November 19^th, 2002 (12:00am) - Around 2 p.m. (EST) I had gotten a call from my trustworthy local game shop. Of course this could only mean good news, and that was that my precious copy of Metroid Prime had arrived. I hoped into my car a got their as quick as possible, getting my copy and quickly rushing back home. You see, it has been 8 years since I’ve gotten to play a Metroid game on a home console. I’ve been anticipating Metroid Prime more than anything in the world, since up to the day Super Metroid had been my favorite game ever.

I ripped off the plastic wrapping and proceeded to remove the disc from the GameCube case. I was so excited that I actually fumbled around with the disc and it fell to the floor. "No!!!!” I screamed but all was well, no scratches. When I powered on the GameCube with Metroid Prime inside, my hands became sweaty as feelings of joy and excitement took over me like never before.

There ARE spoilers so if you want to get the best experience out of the game I suggest you stop reading NOW

I was amazed by the menus of the game, so moody, so cool, and so freaking awesome! I sat there and left it on the menus just looking at them in awe and listening to awesome Metroid soundtrack in the backdrop. When I started a new save file, this eerie choir-like chorus started to play...Wow!

The Space Station is basically a tutorial stage, you start off with the Varia Suit, Morph Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Grappling Hook, Charge Beam, and Missiles, and this is unusual for a Metroid game since you usually start off with nothing. You could say you DO start off with nothing in this game as well, but I’ll talk about that later.

After scanning tons of items and creatures, you really start to get the hang of how this game plays. Not too long after, you encounter a monstrous creature that you have to exterminate called the Parasite Queen. Similar to what happens in Super Metroid, after you kill the Parasite Queen a self destruct sequence initiates and you have to evacuate and get back to your ship before you get blown to bits. After going through hordes of tiny insects and Space Pirates I made it close to the surface and ... Boom! A large explosion caused my suit to malfunction; all my upgrades became useless and my Varia Suit was no longer equipped. Once I made it to the docking bay (30 seconds before the place was about to blow) I was greeted by a familiar face. That familiar face is Ridley, except he looks different this time around; it seems that he has robotic parts molded onto him. He flies down to the planet below Talon IV where the real adventure begins.

I’ll stop here since I’m wasting precious playing time. At the moment I’m in the second area, Magmoor, which is a lava area. Super Metroid fans will be very pleased to hear that in Magmoor, the Norfair theme in Ridley’s area is the theme of this area.

This thing is everything I could have hoped for and more... BUY IT NOW! DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, JUST BUY IT NOW!