I first encountered Samus Aran, the hero of Metroid, back in the late 80’s on the NES.  The original Metroid was something new and original back then.  It was more than your typical sideways scrolling shooter; it also had some interesting puzzles and in a lot of ways felt like an adventure game.  It was also non-linear.  If you got stuck, you could bypass one section in order to complete another and then go back and finish problem area.  The game was very successful and spawned many sequels.

The latest of these is Metroid Prime 3:  Corruption for the Nintendo Wii.  Samus is back for the final installment of the Prime series, and what a way to close out the trilogy.  This game brings back all of the elements that have made the Metroid franchise in general and the Prime series in particular so popular, while adding some new features that make the game play even smoother and more enjoyable.  This 3D first person shooter (fps) still has the puzzles and adventure game feeling that the original Metroid did way back when, but raises the bar with some excellent graphics, a good soundtrack, and most importantly great gameplay.

Gameplay:

The problem with game sequels is that the game-buying public wants a game that’s just like the original, but different.  If a sequel is too similar there isn’t much incentive to buy the new game, but if it’s too different it may loose the factors that made it popular in the first place.  The good folks at Retro have managed to walk this fine line very adeptly when designing this third game in the Metroid Prime series.

This game takes place half a year after the events in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.  As the story opens, bounty hunter Samus Aran is meeting with the Galactic Federation and three other bounty hunters: Ghor, Rundas and Gandrayda.  Things happen pretty quickly and before you know it Samus and the other bounty hunters are on the planet Norion with the job of activating that world’s defense grid to ward off an attack by space pirates.  Before they are able to do that however, the group is attacked and nearly killed by Dark Samus.

Waking up a month later, Aran discovers that in the battle with Dark Samus her body, as well as those of the other three hunters, has been dosed with Phazon.  The scientists think it’s harmless and rig up a Phazon Enhancement Device (PED) that lets Samus harness the energy and enter hypermode.  (More on that later.)  She also finds out that her three companions have gone on missions and haven’t called in.  She sets out to find them, and destroy three evil Leviathan Seeds that have been discovered.

Players of the previous two installments will instantly recognize this game.  Even ported to the Wii the game has the same look and feel as the other two Prime adventures, which isn’t surprising.  The nice thing is that Retro has recognized some of the weaknesses in the franchise and set about fixing them.  In most of the other Metroid games Samus starts off with only minimal weapons and has to search for upgrades throughout the game.  Not so with this adventure.  She starts with a good amount of firepower including bombs, a powerbeam and the favorite of mine, the morphball.  Not only does she have those, but soon into the game she gets the PED which is a great enhancement.  By holding the + button Samus enters hypermode where she can do some mega-damage.  This is great fun and as the character really kicks ass in this mode.  She only has a limited supply of Phazon however and once it runs out she can’t enter hypermode until it is replenished.  Hypermode also uses up energy, which is quite a trade-off, and giving her too much Phazon can also kill her.  If she gets overloaded you’ll be forced to fire it off even if no enemy is present, which is such a waste.

The other improvement in gameplay is the gunship.  With it Aran can fly to other planets and even different spots on the same planet.  This serves to partially eliminate my other gripe concerning the series, the excessive backtracking.  In past games when Samus obtained a new power she’d have to travel back across screen after screen to get to the section where she needed it.  The gunship doesn’t totally eliminate that, but it does make it much easier.

Retro had some problems to confront when adapting the franchise to the Wii.  The controller and Nunchuk aren’t brimming over with buttons and there is the motion sensor aspect to consider.  They ended up doing a great job.  Players need both a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk, with the later being used to move Samus around.  The movement is very smooth and even thanks to the high frame rate the game has.  Moving around the various environments feels natural too.

The remote acts as an aiming mechanism and trigger.  This setup works very well allowing players to have Samus zip through a screen while mowing down baddies.  The remote allows for pin-point accuracy while aiming, and if you’d rather not bother getting the shot perfectly lined up the Z button will lock-on to the nearest target.  Strafing is just as easy and very effective.

The remote is also used to manipulate objects.  Metriod Prime 3 really utilizes the full motion control aspect of the Wii more than any other full (dare I say ‘real’) game to date.  To activate a lever in the gunship for example, a player has to move the remote towards the TV to grab the handle.  Pulling the remote backwards has the same effect on the screen, and then twisting the remote counterclockwise activates the switch.  The remote is then pushed forward again to stow the mechanism.  This has a natural feel to it and it is very cool at the start of the game.  The excitement wears off a bit by the end, but it never gets boring or tedious, it just looses the ‘oh wow!’ factor.

The pace of the game is pretty quick but there are still a lot of puzzles to solve that may stump some players, for a bit at least.  The visor is used a fair amount to get information about objects and to see through walls (in X-ray mode) that sometimes help players solve a problem.  The X-ray visor can also be used in conjunction with the Nova Beam (a new weapon upgrade) to shoot enemies that are on the other side of a wall.  Now how cool is that?

Graphics:

After playing on the PS3 and 360 for a while, it’s obvious that the image the Wii was reproducing wasn’t high definition.  The 480i/p graphics enhanced for 16 X 9 playback (yeah!) were very impressive though when compared to other standard definition fare.   Retro really went to a lot of trouble to make this game as eye-catching as it could.  All of the alien landscapes are beautifully rendered and a joy to watch and the flying scenes are down right exciting.  The various environments are very detailed and well designed from the mechanical space stations to the strange extraterrestrial planets everything looks gorgeous.  One of the reasons this game looks so good is that Retro went the extra mile by layering textures and effects on the environments multiple times to give the scenes a complex feel.  It works very well and they should be commended.

The character designs are likewise well thought out and created, with the aliens looking fearsome and, well… alien.  The game boasts a high frame rate which means that the movements are smooth and not jerky.  The part of the graphics that most impressed by sons were the various beam effects.  Firing your weapon gives off more than just a ball of light, it’s a swirling and energized orb that splatters across an enemy as it hits.  There are a lot of particle effects to, with energy dots for the very atmosphere around you rushing into your weapon as it charges.  The enemy weapons were just as impressive.  All in all this is a great looking game.

Audio:

The audio part of the game was nearly as impressive as the graphics.  The first thing that players will notice is that there’s actual dialog in this game, and the voice acting is very good.  The one gripe I have with video games in general is that the quality of actors that have been hired to dub characters voices is generally pretty poor.  (Anyone remember back when producers would pay actual stars, albeit lower tier stars, to appear in their games?  Tia Carrere appeared in The Daedalus Encounter and Christopher Lloyd was in a Judge Dredd game, just to name two.  But I digress…)  In this game, the voices actually sound good and fit the characters well.  This is a welcome addition to the game and adds an extra bit of flair.  The character interactions are fairly frequent at the beginning of the game and then taper off, but they are present throughout the adventure.

The background music is clear and at an appropriate level.  This music is often haunting and a bit creepy and provides a nice atmosphere for the game.

Conclusion:

Metroid Prime 3:  Corruption is just a great game.  The gameplay is smooth and intuitive, the graphics are visually interesting and well rendered and the puzzles are difficult at times but never so impossible that you’ll want to stop.  Retro did a great job of integrating the Wii’s motion sensor abilities into the gameplay and also solved the few problems that long-time Metroid players may have found aggravating.  This is one of those games that belongs on your shelf of Wii discs. Highly Recommended.