User Rating: 9.3 | Metroid Prime GC
Wow. Simply wow. I cannot think of another word to describe my feeling of this game. Since the day I got this game, I haven’t been able to put it down. Eating, sleeping, watching tv, reading, working; all these nitches in my life are being consumed by what is Metroid Prime. One could say, I have been “Primed.” Metroid Prime is published by Nintendo, with Shigeru Myiamoto’s ever watchful eye, and developed by Retro Studios. Retro. What is it with Nintendo and companies with R as their first initial? Retro Studios, a nobody studio based in Texas, was to be the Achilles Heel for this game. No one person in the industry ever heard of these guys, all crying foul upon learning these people would be the developers of Metroid. To make matters worse, a First Person Shooter. You cannot make Metroid in a FPS. Cannot be done. The meat and potatoes of said game are in the jumping, and the side scrolling. Putting this game in a 3-D realm will surely destroy the franchise. Wrong. First, lets get one thing straight, Metroid Prime is not a FPS. It is an Exploration/Adventure Game. It only has the view of an average FPS. Nothing more. Did Retro pull off the impossible? Lets take a look. Metroid Prime takes place (stay with me now), after Metroid for NES, before Metroid 2 on GameBoy, and Super Metroid on the SNES. For those Keeping score, Metroid Fusion for the GameBoy Advance takes place after Super Metroid. Samus, after her fight with Motherbrain on Metroid, comes to a Space Station in distress. Upon arriving, she finds some nasty goings on there. Seems some Space Pirates have been doing some research into genetics, using various life forms from the planet Tallon IV. Seems a fight has broken out, where you must figure out what’s going on, and try to put a stop to the Space Pirate’s evil plans. Not much of a story, in fact, no Metroid game has ever really had a story. They throw in just enough to keep the game glued together. Worked in all the other games, and it works here as well. The Space Station is basically a tutorial on how to use the different aspects of Samus, and her various arsenal. From here, you’ll learn on how to control her, how to use the different Visor modes, and the beautiful weapons. After escaping the Space Station, you’ll go down to Tallon IV, and begin the real game. There are almost no loading times in Metroid. Period. From the moment you hit start at the menu screen, and choose your saved game, to the moment you turn the game off, you will never see any loading of levels. In reality, the game does load certain areas of the planet, like when you ride an elevator from one section to the next, but all the data is streamed and loaded in the background, never interrupting your gameplay. In fact, the whole world itself is one level. Seamless gameplay, from room to room. You’ll go through caves, underwater areas, ruined temples, snowy wastelands, futuristic labs, and much much more. Each map is highly detailed, never repeating. No copying was done here. You’ll truly feel alive in the game, and the many environments you travel, will breathe life. You’ll see wildlife, most of it hostile, and remains of a lost civilization. These bird-like previous inhabitants of Tallon IV are the people who built the technology used in Samus’ suit. Here’s the thing, after playing Metroid on NES, you have all these powerups, and during Prime, your suit gets damaged, you’ll lose everything. On the planet, as you progress through the objectives, you’ll find treasure. Treasure which is the various upgrades you lost on the Space Station. Before long, you’ll be back, and kicking butt like the badass that Samus is. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Metroid is not a FPS. It’s an Exploration game. You have a scanner that attaches to your visor. Using this, you’ll scan your surroundings for clues, hidden items, and to learn of the current life forms living on the planet. Some creatures can only be killed certain ways, so using the scanner becomes a requirement. But it’s not going to ruin the game if you wish not to use it, and would rather run in with guns and rockets ‘a firing. However, if you do scan your heart out, you will earn bonus items, like unlocking a gallery in the bonus menu. Through the game, you’ll gain additional Visors which aid you on your quest. You’ll receive an X-Ray Visor which allows you to see hidden enemies, and my personal favorite, the Inferred Visor, which allows for Heat Sources to be identified. Also doubles to let you find hidden areas that use an energy source. The map for the game, is scary at first. But once you begin to understand how it works, you’ll begin to recognize the layout, then using the map is second hand nature. Listing Elevators, Save Rooms, and also doubles as a hint guide. Showing you at various times, where to go next. Can be turned off for those who want hardcore trouble. The weapons. Oh the glorious weapons. You start out with the normal selection consisting of a rocket launcher, and the beam weapon. While searching through the rooms, you’ll come across upgrades. The Charge Beam is a basic add-on that allows you to charge up your gun for a stronger shot. Along the way you’ll find the Energy Beam which shoots… energy. You’ll also use this weapon to charge up power conduits to open doors, and to face off against the enemies who can only be harmed by energy discharges. This weapon works with the Inferred Visor. You’ll be using both a lot. You’ll come across the Ice Beam in the later areas of the game. This weapon is my personal favorite of them all. You can, and will freeze your enemies, and use them to stand on, reaching higher areas in any given map. Missles are long for the ride as well, you’ll find expansion slots hidden throughout the game. An upgrade for the Missle is also available, known as the Super Missle. Acting much like the Charge Beam add-on does, it allows you to shoot one very big missle, but takes five of your missle inventory to do it. One last add-on is the Wave Beam. This is an upgrade for the Energy Beam, shooting one big continuous wave, doing major damage to the target and surrounding enemies. I list it here along with the missles, only because it depletes your missle inventory fast, very fast. So be mindful when using it. You’ll find the Grappling Beam here, which is pretty straightforward. Shoot it at a Grapple Station, and you’ll fly through the air. There are two additional suits which can be found in the game as well. You start out with your normal suit, but soon you’ll come across the Varia Suit, which allows for better defense against enemy attacks, as well as protecting you from intense heat. You’ll also find the Gravity Suit, giving you even more defense against enemy strikes, as well as allowing you to travel underwater without the effects of.. being underwater. The Morph Ball. Everyone’s favorite. The Morph Ball makes it’s return, allowing you to transverse half-pipes, use bombs to open up new areas, and reach areas that would otherwise be too small for a standing Samus to fit in. I can’t exaplain the feeling of using the Morph Ball, it would make no sense. You need to see it for your self. Ok, I’ve gone on long enough. How does the game perform? The main risk of taking Samus out of the 2-D side scrolling universe, and putting her in the 3-D universe was the most talked about. Could it be done? More importantly, could a group of people from Texas no one has ever heard of, pull it off? Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Yes they did it. It’s so easy to pull off jumps, using the grappling beam, fighting enemies (many of them at the same time), and running for your life when a Boss the size of your screen comes running at you that this game may as well be a 2-D Side Scroller. At first, you may have a little trouble, but 10 minutes into the game, it’s all natural reflexes. Like the Zelda Games, MP uses a Z-Button Lock like fighting engine. This in turn allows you to lock onto an enemy, and rapidly jump around, from platform to platform, up or down, left or right. Never loosing sight of your target, and also being able to watch out for other potential troublemakers. Switching from one target to another is just as easy, but tapping the L-Button located on the top left of the controller. Holding down the R-Button (guess where that one is located) and you can manually aim at targets. The game is not at all afraid to take you vertical as well. You will be doing a lot of platform jumping. But again, all very easy to pull off, and so much so, that you won’t have to adjust your view to make sure you land correctly on said platforms. However, even if you do fall, there are no do or die jumps in the game, and you never take damage from falling. The graphics for the game are super sweet. From flashy visuals, to the lighting effects, and down to the little touches that the dev team through in. The weapons leave nice trails in their wake, as well as explosions, character animations, and the extra detail given to the environments. For instance, if you use the Ice Beam on a creature, you can freeze it, then shatter it into many pieces, and effect that looks great and doesn’t get old. Also, walking through streams of steam will fog your Visor up, leaving some nice effects and detail. Looking up at the rain, you’ll see rain drops splatter on your face. Some enemies leave an energy signature that screws with your Visor, giving you a snow effect, a nice little touch. My favorite effect though, has to be the reflection of Samus’ face in your Visor when you shoot a bright weapon in the darkest of levels. Again, I could go on and on. The Sound. How does the game sound. Thankfully the dev team decided to go with Dolby Pro Logic 2, giving you some nice highs, and some booming low end bass. You need to turn this game up. I cannot stress that enough. The weapons, the various lifeforms you encounter, the environments themselves all give you ambient noises to listen to. But the music, the music is the real draw. You’ll hear some of the original themes, some updated themes, and some new themes written by the team behind the original music. The soundtrack for this game works as well as John Williams’ Score for Star Wars or Indiana Jones, or even Jaws does with their respected movies. If I had the option to listen to another soundtrack while playing this game like you can on another console we all know, I wouldn’t. I actually have to go purchase this soundtrack. It’s that good. In closing (finally..), to answer the question that was asked back at the beginning of this review, did Retro pull it off? Yes. Yes they did. This is one of the best games I have ever played, and the best game to own on the Gamecube. Just about anywhere you go, you’ll see top scores for this game, and rightfully so, this game pulls it all off. Rar.. err, I mean Retro has pulled it off. I cannot wait to see what they pull out of their hats in their next game. P.S To Nintendo: DO NOT LET THESE GUYS GET AWAY! My Score: 9.3