Oh Lord, here we go again...
The first and foremost problem with this game is the controls. They suck. No other word is needed to describe how awful it is. There are actually four different control styles you can use, and they all suck. You can use the stylus (left or right handed) or the face buttons on the DS (again, left or right handed). I, personally, didn’t want to use the stylus to play this game, but I gave it a chance. And, being left handed, I figured I’d go ahead and try the style labeled, aptly, “left-handed with stylus.” Using this style, you use the stylus to look around and double-tap the screen to jump; the face buttons to move, and the right shoulder to fire (this is flip-flopped for righties). Pretty straight forward so far, right? The problem arises when your stylus accidentally loses contact with the screen for a brief second, and then comes back again. You jump, of course. You want to completely turn around? You jump. You have to pick up the stylus for a second to re-center the damn thing, and when it touches the screen again? You jump. You pick up a slight tremor in your hands from the rage you’re feeling towards blowing money on an unplayable pile of tightly coiled processed food? You frickin jump! I found this a problem with both of the stylus settings, so I bravely tried the control schemes that don’t use the stylus. For these, the controls are (right handed and the most “natural” of the controls) the directional pad to move and strafe, the face buttons to look and turn, the left shoulder to jump, and the right one to fire (flip-flopped for lefties). Again, pretty straight forward, right? Well, the problem with this control scheme is that precision shooting is gone if you’re not using the stylus. The face buttons are no match for a good analog stick under your thumbs, let alone a crappy stylus, so aiming is a matter of luck; you’ll press up until you get in the general area and then lightly tap the button in whatever direction is needed to get the crosshairs in the right spot. This isn’t too bad when there are no enemies on the screen. But the minute you have to target something, you’re screwed. I also found that when I used the stylus, some of the screen was blocked by my hand. This may be a problem for lefties, since we write with our hand at different angles that you righties (next time you see a left handed person writing, watch how they have to place their hand so that it doesn’t drag through the stuff they’d just written. No laughing!!!)
The next gripe about this game is the graphics. They’re fine. Until you get moving. Then everything turns into a huge mess on the screen. This doesn’t hamper the game much when you’re just going from place to place; you can make out a door, and see where the walls are and such. But when you have to move and fire at an enemy, the enemies will become lost in the background. I found this to be particularly horrible when fighting one of the other hunters. Between this and the control issues, I found it to be almost impossible to get into the game.
Another problem is the story. …Umm, what’s the point? Where’s this story supposed to be going? I know, the first Metroid game had almost no plot. Most of the important plot elements were covered, loosely, in the manual. But this is ridiculous. Why is Samus fighting with these other bounty hunters, to get the keys, to operate the cannon, to open the rift, to free the Gorea, and then kill it? And, for heaven’s sake, why is the game called Metroid, when there are no Metroids in the game?! The story could have fallen out of the butt of any FPS out there; we expect more from the Prime series.
I’ve read in many reviews that the multiplayer action is where this game really gets good. …Who the hell buys a portable system to play FPS online?! Don’t you have an Xbox? Don’t you have a PS2? You’re telling me that it’s more fun to buy a DS, the Wi-Fi equipment, pay for the service, buy one of the few games with multiplayer modes, and sit down and wait for another person that doesn’t have Xbox Live, so you two can look at a screen the size of a pack of cards and try to frag each other? I suppose it’s cheaper to pay for all of that than it would be to pay for the Xbox equivalent, but if you want FPS frag-fests, then you need an Xbox.
I’m giving the game an abysmal score, because that’s what I think it deserves. The game play is awful, the graphics are awful, the sound is alright, but it repeats often, and the value is really awful. I recommend playing the Metroid Prime games for the GC before wasting your time with this garbage.