Note:I played the trilogy version of Prime 1 so my review will be partially based on it but feel free to tell me the differences between the original release and this one

Man.....hard to believe it’s been 30 years since the release of the first Metroid on NES back in 1986.

I admit,despite being a fan of Metroid,up until the last two weeks I haven’t completed a single game despite playing quite a number of them.Probably because at the time I really really sucked at Metroid and I wouldn’t be able to learn how to play a Metroidvania until I played Shantae & The Pirate’s Curse in 2014 which became an instant favorite of mine

 

Thanks to Metroid’s 30th anniversary passing by I fell in the right mood to start properly playing the series and started by finishing Metroid Zero Mission,a remake of the original Metroid,a week and a half ago and I loved the game a lot.

But my biggest fascination with the Metroid franchise was specifically with the Metroid Prime trilogy by Retro Studio,one of Nintendo’s 2nd party developers.

 

Before I move on with the rest of this review let me just say that I was never a fan of the 1st\3rd person shooter genres and really the only exception I legitimately liked within those were Metroid Prime,The Halo series from 1 to Halo Reach and the original Gears of War trilogy.So Prime struck a weird cord within me when I first played it.My first Metroid game was Metroid Prime 2 on the GameCube and while I know that’s not necessarily a good place to start but I liked what I saw despite not being able to beat it cuz,like I said above,I sucked at Metroidvania games in general.

But here I am today.I managed to beat the first of the Metroid Prime trilogy a couple of hours ago and I have to say...........my God I’ve been missing out on something huge.I feel sad that I couldn’t play it back when I got my GameCube but hey better late than never I guess

 

I know I’m putting my opinion on it too early but,I really love this game to death,I really do.It’s probably one of my favorite GameCube games and definitely on my top 10 list of favorite video games heck it’s probably my favorite FPS game ever(Well more first person adventure than shooter but we’ll get to that in a second)

 

 

"In the reaches of space,below the surface of Planet Zebes,Samus Aran faced the Space Pirates.She destroyed their operation,wiped out the parasites called Metroids and defeated Mother Brain.But the pirates were far from finished"

God I love that unused opening(later used in Smash Bros Brawl).....ahem.Anywho,Metroid Prime takes place after Metroid 1\Zero Mission in the overall canon as Samus lands on a frigate for the Space Pirates approaching the surface of Planet Talon IV as she managed to thwart their plans to land on the Planet.....or so it seems.As the frigate crashes on the surface of Talon IV,Samus gives chase and land there too only to find that the Space Pirates have already begun their operation on Talon IV long before she arrived.

 

That’s all I can say at the moment as the story of the Metroid franchise isn’t exactly one that spells itself out to you through expositions and cutscene but rather through exploration,atmosphere and lore digging.As you scan(a feature I’ll mention in detail later) the different locations of Talon IV you’ll uncover a lot of lore for the Chozos(the species that took care of Samus after her parents got murdered by Ridley) and their civilization that they managed to established both on Talon IV and Planet Zebes,as well as datalogs on the plans the Space Pirates are planning to hatch by utilizing a hazardous radioactive source of energy called Phazon that they’re trying to farm from the planet.A lot of it ties to the lore of the franchise and while it’s a lot to read I love the way they did it as it feels well integrated into the gameplay without being a massive pace breaker as scanning most of those is optional except for the stuff you need to scan for progression

 

 

The change in perspective was probably one the biggest change the Metroid franchise went through in terms of Gameplay

As you might’ve known by now(or guessed from the screenshot above),the game is played from a first-person perspective akin to games in the FPS genre.Back then this change caused a big outcry from Metroid fans when the game was first shown as they thought Nintendo wanted to turn the series into a run n gun shooter rather than following the success of the critically acclaimed Super Metroid that came before it.But all of that was changed when the game came out on the GameCube in 2002 blowing fans of the series away and I’ll explain that in a sec

Despite the shift to 3D,Prime still plays like a Metroid game through and through when it comes to exploration,upgrades...etc only in a 3D environment.The change from a 2D perspective to a first person one is where the core change comes to play because thanks to that two new mechanics were added:Scanning and the Visors

By switching to the scan visor you can scan a lot of objects and creatures on Talon IV.Some objects include mandatory stuff as hacking into the security system in the Space Pirate’s labs to open doors,unveil a new path...etc,and optional stuff like stone tablets containing the lore for the Chozo civilizations or datalog for the Space Pirates and their experiments.The visors allow to switch into either Thermal or X-Ray visions when you obtain them to either reveal hidden paths and platforms or reveal enemies that can’t be seen normally.

 

Before I get to what makes the game so enjoyable to me I want to mention the controls a bit as there are two versions of the game.The GameCube release and the trilogy version.The controls works perfectly on the GameCube release but it takes a little bit of time to get used to if your muscle memory is used to other FPS games.On the trilogy version you use the Wii Remote + Nunchuck.Everything works normally except that you aim by pointing the wii remote and locking on by pressing the Z button similar to the Wii release of Resident Evil 4 if you’re familiar with how that version works.It works really well when it comes to aiming(although I recommend you have a Wii Remote with motion plus for more accuracy) but switching between the different beams and visors is a bit cumbersome compared to the original release but it’s not a big issue by any means.

 

However what I absolutely love the most about Metroid Prime,which is something the Metroid franchise is best known for,is the atmosphere.That feeling of isolation,fear,loneliness and fear of the unknown,I was so immersed while playing it I almost lost track of time on some of my game sessions on it heck sometimes I had some jumpscares from enemies like the titular Metroids who latches on your head(yeah I’m a bit of a coward ).And the amazing composition for the soundtrack of this game helps massively in immersing you into the experience(Yeah I’ll skip ahead to the soundtrack rather than leaving it for later since it’s an integral part of the immersion in Metroid games).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RW...

 

Composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma,Metroid Prime has probably my favorite soundtrack in the entire franchise as of now and it complements every area you head to so well especially the tracks for the Phendrana Drift and Talon Overworld(especially the second track for it) I can listen to those tracks for hours without getting bored especially the Phendrana drifts.

It’s soooooooo good,I put a link above to the track for the Phendrana Drifts so give it a listen.

 

Unfortunately though,for how much I absolutely love this game,there are two issues,one that is semi-minor and the other is major,that bogs the game a bit from reaching perfection.

 

 

1-Meet the Chozo Ghosts

Hands down the worst type of enemies in the entire game.After you beat the first boss the Chozo Ghosts will scatter around certain areas in the Chozo Ruins.They constantly teleport and it’s really annoying to track their movement without the X-Ray visor which you won’t be getting until later in the game and even then I hate every time I encounter them.Sure aside from maybe three mandatory fights with them you can ignore them for the most part but their appearance breaks the immersion and that is not something you’d want to happen in a Metroid game.But at least for the most part you can ignore them compared to my biggest gripe with Metroid Prime 1:

 

 

2-The hunt for the Chozo artifacts

The worst part about Metroid Prime has to be the Chozo artifacts.12 of these are scattered around the different areas of Talon IV and it’s mandatory that you collect all of them in order to gain access to the final boss.Sure if you’re clever enough and familiar with how Metroid works you can get most of them on your way as you go through the game but the last ones are meanly placed in places were you can never guess they’re there unless you find out by accident or just ask someone\refer to a guide and it’s the one part of the game that I hate the most.

 

 

 

But despite the issues I mentioned above,I still think that this game is a masterpiece.Metroid Prime is one of those few games that managed to hit me in the right spot and left an impact on me that I can’t forget.Hands down it’s my favorite Metroid game so far and probably one of my absolute favorite games of all time and I’m so glad I gave it a shot.If you’re a Metroid fan who haven’t played it yet or even a newbie who wants a different spin on the FPS genre then I highly recommend you give it a shot either through the original GameCube release or through the Wii U virtual console release of the Metroid Prime trilogy.It’s one of the best video games ever made in my opinion and from a graphical perspective it still holds up even to this day heck from a technical perspective it’s the best looking GameCube game.It runs at 60 fps and I still think it look gorgeous especially if you’re playing it through the Wii U release on an HD TV.

 

 

Hang in there Samus,we're waiting for your comeback

I know it’s been tough for Metroid fans as we haven’t had a game in the series ever since the release of the controversial Metroid Other M in 2010 and the announcement of Federation Force didn’t exactly leave a good taste in people’s mouths after a six years of hiatus with a lack of effort from Nintendo when it comes to celebrating the 30th anniversary to one of it’s oldest and most beloved franchises.

Hopefully with the NX we might finally get the Metroid game we’ve been clamoring for whether it’s Prime 4 or a 2.5D game in the same vein of the beloved Super Metroid but we won’t know for sure until the NX comes out.

 

But until then..........

 

Happy 30th Anniversary Metroid,here is to another 30 years of busting Space Pirates and Metroids extermination

 

Edited August 18, 20169 yr by Smash Mega Koopa

Just like you it took me years to get into Metroid despite being a big Nintendo fan,I've been avoiding the series because it was a shooter and I hate shooting games,but when I beat Super Metroid I was hooked and after that I ended up buying the Prime games,but I started with Prime 3.The Metroid series is now my second favorite series after Zelda and the Prime games are the best,I like the atmosphere,the powerups,the exploration and the soundtrack.I like Prime 1 and 3 almost equally but I prefer 3 mostly because the equivalent of the Chozo artifact in Prime 3 is handled much better,you don't have to collect all of them and there's less backtracking and Prime 3 doesn't have those annoying Chozo Ghosts enemies.Prime 2 is great too but there are some frustrating moments and the dark worlds gets boring to look at after a while and Prime 2 doesn't have a Ridley fight,so its my least favorite of the Trilogy.

 

I've never played the Prime Trilogy so I wouldn't know the differences besides motion control.The motion controls in Prime 3 were pretty good so I assume they work the same way in Prime 1 and 2 on Wii.

I actually ended up getting Metroid Zero Mission recently before even knowing the 30th anniversary was coming up, so when I learned about that, I spent a good amount of time completing it myself. I was in a weird situation where I owned most of the Metroid games but had never finished any up until Zero Mission, and I regret that a lot now. Zero Mission was fantastic, easily one of my favorite GBA games ever. I plan on working through in "release order" (Put in quotes since I played Zero Mission as opposed to the NES original), although going from Zero Mission to Return of Samus has been a little off-putting given that Metroid II doesn't have a lot of the more helpful gameplay additions that ZM had... not to say it's bad, but I've been considering skipping it and coming back later so I don't lose my momentum with the games.

 

On topic with the whole Metroid Prime subject: this is another one that I started but never finished, mainly due to me just being busy at the time. It's one I can't wait to get back to once I play through more of the Metroid games, though. What I played was fantastic, and I feel like it totally changed my perspective of the Metroid franchise as a whole (I had trouble getting into the 2D Metroid games before since I had no clue what I was doing, but Prime motivated me to try the 2D games again, leading to the Zero Mission playthrough that I mentioned earlier). I can see it becoming one of my favorite series if the rest are as fun as Zero Mission was, and my short experience with Prime tells me that will be the case.