Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Masterpiece"

I'll tell you the truth, I am the one who most complained about a 3D Metroid in first person back on 2002... and beyond. And it took me almost 11 years to give Metroid Prime a try. Yeah it is weird but its the truth. I tried today and Greg was absolutely right on his review here on Gamespot: those who have complained most of the game, hard skeptics like me, these were the most impressed.

If metroid prime was in the third person as I believed it should be, the immersion element would not be efficient as it was. Most gaming genres like horror, survival and investigative ones are in first person just by this same fact. But most first-person shooters back then and today, gives the player the pressure of having the perfect aim. The free-looking is so usual that when you play Prime you feel stuck somehow and say that the system is kinda primitive ... but not so as you think. Not at all.

In previous versions of Metroid, the side-scrolling ones, I recall being equally "canned" or truncated during walking and shooting as it was not always feasible. Upon clicking the joystick in specific Snes or Nes and gameboy, you had diagonal directions to shot that would prove to be more accurate when in action. When they did it in first person, here for Metroid Prime, they had to do it without killing that good old walking, aiming and shooting element. I do not know how Retro Studios managed to preserve these kinds of classic stuffs in a 3d game but i just say they were all true geniuses, working together in a teams. They had the schematic well preserved instead of messed up... smart move.

Todd Keller did just give the art of acclimatization needed for such metroidians titles. Leslie Swan did not so much as a writer you may say, but she has her own merit for letting the Metroid silence in that game - you do not hear talking voices to move a plot up but just screams of creatures and samus only- just like it was in old times. There's no dialogs or things like that but texts and texts of visor's computer working out. Yes, the investigative element stills there, better than ever. The exploration is also there - not so large as Metroid 3 but, there he is in a way or another- The only mistake on that piece was Yoshio Sakamoto have only supervised the Prime series, though I did not like it even a bit of Metroid Fusion, Yoshio did a little lacking.

What a shame i feel. So many years i have spoken bad of this masterpiece. I did not like Corruption much as the Echoes. I still did not play it well, - i hate that wii controller - but Metroid Prime is just great, even after so many years the conception is good, at least for me. Metroid Prime has good animations, light effects and colors specially on her visor. The combat is just incredible for a game like that, and always with an epic gameplay simply perfect. There is no visible defects in the graphics if you look with the eyes of a 2002 player. One of the things that could have gone wrong on Metroid Prime would be the grappling. But i was wrong once again, it worked good for a FPS game and is quite staggering i might add.

I only conflict with Greg's review in one thing... is this the best Metroid? For many years, Super Metroid was not just the best M but one of the most complex side-scrolling ever. Well i can honestly say im not a kotaku, thanks God for that but im not a hater neither. And im not easily impressed as well... i will never forget Metroid 3, nor i will ever replace it for another game. Prime is perfect, but Metroid 3 has a golden crown on his head for a long time now. But im a gamer right? Not just a common fan. This is not a competition for it anyway, all Metroid games are on that high quality. It is a fact and no one can change that.

The only doubtful thing about Prime is that plot, that descent into the Talon world ...its ressembles about the one she did on planet Zebes a bit too much. Even the space station run and the chase after the damn Ridley is a copy-paste like. Just like Metroid Fusion for GBA was. The Prime story is something between the first game and the 2, "The Return of Samus", but... lets us say that the Prime's story plot is not that good even with that little excuse... if you use your good sense to judge it... But on Metroid whats matter is that classic gameplay from past games...it is there and you will love it.

I do not know why people are associating Samus Aran as something to be revered as a super hero or real thing. Previously, the identity of samus was not so exposed. Her personality was indeed based on a space bounty hunter. You knew on M3 that she was a woman, but that was not so essential as it is now. Her armor concept is also outdated, but it is good, classic and needed on the line story. As before, there are some upgrades to be done on that suit and her looking is always cool. The 3D version of her ship on Prime looks a lot like a badass f-zero ship. Particularly it ressembles more with the golden fox... all right i really needed to say that =]

Every oldshcool gamer would love to see Samus through a 3rd person view in a ultra complex world and with better plots but Metroid Prime is a Prime game as it is. No one will ever dare to question that after playing it. I will rest much easier tonight after knowing that, Metroid was in good hands all that time and i did not know it, for my own disgrace and foolishness. Thanks the Retro people for that awesome, smart and master job and please keep it up, if you will... Metroid the Other M is almost, but not quite. I better stay with the Prime a bit longer... The atmosphere is so immersive and original that we are only missing some 3D glasses to rock with our brain, in a good way.

Go after it if you are new to the Metroid series. And... go after the old series if you dont know them too. Maybe that thing is not the same to play nowadays you're probably thinking? Believe on me, to listen to that music while you're climbing Crateria or wenting down through Norfair's lava pits, its always seems impressive and fresh. You will not regret it.

Lets close that case:

Metroid Prime is not just good, is one of the best games ever made; is a fine example of human advancements and sophistication under software building and assembling techniques.

Just as before:

The creepy feeling of going down with her space ship on a hostile planet so mysterious, raining and thundering with a dark music in the flux... incredible creatures, huge bosses and fights... everything remains intact here, in a FPS Metroid game! Its the impossible, materialized into reality.

You may be wondering why I did a review for the Gamecube if I played my first Prime for the Wii ... consider this review an apology for leaving nintendo behind just because of it so many years ago. That is a humble review of a passionate player for the entire game - and not just by samus, the woman of that marketing - This is a review which i should have been done for the Gamecube many years ago. It is finally done.