The Story
Metroid Prime was originally thought to be a prequel to the original Metroid on the NES, but once the game came out, we found out that it doesn't really seem to occupy a particular spot in the series' timeline. For practical purposes, we can assume that Prime takes place sometime between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, since the original Ridley and Mother Brain have been destroyed but Samus doesn't yet have her Fusion suit.

Metroid Prime's title and menus are quite stylish.

Prime is sort of a Metroid series non sequitur, in that the game's story line stands pretty much on its own. Much like in the beginning of Super Metroid, Samus receives a general distress call from an orbital research platform, and as a dutiful galactic servant, she goes to investigate. Arriving at the station in orbit around the planet Tallon IV, she finds a laboratory in shambles, overrun by strange mutant creatures and full of wounded and dying space pirates.

Samus breaks out into three dimensions.

As she explores the landscape and subterranean pathways of Tallon IV, Samus finds that the planet was once colonized by the chozo, the hyperadvanced birdlike race of beings whose likenesses we've glimpsed in the Metroid series' classic item statues. The chozo found they had become too reliant on advanced technology, and Tallon IV became for them a place to revel in natural splendor, unencumbered by the complications of their machinery.

Metroid Prime puts you inside the helmet--literally--of Samus' power suit.

Samus' one advantage against the enemy comes from a remnant of the chozo civilization: a temple that was built to block access to the meteor's impact site. This impenetrable temple is all that's stopping the space pirates from gaining the full amount of phazon they need. Samus collects the 12 artifacts necessary to open the temple, in the process facing down the mecha-Ridley and all manner of mutated and enhanced pirates.

Of course, it wouldn't be Metroid without the morph ball.

The Game
When Nintendo announced that an upstart developer from Texas was working on the new GameCube Metroid game, the series fan base's gasp was almost audible. An American team making a Metroid game? Surely they were going to ruin the franchise, especially since they were turning Prime into a first-person shooter.

Prime features a wide variety of beautiful environments.

The most striking thing about Metroid Prime isn't its graphics, which are stunning, or its sound and music, which are excellent, or its control scheme, which is ingenious. Really, the best thing about Metroid Prime is simply how much it feels like the classic Metroid games. Retro nailed the feeling of exploration, of being alone on an alien world, that's so unique and essential to the series. True, Prime is played from the first-person perspective, but it's really a Metroid game more than a shooter.

Samus evolves in some unexpected ways during the course of the game.

Once they had the gameplay down, Retro went a step further in designing Prime's interface. Rather than relying on the standard control setup for most console first-person shooters--one stick for movement, another for aiming, and a button to cycle through weapons--the designers took full advantage of the GameCube's unique controller and made Metroid Prime a lot more enjoyable in the process.

Another mission successfully completed.