Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Review

Ok, I haven't reviewed a game in a while, but I hope I'm not rusty. I have about 6 games to review in December, so I hope to get through them all. Now, we all know the big 3 that were so acclaimed at the start of the year. Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. And what has happened to the through the year? All have been delayed, and now Brawl is a game for 2008. But never fear, I shall review all of the big 3 in due time, starting with my now favorite shooter, Metroid Prime 3. This title was originally going to be a launch title, but was delayed a lot. Now here it stands for all to play.

Name: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Players: 1
Developer: Retro Studios

Right now, into this. Since I bought a Wii, I have been searching for the perfect shooting game. Call of Duty 3 was good, but the controls were very, very jumpy. Red Steel was also good, but had the same problem. And Far Cry... well, we won't go into that... Resident Evil 4 was a shot in the arm, but I was still looking for the perfectly controlled FPS. And I found it in Metroid. But before I get into that, some background about the story.

As expected, Metroid Prime 3 is the third game in the "Prime" trilogy (or pentrily, (5 games) if you count Hunters, and Pinball). The story continues 6 months after the effects of the second game, wherein phazon (a poisonous chemical substance, which mutates anything it's near. Thing Uranium meets Tiberium from C&C) has corrupted several planets in the universe, and it's up to Samus and the Galactic federation to save the universe. Alongside this, the Aurora units (basically the super computers of the federation) have also been corrupted, and Samus has to fix these too. However, similar to Hunters, she won't be alone. Three new bounty hunters join in the crusade this time; Rhundas, able to control and shoot ice. Ghor, android that can commandeer any machine. And Gandrayda, humanoid whom can take the appearance of anything, excellent at stealth. Unfortunately, before you can start on your endeavour, Dark Samus (the evil entity, that took your D.N.A way back in the first game, to create a Phazon-form of you) blasts her way into the base, and corrupts all the hunters with phazon. Through some quick surgery, they are all updated with new suits that can control the Phazon, and allows them to use it for powerful, new attacks. With these weapons, you start off on you adventure.


From this:



To this

Right, that's story out of the way. Now for the beauty of the rest of the game. Graphics. I'm sure that I have said it again and again: the Wii does not need games with really good graphics. graphics < gameplay. But Metroid (and several other games this year) break this barrier. Metroid Prime 3 is the prettiest game on the Wii at the moment (it's competition were 2 gamecube ports, but bear with me). Retro have added bloom effects to pretty much every corner of the game. Explosions look fantastic, worlds are vast and detailed, very much a step-up from the gorgeous mas of Echoes. I would post some screens, but they don't do it justice. You need to see this running at 60fps to see it's true glory.

Now, gameplay. The controls; they are perfect. Not only do they have 1:1 aiming and shooting down-pat, but Retro have added in a bunch of intriguing little tricks for the Wii-mote and nunchuck. For example, if you find an enemy with a shield, or some big antenna sticking out of it, you can throw the nunchuck forward (throws your grappling beam forward) latch on, and rip the thing right off them. Some puzzles require that you use your hand cannon to weld things together, pull switches by literally pulling a switch, or pulling walls or bridges towards you with the grapple beam. There are 3 different types of aiming, I recommend advanced (IGN describe the others as feeling like they're playing "Red Steel Prime"). And in a nod to the achievements available on Xbox 360 games, Metroid has a rewards section. When you scan certain areas of information, defeat certain enemies, solve certain puzzles, or other interesting things, you get reward tokens, which you can spend to buy music, artwork, or, (if you have some friends to trade with) really exciting tricks like screenshot capabilities, bumper stickers for your spaceship, or, my favorite, this:


Isn't he so cute? :P

Overall, I love this game. I have been waiting for this since 2006, and I was thrilled to pick it up a week before the rest of Australia (Gametraders are the best shop in the world). However, Cloudy will get up me if I give this 10/10 (he'll say I'm biased). So, now let's find something wrong with the game...
um...Ok. The storyline left a lot of questions about Phazon, although thanks to the secret endings (oh crap, I shouldn't have said anything. I shouldn't have said find 75% of the pickups to get the 1st secret ending, and find 100% of the pickups to get the 2nd secret ending) this might be resolved in a later. Well, Retro has said they aren't working on any more Prime games, so who does the torch get passed to? We'll see in the future, but many are hoping for a side-scroller, rather than the 3D adventure. Anyway, to wrap up. G buy this, play it, and get ready for Galaxy.

Graphics: Best on the Wii. They'll be trumped by Galaxy and Brawl, and aren't as good as say, Gears of War, but very solid - 9/10
Length: 20-30 hours first time through. If you want to find everything, including achievements, almost as long as Twilight Princess - 9/10
Gameplay: Excellent controls, interesting minigames. Storyline needed a bit more bulk for my liking though - 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Wow, I gave this worse than Phoenix Wright? I'm so biased for that game. Speaking of bias, if anyone out there has noticed my games are all rated extremely high, that's cause I only review games I really like. Don't have time for others. Hardly professional I know, but I'm a beginner, so it's ok. I'll be back with pictures of me in my Phoenix Wright suit in about 2 days.