Metroid Fusion

From The Cutting Room Floor

Metroid Fusion

Developer: Nintendo R&D1
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Released in JP: February 14, 2003
Released in US: November 17, 2002
Released in EU: November 22, 2002
Released in AU: November 29, 2002
Released in CH: 2006

This game has unused areas.
This game has unused enemies.
This game has unused graphics.
This game has unused palettes.
This game has unused music.
This game has debugging material.
This game has regional differences.

The final game in the timeline, and the last game to actually go forward in the timeline instead of back like the Prime trilogy and Other M did. It also introduced a point A to point B and back to point A mission system, which found its way into future Metroid games.

Debug Menu

To do:
Add AR codes for other versions(J/EU) of the game if the Debug Menu can be loaded in other versions

To be able to access the debug menu, simply apply the IPS patch listed at the bottom of this section to the U version of the ROM. After the patch is applied, the debug menu can be accessed in-game by selecting start to bring up the map screen and pressing R. Alternatively, the following Action Replay code can be used:

CD6169F3 D8989D47
BE00B773 395EF076

There are multiple options within the debug menu.

Starting on the top left, the sections titled Beam, Missile, Bomb, Suit and Misc can enable or disable what abilities Samus is currently carrying. This is done by simply hovering the cursor over the ability in question and pressing the A button. Supply is hardcoded 00 (perhaps it used to be Super Metroid-esque reserve energy).

The Get_Map section will enable or disable map information for the main deck or for a particular sector. Simply hover the cursor over M,1,2,3,4,5,6 and pressing the A button to enable or disable map information. This option won’t show any hidden or secret areas. It will only show basic map information that Adam would usually give Samus.

The box on the top right displays the options Energy, E_max, Supply, Missile, M_max, P_bomb, PB_Max, Samus and Event. This section is mostly related to how much of something Samus can hold and how much she is actually holding. For example, the maximum energy she can have can be set with E_max but the current energy she has is set by Energy.

Changing the “Samus” number will change what power ups she is supposed to have in her inventory from different points of the game. The Event option is just that. It controls what part of the story and mission objective Samus is supposed to be accomplishing. Selecting it will display the name of an event number. The list of Event options is shown below.

The box to the lower left of this one displays three options which are H, G and Qsave. The Qsave option is short for quick save. When selected, it allows for the player to save in any room of the game. The G variable is for what door Samus came in from. The H variable is the current room (+1).

The box to the right contains two options, SEvent and Key_LV. Key_LV will change which security doors are open or closed.

The box in the bottom right only has one option which is Time. It controls how long a save file has been played for. SEvent is for Sub Event, each event has their own little event sub system.

There is a equip debug feature, select Samus on the debug screen. Then press the Start Button, or Right trigger and she will be granted 2099 health, 255 missiles, and 254 Power Bombs. If the user presses the left trigger or select, then health will be set to 100, power bombs and missiles will both be set to 10.

For a more descriptive list, see here

Metroid Fusion’s Event Options

Number	Name	Description
1.	TO HOKANKO [Q BAY]	Go to Quarantine Bay
2.	TO HOKANKO2 [Q BAY]	Investigate Quarantine Bay
3.	HOKANKO	Back to Nav Room
4.	TO MARUKARA [ARACHNUS]	Defeat Large Creature
5.	TO MISSILE	Go get Missiles
6.	DATA 3	To next room
7.	TO DATA	Enter Data Room
8.	MISSILE	Get Missiles in Data Room
9.	DOWN ENE	Power Outage
10.	TO MARUKARA2	Defeat Large Creature 2
11.	DOWN BOSS 1	To Nav Room
12.	TO　KUTYOU　[VENTS]	To SR388
13.	ELE START	Elevator to SR388
14.	ELE END	Demo End - To SR388
15.	TO KUTYOU2 [VENTS]	Defeat "Floating Melons" (Vents)
16.	POWER B	After Core X, Destroy Remaining
17.	KUTYOU [VENTS]	After destroying them, to Nav Room
18.	TO BOM	Go get Bombs
19.	TO LV1 KEY	Release LV1 Locks
20.	LV1 KEY	LV1 Released
21.	TO BOM2	After release, to Bomb data
22.	DATA TRO	Enter Data Room (TRO)
23.	BOM	Escape from TRO
24.	BOM QUAKE	After Bombs, Earthquake
25.	BOM QUAKE 2	Earthquake Ends
26.	TRO SAX	Escape from SAX
27.	TO WATER	To AQA
28.	WATER	Lower water levels
29.	DOWN BOSS 3	After boss, lower water levels
30.	TO WAT SWITCH	Dash Explanation
31.	WAT SWT ROOM	Water level change room
32.	WAT SWITCH	Change water levels
33.	TO PW MISSILE	Go get Power Missiles
34.	TO LV2 KEY	Release LV2 Locks
35.	LV2 KEY	LV2 released
36.	TO PW MISSILE2	After releasing, to Power Missiles
37.	DATA BUR	Enter Data Room
38.	PW MISSILE	Power Missile Complete
39.	DOTA DOTA	After auto demo, go back
40.	DOWN BOSS A1	Defeat Boss A
41.	TO ENEGAS	To NOC
42.	ADAM RENPO	Adam/Federation
43.	ADAM RENPO DEMO	During Adam/Federation
44.	ADAM RENPO END	Adam/Federation End
45.	TO ANKOKU	NOC unexpected update
46.	DAR NAVI	Enter NOC Nav Room
47.	TO ENEGAS2	Defeat Boss 4
48.	DAR SAX	Encounter SAX
49.	DAR SAX ESC	Escape SAX
50.	BARI LOSS	Install Varia
51.	DOWN BOSS4	Back to Nav Room
52.	CX ESCAPE	Escape Cold X
53.	TO FREEZE M	To ARC
54.	TO LV3 KEY	Release LV3 Locks
55.	LV3 KEY	LV3 Released
56.	TO FREEZE M	Go get Ice Missiles
57.	DATA FRI	Enter Data Room
58.	FREEZE M	Ice Missiles Complete
59.	TO ENE BALL	Fix heat overload
60.	WIDE B	Push the console
61.	ENE BALL	Back to Nav Room
62.	TO ETEKON [Etecoons]	To living quarters
63.	ETEKON	To Nav Room after delivery
64.	TO P BOM	Go get Power Bombs
65.	TO P BOM 2	ARC Update
66.	P BOM	Power Bomb Complete
67.	FRI SAX	SAX Encounter
68.	FRI SAX ESC	Escape SAX
69.	TO STARSHIP	To spaceship
70.	ENG DOWN	To Spaceship
71.	TO DOURYOKU [POWER]	Restore the power
72.	BOSS5 ROOM	Boss Room
73.	DOWN BOSS	Restore the power
74.	SUB ENG	Finished restoring power
75.	TO PLASMA B	To TRO
76.	TRO SAX2	SAX Encounter
77.	TRO SAX 2 ESC	Escape SAX
78.	PLASMA B	To Power Restoration Nav Room
79.	TO GOKAN [ARC]	Defeat ARC Boss
80.	TO GOKAN [ARC]	Update in ARC Nav Room
81.	DOWN BOSS6	Boss defeated, to Nav Room
82.	TO LV4 KEY	Release LV4 Locks
83.	LV 4 KEY	LV4 Released
84.	TO KAKUSAN2 [W SHOT]	Wide Shot acquired
85.	DATA WAT	Enter Data Room
86.	KAKUSAN [W SHT]	To Wide Shot Nav Room
87.	TO ANKOKU OKU [NOC CENTER]	Find NOC's Secret
88.	TO SHUTTER	Update at NOC Nav Room
89.	SHUTTER	To heart of NOC
90.	SHUTTER2	Shutter Earthquake
91.	WAVE B	To heart of NOC2
92.	TO GOKUHIKEN [Top Secret]	Top secret message
93.	RANSHA	Firing wildly & Timer
94.	TO KIRIHANA	Detatch
95.	KIRIHANA [DETATCH]	Update after flames
96.	DOWN BOSS7	Defeat Boss 7, Escape
97.	TO OPE [OPS ROOM]	Truth
98.	TO OPE MONO	Ops Room Monologue
99.	TO OPE2	Change orbit
100.	TO OPE3	Adam side update
101.	INTO OPE	Enter Ops Room
102.	DOWN SAX	Defeat SAX
103.	KIDOUKAE	Change orbit
104.	ESCAPE	Update after change orbit
105.	OMEGA	Battle with Metroid
106.	DOWN SAX2	Omega beats SAX
107.	ICE BEAM	Ice Beam Acquired
108.	DOWN OMEGA	Metroid defeated
109.	END	Ending

Download Metroid Fusion Debug Menu IPS patch

File: InterdpthFusionDebug.ips (14 bytes) (info)

Unused rooms

Metroid Fusion has a few unused rooms, one of which was for testing the engine and the other for a trailer demonstration.

Debug rooms

These are some debug rooms that use graphics from Wario Land 4, suggesting that it was based off the same engine.

Here are some maps of these rooms. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version.

Room 1	Room 2	Room 3
Room 4	Room 5

"Zombie Hangar room"

This is an unused room near the gunship that was shown in a trailer for the game. In the trailer, Samus used a power bomb to kill a room full of zombies, though now it's just empty.

Here is a map of the area.

A similar copy of this room also exists, but also contains a Save Station.

Alternate Ridley-X Boss Room

Video to come with working Ridley hopefully later.

An alternate boss room for Ridley-X, which somewhat resembles the Ridley boss room in Super Metroid. The door connects to the same door in the final that led to the Ridley-X fight. This room also uses an unused tileset.

Unused Graphics

There are a lot of unused graphics in this game.

Blocks and Tiles

Early Blocks
Final Blocks

Some early block graphics. While largely identical to the final tileset, the loose soil block and the Speed Booster block have undergone a design change.

The tileset used by the debug rooms. The brightly-colored stone blocks are from Wario Land 4.

The tileset that is only used in the unused "Zombie Hangar Room".

The background that is only used in the unused "Zombie Hangar Room". However, the top half is repeated vertically as a background in one room.

The tileset that is only used in the alternate Ridley-X boss room.

Placeholder graphics in the tileset. These get replaced with animated tiles by the game engine.

Enemies

Geega, an enemy from Metroid, Super Metroid, and Zero Mission, was apparently going to appear with the other infected enemies in the game, but didn't.

The infected scientist in Sector 3 (PYR) has an unused "having a hole blown through chest" animation.

The Chozo statue "boss" in Sector 1 (SRX) has some unused art with it... possibly, the beam weapons were going to be obtained normally instead of fighting a Hard Core X?

Skree, an enemy from Metroid, Metroid Prime, Super Metroid, and Zero Mission, was also set to appear in the game, but didn't. Odd. There is a video of an earlier version showcasing these.

Kago, a small insectoid enemy from Super Metroid, is also unused. However, its hive is used.

A nest. It is with the Ki Hunter graphics, but there are no Ki Hunter nests.

Unused palette for the Hornoad. It's loaded during the opening cutscene, when Samus gets infected with the X parasite while on SR-388.

To do:
Rumor has it that Serris has unused graphics; add these or check if they are really unused.

Objects

Some unused platform object? It appears multiple times in the object list.

Recharge station graphics. Notice that there are graphics for stations that only refilled energy or missiles - in the game, all recharge stations recharge both energy and missiles.

Crystals from Wario Land 4. These are left over here due to the fact that Metroid Fusion was built on top of Wario Land 4's engine.

An unused turning animation for the B.S.L field researcher in the opening cutscene.

Four numbered asteroids present in the sprite graphics during the game's intro cutscene. They have borders around them in the VRAM.

A larger asteroid, which has some difficult-to-make-out Japanese writing on it, is also present with them. 「サムスにぶっかるんシ」, meaning "Falling/Will fall on Samus".

An early version of Samus' ship is stored in the unused hanger tileset.

Miscellaneous

Present in both Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission, there exist in the font graphics unused L and R button icons, and several different versions of the capital X character.

Also present in both games is this placeholder graphic, with Japanese 「マップ」, meaning "Map", on it.

This placeholder is also stored in the same area as the Map placeholder, but is not present in Zero Mission. It reads 「カウンター」 and 「ショット」, meaning "Counter" and "Shot" or possibly in conjunction either "Shot counter" or "Counter [for] shot".

The text from the intro. Apparently, the opening was going to say "Nintendo Presents METROID FUSION" before they took the same route as Super Metroid.

Numbers that get loaded into VRAM during the scene where the Metroid Vaccine kills off the X inside Samus' head. That scene does not use numbers at all.

Unused mugshots. They are much smaller than the ones used in the cutscenes, and do not have palette data available. They are only loaded into memory during the end of the opening cutscene, when Samus is notified by her ship's AI about docking on the station.

This, however, does have a matching palette. It is loaded with the rest of the pause screen graphics in VRAM. It's Toro Inoue [1] from Sony PlayStation, considered the mascot of Sony over in Japan, along with some sushi and a bird.

The graphics for her basic, default beam weapon has charged versions present in the graphics. These are never used, as new graphics are loaded in place of these when Samus gets the Charge Beam.

Unused Tracks

An unused music track. Sounds like something being hunted?

Another unused track. This sounds like something frantic, maybe the original escape sequence music?

This seems to be more of a sound engine test.

Unused Item Behavior

The Ice Beam is actually capable of freezing enemies. However, the only enemy you can normally use it against is the Omega Metroid.

The Screw Attack is a more odd case. First of all, it is cancelled by water without Gravity Suit, which is obtained before it. This is even described in the manual, even though the situation never happens. Second, without being alongside Space Jump, it allows to single-walljump (As opposed to simply space jump along the wall, it follows walljump mechanics). This could be a side effect though of the game simply assuming it shouldn't push Samus from the wall.

Regional differences

To do:
Screenshots and/or videos.

Japanese version contain three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal and Hard), much like Zero Mission. The only one difficulty level available in the US and PAL versions of the game is the equivalent to Japanese's Normal difficulty level.

There are also few bug fixes, as well as more ending pictures.

The Metroid series
NES	Metroid
Super NES	Super Metroid
GameCube	Metroid Prime (Prototype) • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Wii	Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Prototype) • Metroid: Other M
Game Boy	Metroid II: Return of Samus
Game Boy Advance	Metroid Fusion • Metroid Zero Mission
Nintendo DS	Metroid Prime Hunters ("First Hunt" Prototype)

Metroid Fusion

From The Cutting Room Floor

Contents