Let's face it. Metroid, the original NES title, is showing its age. It's 17 years old, and every time it is included as an extra with another title, signs of its age crop up. The lack of a real save system makes keeping track of progress a pain. The control is exceedingly iffy by modern standards, with no way to kneel or shoot downward. The lack of a map system makes things confusing, especially considering Metroid is a game where many passages are blocked until the player picks up a new ability. Perhaps most telling, discounting time spent wandering aimlessly because of the lack of a map, Metroid just isn't very long.

Nintendo, ever the sort to see a problem as an opportunity (as well as a company that can spot a buck from a distance of 47 leagues), has brought this NES classic into the 21st century and onto the Game Boy Advance with Metroid: Zero Mission. Zero Mission does away with most of these signs of age, and keeps most of the elements that made Metroid a classic. Most of them.

Metroid: Zero Mission hits the ground running, eschewing a long Super Metroid- or Metroid Fusion-style intro explaining what has gone before. Samus Aran, the heroine, is instructed to plumb the depths of Zebes, take out all the Metroids as well as the Mother Brain. Zero Mission even starts already inside the caverns, one screen away from the Morph Ball. The story stays light, and save for a short sequence at the end, is only a couple of short interludes, giving sketchy origins for a couple of the villains.

While Zero Mission doesn't add a lot of story, it does largely eliminate the aimlessness of Metroid. Standing Chozo statues have been added to Zero Mission as waypoints. Instead of giving Samus a new piece of equipment for her suit, they give her a vague pointer toward her next major objective. These pointers are never as invasive as Adam's hand-holding in Metroid Fusion, there is a definite sequence of "This then this then this then this." There are only miscellaneous power-ups, like extra missiles or energy tanks, off the beaten path. As with Super Metroid, anyone looking for genuine nonlinearity, as found in the original Metroid, may indeed be disappointed.

Of course, the traditional Metroid arsenal is back. Most of the Chozo statues scattered around Zebes give Samus new weapons with which to mow down the various hostile flora and fauna. Some equipment is from the original Metroid, like the charge, wave, and ice beams (which now may all be combined), and some is from later installments, like super bombs and super missiles from Super Metroid and the Power Grab, which allows Samus to hang on ledges as in Metroid Fusion. All in all, Samus has a larger arsenal than in any previous title, especially after a certain special event happens late in the game.

Ultimately, the pointers and the arsenal all seem to be too much. Even with the additional material, including a new area, an unorthodox mission, and an epilogue that sets up Metroid Prime, Zero Mission clocks in at five hours or less, with very few challenges. Even the bosses, some original and some, including Ridley and Kraid, recycled from from previous titles, are pushovers, ending up more like Mega Man-style pattern bosses than anything. While there are a few gut-wrenching moments of challenge, like the Metroids' debut and the new, very unorthodox mission, Samus's arsenal seems to be far too much for every enemy encountered.

Of course, Nintendo does know how to make a game look good. Samus moves smoothly and looks fantastic. She even has an asymmetric sprite; her gun isn't always the closest arm to the "camera." The enemies are reimagined somewhat less impressively, owing more to the fact that their designs are a bit dated, but Zebes is looking fantastic. All of the new elements, like the new stages, the new and revamped bosses, and cutscenes, are looking fantastic, save for a bit of pixellation in some of the more dynamic cutscenes.

Musically, Metroid: Zero Mission both peaks and plummets. The grand majority of the musical themes are reimaginings of Hip Tanaka's masterful work on Metroid, rendered in stereo for those with headphones. They're moody, atmospheric, and immersive, all perfectly suited to the dark, cramped caverns of Zebes. (It's hard to believe that Hip Tanaka is also the man who composed the original Pokemon title theme.) Almost all of the revamps of Tanaka's themes are perfect, save for some annoying MIDI piano parts of Norfair's theme. Unfortunately, the new theme for the last part of the Space Pirates' ship is absolutely abysmal. It's only a single theme, but it jars, badly.

Metroid: Zero Mission owes as much to Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion as it does to Metroid. Samus handles like she did in Metroid Fusion, gets powerups like the ones in Super Metroid, and explores a Zebes much like the one in Super Metroid. Ultimately, this means that Zero Mission is a melangŽ of ideas, making it a greatest hits album of game concepts. Ultimately, this is both a strength and a weakness; both the graphics and the gameplay are incredibly slick, but everything is awfully short and easy. Definately a must for anyone who enjoyed either the other games in the series, or the GBA Castlevania titles, but others may want to just finish this on a rental.