Metroid Prime

Moby ID: 7783
GameCube Specs
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Conversion (official)

Description official descriptions

Long ago, a bird-like race of creatures (called the Chozo) became extremely advanced technologically, but due to increasing violence in the universe, they began to hide and live more simple lives. The planet Tallon IV was the site of one of their colonies. Years later, a meteor crashed on Tallon IV releasing the strange element Phazon into the planet. Phazon poisoned anything it came in contact with, causing the plant and animal life to either die or mutate into a hideous form.

The Chozo tried to control the power of Phazon but failed. Before abandoning the planet, they were able to cover the impact crater with a temple and seal Phazon into the planet's core. Now space pirates have discovered Tallon IV, moving in to study Phazon and harnessing its power. They have also begun rebuilding their fortress on planet Zebes and reviving the Mother Brain, Ridley, and Kraid, all of whom were destroyed by Samus Aran. However, Samus has tracked the space pirates to Tallon IV and must now enter the planet to destroy them once and for all before they have a chance to rebuild their destructive forces...

Metroid Prime is a change from the platform-adventuring series, entering the first-person shooter genre for the first time. Players are now behind Samus Aran's visor and must use all their resources to investigate the pirate infestation of Tallon IV. Players can use Samus's beam, with missile and charge capabilities. Along the way, they must recover the bounty hunter's lost abilities like the morph ball and grapple beam, which allow them to reach unexplored areas of Tallon IV. Players must piece together the story of the fallen Chozo to figure out what has happened to the poisoned planet and prevent the pirates from using the Phazon to wreak havoc throughout the planets.

Spellings

  • メトロイドプライム - Japanese spelling
  • 银河战士 - Chinese spelling (simplified)
  • 메트로이드 프라임 - Korean spelling

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Credits (GameCube version)

123 People (101 developers, 22 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 96% (based on 94 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 227 ratings with 16 reviews)

Best Gamecube game ever!

The Good
Everything! The graphics are outstanding like any Metroid game. The detail in the surroundings were out of the charts and switching from an energy cannon to a freeze beam was an extra bonus. Additionally, the enemies looked super cool! The controls were very easy to handle and the story unraveled very well with no flaws. The game lives to its name, PRIME!

The Bad
Nothing.

The Bottom Line
Buy the game now and be hooked for life.

GameCube · by Exodia85 (2145) · 2003

Through the eyes of a bounty hunter.

The Good
After eight years of hiatus, Metroid returned in a big way. On the same day in 2002, Metroid Fusion for the Gameboy Advance and Metroid Prime for the Gamecube were released in North America. Fusion was a traditional sidescroller developed internally at Nintendo and closely follows the gameplay of Super Metroid. Prime, on the other hand was given off to the unproven western developer, Retro Studios, and flipped into the first-person perspective. In a post-Halo world, much of the fanbase was worried that the focus would be changed to be more action oriented. It’s possible that Nintendo also lacked confidence in the results, as Metroid Fusion contained an introduction that labeled it “Metroid 4”, while Metroid Prime was given no such status within the series. Nowadays, however, gamers tend to look more favourably on Retro’s work, and for good reason.

Despite the drastic change in perspective, Metroid Prime draws heavy inspiration from Super Metroid and largely ignores the features that are typically found in conventional first-person shooters. Perhaps the most disorienting is that it doesn’t use a dual analogue control scheme. Instead, the Y-axis is locked during movement and only by using the free-look button can you actually look up and down. Combat instead uses a lock-on system, rather than allowing free aiming. This, along with the game’s meagre selection of weapons, limits combat to a secondary role and helps the game push its exploration focus.

Like previous Metroid games, the game world is a large web of rooms and other nodes connected together. Progression is limited by what upgrades have been picked up, so certain doors will be impassable until a specific arm cannon upgrade can be found. It really does feel like Super Metroid with an additional dimension to the point where it sometimes feels like it’s reading off the same script. Many of the power-ups from the previous games can be once again found here, with few additions to actually take advantage of the extra dimension. Likewise, the game’s minimalistic story features numerous settings and obstacles that are repeats from the series’ seminal entry.

Metroid’s lore has always been rather disconnected and abstract which makes it difficult to get a handle on how things work. The space pirates, for example, are a race of sentient creatures vying for galactic dominance, yet they were always depicted as sluggish, dimwitted, and extremely vulnerable, and it was hard to believe that they’d have the ambition to build an empire, let alone weaponize a creature such as the Metroid. Metroid Prime does a decent job of making the space pirates a more rounded threat. They’re depicted as an amoral, technologically advanced, militarized society. You can learn a lot about the world, the backstory, and what you’re up against using logs that are read by scanning terminals and enemies with Samus’ visor. There’s an awful lot of text, much of it disposable, littered throughout the game, but it does a good job of adding depth to the space pirates’ organization while dropping a selection of five-dollar words for that added sci-fi effect. For the first time, there’s a lot of context to what’s going on and it really adds some useful perspective to the events in the game.

At the time of its release, and even throughout the Gamecube’s lifespan, Metroid Prime was considered to be quite the graphical powerhouse. By today’s standards, it has lost its dazzle, featuring blocky environments and low resolution textures, but at the time it was rather impressive. However, one part of its visual design that hasn’t aged is its attention to detail. The HUD in particular is creatively done, bordered by the edges of Samus’ visor to give the impression of looking out through her eyes. That’s not necessarily anything new, but it also reacts to environmental effects to further cement the illusion. Rain beads on it, vapour sticks to it, and if there’s a bright flash nearby, the image of Samus’ eyes appears reflecting in the glass as she looks around. While this is all greatly superficial, it’s a rather impressive attempt to further immersion, and there are many other small details like this that add to it.

The Bad
While Metroid Prime was quite the looker in its day, it came at a price in the scope of its environments. Prime’s world boils down collection of nodes and corridors, which is fine since that’s the sort of structure that previous games featured. However, the effect that it does have is that Talon IV doesn’t feel like a real place. While the topology is a little strange, demonstrating a variety of biomes in ridiculously close proximity to one another, it’s not the only reason for the preposterousness of its world. There’s nothing to really give you an idea of how everything links up. If it wasn’t for the map, keeping a sense of direction would be nearly impossible. The map screen itself shows an abstract honeycomb when zoomed out, rather than a view of the overworld, and it’s difficult to place everything together mentally. This could have been solved by giving the player a view of the world from a high place, or having Phendrana Drifts visible in distant mountains and the Phazon Mines from atop a cliff, but no effort was made to tie everything together believably, making the world feel tangibly phoney.

Considering the game plays out entirely in the first-person perspective and a lot of attention has been given into the visor to make it actually appear as though the game is played out through Samus’ eyes, it’s a little unfortunate that Prime still falls into the old standards of establishing shots. Cutscenes are pretty rare, but when a new environment or particular enemy is introduced, the game cuts away to show Samus standing rigidly on the doorstep as she looks around. Obviously, this doesn’t have much of an impact on gameplay aside from taking the player out of the moment, but I feel that the camera should have never left Samus’ helmet.

There’s a lot of backtracking late in the game; more than usual for a Metroid game. The worst example of this occurs towards the end of the game where you’re required to collect a number of artefacts to reach the final area. There are some very specific hints available that reveal their positions, but it’s still necessary to walk across hell’s half-acre to actually reach them. Some can be picked up as you go throughout the game, but others require you to have a vast collection of power-ups before you can reach them. This isn’t a major ordeal, but it is the weakest portion of the game by far. It reduces the game’s already sluggish pace to a glacial crawl as you hop around the environment on a treasure hunt.

The Bottom Line
I replayed Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion in tandem and came to the conclusion that while I enjoyed Metroid Fusion more than I did previously, I enjoyed Metroid Prime less. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Prime, it’s an OUTSTANDING game, but in my youth, I loved it. Metroid Prime never really reaches the high points of Super Metroid, but it still delivers a pretty tight experience. The atmosphere is excellent and the attention to detail is almost peerless. It’s commendable that Retro was able to translate the exploration based gameplay of the earlier sidescrollers so deftly to the third dimension. I have my doubts that any other developer will meet with the same success that was found here when it comes to translating the Metroid series to 3D.

GameCube · by Adzuken (836) · 2015

Worthy of the Metroid name. Very worthy.

The Good
How lucky I was that I got a chance to play Metroid Prime. Metroid Prime is Retro's atttempt to take the 2D Metroid series through the 3 dimensional gateway. It was very, very succesful.

Where else to start but the graphics? Metroid Prime looks amazing. Polygon and texture count is amazingly high, and everything looks so real. The enemies, levels, objects and so on have been so finely designed that they reflect on how much work was stuffed into this game. I can very well say this is one of the best looking GameCube released.

Sound quality was also remarkable. While I'm not one who really cares about sound in video games, Metroid Prime drew me to it. The effects are very well created, and sound very real. As with the backround music, which has the right atmospheric condition to draw you into the game. Sound is a very good aspect of this game.

What's a game without good gameplay? Definitely not Metroid Prime. The game plays very smoothly, no jags, long loads, slow downs, or any of that other stuff. The levels are so well designed that you could just run around in one for hours and not get tired. While the game is in the first person view, it is not a FPS(first person shooter). Sure, you have a weapon that you shoot stuff with, but MP distinguishes itself so obviously. The game focuses on exploration instead of non-stop shooting action. Levels need comprehending to complete, not just blazing guns. And oh yes, the ball transforming is back, and better than ever.

The Bad
Every game has a downside. Every game except Metroid Prime, that is.

The Bottom Line
As a loyal XBOX fan, I find myself wanting a GameCube just so I can have this game. Metroid Prime is one of the Golden games that have been released, and will definitely be known as one of the greatest. I give Metroid Prime a well-earned, solid, enthusiastic 5 out of 5.

GameCube · by ThE oNe (180) · 2002

[ View all 16 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The GameCube version of Metroid Prime appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

Nintendo gave the development of Metroid Prime to the U.S. based Retro Studios in part due to the fact that the Metroid series, while being incredibly popular in the United States, has never sold as well in Japan.

Retro Studios also worked on a role-playing game for GameCube called Raven Blade of which a video was shown during E3 2001. However, in late 2001, it was announced that the game was canceled by Nintendo so that focus would be more on Metroid Prime. As a result, an unspecified amount of workers were laid off.

Manual

The manual has an amusing problem. Like in many of the Nintendo manuals, there is a lined page for the player's own notes, but the page has light lines on a very dark background. This makes most pen marks practically invisible, so the page is almost useless for its intended purpose (this applies to the Finnish/Swedish original release manual, at least).

Metroid Fusion

After finishing Metroid Fusion on the GBA, and linking up to a GameCube: * A new suit will be available * It will be possible to play the original Metroid on the GameCube

References

Kraid, from Metroid, was originally intended to make an appearance in Metroid Prime as a boss and was modeled and skinned by Gene Kohler for that purpose. However, time constraints prevented it from being included in the final version of the game. Though the beta version displays him inside Phazon Mines, according to Kohler, he was in fact replaced by the Omega Pirate. Kraid is referenced, however, in Metroid Prime. One of the tanks in the Space Pirate's base suggests that one of the Pirate's experiments is to recreate the creature. Body parts in the vat appear to be Kraid's. Of note is the head, since it appears to be covered by a metal dome in the picture.

Screw Attack

While many of Samus' signature moves are present in Metroid Prime, the infamous screw attack is strangely missing. Fans speculate that this is due to difficulties meshing it with the first-person perspective of the game. The screw attack does appear in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2003 – Best Console Action Game of the Year (GameCube)
  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • February 2006 (Issue #200) - #52 in the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – Game of the Year
    • 2002 – GameCube Game of the Year
    • 2002 – GameCube Game of the Year (Readers' Choice)
    • 2002 – Best Music of the Year (GameCube)
  • Golden Joystick Awards

Information also contributed by ~~, Mark Ennis, Steve Thompson, Tiago Jacques, and WWWWolf .

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, Guy Chapman, gamewarrior, Big John WV, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, piltdown_man, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added November 20, 2002. Last modified January 22, 2024.