Metroid Prime

The Good
You play Samus Aran, a female bounty hunter who must investigate the "Great Poison" released throughout Chozo Ruins, which is among four different planets connected to Tallon Overworld through elevators.

The gameplay in this game is completely revolutionary. It's in First Person, but is in no way a first person shooter. Nintendo's given moniker of a FPA is about the best way to put it. I won't give the story here, as this review is long enough as it is. You can check the plot details to find it out. The game works like your usual FPS, only much better. A shoots, and B jumps. X and Y do other functions, such as the morph ball and missiles. What makes things better is that as she goes on, Samus unlocks new weapons and abilities, true to any Metroid game. However, this time, all her weapons remain accessible and usable, with just a swift jolt of the C-Stick, you can switch from the Power Beam, Plasma Beam, Ice Beam, and Wave Beams. Another great feature about the game is that Samus can switch between scan visors. In the beginning of the game you start out with just two visors, the combat visor, which is your normal view-screen, and the scan visor, which allows you to scan objects and enemies, and details most of the plot for you. It can also tell you enemy weaknesses. That's just one of the many things I like about this title. The story is very profound and immersive, but almost none of it progresses during the actual game. You can choose to scan around, learning more and more about what happened here. You can also choose to remain completely oblivious to the events that occurred on Tallon IV. This really adds some more atmosphere and makes the game even more immersive. Even looking up and down is extremely immersive. It would seem clunky at first, then you realize that Samus is in a very heavy suit. Speaking of immersive, this game carries it in spades. You can go anywhere, and mess with almost all of the environment and its creatures. This game is very open-ended…perhaps the most open-ended game I've ever played, allowing you millions of different ways to go about getting the next item on your list. However you like to think, Metroid Prime definitely supports it, and for someone with ANYTHING stimulating their brain cells, this game should definitely be for them. The graphics in this game are among the best ever burned onto a disc or stuffed into a cartridge. Everything is beautiful and extremely accurate and realistic to their certain area. Every villain is drawn wonderful, to the smallest detail, and the areas are perhaps the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Upon landing on Tallon IV I was shaken by just how beautiful the over-world looked. The tropical rains, the lush green forests, and the fact that as I stood in the water and looked into the churning waterfall Samus' face would actually get wet and fog. Magmoor Caverns are the same way. You step into a stream of hot water vapor and you vision wavers and fogs. Phendrana Drifts is perhaps the second most beautiful area I've seen in a game. The perpetual light snow, and those ever-white snowcaps. They just make me want to touch the screen. And the best thing of all? I didn't have a progressive scan cable. The progressive scan cable makes the graphics much sharper than before. Trust me that is a good thing. The soundtrack and sound was good. I liked the screams and groans of the aliens you kill in the game. The music is very good. It is the best in Phendrana Drifts and in the Space Pirate Frigate.

. There is nothing to say for voice acting because it is not there. For good reason. It wouldn't make any sense. There's no one on this big, empty, dangerous planet. It's just Samus. There are no speaking parts in the entire game. This game is an achievement for Nintendo, Retro Studios, and gaming itself. I'd never seen a game so immersive and atmospheric before I played this game, and this really is one of the games that changed the way I game…even if I had been gaming for a good ten years + before I got it.

The Bad
There is no multiplayer.

The Bottom Line
Retro Studios and Nintendo have created a true masterpiece, once again setting standards and defining a genre all over again.

It's a massive title, too. The 30-hour mark is definitely something most gamers will hit. There's so much to it. Most impressive to me is that Tallon IV's separate worlds -- lava, ice, water, etc -- are all connected. It's just like the old Metroids, and load times are nearly nonexistent; a truly amazing feat.

It is Super Metroid brought into 3D. All the naysayers who said it couldn't be done right -- including myself -- are completely wrong. I need some time to absorb it, but it's absolutely as great a game as Super Metroid, and perhaps...better.

When I say the game is amazing, I mean it. From level design, to rewarding the player for exploring, to power-ups, to the bosses, to the music, Metroid Prime is amazing.

The Good
Retro have made a stylish job of updating this Nintendo classic to 3D. The map system - a scalable, rotatable wireframe model showing doors, save points etc. - is one of the best to grace any game on any platform, and is an invaluable tool for exploration of the massive but lonely world of Tallon. The gadgets and weapons are great, too - from Samus' ability to turn into a Sonic The Hedgehog-style 'Morph Ball' to the awesome visor system (enabling the player to see in x-ray or infra-red, for example). These features would, of course, be simple eye-candy without great design which Metroid Prime, fortunately, has in abundance. The designers have incorporated a huge number of mini-puzzles which must be solved in conjunction with the gear at Samus' disposal, and serve to make MP so much more than just another run-of-the mill FPS or platformer. For the completists out there, Samus' scanner can be used to check the facts and figures on every enemy and countless environmental features, at once providing further gameworld immersion and hints on solving puzzles or killing bosses. The amount of detail is staggering, as are the the graphics and sound (it is really worth playing with a Pro-Logic II system).

The Bad
The controls, whilst becoming second nature after several hours of play, are not particularly intuitive and may cause frustration in those players without a strong handle on the GameCube's controller. Be warned: Metroid Prime is quite difficult in places, although it is certainly worth persevering. Players expecting a classic FPS will also be out of luck - this game rewards those who seek to take in every inch of Tallon at their leisure, drinking in the lore of the planet's lost civilisation whilst obliterating its fantastic array of inhabitants. It's a shame, though, that Retro chose to stick with the cliched Fire Level Ice Level Forest Level design pattern, however well each has been executed.

The Bottom Line
Progress hinges on exploration and the aquisition of new gadgets and abilities (an early pair of 'double jump' boots, for example, enables Samus to reach otherwise inaccessible ledges) and it is this mechanic which players will either love or hate, as an amount of backtracking and seemingly aimless wandering is inevitable. Most gamers seem to love it, and it is definitely worth giving it a try.

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.