Yeah, I know I just went on a mega-rant against gamings never-ending flood of sequels and Metroid is one of Nintendos oldest franchises, first appearing two decades ago on their original 8-bit system but this conclusion to the 3D Metroid Prime trilogy (and tenth game overall) has enjoyed a fuel-injected game-play boost in its Wii debut. The biggest drawback of first-person-shooters on a console has always been their lack of a mouse for accurate aiming. But the infuriating dual-analog sticks (which Nintendo used for the GameCube Metroid Primes) have been replaced with the Wiimote that works like a laser pointer and makes shooting evil alien Space Pirates a breeze. Technically, this is a first-person "adventure more than an FPS, but theres still a lot of baddies to shoot during your galactic explorations. Its motion-sensitive gyro-whatsits also allow you to pull levers and turn controls with your arm, increasing the first-person immersion (even if it doesnt work quite as well as youd like). As per, you play Samus Aran, a female bounty hunter in slim-fitting mech armour, who must rid the world of the corrupting influence of the element "phazon, a radioactive-like substance. To do so, she must defeat her evil doppelganger Dark Samus, who has become the leader of those dastardly Space Pirates. The atmospheric levels are a pleasure to explore, the environmental puzzles (making use Samus various visors and her curious ability to morph into a metal ball) and are a challenge to crack and the big bad bosses are an adrenaline rush to beat. The sci-fi epic is also arguably the prettiest thanks to creative art direction and deepest Wii game yet, adding desperately needed complexity to the Wiis oversaturated mini-game library.
(Nintendo)Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Wii
BY Joshua OstroffPublished Sep 17, 2007