Introduction:
In 1994 Super Metroid, a game considered by many to be the greatest of all time, was released on Nintendo’s 16-bit machine the Super Nintendo. As Metroid fanatics watched the credits roll they were treated with a screen where the game read “See You Next Mission”. Who would have known back then that Samus’s next mission wouldn’t be for eight long years?
At SpaceWorld 2000 when the GameCube was unveiled to Nintendo fans across the globe Nintendo showcased a technical reel of games that would soon become future GameCube titles, Metroid was one of them. Metroid fans rejoiced, Samus was back and with a 3D makeover. At this time Nintendo had acquired numerous amounts of new second party developers and affiliates, one of those promising second parties was Texas-based gaming development team, Retro Studios. Nintendo gamers across the globe were shocked to hear that the original Nintendo development studio behind the Metroid series, Intelligent Systems, was not behind the GameCube incarnation but instead newly acquired and unproven GameCube developer Retro Studios was. The game that became Metroid Prime was announced to be a title done in the First Person perspective, which ended up being another shocker to Nintendo fans, and despite the game being developed under the wisdom of Nintendo’s master game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, many still worried about what fate had planned for this title.
When E3 2002 came along, the press were finally treated a playable version of Metroid Prime along with other highly anticipated GameCube titles such as Super Mario Sunshine, and the Cel-Shaded Legend of Zelda. Those three games were dubbed Nintendo’s Big Three and for good reasons. Each one of these titles, in the way only Nintendo can, left the press in awe wanting more. Metroid Prime ended up being the most talked about game of the show, no one ever thought that Metroid in the first person perspective could work but from what they played it seemed like it could. But that was only the tip of the iceberg.
It has been a little bit more than a year since the GameCube was released in the U.S., but we will be the ones celebrating because Metroid Prime is in stores. After eight long years Metroid fans finally get what they have been waiting for in Metroid Prime.
Metroid is back and quite possibly, better than ever!
Presentation:
Metroid Prime is an excellent example of near gaming perfection. From the moment you turn on the title you’re in awe. Your senses are attacked immediately with amazingly designed menus and an intense soundtrack. Personally, I left it on the menu screen for about five minutes just looking at it in awe. Loading in Metroid Prime is done while traveling through different rooms, making them practically unnoticeable, but for larger areas a door might take a second or two to open in order to load the next area.
Gameplay:
The story:
Metroid Prime is the first Metroid game to be heavily based on story, a story which surprisingly is more fantasy based than Science Fiction. Metroid Prime takes a closer look into the ancient race of bird-like creatures called the Chozo. The Chozo made incredible technological and scientific leaps; traveling through space, building many marvels across the universe of unfathomable complexity and cities unmatched in beauty. When the Chozo’s society reached its technological peak they felt lost of their spirituality, the Chozo then became steeped in prophecy and lore. Unfortunately, the Chozo foresaw their own civilization’s decline and the rise of evil.
“A great meteor crashed into Talon IV, sending a massive spume of matter into the atmosphere and impregnating the land with a cancerous element known as Phazon. This element immediately sank into the earth and water, poisoning life wherever it bloomed. Most plants and animals died, while others mutated into hideous forms.”
The Chozo also prophesized about a savior, a warrior, who would save Talon IV from the growing evil. That savior is the galactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran. Samus Aran’s birthparents were murdered in a Space Pirate raid when she was just a child; she was raised by the Chozo and now wears their armor and fights with their weapons. It is Samus’s duty to rid Talon IV of the Space Pirates and the evil they intend to unleash on the galaxy utilizing the Phazon poison.
When the decision was made to put Metroid Prime into the first person perspective many fans were worried that the game series they knew and loved would be turned into another run of the mill First Person Shooter. Thankfully this is not the case. Metroid Prime is a Metroid game, and it stays true to the Metroid formula all the way through. Metroid games are an excellent blend of exploration, action and good ole platforming and despite being in the first person perspective Metroid Prime gets this all done amazingly well.
Those who are expecting for Metroid Prime to play like a First Person Shooter should be expecting a big disappointment. Metroid Prime is not a shooter; just because it is heavily based on shooting does not classify this game as a shooter. Metroid Prime is also heavily based on platforming; does that make it a platformer? No. The game’s controls at first seem a bit funky, but later on you will realize that they are ideal for the game itself. Unlike the standard first person game, Metroid Prime does not use a dual analog set up. Instead you control Samus by using the analog stick only, manual aiming is done by holding the R trigger, and strafing can be executed while holding the L trigger and pushing either left or right on the analog stick. When crossing the path of an enemy you may lock on to them by pressing the L trigger, and then you may concentrate on dishing out some serious punishment. While locked onto an enemy you cannot strafe left or right, instead you are only allowed to circle around them. When in the heat of battle with multiple enemies, you can lock onto only one of them, but in order to aim at another just simply press the L trigger again. The D-Pad is used to alternate between Samus’s visors and the C-Stick is used to quickly change the function of your blaster. The primary fire button (blaster) is A and secondary fire button (missiles, power bombs) is Y. The B button is used for jumping. Metroid Prime’s control scheme resembles the control scheme of the Nintendo 64’s Legend of Zelda titles and it utilizes it very well.
The gameplay itself is just like every Metroid game before it, a well balanced montage of exploration, action, and platforming. Metroid Prime though surprisingly has much more similarities with a Zelda game than any game in the series before it. There is an abundance of Zelda like puzzles in the game; no I do not mean pushing blocks but puzzles that work in a similar way. It’s a welcomed addition and this can most likely be thanked to Shigeru Miyamoto since he is the mastermind behind Metroid Prime (Gumpei Yokoi R.I.P).
With the transition from 2D Sidescroller to 3D First Person Adventure means that not everything we loved from the originals could make it into Prime. The Screw Attack, the Speed Booster, the Spring Ball, the jumping off of walls, and the Space Jump flying did not make it into Metroid Prime, but fortunately the game still feels like a Metroid game we knew and loved from the past. Metroid Prime is all about seeing through the eyes of Samus, seeing everything the way she does, from behind the visor.
In Metroid Prime, our heroin Samus has the ability to use different types of visors, the Combat Visor, the Scanning Visor, the Thermal Visor, and the X-Ray Visor. The Combat Visor is the visor that you’ll be wearing most often, when it is equipped Samus sees everything the way you and I see the outside world and of course allows her to kick ass easily. The Scanning visor is one of the visors that Samus has equipped from the beginning of the game (the other being the Combat Visor), it allows you to scan almost everything around you, when scanning an enemy it can even help you easily defeat them by revealing their weaknesses, it also allows you to read data files in Space Pirate computers or even read ancient Chozo lore. The Thermal Visor (which is my personal favorite) lets you detect heat signatures, everything on Samus’s HUD looks like something from the movie Predator. The Thermal Visor is helpful in finding enemies who are burrowed deep beneath the earth or finding power switches which otherwise could not be seen with out detecting their heat signature. The X-Ray visor is just like it was in previous Metroid games, it allows you to see through “fake” walls and sometimes see ghostly figures.
Now, what would Metroid be without the Morph Ball? I don’t know nor do I want to know. The Morph Ball is back in Metroid Prime in all its glory. By pressing the X button Samus transforms into the morph ball; this gives her the ability to crawl into small tunnels and spaces she could not have before in her upright position. When in morph ball form Samus also has the ability to lay bombs, these bombs can blow up selected areas on walls or even kill some tiny creatures that could not have been killed otherwise. Along with these bombs Samus can use, when found, a power bomb which when used is possibly Samus’s most powerful weapon, causing a massive explosion disintegrating everything in site or even possibly open up a new path. Whenever Samus is in Morph Ball form the game goes into 3rd person perspective. When found Samus will have the ability to crawl up magnetic tracks with the Spider Ball upgrade, this upgrade was first seen in the Game Boy game Metroid II: The Return of Samus and is a welcomed and awesome addition to Metroid Prime. Another old favorite such as the Grappling hook also makes a return and surprisingly works amazingly well and is more Tarzan-like than ever. Who would have thought that swinging from ledges would be so easy and so cool in the first person perspective?
Metroid Prime has a heavy emphasis on platforming. Normally when a developer attempts to involve platforming in a shooter they screw up in almost every possible way. Well, Retro has gotten it right. Making leaps onto platforms in Metroid Prime does not feel like a leap of the faith but more like a bird soaring through the sky. Later on when the double jump ability is available when finding the Space Jump boots, you’ll find yourself maneuvering from left to right in mid air with near flawless execution.
Talon IV is one massive planet for you to explore. Since it is larger than any other locale in any Metroid game before it, it seems a little bit too overwhelming. As a die hard Metroid fan, at first I thought “How am I supposed to become familiar with these areas? They’re too huge!” but after awhile you become familiar with all of Metroid Prime’s different locales from the fiery depths of Magmoor Caverns or to the icy hell of Phendrana Drifts. Of course unlike any other first person game on the market, Metroid Prime is not separated into different levels nor have mission goals or anything of the sort. Metroid Prime is about traveling through a massive world, unlocking new paths and eventually saving the world. There are no mission briefings, sniping, or espionage missions, it’s just flat out dive head first into battle and come out alive in order to proceed to the next area. The game does assist you when you’re lost though; the map tells you where to go to next in situations where you may be stuck. It acts like a fairy from the two Nintendo 64 Zelda games but just like those fairies it does not mean that you should go there next. The game progresses at a steady pace, starting off slow to get you accustomed to how the game plays then when delving deeper into the planet the game becomes and roller coaster ride of intense battles and fast paced action. For example at one point in the game I came to a door I could not open at the present time, as I walked back to where I came from to look for some answers the power went out… Boom! Glass was cracking and I then found myself in quite a predicament trying fight off some baddies in the pitch black darkness. Boss battles are extremely intense, not only are you going up against monstrous Phazon enhanced monsters but ones that will later kick your ass time and time again until you get it right.
The whole atmosphere of Metroid Prime is amazing; it continues the greatness of the Metroid franchise. Super Metroid fans will be more pleased than others since Metroid Prime takes much of what was awesome about Super Metroid and put it into Prime in some shape or form. Super Metroid fans who remember the Chozo statue carrying Samus in ball form over a pit of deadly spikes should know what I’m talking about.
Visuals:
To say Metroid Prime is visually stunning would be an understatement…
Metroid Prime is to date the most beautiful GameCube game available, pushing the GameCube to heights not seen before. Amazingly designed structures, incredibly detailed characters, excellent shadowing, excellent lighting, beautiful texture work, amazing particle effects; Metroid Prime has it all. Retro event into adding all sorts of cool little visual effects, such as raindrops splashing off your visor, heat rising from your blaster, or even Samus’s visor fogging up when stepping over a hot pit. To top it all off, the game runs at a rock solid 60 fps. You cannot help but appreciate the amazing artistic talents of the guys at Retro Studios when playing this game. Many times I found myself just staring at the scenery, forgetting about the tasks that lie ahead of me.
Audio:
Metroid Prime’s Super NES predecessor, Super Metroid, featured one of the best if not the best soundtracks in videogame history. With that in mind Metroid Prime takes all the tunes you knew and loved from previous Metroid games, such as Super Metroid, and makes them more intense and electrifying than ever! Of course there are plenty of new tunes, most of which feature great techno beats and others remixed classic Metroid tunes. These tunes are so memorable that the next morning you’ll be whistling them on the way to the bathroom, especially the remixed tunes from previous Metroid games such as the theme found in Magmoor Caverns. Surprisingly, all of Metroid Prime’s soundtracks are MIDI, the reason this was done so that the beats and rhythms of tunes would speed up and become more intense when Samus is in trouble. All other sound effects are equally amazing, such as the electrical screech that Samus’s armor emits when falling into a lava pit. Metroid Prime has one of the greatest soundtracks in videogame history.
Lasting Appeal:
Metroid Prime is easily the longest and largest Metroid game yet, with a first run through taking approximately 20 hours to complete. Just like Super Metroid, Metroid Prime is so amazing that you will want to play it over and over again for many years to come, finding all possible items and getting the highest possible percentage of completion if not 100%. Retro and Nintendo did go the extra mile to add some cool little extras such as art galleries and two awesome extras involving the GBA. The two GCN/GBA link-up features are the ability to play a perfectly emulated version of the original NES Metroid (now featuring a save function) on your GameCube and the ability to wear Samus’s Fusion suit from Metroid Fusion. It has never been better to be a Metroid fan.
Final Thoughts
Nintendo did it with Super Mario 64, they did it again with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and done once more with Metroid Prime. They have re-envisioned one of their 2D classics into a 3D game that will without a doubt go down in videogame history as being one of the best games ever. Metroid Prime is phenomenal; a game that no GameCube owner should go without…Wait, let me rephrase that. Metroid Prime is a game that no gamer should go without. It’s pure genius from start to finish and a game that not only redefines a genre but a company. Nintendo with the assistance of Retro Studios proves that they are still the best in the business without muttering a single word but with a game that is pure gaming perfection.
