Metroid Prime

" The prime of the series (100th review)"

The epidemic series of Metroid games have spanned since the NES and the begging was quite sweet. While Nintendo had certain strange gaps in their other games, Metroid stayed true. There is a supposed formula that was used that is also mirrored in other games today. Running through a grand 2D background and shooting up some aliens. However, Nintendo has decided to flip my world upside down 10 times over, and introduce so many new ideas that this has somehow become a good game to start with. You will be enticed with the game if you are a Metroid fan, and you will be impressed nonetheless if you are neutral. If you hate Metroid, then this game aims to change your opinion, and shoots.

Prime has certainly earned itself a certain line of respect from gamers that is not easy to come by these days. Usually there are a lot of people who despise of a game once its too popular, but I haven’t seen anyone who hates MP so much to diss on it again and again. They just can’t handle the fact that it is great. The only people who are opposed to Metroid now are either druggies, or have no gaming taste at all. If you haven’t received one yet, let me invite you into one of Nintendo’s greatest gaming franchises. Indeed, it is time to enter the Metroid!

So now that I have got you to jump trains from your tattered PS2 which is covered in dust back in your closet you should now plug in your always faithful Gamecube in a motion to amaze yourself again with the latest Nintendo gem. The greatest thing about this Nintendo gem is that Nintendo didn’t even make it! Now I bet you are wondering why I gave the game a 10 which is a point I am looking to solve throughout the review. It is unfortunate that every time I decide to give it an 11 I realize ten is the top number!

Remember when Nintendo had furnished the finest 2D-3D revolutionary game for the N64 entitled Super Mario 64? Well they sure did well then with that classic renovation to the dying series of 2D dry and gasping platformers searching for new air, and once again they pulled a SM64 on themselves. Well after 64 there was life for Nintendo in the thrill ride of a game known as SMS. For the N64 the big N really missed out on making a Metroid game, but that is okay since I found greater pleasures in my Rare games there than any Nintendo-64 game could ever do for me.

I think since the beginning of the review I have built up to this. Metroid Prime is definitely one of the top 5 Gamecube games that I have popped into my funny looking console. Now you have already heard my rambling a bit too much about Nintendo, well this game wasn’t even made by Nintendo, actually it was made by Retro Studios, whom I hadn’t heard of previous to this game. So if it is not made by Nintendo it cannot be the same good ol’ Metroid experience right? You are wrong if you think that! You start off in a space station trying to escape by killing a boss and getting your heroin out of their as quick as possible.

The amount of polish that Retro Studios spilled onto the game is splattered throughout. The whole game really stacks up to all exceptions. If you are new to this Nintendo business then you will not know what to expect, and will quite frankly be blown away since this is one of their more intense titles, and one of their best. It carries that special feel that all Nintendo games do, you shouldn’t expect more, shouldn’t expect less. You get exactly what the game shows, and believe me that is an awesome thing. From the minute you slide in the mini-Gamecube-disk you will feel you got your money worth as the screen becomes illuminated by the cooler than cool intro.

The main character of all Metroid games has been the sleek, smart, mysterious warrior of a heroin known as Samus Aran whom assumes the rule of the space bounty hunter. She is expected to clear the galaxy of evil as we sit back and try to get her out of the armor. Ok you can’t undress Samus which probably unfortunate for most of us reading this, and there is no Justin Bailey code on this one, ha-ha! But in any case she makes for one of the most interesting character, and trust me guys, this girl doesn’t wear pink. You are going to want to play as her!

With the Nintendo Gamecube I am 100% sure Nintendo got a slew of threatening e-mails particularly hate mail for changing everything great about their series. They made Zelda a cartoon, they gave Mario a water pack, and they turned the greatest 2D shooter ever made in the history of gaming into a 3D FPA. The First Person Adventure is a real gimmick in my opinion. At first it will look like a watered down First Person Shooter, but then you will be following the trend and calling it a First Person Adventure! But it isn’t even all that, it is also a Third Person Adventure, I would call it. Oh yes I would also call it an action game. It has many elements of an RPG as well sometimes.

In the void of some odd obscurity of a sci-fi mix up Metroid Prime mixes it up so well, and the developers were so bright that they were able to bring so many amazing ideas into this great game. Everyone can enjoy the game for what it is: A hit! The gameplay is fierce, and the action is crazy-intense as well. You won’t believe it when you get into a mess with brain-sucking aliens and have to blast them away. Sounds like a First Person Shooter, defiantly doesn’t feel like one!

Throughout the game there are different visors. There is a scan one where you have to scan everything in the game to complete it 100% and can be useful for finding solutions. Nintendo knows how to take such a monotonous task as running about humongous levels collecting items into a fun trip, instead of a dragging chore to make the game longer. Nintendo has given us opportunities, great games, and are responsible for life after the Atari. Although systems like the lackluster Intellivision circulated about the market, people began to follow Nintendo’s trend. I only say people are following Nintendo because I am already seeing spin-offs of this game in development by generic-3rd party developers who want to cash in on what great success that Nintendo may wish not to share. They just have a certain flair that flies with the name that brought Metroid Prime into my console.

Moving into the actual gameplay of the game where the real meat is shown in all its glory. The lock-on system is somewhat similiar to the lock-on zelda fighting system, but in my opinion in works a whole lot better. It is just like Nintendo to improve on their picture-perfect formula. If youv'e been playing a lot of unreal, halo, or TS2 lately then the controls are obviously going to be foreign but you will have it down soon enough.

Messing with the gameplay from the origanle and flipping it in a complete turn around for the series, the 3D elements of the game work so very well. It really brings out so many great things that Retro Studios did here, and shows it off suprisingly well. This game is certainly a hardy, big adventure which will allow you the freedom past games hadn't. It is just so amazingly cool how they expanded it into such great action, that I will return to time and time again.

Now the graphics of metroid have never been an over-powering force for the gaming industry, but it did push on advancement. The first metroid was just terrible as far as looks go. Fortunatly things started looking up once Super Metroid came out! Luckly, after this some game boy advance adaptions were created by Nintendo. Nintendo can now not only brag about having the best 2D shooter series other than Contra under their hat, but now they have the best 3D First Person Adventure, and the only one! Innovation at its finest!

The monstors all look amazing. They all are dripping in slime, and full of explosive colors. Speaking of explosive, the fire-power looks amazing. Packing punch after punch to the opposing aliens and frying them like an outdoor BBQ. Everything looks great right down to every laser throughout the game this is truly Nintendo's best gamecube graphical effort.

The fun factor flys right out the roof and dosnt come back down. Metroid Prime brings it all back to what gaming is supposed to be. Pure bliss for gamers. It also isn't supposed to be too much in the graphics that it outweighs the gameplay. Fortunatly, Metroid Prime brings it to a steady balance, and places it ahead of the pack.

I was so worried about Metroid Prime when it was first announced. I mean a new company appointed to a franchise that is held in highest regards as a Nintendo classic being brought into the next generation with a 3D look. It sounds amazing but when I saw that it was a First Person Shooter I had mixed reactions. I thought ok cool a new style to a classic formula that had worked for so many years. This genre promised so much for the series, and seizing the oppurtunity, Retro Studios pulled anouther great hit out of an already extremly well known series. But then I heard that it was in fact not a First Person Shooter, but had been turned into an FPA! What is this? I had no idea and was scared to death Nintendo would ruin the game! Well, they made one of the best games iv'e ever played so I learned the lesson time and time again to just trust Nintendo. Unless its Mario Party. Mario Party is stinky.

To round it up, Metroid Prime is the perfect game. Without any holes anywhere and no plot holes either, it improved everything I expected, which in the end was not all that much, and it provided such an intertaining game the whole way through. Nintendo has hit their prime.
10/10 Best Gamecube game out.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/27/04