Metroid Prime (GC) 01.02.03

[Mamoscott]

Metroid Prime
The Next Level Contest Submission
12.28.02


Way back before teenage gamers had images of Lara Croft dancing around during their wet dreams, Nintendo introduced gaming’s first heroine, Samus Aran. But instead of outfitting her in daisy dukes and giving her lame excuses to prance around in a bathing suit, they went the alternative route and almost completely ignored the fact that she was a woman. Years later, female heroes are still being used almost exclusively to bolster a title’s T&A level in futile attempts to hide glaring deficiencies in game design. Games like Bloodrayne immediately come to mind. But you see, Nintendo has always been deceptively smart in handling Samus. Instead of focusing on her gender and playing up the fact that she was a strong and capable female, they put her inside a kick ass space suit, complete with a host of special abilities and an arm cannon that could make Vulcan Raven beg for mercy; thus avoiding the whole gender issue altogether.

It’s been a while since Samus has graced our television screens in a new Metroid adventure, and with fanboys drooling anxiously over the prospect of a Gamecube installment in the series, Nintendo dropped one of the biggest bombshells in video game history. Samus’ next adventure would indeed be in 3-D, but players would experience it from a first person perspective. Before many gamers could scrape their jaws from the floor, it was also announced that Retro Studios, <i>an inexperienced American development team</i> recently purchased by the Big N, would be handling the game’s development. For Metroid fans, this news was the equivalent of Nintendo bandits robbing your house and shooting your dog on their way out for good measure.

Only months ago, the words “first person adventure”, Nintendo’s own description of Prime’s style of gameplay, were poison on the tongues of the gaming community. As the inevitable release neared though, fears of a bastardized Metroid game subsided with each screenshot and gameplay movie released. Now that the game is finally out though, even the most devout Metroid whore can breathe a big, fat sigh of relief, as Retro Studios has crafted a landmark title worthy of any and all praise heaped upon it.

Metroid Prime begins with an opening cut scene of Samus docking and landing her ship on the outskirts of a seemingly abandoned space station. After the obligatory in-game tutorial sequences, which are pleasantly short, players can begin exploring the innards of the space station. Despite the fact that your suit is running at full power and that you’ve got a veritable arsenal of weapons at your disposal, the station is one of the game’s most underwhelming areas, featuring a series of linear tunnels and little room to explore. More than anything, this first sequence will get you acclimated to Prime’s unorthodox control style. But that all changes once Samus lands on the pseudo-deserted remnants of Tallon IV.

From the very start, Prime tantalizes players with a world so vast, lush, and labyrinth-like that it borders on overwhelming. Items, doors, ledges, and other assorted areas sit just out of reach. Fans of the series will already be making mental notes of these areas, knowing that future powerups and exploring will no doubt grant them access to these hard-to-reach treasures. Massive doors lead to cavernous rooms, which in turn branch out into tunnels, which in turn expand into additional sets of walkways, nooks, and crannies ripe for exploration. Still, Prime remains gorgeous to behold in all aspects, giving any title currently on the market a run for its money in terms of visuals and sheer beauty. The best part though is seeing how all of the different areas come together as you progress through the game, as the true scope of Prime’s design isn’t apparent until you’ve explored and unlocked a sizable chunk of the Tallon IV landscape.

In addition to discovering and navigating new areas, Samus can also “scan” various hieroglyphics, objects, and enemies with her visor, adding them to her suit’s database for reference. It’s an interesting and unique approach to telling the Prime’s story and the events that occurred before Samus’ fateful arrival. More importantly, the scanning allows gamers to dictate the game’s plot themselves, filling in the details as they please. Dedicated players can scan everything available: doors, enemies, walls, artifacts, items, while others can get by with a minimum amount of scanning, though certain puzzles do require it. The story is all there, but you can immerse yourself in as much or as little of it as you’d like.


Prime forces players to rethink and reevaluate years of established gaming habits, eschewing the trappings of the first person viewpoint in a variety of unique ways. Unlike other first person shooters, combat can almost be considered secondary to the exploration and puzzle solving aspects, which comprise the bulk of the gameplay. Players not used to backtracking may be turned off by certain segments of the game, because like previous Metroid installments, Prime forces you to revisit the same areas more than once. Don’t think you won’t be seeing a particular room again simply due to the fact that the boss residing there has been vanquished. Some may see this as a cop out, but requiring players to backtrack through areas already explored is a staple of the series. And honestly, it’s handled very well in Metroid Prime. It’s rarely tedious or boring.

Numerous times I thought to myself, “Man, it’s been a while since I last saved, and I need to replenish my energy. I should really find a save point soon”. And mere seconds later, I’d be at the entrance to a save room. When it happens once, I chalk it up to coincidence, but when the same thing occurs multiple times, I can’t help but feel it’s the result of marvelous level design and extensive playtesting.

Speaking of playtesting, Prime sports truly unique control scheme, one that Halo-fanatics will bitch and moan about until the end of time. The complaints are unfounded though, as the controls are perfectly suited to the game’s design. Samus does have the ability to strafe, and the lock-on aiming allows players to concentrate on the game’s other aspects, as opposed to struggling with controls that were implemented simply because they are the current “console FPS standard”. There’s no way to ultimately satisfy gamers looking for the precision of a mouse and keyboard without actually using a mouse and keyboard. So Retro and Nintendo successfully implemented their own solution.

Plus, simply describing the controls to someone just won’t do the trick either. You have to play and experience them for yourself. Whenever it gets mentioned that “the game has lock-on targeting”, people inevitably seem to correlate this feature with Prime being a cakewalk, which couldn’t be further from the truth. While the game’s difficulty level won’t string you up by the balls the same way a game like Contra: Shattered Soldier does, it is by no means easy.

The musical score is nothing short of wonderful, featuring ambient sounds and effects, remixed tracks from old Metroid games, and large amounts of new material as well. Each area’s musical theme does an excellent job of setting and then altering the mood of Samus’ quest, providing players with a fantastic and varied audio experience as they make their way through the caverns and overworlds of Tallon IV.

Any flaws in the game are so minute that they do little to detract from the overall experience. The jumping/platform puzzles, though forgiving, may frustrate some gamers, but if you can tolerate them until Samus finds the necessary upgrades, they become much less of a hassle. Also, despite the fact that the default control scheme fits the game perfectly, there’s no real excuse to not allow players to customize their control setups, regardless of how idiotic some people are. But then again, very few Nintendo titles offer customizable controls, so this particular revelation wasn’t exactly unexpected. Other than the above minor complaints, I’m practically at a loss for words.

You can take away all the hype and window dressing, remove the Metroid and Nintendo names from the game entirely, and rename it Space Chick Bounty Hunter Extreme, or something equally inane and ridiculous. It makes no difference. What remains is a gorgeous, magnificent, and timeless adventure game that refuses to conform to the boundaries of the standard first person shooter while maintaining the polish inherent in the game industry’s most beloved and classic titles.

[Jeremy]

Odds are, you missed the deadline. Nice review though.

[Nick]

Beautiful, professional review. Superb job. You even used the word "balls"! (See my comments to Orochi's Metroid Prime Reader Review, which I critiqued before this one.) You combine sound descriptions, vivid imagery, and reserved enthusiasm admirably well. (Lord, did that sound pretentious.)

[Mamoscott]

Originally posted by Nick
Beautiful, professional review. Superb job. You even used the word "balls"! (See my comments to Orochi's Metroid Prime Reader Review, which I critiqued before this one.) You combine sound descriptions, vivid imagery, and reserved enthusiasm admirably well. (Lord, did that sound pretentious.)

You're not just saying that cause we're both near Chicago are you?

P.S. Seven Samurai rules.

[bahn]

No he's not...I am futher on the east and enjoyed it as well. Nice flow and very informative.

Jeremy: he did not miss the deadline. Don't be mean!