Metriod Prime

Nintendo is notorious for staying in their happy zone, and it's obvious by their latest releases. Mario, Zelda, and other famous characters are re-hashed until they become almost annoying to the public, ruining what reputation the used to have. Sometimes, these re-hashes are decent, sometimes they are poor. But a very small handful of games seem to be inpenetrable so far as Nintendo's poor releases are concerned. What is one of them?

The Metriod Series.

The Metriod series has always been special to the gaming community because it took Nintendo's best style at the time (Platformers), mixed it up with another advantage (Zelda-like item gathering), and rounded it off with something it had never done before (Sci-fi). Because of this, when gamers hear "Metriod", or especially "Super Metriod", they know well that the game they're going to play is going to be special, and they're not wrong.

The newest addition to the Metriod saga is the first in approximately 8 years. Because of this, Nintendo and developer Retro Studios have had PLENTY of time to decypher exactly what gamers want in a Metriod game. Because of this, they made some radical changes, involving a first-person perspective, better environments, and much more complex and rewarding puzzles. Of course, the game features the diverse array of weapons and pickups that the older games did, so while the game feels new, it also feels tried-and-true.



Metriod Prime excels in one thing: Production. Everything about this game spells out well made, and I never felt like the game was cheaply thrown together in one area. The game is progressively hard, and continues to challenge and push you throught the whole game, which is a blast. While a lot of backtracking is required (Which amounts for part of this difficulty, actually), the game is thought-out well enough to warrant the backtracking, and it never feels like they tacked on the walking around to add time to the game, as some games are so famous for doing.

The game is absolutely beautiful for the Gamecube. Lighting, shadows, effects, and general graphics are all here in stunning 3D, and the translation from 2D to 3D has never been done so well. This might be the winner for prettiest Gamecube game ever, taking no cheap tricks to load or run, but simply playing like a game was meant to be played. Small details like Samus' cannon firing and the frost on your visor lead you to believe that you ARE Samus Aran.

As for the gameplay, it's as great and enjoyable as any of the older Metriod games. The item-getting-to-upgrade-yourself type engine feels right at home, and makes this feel like so much more than your stereotypical shooter. I absolutely loved the life pick-me-ups, and the hunting thereof, and I especially enjoyed finding all the weapons- but more than that, USING those weapons.

Plus, nothing's funner than the ball rolling, which is almost another game in itself. Turning Samus into a tightly compacted ball makes this game somewhat of a game like "Super Monkey Ball" without the cuteness, because rolling around can simultaneously get you into cool places and get you killed. Fun, the bombs with the rolling make it even better, but beware: you might go roll off your platform and get screwed.



Of course, there's some small issues with Metriod Prime. First off, the control scheme could have been handled better. Hardcore shooter fans know that if you absolutely positively must use a controller for a shooter (Such as on a console), it's much better to stick the trigger in the literal trigger spot. However, the Gamecube controller's triggers were made in such a way so that can't happen, and they stuck it on the big ol' A button, which takes some extreme getting used to. One would have hoped that Retro would have found a better way, but in some cases, I suppose there was no better way.

The second issue with this game is that it gets annoying at times. The "Scan Visor" allows you to look into detail of things, but the game has it set where to activate some doors and switches, you must go into the visor and scan. Great, but not only does your gun go away, but you must know you need to scan the object. Some sort of visible hint, like "YOU NEED TO SCAN THIS", would have been nice. Granted when you pop open the visor icons appear, but I don't like the visor, so why use it at all...?

The third (Minimal) issue with this game is that it doesn't have Multiplayer, which is practically BEGGED by the system at hand. Retro should have realized that while they weren't making this a FPS per se, they still should have made it an FPS as people could play together. However, it's sequel DOES have Multiplayer, so I'll leave it alone.

When all's said and done, Metriod Prime is a worthy predecessor to the Metriod series. Hopefully, this series will be left alone after the release of Metriod Prime DS- let's just hope it doesn't turn into another Mario franchise, or we'll be having Super-Metroid-Pinball-Tennis-Extreme-Party-On-Water!

4 star(s) out of 5

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