The Video Game Critic

I'm finally wising up and telling myself I need to go back and play all those classics I missed, Metroid Prime being one of them. I really don't know a lot about this game, though, besides it being a scifi FPS based on one of Nintendo's oldest franchises. So, fill me in. What makes Metroid Prime so amazing, and is it still worth playing today?

It's Super Metroid in 3D. Apart from the strange (but completely functional) controls, it's perfect, an absolute masterpiece of both design and sheer atmosphere. One cool thing about it is that everything you see can be scanned for more information - not that you'll ever take the game up on that (if you're sane), but it gives the world a strange feeling of weight to know that there's a small field guide's worth of text backing up the "reality" of every frame that's rendered.

I need to pick up the trilogy collection for this franchise. I have only played the first one on the GC, and I really enjoyed it. It did feel a bit repetitive at times, but the tight gameplay and immersive atmosphere is what makes it so much fun.

Stalvern wrote:It's Super Metroid in 3D. Apart from the strange (but completely functional) controls, it's perfect, an absolute masterpiece of both design and sheer atmosphere. One cool thing about it is that everything you see can be scanned for more information - not that you'll ever take the game up on that (if you're sane), but it gives the world a strange feeling of weight to know that there's a small field guide's worth of text backing up the "reality" of every frame that's rendered.

This is exactly how I feel. Great game and basically super metroid in 3d.

Haha, saying it's Super Metroid in 3D doesn't mean much to me since I never played Super Metroid (hopefully that'll change if I get hold of a SNES Classic!). Anyway, I just went ahead and downloaded the Prime trilogy on Wii U, so I'll get to try it out first thing tomorrow!

A few years ago I played through EVERY Metroid game back to back, with pretty much 100% completion on each. Metroid Prime 1 is probably the best example of a 2D game turned 3D. The whole "lonely" feel of the 2D games is captured perfectly in a new 3D world. Things that stick out are the music, the ability to "scan" things (much like a Star Trek tricorder) to uncover info about the planet's past, the joy of finding hidden items. Prime 2 takes the series in a little bit darker direction. I enjoyed it just as much, though it seems like you are hunting down bugs like an exterminator. Prime 3 had even better graphics than the first 2, and was saying a lot. It uses the motion controls of the Wii, but it's done quite well. I don't remember that much about 3, other than I enjoyed the whole thing.

Don't play Other M. It almost destroyed the franchise, and may sour your feelings about the first 3.

DaHeckIzDat wrote:Haha, saying it's Super Metroid in 3D doesn't mean much to me since I never played Super Metroid (hopefully that'll change if I get hold of a SNES Classic!). Anyway, I just went ahead and downloaded the Prime trilogy on Wii U, so I'll get to try it out first thing tomorrow!

Super Metroid is on the Virtual Console. You really should play it first.

Super metroid is my favorite game of all time. Play it first and be blown away. I watch speedruns of it all the time, and to see someone blaze though 100% of it in just over an hour boggles my mind.

I generally don't like 3D games, but I should try Prime based on merit alone.

Do you have to use motion controls for Prime 3?

If you have not played the 2D games beforehand, some of what makes Prime special is probably going to be lost on you.

If I recall correctly I loved Metroid Prime until the upteenth time I had to backtrack. At that point, I hit the wall...and say, "No thank you." I loved it until then and my God there was a lot of backtracking in that game.

Good luck!