The jewel of the crown conmemorating the revolutionary decade of Retro Studios.
On the surface, the Metroid Prime Trilogy covers the story of Samus' adventures to free planets from the chaos caused by the crash of huge asteroids. These asteroids are infected with a cancerous and mutating substance called Phazon that corrupts organisms and makes them agressive and ugly. The first title takes place on Tallon IV, a planet filled with the remains of an extinct Chozo civilization. The secon title, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, takes place in Aether, a planet who again suffered from the impact of an asteroid who disrupted the dimensional plain and caused a war between dimensions. The third and final, spectacular title, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption takes Samus across various planets as she aids the Galactic Federation fighting the threat of Phazon and space pirates(who are now allies). The second and third titles also introduce another awesome nemesis to Samus, Dark Samus, who soon enough proves to be a worthy oponent (and little frustrating later in the series...). Despite this backstory, The first two Metroid Prime titles do not show a lot of narrative. Actually, the first title barely has any plot-revealing cutscenes. The story here is behind all the log entrys you collect with your visor, revealing the story left behind by the inhabitants of the planet and Space Pirates. The third game, however, really goes forth with the production value and adds a lot of narrative and awesome, epic cutscenes and dialogues that make the final installment truly memorable.
Gameplay wise, the series may be a little hard to get into. The game is an atmospheric, action, puzzle and exploration fps. This means you wont have Samus charging into an army of space pirate, but exploring ruins, fighting groups of soldiers, facing epic bosses and doing a lot of trecking looking for clues, puzzles, items and upgrades. As i mentiones, the game is a fps, so you pretty much aim with the wii mote and use the nunchuck to move. You also lock on with Z and have the ability to dash sideways to avoid incoming attacks. Combat will get very intense and immersive, and the addition of different visors(x-rays, infrared, etc) will make the experience even more immersive and fresh. You will also collect many awesome upgrades that play a key and necessary role in the gameplay(the super missile and dark beam missile como are AWESOME!!!) Anyways, you will enjoy the gameplay.
It is also important to mention the different ways this game will make you feel. The different settings and scenarios inspire different feelings. For instance, you may feel relaxed in the ice world from Metroid Prime 1, then feel the tension inside a space pirate base, feel intimidated in the dark world from metroid prime 2 and feel the epicness of an ongoing battle in Metroid Prime 3. All the elements, add up and make the experience even more immersive and exciting.
A very important aspect of the game is the boss fights. Each boss fight is awesome and rewarding. In the higher difficulties, some bosses will be really tough and even frustrating, but all this serves to make victory even more satisfying. Thankfully though, the game offers three difficulty levels, normal, veteran and hypermode. normal mode is actually a little easy for veteran players, but if you are completely new to the series, you might want to check out this difficulty first. Going back to the subject of boss fights, each boss is memorable and some fights can get really epic, particularly in the second and specially in the third game. I guarantee you will be really satisfied after finishing the final game in hypermode.
Technically, the game has some of the best visuals on the wii. I dare to say they are the best realistic-style graphics on the wii. Textures are sharp, lighting is cool and animations are fluid. The first game, however has a couple of outdated poligons and some textures become blurry textures, but these are only a minor setback.
The soundtrack is spectacular. Many of the tracks are techno fused with strange distorted choruses, making some truly immersive and echilirating tracks(check out Dark Samus' theme). Voice acting(in the third game) are top-notch and dialogues are very fluid and well written(some scenes are a little typical but not clichei-ish).
The game also features collectibles like music tracks, concept art, secrets and other extras unlockable by using in game credits earned by beating bosses, collecting key items and completing special achievements. There is also a local, four player multiplayer versus mode. This multiplayer is NOT online and isnt exactly awesome. It is still pretty fun(considering you have friends who know how to play the game).
All in all, Metroid Prime Trillogy is a must own jewel for any nintendo fan or wii-owner. The packaging is also collector's edition and it is a work of art on its own. The metal packaging and the contents show awesome artwork and are a reason to buy on their own.
Final Veredict: Metroid Prime Trilogy is a must-own and highly recommended collection. All three games deserve recognition on their own and mark a decade of perfection for retro studios and Samus. While it is a little sad to know that This is all we will see of Samus as a first person explorer, it is also a sign of the uniqueness and mastery that Retro Studios achieved with this truly prime series. I highly recomment buying this game, wether you already played all titles, one or two of them, or none. In the end, you will feel satisfied once you discover or remember one of the most epic and awesome experiences ever created by Nintendo.
As a final quote from Samus herself (it was written by her as she never speaks):
MISION FINAL