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A legend renewed

Metroid continues the line of classic Nintendo-franchises getting a new incarnation on GameCube. Unlike the smooth development of company’s other franchises, Metroid’s transition to 3D was more troublesome. The development was given to Nintendo’s rookie second party developer, Retro Studios. Retro was a big question mark at the time, as they had not released anything on a console before. There were many doubts whether Retro could handle the development successfully.

Initially the project seemed disastrous. At one point Retro cancelled or put in hold all of their projects except Metroid, such as their RPG, Raven Blade. In addition rumors flew around that Nintendo was not happy how Metroid was turning out. After a while it was announced that Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s top designer, had started supervising the development. The results were surprising. Retro had abandoned the previous third-person gameplay and started using first-person perspective. This take caused quite an uproar. Old Metroid purists were horrified with the new approach while many others were impressed by the courageous design change. I remember I wasn’t too happy with the change myself, as I don’t favor first-person shooters. Retro Studios clearly saw this coming and announced from the start that the game was a first-person adventure instead of shooter, with more emphasis on the exploring than the action.

Phendrana Drifts

Like in previous Metroids, the main character is Samus Aran, a bounty hunter wrapped in mysterious power suit with more features than average armors offer. In the game’s opening scene, Samus finds herself investigating a distress call from a space station. It doesn’t take too long for her to notice that the station is a wreck; signs of battles are evident around the station and seems that none of the personnel are left alive. Trying to find the cause of this destruction, Samus wanders deeper into the space station. Although the answers are there, the activation of auto destruct mechanism changes her plans from finding to fleeing. During her escape, an explosion damages her power suit, rendering most of the fancy features useless. The trip was not a total bust, though, since according to space station data logs, space pirates are doing something fishy on a nearby planet, Tallon IV. Despite of her damaged power suit she decides to investigate the situation on the planet. That’s the premise of Samus’s latest adventure.

Metroid’s development took quite a time and once it finally came out, it was a big success. The hype surrounding the game was tremendous and – much to my surprise – the game received great reviews all around. I was glad that people liked the game, but had my reservations. After all, Halo got nothing but praise too and I still managed to dislike it. So Metroid stayed off my “must buy” – list. Eventually I chose to give it a chance and borrowed the game from a buddy. After playing for a few days or so I found myself actually enjoying the game! This was rather weird, as the previous first-person action game I remember liking was Unreal Tournament (which is weird. Don’t know why, but I did enjoy it). The result is that there are now two first-person action games I like.

Thermal visor in use

One reason may be Metroid’s focus on exploration instead of blasting away everything in sight. Metroid has that too, of course, but I liked especially the moments when you just investigated your surroundings and scanned things, just to find out more about Tallon IV and what has happened to it. The scanning, which I just referred to, is one of the most important aspects of gameplay in Metroid Prime. Samus’s power suit has multiple visor modes, two of which are initially available: combat mode and scan mode. Combat mode is pretty obvious, it involves a gun and a targeting system, as some of you may’ve guessed. Scan visor, however, is completely different. You don’t get to use weapons while in it, scanning allows you to gain valuable information about the scanned subject. Besides important info concerning enemies, you can also scan lots of things from the environment. This way you’ll get hints about possible weak points on walls, for example. A lot of background information on the story is revealed when actively scanning computers, ancient symbols, etc. The game actually doesn’t require much scanning, but it enhances your playing experience a lot.

Beam cannon will deliver

Weaponry isn’t limited either despite that Samus only has one weapon. The arm cannon on her power suit is very versatile; you start with power beam but gain missiles and ice, plasma and wave beams as the game progresses. Each beam has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. There are also certain pathways that can only be opened by using a particular beam.

Map station

Once you disembark from your ship to Tallon overworld, you’ll find out that all the cool gadgets Samus had in her suit are gone. During the course of game you’ll get them back, but having arm cannon which can blast just regular bursts can be quite depressing. Fortunately exploring Tallon IV rewards you soon with missile launcher and charge capabilities for the cannon. Some of the other upgrades found later on include Varia Suit (Allows Samus to survive undamaged in areas of extreme temperatures), Space Boots (gives Samus the double jump), grapple beam and everyone’s favorite, the Morph Ball.
Morph Ball is probably the coolest gadget in the game. Once Samus has acquired it she can morph into a ball form whenever she wants. Many small corridors and secrets can only be accessed in morph mode. Later upgrades give speed charge and power bombs to the ball. Morph mode switches the game camera away from 1st person to overhead 3rd person, which is, quite obviously, the only way to go perspective-wise (rolling around in first person could be fun for five minutes, though…) . While Samus is very fast in morph mode, her weaponry is limited to bombs so you can’t be too carefree rolling around

Visually Metroid Prime looks great. It is a game that shows people what GameCube can really do graphically when developers have put an effort to it. The environments look great. At times you can see things like Samus’s face reflecting from an icy surface or water dripping on her visor. They may seem like little details but seeing things like that really makes an impression. The game also runs very smoothly despite all the detail, keeping a steady framerate all around. Retro has done a great job here.

Huge creatures in glass tubes always
break free on inconvenient times

Music is another thing that Metroid excels in. It varies from symphonic tunes to slow techno-style tracks. Each piece fits perfectly to the situation you’re in. For instance, going through the mysterious Chozo Ruins for the first time you’re greeted with an eerie ambient tune on the background which changes to an industrial once you return to the ruins after exploring them.

Backtracking has always been traditional in Metroid games and Prime is no exception. You’ll find yourself going through already explored areas many times later on in the game, due to all those pathways you weren’t able to access before until obtaining better gear. Because of that, backtracking can’t be avoided. Still, some people just hate returning to already explored areas more than once. It can’t be avoided, though, for purely logical reasons. It might be a bit difficult making a game with no need to go through previously completed areas when your playing area consists of a freely exploreable planet.

Ice beam tames even the most furious natives

Because of the playing area is as huge as Tallon IV is and the detailed graphics of the game, loading times are obviously an issue. Retro Studios has countered this by splitting different areas with doors. Doors are opened by firing at them and the brief delay between impact and door opening is used in starting to load the next area. This does not disrupt the gameplay in any way as the delay is a few seconds at most. There are no loading screens in-game. The doors are a working solution anyway as they’re familiar from previous Metroids. Obviously placing doors between areas would be strange when traveling outdoors, but Retro has placed caverns and other obstacles between large outdoor areas so that you won’t encounter a field with a wall and a door dividing it to two areas.

Difficulty level isn’t overly high, but boss encounters tend to offer challenge, some of them more than enough, actually. At least to a player who’s not too familiar with the first person genre of games. Revisited areas are occasionally spiced with new types of enemies, so that the trips aren’t always total pushovers. After completing the game hard mode is unlocked, which should add bit of a challenge if the game seemed too easy first time around.
Now that Metroid Prime is a part of Nintendo’s “Player’s Choice” budget series, the price tag should not prevent you from getting one of the must-have games on GameCube.

Samus outside the space station

Space pirate ahead