Beautiful shell, but is there enough meat?
-Overview
The original Metroid Prime was a breath-taking game. It was big, complex, mysterious, and incredibly mind-blowing. If you expected the third installment to be up to standards with the first...you are terribly mistaken.
-The Setting
The world that is Corruption is very, very, very polished. With it's beautiful new graphics and environments this game is a very tasty piece of meat. One thing that bothers a Metroid fan and critic such as myself though, is the lack of mystery. The first Prime was one, huge planet that you had to explore, you were just left on your own with a feeling of isolation to find the world out yourself. This game was broken down into three smaller planets, and your constantly being told what to do through the entire game. I believe this limits Metroid Prime's overall theme of "exploration". One thing I want to clear up, in the video review over at IGN they said there was an ice world...well sorry, but they couldn't be more wrong, there's a small section where ice is around you, but it's very tiny, no bosses and hardly any enemies. (Yeah, I liked Phendrana Drifts too)In the original, everything had some sort of meaning, a purpose. It was all one big picture, now with MP3, the planets limit curiosity and the game holds your hand almost every step of the way.
-Difficulty
The puzzles are just as ingenious as they were in the previous Primes, but they're dumbed down a bit to be a little more friendly to the casual "Wii" audience. The boss fights are tricky, but you hardly ever die. The new hyper mode that you can use really just massacres everything. They've also reduced backtracking a bit, but it's still present in MP3, I've read in a few places that people have complained about backtracking, obviously they hanv't played many metroid games. Your ship in this game is basically just a shortcut to get around the map and there are multiple landing zones on a single planet, cuts down the time you spend walking in half. For Metroid veterans I recommend (kind of obvious) veteran mode. Easy mode is just too...easy. After beating the game you unlock hyper mode (hard mode), this is where masters of metroid will want to test their skills, as all enemies have crazy amounts of health and deal out much more damage to you, this mode is a true challenge.
-Gameplay
So you solve cool puzzles and blast through really big and scary enemies, what's new? Well, it's not what you do that's new in Metroid Prime 3, it's HOW you do it. The new aim function that Retro Studios has put into this game is creative, I wouldn't say I'd want to use this mode for every shooting game I play, nothing is wrong with it though, and you can get use to it very easy. However, the worlds are so colorful that sometimes your aiming reticule gets blended in with the background, but I really didn't have much of a problem with this, it was really just a small inconvenience. All the controls are responsive and solid. Unless your a picky, fussy gamer, you shouldn't really have any trouble handling this game.
-Conclusion
The first Metroid Prime has dazzled people across the globe and continues to this day, it's the absolute best Metroid game in existance, no questions there. MP3 is fun and really that's probably all people care about these days. I enjoyed MP3, but I wish Retro Studios would've put a little more time into this game and made it just a little bit bigger, then it would've definitely had the same WOW effect the original Metroid Prime had.
Thanks for reading,
MisterEgo