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 Post subject: Wii - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
PostPosted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:14 pm 
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Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Nintendo Wii
1 Player


Everyone's heard of Metroid and Samus Aran's battles through the stars. Most have played at least one of the many games in the series. Older fans such as myself will remember the excitement they felt the first time they touched down on the planet Zebes in Super Metroid on the SNES, or discovered Samus was actually a woman in the original NES game. Younger fans will be more familiar with the Prime series on the NGC and the game's entry into the first person perspective. But both young and old alike will agree that the Metroid games kick ass.

I was never a fan of the Prime games on NGC, mainly because for me, the Metroid series is more suited to 2D exploration game, and that FPS games tend not to work so well using a console controller. But I'd read what all the US Metroid owners were saying about how great this game was so I figured "what the hell, I'll grab a copy."

I'm glad I did.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the third and final installment of the Prime series. After the previous two episodes saw Samus battling Metroid Prime, who upon being defeated evolved into Dark Samus after absorbing the phazon (a type of parasitic energy source) from Samus's protective suit, the Space Pirates - now under Dark Samus's command - are attempting to spread the phazon plague across the galaxy. To do this, they are implanting giant seeds of phazon called "Leviathans" into several planets and shielding them to allow the phazon to consume the planet.

After being summoned to the Galactic Federation's flagship, you and 3 other Hunters are given different planets to liberate from this scourge. However, before you get the chance to do so, Dark Samus turns up and, using her phazon-fuelled powers, infects all the Hunters with phazon. You soon learn that you can use this infection to your advantage but we will come to later.

And so the story of Metroid Prime3: Corruption begins....

The first thing you will notice is that this game looks GOOD. I don't mean "yeah, it's pretty shiny" good, I mean "holy crap, this is awesome! Look at the reflections! Look at that effect! Oh my god, Samus's eyes are looking back at me through the visor!" good. Retro have really gone to town on every single feature of this game. The environments are gorgeous, the enemies are highly detailed, the weaponry is slick, and the explosions are, well, explosive. The cut scenes aren't exactly groundbreaking, however, and the flying between landing points scenes are noticeably dull and uninspired. Luckily you won't see these too often as you're generally battling through hoards of Space Pirates and the natives of each planet you visit.

Metroid wouldn't be Metroid without boss battles, and this game has lots of them. From the mighty Beserker Lord and his glowing armpits of doom right through to Dark Samus herself, there's plenty of giant creatures and corrupted Hunters to go head to head with. As in the previous Prime games, scanning these creatures will give you hints on how to take them down, but actually getting the time to scan an enemy while they're raining death down upon you isn't always so easy. There's even some old favourites thrown into the fray here, such as the infamous Ridley and even one that resembles Mother Brain (although it's got a different name in Corruption).

Scanning both enemies and objects in Corruption allows you to follow the story itself, but also learn some of the history of the series if this is your first Metroid game. While some of the scans just tell you "This is 5 missiles", others include documents written by the planet's inhabitants telling of their history, their ways of life, and their experiences with the phazon. While these are not required to complete the game, they do provide an amazingly in depth back-story.

Anyway, you may remember me mention using the phazon infection for your benefit earlier. Using the phazon coursing through your body, you can enter a self-induced "beserk" state called Hypermode. In this state, you're more or less invunerable to weapons fire and your own weapon power is increased dramatically. However, to enter Hypermode, you need to inject one full health tank into the system, and staying in Hypermode will continue to drain your health. The more you fire, the lower your Hypermode bar gets until you drain it and return to your normal state. However, stay in Hypermode too long, and you will overload. This causes your temperature gauge to increase, and if it reaches maximum, you die. In order to lower your temperature, you need to "vent" the system, or to put it simply, "hammer the shoot button until the bar empties". Some enemies in the game are only damaged by Hypermode fire, so you'll need to keep an eye on your health.

So its the best looking Wii game to date?
So its a fantastic story driven adventure spanning several planets and space stations?
So its got pulse-racing boss battles?
But how does it play?
Well, as I said before, first person shooter games don't always play too well on consoles. But the Wii doesn't have regular console-style controls....

Using the nunchuk to move (and operate the grapple beam) and using the Wiimote to aim, fire, jump and enter Hypermode, you could be forgiven for finding controlling Samus easier than moving Gordon Freeman around Black Mesa using a keyboard and mouse. The lock-on feature (press Z) has been included and makes keeping track of your enemies that bit easier without making it child's play. Activating switches makes full use of the motion control by asking you to twist and turn handles, and the grapple beam uses the nunchuks motion sensors to make you throw your hand forward to fire the beam, then yank back to retract. The first five to ten minutes of the game will have you getting used to the controls, but from the moment you hit the first planet controlling Samus will feel natural.

To say this game will last forever is a bit of an overstatement. With around 20 hours of play from start to finish it's over pretty soon. Granted, there's a few side quests, a massive range of power ups and upgrades and an absolute ton of scanning to do, but it's still over far too soon. Normally a multiplayer mode would have extended the game's lifespan, possibly even given it the coveted "10 out of 10" score. However, for some crazy reason, there is no multiplayer mode whatsoever. As a game perfect for online battling, it's crazy that this was not included. Granted, the Nintendo WiFi connection isn't too great at the best of times, but still.... what WERE Nintendo thinking?

There is a small element of wifi included in the game, but this is to trade Friend Vouchers. Upon completing certain landmarks such as defeating a boss or scanning certain items, you get coloured vouchers which can be used to unlock artwork and music. There are also special landmarks such as reaching a certain number of kills or protecting a bunch of soldiers that results in a Friend Voucher. Send these Friend Vouchers to someone in your Wii Address Book who also owns the game, and it will give them a special green voucher. The bonus items, such as a Mii Bobblehead for your ship dashboard, or bumper stickers for your ship, can only be unlocked using these green vouchers. If a friend sends you a Friend Voucher, you get one of these green vouchers to unlock goodies for yourself. Nothing too special, but a nice touch.

So what do you get for your cash? Well, you get the best looking game on the Wii, with some of the most fluid animation, the greatest music, and the perfect difficulty curve.

Unfortunately, it's far too short and the lack of multiplayer of any kind means that this will probably find it's way onto the "preowned" shelves quite quickly. Which is a shame, because while it lasts this is game is everything you hoped it would be.

Ratings
Graphics: A
Sounds: A
Gameplay: A
Replayability: C

Overall score: A-

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