"There's horribly animated lava, no Kraid, boring parts, and then there's everything else."

I wanted to get Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to see what was so great about the game. While looking through games at a video game store, I spotted Metroid Prime for a fortunately low price. I decided to get it so that I could understand Metroid Prime 2 more. If I was going to notice how Metroid Prime 2 had been improved from the original, I might as well see what the original looked like. I beat the game once and although it went from exciting, yet confusing to really hard to boring to exciting to unexciting to CRAZY fun as I progressed through the game, Metroid Prime is MUCH more than a preparation for the sequel. A lot of people say Metroid Prime is better than Metroid Prime 2. This review will compare both games as equal quality since they each have parts that make each one better than each other. I can't say one game is better than the other, because they both have their strengths and weaknesses. Even though one game came out two years before the other, they're still pretty much even. One of them has more level variety, one of them has better music, one has a better final boss, one has multiplayer, etc...

Gameplay: 10/10

If you were to beat the entire game, you'd notice that it goes from exciting to hard to boring to exciting to unexciting to CRAZY fun. Then you play it again with a better understanding of it and it goes from exciting to mildly boring to fun to "oh my god when am i going to the next level" to fun to CRAZY fun. Then it gets kind of boring playing it for the third time. The beginning, where you land on the Space Pirate Frigate is a pretty fun level. Once you beat it, you crash land on the surface of the Planet Tallon IV. Once you get to Chozo Ruins, it's fun for a while, but you'll eventually get really sick of it and stop playing. That's what happened with me, but after getting pretty far in Metroid Prime 2, I decided to give the game another chance and tried to get a little bit further. I wound up beating the game and I definitely do not regret it. Although some boring parts are scattered throughout the whole game, the fun parts make up for it. The game is mildly difficult. After beating it for the first time, it gets pretty easy. I don't remember very clearly, but Metroid Prime seems a lot shorter than Metroid Prime 2. The original game took me about 11 hours to beat. The sequel took me about 17 hours. Once you get the hang of it, it's not very difficult. Metroid Prime plays absolutely nothing like a first-person shooter. The best genre you could assign it would be an Action-Adventure that's in first-person.

Graphics: 9/10

Metroid Prime doesn't look as realistic as Metroid Prime 2, but it looks a lot shinier. Most things in the game are shiny or bright like Samus' suit, Samus' ship, Meta-Ridley, etc... Metroid Prime also has more variety in its levels. There's a rainforest looking level, then a desert, then an underground volcano-like level, a snow level, and more. Metroid Prime 2 didn't have much variety in the levels. A lot of levels looked too similar, but in its prequel it's easy to tell one level from another since each one looks completely different. I wouldn't say the enviornment looks "real." However it's not bad for a game that was released in 2002. Samus' helmet looks a little Nintendo 64ish when it moves and goes inside one of her shoulders or in her back.Graphics gets 1 point taken off for the lava. I don't know one soul who appreciates the way the lava is animated in this game.

Story: 9/10

Long ago, the Chozo race built a temple on Tallon IV to attempt to contain what they called the Great Poison. The Great Poison came from a meteor that struck the planet and spread it throughout the planet leaving a deep crater. The Chozo died out from the Great Poison and a giant beast which they called "The Worm." The Space Pirates discovered The Worm and kept it in a chamber protected by security devices. The Worm, which they codenamed "Metroid Prime" had become more powerful as time passed and it became more and more difficult for the Space Pirates to contain and observe it. Samus, who the Chozo address as "The Defender" needs to collect 12 of the Chozo Artifacts to open up a path to the deep crater where the meteor landed and destroy Metroid Prime. The story is gradually revealed to the player as they scan Chozo Lores and Pirate Logs.Now here is why the story is good. Metroid Prime has a storyline that's familiar. It's one that relates to other Metroid games. It's not a game that sports no familiar parts of the Metroid series except Samus herself and the Metroids. Instead of creating a new, unfamiliar story for Metroid Prime, they took the classic Metroid storylines and built on them, improved them, making a game that can have Space Pirates, Ridley, the Power Suit, the beams we all miss, the Chozo, and more. The storyline loses a point for taking Kraid out. It also loses four tenths of a point for not putting in Mother Brain, but I'll round 8.6 up to 9. I can't use decimals on Summer Vacation.

Music: 10/10

I can't think of any song in this game that's bad. Every song in this game perfectly fits the level. As well as every boss theme that just screams the boss's name. A few of the songs in the game are remixed from older Metroid games. The background music from Magmoor Caverns, Tallon Overworld, Meta-Ridley, etc... are remixed from Metroid and Super Metroid. On the Space Pirate Frigate, the background music is an "Employees Only, turn back now!" kind of theme. The Chozo Ruins background music is a "Nobody's home. We went extinct years ago." kind of theme. You can also tell if there are Space Pirates in a room, because you'll hear the theme song playing. The creepy organ introduction was put in to freak people out when they find out that a band of Shadow Pirates are about to start chasing them.

Sound Effects: 10/10

Just about every sound effect is average or great. The Ice Beam has an amazing sound when it shoots. It sounds like liquid nitrogen getting shot out of a cannon. On the final level, the ground makes an extremely addictive squishy sound when you walk around. Sometimes I just like to walk around the first room so I can hear it. One of my favorite sound effects are the ones that repeatedly play when you have a certain visor up. One of the visors makes a constant rhythmic beeping sound and another visor makes one of those constant submarine beeps. Sound effects also work to a benefit. If you happen to be close to a missile expansion somewhere in the game, you'll hear a humming noise that can help guide you to it.

Controls: 9/10

Every button on the controller does something. Even the control pad, which has in most Gamecube games served no purpose will go to use. The control is the same as Metroid Prime 2 except the scan visor doesn't work as well in this game. Obstacles like power conduits, bosses, dark rooms, or puzzles have different ways to get past them. Unlike most first-person shooters, the game doesn't focus as much on killing things. It focuses on exploration and adventure and moving. The game also has different ways of getting around that you wouldn't see in most first-person shooters. (i.e. the Morph Ball) In a nutshell, the controls won't hurt your hand, so they're good.

Replayability: 8/10

The game gets kind of boring while playing it for the third or fourth time, but it's a lot of fun. There's also a crazy amount of things to unlock that could take months to get and an endless amount of ways you could try to beat the game: 100% scans, 100% items, 100% scans and items, low percentage run, speed run, speed run with 100% scans and items, speed run with 100% items, speed run with 100% scans. There's that and so much more. You could even be creative. Try finding sequence breaks! Skip items, get items early, beat the game without space jumping, beat the game without one of the suits, beat the game with one hand or with the controller upside down! Maybe that's a little too insane.

Final Recommendation:

This is the first Metroid game I ever owned. It's fun and it helps introduce people to other Metroid games. Since it's Summer Vacation, I refuse to use Math to find the average score. I shall do it the American way! Use a calculator. Hmm... Metroid Prime gets a 10. There's horribly animated lava, no Kraid, boring parts, and then there's everything else.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/05, Updated 03/27/06