Awesome Review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
October 26th, 2007Alright, so I’m finally getting around to writing an awesome review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Developed by Retro and Published by Nintendo) for the Nintendo Wii. I know it’s too late to actually influence my audience as most of you who were thinking of buying it have already done so. Well, it doesn’t matter anyway since I don’t really have an audience to begin with. Perhaps in a few years time, if this comic is still around, someone will read this review and say, “Hey, I should go get that game! Right after I get off my flying video phone.” So, without further ado, to the review.
I would like to point out first, however, that I have not yet beaten the game. I have however played far enough into the game that I feel I have a good idea as to the quality of the general experience.
First of all, one of the biggest features of the game is the control scheme. This game has finally proven what I’ve known since the beginning: the Wii controls are not just a gimmick, they are a better way to play games. 3D controls to match 3D graphics. The game controls beautify and much better than any other console FPS currently on the market. I never really liked the dual analog FPS control scheme and this is a profound improvement over it. As other reviews have said, you have to play on advance controls mode for the best experience. The controls, after the initial difficulty in learning a new control scheme, are intuitive and immerse you in the game. I’ve found that using the Wii controls in tandem with the lock-on feature is the best way to play the game. While not as accurate as a mouse aiming system, it makes up for it in realism and immersion as you now actually have to aim at the screen. You can also use your grapple beam by locking on to a grappleable object or an enemy with a shield and shaking/pulling the nunchuck
Now, behind the controls, there is a solid and enjoyable game in its own right. Metroid Prime 3 continues the Metroid tradition of furious battle balanced out by various puzzles. Both the puzzles and enemies range from the simple and easy to very challenging. There are many different types of enemies and each will need to be taken down a different way, for example some will have shields which you need to grapple off of them with the grapple beam. Also returning are the many morph ball areas. A new feature to the morph ball is the ability to jump in morph ball form by flicking the Wii-mote. However, as a veteran Metroid player, I usually forget to do this and just rely on bombs to get my up in morph ball form. This flicking motion also sometimes fails to work right (especially in the moments where you need to do it quickly) and that is one of the few points in the game where the Wii controls get frustrating.
Where the game-play really shines, however, are the boss battles. During the game, you will fight many bosses and sub-bosses. There are a few reasons that the boss battles are so enjoyable. First of all, there is a definite sense of scale. The bosses are large and monstrous. You really get the feeling of David Vs Goliath as you try to find the enemies one weakness that can bring them down as you avoid a near-constant barrage of attacks. The boss battles also have a good sense of atmosphere, like this one battle with a steam-punk type of robot, where as you damage the enemy more and more, the room will get fuller and fuller of smoke and steam till you can barely see the walls. Also, the balls are developed in the classic style where each boss only has one weak point, and you may have to do a series of things to hit that weak point in order to damage it. There are even some sub-boss battles where you’ll have to morph ball bomb it, grapple it and shoot it in a certain place in order to even damage it. All together, the boss battles truly feel epic and are the highlights of the game.
On the visual end of things, the game also delivers strongly. Now, it’s not that it has the best graphics technologically. Its got nice lighting effects and such, but its limited by the Wii’s graphical power which is nowhere near the PS3 or Xbox360. However, I don’t find much important in graphics. Well, that’s not entirely true, when I say I don’t care about the graphics, I mean I don’t care about how technologically powerful they are. I DO however care about elements like the art style. Technology just provides the paint and canvas, the beauty of a game comes from what an art designer can do with that pallet. Metroid Prime 3 has brilliant art design. The two main worlds that I have been to so far are Bryyo and Sky Town and they each have their own very distinctive style.
Bryyo is a world that was wiped out by war. They died out in a battle between those who believed in tradition, also known as the Primals, and the Scientists. The world is designed in an elemental aesthetic. There are lush forests where you can see the decaying remains of the stone war golems that the Scientists made, there are fiery underground areas filled with flowing lava, and there are also frozen ice areas. Everything on the planet, including the technology and the enemies, has this sort of elemental/natural aesthetic in mind.
Sky Town, on the other hand, has a more metallic, bronze style. The entire city of Sky Town, as the name so subtly suggests, is in the sky. It has a bit of a steam-punk aesthetic and, once again, this is reflected in everything that is in the city. I already mentioned one boss battle where you fought a steam punk type robot, but there are also touches such as little worker droids flying around the interiors.
Now throughout the game, I only had two major complaints. One of them was rather small and just more of an annoyance but one was a large issue. The small thing is that some of the lever minigames (there are many levers and switches that you need to put that require you to do something with the Wii-mote) are hard to pull off with the Wii-mote. The larger issue, however, that I had with the game is one that has been with the Metroid series since the beginning. THERE ARE TOO FEW SAVE POINTS!!! I don’t see how they could not have fixed this by now. One of the main reasons that I am not further in the game is that, in order to play and save your progress, you have to play for perhaps an hour straight. I have a rather busy schedule with school work and when I play games, I often only have 15 minutes or half an hour to play. I can’t put aside the full hour needed to insure that I get to a save point. This was a extremely frustrating thing about the game that I think may be in fact worse than it was in previous Metroid games.
Alright, that’s my review of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I realize that there are many more things to go into, such as storyline and power-ups, but believe me when I say that those are good and that I don’t want to make this blog entry drag on too long by discussing them. If you own a Wii, this is a game you should get. It proves that hardcore games can be made on the Wii and proves that the FPS genre works well on the Wii, but besides what it proves, it’s just a fun game that you should play.
Stumble it!
