Retro Studies was guided to design these new worlds and perspectives that Samus would soon be going through. Defining the trilogy as first person adventures, they left behind immersive and memorable entries.
Metroid Prime gained popularity because the formula introduced in Super Metroid, which has been used by Konami's Castlevania's many times as well, was succesfully transfered through 3D, a feat that no one expected to be able to be done.
Not only that, but the world of Metroid would be given more depth, with tons of information objects to be scanned by the visor, a new feature that offered much new and established lore. They provided much intrigue, not only for reading more about the various alien species, geography and more, but also because it was curious to discover them on your own.
A stunning soundtrack would give the various areas to explore fitting songs that sparked with heroic and epic moments of feelings, as you were controlling the world's most brave female warrior. With Metroid Prime, the story of the trilogy starts on the planet Tallon IV.
After the prologue, seeing Ridley, her nemesis, Samus lands upon the planet not only to hunt him down, but also to investigate the history and surroundings. Both Space Pirates, an evil race, and Chozo's, an ancient race that raised the protagonist, had colonizations here.
Traversing and encountering many new creatures, as well as recovering her equipment and upgrades that allow for new routes to be taken, eventually it becomes clear that a substance known as Phazon pretty much created a lot of wreck and havoc on the planet.
Reaching the Impact Crater, the final area of the game, and after defeating Ridley, Samus confronts the Phazon mutated beast called Metroid Prime, and she must stop the beast before it releases more of the substance before all of Tallon IV is lost.
As monologues don't happen, all of the "communication" happens through dialogue, but even that is limited to information that has been found with the scan visor. That's fine. The focus is on exploring and recording notes.
Metroid Prime has plenty of platforming and shooting sequences, but it is balanced out nicely with the interaction of gaining more information, exploring and really just discovering not only new area's, but new sections of older ones as well.
Backtracking is normal for these kind of games, and Samus is also able to do the majority of movements previous known, such as the unique Morph Ball, which not only acts as a way of moving around more suitably and quickly, but also provides fun puzzle sequences and lets you find out about hidden items.
Items that consist of capacity upgrades, energy(HP) tanks and more. And that's about everything that is happening within Metroid Prime, a game that is absolutely a blast to play. It looks like a sci-fi shooter, but it has an identity of it's known and is different enough to be worth playing.
Rating: 9.0
Actually, combine the two, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes comes out of it. The planet is inhabited by the illuminous Luminoth and the cruel Ing, of which the latter is exploited by Phazon. Aether introduced to me two of the most interesting locations in any game I ever played.
The first one, called Torvus Bog, was so beautiful for me, partially because of the graphics but also of the music, that I would had liked to live there for a while if it was possible and minus the vile creatures of course.
The second one, called Sanctuary Fortress, is an area so alien in design that it was a challenge to get comfortable here. The first region called Agon Wastes is simply a waste and forgettable, but the latter two more than make up for it.
Dark Samus, a cliché concept, is also introduced here, but the circumstances are forgiving for this rising. Besides, the theme of the villain, as well as many other tracks are still wandering my mind whenever I think of Metroid.
What's abstract next towards Aether is that your ammunition at one point also becomes limited, using both Dark and Light ammo in order to exploit weaknesses and discover new routes to take. The Screw Attack also marks it's return in Echoes, and it was the first Metroid game to feature a multiplayer mode, a limited one.
I failed to mention this previously, but Metroid Prime and it's sequel had more than one kind of visor. They have always been used as excuses in order to open up and progress further apart from the combat visor, and this time in Echoes, the Dark and Echo visors are designed.
"The Echo visor is based upon echolocation and allows Samus to see sound waves by replacing her HUD with a monochromatic false-color representation." And the Dark visor allows Samus to see interdimensionally between Aether and Dark Aether.
It's best to see these in action rather than trying to explain it to dummies, but they made the current adventure more enjoyable. Lastly, Echoes was criticized for having an imbalance surrounding difficulty.
The mini-bosses were actually harder than the regular ones according to the reactions back in 2004, but I disagree with that. The overall gameplay was certainly more challenging, but nowhere did I found it to be unfair.
It also suffers from being squeezed inbetween the classic original and the impressive ending of the next sequel. Still, Echoes remains my favorite for personally being very expanded upon itself, standing proudly next to it's brethren.
Rating: 9.1
The end was about to come, as Dark Samus AKA Metroid Prime plots to corrupt the galaxy with Phazon overworlds and large obelisks using the supercomputers called Aurora Units, which are reminders of the original Metroid final boss, Mother Brain.
Samus works not only with the Galactic Federation monologially, but is also grouped up with 3 other bounty hunters, of which they differ very much from each other. Rundas is an icy fellow able to travel through the sky, Ghor is a mechanical cyborg like creature and Gandrayda can morph into others.
The controls aren't changed much, apart from being able to use Wii Motion Control now. There are some new features, such as the Command Visor letting Samus being able to call up her gunship. Another feature is Hypermode, which made the game too easy for me.
It is simply a state where you are able to deal massive damage against all enemies for a short while. It also doubles as a plot element for counteracting against being infected with Phazon. Part of the driven story is to recover from getting corrupted too much, a fate that happens for your fellow partners.
The locations weren't as great as the previous ones, but Elysia for example represented a majestic view of an interesting ancient robotic race. The urge of defeating Dark Samus and Ridley once again also kind of made this game the weakest one of the three.
Still, Corruption remains a very good first person adventure like the others as it is essential to recommend if you liked Prime and Echoes already. It doesn't even come close to the dissapointment of Other M, the first Metroid game I reviewed here.
Rating: 8.7
Rating: 8.7
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