I'll give you tension, being far from a save point when your Gameboy advance battery indicator turns red.

I still love how the SA-X reacts to Samus. It first freezes you, and then shoots you with a Missile.

"Does Samus suspect anything?"

Metroid 1: Adventure

My favorite thing about SA-X is it shows how unstoppable Samus is. It's literally you, Samus, from every game before. Think about the dread she caused to those poor creatures in Super Metroid. What about the Zoomers, the first enemy you see? Only the stupidest person could die from those. They take only a few shots. They have no chance of survival in a fight with you.

SA-X legitimately turned this into a horror game.

"Fear + Tension = Fusion" That's absolutely genius

This aged very well. I'm here waiting for Metroid Dread that was just announced at E3

The SA-X actually scared me as a kid, so much in fact that my first encounter I actually put the game down and didn’t play it for an hour.

“How Metroid Fusion creates Fear”

Can’t wait for the sequel, How Metroid Dread Creates Fusion.

My favorite part about the SA-X is how it reflects Samus dark past back at her. Samus erradicated without mercy the entire metroid species, only to feel compassion for a single individual, than she then couldn't save from mother brain. And now the SA-X acts like a nightmare of her past, now Samus is a representation of the Metroids she killed, with the same colors, dna and properties, and an ultra powerful Samus is chasing her down and attacking her in the exact same manner, ice beam and then missiles.

Don't forget this is all on a GBA, too. Being able to get this kind of sound design, very tense atmosphere, Genuinely stressful but never unfair situations on limited hardware is just beyond impressive. I wouldn't object if this game got a 3DS remake like Samus Returns to really ramp up the fear. Or if Metroid Prime 4 is nearly a full horror game.

“The longer the *note*, the more DREAD.” Hehe, noice.

“No entry without authorization!”

This was horrible for me the first time because I didn't know the SA-X interactions were scripted. I thought it would be random, so I always moved carefully and was aware of possible escape routes or hiding places.

"If I was an imitation... A perfect imitation... How would you know if it was really me?"

I've heard the argument a few times before of "how can this be scary at all? It's just a 2D handheld game." Generally I find that those making that argument fail to understand that if you're emotionally invested in what the story is conveying, it doesn't matter what visual method it comes in as your imagination is filling in the blanks. The first time you see the SA-X and get that close up... bloody hell, time to change your pants. Despite the obvious linear scripted nature of the game, it's still all too easy to immerse yourself in the setting and imagine that that thing is skulking around the station like that and could be anywhere just a wall away, especially early on in the game when you're still obscenely under-powered.

Metroid Dread is going to crank that fear up to 11. Can't wait.