BY NICK CLAY
Very rarely does it take Nintendo almost 7 years to get a formula right for a game. Even more rare is when it asks a little known American gaming company, Retro Studios (producers of the Turok games on the N64), gets asked to make a game for the Japanese juggernaut. When Nintendo first acquired Retro Studios in 2000, their original hope was to make 5 great titles for the Gamecube. However, due to controversy over some leaked photos of Jeff Spangenberg appeared over the internet (I don't know what they are, so don't ask), 4 of those titles got cancelled, including one I wish was made because of its similarities to the Twisted Metal series, Thunder Rally. The fifth title was Metroid Prime.
Considering what some fans consider a colossal mistake by skipping over the Nintendo64, expectations for the new installment skyrocketed. When first trailers were shown, fans were jaw dropped seeing at how amazing Samus looked in 3D. Most fans quickly became excited, but did it truly live up to its name?
The first thing shown when you first boot up the main game, other than the pretty awesome title screen playing futuristic music, is a shot of Samus's ship, flying through space, and landing on a Space Pirate ship. After she lands, you see her leap from the top of the ship. To be completely honest, these next 20 minutes of gameplay are some of the best minutes of gaming on the entire Gamecube. After a quick control tutorial, and a few minutes of blasting through doors, you get to face your first boss, the Parasite Queen. This is one of the best bosses in the game, and is very easy for everyone! After facing the boss, you quickly have to escape the exploding ship in absolutely incredible level design and visuals. After escaping (and seeing a quick view of Meta-Ridley), you fly down to SR-388 and begin the main game. Sadly, the game falls downhill quickly from here on out.
I normally don't talk so much about the tutorial to a game, but I feel like Nintendo put a lot of their eggs into the intro, while skimming through the rest of the game. It's still a really good game, but it seems like Nintendo made these incredible controls and visuals for the intro, and a completely different game company did the rest.
Pros
The visuals in this game are some of the best seen on the Gamecube, despite my favoring of the intro. Samus's suit looks polished and defined every time she stops to take a break. While playing, the view through your visor acts as your HUD, displaying health information and the map, which is a great convenience when in a pinch for a save station or missiles. As you walk through the various environments, you will see different things affecting the visuals on your visor, from subtle things like lighting effects or condensation, to more realistic and prominent things like tiny bugs splattering or electric discharge.
The entire game is massive, one of the largest I have ever played. Some environments can literally take you almost thirty minutes to walk from one side to another. Samus travels through 4 main environments, grass, fire, ice, and one that resembles an old Egyptian temple it seems. I'd give my nod to the fire world, as it is not too complicated to travel through and provides some of the nicest, cleanest visuals of any level. The game also has a very epic feel to it, as it will take well over 10 hours to complete.
In true Metroid fashion though, Samus will lose all her abilities very early in the game, which should be in my 'cons' section, but the way she acquires them is smart and difficult. Most of these power-ups can be gained through defeating a boss. Thankfully, Nintendo made these bosses large and mighty, some of which absorb beam fire like a sponge and require more than just a few lucky shots.
Cons
Thankfully, the pros outweigh the cons in this game. To be completely honest, most of these are just personal annoyances instead of real game changing moments. The controls are extremely crisp for the Gamecube, but some really think that this game would have been better with two analog sticks as opposed to Samus's awkward look-around feature, requiring you to hold down the R button to look up. Thankfully, Nintendo is re-releasing this game onto the Wii with Wii-mote controls, so hopefully I will give this another chance.
A big downside, which carries over into Metroid Prime 2 as well, is the fact that Samus does lose all of her abilities. I did mention earlier that it was great how you get them back, but this game could breathe so much easier without having the weight of finding all your abilities from the start; it could have just dived face-first into the main storyline and not given us all this scavenger hunting.
Conclusion
Some fans here will immediately pick up this game, play it for hours and hours, and never put it down. I, however, am not one of these people. To me, this is a great game wrapped up in a mediocre shell. I feel like Nintendo could have done a lot better with the 7 years it took to develop and make it into one of the highest-rated games of all time, but then again, that's just me.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Very rarely does it take Nintendo almost 7 years to get a formula right for a game. Even more rare is when it asks a little known American gaming company, Retro Studios (producers of the Turok games on the N64), gets asked to make a game for the Japanese juggernaut. When Nintendo first acquired Retro Studios in 2000, their original hope was to make 5 great titles for the Gamecube. However, due to controversy over some leaked photos of Jeff Spangenberg appeared over the internet (I don't know what they are, so don't ask), 4 of those titles got cancelled, including one I wish was made because of its similarities to the Twisted Metal series, Thunder Rally. The fifth title was Metroid Prime.
Considering what some fans consider a colossal mistake by skipping over the Nintendo64, expectations for the new installment skyrocketed. When first trailers were shown, fans were jaw dropped seeing at how amazing Samus looked in 3D. Most fans quickly became excited, but did it truly live up to its name?
The first thing shown when you first boot up the main game, other than the pretty awesome title screen playing futuristic music, is a shot of Samus's ship, flying through space, and landing on a Space Pirate ship. After she lands, you see her leap from the top of the ship. To be completely honest, these next 20 minutes of gameplay are some of the best minutes of gaming on the entire Gamecube. After a quick control tutorial, and a few minutes of blasting through doors, you get to face your first boss, the Parasite Queen. This is one of the best bosses in the game, and is very easy for everyone! After facing the boss, you quickly have to escape the exploding ship in absolutely incredible level design and visuals. After escaping (and seeing a quick view of Meta-Ridley), you fly down to SR-388 and begin the main game. Sadly, the game falls downhill quickly from here on out.
I normally don't talk so much about the tutorial to a game, but I feel like Nintendo put a lot of their eggs into the intro, while skimming through the rest of the game. It's still a really good game, but it seems like Nintendo made these incredible controls and visuals for the intro, and a completely different game company did the rest.
Pros
The visuals in this game are some of the best seen on the Gamecube, despite my favoring of the intro. Samus's suit looks polished and defined every time she stops to take a break. While playing, the view through your visor acts as your HUD, displaying health information and the map, which is a great convenience when in a pinch for a save station or missiles. As you walk through the various environments, you will see different things affecting the visuals on your visor, from subtle things like lighting effects or condensation, to more realistic and prominent things like tiny bugs splattering or electric discharge.
The entire game is massive, one of the largest I have ever played. Some environments can literally take you almost thirty minutes to walk from one side to another. Samus travels through 4 main environments, grass, fire, ice, and one that resembles an old Egyptian temple it seems. I'd give my nod to the fire world, as it is not too complicated to travel through and provides some of the nicest, cleanest visuals of any level. The game also has a very epic feel to it, as it will take well over 10 hours to complete.
In true Metroid fashion though, Samus will lose all her abilities very early in the game, which should be in my 'cons' section, but the way she acquires them is smart and difficult. Most of these power-ups can be gained through defeating a boss. Thankfully, Nintendo made these bosses large and mighty, some of which absorb beam fire like a sponge and require more than just a few lucky shots.
Cons
Thankfully, the pros outweigh the cons in this game. To be completely honest, most of these are just personal annoyances instead of real game changing moments. The controls are extremely crisp for the Gamecube, but some really think that this game would have been better with two analog sticks as opposed to Samus's awkward look-around feature, requiring you to hold down the R button to look up. Thankfully, Nintendo is re-releasing this game onto the Wii with Wii-mote controls, so hopefully I will give this another chance.
A big downside, which carries over into Metroid Prime 2 as well, is the fact that Samus does lose all of her abilities. I did mention earlier that it was great how you get them back, but this game could breathe so much easier without having the weight of finding all your abilities from the start; it could have just dived face-first into the main storyline and not given us all this scavenger hunting.
Conclusion
Some fans here will immediately pick up this game, play it for hours and hours, and never put it down. I, however, am not one of these people. To me, this is a great game wrapped up in a mediocre shell. I feel like Nintendo could have done a lot better with the 7 years it took to develop and make it into one of the highest-rated games of all time, but then again, that's just me.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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