Metroid: Zero Mission (2004). Play online

Summary

Metroid: Zero Mission revamps the 1986 classic with sharp GBA visuals and tighter controls, turning familiar rooms into fresh challenges. The game leans heavily on classic exploration, rewarding patience with power‑ups that open previously blocked passages. Players can pause their progress in dedicated Save Rooms or dock at Samus’s ship in Crateria for a quick checkpoint. A standout moment strips Samus of her Power Suit, forcing her to crawl through vents armed only with a frail pistol.

Finishing the title unlocks a full emulated version of the original Metroid, and a link‑cable connection to Metroid Fusion reveals an exclusive picture gallery. Yoshio Sakamoto, the sole veteran from the 1986 team, directed the project and rebuilt Fusion’s engine to support the new cinematics. Zero Mission launched as the best‑selling Game Boy Advance debut in the U.S., moving roughly 152 K copies in its first month and surpassing 439 K by early 2005. Critics crowned it GameSpot’s best GBA game and honored it with the Handheld Game of the Year award at the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Storyline

Metroid: Zero Mission follows bounty hunter Samus Aran as she returns to the planet Zebes after the Space Pirates steal Metroid samples. The Galactic Federation, unable to retake the base, sends her to eliminate Mother Brain, the AI that controls the pirate fortress.

Samus lands, navigates Zebes’ caverns, and defeats the pirate allies Kraid and Ridley before confronting Mother Brain and destroying it. As she departs, her ship is ambushed, forced to crash near the Space Pirate Mothership, leaving her suit shattered.

Inside the Mothership she discovers a Chozo statue on Chozodia that offers a trial; passing it grants her a fully upgraded Power Suit. She then battles the Mecha Ridley robot, defeats it, and escapes using a pirate shuttle while the mothership self‑destructs.