It is a remake. Contrary to fan speculation based upon the game's title ("Zero" coming before "One", of course) and attempts to exploit ambiguity in phrasing here and there and differences in level lay-out, the title is unambiguously a remake. Fans rejecting the remake idea in favour of the prequel idea often point to the title, which would mean this marks Samus very first mission EVER. As Samus has already completed several missions at the start of the original Metroid (as described in the instruction booklet), that would mean ZM is a prequel. However, quoting the opening lines of Zero Mission:
"Planet Zebes... I called this place home once, in peaceful times, long before evil haunted the caverns below. Now, I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here... My so-called Zero Mission." -Samus Aran"
Note that it is stated that ZM depicts the first battle on ZEBES, and not her very FIRST mission. According to the Metroid chronology, Samus has already made name for herself as a bounty hunter, but those missions were a pure professional matter. This first battle on Zebes is a personal one to Samus because Zebes was once her home, so defeating the Space Pirates there has a special meaning for her.
ZM also retcons several facts established in the original game, like the presence of upgrades not in the original (Super Missile, Long Jump) and the appearance of Ridley and Kraid (more in line with their appearance in Super Metroid). Director Yoshio Sakamoto in particular described the difficulty he faced in trying to "recreate" (his word) the classic, including a need to "flesh out" (his words) that game's somewhat thin storyline with cinematic sequences. More of his own words:
"if we were to say it was a completely new game we wouldn't be entirely off-base [...] the concept was to take that original gameplay and rework it into something that felt fresh and new, while still keeping elements from the original game that people would be familiar with."
"Any time you do a remake there's always the possibility that it could be taken negatively as a mere port other than a truly remade game. One of our biggest challenge was to add enough elements to make the game feel like something that's new, while not straying far from the original Metroid, to lose the meaning of what we were trying to do. We spent a lot of time balancing those two elements in addition to actually working in elements that we hadn't seen before in a Metroid game, finding a way to implement them in Zero Mission...and then finding a way to balance this gameplay and make it into something people would enjoy."
With these words in mind, we can safely assume that all inconsistencies between Zero Mission and other Metroid games (especially Super Metroid) that could give rise to any doubts as to what ZM constitutes, were intended to be there (with the intent of purposefully changing continuity) or the director simply ignored them.
"Planet Zebes... I called this place home once, in peaceful times, long before evil haunted the caverns below. Now, I shall finally tell the tale of my first battle here... My so-called Zero Mission." -Samus Aran"
Note that it is stated that ZM depicts the first battle on ZEBES, and not her very FIRST mission. According to the Metroid chronology, Samus has already made name for herself as a bounty hunter, but those missions were a pure professional matter. This first battle on Zebes is a personal one to Samus because Zebes was once her home, so defeating the Space Pirates there has a special meaning for her.
ZM also retcons several facts established in the original game, like the presence of upgrades not in the original (Super Missile, Long Jump) and the appearance of Ridley and Kraid (more in line with their appearance in Super Metroid). Director Yoshio Sakamoto in particular described the difficulty he faced in trying to "recreate" (his word) the classic, including a need to "flesh out" (his words) that game's somewhat thin storyline with cinematic sequences. More of his own words:
"if we were to say it was a completely new game we wouldn't be entirely off-base [...] the concept was to take that original gameplay and rework it into something that felt fresh and new, while still keeping elements from the original game that people would be familiar with."
"Any time you do a remake there's always the possibility that it could be taken negatively as a mere port other than a truly remade game. One of our biggest challenge was to add enough elements to make the game feel like something that's new, while not straying far from the original Metroid, to lose the meaning of what we were trying to do. We spent a lot of time balancing those two elements in addition to actually working in elements that we hadn't seen before in a Metroid game, finding a way to implement them in Zero Mission...and then finding a way to balance this gameplay and make it into something people would enjoy."
With these words in mind, we can safely assume that all inconsistencies between Zero Mission and other Metroid games (especially Super Metroid) that could give rise to any doubts as to what ZM constitutes, were intended to be there (with the intent of purposefully changing continuity) or the director simply ignored them.
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