Metroid Prime 3: Corruption brings a fitting end to a magnificent gaming trilogy.
The first thing you realise when you play Corruption for the first time is how extremely well the control system works. I know that there were other FPS's on the Wii before Corruption, but Corruption is the first proper example of how good an FPS can be to play on the Wii and also how very fun an FPS can be on the Wii.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption feels more like a proper First-Person Shooter then the previous two games in the series did. For those of you who played the first two Prime games, you know that you only more with one analogue stick which made aiming more difficult and made the game feel a little claustrophobic. You can lock on to targets and aim the Gun arm by pressing and holding the R trigger, but this never made up for the lack of an extra analogue stick. But Corruption corrects this, as you aim your with the Pointer, so you have full control over Samus. All the regular moves from the previous Prime games return on Corruption (Grapple Beam, Ice Missiles, Morph Ball) along with some new moves that wouldn't have been functional using the GameCube game pad. The Grapple Lasso is an example. Simply lock-on to a target that allows you to, then sling the Nunchuk forward to throw the Grapple Lasso, then after it's stuck, drag the Nunchuk back towards you and whatever the grapple has hold of will either be brought towards you or broken. You can even use this against the Space Pirates that have shields to break the shields. You can even use the Wii's Pointer to pull levers to open certain doors, or thrust it back and forward to use pump levers. This adds a little bit more interactivity to the game. For me Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the essential Wii title as it is the best example of the Wii's brilliant Motion Sensor control method.
The story in Corruption is more engaging then the previous two games. In Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes you do a little training thing at the beginning, then you go to a planet and the whole game is set there, you can't even find people to talk to. This has been changed in Corruption.
The game starts aboard the G.F.S Valhalla, a Galactic Federation ship. You can go around and talk to people freely, which you couldn't do even once on the previous games. While nearly everyone says nothing important, it feels good to talk to them simply because you couldn't talk on the first two. Not long into the game, the Space Pirates attack, and Samus, along with 3 other Bounty Hunters, Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda, help to stop the scourge, but only for them to be attacked and nearly killed by the newly resurrected Dark Samus and his Phazon cannon. As a result of this attack, Samus, as well as the other Hunters, are equip with P.E.D suits, which help to protect against Phazon,, and with this suit they can use Phazon themselves to go into Hypermode and make your attack power stronger, but doing this uses up one whole energy tank, and if you get corrupted while in Hypermode, you'll die so you have to use it wisely.
Samus gets told to go to neighbouring planets that were also attacked by the Space Pirates, and rid them of the Corrupted Phazon. Apart from Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS, this is the Only Metroid game that has more than one planet for you to explore so this adds depth to the game. The story in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is brilliant, and it will make you keep wanting to play the game over and over again until you complete it. I've finished the game three times, yet I still love the story.
Yet despite the story been so brilliant, this game is made even better by the brilliantly designed boss battles. While the bosses on the first two games were brilliant, none of them are too over difficult, apart from Meta Ridley and Metroid Prime, both off the first game. And, yet again, Ridley makes a return in Corruption. You fight him twice, but the first battle is the most memorable boss fight from probably the entire trilogy. Samus and Ridley are falling down a chasm, and you have to defeat him before you fall to your death. The only bad point about this fight is the fact that it is near the beginning of the game, so it isn't too difficult, but the fact there is a time limit to do it in before you die does make it a tiny bit harder. But apart from Ridley, there is a ton of other bosses littered around in the game, and each one is as brilliantly designed as the previous one, and when you look at the first two Prime games, and how good the bosses were designed on them, you wouldn't expect anything less.
The environmental puzzles on Corruption are as good as they have ever been. You'll have to use your wits in Corruption as much as you have to battle. It's fair to say that in Corruption there seems to be less back tracking than in the GameCube titles, and what back tracking there is seems to be back tracking to places on the same planet your on. There is some back tracking where you have to visit planets that you have already previously visited, but there isn't too much, which is good because while a game has to be challenging to appeal, if it's too difficult it can lose its appeal just as much as if it's to easy.
Like on the previous games, Samus gains new guns and visors. While you can freely swap between the 4 different visors you eventually acquire, once you get a new gun, you absolutely have to use it, you can't swap like on Prime one and two. But this makes sense because why would you want to swap guns if you can just stick to using the best gun you have.
There are three guns you use during the game, the standard Power Beam, the stronger Plasma Beam, and the even stronger Nova Beam. The Plasma beam enables you to weld wires back together so you can complete circuits and the Nova beam lets you do that as well as been able to shoot through certain doors.
The four visors you get are the standard Battle visor and the Scan visor, then you get the new Command visor which allows you to command and land your ship when you're not in it, and the X-Ray visor which shows things that you couldn't previously see like doors you can shoot through with the Nova beam. You'll have to swap between visors many times during your adventure, but it doesn't ever get tedious.
Visually, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the best game on the Wii. The graphics actually look too good for the Wii compared to other games. As well as the graphics, the music in Corruption is fantastic. The music is of the classic Metroid origin, especially the music on the games title menu. Also the in game sounds are fantastic from Samus' yelps of pain to the screams of the Space Pirates, this game sounds, and looks and plays fantastic.
The biggest and most annoying thing about Corruption is that there is no online Multiplayer mode, which is a real downfall. The online features on Hunters on the DS are fantastic, and that is probably the best online game ever on a hand-held console. I am really, really gutted Retro Studios didn't add an online mode because if they did I would be on it right now instead of sitting here writing this review. To be honest, the lack of online features is the only thing that is stopping me giving this game a higher score.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is a brilliantly designed and executed game. I'll admit that it's not as brilliant as its superb GameCube predecessor Metroid Prime but it takes what that game had and transfers it to the Wii superbly. I'm a bit disappointed that Retro Studios decided to leave out online capabilities (especially with how well Metroid Prime Hunters works online on the DS) but still, without the online capabilities, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is by far the best First-Person Shooter on the Wii; and it's also the best game on the Wii as well as also been one of the best First-Person Shooter's ever on any Nintendo console.
Review by: James Widdowson
Score: 9.5/10