Nintendo recently hosted a conference call with Yoshio Sakamoto, creator of the Metroid series and director of Metroid: Zero Mission (as well as Fusion and Super Metroid before that). He has also served as producer for Metroid Prime and its upcoming sequel.

Sakamoto-san started out by noting that in the past, he has kicked off development on a new Metroid game by sending a strong vision to his team, based on what he thinks the new game should be. But with Zero Mission, the whole team got together and pooled ideas from the very beginning. They wanted to remake the original NES game as a way to return to the roots of the Metroid series. Fusion was a different style of game, with heavy narration and a linear path through the game, so the team wanted to show new fans of the series what Metroid is about at heart. They also felt a desire to revisit Samus's story, adding details to both the original mission on Zebes and the heroine's backstory, which begins on that same planet years earlier.

Sakamoto-san also offered many new details on the revised gameplay found in Zero Mission. The world of Zebes has been drastically recreated, although some familiar rooms have been left intact. Samus can gain many upgrades that weren't previously available, including some borrowed from other Metroid games and a few brand new ones. The gameplay has also been revamped and expanded; for instance, there are stealth sequences like those found in Fusion. Sakamoto acknowledges that the Metroid gameplay hasn't changed much over the years, so he is challenging himself to find ways to expand the gameplay while staying true to the spirit of the series. He hopes to continue this process in future games.

The new story elements in Zero Mission are being implemented mostly through visual elements and cut-scenes, not with text descriptions. The idea is that this method of storytelling will leave certain things to the player's interpretation, which will personalize the experience and allow the series to keep an air of mystery.

Comparing Zero Mission to Fusion, Sakamoto said that the two games were built on the same basic technology, but many parts of the engine were rewritten for Zero Mission. He thinks Zero Mission will prove to be a longer experience than Fusion was, since it is non-linear and also includes three difficulty levels, a first for the 2D Metroid games. The Hard mode is opened up after the first time you complete the game, and it includes several modifications to make the game more difficult for expert players. In addition to increasing damage from enemies, there are adjustments to the resources gained from power-ups and the locations of save points.

One of the most interesting changes to the original game is the addition of a whole new section after the defeat of Mother Brain. This sequence features a different style of gameplay and makes up about 25-30% of the entire game length. Fans of the series will definitely be surprised to see what happens. Finally, although Zero Mission does not connect to the GameCube for any special features, it can be connected to Metroid Fusion (which would require two GBAs and a link cable) to unlock something special.

As for the possibility of remaking the other Metroid games or simply porting them to Game Boy Advance, Sakamoto-san said he would only do it if he could be challenged by adding new features to these titles, or if the fans just really wanted to play these games on GBA.

Metroid: Zero Mission launches in North America on February 9th. We'll have much more coverage on the game before then!

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