metroid prime 3: corruption concluded

metroid prime 3: corruption was the last main metroid game i had to finish, but it took me a ridiculous amount of stopping and starting before i finally sat down and gave it enough attention to see it through to the end. the game was one of the earliest wii games, and definitely and immediately proves that the wii’s controls are ideal for FPSes as the game features a smoother control than ever before seen on a home console. presentation- and content-wise the game doesn’t feel like much of a step up from the gamecube games; in fact the metroid prime formula is followed so closely that despite the polish i found myself more bored than i have been in almost any other metroid game (how much more scanning do i have to slog through??).

there are some minor differences, although for me not enough to keep the momentum going. there’s a stronger emphasis on combat, which didn’t really interest me much, especially since the difficulty of the game is incredibly low (perhaps due to it being on wii and an attempt to bring the series to a new audience). like recent entries in the series the game is fairly linear, but the inclusion of warp points (common in the zelda series but new for the metroid series) is appreciated, although hopping between multiple planets is a cosmetic change that doesn’t add anything new in terms of gameplay. samus’s ship plays a greater, albeit still quite minor, role, but the gesture-based controls do add a feeling of immediacy and help make the experience feel unique. i’m a bit ambivalent about the expansion of the metroid world to include additional characters and voice-acted interactions, such as with random soldier NPCs. part of the appeal of the series has been the sense of isolation, and on the one hand, adding more characters, etc. helps add motivation to the plot, while on the other hand the most notable additions, the three rival bounty hunters, mostly come across as being little more than x-men rip-offs (despite this gandrayda still turned out to be pretty cool).

the hyper mode system is a bit gimmicky and pointless and didn’t really appeal to me (in fact, the producer says that retro was reluctant to include it at the beginning). unlocking bonus content via tokens (inc. tokens you can only get by exchanging over wi-fi with a registered friend) is also fairly pointless and annoying. it seems the majority of reviewers didn’t share my opinion overall, however, as it received rave reviews upon its release including a perfect score from ye olde nintendo power.

it’s great to finally have this final metroid notch on my belt, and the controls make me really look forward to revisiting MP1 via the metroid prime trilogy. i’m really looking forward to seeing where the series goes, especially after the lukewarm response to other M, and i hope that some of the hunters from the DS game make a return someday. retro studios proved themselves with a bang with their amazing take on the metroid series with their first metroid prime release, but it remains to be seen if they, or any other studio, can repeat their breath-taking feat with the series. i, for one, am definitely looking forward to it, and also to replaying all the games in this amazing series.

corrupted metroid prime 3: corruption links:
– page collecting videos of the 3 endings
– here are the translations of the messages you can hear from samus’s gunship
– having played this game some 4 and a half years after its release i missed out on the MP3 wii channel, but here are all the videos on youtube: set 1 | set 2 | set 3 | set 4 | set 5
– i agree with quite a lot of this look back at MP3 on n-sider.com although be forewarned, there be spoilers
– and just for fun, here’s what a goomba to metroid transformation looks like

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