If you have a smartphone, or a computer built after 2005, you can definitely emulate Metroid Zero Mission, but unfortunately Nintendo makes it really hard to do it the easy way.
When Dead By Daylights matchmaking system prioritizes getting you into a match faster instead of getting you into a balanced match, and matches you with less than 100 hours of playtime as Killer into an “Unemployment Lobby” of a 4 goblin pre-made with 50k combined hours ready to bully you for 55 minutes:
NES Metroid, being replaced by Metroid Zero Mission.
NES Metroid is interesting to play through to see where the franchise came from, or for the nostalgia factor, but Metroid Zero Mission is vastly superior in nearly every conceivable way, its not even close. Its not like Silent Hill 2 or Resident Evil 3, where the originals are still better than the remakes overall, everything taken into account (though in that case, SH2 remake is superior to the RE3 remake). Absolutely every element of Zero Mission is an improvement on the original.
Metroid Zero Mission did not make vast sweeping changes to alter the identity of the game, making only minor adjustments to designs that were not thematically important (for example, the physical appearance of Ridley or Kraid being different is not thematically important). There were not big amounts of cut content, with only minor elements being cut like the fake Kraid enemy, which was not thematically important. The music is all familiar with the same composition, but with added flair. Its not different just for the sake of being different. Items and suit upgrades are almost all in the same places as the original NES Metroid, with the addition of new items that were added to the Metroid setting later on such as the Charge Beam and Super Missile. A map was added to the game, and the beam weapons now stack like in Super Metroid, rather than replacing the last beam you had.
All in all, Zero Mission leaves very little reason for the player to play the original game, especially if all the player cares about is the overall story of the Metroid IP. The player won’t get more thematically important designs that enhance the story like they would playing the original Silent Hill 2, and they won’t get more original game content and story like they would playing RE3 Nemesis. They wouldn’t get an improved experience. The choice to play NES Metroid mostly just comes down to nostalgia, historical value, or personal preference. Or if someone only has an NES or device capable of emulating the NES but not the GBA.
I just picked it up for like $1. I haven’t played it much, but it is definitely interesting. I like older games because they were more experiemental and less “safe.” So they tend to be more unique than modern games. I dont hate all modern games, but they are beginning to feel extremely “same-y” in recent years.
Not including the multiplayer mode would be an immense L. I get the game for free since I backed the Remake of the original on Kickstarter, I wouldn’t even install the game if the multiplayer isn’t included.
Then when will Sony stop paying studios to not port their game to platforms other than PlayStation, regardless of time gate? This has been Sony’s playbook since the beginning of their gaming venture, I don’t see them stopping any time soon. Its entirely how they gained such a big market share and keep it. People buy consoles because of the exclusive games.
Nobody would be buying a Switch if I could buy Nintendo games on literally any other console. They would be guaranteed to be running way better than they do on Switch.
I feel like something about this should be incredibly illegal, since it basically amounts to Tencent trying to sidestep every other investor in the company to gain total ownership of the valuable IPs.
I have the same annoyance with people calling Lunacid a “King’s Field-like.” Like, if anything Lunacid is closer to Shadow Tower, NOT King’s Field. Even the music is what one would expect from a Shadow Tower soundtrack if the original game even had a soundtrack.