Metroid Prime has revolutionised this franchise and sets a new standard forever.
The storyline is quite compelling. A race of bird-like creatures named Chozo, who are scientists in advance space technology, travel through space, sharing their knowledge with a variety of species and cultures. Because of their vast superiority in technological engineering, they have been called upon to experiment with a substance known as Phazon. Despite the skills the Chozo had, they are overwhelmed by it, as it begins to poison the land and kill or mutate the creatures inhabiting the planet. As their race slowly draws close to uncertainty, the Chozo make a last-ditch effort of preventing the Phazon from spreading by building a temple around the meteor site where the core of the its remains on Tallon IV.
As the time of the Chozo has passed, their skills and knowledge have been separated throughout the cosmos and were never heard from again. Space Pirates, who are equipped with the latest of space weaponry, have come across the creatures known as Metroids on the planet Zebes. They are spawned from the essence of the Phazon and the pirates begin performing experiments on them. However, Samus Aran, who was raised by the Chozo as an orphan, equipped with a power suit created by them, was about to reign on their base.
Wiping the pirates and their technology out clean and destroying any Metroids who stood in her way. The survivors left over Samus's raid began regrouping and started searching a new source of energy. Coming across the Phazon and realising its potential for energy, the Space Pirates began rebuilding the resurrection of their leaders. Unknowingly though, they are unaware that Samus has discovered their location and is planning her second line of attack.
As you begin playing, as do most games, it starts with a simple tutorial, describing the function of the controls and advice on how to use them. The controls are probably similar to those of other first person shooters. The control stick controls Samus's movement, The A button functions as the primary weapon trigger, the B button is to jump, the Y button is to launch your missiles, the X button is to switch into the morph ball mode, the L button is to lock onto targets, the R button is to view your surroundings and the Z button will bring up you map. The D-pad and C joystick are used to switch between your visor and beam types.
As you advance through the game, the controls will feel more natural to use. Metroid takes a page out of Zelda, using their technique of Z-targeting (in this case, L-targeting) to lock onto enemies and other objects. It proves quite handy as the enemies are fast paced and react quickly to retaliation. The R button serves as the free aim view allowing you to control your view, allowing you to observe the surroundings and target slow-moving enemies. What is most peculiar about these control settings is that instead of using the traditional trigger button, it uses the A button. It still works well and may even prove to be better as there's a quicker reaction time between each fire, which means you can shoot continuously with small gaps between each fire allowing for a higher hit rate.
Upgrades through Metroid Prime look awesome, as is their abilities. Along with Samus's standard weaponry and techniques, there are unlocked upgrades which make her attacks stronger and allow her to travel further into the game. Samus's primary weapon can be switched through the C joystick from the standard Beam to the Wave Beam, Ice Beam and Plasma Beam. As their names suggests, they will have different effects on different enemies and each have their strengths and weaknesses.
Along with upgrades in terms of weaponry, missiles are combined with the primary weapon to cause devastating attacks. Without combining missiles, holding A and charging up will cause heavy damage but not to the extent of the combined force. These aren't the only upgrades’ available. They are also available to Samus's Morph Ball technique. Upgrades such as the Spider ball and Atomic Bomb allow her to attach to rails and create massive explosions engulfing everything around her. The Morph Ball is quite nifty for escaping enemies and is a necessity to access different areas. However, at times, because it changes to a third person perspective, it may be difficult to maneuver, especially when accuracy is a key element in proceeding.
In addition to the weaponry upgrades, there are visual upgrades. These allow Samus to view all types of objects and enemies adapted with cloaking devices. There is the standard visor, mainly used for scanning objects and enemies for data, as well as activating certain doors, the thermal visor used to sense heat, and the x-ray visor used to see through solid structures. These allow Samus to see the enemies’ weaknesses and can activate objects that cannot be activated with the combat visor.
These upgrades not only allow you to access places you couldn’t before but help conquer enemies faster and more efficiently to save time, because they aren't the friendliest of foes. As stunning as they look, they prove to be deadly and some are wicked fast making it even more of a difficult target. This applies only to a certain group of enemies as there is a large variety and all have their own weakness and strength. The actual Metroids themselves are annoyingly strong despite their size, and the space pirates equipped with cloaking devices also prove to be a handful.
Of course, their techniques and skills, including Samus's wouldn't look amazing if it wasn't for the beautiful graphics. Artistically, it's the best that Retro has ever produced for this series and graphically shows the capabilities of the Gamecube at its full potential. The environment has been designed to the point where it is near impossible to know if you’re going around in a circle and the vast landscapes only add to the confusion. But rest assured as Samus can download the map of an area which will ease most gamers of Metroid feeling lost. Even little things such as water dripping down from Samus's visor, or the ooze from the guts of an enemy splattering on her helmet make it that much more convincing that Metroid has truly evolved.
Along with its graphics, it also has gorgeous sound effects. Through from the intense, quick-pace sounds during boss scenes to the peaceful landscape scenes only heighten the experience and for the sound effects of weapons and enemies, it all fits in perfectly, making it a game that sounds terrific.
Metroid Prime is by far the best game that is available for Nintendo Gamecube. Although it didn't make an appearance on the Nintendo 64 console, it might have been worth the wait. It truly stands out from other GC games because of its amazing graphics, beautiful sounds and natural gameplay make for one of the greatest games across any console and more or less one of the greatest games ever created.