO versions. The only game they did not do this for is F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, for that you still had to unlock all the vehicles, that means no Falcon Mk.II, Stingray, Silver Thunder, Fighting Comet, Sly Joker, and Jet Vermilion unless you're really good and manage to unlock those with dedications.
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Trilogy had the Fusion suit too.
Whoa! I was hoping for this but didn't actually expect them to do it! This appears to have the JP exclusive images too, showing young Samus growing up with the Chozo. The only time her backstory is actually shown in a game and not an obscure out of print manga
Zero Mission is great, I'm replaying Super Metroid at the moment but I definitely need to do a replay of Zero Mission at some point too.
I have happy memories of playing completing Metroid Prime and Fusion and linking them together. I remember it unlocked the Fusion Suit and Metroid NES in Prime, but can anyone remember what was unlocked in Fusion?
Now that's a thumbnail.
How do you like your pixels?
Cheeky.
This and the SMB3 e-reader levels are a nice touch. These kind of link cable gimmicks were (arguably) a fun feature on the GBA during the 2000s, but in modern days they're just a nuisance, so these kinds of things are definitely appreciated.
Hopefully Nintendo can update Oracle of Seasons / Oracle of Ages on NSO to let players enter the Advance Shop too, that's another hardware gimmick kinda thing that unfortunately wasn't addressed.
I just finished the game. It was my first time playing and I had a great time, though I did play on easy mode.
Bootyful. Great game, by the way
Always love to see games on NSO having such extras unlocked - in Mario Tennis's case etc. it would've been better to have actual Transfer Pak functionalities since it would allow you to use your GBC characters in the N64 one but still, better than nothing while in this case (and also Advance 4 with the e-Reader levels as some have already mentioned) luckily it's perfect as is!
A game being "ass" is usually considered a bad thing.
And yet...
Perfect Dark cheats from transferring with the GBC game are included too. They weren't exclusive and could be unlocked anyway but a nice timesaver
Sweet. I always did like that gallery. And Metroid: Zero Mission is my favorite Metroid game, to boot. Still have my copy for the GBA (although both my original model GBA and GBA SP don't really work anymore; the D-Pad is shot on the original model, and the L-R buttons on the SP are also in bad shape). At least I still have my GCN with the Game Boy Player.
Would have been nice, though, if Nintendo would have had the Advance Shop in the Switch Online version of Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages be available, or given us the Advance Ring from the get-go. The game just doesn't feel complete, otherwise.
I'm only human I saw Zero Suit Samus and I clicked.
@N8tiveT3ch SAME!
I just streamed and recorded me playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past / Four Swords for the Gameboy Advance on the Nintendo Switch Online Service for my YouTube and Twitch channel and I could not play the Level 9: Palace Of The Four Swords so I hope Nintendo will let you play Level 9: Palace Of The Four Swords.
Somewhat related:
Despite earned unlockables being such a central component of N64 era game design, and them taking hours to get, there are no SP versions of those games. They should have an alternate GoldenEye with all of the cheats for those of us who had to loan our copy to a friend back in the day to unlock them for us. 😆
It feels like Nintendo has given the Metroid series quite a bit of love over the last few years. It's really nice to see and I'm all for it.
That was one of the first things I looked at when I fired this up LOL. I don't even remember if I saw this Gallery all those years ago, but the artwork is awesome nonetheless.
Anyone know if you have to play four swords to unlock the bonus content in zelda alttp gba? Did it get this special treatment too?
@luke795 I should’ve read your post before making mine, thanks for the info!
@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Fusion Suit is a weird exclusion, but not including a game that's offered on a paid subscription makes perfect sense.
@LadyCharlie Very good.
Samass as thumbnail. No full image in article. Your trickery knows no bounds...
MZM is my second favorite Metroid title after Super. Yeah, for some games, just unlocking content is sufficient, whereas other titles need to have the transfer feature actually emulated, like Mario Golf/Tennis for N64, & GBC.
@Serpenterror Sounds like the difference between content difficult to unlock, and content that could not be unlocked at all.
@EarthboundBenjy Shame that Oracle shop wasn't unlocked. Pretty sure that would've been as simple as toggling a single byte in RAM (that indicates whether the game was booted from the GBC or a GBA in BC mode).
These horny comments over something that isn't that sexual is crazy. Some of ya'll are slightly depraved.
@InTree the zero suit is what they call "fan service". It was designed for horny.
@hippydave I know, but it isn't even that good of fan service. Kinda blurry.
They did this but didn't let us save our ghost data in Mario Kart 64?
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