Review written by Rob Wright.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has finally arrived. Can the game's innovative Wii controls revolutionize the first-person shooter genre and deliver a worthy Nintendo experience?

http://www.twitchguru.com/2007/09/ [...] _3_review/

I dont even want to play it after reading that review. How can someone who thinks so lowly of a game give it an 8.0? Of course he hated the first metroid and I loved the first metroid. Even the original NES Metroid was way better than castlevania... so obviously that reviewer is whacked. And as if Metroid would emulate Halo when Halo already stole tons of ideas from franchises like metroid.... that made me laugh. But still I dont think I can justify dropping $50 on it now. There's just too much in the pipe to tolerate anything less than a 10.

Love the sarcasm

Ya seriously when will people just stop complaining? It's a good game and it's fun. No one cares about how it doesn't have the graphics of a ps3 or xbox 360. No one cares. People buy the game to play as samus and kick some serious pirate butt.

No one cares about the petty crap. This is an awful article. I was hoping it would be a preview of a good game but instead it's an article being picky about crap no one cares about.

I played through this game from start to finish. So, containing the spoilers...

Here's my take.

Visuals
The game has definitively better visuals than the previous two; just as soon as I finished playing this I felt like loading up the original Metroid Prime (from 2002 for Gamecube) and I can say that the game engine has enjoyed some definitive improvements.

-It uses bloom lighting and has a considerably clearer textures
-Its 16:9 presentation provides WAY more screen space; Samus' visor doesn't feel crammed with information any more
-The detail of the textures is much higher than the Gamecube because the Wii does, in fact have more horsepower than the Gamecube, despite what some would tell you
-The range of lighting isn't quite "high dynamic range" but it does give you a huge range of environments; the interesting glow effects of the Space Pirate stronghold are especially interesting. It may force you to properly recalibrate your TV (My advice is to throw a DVD in the DVD player with the Lucasfilm/THX Optimizer and fix your settings) and THEN fiddle with the in-game settings to get it just right.
-To address one of Rob's comments: the Metroid Prime games have ALWAYS had really dark, dark rooms where you can barely see where you are going, especially the first one, so that's really nothing new...
-The Scan Visor interface continues to evolve, making it much easier to tell what you can scan and what you can't, what you've missed, etc.
-One caveat; I find the use of the map has actually taken a step backwards from its predecessors, as it is often hard to navigate the map with the new control layout vs. the old controller scheme; the geography is also more complex meaning you can sometimes have a hard time seeing where you're going on the map.
-It would have been nice if they could have figured out how to get the game to do anisotropic filtering at the very least; the ATI chipset is more than capable of this and it would be nice if the floor and walls didn't get blurry after a few feet's distance. HD it's not, but it's better than the Gamecube's or PS2's visuals.

Audio
The game has a top-notch sound mix, as Rob noted. One of the reasons I bought a Gamecube way back when was because I read all about Dolby Pro Logic II on Dolby's web site and it noted that the Gamecube was the first console to adopt Pro Logic II audio in real-time; since then it's become standard. Nintendo continues to have excellent sound, whether you're going for stereo or surround.

Retro's sound mix is fantastic and immersive, and the music is well-done; especially the music of the Space Pirate stronghold, which takes cues from Metroid: Zero Mission's Pirate themes.

Controls
I don't think I could say more about the controls than Rob already has; I concur that the control scheme is the best of any game for the Wii. If other shooters adopt this style, we're in for a treat.

One thing that is subtle but fun as well is the improved controls for the Morph Ball; moving around on Spider Ball tracks is more fluid now, and you pull your Remote "up" to make the ball jump; this means that some of those wicked bomb jump and ball jump tricks in dark crevices to find that last missile expansion are quite interesting.

The introduction of multiple grapple beam modes, culminating in the "Hyper Grapple" upgrade, which lets you grab certain enemies and then either A) overload them with phazon or B) suck the life out of them, THEN rip them limb-from-limb with a hefty yank of the Nunchuk are a neat innovation.

Storyline
Prior to the game's release, I downloaded Super Metroid for Virtual Console and played through and 100%'d that baby for the first time ever. I was already a big fan of Metroid: Fusion and Metroid: Zero Mission for GBA and I enjoyed the classic Metroid. This gave me a bit of grounding in "Metroid lore".

Some comments:
-The Aurora Units in the game (big brain-like biocomputers) are a very obvious fleshing out of Mother Brain, which dated back to the original Metroid game; Samus' mission is to destroy the Mother Brain in the pirate base on Zebes in the classic story.
-In your final boss battle with Dark Samus you must face a powered-up, mutated AU which very much resembles the battle with the new Mother Brain at the end of Super Metroid
-I disagree with the comment that the game has been "Halo'd" ; it reminds me of the comments that the upcoming Warhammer MMORPG is stealing ideas from Blizzard when, in fact, many things that Blizzard has produced over the years have borrowed concepts from or paid homage to the classic Warhammer universes. In much the same way, I have to argue that the Galactic Federation, giant super-brain-computers, evil spacefaring raiders bent on wholesale destruction and superhero space-battle-armor-clad "bounty hunters" etc. are things that Metroid did first. The Federation troopers DO resemble the Halo guys somewhat, but then again, they're all just a spin on Imperial Stormtroopers anyways, non? If we had to argue about that all day we'd get nowhere.

To address Rob's comments, though, I think that an element of why it sort of feels different from previous Metroid adventures is because it IS different from them; the bulk of the game isn't a one-soldier infiltration mission, and you take the heroine of the series and put her in other environments, like on starships or bases full of friendly soldiers under attack and it naturally feels different. If anything, I thought it felt at times like a superhero movie, because Samus wasn't the only hero, and ends up having to fight her comerades once they become corrupted by her nemesis/evil "phazon twin" Dark Samus. There was also the fact that the hints the game provides (which typically had taken the form of "strange sensor readings" on the other side of the world that your ship's computer were picking up in the previous games) have nicely been incorporated into transmissions from the flagship, and others, which reminded me of the narrative style of Metroid Fusion.

On that same bent, it also started to feel like the Star Wars prequels in the sense that we already know the end of the story and the Metroid Prime series is a prequel series to Metroid II, Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Therefore, the story had to be resolved without adding even more things that "don't exist" in the earlier-made games that take place later in time (sound like Star Wars yet?) and make sure that they don't come back or at the least, don't come back until much later (e.g. if they made a game that takes place AFTER Metroid Fusion does.)

I feel that this is par for the course with prequels. The story wasn't truly original, true, but no one was really expecting it to be. I think it served its purpose and it threw in some neat cues to the other games across the entire Metroid universe.

Other gameplay elements and criticisms
Having the weapons take on the character of the weapons from the classic games was a neat touch; now your blaster types "stack" like in the good old days; and just as in Fusion, you get ice missiles.

Two things I am critical of though, are that you really have no way of using all your missiles later in the game; the charge combos of Metroid Prime are missed in that regard. On that same note, through the mission you collect a total of 11 missiles for your gunship, however, at no point do you ever need them. The most missiles you ever use at once is a whopping 2 or 3, to destroy obstacles. The others are just pointless pickups to get 100% of all pickups to get the "secret ending" clip, a tradition in Metroid.

The gunship has two additional elements you can activate: a blast shield and you can bring the ship's weapons online. At no time to you USE these features, implying that these were gameplay elements that they took out of the game before its release, and the game wants for them. Also, the lack of multiplayer ALSO feels like something taken out of the game before release; we have 4 bounty hunter characters with unique powers, a la Metroid Prime Hunters, and it feels like the game was MEANT to have them face off in "training deathmatches" etc. completely separate to and complimentary to the main adventure. So these features are missing in action.

Finally, the bonus features such as the soundtrack and concept art are unlockable with tokens you earn in the game by scanning monsters, beating bosses, or pulling off tricks. The most valuable of these tokens are the green ones, which you can only USE by 'e-mailing' them to someone else you know that also has the game on their console if they're in your Wii's address book. Given that the game has no multiplayer, this feels stupid; especially if you don't personally know anyone else with a Wii AND the game to get the last few widgets and add-on bonus features, like starship bumper stickers.

Conclusion
I would have given the game 9 out of 10. It aint perfect but it's sweet. I'd also argue that NONE of the Metroid games are worthy of a perfect score in their own right, dating back over 20 years!

If you have a Wii, this is the OTHER game besides Zelda that you "must" own. And if you've played other Metroid games, play it on Veteran mode the FIRST time through and challenge yourself.

I can only hope that they make another game like this, maybe a remake of the misadventure on SR388, the homeworld of the Metroids, tying it into the Prime series. Time will tell. In any case, other game developers should learn from Nintendo's FPS/platforming control scheme.

get off your high horse, buddy. I think Rob's review was one of the best I've ever read. Where can you find reviewers that take the time to explain where they are coming from, and how they perceive their own bias?

I have a newsflash for you: every single one of us gamers (including reviewers) is biased. It just takes some personal reflection to identify your own perception of yours, and Rob provided a service by disclosing how he sees his own bias. Even the most avid fanboy of the Metroid series and Wii owners should rejoice: even critics of the series give it an 8 and even more important: the selling point of the Wii, its controls, are fully exploited.

When you find the time, submit your personal review on the game. Nothing is easier that critising the critic without adding anything significant yourself.

I think alot of people forget that the story behind Metroid prime 1, 2 and 3 actually happened before the very first Metroid game way back in the 80's. So what they are doing isn't really giving us anything too un-predictable, but I think this one plays alot better for the fans of the series because it finally ties together alot of the loose ends. Like mother brain from the original game and the hyper beam from super Metroid. It also scales out a bit to let us know that the "prime" series is finished and that means a totally new story line of events and it puts things into scope showing us that there are civs other than the Humanoids(GF), Luminoth, Chozo, Space Pirates and the Ing.

The story is similar to how they did Star Wars. Released parts of the story that were in the future first and then went back to it many years later and started to fill it in. I'm guessing people that watched star wars episode 3 could have predicted everything that was going to happen since most people have already seen 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, but you gotta see it for yourself and if you're a fan then OMG. This game is very similar in many respects. They are going back to previous parts of the story line to "fill" in the gaps and it's a gotta see/play. So there's alot of nostalgia that goes into this game, but just like any other game if you're not into it, you're not into it.

I also don't think the graphics sucked, but I don't think they were any better than before. I think it's just that the Wii (or should I say 480 lines?) is what's holding up graphics and not the actual game. The only thing that burns by buns is ~$50 for a non-HD game or ~$50 for an HD game on PC, 360, or PS3. Oh well.

I think you'll note that in the first Metroid Prime the Space Pirate logs reference the destruction of the base on Zebes (from the original Metroid/Metroid Zero Mission) as having happened a couple months before.

I received a demo disc for Metroid Prime 2 once upon a time and it had an official timeline on it. It went thus (my insert is the part in the square [] brackets to add to it)

Metroid <NES>/Metroid Zero Mission <GBA>-->Metroid Prime <GCN>-->Prime 2 <GCN>-->[Hunters; Pinball <DS>-->Prime 3 <Wii>]-->Metroid 2 <Gameboy/Gameboy Color>-->Super Metroid <SNES>-->Metroid Fusion <GBA>

So, as I said, it's a prequel trilogy, and just like Star Wars, you are somewhat limited in your options, but I agree, it's a must-see/must-play.

Also: to pay $50 for a "non-HD" game is kind of relative; at this point the percentage of console gamers that have a high-definition TV is probably somewhere around 50% or so. That implies a lot of people out there that own Xbox 360s and PS3s aren't using their system on an HDTV.

We tried playing Bioshock on a standard monitor and then again on an HD plasma 50" TV, and there was a noticeable difference in resolution, true, but the new TV wasn't exactly cheap

I played Prime 3 on my HD monitor running it set for 540-progressive (it's a 1080i screen) and it's pretty sharp, and the color pallette was excellent. The only drawback is that the system doesn't have enough power to perform antialiasing and anisotropic texture filtering like your average PC graphics card does. On the flip side, though, the system as a whole was designed to use only half the electricity that the Gamecube did, which comes out to WAY less power than your average PC consumes, even including the TV.