Metroid Prime

The Good
The Wii version got rid of the cumbersome GameCube controls. Now you can aim and move normally with the Wii-mote + Nunchuk combination. You point at your TV to aim and look around. Your movement is very natural, like you are in Samus's suit yourself. There is no reason to go back to the GameCube version. The Wii controls are superior in every way.

The C button for the Morph Ball is particularly genius. The button itself looks just like that -- a small ball.

Metroid Prime is a First-Person Shooter but the more accurate description is "Double Jumping Shooter". Why? Because, in Metroid Prime you will get this item called "Space Jump", and Super Metroid fans will be disappointed. It's not a Space Jump. It's actually a Double Jump. Once you receive this ability, you will realize two things. You will realize why some platforms were just out of reach -- you need to jump twice to reach it! And you realize that from this moment on, double jumping will be what this game is ALL about.

You will be double-jumping in Metroid Prime all the time. It's addictive. Unlike most FPS games, Metroid Prime doesn't care about your weapons. You have four types of beams, with only cosmetic differences. You will not get any Uber-weapons as you would in Halo games. No. Metroid Prime is all about jumping. And why? Because Metroid Prime is the sequel to a side-scrolling platform game. Jumping around and reaching a previously unreachable area is the gameplay we're talking about here.

This is fairly common in 2D shooters, but very rare in 3D first-person shooters. There are a very small number of FPS games that say to you, "Don't bother to kill the enemies; ignore them. All you need to do is jump to this door/ledge/cave/whatever". You are often in a huge room and need to go from point A and get to point B in this same room. This formula is rehashed in the X360 hit Portal 2. There are many ridiculous, epic and exhilarating jumps in Portal 2, but if you've played Metroid Prime, you know that feeling already.

Other than the jumping, the most prominent distinction of Metroid Prime (as opposed to other FPS's) is that your character is VERY strong. You can kill most enemies without even trying. It's very easy to stay alive. The Halo formula of "die, respawn at checkpoint, survive until the next checkpoint" is unheard of here. You will only die a few times throughout the game. Metroid Prime's challenge isn't survival. It is "be careful not to fall". It is still challenging, and it still offers a great deal of satisfaction after you complete something.

One thing about the level design: It is now possible to die in a Save Room. I almost died in a Save Room once, and almost died in a room directly next to a Save Room once too. It's one of those moments in gaming you never forget. Words cannot describe the joy when you're almost dead and discover a Save Room, and actually save in it.

The Bad
** The X-Ray Visor. Oh, the X-Ray Visor. Super Metroid fans will be disappointed. Metroid Prime's designers decided that the X-Ray Visor cannot be used to find hidden items. If there's an item right in front of you, and you switch to the X-Ray Visor, chances are that you will NOT see it.

What does the X-Ray Visor do then, you ask?

1. The X-Ray graphics are kinda cool. Metroid Prime is a very atmospheric adventure and cool graphics like this are always appreciated.

2. The X-Ray Visor is required to see invisible platforms. This is quite lame.

** The Wii version removed the original Metroid game.

** Music isn't memorable. The only tune I can remember is the Lower Norfair theme from Super Metroid.

** No real desire to achieve 100%. I finished the game at 94%(item) and 94%(logbook) and felt content. The problem is that there is no way to know which item you DON'T have. I have read the Metroid Recon guide a few times and still haven't figured out which items I'm missing.

** The #1 annoying element of Metroid Prime: Boost Ball / Half-pipes. It seems to be inspired by the Speed Booster in Super Metroid, but while Speed Booster was the highlight of that game, Boost Ball/Half-pipes are a giant failure here. They are a chore to go through every time.

The Bottom Line
Expect the need to use a walkthrough from time to time. Metroid Prime is Super Metroid + Halo, and it's often the best of the both worlds.

The Good
Metroid Prime sure is a Metroid game, just a different kind of one. It definitely helped me to understand the series as a whole. I'd definitely recommend this game as everyone's first Metroid game to try - it isn't as hard as the previous games and is interesting all the way.

The controls are great. Even if, in FPSes, I can't really hit anything without a mouse and keyboard, the controls were never a problem for me. The controls emphasize strategy rather than reflexes - the point is to know how to blast the creatures away, to try to hit things.

The graphics are some of the best I've ever seen. Everything looks great. Lots of attention to details. I especially liked the various weather effects and visor effects (the face reflection spooked the heck out of me the first time I saw it).

The music is also pretty good. I didn't like it at first, but after you get to the planet and do some major moves, the music in general changes to something indescribably great.

There's some great pacing. As I say below, only the bosses were demotivating, every other challenge in the game seems just right.

I also found the game pretty good plot/narration-wise - the approach of collecting scraps of information on what really happened is a good idea.

The Bad
There was just one thing that I really didn't like about: The boss fights were, shall we say, demotivating. They weren't impossible, but they were just, at first, humiliatingly difficult. And by "humiliating", I mean "embarrassing enough not to make me touch the thing for weeks". Of course, once I did beat, say, Flaahgra and Thardus, and even the last boss without getting completely clobbered in the first phase... well, let's just say that the joy of victory was even higher then.

A smaller point I didn't like was that 100% scan completion requires some extremely sharp wits - If you miss some enemies at certain point of game, you can say goodbye to the 100% scan rate. Okay, it isn't really relevant, since it only gives you certain off-game bonuses, but still...

And this is probably the first game ever where I've had moral or ethical problems (as in "I can't kill that, it's too cute!")...

The Bottom Line
I don't really like first-person shooters, but I do love it when people grab their first-person shooter engines and do something completely different with them. I loved mysteriously creative Quake mods. I loved Deus Ex.

So, it wasn't really unexpected that I liked Metroid Prime. The one big thing about FPSes that I dislike is that you've always got to be either running or sneaking or dying. Metroid Prime, then, is sometimes about running and sneaking. It isn't that often about dying, though that tends to happen too.

Metroid Prime is about exploration. I hate to throw cliches around, but I think the appropriate one here is "the journey is more important than the destination".

It's about gathering items. It's also about gathering information. It's about seeing great places. It's about finding out what happened. It's about getting things done. It's about, I think, being a hero.

It is an adventure. It works beautifully as an adventure.

I used to think Metroid series was too complex for me, but now, I think I have learned to understand it. And that wasn't easy at first. Now, I think, I do know what this all is about.

Of all games I've bought for GameCube, I thought this was the one I'd least likely to beat - but somehow, I did, and I'm definitely one great experience richer now that I have beaten it. And excuse me, now, I'll get back playing Metroid Prime 2...

The Good
When a successful franchise is irrevocably altered to a new genre, it will be met with resistance, or at the very least, skepticism. Metroid Prime, the first American incarnation of a Japanese title by Retro Studios, achieves a highly polished game with some surprises, and tragedies. Many were alarmed when Metroid fans heard the infamous news... First Person Shooter. The transition from side scrolling action to 3D exploration is no small jump, and Retro Studios answers the call with slick graphics and the morphing ball... a narrow glimpse into what Retro really wanted. The visual appeal of the game is incredible. There are many places in the game where a player can just stand in absolute awe of what the artists have achieved with this game and GameCube's power. Effects are top notch, nearly second to none. Backgrounds in places are genuinely creepy. Mood, lighting all of these elements make for an extremely satisfying visual experience. The morphing ball experience speaks untold volumes about what this game could have been... This was undoubtedly the most exciting and liberating aspect of Metroid Prime. Allow me to step in here in person and say that, I think this was the game Retro was shooting for. The sense of movement and response was so compelling! I get the feeling they were going for 3rd person but they could never get the combat / lock on system to work well enough, so Miyamoto opted for the solution he knew Retro could do well... a FPS.

The Bad
Controls, the universal key to any game, in Metroid Prime is shot. It is Chaotic and non-intuitive and in terms of First Person Shooters it fails. Putting a camera lock and strafe mapped to a shoulder button is a mystifying concept. Why, when it is such an integral part of the game? Having you fingers fly all over the controller for scanning, aiming, locking, switching visors, switching weapons, strafing, jumping during combat is just ridiculous. It frustrates the player to such an extent of never playing again. Controls in Prime make no attempt to be logical or versatile. If a characters abilities increase during the course of the game, "progression" becomes a relevant term. When the player gains new abilities Samus is enabled to do more, and it means just that. You have to do more, not less. In the standard rule of gaming, powerups are for the purpose of making your life easier, not difficult. Case in point, the visors. Switching visual spectrums is to view the world to find more is an incredible idea. Switching visors to fight a boss is tedious action and pulls the player right out of the gaming experience. In Super Metroid the X-Ray scope was only used for finding items or finding your way through the world... Why? because it stopped the game, literally. The same rule applies in Prime as well, it interrupts the flow of the game and is thoroughly annoying. Compare progression in a game such as Legend of Zelda, everything you gain makes your life easier and less tedious as you journey towards the end of the game. There are no powerups in Metroid Prime that enable you to do your job faster or with less tedious action. In fact, you could say the game becomes more tedious the longer you play. The challenge the game presents is not by what you are trying to defeat, but trying to overcome the controls! This is not logical game design. The worlds are vast and visually diverse, but not gameplay diverse. The Magmoor caverns readily displays the fact it's hot and hazardous to be in there. In contrast Phendrana Drifts only visually show snow and ice... Well what are the characteristics of ice? Cold for one, slippery and brittle. All of those listed were potential gameplay aspects. Little or none of these aspects were incorporated into the design of the level to differentiate it from any other world.

The Bottom Line
Metroid Prime is pretty to look at. Had design been at the same level of the artists, I believe Prime would have been a truly extraordinary game. Metroid Prime frustrates the player on complexity of control, lack of progression and gameplay that is uninteresting by forcing the player to jump through gameplay hoops that don't work.